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What Is A Historyscope?

Westerners are not only known as history ignoramuses, but double dumbass history ignoramuses when it comes to Jerusalem and Jerusalem's history along with the history of Israel. Since I'm the one-and-only Historyscoper (tm), let me quickly bring you up to speed before you dive into my Master Historyscope.

Jerusalem is the key city that has to be dealt with for any permanent peace in the world. The focal point of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, it's seen some of the most fanatical battles in history, all for a few acres of worthless dirt and rocks. Mentioned 632 times in the Jewish Torah (622 by name) (767 in the King James Version), incl. Psalm 137:5 ("If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill, may my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy"), plus another 166 mentions of the word Zion, the Jewish Passover Haggadah incl. the words "Next year in Jerusalem" to conclude the Passover service. It's mentioned zero times in the Quran, except some argue possibly indirectly, and only mentioned by name in the Hadith (Ahadith). Who does history award Jerusalem and environs, known as the Land of Israel to, the Jews or Arabs? Let's scope Jerusalem and see how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Jerusalem (Salem) ("peace") (Arabic "al-Quds" = the holy) (Yiddish "Yerushalayem" = teaching of peace) (modern-day pop. 883K/1.25M) 35 mi. from the E shore of the Mediterranean Sea was founded way back in 2300 B.C.E. or earlier (2800 B.C.E?) by the Canaanite (Hittite?) (Hurrian?) (Amorite?) Jebusites (Shem and Eber, ancestors of Abraham?) on the ridge of the Judean Mts. between the N edge of the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, on the hard limestone Ophel ("fortified hill") above the Gihon ("to gush forth") Spring, which emerges from the Kidron ("dark") Valley to the E. Jerusalem had a water supply system based on the deep Warren's Shaft to the Gihon Spring dating back to the 17th cent. B.C.E., which was discovered in 1867 by British engineer Sir Charles Warren (1840-1927), who later become head of the London police during the Jack the Ripper year 1888. The city was originally surrounded by thick green forests of almond, olive, and pine trees. It ended up divided with walls and fences from May 1948 to June 1967, some city of peace. It is the #1 key city of the Western world, home of its major religions and the greatest ticking time bomb that can trigger World War III. According to Eric H. Cline, since 2000 B.C.E. there have been at least 118 battles in and for it, in which it has been attacked 52 times, seiged 23 times, captured 44 times, and destroyed twice, and the so-called Old City is only 0.35 sq. mi. (0.9 sq. km) in area - beggin, gonna get that beggin, who wants a beggin' strip? No Historyscoper worth his salt would fail to master all the key facts about it, so here's your big launchpad from the original Historyscoper (tm), ready, set, go.

Jerusalem is in Palestine ("land of the Philistines"), which originally was run by the Palestinians, who were not Arabs. In the days of Abraham they were known as the Avvites (Avvim), but they were later conquered by the Caphtorites (Caphtorim) from Pelusium, easternmost city of the Nile Delta, which the Bible calls the city of "Sin, the strength of Egypt" in Ezek. 30:15, the original Las Vegas, trust in the Lord of Sin in all thy heart. Either way, they were absorbed into the culture of Canaan, which incl. Palestine/Israel, Lebanon, parts of Jordan and Syria, and NE Egypt, or in Bible talk, southward across Gaza to the Brook of Egypt, and eastward to the Jordan River.

-5,000

In 4500-3500 B.C.E. the first settlement in Jerusalem is established near the Gihon Spring in the Kidron Valley.

-4,000

In 4000 B.C.E. world pop. was 7 million, and began doubling every thousand years (pop. of India: 1M). The sea level, which had been rising since the end of the Ice Age, reached present-day levels, and the Saharan grasslands turned to desert. City-states began to rise along the banks of the leisurely Euphrates River (Sumerian for fruitful) and swift Tigris River (Sumerian "idigna" = swift river), and along the Nile River in Egypt, where the Egyptians (Remetch, meaning "people") enjoyed a lack of natural enemies, giving them the longest period of political stability in human history. The Nile is neat because it not only floods once a year and leaves a couple of miles of fertile silt on each bank, but it flows from S to N while the wind always blows from N to S because of the Mediterranean Sea, so that you can sail S and then turn around and float back N with the current, rock the Casbah. That was before they built the Aswan Dam, which messes it all up in the name of progress.

About 3200 B.C. pottery is left on the Ophel (hill) in the oldest part of future Jerusalem.

About 3200 B.C.E. a bronze tablet with a carved face of a women is made, found at El-Ahwat near Katzir in C Israel, part of a wheel linchpin for a battle chariot; is this Harosheth Haggoyim, home town of Sisera, as in Judges chs. 4-5?

About 2500 B.C.E. the Semitic-speaking Assyrians from Iran-Iraq settle upper Mesopotamia under king (-2450 to -2400) Tudia (Tudiya) (Du-udia), founding the city of Assur (Ashur) (Qal'at Sherqat) on the W bank of the Tiger River N of the its confluence with the Little Zab in modern-day Iraq; they speak the Akkadian Language, which becomes the lingua franca of Mesopotamia (Assyria, Akkad, Babylonia, Isin, Larsa) until Akkadian-influenced Old Aramaic replaces it by the 8th cent. B.C.E.; in the mid-14th cent. C.E. Tamerlane's forces massacre Assur's pop.

About 2500 B.C.E. the Aryan Hurrians (Khurrites) (Hivites or Horites in the Bible) from the Armenian and Cacucasus mountains invade and occupy N Mesopotamia, and areas to the E and W incl. Syria., causing the Egyptians to start calling Canaan Huru (Hurrian Land).

About 2500 B.C.E. the Ebla ("white rock") civilization (built over limestone bedrock to take advantage of natural springs) flourishes in N Syria, with a pop. of 200K, incl. 20K in the town of Ebla, with a library of 1.8K+ clay cuneiform Ebla Tablets, discovered in 1974-5 C.E. by Italian archeologist Paolo Matthiae (1940-); the tablets refer to the town of Ha-lam, identified with Aleppo (Halab) (modern-day pop. 1.8M), known for it white marble.

Around 2400 B.C.E. the super freak Amorites invade and occupy Canaan and Mesopotamia, and the Bible describes their king Og as last of the remnants of the giants (Deut. 3:11). The S slopes of the Judean Mts. are called the "mount of the Amorites" in Deut. 1:7, 19-20, hence the Jebusites might be Amorites.

About 2200 B.C.E. shifts in ocean and atmospheric circulation cause the 4.2 Kiloyear Aridification Event to begin (ends -2100), causing the 200-year Meghalayan mega global drought that devastates civilizations from Egypt to China, causing the collapse of the Old Kingdom in Egypt, the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia, and the Liangzhu Culture in the Lower Yangtze River Basin, also probably causing the collapse of the Indus River Valley civilization, s purring migration of Indo-European speaking people into India, plus mass migrations from Egypt, Greece, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, the Indus River Valley, and the Yangtze River Valley; a drought begins in the Akkadian Empire, causing migration away from urban centers followed by a collapse of the govt. known as the Third Millennium Mesopotamian Urban Crisis; the Meghalayan Age in modern-day Meghalaya, India begins.

-2,000

About 2000 B.C.E. the white-is-right Aryan Migration (Invasion) of Indo-Iranian Medes, Persians, Parthians, Bactrians, and Arachosians from S Russia through Afghanistan into the Iranian Plateau begins (ends -850), while more Aryan tribes invaded N India, setting up a white supremacist religious civilization based on several kingdoms run by rajahs, and hierarchical social classes of priests, warriors, farmers, traders, and Dravidians (dark skinned non-Aryans).

Super-freak? About 2000 B.C.E. the long-headed (dolichocephalic) super-tall fair-skinned blonde-blue Amorites (from Europe or possibly the Arabian Peninsula, having a unique agglutinative language) migrate to S Mesopotamia and intermarry with the pop. of the old city-states there, founding the Uruk Culture in Sumer (pop. 300K-500K), containing Semitic elements from Akkad N of Sumer on the W bank of the Euphrates in modern-day Iraq (which derives its name from Uruk) about 30 mi. SW of Baghdad, taking over the cities of Isin and Larsa and beginning the Semitic-dominated Isin/Larsa Period in Sumeria and Akkad (ends -1763), with Isin and Larsa fighting for control; the Amorites also invade Phoenicia, whose port city of Ptolemais (Acre) (Acco) commands the only natural harbor on the Mediterranean coast; some end up in Canaan in the time of Israelite Gen. Joshua, according to the Bible; the Lament of Ur mentions an "evil wind" which destroys Ur about this time - Semite becomes right?

Shut up old ladies, I'm coming for you at 3 o'clock? About 2000 B.C.E. the Hittites are pushed (hurried by the Hurrians?) W through Cappadocia ("beautiful horses") in the Anti-Taurus Mts. in SE Anatolia (Asia Minor), where they build underground cities (later enlarged by Christians), becoming integrated into the Land of Hatti and absorbing the Hattians into their kingdom, based in Hattusa(s) (Pteria?) near modern-day Boghazkoy (Boghaz Keui) 200 km. W of Ankara, and worshiping the Sun goddess Arinna along with every other god they can get their hands on?; ethnicity doesn't matter as long as you learn to speak Hittite and dump the berries in?; women warriors are welcome; they join the new Old Assyrian Trade Network (ends -1750); the Bible mentions the Hittim, descended from Canaan's son Heth (Gen. 10:15), which are really the Khatti in Syria, kin to the Phoenicians and Amorites?

About 2000 B.C.E. the city of Hazor (Hatzor) (Asour) in the Upper Galilee on the trade route between Egypt and Babylon has a pop. of 20K, making it the largest city in the region and head of the Canaanite settlements (Joshua 11:10); it is ruled by Egypt as the holy city for Hathor until Joshua destroys it ca. 1200 B.C.E. (Joshua 11:13, 21); in 2019 seven large basalt staircases are excavated at Tel Hazor.

Around 2000 B.C.E. the earliest known mention of Jerusalem in written records is by the Egyptians in the Egyptian Execration Texts (Proscription Lists), where it is called Urusalimum or Rusalimum, referring to the Canaanite god of dusk Shalim (Shalem) (Salim) (Salem) (Salam), the root of the Semitic word Shalom or Salam, with is identified with Venus AKA the Evening Star, which constrasts with his brother deity Shahar AKA the Morning Star, both offspring of El; around 1700 B.C.E. the Jebusites fortify it.

In 1891 B.C.E. 5-y.-o. Isaac (b. -1896) is weaned, and 19-y.-o. Ishmael (b. -1910) is sent away with his mother Hagar after he pokes fun at the little weenie, beginning 400 years of affliction upon Abraham's offspring (Gen. 21:8-21, 15:13, ch. 25; Gal. 4:29); they flee S and settle in the wilderness, where Ishmael marries an Egyptian woman, fathering 12 desert nomad tribes, the Ishmaelites, who occupy C and N Arabia; whether the Bible is true or a fairy tale, by the 6th cent. C.E. the Muslims, who regard themselves as descendents of Ishmael, start the Ishmael Conspiracy, reversing the Hebrew Bible and claiming that Hagar was Abraham's #1 wife, not Sarah, and that Ishmael was his favorite son, not Isaac, and that Abraham chose Ishmael, not Isaac to be sacrified, and not on Mt. Moriah in Palestine, but on Mt. Ararat near Mecca; others, such as Hal Lindsey (1929-) claim that Jacob's twin brother Esau mixed with the Ishmaelites to create the Arabs, and that Armageddon will be caused by what amounts to a family dispute - what about the restraining order?

In 1871 B.C.E. Abraham takes his 25-y.-o. son Isaac (b. -1896) from Beer-sheba N to Mount Moriah (N of Salem) and offers him as a burnt sacrifice to Jehovah, believing that "God was able to raise him up even from the dead", but luckily Big J lets him substitute a ram at the last minute, and Big J is so pleased with the total package that he reinforces his covenant with a sworn oath (Gen. 22:1-18, Heb. 6:13-18; 11:17-19).

In 1768 B.C.E. after being pushed out by the Hittites, the Hyksos (Egyptian "rulers of the foreign countries") from W Asia, AKA the shepherd kings, a Syrian group that incl. Semites from Palestine invade the NE Nile Delta and set themselves up in a city called Avaris, where they introduce the horse and chariot.

In 1636 B.C.E. Joseph (b. -1745) dies at age 110 (Gen. 50:26) after reconciling his family and persuading the Hebrews to settle in Goshen in the Nile Delta in NE Egypt, the most lush area, where they begin to outnumber and outprosper the Egyptians, making them jealous (Ex. Ch. 1) - the original Florida and Palm Springs?

About 1500 B.C.E. the Aramaic-speaking Semitic Arameans (Aramaeans) begin to migrate from the Arabian Peninsula to the N Fertile Crescent and Syria (ends -1200). I guess that proves that Arabs have a right to Palestine - not, since Jews and Arabs are kissing cousins, merely different Semitic tribes, who hardened into following different gods, different mountaintops, and whose claims to Israel (not Palestine - that name sucks) are based on their holy books as well as history, as we will see.

In 1500-1300 B.C.E. the Hurrian-speaking Mitanni (Mittani) (Hanigalbat) kingdom in SW Armenia and N Syria flourishes, run by a warrior nobility from India and Iran.

In the 14th cent. B.C.E. (-1400 to -1301) Jerusalem (pop. 1500) is first mentioned as a city-state of Canaan, lesser in importance to Hazor and Megiddo, with territory stretching from Shechem to Gezer, ruled in the mid-1330s by Abdi Hepa (Abdi-Kheba) (Abdi-Hepat) (Abdi-Hebat) (Hurrian "servant of Hebat"), who claims to be put in charge by the Egyptian pharaoh, according to the 382 Akkadian cuneiform Amarna Letters (tablets) from Canaanite princes to Egyptian pharaohs Amenhotep III (-1386 to -1349) and his son Akhenaten (-1350 to -334), discovered in 1887 C.E.

About 1300 B.C.E. the cuneiform-writing Hittites from Asia Minor invade NW Syria as far south as the mouth of the Litani River, followed by upper Mesopotamia, but their empire collapses around 1160 B.C.E. under invasions by the Sea Peoples, who might have been Semitic or Greek, or even Etruscans from Italy - ask David and Goliath or Aeneas?

In 1280 B.C.E. is the traditional date that Moses leads the enslaved Israelites out of Goshen in Egypt - and drowns Pharaoh Rameses II, who goes on ruling for decades?

In 1279 B.C.E. Seti I dies, and his 5'8" (tall) E Medterranean-looking (long thin face, beaked nose, strong jaw) reddish-blond teenie son Rameses (Ramesses) (Ramses) II (the Great) (-1303 to -1213) becomes king #3 of the Egyptian 19th Dynasty, the #1 pharaoh in Egyptian history; he marries glam babe Nefertari ("Beautiful companion") Meritmut ("Beloved of Mut"), and with her and his other wives Isetnofret (Isitnofret) ("Beautiful Isis") et al. he fathers 100+ children; he puts his face on the red granite Sphinx in the Temple of Ptah in Memphis, which survives to modern times sans face; he builds up his N capital of Pi-Ramesses (Per-Rameses) ("House of Rameses, Great in Victory") in Qantir near Avaris, the former Hyksos capital; he is addicted to tobacco?

In 1278 B.C.E. Rameses II decisively defeats the Sherden (Shardana) (Sherdanu) sea pirates (known for their horned helmets) along the Mediterranean coast.

In 1276 B.C.E. Rameses II recaptures the district of Phoenicia (Canaan) from the Hittites as far E as Berytus (Beirut), and leaves a memorial stele on the bank of the Nahr al-Kalb (Dog) River N of Beirut.

In 1274 B.C.E. in the 5th year of his reign Rameses (Ramses) II and his 16K infantry and 2K heavy chariots defeats the Hittites and their 15K-40K infantry and 2.5K-3.7K heavy chariots under king (-1295 to -1272) Muwatallish (Mutallu) (d. -1272) (son of Mursili II) at the Battle of Kadesh (Quadesh) on the banks of the Orontes River in N Syria, becoming the earliest battle in human history for which military tactics are known; the Egyptian army uses highly mobile archers on their chariots, which win the day (actually a draw?); too bad, Rameses II is cut off from the main body of his troops and narrowly escapes, causing Egyptian scribe Pentaur to write The Poem of Pentaur in his praise; Rameses never captures the city of Kadesh, and the war drags on for years, ending with a peace treaty; a faience tile from the mortuary temple of Rameses III (not II) shows a moustachioed Hittite captive wearing a cool short kilt under a bright (Libyan?) mantle.

In 1270 B.C.E. n the 21st year of his reign Rameses II meets a Hittite army under new king Hattusili ("from Hattusa") III (d. -1237) near Kadesh, and after the battle concludes a treaty that establishes Egyptian control over Canaan (Phoenicia) as far E as Byblos (Jebel), plus a strip of territory to the N of Palestine; Rameses marries Hattusili's daughter, and the two empires stay on friendly terms for a cent., the remainder of Rameses' reign being peaceful and taken up with construction of many big bldgs., incl. the Rameseum (mortuary temple) in Thebes and the rock-hewn Temples of Abu-Simbel in Nubia.

In 1257 B.C.E. Israeli judge #6 Gideon (d. -1217) (Heb. "slasher", "warrior") of the tribe of Manasseh and the town of Ophrah in Israel W of the Jordan River tears down his family altar of Baal (Judges ch. 6), has miraculous experiences such as keeping his fleece dry in a wet room, and, after sending 22K of 32K in his army home to show it's really Jehovah's army, then selecting the 300 of them that lap water like dogs (Judges ch. 7), through a ruse he routs the Midianites, after which Israel has no further disburbances during the remaining 40 years of his life, and he fathers 70 sons by many wives while refusing to be made king, although he does mess up by accepting the gold bling bling captured from the Midianites, with which he makes an ephod to Jehovah, which causes people to have "immoral intercourse" (Judges 8:22-27).

In 1252 B.C.E. the Sea People known as the Philistines partially destroy the Phoenician city of Sidon, causing the Phoenicians to flee to the city of Tyre, which is also destroyed but is refounded; the Philistines build the adorable door-stop city of Dor on the foundations of Sidon, and set up the Sidonian State (ends -627), dominating Phoenicia by -1000.

In 1213 B.C.E. Nicotine-loving Rameses II the Great at age 96, and in late July his 14th (13th?) old fart son (by 2nd wife Isetnofret) Merneptah (Merenptah) (d. -1203) becomes king #4 of the Egyptian 19th Dynasty (until May 2, 1203), going on to battle the Sea People, Libyans, and Israelites, moving the capital ffrom Pi-Ramesses to Memphis, where he constructs his royal palace next to the Temple of Ptah, ordering the Merneptah Stele (Stela) erected (in -1208?), the last lines of which read: "Canaan is plundered with every hardship. Ashkelon is taken, Gezer captured, Yanoam reduced to nothing. The people of Israel (Isrir) are laid waste, their seed is no more"; the earliest known non-Biblical reference to Israel, and the only known mention of Israel in Egyptian monuments; Rameses II's mummy is interred at Biban al-Muluk, then put in a secret shaft at Deir-el-Bahri ("the northern monastery"), where it is found in 1881 C.E.

About 1200-1150 B.C.E. the Bronze Age Collapse, caused by severe drought and cold in the Fertile Crescent, driving peoples S, incl. the Sea People (from the Aegean?), who bring the opium poppy, cumin, and the sycamore tree; the Near East, Asia Minor, Aegean region, E Mediterranean region, Balkans and Caucasus plunge into a Dark Ages via sudden violent attacks, with almost every important city in the E Mediterranean region destroyed, many permanently.

About 1200 B.C.E. the Philistines occupy the S coast of Canaan in Palestine (until -604); the word Philistine comes from the word palash meaning migratory.; the Philistines were not Arab or Jewish, and might have been Greek, Egyptian, or Martians, check back with me when the time travel machine is perfected or Indiana Jones discovers their Lost Ark.

In 1186 B.C.E. Setakht dies, and his son (by Tiy-Merenese) Usimare Rameses (Ramses) (Ramesses) III (Rhampsinitus) (d. -1155) becomes king #2 of the Egyptian 20th Dynasty, and the last great pharaoh of the New Kingdom, seeing a series of invasions (incl. the Sea People) and economic problems bring the kingdom into decline; the rest of the Rameses line are whimps, often elderly, and with short, er, reigns?; he marries Tyti; references to Punt drop out after his reign, indicating the introduction of camel caravans in Arabia that end their maritime trade; Rameses III's mummy is found at Deir-el-Bahri in 1881 C.E.

In 1178 B.C.E. in the 8th year of his reign, Rameses III wins the naval Battle of Djahy (Canaan) (the Delta) against the piratical Sea People AKA the Peleset AKA the Philistines, who left the S shore of Asia Minor and settled in SW Canaan on the S coastal plain and were making forays into the Nile Delta; too bad, this battle marks the start of the New Kingdom's decline during the Bronze Age Collapse.

In 1150 B.C.E. the Canaanite stronghold of Dan is conquered by the Hebrew tribe of Dan; in 1994 archeologists discover a 9th cent. B.C. stele near Tel Dan in N Israel containing a reference to the "House of David", erected to celebrate the V of an Aramean king (Hazael?) over the Israelites; in 1 Kings ch. 19 Elijah anoints Hazael as king of Aram; skeptics are forced to admit the historicity of King David.

Where do the Jews come into history? In who knows when the maybe-real maybe-legendary characters Abraham ("father of many") (father of the Hebrews and Ishmaelites or Arabs, dated around 2000 B.C.E.) and Moses ("son of") (first Messiah of the Hebrews, dated 1500-1200 B.C.E.) allegedly lived, and the latter allegedly left the Books of Moses (Torah) that contained Jehovah's promise to give them the land of Israel (Isis + Ra + El?), AKA the Promised Land: "To your descendants I have given this land, from the Brook of Egypt as far as the great river the Euphrates. The land of the Kenites, Kenizites, Kadmonites; the Chitties, Perizites, Refaim; the Emorites, Canaanites, Gigashites and Yevusites." (Genesis 15:18-21); "And I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your temporary residence, all the land of Canaan as an eternal possession, and I will be a God to them." (Genesis 17:8) If you believe the Brooks, er, Books of Moses, around 1500-1200 B.C.E. Moses with Jehovah's indispensable help led the Hebrews ("cross over") out of captivity in Egypt after performing many mighty miracles to wow their pharaoh (nobody is sure which pharaoh), and drowned the bum to boot in the Red Sea, then after they went pagan for a spell and got Jehovah angry, got them all lost in the wilderness for 40 years and died before reaching it and crossing the Jordan River. Truth or fairy tale, about 1500 B.C.E. the militarily capable Hebrews, led by Caleb (b. -1530) (Heb. "dog") and Joshua (Jehoshua) (b. -1542) (Heb. "Jehovah is salvation") (son of Nun)invaded and fought their way into Canaan ("land of purple") city by city, claiming that God had promised it to them as the Promised Land, AKA Greater Israel, "from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates" (Gen. 15:18-21). Joshua defeated and killed king Og of the Amorites at the Battle of Edrei in modern-day Daraa, Syria, the original perfect short man. Whether the Bible stories are really true or are just national myths, the Jews did establish the right to the territory by conquering and settling it long before 1000 B.C.E. Joshua allegedly stole, er, conquered the 18th cent. B.C.E. city of Hebron, after which seven years later the city of Zoan in the E Nile Delta was founded (Num. 13:23). The Bible is a backdated fairy tale? Even if it is, in Jan. 2010 a pottery shard was found 18 mi. from Jerusalem dated around 1000 B.C.E. with Hebrew writing on it. That Jesus, the biggest Jewish Messiah of all was named Yeshua must mean something too, good morning Jerusalem, if you got plans you better get started early. The name Moses isn't really a name, it means "Son of", like Mac in Scottish. Moses was thus the Jews' original Son of Man, which term Jesus Christ later liked to refer to himself by - everything you hear, every single thing you say, is designed by the corporate media to keep you in their control?

Read my lips, no new gods. Abraham allegedly visited Jerusalem and met Melchizedek ("my king is righteousness"), king of Salem, the first known priest of Jehovah (Yahweh) the Most High (El Elyon), one of the Seven Names of the Jewish God. After blessing Abraham, the latter reciprocated by tithing him (Gen. 14:18-20), ice-cold medium soda, bag of tacos, yummy. Since Abraham is the father of Jews and Arabs, the symbolic significance is that ultimately they will reunite and worship the One True God, whatever her, er, his, name is - how do I transform my pale dry skin into moisturized glowing skin?

-1,000

Around 1000 B.C.E. (-1003?) (-1010?) Jewish King David (d. -970) ("beloved") conquered Jerusalem (original name Jebus?) by sending his troops through the you-know-what King David Water Shaft leading into the city from the Gihon Spring, and reigned until 970 B.C.E., gaining control of the site of the future temple from the Jebusite (Canaanite tribe) Araunah by a typical Jewish deal, oy vey. Ever since it's been called the City of David, most of which now lies in the Silwan (Heb. "Shiloah", Gk. "Siloam") neighborhood of so-called East Jerusalem, which isn't really a separate city, just the part of the city filled with Arab squatters.

About 970 B.C.E. David was succeeded as king by his son Solomon (-990 to -931) (allegedly from the Hebrew word shalom for peace, although those in the know think it's really Sol-Om-On, the Sun, Moon, and Stars or Venus), who around 967 B.C.E. built the Temple of Solomon (First Temple) on Mount Moriah ("foundation) AKA Mount Zion, dedicated to the Jews' god Jehovah, where Abraham went to sacrifice his son Isaac. Too bad, in 1961-7 Dame Kathleen Kenyon (1906-78) excavated Jerusalem, and concluded that Solomon's stables at Megiddo couldn't really hold horses, and that the whole Solomon-David story might be mythical - this even though her daddy Sir Frederick Kenyon, dir. of the British Museum spent his life trying to prove the Bible's history true. "At just that stage when archaeology should have linked with the written record, archaeology fails us. This is regrettable. There is no question of the archaeology being needed to prove that the Bible is true but it is needed as a help in interpretation to those older parts of the Old Testament which from the nature of their sources... cannot be read as a straight-forward record."

In 943 B.C.E. Psusennes II dies, and Shoshenq (Sheshonq) (Sheshonk) I (d. -922) becomes king #1 of the Libyan (Berber Meshwesh tribe) Twenty-Second (XXII) (22nd) (Libyan Bubastite) Dynasty in Egypt, which lasts more than two cents. (until -715); he rules from the city of Bubastis (Per-Bast) ("House of Bastet") (Tell-Basta) in the Nile Delta, and goes on to wage a successful campaign against the kingdoms of Canaan, Philistia, Syria, Judah, Israel, and the Negev, conquering Megiddo, Byblos et al. (not Jerusalem?); the Shishak of the Bible? (1 Kings 11:40, 1 Kings 14:25, 2 Chron. 12:2-9).

The original Tweedledum and Tweedledee? In 931 B.C.E. Solomon (b. -990) dies after pissing-off Jehovah by letting his pagan wives lure him into their dirty business (but out of respect to his daddy David he waits until Solomon dies to lower the boom), and he is succeeded by his 40-y.-o. son (by an Ammonite mother) Rehoboam (Roboam) (-972 to -914) (Heb. "who enlarges the people"), who is crowned in Shechem, and reigns for 17 years as the last king of the united monarchy, and the first ruler of the S 2-tribe kingdom of Judah-Benjamin (plus Levites and individual switchovers); shortly after his coronation the 10 tribes of N Israel revolt from his heavy-handed tax machine and make Jeroboam (d. -910) (Heb. "he increases the people", "he pleads the people's cause") their king after recalling him from Egypt, and the kingdom splits into the rival kingdoms of 10-tribe Israel (N) (capital Shechem then Tirzah) and the poorer 2-tribe Judah (S) (capital Jerusalem) (1 Kings 11-12, 2 Chron. 10:1); end of the Hebrew Camelot Days; Rehoboam then supposedly listens to his Ammonite mother Naamah and abandons the true faith of Jehovah for sex worship, pissing-off Big J again, resulting in an Egyptian invasion in his 5th year (1 Ki. 14:22-24 2 Chron. 12-1).

In 926 B.C.E. Solomon's Temple of Jehovah in Jerusalem is plundered by the Egyptians in the 5th year of Judean king Rehoboam by his protector Pharaoh Shishak (Sheshonq I?), who allegedly carries the Ark of the Covenant to Tanis, as mentioned in the first Steven Spielberg Indiana Jones flick Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) ; he takes all the treasures of the Jewish Temple and the king's house, incl. the gold shields of Solomon, which Rehoboam replaces with copper ones (1 Ki. 14:25-28, 2 Chron. 12:1-12).

In 922 B.C.E. Tanis is buried in a month-long sandstorm; Shishak I dies, buried along with the Ark of the Covenant :), and his son (by Karomat A) Osorkon I (d. -887) becomes king #2 of the Egyptian 22nd Dynasty, going on to build many temples.

While the Arabs, Turks etc. might have ruled Jerusalem and surrounding territory, there never was a king, prince, emir, or any other ruler based in Jerusalem after the Jews. The Kings of Judah after Rehoboam incl. Abijam (Abijah) (r. -915 to -913) ("my father is Jehovah") (14 wives), Asa (r. -913 to -873) (totally righteous right-on king), Jehoshaphat (Jehosaphat) (Heb. "Jehovah is the judge") (r. -873 to -849) (namesake of the Valley of Jehoshaphat, where Jehovah will one day gather all nations for judgment, Joel 3:2), Jehoram (r. -849 to -842) (dies after his bowels fell out), Ahaziah (Jehoahaz) (r. -842), Athaliah (Atalia) (r. -842 to -835) ("Jehovah is exalted"), Jehoash (Josh) (Joas) (r. -835 to -796) ("Jehovah-given"), Amaziah (Amasias) (Amatzia) (r. -796 to -767) ("strengthened by Jehovah"), Uzziah (Azariah) (r. -783 to -751) ("Jehovah is my strength") (struck with leprosy), Jotham (Yotam) (r. -751 to -735) ("Jehovah is perfect"), Ahaz (Jehoahaz) (r. -732 to -715) ("Jehovah has held") (goes pagan), Hezekiah (Hizkiyahu) (r. -715 to -686) ("strengthened by Jehovah"), Manasseh (r. -687 to -643) (pagan), Amon (r. -643 to -609) (pagan), Josiah (Yoshiyahu) (r. -649 to -609) ("supported of Jehovah"), Jehoahaz (Joachaz) (r. -609) ("Jehovah has held"), Jehoiakim (Jehoikim) (r. -608 to -598) ("he whom Jehovah has set up"), Jeconiah (Coniah) (Jehoiachin) (r. -598 to -597) ("Jehovah will fortify"), and Zedekiah (r. -597 to -586) ("My righteousness is Jehovah"), the last, who was blinded and taken captive to Babylon after "he did evil in the sight of the Lord" according to his counselor and prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 52:2-3) - this is what you want, this is what you get?

The Kings of Israel after Jeroboam incl. Nadab (r. -910 to -909), Baasha (r. -909 to -886), Elah (r. -886 to -885), Zimri (Zambri) (r. -884) (reigns 7 days), Omri (r. -884 to -873), Ahab (r. -871 to -852), Ahaziah (r. -850 to -849), Jehoram (r. -849 to -840), Jehu (r. -841 to -814), Jehoahaz (r. -814 to -798), Jehoash (r. -798 to -782), Jeroboam II (r. -782 to -753), Zechariah (r. -753 to -752) (reigns 6 mo.), Shallum (Heb. "retribution") (r. -752) (reigns 1 mo.), Menahem (Heb. "comforter") (r. -752 to -742), Pekahiah (Heb. "Jehovah has opened the eyes") (r. -742 to -740), Pekah (r. -739 to -732), and Hoshea (Lat. "salvation") (r. -732 to -723).

In 914 B.C.E. Rehoboam (b. -972) dies at age 58, and his son (one of 28) Abijah (Abijam) (d. -911) (Heb. "my dad is Jehovah") becomes king #2 of Judah (1 Ki. 14:31, 15:1-8); he is the son of Rehoboam's favorite concubine (of 60 concubines and 18 wives) Maacah (Micaiah) (2 Chron. 13), the granddaughter of David's favorite (3rd) son Absalom, and a descendant of King David on both his father's and mother's side, and hence "leaned upon Jehovah" (2 Chron. 13:13-20), proving it by marrying 14 wives and fathering 22 sons and 16 daughters.

In 912 B.C.E. Abijah's army of 400K defeats Jeroboam's army of 800K, killing 500K of them and breaking Jeroboam's military power; the sacred golden calf city of Bethel is captured (2 Chron. chs. 12-13).

In 911 B.C.E. Abijah dies, leaving 38 children by 14 wives, and his son Asa (d. -870) becomes king #3 of Judah (2 Chron. 13:21, 14:1, 1 Ki. 15:9-10).

In 910 B.C.E. Jeroboam dies, and his son Nadab (d. -901) (Heb. "generous, noble") becomes king #2 of the northern 10-tribe kingdom of Israel, continuing his father's golden calf worship - preferring McDonald's to Mister Steak?

In 909 B.C.E. in year 3 of King Asa of Judah (1 Kings 15:28) while sieging the former Levite city of Gibbethon (in Philistine hands), Nadab is assassinated by Baasha (d. -886) (Heb. "Baal hears"), the son of Ahijah of the tribe of Issachar, who then exterminates Jeroboam's house and takes the throne of Israel for himself, becoming king #3 of the 10-tribe kingdom of Israel, founding Israel's second dynasty and ruling for 24 years (1 Ki. 14:10, 20, 15:25-31).

-900

In 896 B.C.E. Phelles is assassinated by Esh-Baal (Itto-Baal) (d. -863), high priest of Astarte, who becomes king of Tyre (until -863) and founds a new dynasty; he marries his 15-y.-o. daughter Jezebel (Heb. "Where is the prince [Baal]?) to Ahab (Heb. "uncle"), son of Omri in Israel, and links his house by marriage to Ben Hadad I of Damascus; Ahab builds her a temple to Astarte, pissing-off the Jehovah purists.

In 886 B.C.E. Baasha dies and is buried in his capital city Tirzah, and his son Elah (d. -885) (Heb. "big tree") becomes the king #4 of the 10-tribe kingdom of Israel, ruling in Tirzah for parts of two years (1 Ki. 16:8).

In 885 B.C.E. in the 27th year of Asa of Judah (1 Ki. 16:15-18), Judean king Elah's chief of half the chariots Zimri (Zambri) rebels, waits until the army is on maneuvers at Gibbethon and Elah is drunk, then kills him and the whole house of Baasha, allegedly fulfilling a prophecy (1 Ki. 16:1-14); he then proclaims himself king #5 of the 10-tribe kingdom of Israel, but rules for only seven days when the army proclaims army chief Omri king and returns to siege him at Tirzah, causing him to burn the king's house down over himself (1 Ki. 16:3-20) and die; later el taunts Jehu from a window with the killer soundbyte, "Did it go all right with Zimri the killer of his lord?" (1 Ki. 9:30-31); Omri (d. -873), of who knows what tribe becomes king #6 of the northern 10-tribe kingdom of godforsaken Israel, ruling for 12 years and founding its third dynasty, which is so powerful that the Assyrians start calling Israel "the land/house of Omri", even after his house falls; Tibni, the son of Ginath presents himself as the rightful (7th) king, dividing the people and causing a 4-year civil war.

In 880 B.C.E. Tibni dies, leaving Omri the sole (and now 8th) king of the 10-tribe kingdom of Israel for eight years (1 Ki. 16:21-23, 29), where he continues doing sex, drugs and rock & roll ("kept doing what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah and came to do worse than all who were prior to him") (1 Ki. 16:25-26), although that doesn't stop him from "mightiness" (1 Ki. 16:27); the Moabite Stone says (lines 4-8) that he brings Moab into subjection, which Ahab continues after him (2 Ki. 3:4); he moves the capital from Tirzah to the more defensible new city of Samaria, which he purchases along with the whole mountain from its owner Shemer (1 Ki. 16:23-24); he surrenders some cities to the king of Syria (1 Ki. 20:34), and is the first Israelite king to pray tribute to Assyria.

In 873 B.C.E. Omri dies, and in -871 his son Ahab (d. -852) (Heb. "father's brother") becomes king #9 of the 10-tribe kingdom of Israel, ruling in Samaria for 22 years (1 Ki. 16:28-29, 22:40, 51); he marries 15-y.-o. Jezebel (Heb. "Where is Baal?") (1 Ki. 16:31) of Tyre, great-aunt of Carthage founder Dido and daughter of Itto-Baal (Ethbaal) (Ithobalus) (former priest of Ashtoreth AKA Astarte AKA Asherah), and king of Sidon by regicide), who leads him down from family-style golden arches calf worship to total sex-drugs-and-rock-n-roll (Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman style?) Baal worship, supporting 450 prophets of Baal from the royal table and ordering all of Jehovah's prophets slain (100 are saved by Ahab's house mgr. Obadiah by hiding them in a cave) (1 Ki. 18:3-13, 19:10); Ahab rebuilds Jericho to strengthen control over Moab, and fortifies Samaria, building a "house of ivory" (1 Ki. 22:39, Amos 3:15, 6:4); after Syrian king Ben-hadad demands Gilead (on the E bank of the Jordan River) and Ahab refuses, uttering the soundbyte "It is not the man who puts on the armor who should boast... but the one who takes it off", Ben-hadad leads a 32-king coalition on Ahab, but is defeated (1 Ki. chs. 20-21); too bad, Ahab doesn't follow Jehovah's orders and kill Ben-Hadad, but extends him the hand of peace, pissing off Jehovah's prophet Elijah, who begins an epic power struggle with him and his "harlot" wife Jezebel and their prophets of Baal (1 Kings chs. 17-19), beginning with three years of drought.

In 870 B.C.E. Asa dies, and his 35-y.-o. son (by Azubah the daughter of Shilhi) (co-regent since -873) "Jumpin'" Jehoshaphat (Yehoshafat) (Jehosaphat) (Josaphat) (d. -849) (Heb. "Jehovah is judge") becomes king #4 of Judah, ruling for 25 years (1 Kings 22:41-2, 2 Chron. 20:31), proving to be one of the "good" kings, his reigned marked by peace and even tribute from Philistines and Arabs; too bad that he enters into a marriage alliance with idolatrous Israel, marrying his firstborn son Jehoram to king Ahab's wicked daughter Athaliah (1 Ki. 22:44, 2 Chron. 18:1).

In 853 B.C.E. Shalmaneser III enters the plains of Syria and is met by a Syrian coalition army led by Iruhuleni of Hama and Ben-Hadad II of Damascus, supported by 12 kings, incl. those of Phoenicia and Israel (King Asa contributes a chariot force); Assyria claims a V at the Battle of Karkar (Qarqar) on the Orontes River, although it is really indecisive; King Ahab of Israel induces King Jehoshaphat of Judah to join him in the retaking of Ramoth-gilead from the Syrians, and is killed by a Syrian archer; when his body is brought to Samaria for burial, Jehovah's curse (1 Ki. 21:1-23, 2 Ki. 9:26) on him for the murder of his Jezreelite neighbor Naboth comes true, because when "they began to wash off the war chariot by the pool of Samaria... the dogs went licking up his blood" (1 Ki. 22:1-38); Ahab's son Ahaziah (d. -852) (Heb. "Jehovah has taken hold") becomes king #10 of the 10-tribe kingdom of Israel for two years, continuing to practice Baal worship (1 Ki. 22:51-3); Moab quickly revolts (2 Ki. 1:1, 3:4-5), but before he can take charge Ahaziah has a house accident, falling through a grating in his roof chamber, leaving him bedridden (2 Ki. 1:2); his brother Jehoram (d. -841) becomes co-regent; Israel forms a shipbuilding alliance with King Jehoshaphat of Judah at Ezion-Geber on the Gulf of Aqaba, but it fails (2 Chron. 20:35-7, 1 Ki. 22:48-9).

In 852 B.C.E. the ailing Ahaziah has a sorcerer's battle with Jehovah's prophet Elijah (who gives him a death notice from Big J himself) and loses (1 Ki. ch. 2-17), dying sonless, leaving his brother Jehoram (Joram) (d. -841) (Heb. "Jehovah is exalted") (brother-in-law of the other Jehoram in Judah because the latter is married to his sister Athaliah) as the 11th king of the 10-tribe soap opera kingdom of northern Israel; he reigns 12 years (2 Ki. 1:17-18, 3:1, 9:22), reversing his daddy's Baal thang, removing the sacred pillar erected by the red priest Lucille (just kidding, it was the Babalu priest Desi), but still falling short, continuing to do "what was bad in Jehovah's eyes", clinging to Jeroboam's golden calf worship (1 Ki. 12:26-29, 16:33; 2 Ki. 3:2-3); Joel writes his book during his reign?; Elijah is taken up to ? in a windstorm (and years later writes a letter to Judean king Jehoram, 2 Chron. 21:1, 12-15), and his assistant (for the past six years) Elisha succeeds him as Jehovah's prophet in Israel, performing many miracles in his 60-year ministry after asking Jehovah for "two parts in Elijah's spirit" (2 Ki. 2:9) so he can be his firstborn spiritual son, entitled to two parts of his father's inheritance. Meanwhile, in South Soapoperaland, Jehoshaphat's firstborn son Jehoram becomes co-ruler with his father of the kingdom of Judah.

About 850 B.C.E. the Aryan tribe of Persians settles in Anshan S of Susa, and the Aryan Invasion of Persia (Iran) (begun -1900) ends. Mesha, son of Kemoshmelek, king of Moab E of the Dead Sea erects the Moabite Stone, crowing about his successful revolt against the Hebrews and their whimpy god Jehovah (Yahweh), becoming the earliest known reference to this god outside the Bible (see 2 Ki. 3:27 for the Israelite version); rediscovered in 1868 C.E. Syrian king Ben-Hadad erects a monument in the city of Dan proclaiming his big V over the towns of N Israel.

In 849 B.C.E. Jehoshaphat dies, and his 32-y.-o. firstborn son Jehoram (d. -842) (Heb. "Jehovah is High") becomes king #5 of Judah, reigning eight years (2 Ki. 1:17, 8:16, 21:2-20); thus both Judah and Israel are ruled by brothers-in-law named Jehoram; due to his wife Athaliah's bad influence, Jehoram of Judah departs from his dad's righteous ways, murders his six brothers, causes Edom and Libnah to rebel (2 Ki. 8:20-22), and is plagued by Arabs and Philistines who invade and overrun Judah and take his wives and sons captive - a foretaste of the days of Muhammad?

In 842 B.C.E. after receiving a prophetic mandate, Jehu, son of Nimshi and CIC of the army is anointed king in Ramoth-gilead in order to destroy the house of Ahab in retaliation for the acts of wicked Jezebel, and leads a bloody military revolt to seize the throne of Israel; after meeting Jehoram of Israel at Jezreel and telling him that there can be no peace in Israel while the "whoredoms and sorceries" of Jezebel continue, he shoots an arrow through the fleeing king's heart, then kills King Ahaziah of Judah (grandson of Ahab and El), then returns to Jezreel to kill Jezebel herself; she tries to pussy-whip him by dressing up and flashing him from a window, but her own attendants throw her out and she is trampled to death by horses, then eaten by dogs, leaving only the skull, feet, and palms (2 Ki. 9:32-37); Jehu (d. -814) (Heb. "Jehovah is he") becomes king #10 of Israel (2 Ki. chs. 9-10); as a "son of a murderer" (2 Ki. 6:32) Jehoram's body is pitched into the field of Naboth, the man his daddy Ahab had murdered in order to get a vineyard (2 Ki. 9:14-26); Jehu wipes out the dynasty of Omri, and obliterates Baal worship in Israel; his dynasty lasts five generations, so Jehovah must have really liked it? Not to be left out of the TV sweeps, Jehoram of Judah, plagued by Jehovah with a sickness in his intestines for two years, tosses his matzohs when "his intestines came out", and he dies and is buried in Jerusalem, "but not in the burial places of the kings"; next year his son Ahaziah (Jehoahaz) (d. -841) (Heb. "Jehovah has taken hold"), who escaped the invasions becomes king #6 of Judah, reigning only 1-2 years (1 Ki. 22:51-3; 2 Ki. 1:17-18, 3:1-3, 10:12-14; 2 Chron. 21:7, 6-20; 22:1; 1 Chron. 3:10-11), and having a new son Jehoash with his wife Zibiah from Beersheba (2 Ki. 12:1; 1 Chron. 3:11).

In 841 B.C.E. Ahaziah is killed by Jehu (2 Ki. 9:14-28), and his enraged mother Athaliah (d. -835) (Heb. "Jehovah is great, exalted") kills all the others of the royal line except Ahaziah's infant son Jehoash, who is hidden by the high priest Jehoiada and his wife Jehosheba (Jehoash's aunt) in the Temple; Athaliah takes the throne by force, becoming king #7 (only female) of Judah, reigning for six years, taking the opportunity to rob the Temple of its holy things and offer them up to her god Baal, which as you must know by now, makes Jehovah mighty angry.

In 835 B.C.E. Ahaziah's youngest son Jehoash having been hidden in the Temple until he reaches the ripe old age of 7, high priest Jehoiada (Heb. "Jehovah knows") and his wife Jehosheba gain the help of five chieftains and 500 men, then stage a palace coup (2 Ki. 11:4-12, 21; 2 Chron. 23:1-11), kill Athaliah at the entry of the horse gate, tear down her house of Baal and murder her Baal priest Mattan (2 Ki. 11:13-20, 2 Chron. 23:12-21); they crown Jehoash (Joash) (d. -796) (Heb. "Jehovah is strong, "Jehovah has bestowed") as king #8 of Joltin' Judah; he reigns 40 years, at first being placed under the wing of Jehoiada, marrying two wives, one of which, Jehoaddan, saves the faltering line of David leading to Messiah; but upon the death of Jehoida he goes bad, opts for idolatry and phallic sacred poles, and finally kills the prophet Zechariah, thus sealing his Biblical fate (2 Chron. 24:20-22).

In 814 B.C.E. Jehu dies, and his son Jehoahaz (Joahaz) (d. -798) becomes the 13th king of Israel.

To really understand Jerusalem, you have to understand Jehovah-think, the Jewish Jehovah cult that believes that Jehovah is not only their tribal god but the omnipotent omniscient eternal God of the Universe, the Ultimate Historyscoper, who inspired them to take dictation using a Holy Ouija Board and gave them the Bible (Old Testament), a series of 51/39 books that tells them how he created the Universe and Earth as a home for humankind, and gave them a moral code to live by that incl. the 613 Mitzvot (Commandments) (248 positive, 365 negative), with draconian punishments such as stoning for adultery or blasphemy. The Jews are Jehovah's special Chosen People, who aren't just some tribes of Semites hoping to avoid the effects of inbreeding, but a holy nation of priests too, held to a higher standard of conduct. Not only that, they are his bride or wife, fancy butter and everything. Since Jehovah is God, as long as they are right with him the people prosper, harvests are plentiful, no plagues, no enemies bug them, etc., but when they aren't right with him and go after other gods, he punishes them. However, and this is what you have to understand or else you'll be forever clueless, Jehovah is omiscient and knows the end from the beginning, hence everything that happens, natural or political, he makes happen, indeed his name means I Make It Happen. Not that people don't have freewill, they just can't escape his omniscience, download the free app on attributes of God. Hence, when a pagan enemy nation conquers them, it was under Jehovah's orders as his arm of flesh in order to punish them for their sins, but since he's also perfectly just, he always sends a prophet in advance to warn them to change their ways, and usually gives them a just amount of time, usually 40 years, to repent and get right, or else he lowers the boom. The first time he did it was with Noah's Flood, and since he's perfect each act is like every other act, known from the beginning, like a hologram, break off a piece and you still see the image, only with less resolution. Hence, if you follow me, each book in the Bible adds more data to the hologram, which is illuminated by the passage of Time itself, leading to the End Times when Jehovah will finally judge the entire world and create a new one like he did in Noah's days, wiping off all evil people and leaving only the tiny remnant of the righteous. In actual practice Jehovah might just be a fairy tale invented and sustained by the highly secretive Jehovah Cult, who churn out Bible books then cover their tracks to release them, with Jehovah's foreknowledge faked by predating the books to make him look like he saw a big event coming and sent his prophet 40 years in advance, who was ignored, mistreated, and usually killed, making the coming judgment the only thing he could do, get it? Key Jewish prophets incl. Elijah, Elisha, Daniel, and Isaiah, whose book is often called the original Gospel since it foretells the coming of a Jewish Messiah who will be rejected by his own people and suffer like er, hell at their hands, as a surgical nurse I'm on my feet all day long and develop the worst heel pain. So, when Jews later rejected Jesus Christ, the Christians would quote to them out of Isaiah, messing their minds up until they wouldn't listen anymore, which Jehovah also foretold when he called them a stiff-necked people (Exodus 32:9), maddening isn't it?

-800

In the 8th cent. B.C.E. the Axial (Axis) Age of Karl Jaspers (1883-1969) begins (ends -200), when "the great world traditions that have continued to nourish humanity came into being: Confucianism and Daoism in China; Hinduism and Buddhism in India; monotheism in Israel; and philosophical rationalism in Greece", and where "What mattered was not what you believed but how you behaved", and the concept of kenosis (Greek for emptying), "spirituality of self-surrender" is the goal.

In the 8th cent. B.C.E. the Assyrians build an artificial harbor in Ashdod on the coast of Israel.

In 796 B.C.E. Jehoash pays tribute to Adad-Nirari III; Jehoash is murdered by two of his servants, is buried in the city of David with his forefathers, and his 25-y.-o. son Amaziah (Amatzyah) (Amasias) (d. -781) (Heb. "Jehovah is mighty") becomes king #9 of Judah for 29 years (until -768) (2 Ki. 12:19-21, 14:1-2; 2 Chron. 24:25-27), starting by executing his father's murderers but sparing their children, then becoming the first king of Judah to hire a mercenary army of 100K Israelite soldiers to help him reconquer Edom (which rebelled during the reign of his great-grandfather Jehoram) until a prophet commands him to send them back, after which Jehovah grants him a decisive V (2 Chron. 25:14-16); too bad, he begins to worship idols taken from the Edomites.

In 793 B.C.E. Jehoash's son Jeroboam II (d. -753) becomes coregent of Israel (until -782).

In 792 B.C.E. King Amaziah of Judah challenges Israeli king Jehu's grandson Jehoash to battle (2 Kings 14:9), and rushes into a disastrous battle at Beth-shemesh (Beit Shemesh) on the border with Dan, getting taken POW while Jerusalem incl. the Temple is looted and hostages carried off to Samaria, bringing on a conspiracy to kill him. Hebrew prophet Elisha (Heb. "My Jehovah is salvation") dies in the reign of Israeli king Jehoash's grandson Zechariah after a 60-year ministry and 16 miracles (2 Ki. ch. 2-13), incl. making the waters of the Jordan divide (2:14), curing the bad water supply of Jericho (2:19-22), getting bears to attack juvenile delinquents (2:23-4), supplying water to armies (3:16-26), supplying edible oil to a widow (4:1-7), causing a barren Shunammite woman to conceive (4:8-17), raising a child from the dead (4:18-37), making a poisonous stew edible (4:38-41), feeding 100 men with 20 loaves (4:42-4), helping cure Naaman of leprosy (5:1-14) then causing Gehazi to get Naaman's leprosy (5:24-7), making an axe head float (6:5-7), causing a servant to see angelic chariots (6:15-17), striking the Syrian army with blindness (6:18), then restoring their sight (6:19-23), and raising a man from the dead (13:20-1).

In 791 B.C.E. 16-y.-o. Uzziah (Azariah) (Uzziah) (Ozias) (Heb. "Jehovah is my strength") (-807 to -740) becomes co-regent of Judah with his father Amaziah.

In 782 B.C.E. Jehoash dies, and Jeroboam II (d. -753) becomes king #15 of the 10-tribe kingdom of Israel; Assyria, the second world power of the Bible begins to dominate Israel (2 Ki. 15:19); prophet Jonah (Ionas) (Heb. "dove", "peace") from Gath-Heber N of Nazareth flourishes during his reign.

In 781 B.C.E. Jewish minor prophet Amos of Tekoa (10 mi. S. of Jerusalem) is "taken from following the flock" by Jehovah (Amos 7:15) and sent to the northern kingdom of Israel at the time of Jeroboam II of Israel and Uzziah of Judah; two years later a great earthquake occurs in Judah (Zech. 14:5); later (unknown) he is thrown out of Israel by Baal priest Amaziah, and returns to Tekoa, where about -750 he writes the Book of Amos.

In 768 B.C.E. Amaziah is assassinated in his hiding place in Lachish, and buried in the royal sepulcher in Jerusalem, and his 40-y.-o. son Uzziah (Azariah) (Uzziah) (Ozias) (Heb. "Jehovah is my strength") (-807 to -740) becomes king #10 of Judah for 28 more years (until -740) (2 Chron. ch. 26).

In 750 B.C.E. King Azariah (Uzziah) of Judah is struck with leprosy; his son Jotham (Yotam) (d. -735) (Heb. "Jehovah is honest") (son of mother Jerusha) becomes coregent in Judah; the Israelites recapture the city of Dan - was it steely?

About 742 B.C.E. Hosea of Israel writes The Book of Hosea, becoming the first of the 12 minor prophets, harping about the apostasy of the people, who turn away from Jehovah to worship the calves of Jeroboam (1 Ki. 12:26-30, Hosea 8:4-6) and Baal.

In 740 B.C.E. leprous king Uzziah (Azariah) dies, and his 25-y.-o. son Jotham (Yotam) (d. -731) (Heb. "Jehovah is honest") (son of Jerusha the daughter of Zadok), who had been administering the affairs of the king's house and judging the people becomes king #11 of Judah (until -735), beginning construction of the Wall of Ophel; in this year prophet Isaiah (Heb. "Yeshayahu" = salvation of Jehovah), son of Amoz has a vision giving him a commission to preach to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, but warning him that the nation will come to ruin, and only a "tenth", a "holy seed" would be left (Is. 6:1-13); in 2019 Israeli archeologist Eliat Mazar discovers a clay bulla at the base of the S wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem bearing Isaiah's name, and another clay bulla in 2015 10 ft. away bearing the seal of King Hezekiah.

In 738 B.C.E. Menachem dies, and his son Pekahiah (d. -737) (Heb. "Jehovah has opened his eyes") becomes king #19 of Israel (2nd and last from the house of Gadi), continuing the sins of Jeroboam (idolatrous calf worship) that Jehovah doesn't like for two years; Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser II invades Israel and forces it to pay tribute. Romulus establishes the Roman calendar based on the Greek lunar calendar; later king Numa Pompilius adds Jan. at the beginning and Feb. at the end to create a 12-mo. year (until -452).

In 737 B.C.E. Pekahiah is murdered by his general (adjutant) Pekah (d. -732) (Heb. "open-eyed") (son of Remaliah) and 50 men of Gilead, and Pekah becomes the 20th and penultimate king of the 10-tribe kingdom of Israel (2 Ki. 15:25-27), going on to reign for 20 years while continuing the idolatrous calf worship (2 Ki. 15:28); Pekah allies with Aram (Dammascus) king Rezin to attack Assyria, trying to coerce King Ahaz of Judah to join, causing him to appeal to Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III - two decades of frightful fashion and big hair?

In 735 B.C.E. Jotham is deposed by a pro-Assyrian faction in favor of his 20-y.-o. (25-y.-o.) son Ahaz (d. -715) (Jehoahaz) (Heb. "Jehovah has grabbed hold") becomes king #12 (co-regent until -732?) of Judah, becoming known for misrule and apostasy (2 Chron. chs. 27, 28).

In 734 B.C.E. after King Ahaz of Judah calls on Assyria for help in its war with Israel and Damascus, Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III captures Damascus and executes King Reza before deporting the pop. to Kir and annexing the Aramean Kingdom (founded -1000) (2 Kings 16:9), dividing it into six provinces centered around Damascus; Assyria imposes an embargo on the export of timber from Tyre and Sidon to Philistia and Egypt; Palestine and trans-Jordania are crushed; the prince of Ascalon is killed, and the men of Gaza and the other of the so-called Five Strong Cities of Philistia flee to Egypt "like a bird"; Tiglath-Pileser III conquers The Galilee,and the land of Naphtali on the E side incl. Ijon, Hazor, Kedesh, Gilead, Abel Beth Maacah (Abel Maim), and Janoah, deporting most of the pop. to Assyria, then attacks Israel, annexing all teritory N of Jezreel (half of Israel); the Jews are exiled from Perea (E of the Jordan River); the kings of Edom and Judah pay tribute.

In 732 B.C.E. after pissing him off by attempting to coerce King Ahaz of Judah to take action against Assyria in league with King Rezin of Damascus, Israeli King Pekah is murdered by pro-Assyrian party head Hoshea (Heb. "salvation") (son of Elah), who becomes king #21 (last) of the 10-tribe kingdom of Israel based in Samaria (until -721) after paying Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III (Pul) 10 talents of gold and 1K talents of silver as tribute; an 8-year interregnum begins (2 Ki. chs. 14-15, 2 Chron. ch. 26)?; too bad, when Tiglath-Pileser III dies in -727, Hoshea conspires with Egypt to rebel, causing his successor Shalmaneser V to invade; meanwhile Judah calls on Assyria for help in its war with Israel and Damascus, and Tiglath-Pileser III conquers the Galilee and exiles many of its inhabitants, going on to capture Damascus and transport its pop. to Kir, dividing the Aramean kingdom (founded -1000) into six provinces centered around Damascus, and annexing one-half of Israel; the Jews are exiled from Perea (E of the Jordan River). Jotham dies, and his son Ahaz (Jehoahaz I) (d. -716) (Heb. "Jehovah has held") becomes king #12 of Judah, reigning for 16 years. Nabu-Nadin-Zeri is killed in a revolt, and Nabu-Shuma-Ukin II becomes king of Babylon for 1 mo.; Isaiah writes the Book of Isaiah about this time?

In 731 B.C.E. ex-king Joatham of Judah dies, and is buried in the city of David.

In 728 B.C.E. Ahaz appoints his son Hezekiah (d. -686) (Heb. "Jehovah strengthens") coregent of Judah, who seeks unification with the kingless northern kingdom of Israel, inviting them to an ecumenical Passover (2 Chron. 30:1).

In 722 B.C.E. after years of the Jews being bad and rejecting prophets sent by You Know Who, in the 6th year of King Ahaz of Judah, Samaria is conquered (2 Ki. ch. 17) by the she-walks-she-talks-she-walks-on-her-belly-like-a-reptile super-cruel Assyrians under king (-727 to -722) Shalmaneser V (d. -722), who is assassinated, allowing his successor Sargon II (Sharru-Kin) (-763 to -705) ("legitimate king") to claim credit - baby back ribs tonight? The 28K members of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel, incl. King Hoshea are carried away like foam upon the water to Harran, after which the depopulated land is slowly settled by Aramaic-speaking Assyrians, and the Samaritan religion is born; Jerusalem is strengthened with a great influx of refugees. Sometime in his reign, Sargon II receives tribute from S Arabian king Ita'amra the Sabaean. In modern times the entrance to Sargon II's palace throne room, unearthed by Paul Emile Botta (1802-70) of France features a pair of reliefs of a 16-ft.-high Winged Bull that combines features of a man (head), eagle (wings) and lion (tail); it ends up in the Oriental Inst. of the U. of Chicago, the search is on for cute boots.

In 720 B.C.E. Assyrian king Sargon II reconquers Samaria after another revolt; the 27,290 members of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel, incl. King Hoshea are carried away like foam upon the water to Harran; the depopulated land is slowly settled by Aramaic-speaking Assyrians, and the Samaritan Religion is born; Jerusalem is strengthened with a great influx of refugees; of the original Twelve Tribes, only the depleted 2-tribe (Judah and Benjamin) S kingdom of Judah is left (along with some Levites, the landless priest-class 13th tribe), and Judah only has seven more kings to go before their royal line is kaput (Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah); later speculators trace the lost tribes to the British Isles, North Am., South Am., India (the Manashe Tribe in Manipur and Mizoram in E India), Abyssinia, Afghanistan, China, Japan, Africa, and Uzbekistan and Tajikistan; the proof that the Tribe of Dan migrated W is their naming of the Danube, Dnieper, and Denmark?; in the 18th cent. the Anglo-Israelite Theory, that they are the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxon peoples makes it easier for Jews to immigrate; did they go to Japan, as indicated by similar ceremonies?; some Scots claim that they are the lost tribes, and that the Stone of Scone (pr. SKOON) is really the Beth-El (Jacob's Pillow) in Genesis; the Book of Mormon claims that they migrate to North Am., quoting Bible prophet Isaiah (Heb. "Jehovah is salvation"); "From the isles of the sea, from those parts beyond the sea into which they were carried captive" (Is. 24:24) (maybe to the British Isles?). 3

In 716 B.C.E. Ahaz dies, and although he is buried in the city of David (Jerusalem) 3(2 Ki. 16:20), his body is not placed at the royal burial place of the kings (2 Chron. 28:27); his 25-y.-o. son Hezekiah (Hizkiyahu) (r. -715 to -686) (Heb. "strengthened by Jehovah") becomes king #13 of Judah ("the finest" - 2 Ki. 18:5), and reverses his father's idolatrous policies, "sticking to Jehovah" (2 Chron. 29:1), and compiling the Proverbs of Solomon (Prov. 25:1).

In 712 B.C.E. a revolt against Assyria instigated by Egypt, led by King Iamanni of Ashdod followed by Judah, Edom, and Moab and Pi'ru of Musu is crushed; Pharaoh Shabaka gives asylum to Ashdod king Iamanni.

In 705 B.C.E. Hezekiah of Judah quits paying tribute to Assyria, and starts fortifying Jerusalem (2 Ki. 18:7, 20:12, 2 Chron. 32:5).

In 701 B.C.E. a revolt by Sidon-Tyre, Escalon, Judah, and Ekron supported by Egyptian Pharaoh Shebtiku causes the Assyrians to attack; Sennacherib defeats the Egyptians at the Battle of Eltekeh in S Palestine, then invades and conquers Phoenicia-Palestine to reinstate his ally Padi of Ekron; king Eluli of Tyre flees to Cyprus, and Sennacherib appoints Baal (Baalu) I (d. -660) as king of Tyre (until -660), then sieges and conquers the Israelite city of Lachish between Mt. Hebron and the maritime plain of Philistia (Johsua 10:3-5, 12:11), causing Sennacherib to order reliefs installed in his royal palace in Nineveh, showing an Israelite chariot, with the soundbyte: "Sennacherib, king of the world, king of Assyria sat upon a throne and passed in review the booty from Lachish"; King Lule of Sidon flees to Cyprus; King Sidka of Ascalon is captured and sent to Assyria; about this time he defeats Arab tribal queen Iati'e (Yatie).

-700

About 700 B.C.E. tiny silver scrolls inscribed with portions of the Bible Book of Numbers are buried in Ketef Hinnom SW of Jerusalem; discovered in 1979, becoming the oldest known texts of the Bible.

In 700 B.C.E. the Assyrians under Sennacherib invade Judah, destroy many cities and siege Jerusalem after the Egyptians under Pharaoh Taharqa at Hezekiah's request stall their advance; the Assyrian gen. appeals to Jerusalem's pop. over King Hezekiah's head (Is. 36:4), and the Jewish officials plead with him not to speak in Hebrew, the language of (the) hoi poloi, but in Aramaic, the language of diplomacy understood by themselves (2 Ki. 18:26); the Assyrians claim a plague, and the Bible claims that it is Jehovah's angel slaying 185K of the cream of their warriors overnight (2 Ki. chs. 18-19, 32), but the Assyrians are turned back, yet only after making Hezekiah a vassal ("like a bird in a cage"), who has to pay a large tribute?

In the 7th cent. B.C.E. the Arab Abdeel (Abdilla) and Nebaioth (Nebayot) tribes roam Palestine, while the Qedar tribe based in N Arabia founds a kingdom that by the 6th cent. B.C.E. controls the region from the Sinai to the Persian Gulf.

In 696 B.C.E. Hezekiah's son Manasseh (Heb. "One Making Forgetful") (d. -642) becomes coregent of Judah, reigning 54 years and becoming king #14 of Judah after David (2 Ki. 21), going bad and doing "worse than the nations that Jehovah had annihilated from before the sons of Israel" (2 Chron. 33:2-9); he is said by Jewish tradition to have ordered the prophet Isaiah sawed apart; he is captured by the Assyrians and taken captive to Babylon, but repents and returns to Jerusalem; Israel's worst king?; Micah (Heb. "Who is like Yahweh?") of Morsheth writes The Book of Micah during his reign.

In 677 B.C.E.vVassal king Abdi-Milkuti ('Abdmilkot) revolts from Sennacherib, who captures Sidon, beheads him, and razes the city to the ground, then deports its pop., turning it into an Assyrian province; a new city is built opposite it called Ir-Asaraddon (Kar-Esarhaddon); the island city of Tyre becomes the main city of what's left of Phoenicia, with Baal I as king, stripped of his mainland territories and forced to pay tribute.

In 677 B.C.E. Assyrian king (since -681) Esarhaddon (d. -669) invades Israel to pacifiy Arab tribes around the Dead Sea, chasing them to the Brook of Egypt (Nile River?).

In 650 B.C.E. King Manasseh of Judah returns to Jerusalem from captivity in Babylon and institutes reforms while building better defenses.

In 642 B.C.E. Judean king (since -696) Manassah dies, and "Wicked King" Amon (d. -640) (Heb. "master builder or workman") becomes yet another bad king of Judah (2 Ki. 21:19); cents. later a Hellenistic Jew writes The Prayer of Manasses (Manassah), in which he confesses his sins and begs Jehovah for forgiveness.

In 640 B.C.E. Amon is murdered by his own servants, then the "people of the land" (Heb. "'am ha-'a'rets") put them to death and place Amon's 8-y.-o. son (by Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah) (2 Ki. 22:1) Josiah (Josias) (d. -609) (Heb. "may Jehovah give", "Jehovah heals") on the throne of Judah, burying Amon in the garden of Uzza (2 Ki. 21:19-26, 22:1-2, Chron. 33:20-25); Josiah is the son of Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah (2 Ki. 22:1); his wives are Hamutal and Zebidah (2 Ki. 23:31-6); of his four sons, only the firstborn Johanan does not rule as king of Judah after him; of the seven Judean kings after Hezekiah, he is the only one who takes steps to rid the land of false worship after Zephaniah (Tzepfanayah) (Sophonias) (Heb. "Jehovah has concealed") writes The Book of Zephaniah (Sophonias) during his reign, warning about the coming "day of the Lord" when he will punish Jerusalem for going after other gods, causing Josiah to tear down the high places and the Asherah poles and reinstate the worship and feasts of the One True God Jehovah; in 2019 an agate stone and lump of burnt clay used as seals are discovered in the old City of David, mentioning Nathan-Melech, Josiah's servant?

In 634 B.C.E. Josiah's wife Zebidah gives birth to his 2nd son Jehoiakim (Heb. "Jehovah raises up") (2 Ki. 22:1, 23:36).

In 633 B.C.E. Josiah's wife Hamutal gives birth to his son Jehoahaz (Heb. "Jehovah has taken hold") (Shallum) (2 Ki. 22:1, 23:31; Jer. 22:11).

In 628 B.C.E. King Josiah of Judah begins a 6-year campaign against idolatry, which extends even into the former lands of the 10-tribe kingdom of Israel (2 Chron. 34:3-8).

In 623 B.C.E. in the 18th year of King Josiah of Judah, during the repair of the Temple, the Book of Deuteronomy (Heb. "the book of Jehovah's law by the hand of Moses") is "found" by Jewish priest Hilkiah (Heb. "my portion is Jehovah"), causing the king to rip his garments and then assemble all of the people to read it to them; he then arranges for the biggest Passover (Nisan 14) since the days of the prophet Samuel, which features 30K animals and 3K cattle slaughtered and BBQed (2 Ki. 23:21-23; 2 Chron. 35:1-19).

In 622 B.C.E. after the Jewish Temple is repaired, King Josiah of Judah orders the Ark of the Covenant returned from safekeeping; prophet Jeremiah says that the Ark will not be missed because "Jerusalem itself will be called the throne of Jehovah" (Jer. 3:16-17); in John's Revelation "the Ark of the Covenant was seen in his temple sanctuary" in heaven (Rev. 11:19) - so Indiana Jones fans must be out of luck?

In 612 B.C.E. the Assyrian capital of Nineveh (pop. 100K) is sieged, sacked, and destroyed by the Babylonians under Nabopolassar, the Medes under Cyaxares, and the Scythians (Nah. 3:7), turning it into "ruin-hills and heaps of debris" (Babylonian Chronicle 21901 of the British Museum); the ruins aren't rediscovered until 1849 C.E.; the great library of Ashurbanipal is destroyed (22K cuneiform tablets found in modern times); the Assyrian Empire is threatened with collapse as the Medes and Babylonians divide it; Sin-Shar-Ishkun dies, and Ashur-Uballit II (d. -609) becomes the last king of the Assyrians, taking what is left of his army and fleeing 225 mi. W to Haran; Nippur falls to the Babylonians after a prolonged siege; Nahum writes The Book of Nahum about the time of Nineveh's fall?

In the late 7th cent. or 6th cent. B.C.E. according to modern Bible scholars, the Pentateuch (Five Books of Moses) (Torah) incl. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy begin to be composed by four different sources, which are collated into the final version in the 5th cent. B.C.E.; the first two are "J" (Jahwist/Yahwist), living in the southern Kingdom of Judah, and "E" (Elohist), living in the northern Kingdom of Israel; in the 6th cent. B.C.E. "P" (Priestly) writes the first chapter of Genesis, and "D" (Deuteronomist) writes Deuteronomy; there are two versions of the creation story in Genesis; E's version of creation (Gen. 1:1-2:3): "In the beginning (Bereshith) God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light..."; J's version of creation (Gen. 2:5-7): "At the time when Yahweh God made earth and heaven, there was as yet no wild bush on the earth nor had any wild plant yet spring up, for Yahweh God has not sent rain on the earth nor was there any man to till the soil. However, a flood was rising from the earth and watering all the surface of the soil. Yahweh God fashioned man (adam) of dust from the soil (adamah). Then he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and thus man became a living being."

In spring 609 B.C.E. Necho II leads a large army of mercenaries along the Via Maris coastal route ino Syria to help Ashur-Uballit II in Harran fight Babylonian conqueror Nabopolassar, but on the way he is intercepted by King Josiah of Judah at Megiddo, where Josiah is shot by an Egyptian archer in his war chariot (2 Chron. 35:20-25, 2 Ki. 23:29-30), and brought back to Jerusalem to die, after which Necho II sends messengers with the soundbyte: "What quarrel is there between you and me, O king of Judah? It is not you I am attacking at this time, but the house with which I am at war. God has told me to hurry; so stop opposing God, who is with me, or he will destroy you" (2 Chron. 35:21); after Nabopolassar captures Kumukh, cutting him off, Necho II goes on to capture Kadesh in Syria on the Orontes River, sending his battle clothes to Branchidae of Miletus, who dedicates them to Apollo; meanwhile Ashur-Uballit II flees Harran SW to Syria, hooking-up with Necho II and returning over the Euphrates (becoming the first pharaoh to cross it since Thutmose III) to siege Harran, but fail to capture it and retreat back to N Syria, after which Ashur-Uballit II vanishes from history, and Assyria is kaput, swallowed by the Babylonians, who annex Megiddo but leave it waste to get even for centuries of maltreatment; by popular acclaim Josiah's 4th and youngest son, 23-y.-o Jehoahaz (Joahaz) (b. -632) (Heb. "Jehovah has taken hold") (AKA Shallum) becomes king of Judah for 3 mo. (2 Ki. 23:29-31, 2 Chron. 36:2) and rules badly until Necho II imprisons him at Riblah and removes him in favor of his 25-y.-o. brother Eliakim, changing his name to Jehoiakim (-634 to -598) (Heb. "Jehovah raises up") (2 Ki. 23:34-6, 1 Chron. 3:15); his 11-year rule is marked by injustice and oppression, and raids from marauder bands; Jehoahaz is later taken to Egypt, where he dies in captivity (2 Ki. 23:31-4, Jer. 22:10-12); the Book of Hakkuk, warning of the coming wrath of God using the Chaldeans (Babylonians) to execute his judgment on Judah for their sins is written during his reign?

In 607 B.C.E. the year (Ab 7-11, 5th Jewish month) in which the Babylonians conquer Big J's Holy City of Jerusalem after a 3-year siege and take the Jews into captivity, according to the Jehovah's Witnesses (everybody else thinks this happened in -587, but they are all wrong because the JWs are right?); this makes their freeing by Cyrus II the Great 70 years later conform to the JW Bible chronology based on the key year 1914 C.E. when 2520 years (7 x 360 years) (seven years of years) are added, although it disagrees with all secular historians, and pushes all prior Bible dates back 20 years - still, it would be funny if? About this time Jewish prophet Obadiah (Abdias) ("worshipper/servant of Jehovah") writes the Book of Obadiah (Abdias), and "the weeping Jewish prophet" Jeremiah ("Jehovah exalts") writes the Book of Lamentations.

In 606 B.C.E. after being taken into taken into captivity at Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon in the 3rd year of Jehoiakim (-587 according to the Jehovah's Witnesses), noble Jewish youth Daniel (Heb. "Jehovah is my judge") becomes the king's minister.

In summer 605 B.C.E. Babylonian crown prince Nebuchadnezzar (Nabuchodonosor) (Nabu-Kudurri-Usur) ("O god Nabu, preserve my firstborn son") II (d. -562) defeats the Egyptians under Necho II (his rival for control of Syria and Palestine) at the Battle of Carchemish (Karkemish) on the W Bank of the Euphrates River 400 mi. N of Jerusalem (Jer. 46:1-2) (35 mi. SE of Gaziantep in S Turkey on the Syrian border), and overtakes and annihilates the fleeing Egyptian army at Hama; both sides take heavy casualties, and Nabopolassar is KIA; Egyptian power in Asia is destroyed (2 Chron. 35:20); "For the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty, and they are fallen both of them together (Jer. 46:12); on the first day of Elul (Aug.-Sept.) his son Nebuchadnezzar II is crowned king of Babylon and becomes undisputed ruler of W Asia (until -562); Judean king Josiah takes on Necho on his way to Carchemish in violation of God's orders, and is wounded by archers and brought back to Jerusalem, where he dies, and Jeremiah utters laments for him, which "are written in the Laments" (2 Chron 35:20-27); Josiah is succeeded by 23-y.-o. Jehoahaz, who reigns 3 mo. until Necho deposes him and lays a tribute of 100 talents of silver and one talent of gold on the land, then makes his 25-y.-o. brother Eliakim king of Judah, changing his name to Jehoiakim (Heb. "He whom Yahweh has set up"), taking his brother Jehoahaz hostage back to Egypt; "He reigned eleven years in Jerusalem, and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God" (2 Chron. 36:1-8). About this time "the weeping Jewish prophet" Jeremiah ("Jehovah exalts") begins composing the Book of Jeremiah, a prophecy directed against Israel, Judah and all the nations dictated it to his secy. Baruch (Jer. Ch. 36).

In 604 B.C.E. in the month of Chislev (Nov.-Dec.) Jehudi reads Baruch's scroll to King Jehoiakim, predicting Judah's destruction by Babylon; the king orders it burned in his brazier (Jer. 36:1-4, 21-29). Big man Nebuchadnezzer begins construction of the Wonder of the World Hanging Gardens of Babylon - if I were to give it a grade from A-F, I'd give it a Y, for why did I do it?

In 601 B.C.E. the Saite king Necho II defeats Nebuchadnezzar II; Jewish king Jehoiakim seizes the initiative to revolt from Nebuchadnezzar and defect to the Egyptians; Nebuchadnezzar defeats the invading Egyptians, and forces Judean king Jehoiakim (d. -598) to become his vassal for three years (II Ki. 24:1).

-600

In 598 B.C.E. wicked king Jehoiakim of Judah, who had withheld the laborers' wages after building a new palace, and who had ordered the prophet Urijah captured in Egypt, then brought back and killed, rebels in his 3rd year of vassalage to Nebuchadnezzar II, causing the latter to begin sieging Jerusalem.

Catastrophe befalls Jehovah's Chosen People after they had been very, very bad, and had ignored all warnings to repent and reform?

On Mar. 16, 597 B.C.E. after receiving Jeremiah's prophesied doom, the burial of a he-ass (Jer. 22:13-19), Judean king Jehoiakim loses Jehovah's protection, allowing the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar II sieging Jerusalem to capture it on the 2nd day of the Jewish month of Adar, and begin deporting the Jews, along with Jehoiakim (bound in fetters) (2 Chron. 36:6), and the future prophet Ezekiel to Babylon (2 Ki. 24:11-16, Jer: 22:24-27, 24:1, 27:19-20, 29:1-2), taking "part of the vessels of the house of the Lord... and put them in his palace in Babylon" (2 Chron. 36:7); Jehoiachin's 8-y.-o. son (by mother Nehushta) Jehoiachin (Jeconiah) (Coniah) (Heb. "Jehovah firmly establishes") succeeds him as king of Judah, but his reign lasts only 3 mo. 10 days. after "he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and in the spring Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon with the precious vessels of the house of Jehovah" (2 Chron. 36:9-10); Nebuchadnezzar then makes 21-y.-o. Mattaniah the new king of Judah under the name Zedekiah (Heb. "Jehovah is righteousness"), and he reigns 11 years in Jerusalem as a puppet; (guess what?) "He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God, and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet... he also rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God... all the leading priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations, and they polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem" (2 Chron. 36:12-14), causing "the wrath of the Lord to rise against his people, till there was no remedy" (2 Chron. 36:16), resulting in him eventually ordering the king of the Chaldeans to wipe out his own temple in Jerusalem (Jewish First Temple) to punish them for 70 years (2 Chron. 17-21).

On July 13, 592 B.C.E. Jewish prophet Ezekiel is allegedly called by Jehovah in Babylon to warn the pesky Jews to repent before it's too late, which they don't, causing him to lower the boom in -587/-586; he writes the Book of Ezekiel, ch. 1 of which describes a Heavenly Chariot/Throne (Merkabah) (1:16), which sends true believers into tizzies ever after, incl. those who think it's really spaceships: "The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel"; in 1974 C.E. NASA engineer Josef F. Blumrich (1913-2002) pub. the book The Spaceships of Ezekiel, claiming it was a real spaceship.

In 591 B.C.E. Pstamtik II of Egypt invades Palestine "to foment a general Levantine revolt against the Babylonians" incl. by King Zedekiah of Judah.

On Jan. 27 B.C.E., 589 B.C.E. (Tebeth 10) after Judah's vassal king Zedekiah revolts against Babylon and enters into an alliance with Egyptian pharaoh Hophra, the Babylonians under king (since -605) Nebuchadnezzar II (-634 to -562) begin their 18-mo. (30-mo.?) Final Siege of Jerusalem, releasing Hebrew slaves on Sept. 29 (Tishri 1) at the beginning of the Hebrew Sabbatical year, then starving the pop. into submission.

In Oct. 588 B.C.E. after King Zedekiah allies with Egyptian Pharaoh Apries, who sends an army to protect Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar II lifts the siege of Jerusalem until he defeats them next Apr. in Phoenicia.

On Apr. 29, 587 B.C.E. (Nisan 7) after defeating the Egyptians Nebuchadnezzar II heads for Jerusalem, breaching the wall on July 29 (Tammuz 9) and capturing Zedekiah after completing his 11th reignal year) attempting to escape on the plains of Jericho, who is brought to Big Neb blindfolded (2 Ki. 25:2-8), then retires to Riblah "in the land of Hamath", leaving the siege to his chief bodyguard Nebuzaradan ("Nebo has given offspring") (2 Ki. 25:8-12), who comes to Jerusalem 1 mo. later (Aug. 25) (Ab 7); on Aug. 28 (10 Ab) the Babylonians enter Jerusalem, wreck the wall, and loot the Temple of Jehovah (Solomon) (2 Ki. 25:8-20, Jer. 39:8-10, 43:5-6, 2 Chron.); the Ark of the Covenant is not there (captured by Pharaoh Shishak, or given by Solomon to the Queen of Sheba's son Menelik?); they capture and blind King Zedekiah, slaughter "all the nobles of Judah" (Jer. 39:1-8), and take the remainder of the pathetic Jews into the Babylonian Captivity, allowing some of the lowliest ones to remain; on the 10th day of Ab Nebuzaradan inspects and then burns the temple (on the same day that the rebuilt temple is burned in 70 C.E.) (the Jews commemorate the 7th day of Ab with a fast, and also celebrate the 9th day of Ab, or Tishbah b'Ab); Nebuzaradan releases the prophet Jeremiah from the nasty old cistern where he had been thrown by royal princes Gemariah, Jucal (Jehucal) et al., gives him supplies, and appoints Gedaliah as gov. over those remaining (2 Ki. 25:22, Jer. 39:11-14, 40:1-7, 41:10); the kingdom of Judah ceases to exist, becoming a province of Babylonia, and never again does a king rule in Jerusalem; in 2005 Israeli archaeologist Eilat Mazar et al. find a .04-in. clay seal on the site of the palace which reads "Belonging to Yehuchal son of Shelemiyahu son of Shovi"; another seal contains the name Gemariah, son of Shaphan, the 1st royal minister, Yehuchal being 2nd.

About 583 B.C.E. The Judeo-Christian legend of Satan begins as the Hebrews and the Babylonians attempt to mix like oil and water.

About 583 B.C.E. "Weeping Prophet "Book of Jeremiah?

In 582 B.C.E. Nebuchadnezzar II takes more Jews into exile after they flee to surrounding territories.

On Apr. 10, 574 B.C.E. Ezekiel's last of six oracles is recorded, about Ezekiel's Wheel, a wheel within a wheel, according to Ernst Kutsch - a UFO?

In 573 B.C.E. Nebuchadnezzar II conquers Tyre after a 13-year siege (begun -586), during which the heads of his soldiers are made bald from the chafing of their brain buckets (helmets), and their shoulders are rubbed bare from carrying construction materials; the city is put under Babylonian-dominated judges (sufetes) (until -564), starting with Baal (Baalu) II (d. -564).

About 560 B.C.E. the earliest Hebrew scrolls of the Bible (Gr. "ta biblia" = little library) are written, backdated as far as 1,500 B.C.E.?; "40 independent authors, representing 20 occupations, living in 10 countries during a 1,500-year span, working in three languages, with a cast of 2,930 characters in 1,551 places... This massive volume covers every conceivable subject, expressed in all literary forms - prose, poetry, romance, mystery, biography, science and history" (Terry Hall); the Jewish identity is formed around this little library of books - the hardest years, the darkest years, the wildest years, the hottest years?

On Oct. 6 (Oct. 12?)(Oct. 29?), 539 B.C.E. after strange Handwriting on the Wall, "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin (Parsin)" (Eenie Meenie You'll Tackle a Persian?) (Eenie Meenie Miney Moe, Listen Balshazzar, Out You Go?) allegedly appears on the wall of his court during a "great feast for a thousand lords" where he "drank wine in front of the thousand", overconfident Babylonian co-king (with Nabonidus) Balshazzar (Belshazzar) ("Bel, protect the king") ignores the "numbered, numbered, weighed and divided" interpretation of captive Jewish prophet Daniel that Jehovah has decided to have the Medes and Persians axe him, and yada yada yada (Daniel, Ch. 5; after diverting the Euphrates so it no longer can act as a big moat, Gobyrus and his warriors find the giant double-leaved main doors in the 300-ft.-high wall open, and enter party-pooped Babylon in the wee hours unopposed, then Cyrus II the Great's Medes and Persians (assisted by the Scythians) conquer it and level it by fire, incl. the Hanging Gardens (only burnt crumbs remain on the plate?); Nabonidus is captured and sent into exile; Balshazzar is KIA at the Battle of OpisN of Babylon on the Tigris River; Phoenicia is (bloodlessly?) absorbed into the Persian-Median Empire as the 5th satrapy, with admin. center at Tripolis, and vassal kings in Sidon, Tyre, Arvad, and Byblos; N Arabia is absorbed (until -331); the Persians rule Babylonia until -331; never again will Mesopotamia be an independent political entity?

All My Vision? Stroll around the grounds until you feel at home? The Year when Bible thumpers and Bible skeptics must make a decision on whether God can grease the wheels of history?

In 538 B.C.E. as one of his first acts after conquering Babylon last year, monotheist Zoroastrian Persian king Cyrus ("Sun", "throne") II the Great (-600 to -529) issues an edict (2 Chron. ch. 36) granting his exiled fellow monotheist subjects the Jews the right to return to Israel after 50 years of Babylonian captivity, contributing treasure to help rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem (Solomon); the Bible book of Isaiah Chap. 44 and Isaiah Chap. 45, allegedly written 200 years earlier predicts the capture of Babylon by Cyrus, the draining of the Euphrates (44:27), the gates being left open (45:1-2), and even calls him by name (45:1) and describes him as the Anointed (Messiah)?; 42K-50K (42,360?) Jews from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin return (the Aliyah of Zerubavel), settling in the Persian province of Yehud (Judea), but the majority stay (cooler summers?); the first wave of 1K young Jews is known as Sheshbazzar's Aliyah, the 2nd wave of 42,360 is known as Zerubbabel's Aliyah; the Karaites (Heb. "mikra" = scripture) migrate to the Crimea (Black Sea), where they later adopt Turkish customs and language but remain Jews, reject the rabbinical oral Torah, and never throw a Bible manuscript away (see 1859 C.E.); Jewish leader Mordecai is among the leaders of the returning Hebrews, but not necessarily the same Mordecai who is the cousin of Esther in Isfahan (Ezra 2:1-2, 2:5-7).

Of the original Twelve Tribes, only the depleted 2-tribe (Judah and Benjamin) S kingdom of Judah is left (along with some Levites, the landless priest-class 13th tribe), and Judah only had seven more kings to go before their royal line became kaput (Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah). As this was religiously one of the most momentous events in history, later speculators traced the lost tribes to the British Isles, North and South America, India (the Manashe Tribe in Manipur and Mizoram in E India), Abyssinia, Afghanistan, China, Japan, and Africa. The proof that the Tribe of Dan migrated W is their naming of the Danube, Dnieper, and Denmark? In the 18th cent. C.E. the Anglo-Israelite Theory, that they are the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxon peoples made it easier for Jews to immigrate. Did they go to Japan, as indicated by similar ceremonies? Some Scots claim that they are the lost tribes, and that their Stone of Scone (pr. SKOON) is really the Beth-El (Jacob's Pillow) in Genesis. The Book of Mormon claims that they migrated to North America, quoting Bible prophet Isaiah: "From the isles of the sea, from those parts beyond the sea into which they were carried captive" (Is. 24:24) - maybe to the British Isles?

In 520 B.C.E. the building of the Jewish Second Temple in Jerusalem begins in earnest under Jewish prophets Haggai and Zechariah, working with Jerusalem gov. Zerubbabel and high priest Yeshua (Joshua) (yes, Jesus); local opponents petition Darius I the Great to have the work stopped (Ezra ch. 5-6), but Darius responds with a decree calling on his imperial officials to support the work based on Cyrus' earlier royal decree, which can never be revoked.

In 516 B.C.E. construction of the Jewish Second Temple is completed during the reign of Persian Achaemenid king #3 (-522 to -486) Darius I the Great (-550 to -486), 70 years after the destruction of the First Temple; Aramaic, the language of the Aramean internat. land traders becomes the universal language of the civilized Western world by the time of Darius I the Great.

-500

In Mar. 455 B.C.E. Persian king (since -465) Artaxerxes I in his 10th year "sent forth the word to rebuild Jerusalem" (Dan. 9:20-27; Neh. 2:1-8), and authorizes the Jews to make their 2nd return to Jerusalem under high priest Ezra the Scribe, who gives a speech exhorting the people to follow the Torah Law and not intermarry with strange religions, and later writes the Book of Ezra; and First and Second Chronicles; this is a key year if you believe in Millennial Bible Chronology; the Jehovah's Witnesses consider this to be the 20th year of Artaxerxes I; the walls of Jerusalem are commissioned to be rebuilt, and the prophecy of the 70 weeks of years in Daniel 9:24-25 begins fulfillment, leading up to the baptism of Jesus in 29 C.E. (69 weeks of years = 483 years) (Luke 3:1-2;21-22, Dan. 9:1-4, Jer. 29:10), followed by his death in 33 C.E. (Mark 10:45) - and three more years for the Jews to accept him before they let gentiles in?

About 440 B.C.E. after the time of Jewish prophet Nehemiah, the Hebrew language dies out.

-400

No surprise, in the 4th cent. B.C.E. Jews began migrating to Rome and various Mediterranean towns, forming separate communities; by the 3rd cent. B.C.E. large numbers lived in Greece, esp. Rhodes and Salonica (Thessaloniki), which became known as "the Mother of Israel".

In Jan. 332 B.C.E. blonde-blue Macedonian king (since -336) Alexander III the Great (-356 to -323) sieges the well-protected island city of Tyre under its last king Azemilkos, and captures it in Aug. after a 7-mo. siege by building an enormous mole connecting it permanently with the mainland, during which time he goes underwater in a diving bell to observe divers removing underwater obstacles, and has his vessels equipped with chain cables so that they couldn't be cut adrift at night; he crucifies 2K POWs and sells 30K more into slavery; the Persian navy disintegrates, and Phoenician trade slackens as the Phoenicians lose their identity and are Grecianized; Alexander then obtains the submission of the provinces of Galilee, Samaria and Judah, and invades Egypt, and Persian satrap Mazaces surrenders without a fight, ending the 31st Egyptian Dynasty (begun -343); Alexander stay in Egypt for a year, visiting the Egyptian coast and ordering the Temple of Luxor restored to its ancient glory, then having an overwhelming desire to found a new city (according to Roman author Arrian), which becomes Alexandria (modern-day pop. 5M), then visits the Oracle of Amon-Ra at the Siwah Oasis in the Western Desert (barely making it and almost dying of thirst), where is proclaimed the son of god; the Late Period of Ancient Egypt (begun -664) ends; there were settlements in the Alexandria area for several hundred years?; Rhodes voluntary recognizes Alexander the Great's sovereignty (until -323); Alexander III the Great's uncle Alexander I of Epirus crosses the Adriatic Sea to Italy to assist the Tarentines against the Lucanians, Bruttians, and Samnites, and wins a V over the Samnites and Lucanians near Paestum, making an arrangement with the Romans for a joint attack on the Samnites, taking Heraclea from the Lucaanians, and Terina and Sipontum from the Bruttii, causing the Tarentines to fear that he's trying to set up a kingdom in Italy and turn against him. According to Jewish historian Josephus in his Antiquities 11.317-45, Alexander III the Great visits Jerusalem, and the Jewish elders freak him by reading to him from the Book of Daniel (Ch. 2) the prophesy about the statue with a head made of gold, chest and arms made of silver, belly of brass, legs of iron, and feet of iron mixed with clay, explaining that the head is Babylon, the breast and arms Medo-Persia, the brass belly and thighs Greece, and the iron legs Rome, before or after which he has a dream about the Jewish god being right and sacrifies to him, sparing the city from sacking although putting it under his control; they probably didn't read to him from Ch. 8, which talks about the shaggy goat with one large horn between its eyes that is replaced by four horns that have lesser power?; too bad, the pop. of Gaza puts up a fight at a stronghold on a hill, causing Alexander to siege and take it in Oct. after suffering a serious shoulder wound, massacring the men and selling the women and children into slavery; meanwhile after cooperating with Alexander (who thinks Jerusalem is a no-value town run by stargazers?), the Samaritans build their Samaritan Temple to Jehovah on Mount Gerizim. Roman consuls: Marcus Papirius Crassus (dictator) and Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus and Aulus Cornelius Cossus Arvina.

In 331 B.C.E. blonde-blue hung Macedonian super-warrior Alexander III the Great (-356 to -323) conquered the Persian Empire, Jerusalem and Judea came under Macedonian control, eventually falling to the Ptolemaic Dynasty under Alexander's general Ptolemy I Soter (-367 to -283).

Meanwhile after cooperating with Alexander (who thought Jerusalem was a no-value town run by stargazers?), the Samaritans build their Samaritan Temple to Jehovah on Mount Gerizim - when I say Hillshire you say farm, go meat? This event, if true, makes the theory that the Bible was all postdated and that its prophesies are backdated fall into dusty clay, hence modern-day Bible thumpers latch onto it to stand up for the reality of Jehovah, pointing to verse 44: "And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." You got it, the kingdom of God will have its capital in Jerusalem. Alas, Alexander died in Babylon of malaria while planning a campaign to conquer the never-conquered pesky wildass Arabs, spoiling the greatest chance in history for the West to strangle Islam in its cradle, even if he didn't realize he was gay.

Getting back to the Babylonian Captivity, it was Jehovah's punishment for going after strange gods, and after they killed his prophet Isaiah, who uttered the holy soundbyte "The land will be completely laid waste and totally plundered, the Lord has spoken" (Isaiah 24:3), Jehovah sent in the Babylonians whether they knew they were his arm of flesh or not to wipe out his temple and take his people captive in order to cleanse the defiled land and let it lay fallow for 70 years, after which he sent Cyrus the Great, a monotheist Zoroastrian, to destroy the horrible polytheist Babylonians and set the Jews free, which is why Isaiah actually calls Cyrus the Messiah (Isaiah 45:1), meaning somebody anointed to do a mission for God, like the Blues Brothers. Later, when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 C.E., and destroyed the temple for a second time, Jehovah made it permanent, forever divorcing himself from the Jews, because this time they went too far and rejected the ultimate and final Messiah, his only begotten Son, and that was grounds for divorce. In Jehovah-think, the Babylonian Capitivity ended the era when the Jews ruled themselves, and began the Times of the Gentiles, which can only be ended by the restoration of Jewish rule over Jerusalem. Of course, the Christians think this can only happen when they accept Christ, while some Orthodox Jews such as Neturei Karta and the Satmar Hasidim think that it will only happen when their real Messiah comes and kicks all their enemies' butts, and causes them to start loving them instead, which might be taking the Jehovah thing too far, since the Jews' right to Jerusalem and environs is historical with or without holy books, Jewish or Muslim. Jesus allegedly arrived at the end of the Seventy Weeks of Daniel, which is 70 x 7 = 490 years, guess when the Second Temple was begun give or take. The Jehovah's Witnesses cult has it all figured out to the year, claiming that the TOTG began in 607 B.C.E., and must last a Biblical year of weeks, a year being 360 days, and 7 times that being 2520 years. So, 607 + 2520 + 1 for the BC/CE divide = 1914 C.E, the start of WWI, which they claim began the Last Days when Satan was loosed on the Earth with furious anger to make his last stand, and everybody has their last chance to get right with God before the Big A, AKA Armageddon, now you know why you slammed the door in their faces last Saturday.

You might think this is all a fairy tale, but ever since no power on Earth can restore Jerusalem to the Jews, help them set up a kingdom again, rebuild the temple, or reestablish the Jewish priesthood which makes animal sacrifices to Jehovah to pay for the sins of the people, meaning that since 70 C.E. all Jews have died in their sins, while all Christians have had theirs forgiven by accepting his son Jesus Christ as their sacrifice, which the stiff-necked Jews absolutely positively refuse to do. Hence for Jerusalem to be controlled totally by the Jews again, not secular-atheist Zionists but real true blue religious Jews, and the temple to be rebuilt and sacrifices to be restored, would disprove Christianity and Jehovah both, here's a Rubik's Cube, go figure it out and prove you're the world's greatest genius.

-300

In the 3rd cent. B.C.E. the Hebrew scriptures begin to be trans. into Aramaic, becoming known as the Targumim.

In the 3rd cent. B.C.E. the Apocryphal Book of Tobit (Tobias), Wisdom of Solomon, Book of Baruch, Four Books of Maccabees are probably written, along with Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) by Ben Sira, son of Joshua (Joshua) (Yeshua) (Jesus) ben Sirach, which becomes the earliest witness to a canon of the Jewish books of the Prophets.

-200

In 200 B.C.E. Seleucid king Antiochus III of Syria wins the Battle of Panion (Panium) (Paneas) (named after the Greek god Pan) at the foot of Mt. Hermon N of the Golan Heights at the source of the Banias River, chasing the Ptolemies out of the Holy Land (Palestine and S Syria), then seizes Coele-Syria and most of S Asia Minor except Cyprus; the Fifth Syrian War (begun -202) ends after Ptolemy V agrees to marry Antiochus II's daughter Cleopatra I; he doesn't give up his claim to Syria but ends up being assassinated in -180 before he can do anything about it?

About 200 B.C.E. the Hypsistarians, who worship the Most High God arise in Greece and Asia Minor (until 400 C.E.); they become gentile wannabe Jews?

In 198 B.C.E., Ptolemaic king #5 (-204 to -181) Ptolemy V Epiphanes loses Jerusalem and Judea to the Seleucids under king (-222 to -187) Antiochus III the Great (-241 to -187). Too bad, the Seleucid attempt to Hellenize Jerusalem and make the Jew boys quit cutting their dongs and love exercising naked comes to a er, head in 168 B.C.E. with the successful Maccabean Revolt, led by Mattathias (Matisyahu) the High Priest and his five sons against Seleucid emperor (-175 to -164) Antiochus IV Epiphanes ("God manifest") (-215 to -164), and their establishment of the Hasmonean Kingdom in 140 B.C.E. to 37 B.C.E., with you-guessed-it Jerusalem as its capital.

Spoiler Alert: There are problems in the Old Testament when mentioning place names in Palestine, incl. wrong distances between towns, etc. In 1985 Protestant Lebanese scholar Kamal Suleiman Salibi (1929-2011) (student of Bernard Lewis) pub. The Bible Came from Arabia, which claims that ancient Palestine was really on the W Red Sea coast in Asir, producing extensive linguistic evidence that the Hebrew Bible was mistranslated by the Arabian Hebrews who migrated to Palestine and established the Hasmonean Kingdom in the 2nd cent. B.C.E., and that place names in the Bible don't match-up, but those in Asir do, pissing-off pro-Israeli historians, who give him short shrift, but don't disprove his allegations (until ?); meanwhile the govt. of Saudi Arabia freaks and bulldozes dozens of villages in the Sarawat Mts. which Salibi identifies with the Biblical Jordan Valley, shutting down tourism (until ?).

In 165 B.C.E. the Maccabees (Hasmoneans) under Jewish gen. Judas (Judah) Maccabeus defeat four larger Syrian armies in a row with only a few thousand followers, and in Dec. recapture Jerusalem from the Syrians, remove the "horrible abomination" (a dangly uncircumcized statue of Zeus), purify the Temple with a red heifer, and on Dec. 25 rededicate it to Big J (Jehovah) with festivities lasting eight days, giving birth to the 8-day Jewish holiday of Hannukah (Hanukkah) (Chanukah) (John 10:22) (AKA Festival of Lights) after they could only find one cruse of pure olive oil to bless for the ritual, but Big J gave them a miracle and it burns for eight days; the Maccabees rule Palestine until -37.

About 150 B.C.E. the Hasmoneans began to restore autonomy to Judea, but the Jews began to split into various sects, incl. the Pharisees (Heb. "divide, separate, set apart") (who accept the written and oral law and advocate democratization of religious practices), the Sadducees (Heb. "tsadduqi" = "right just", after Zadok, first high piest of ancient Israel, Ezek. 40:46) (who reject the oral law and represent the ruling hierarchy, becoming obsessed with separating themselves from whited, er, defilement), and the monk-like ascetic Gnostic Essenes (known for wearing white garments and serving as healers); the Dead Sea Scrolls were begun by clean-freak (daily ablution) Essene monks (Sadducee winer-diners?) in Qumran W of the Dead Sea; "Those Pharisees would purify the Sun itself."

In 103 B.C.E. Aristobulus I dies, and his brother Alexander Jannaeus (Jannai/Yannai) (nee Jonathan Alexander) (-126 to -76) succeeds him as Hasmonean king #2 of Judea (until -76), becoming the first to rule as high priest (until -78) as well as king; he offends the Pharisees by being pro-Hellene - and the Pharisees offend Jesus Christ by being pro-Roman?

-100

In 93 B.C.E. civil war rocks Judea (until -87), with the rebels supported by Seleucid king Demetrius III Eucareus attempting to overthrow Hasmonean king of Judah (since -103) Alexander Jannaeus; Nabataean king (-96 to -85) Obodas I (d. -85) defeats the Hasmoneans under Alexander Jannaeus at the Battle of the Golan Heights, then ambushes them E of the Sea of Galilee using camel cavalry, getting even for their loss of Gaza and forcing Moab and Gilead E of the Dead Sea to be returned.

In 90 B.C.E. Alexander Jannaeus builds the hilltop fortress of Machaerus at Mukawir, 15 mi. SE of the mouth of the Jordan River E of the Dead Sea (known as the place where Salome danced and demanded John the Baptist's head on a platter).

In 87 B.C.E. after winning a 6-year civil war against Seleucid king Demetrius III Eucaerus, Hasmonean ruler Alexander Jannaeus crucifies 800 mostly Pharisee Jewish rebels in Jerusalem after having their wives and children executed in front of them while he dines with his concubines.

In 83 B.C.E. Alexander Jannaeus begins a campaign in the Golan Heights, capturing it from the Seleucids in -80 and establishing the Hasmonean regional capital of Gamla (until -68).

In 63 B.C.E. Roman #1 gen. Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) (-106 to -48) invades Palestine, quashed the Judean Civil War (begun -67) between two brothers, Aristobulus II (d. -49) (elder) and Hyrcanus II (d. -30), who vied for both the kingship and high priesthood, and captured Jehovah-town Jerusalem, taking the crown from Hyrcanu*s II and ending the Hasmonean Dynasty; (after having a row of stiff-necked Jewish priests executed?) Pompey pompously entered the Jewish Temple, parted the 30 ft. x 30 ft. x 4 in. Holy Curtain and entered the Holy of Holies, finding it empty of Jehovah and his Shekinah (holy presence), making him believe that he proved Jehovah a fraud and/or that Zeus has destroyed him, giving the pagan Roman Empire its fatal hubris?; Pompey restored the high priesthood to Hyrcanus II, also making him ethnarch, responsible to the Roman gov. of Syria; Judea became part of the Roman province of Syria, with its territory greatly reduced, and was now in its last days as the blood flowed every time a Messiah arose? - if the Jesus story is fiction, this is when they'd start thinking it out? Since Roman was overextended at the time, it couldn't put in place all the machinery for direct rule, so it installed puppet king Antipater I the Idumaean (-100 to -43), an Arab, go tell the Palestinians.

In 37 B.C.E. Antipater died, and Rome installed his son, rabbi-murdering Herod I the Great (-73 to -4/-1) as client king; a hated Edomite (descended from Esau, elder fraternal twin brother of Jacob, father of Israel, who sold his brithright to Jacob for a pot of red lentil stew, after which their tribes split, Esau's tribe AKA the Edomites settling to the E and S of the Dead Sea, and Jacob's tribe AKA the Jews settling to the W and N), the Roman act of setting Herod I up over them as king is a huge slap in the face, the original Vichy govt. of France; Herod I has the last Hasmonean ruler Mattathiah Antigonus slain by Antony's orders, and marries Mariamne I of Samaria (a princess of the Hasmonean line) to consolidate his position with the Jews; Herod I devotes himself to developing and beautifying Jerusalem, building walls, towers, and palaces, and starting in 19 B.C.E. orders the Second Temple (516 B.C.E.) rebuilt and vastly enlarged, expanding the Temple Mount, buttressing the courtyard with blocks of stone weighing up to 100 tons, doubling its size, and doing the unthinkable by creating a courtyard for women, and another for dirty defiled genital-exposing gentiles, a desecration sparking patriotic Jewish resistance movements complete with several Messiahs, all duds; of course Jesus Christ was one of them, but his followers later claim that being a dud was part of the plan, and was a victory after all as his execution caused Jehovah to judge the Roman Empire and doom it, the original Jews don't get mad they get even; Robinson's Arch is built at the SW corner; construction on the Jewish Temple continues until 64 C.E.

In 8 B.C.E. the Roman Census gives the pop. of the Roman Empire as 4,233,000 citizens; the city of Rome is the first in history to reach one million.

On Mar. 13, 4 B.C.E. Jewish rabble-rousers Judas and Mathias are burned alive for protesting the placement of the golden eagle at the entrance to the Jehovah-less Temple of Jerusalem. On Apr. 7, 4 B.C.E. Jewish proxy king of the Roman-occupied Holy Land (since -39) Herod I the Great (b. -73) has his eldest son Antipater (b. -45) (son of Doris) executed (3rd son he kills) after Augustus refuses to intervene, then dies five days later on Shebat 2 (Apr. 12) in Jericho after suffering "an intolerable itching of the whole skin, continuous pains in the intestines, tumors in the feet as in dropsy, inflammation of the abdomen and gangrene of the private parts, engendering worms, in addition to asthma, with great difficulty in breathing, and convulsions in all his limbs" (Josephus), and is buried in his fortified winter palace and mausoleum in Herodium 7 mi. S of Jerusalem (near modern-day Zatara); his Roman-educated sons wait in the wings while he orders the leaders of the Jewish nation burned alive in the Hippodrome in Jericho on his death so that the Jews will weep at his own funeral (Herod's sister Salome and her husband Alexas get the order countermanded?); his penultimate will names Antipas as his heir, but shortly before his death he makes a final will naming Archelaus (Matthew 2:22), causing Augustus to constitute him an ethnarch and divide the territory, with half going to Archelaus and half to be split by Antipas and Philip; Herod Archelaus (b. -23) becomes ethnarch of Samaria, Judea and Idumea (deposed in 6 C.E.); Herod Antipas (b. -21) becomes tetrarch of Galilee (home of Jesus Christ) and Perea (E bank of the Jordan) (home of John the Baptist) (deposed in 38 C.E.); Herod Philip (-20 to 34) becomes tetrarch (ruler of a fourth) of modern-day SW Syria and the Golan Heights (Gaulanitis, Batanea, Trachonitis, Autanitis, portions of Iturea and Hulitis) (all largely non-Jewish); Herod's sister Salome is given control of Phaselis, Yavneh (Jamnia), and Ashdod (Azotus); daddy's favorite Archelaus immediately proves to be a good choice for him as he orders 3K Jews killed on Easter for trying to get him to rehabilitate Judas and Mathias.

Also in 4 B.C.E. Judean Jewish prophet (of voice crying in the wilderness eating locust and honey fame) (St.) John the Baptist (d. 32 C.E.) is born; according to the Gospels he is born 6 mo. before Jesus - so what's this I hear about you're fall and I'm spring? Also in 4 B.C.E. Judean Christian Messiah Jesus Christ of Nazareth (Joshua or Yehoshuah) (d. 33) is born in Bethlehem of parents Mary and Joseph (a carpenter or stoneworker), both of the House of David; don't ask about the In-Vitro Fertilization Technique used?; the official Roman Catholic Church position is Dec. 25, although the shepherds are in the fields with the flocks at the time, and hence it would more likely be spring or summer, which might make John the Baptist a Dec. baby?

1

In 6 C.E. Coponius becomes the first prefect (hegemon) of the Roman Province of Iudaea (Judea) (Syria, Samaria) incl. Jerusalem and environs, the first in a line stretching to the year 41, based in the new Roman capital of Caesarea on the coast; Syrian Gov. Quirinius takes a census of the Jews, which shakes them up because it destroys their last illusions of self-rule (Luke Ch. 2), and there is a bloody revolt (Acts 5:37) led by Judas of Galilee (Gamala) (Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, XVIII, 1-4 [i,1]), founder of the Jewish Sicarii ("dagger-wielders") (known for concealed daggers) (armed freedom fighters drawn from the Pharisees and Essenes, not the small wealthy land-owning group of Sadducees, who are Quislings); Annas (Ananus) (Ananias) (-23 to 40), son of Seth is appointed Jewish high priest in Jerusalem by Quirinius (until 15). Herod the Great's descendants through #7 Herod (Marcus Julius) Agrippa II (27-100) remained client kings of Judea until 96 C.E.

On Aug. 19, 14 C.E. Rome's first emperor (since -27) Augustus (-63 to 14) was poisoned by his 3rd wife Livia with a poisoned fig to get him out of the way for her son, his last words being "The play is finished" (Fabula acta est). Roman emperor #2 (14-37) Tiberius (-42 to 37) got the unenviable job of presiding over the Jesus Christ era.

30-40 Sorry, historyscopers, but? --it happens in the Roman province of Judea; nobody knows for sure, and it depends on whom you want to believe; a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, the greatest coverup in history; the Great Track of Time enters not only a Dark Alley but a Black Hole, becoming an endless source of powerful fiction claiming to be fact, with the dividing line very hazy until centuries later - oh my gosh, I smell an Emmy? Way back when, nobody knows, a bunch of Roman pagans got infected with monotheism, and the most bookish kind, Judaism, and despite the Jews claiming to be the Chosen People, with pagans not invited, they managed to morph exclusivist Judaism into a new one-size-fits-all version by literally twisting the Jewish Bible inside out and claiming to discover that it was there all along, but needed a prophet to reveal it to them, whose life only they can tell us about, since nobody but believers documented it, a strange wonderful brew of historical facts and unverifiable miracles. The net result was a new religion called Christinsanity, er, Christianity, whose Aramaic-speaking Jewish founder Jesus Christ of Nazareth (-4 to 33) left no writings, works of art, statues, buildings, swords, armor, bling, portraits, descendants, or even newspaper accounts, worse, no body, because he was allegedly resurrected from the dead by God on Easter, visiting his believers for 40 days before being translated to Heaven, and now sits at God's right hand waiting to return and judge the world and everybody who ever lived, leaving it to his 12 Disciples to spread the word that he wasn't just a man but the Son of God, whatever that means, most followers apparently taking him for God himself, despite the intractable philosophical difficulties that rocked the Church for centuries. To become a Christian ("little Christ") and live with Christ forever in his Kingdom of Heaven, believers must take everything about him on faith, which is good since they don't have to learn Aramaic or any history other than that in the Hebrew-Aramaic Old Testament and the Greek New Testament, consisting of the Four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and the Acts of the Apostles, and no theology other than that in the Epistles of Paul, Epistles of Peter, Epistle of James, Epistle of Jude, and Epistles of John, or any eschatology other than that in the Book of Revelation (Apocalypse), then undergo Baptism, which causes them to be "born again" as a symbol of future resurrection like Christ's; too bad, backsliders who go back to a life of sin, and apostates who deny their new faith become a thorny problem, especially if they apostasize under conditions of persecution then try to reclaim their Christian faith when it ends. Speaking of persecution, from the start the Jewish priests hated this blasphemous Jewish sect, which according to the Gospels made them plot to get Jesus (but not his disciples) arrested and crucified by the Romans for sedition, and the tolerant polytheist pagan Romans finally had enough of them too when they refused to worship the Roman emperor as a god like every other good citizen, labeling them as atheists and traitors, and forcing the cult underground, where they mainly recruited slaves but eventually penetrated the upper classes. The spectacle of Christians being fed to wild beasts in the arena while filled with joy at the prospect of being with Christ was a powerful recruiting tool, ask Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow why he paints John 3:16 on his face. Too bad, the early personalities and their organization are shrouded in mystery, and the takeover of the Roman Empire in the 4th cent. by the monomaniacal intolerant Roman Catholic Church gave them the opportunity to destroy, alter, or manufacture historical records, so it's one of the greatest coverups in history and we can only hope for glimmers of light and cast theories about what really happened, sorry. Talk about coverup, the disturbing parallels between Christianity and pagan Sun worship make many suspect that Christ was a fictional figure pasted together by brainy Jews based in some library in Alexandria or Babylon out of twisted Old Testament texts foretelling the Jewish Messiah, who was supposed to conquer the world and make everybody love Jews, but obviously hasn't shown up yet, unless it was him, get it? Why would Jews conspire to foist a fictional religious founder on the pagan Roman Empire? Answer: Jews don't get mad, they get even, and this time it was for destroying Jerusalem along with its Temple and priesthood in 70 C.E. and causing the Jewish Diaspora. If that was their goal, they achieved it in spades, turning the mean cruel blood-loving superior united pagan Romans into guilt-ridden ever-schisming ever-backsliding Bible-thumping Christian whimps who were easy meat for the hordes of barbarians, tanking the once all-powerful Roman Empire in 476, and giving the wandering Jews a chance to return and restore the Jewish nation of Israel based in Jerusalem, complete with Temple and priesthood, maybe king, ask Mel Gibson about it when you catch him drunk. Too bad, it's hard to imagine how these fiction authors could palm their writings off and get enough believers to fill a donkey cart, unless they posed as believers and made a career of it, risking persecution, which doesn't compute. Also too bad, there seems to have been a community of Christians before the writings even came out. Also too bad, by 476 C.E. the Roman Empire had split into two halves, and the Eastern Roman Empire that controlled Israel stood strong, keeping the Jews out like always. Also too bad, despite displaying a deep knowledge of the Old Testament, the New Testament doesn't read like it was written by Jews, treating them as an alien race who brought their troubles on themselves by rejecting you know who, although he was also a Jew and Christians must worship him as their Savior, what pretzel logic. No surprise, belief in Jesus Christ and respect for the Jewish Old Testament like he had didn't make former pagan Roman Christians automatically love Jews, but backfired, turning many into rabid anti-Semites, some even claiming to be the real "spiritual Jews", with the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches both worked to keep the Jews from returning to Israel unless/until they accepted Christ, guess why the Muslim Quran displays a deep knowledge of the Old Testament and Talmud, the pretzel the pretzel the pretzel is twisty, and Christians are the salt of the Earth. Either way, the Old Testament started it all, and the Jewish Messiah's Mission: Impossible isn't done yet, which Christians explain away as the need for the Jews to finally accept Christ before he returns to judge the world, although in the Jews' thinking that would make them into blasphemers who would face damnation by God. Yet now after 2K years, if Jesus wasn't the Messiah, why do Jews still believe in one, those stiff-necked losers? After the WWII Holocaust, why do any Jews still believe in God anyway, it was mainly atheist Jews who restored the state of Israel in 1948 after chucking the Old Testament? And after 2K years of Christ never returning as promised, how can a Christian still believe in this deadbeat dad, the umpteenth recycling of the Book of Revelation and photos of the Shroud of Turin? Oh yes, they talk to Him all the time, and that's all they need. On top of all that, Christendom schismed a thousand ways to Sunday over the centuries, and got convolved with the government and its police and military power, getting mixed up with injustices and atrocities that stunk it up, maybe one of the sects is the true one, if Christ returns he'll tell us. The bottom line is that it takes a big brain just to attempt to straighten it all out.

33 On Apr. 3 (Fri.) (3:00 p.m.) there is a lunar eclipse; astronomers Colin J. Humphreys and W.G. Waddington claim that Jesus Christ was crucified on this day - could it be, no? Liar, Lunatic or Lord? The entire future of the Western and half of the Eastern world is changed by what allegedly happens to one man in a backwater of the Roman Empire about this time? This job's a dead end; you can do better girlfriend? Jesus Christ starts the year E of the Jordan River (John 10:40-42), preaching in Perea and other cities on a slow walk toward Jerusalem, recruiting his first 12 Disciples (Apostles) (Mt. 4:18-22, Mk. 1:16-20, Lk. 5-11) by the Sea of Galilee, starting with fisherman (St.) Andrew the Apostle (First-Called) (5-62) and his brother fisherman Simon Peter the Apostle (firt pope), dubbing them "fishers of men" (Matt. 4:18-22) (Mark 1:16-20) (Luke 5:1-11) (John 1:35-42), (St.) James the Great(er), son of Zebedee, John of Patmos the Apostle (Evangelist) (Elder) (6-100), "the Beloved Disciple" (youngest) (brother of James), Philip (-80) (John 1:43), Bartholomew, Matthew, the tax collector (Mt. 9:9-13, Mk. 2:13-17, Lk. 5:27-28), Doubting Thomas (Didymus) (Lat. "twin") (-72), James the Less(er)/Younger/Little, son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot (Canaanite) (Cananaean), Judas (Jude) Thaddaeus (Lebbaeus), son of James (Lk. 6:16) (Acts 1:13), and Judas Iscariot, stopping in Bethany to raise Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-46), then after skirting Jerusalem he goes through Samaria, back through Perea, where he foretells his death and resurrection for a 3rd time (Matt. 20:17-19, Mk. 10:32-34, Luke 18:31-34), passes through Jericho, healing two blind men, then visits Zacchaeus (Matt. 20:29-34, Mt. 10:46-52, Luke 18:35-19:28); six days before Passover he arrives in Bethany (John 11:55-12:1), has a feast at the house of Simon the Leper, is annointed by Mary of Bethany (Matt. 26:6-13, Mt. 14:3-9, John 12:2-11), then on Nisan 9 (Palm Sunday) finally makes his Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem (Matt. 21:1-11, 14-17; Mk. 11:1-11, Luke 19:29-44, John 12:12-19), cursing a barren fig tree on Nisan 10 (Matt. 21:18-19, Mk. 11:12-17, Luke 19:45-46); on Nisan 11 the barren fig tree is found withered (Matt. 21:19-22, Mk. 11:20-25), and he has fun in the Temple of Jerusalem, overturning the moneychanger's tables, then retreating to the Mount of Olives; on Nisan 12 the Jewish leaders plot his death, and cut a deal with traitor disciple Judas (Yehuda) Iscariot, the one who keeps the money bag; on Nisan 14 (Thur.) (Mt. 26:17-30) (Mk. 14:12-26) (Lk. 22:7-39) (John 13:1-17:26) (Ex. 12:18) Jesus and his disciples celebrate the Last Supper, held in the Cenacle (Upper Room), where Jesus predicts his betrayal by you know who Judas Iscariot and that you know who Peter will deny knowing him 3x before the cock crows (sunrise), instituting the Eucharist; it was not a Passover meal but a run-of-the-meal Jewish meal?; on Nisan 15 (Fri.) (First Passover) after praying in the Garden of Gethsemane (Aramaic "olive oil press") at the foot of the Mount of Olives, where "his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground" (Luke 22:43-4), Jesus of Nazareth (Christ) (b. -7 to -2?) (clean shaven or bearded?) (single or married?) (does he or doesn't he?) (swings both ways or what?) is betrayed with a kiss by his disciple Judas Iscariot for 30 pieces of silver (the kiss is to tell him apart from disciple James the Lesser, brother of Matthew, who allegedly looks a lot like Jesus but isn't as good a kisser?), and taken to the Jewish high priests, who can't stand his blasphemous jive honky mouth and spit on him and slap the faker, then hand him over the Romans, talking Pontius Pilate into having him flagrantly scourged with flagrums (flagri) (2-3 thongs with bell-shaped thingies to cause pain?); then noting that Tiberius extended the law of laesa majestas (injured majesty) to include mere libelous words against the emperor under the definition of sedition, Pontius Pilate legally orders his execution (John 19:12-16), and after Simon of Cyrene (a Greek city in the Roman province of Cyrenaica, with a pop. of 100K Judean Jews, meaning he wasn't necessary black?) helps him carry his cross (Mk. 15:21) on the Via Dolorosa (Lat. "sorrowful way"), Jesus is crucified on a cross (hung on a stake?) at Cavalry Hill (Golgotha) (Lat. "calvariae locus" = Gr. "kranion topos" = Aramaic "Golgotha" = "place of the skull") outside Jerusalem on Passover, Nisan 14 (Fri.), where he gives up the ghost about 3 p.m. as the sky grows dark?; last words (KJV): "It is finished" (Gr. "Tetelestoi") (John 19:30) (same words said by the high priest after the Passover lambs are sacrificed); "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46, Mark 15:34); "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46); wealthy Jew (metals trade, dealing with Cornwall in Britain?) and secret Christian (member of the Sanhedrin) Joseph of Arimathea (owner of the Garden of Gethsemane?) requests his body from Pilate and places it in his own newly-dug tomb (Matt. 27:57-60), although by Roman law crucified criminals can't be buried but are to be left hanging for the birds and beasts to feast on; too bad (too good?), early on the morning of Nisan 16 (Sun.) his tomb is found empty, and his true believers begin seeing things, claiming to see him appear and disappear, not only to them, to everybody, since he immediately proceeds to give the absolute proof that he's the Son of God and that his conviction by human courts was overturned by the Supreme Court of Heaven to silence all skeptics by making his second triumphal entry into Jerusalem in front of multitudes, where he walks up to Pilate and kisses him on the pucker, er, he skips that and leaves the 3-D holographic Burial Shroud of Christ, which becomes hard to prove exists for the next millennium or more, but wows scientists in the 20th cent.?; meanwhile after Jesus II kind of sneaks around and only visits his own for awhile (if only he had gone back to Big J, imagine the high priest's face, er, maybe it's all a test for them stiff-necked Jews, who would have just sent him back to the Cross again and again and again, shut your mouth?), he gives his disciples the Great Commission (Mt. 28:18-20), then decides a wife and kids ain't worth it and retires from the flesh biz without having to be bitch-slapped and crooseefied again, and disappears into the sky on the 40th day of his new life (Ziv or Iyyar 25) at the Mount of Olives (Olivet) near Bethany (2 mi. ESE of Jerusalem) (home of his friend Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary) (Acts 1:9-12); meanwhile, wasting no time, the first crop of 120 Christians (Gk. "little Christs") and Jewish proselytes (from around the Roman empire?) gather in Jerusalem on Pentecost (Festival of Harvest) (Festival of Weeks) (Day of the First Ripe Fruits), 50 days after the Passover (Sivan 6), where they receive the "Holy Spirit", speak in tongues and launch the World Religion of Christi[ns]anity (Acts 1:13-15), the belief that he rose from da dead and only his shed blood is truly lifesaving, plus plus plus take a bath and sign right here and you're saved, don't ask for a corpse or a skeleton he flew the coop and is looking back at ya from Heaven (thank god, I'm so sick of New York?); meanwhile true-moneygrubbing-Jew traitor apostle Judas Iscariot buys the Aceldama (Akeldama) (Aramaic "hagel dema" = field of blood) (Matt. 27:7) S of Jerusalem with his 30 pieces of silver (which he returns?), then does a swan dive, "falling headlong, burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out" - Acts 1:18); seven qualified men are appointed as food distributors for the Christian Jewish congregation, the only non-Jew being Nicolaus of Antioch (Acts 6:1-6); the 11 remaining original apostles go out and preach the good news, and all are martyred (Stephen is stoned, Matthew is slain in Ethiopia, Mark is dragged through the streets until dead, Luke is hanged, Peter and Simeon are crucified, Andrew the First-Called (5-62) is crucified, Philip is crucified and stoned, James is beheaded, Barholomew is flayed alive, Thomas is pierced with lances, James the Less is thrown from the Temple of Jerusalem and beaten to death, Jude is shot to death with arrows, Matthias is stoned to death, Paul is beheaded) except John, who ends up in W Asia Minor and outlives the rest, reaching 100?; Peter goes to Gaul (Chartres), Britain (Cornhill), and Rome?; Matthew goes to Ethiopia and resides with an official converted by Philip?; Philip acompanies Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, Joseph of Arimathea et al. on a preaching mission to Gaul, with Lazarus and Mary remaining in Marseille, after which Philip sends Joseph of Arimathea with 12 disciples to Christianize Britain, founding a monastery at Glastonbury, and bringing the Holy Grail with him?; Matthias (one of the Seventy) goes to Armenia?; Jude Thaddaeus goes to Edessa and cures King Abigar with the Shroud (Mandylion)?; Simon and Jude go to Mesopotamia?; Andrew goes to Byzantium?; red-haired Mary Magdalene (of Magdala), Christ's wife, carrying his child and meant to run her hubby church is overthrown in a coup led by woman-hating, er, Peter, and flees to France with her red-haired daughter Sarah, carrying the sang real, the royal blood of Christ, and spawning the legend of the San Greal, or Holy Grail (Sang Real, or Royal Blood)? ("Witness the greatest coverup in history" - Dan Brown?) - ready or not, there I go?; Jehovah prepares to quit sticking with the home team despite his long-time partiality, divorce his wife the Chosen People, take away their driver's licenses, make the mean nasty Romans destroy his former temple and priesthood, and get them dispersed out of their former land of milk and honey, where they will be forced to fend for themselves in a sea of goyim, but not right away, giving them 40 years to repent for what they did to his only begotten Son? The Jewish Temple will then no longer be needed, as the body of each believer is a temple, and the only sacrifice needed is the blood of the Lamb, s orry rabbi, kicks are for Trids?; yes, as a just God he must give them the customary 40, but funny how the first Gospels spring up after the Temple is destroyed, forever giving skeptics a platform to claim that Jeezy was all made-up afterwards when all the possible witnesses is kaput, and all the mean persecuting Jews iz taken care of, like magic, er, that would make it true, check back in 2,000+ years?

On Nov. 6, 2005 Israeli authorities unveil a 3rd cent. Christian church found under the planned site of a new prison ward of Megiddo Prison in Israel, which head archeologist Yotam Tepper calls "the oldest archeological remains of a church in Israel, maybe even in the entire region. Whether in the entire world, it's still too early to say"; the mosaics depict fish rather than a cross, and tell about a Roman officer and a woman named Aketous who donated money to build the church in the memory "of the god Jesus Christ" - roll in over in your grave, Arius? Speaking of coming back in 2K years, one small note for those who call the Jesus story a fairy tale. On Mar. 28, 1980 the Talpiot (Talpiyot) Tomb iss discovered 5km S of the Old City of Jerusalem, containing 10 ossuaries, 6 with epigraphs, incl. one that says "Jesus, son of Joseph", causing speculation that the tomb of Jesus Christ has at last been found, hence it must almost be the End of Days. T oo bad, it was kept secret by archeologist Yosef Gat until 1994. In 1996 BBC-TV aired a documentary on it, and in 2007 Canadian film dir. James Francis Cameron (1954-) (known for the blockbuster film "Titanic") and Israeli-born Canadian Jewish archeologist Simcha Jacobovici (1953-) released a film and book titled The Lost Tomb of Jesus, soaking up some of the tail-end of the box-office bonanza of Mel Gibson's 2004 blockbuster film The Passion of the Christ.

In 36 C.E. armed Samaritans gathered on Mt. Gerizim in hopes of uncovering ancient buried treasures of Moses, and Roman gov. of Judea Pontius Pilate sent troops, which killed a number of them, causing them to complain to Pilate's boss Syrian gov. Lucius Vitellius the Elder (-6 to 51), who, seeking to secure Jewish goodwill removed Pilate and sent him to Rome to answer to the emperor on charges of rapacity and cruelty. Tiberius died in 37 before Pilate arrived, and the latter passed out of history into the realm of speculation, some claiming he became a Christian (with Ethiopian Christians making him a saint), or committed suicide. Marcellus became the new Roman prefect of Judea. Vitellius appointed a new independent high priest, who martyred St. Stephen (Gr. "wreath or crown") (Acts 7:58) (the first Christian martyr), and sent Pharisee Saul (Heb. "asked of God") of Tarsus (5-65) to Damascus to arrest some pesky Christians (Acts 9:4), which ended in the latter's miraculous vision of Jesus Christ and conversion and reinvention as the artist formerly known as Apostle St. Paul (Gr. "small"), who was rejected by his own people and promptly began spreading the new Christian cult among the gentiles, making the entire Roman world his prospects.

About 45 C.E. Jewish rebel Theudas (Gr. "flowing with water") (Acts 5:36-8) leads 400 followers to the Jordan River, promising to divide the waters so they can pass over it; too bad, Judean procurator Cuspius Fadus sends troops against them, killing many incl. Theudas and beheading him, taking his head to Jerusalem.

In 48 C.E. Ventidius Cumanus becomes Roman procurator of Judea (until 52).

In 48 C.E. Apostle Paul and co. sail from Paphos, Cyprus to Perga in Pamphylia (S Asia Minor), John Mark returning to Jerusalem; Paul and Barnabas head N to Antioch in Pisidia, but the pesky Jews get them tossed out (Acts 13:13-50); they go to Iconium, where the Jews do it again, and they flee to Lystra in Lycaonia, where Paul heals a lame man and the crowd takes them for gods, only to have Jews from Antioch and Iconium shadow them and turn the crowds against Paul, getting him lapidated, er, stoned and dragged

In 50 C.E. after a Roman soldier mooned the Jews in the Temple, pissing them off, and Cumanus refused to punish him but instead calls in his troops, a Jewish riot in Jerusalem resulted in 20K-30K killed; Claudius expeled (all the?) Jews from Rome; civil and ethnic conflicts rocked Judea from now on until the end (66-70).

Jeezy or no Jeezy, Roman rule began to be challenged with the First Jewish–Roman War in 66-74 C.E., which backfired bigtime and resulted in the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. along with the murder of most of the 1.1M Jewish pop., the remaining 97K being taken into slavery.

Backing up, in 64 C.E. the Romans groaned under insane emperor #5 (54-68) Nero (37-68), who fancied himself a poet as well as a god, and set the Great Fire of Rome, then blamed it on the new pesky cult of Christians in order to make room for a new pleasure palace.

In 65 C.E. Jewish and Syrian residents of Caesaria riot, causing Roman procurator (64-66) Gessius Florus to commandeer money from the Jerusalem Temple treasury to combat it.

In spring 66 C.E. Roman procurator (64-66) Gessius Florus seizes 17 talents of back taxes from the Jewish Second Temple, then some joker Roman soldier moons the Jews who are preparing to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, another tears up the Torah and throws it into the fire, and/or another joke empties a chamberpot outside a synagogue in Judea, defiling the holy ground, all causing a riot, which escalates into the 6.66, er, 8-year First Jewish-Roman War (Revolt) (ends 74), beginning the Jewish Roman Wars (ends 136) after the fanatical Jewish Sicarii (Lat. "dagger men") (Acts 21:38) swarm into Jerusalem and slaughter the Roman garrison, then declare Judea independent of Rome, halting the hated Temple sacrifices to the Roman emperor; smart-pretty Herod Agrippa II sides with Rome; the Sicarii wipe out the Roman garrison at the Dead Sea fortress of Masada (Heb. "fortress"); in early Nov. Gaius Cestius Gallus (-67), Roman legatus Augusti of Syria (since 63) marches 30K troops S from Ptolemais on the coast W of the Sea of Galilee, conquering Beit She'arim in the Jezreel Valley (seat of the Great Sanhedrin), and arriving in Jerusalem during the Festival of Booths (Oct. 22-28), camping on Mount Scopus before being attacked by the Jews when they come within 50 furlongs, then pushing them back into the city, after which the Romans enter the city on Nov. 5, undermining the temple wall in six days, then suddenly (with no apparent reason?) withdrawing toward the coast and resting in Emmaus, with the Zealots ("as though they were zealous in the cause of virtue and not for vice in its basest and most extravagant form" - Josephus), led by Jewish priest (one of the guardians of the Temple treasure) Eleazar ben Simon in hot pursuit for seven days, defeating and almost annihilating Roman Legio XII Fulminata at Beth-horon (Beit-horon), killing 5K+ Romans, then surrounding the rest of the army in a ravine and destroying most of its men and material before the remnant escapes to Antioch, after which Gallus dies early next year, and is succeeded by Gaius Licinius Mucianus (until 69); the happy Jews, believing that they have won their independence coin silver shekels with the inscription "Jerusalem the Holy" and "The Freedom of Jerusalem", with this year considered as Year 1 (the original 666?); before returning to Jerusalem the Zealots force the remaining Jewish pop. to join their revolt, but not before the pesky Christians take Jesus' advice: "When you catch sight of the disgusting thing standing in a holy place, then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains" (Matt. 24:15-16, Mark 13:14-19, Luke 21:20-24), and flee E to Pella in the mountains across the Jordan River; after Zealot leader Eleazar ben Simon allies with priest Zacharias (son of Amphikalles) against peace-lover high priest Ananias, the latter is murdered by a Jewish mob while hiding out in an aqueduct - did Jeezy really forsee the wars in Gaul (39-40), N Africa (41), Britain (43, 60), and Armenia (58-62), the earthquakes in Rome (54), Pompeii (62), Asia Minor (63, 62) and Crete (62), the famines in Rome, Greece, and Egypt (42) and Judea (46), the pestilences in Babylonia (40) and Rome (60, 65), and the false prophets in Judea (c. 56), and therefore the Good News (Gospels) (Matt. ch. 24, Mark ch. 13, Luke ch. 21) merely report his actual words, or did they make it all up after it happened and put the words in his mouth to make him seem like ickle me, pickle me, tickle me too, you know what in a flying shoe, I wish I knew? Call me Mister Nero?

Early in 67 C.E. after Gaius Licinius Mucianus fails to put down the pesky Jewish revolt, Nero grants Vespasian a special command in the East (three legions, 60K men) with the task of ending Jewish Revolt, and he lands in Ptolemais and reconquers Galilee, starting with Jotapata, giving the Jewish rebels time to complete Agrippa II's Wall (the Third Wall) around Jerusalem; the Romans win the naval Battle of the Sea of Galilee, and 37K Jewish POWs are held in a stadium in Caesarea (on the coast S of Ptolemais) for sale as slaves; Jewish gen. Flavius Josephus (37-101) deserts to the Romans (telling a wild tale about being holed-up with his fellow Jews in a cave and all agreeing to commit hari-kari, with himself somehow becoming the last man standing and chickening out?), and becomes friendly with Agrippa II; Idumea is assigned its own cmdrs.

The misty dawnings of Christianity as YAWMC (yet another white man's club)? On June 27, 67 after appointing converted pagan (St.) Evodius (d. 69) as Christian bishop #2 of Antioch (until 69), St. Peter (b. 1), prince of the Christian apostles arrives in Rome, becoming the alleged first bishop of Rome (pope #1), and doesn't last long before being crucified; before dying in the modern-day Trastevere section W of the Tiber River S of the Vatican on the site of the later Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, he allegedly founds the Church of Santa Pudenziana, the oldest Christian church in Rome; after watching his wife (Vagina?) die, Peter begs to be crucified upside down so he won't be confused with his savior? (instead he is confused with the first pope? How convenient they are both out of the way before the fall of Rome in 70?); (St.) Linus (-76) becomes the alleged Christian bishop #2 of Rome (pope #2), going on to forbid women to enter a church with their heads uncovered (very Jewish of him?), and creating the first 15 bishops (all male) - did they really have bishops back then, or did this function arise much later, corrupting pure Christianity, which relied on a government by elders not bishops, after which they attempted to rewrite history, beginning the Church's downward slide?

Even at this early date, there are dorks and hippies running around in the Jewish part of the Roman empire? In 68 C.E. rebel Jerusalem is rocked by rival factions, causing the city grain reserves to be destroyed, the area surrounding the temple to be leveled, and 20K to be killed, causing Vespasian to delay his advance to the city, saying "God acts as a Roman general better than I do; our enemies are destroying one another with their own hands"; meanwhile the Mediterranean seaport of Jaffa (Joppa) 50 mi. NW of Jerusalem is destroyed by the Romans - after St. Peter resurrected Dorcas (Tabitha) ("Gazelle") (only known female disciple) there in 36 C.E. (Acts 9:36-43)?

The mystery of the century? In 68 C.E. the 4K-member Qumran (Essene) community (Khirbet Qumran) (known for wearing white robes and working as healers) is destroyed by the Roman 10th Legion; as they approach, the monks hide the 1K the Dead Sea Scrolls in caves around the Dead Sea (discovered in 1947), incl. their Manual of Discipline, which shows that the Essene brothers lived austere lives of poontang-free purity under a 12-man leadership, followed the Teacher of Righteousness, and practiced baptism as they followed "The Way" in their struggle between the forces of Light and Darkness - were John the Baptist and/or Jesus and/or the true founders of Christianity really into the Essene Scene, and it's a coverup?

At the beginning of the year 70 C.E. the Jewish pop. in Judea is 2.5M, plus 4M outside Judea in the Jewish Diaspora, representing 15% of the pop. of the Roman Empire, with as high as 35% in some eastern cities; all still pay the annual Jerusalem Temple tax; Jerusalem reaches a peak in size and pop. at the end of the Second Temple Period, when the city covers 2 sq. km (0.8 sq mi.) and has a pop. of 200K; an oracle that a Jew will become ruler of the world pumps them up? On Apr. 14 (Nisan 14) (right before Passover), 70 C.E. four Roman legions (80K soldiers) (V Macedonica, XII Fulminata, XV Apollinaris, X Fretensis) under Vespasian's son Titus Flavius Vespasianus (39-81) and his wily Alexandrian Jewish 2nd in command (procurator of Judea in 46-48 and prefect of Egypt in 66-9) Tiberius Julius Alexander, along with Jewish turncoat gen. Josephus arrive in Jerusalem, trapping the pop. inside the city along with the pilgrims and refugees after allowing them to enter to celebrate Passover; King Malichus II of Nabataea (-70) (S Jordan) sends 5K horse and 1K soldiers to help Titus; on Apr. 21 the Romans begin a full-scale assault concentrating on the Third Wall in the NW, which collapses on May 6 (Iyar 6); on May 11 (Iyar 12) they breach the Second Wall and begin circumvallating the city, cutting down all trees within 15 km (90 stadia) and build a 4.5-mi.-long wall of pointed stakes around the city, just like Jeezy allegedly predicted in Luke 19:43-44 ("Your enemies will build around you a fortification with pointed stakes and will encircle you and distress you from every side, and dash you to the ground, you and your children within your wombs, and they will not leave one stone upon another, all because you did not recognize the time of your visitation"); the siege strips all fruit trees, causing a famine, which is compounded by the scrappy Jews destroying each other in a civil war between the Zealots, led by Eleazar ben Simon (-70) (who occupy the inner court of the Temple), an opposing group of 6K led by John of Gischala (Johannes ben Levi), and the extremist dagger-wielding contract-killer Sicarii ("dagger-men"), led by Simon (Simeon) bar (ben) Giora ("son of a proselyte") (-71) (cmdr. of the Idumeans), who begin dressing in women's clothing and walking the streets to kill men for sport; Simon finally defeats John in a siege on the Temple, pulling some of his men out and forming a new faction, after which citizens have to climb over corpses in the Temple to offer their sacrifices; on May 20/21 a "certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon" is allegedly seen, consisting of chariots and troops in the clouds; on June 4 (Sivan 6) (Shavuot), priests in the Temple feel a quaking and hear "a sound of a great maltitude saying, 'Let us remove hence'"; on July 14 (Tammuz 17) sacrifices in the Temple cease forever; on July 20 the Romans capture the Fortress of Antonia N of the Temple, and set fire to a cloister, while the Zealots draw them into street fighting; meanwhile the Romans encircling the Holy City of Jehovah let it starve down to cannibalism, capturing any escapees and crucifying them for those inside the city to see, while letting others gorge until their stomachs burst? (a fulfillment of Deuteronomy 28:53-7)?); on Aug. 3 they break through into the inner courtyards, where 6K Jewish Zealots are waiting to fight to the death while being hamstrung by having to observe the purity laws and stay in their apprpriate places, leaving the priests to defend the Temple bldg.; finally on Aug. 4 after a 142-day siege (Nisan 14 to Elul 7) they storm it, batter down the N wall, work their way to the temple and massacre the desperate defenders, then set fire to it; Jerusalem falls in the summer; the Second Temple of Jehovah (Jerusalem) burns on the 10th day of the month Av (Aug. 4), then is torn apart stone by stone Roman soldiers of the 10th Legion Fretensis (of the Sea Strait) to get at melted gold and silver, who fail to find 50 tons of holy relics, incl. the temple's golden candelabrum et al., which remains a mystery until modern times; Herod Agrippa II returns from Rome just in time to see Jerusalem fall; the entire city is levelled by order of Titus, with the exception of the three great towers of Phasaelis, Hippicus, and Miramne; 1M-1.3M are killed (1.1M according to Josephus), and 97K Jewish POWs are taken (a fulfillment of Luke 21:23-24?), some being later used to build the Roman Colosseum and the Forum of Peace; Phannias den Samuel is killed during the destruction of the Temple; Simon bar Giora hides out in an underground cavern with his men, but when they fail to dig an escape passage and their supplies run out, he surfaces on the burned-out Temple Mount wearing a white frock and purple cloak, hoping to wow the supersititous Romans and walk away, only to be captured by Temple Mount capt. Terentius (Titus Arinius) Rufus, and later hurled down the Tarpeian Rock in Rome; Rufus has a plough drawn over the former temple courts to signify that it will never be rebuilt but will only be used for agricultural purposes; pesky John of Giscala is taken to Rome and sentenced to life in priz, with some modern scholars claiming he is the author of the Book of Revelation; Judea is depopulated of Jews, the worst tragedy in Jewish history until ?; the original Jewish religion ceases to exist, as there is no longer a temple or priesthood with sacrifices, and the genealogical records used to prove eligibility are destroyed, causing the remaining Jews to dummy-up a makeshift version, and mourn the loss of the Temple by wearing black, breaking a glass at weddings, and other tokens, while hoping, dreaming and plotting to rebuild it, meanwhile living in a zonked state of mind since they are all technically dying in their sins, unable to get the BBQ pits going at the Holy Golden Arches and sacrifice bulls, goats, etc.; meanwhile the Christian cult experiences a giant boost, since it can now claim that Jehovah had the Temple destroyed to punish the Jews for rejecting his son Jesus 40 years earlier, and has therefore done an Ahnuld and "called it a divorce" and given the Jewish birthright to Christians in their place (like when Esau sold his birthright for a pot of lentil stew?), and that all "gentiles" (originally the descendants of the Roman gens, but coming to mean anybody) can become the new chosen people ("spiritual Jews") if they accept Jesus as their savior and sacrificial lamb presented in a spiritual temple for their sins, the physical one no longer being needed any more than the obsolete Jewish Law and its impossible rules and regulations; in Jehovah's cosmic poetic justice, the ignorant Romans, in killing off the Jewish people and religion and quelling the pesky Christians, have actually opened their empire to takeover by the new improved spiritual Jews that can use the roads, Pax Romana, common Greek Koine language et al. to their advantage (what a heady feeling?)

In 70 C.E. ruined Jerusalem became the barracks of the Roman Legion X Fretensis, commanded by Trajan's father Marcus Ulpius Traianus (30-99), and no civilians lived there for 60 years. The center of stiff-necked Jewish community leadership and scholarship moved to Javneh (Yavne) (Jabnah) (Jamnia) in C Israel, where the Sanhedrin (High Court) Era of Judaism began (until 640), and the term silly rabbit, er, rabbi was first used for Hillel's student Yochanan ben Zakkai (30-90), who escaped from Jerusalem in a coffin, then founded a school there with the permission of Emperor Vespasian, and made it the HQ of the Sanhedrin, which began work on the Mishna (Mishnah) (Heb. "study and review"), a redaction into writing of the Oral Torah; the Tannaitic Rabbinic School of Palestine was founded (until 300). The use of the 2nd cent. B.C.E. Greek Septuagint trans. of the Hebrew Bible by the new Christian cult soon caused Jews to discontinue its use as the reconstituted Pharisee leadership banned Christian Jews from their worship. Herod Agrippa II and his sister-lover Bernice moved to Rome, where he was given the office of praetor. A special annual tax of two drachmas was levied on all Jews until the year 361. In Oct. Vespasian returned to Rome to give thanks to Jupiter Optimus Maximus for helping him kick Jehovah's butt, and new praetor Helvidius Priscus proposed that although the financing should be left to the discretion of the Senate, the Temple of Jupiter, which had been destroyed in the civil war should be restored at public expense.

Tired of another sleepless night? For falling asleep and staying asleep, try what? The original income tax panic? On Apr. 16, 74 (dawn) the Great Jewish Revolt (begun 66) ends with the fall of the Jewish Sicarii-held fortress of Masada overlooking the Dead Sea to the Roman Legio X Fretensis, led by Judean gov. Lucius Flavius Silva, when they burst through the gate and find all 960 Jews (everybody except 2 women and 5 children) dead; according to Josephus, who is there and interviews the survivors, they committed un-Jewish mass suicide after being talked into it by their leader Eleazar, who gives an Essene-like speech talking about an immortal soul that unites with God in death, with the soundbyte: "Death gives freedom to our souls and lets them depart to their own pure home where they will know nothing of any calamity; but while they are confined within a mortal body and share its miseries, in strict truth they are dead"; was it really covered-up murder?; the Romans garrison the fort for the next 40 years.

Yes, the history is murky, but the undisputed fact is that the core literature of Christianity got churned out and spread along the Roman roads, making converts, tada, 1B+ nominal Christians alive today vs. 13M nominal Jews, most of them atheists. Backing up, about 60-65 (66-74?) Jerusalem-born St. Mark (translator for St. Peter?) writes The Gospel of Mark in Rome, becoming the earliest surviving Gospel, from which Matthew and Luke copy?; the earliest known mss. stop at 16:8; the three become known as the Synoptic ("with one eye") Gospels, although anybody reading them has to shut both eyes at the numerous Gospel Discrepancies and Contradictions, some of which can be waved away by considering them all true, others of which can't.

About 68 after the death of St. Peter, St. Mark allegedly travels to Alexandria, writing the Secret Gospel of Mark, containing "a more spiritual Gospel for the use of those who were being perfected", reserved for "those who are being initiated into the great mysteries", whose existence is revealed in 1958 by Morton Smith of Columbia U., along with a Fragment of the Gospel of Mark About the Raising of Lazarus (which is otherwise only found in the Gospel of John) that was deliberately suppressed by Bishop Clement of Alexandria to fight the senses-satiating Gnostic Carpocratians, founded by Carpocrates of Alexandria; it incl. the homoerotic text: "And after six days, Jesus told him what to do, and in the evening the youth came to him wearing a linen cloth over his naked body. And he remained with him that night, for Jesus taught him the mystery of the kingdom of God. And thence arising, he returned to the other side of the Jordan."

About 80 (56-58?) (90?) Greek physician St. Luke writes the Gospel of Luke for a high-ranking Roman official in Caesarea, Roman capital of Palestine, after consulting many writings on Jesus, starting out "Many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by those whom from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word"; the mysterious hypothetical Q (Quelle) (Source) Document was consulted?

About 96-100 C.E. St. John the Evangelist (1-100), the last of Jesus' Twelve Apostles died after allegedly being given the Book of Revelation (Apocalypse) by an angel sent by Christ personally in the Holy Grotto of Patmos off the SW coast of Asia Minor (Turkey), foretelling the End of Days when after seven angels sound their trumpets, Christ will return and destroy all of Satan's wicked minions in the Battle of Armageddon, and revealing in Rev. 13:17-18 that the Antichrist AKA the Beast will have the number 666 encoded in his name and will fool many by posing as a prince of peace. The third angel is named Wormwood (Gr. "absinthion" = bitterness) (Heb. "la'anah" = curse), with the soundbyte: "The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star blazing like a torch fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water - the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died" (Rev. 8:10-11), Rev. 17:15 defining the waters as "peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues". Later theologians claimed that this is talking about Arians, who deny the Trinity, as do the Muslims, and no surprise one of the 99 names of Allah is Ad-Darr, the Afflicter or Distresser. Too bad, the multitudes decided that it will be in a year ending in 66 or some multiple of 66 or 666 that either Christ would return to end the old world of Satan and begin his reign, or his archenemy the Antichrist would either be born or start his rise, bringing Christ to save the world, causing the phenomenon of Millennium Fever (MF) after too many of these false alarms caused all hope to be placed on the year 1000, and it proved a bust too, they switched to 1000 plus permutations of 6, 66, and 666, even using month #6 June as one of the magic keys to the big date, even though it said name not date, and some ancient mss. have 616 not 666, which not coincidentally is all the Roman numerals in order MDCLXVI, oops, no M, that's reserved for the real Messiah. Call it a coincidence, but the Arabic symbol for Allah looks a lot like the Greek letters for 666. (After returning to Ephesus?) John also writes the Gospel of John and the Three Epistles of John about this time; actually John's name is never mentioned in the Gospel of John, but it gets attributed to him by tradition; in the Gospel of John Jesus never utters parables, but instead performs signs, and never casts out demons; in contrast to the Synoptic Gospels, which concentrate on Jesus' doings in Galilee, it concentrates on his doings in Judea and Jerusalem, displaying a first-hand knowledge of the geography prior to the Jewish Revolt of 66, and seems to show a knowledge of an ancient tradition independent of the other gospels, leading many scholars to consider it the most reliable of the four; the only gospel to describe Jesus' turning of water into wine at the wedding in Cana (2:1-11), his conversations with Nicodemus (3:1-21) and the Samaritan woman (4:1-42), and the raising of Lazarus in Bethany (ch. 11), along with the Holy Lance of Christ (spear stuck in his side to prove that he's dead after only three hours on the Cross, when most last a day or more, and despite a corpse being unable to pump blood out with a dead heart) (19:34); the only one to describe the role of Nicodemus in Jesus' burial (19:39); the only one with vocabulary not used in the rest, esp. the Gnostic-like talk in the Logos Passage (John 1:1-18): "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was [a?] God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made...", creating the eternal Arian vs. Athanasius Controversy: in the beginning of God's Creation did he first create the Word AKA Christ (Love?), then use him to create all else, hence Christ is a created being not God, or was the Word there in the beginning with God, thus is God, even though God has no beginning, and is eternal and uncreated?; so, as the 1st cent. ends, despite the skimpiness of history, God spoke and laid out the complete Plan of the Man in the New Testament; the whole point of Christ is to suspend God's judgment of eternal death on truly repentant sinners (Mk. 2:17, Acts 17:30) by coming the first time to save them (John 3:15-18, John 12:47) and the second time to judge them (Acts 17:31, Heb. 9:28), which is why he tells everybody that his blood will pay for their sins prior to conversion (Heb. 9:11-28), but afterwards to sin no more (John 5:14, 8:11), because sin (violating the Ten Commandments incl. having other Gods, taking the Lord's name in vain, lying, stealing, coveting, murdering, committing adultery even with the eyes, etc.) is voluntary, and Christians will be sent the Holy Spirit to keep them from temptation and never sin again (1 John 3:1-10), but those who fall away are out of luck because Christ can't be crucified a second time (Heb. 6:4-6), and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is unforgivable (Matt. 12:31-32); too bad, some Christian sects have the idea that they can get "saved" and continue sinning, when actually nobody is saved yet, because only at the End of Days will Judge Christ AKA God in Human Form open his court to judge us (Heb. 9:27), and going around claiming to be saved is sinful, taking the Lord's name in vain and lying?; the ultimate Supreme Court, the judgment is either entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt. 5:19-21, 8:11), or being cast by angels into the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:15); maybe it's all a fairy tale, but the punchline is that nobody can be sure until they're dead, what a sales pitch.

100

On Aug. 29, 130 C.E. bearded bi Roman emperor (117-38) Hadrian (Publius Aelius Hadrianus) (76-138) visits Egypt, restoring Pompey the Great's tomb in Pelusium and offering a sacrifice to him and composing an epigraph for his tomb; in Oct. Hadrian and his Bythinian-born Greek male lover Antinous (b. 110) go lion hunting in the Libyan desert; too bad, Antinous drowns in the Nile, and Hadrian has him deified, and on Oct. 30 has the city of Antinoopolis built on the spot, which lasts for five cents. - don't talk there with your mouth full? On Nov. 21 after continuing down the Nile to Thebes, Hadrian visits the Colossi of Memnon, then heads N, reaching Fayyum on Dec. 1. About 130 C.E. (70-132?) the Christian Epistle of Barnabas is written in Greek, claiming that the Jews never were the chosen people of God, only Christians?; "More anti-Jewish than anything that did make it into the New Testament." (Bart D. Ehrman) About 130 C.E. Aquila of Sinope (Pontus), a Roman who converted to Christianity then to Judaism, and became a disciple of Rabbi Akiva compiles a literal Greek Old Testament trans. in Jabneh (Jamnia) that is preferred by many Jews to the Septuagint, which the pesky Christians claim contains numerous prophecies of their Savior Jesus Christ.

In 131 C.E. Roman laws and legal procedures are codified by imperial jurist Salvius Julianus (Lucius Octavius Cornelius Publius Salvius Julianus Aemilianus) (100-169) under Hadrian's orders in the Praetorian Edict, which no praetor could thereafter alter, ending the extension of legal procedure by praetorian formulae; senatorial decrees become only a confirmation of the imperial speech (oratio principis), and the emperor's edicts become the only source of law; wasting no time, Hadrian isssues edicts aimed at making Jews give up their primitive religion, incl. banning the barbaric practice of circumcision, the ordination of rabbis, the teaching of the Torah, and public Jewish meetings, pissing-off the Jews and fomenting rebellion.

In 132 C.E. Roman emperor (117-38) Hadrian (76-138) visits ruined Jerusalem, announcing plans to rebuild and Romanize the city, dedicating it to the pagan Roman gods Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, and building shrines all over the city dedicated to them, pissing-off the Jewish pop. and fomenting rebellion; worst of all, he begins to construct a Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in Jerusalem on the site of the ruined Jewish Temple of Jehovah, center of everything that is Jewish, with a dangly statue of a naked man-god showing everything Jehovah detests, pissing-off the religious Jewish minority bigtime and making them launch an all-out war to expel the hated Romans in the last-ditch Bar Kokhba (Kochba) (Cocheba) Uprising (ends spring 136) against Rome in Judea led by Simon (Shimon) Bar Kokhba (Kochba) (Cocheba) (-135) (Heb. "Son of a Star") (real name Bar/Ben Kosiba or Kozebah) and his maternal uncle Eleazar the Priest of Modi'im, which begins with 200K Jewish guerrilla fighters stirring up the countyside and taking over Judea until the Tenth Legion guarding Jerusalem leaves to fight them then occupying Jerusalem, setting up an independent nation and hoping to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem free of goy gods while reinstituting Jewish ceremonies; half-mad Simon orders young recuits to chop off a finger, with the soundbyte: "O Master of the Universe, there is no need for you to assist us, but do not embarrass us either"; the old fortress of Herodium near Bethlehem is briefly reoccupied; Bar Kokhba overstamps Roman coins to make Jewish ones bearing the legends "Simon the Prince" and "Eleazar the Priest"; pissed-off Hadrian decides to make an example of the pesky Jews and sends 12 divs. from as far away as Britain to totally wipe them out of Judea, along with his best generals, led by troubleshooter gen. Sextus Julius Severus (gov. of Britain in 131-3); meanwhile Bar Kochba's rebels are only a minority of the Jewish pop., who seem to have been getting along with the Romans and just wanted to make money and live the good life?; too bad, Hadrian was one of Rome's greatest emperors, the kind who never lost a battle, and his troops kick the Jews' butts bigtime.

In 135 C.E. the Romans mop up the Jewish rebels, killing 580K (half the pop.), and destroying 985 towns and villages and 50 fortresses; on Tish B'av (9th Ave) after a 3-1/2-year siege by the Roman Legio V Macedonica and Legio XI Claudia et al. which drove him out of Jerusalem, Simon is KIA in the Judean highland fortress of Betar (Bethar) (Beitar) SW of Jerusalem after Eleazar the Priest is framed by a double agent Samaritan on treason and he kicks him to death, causing a heavenly voice (bat koi) to announce his imminent doom,; the fortress is destroyed and the entire pop. massacred except one Jewish youth, after which "their horses were submerged in blood to their nostrils"; Hadrian prevents the bodies from being buried, after which they allegedly miraculously fail to decompose until Hadrian's successor Antoninus Pius permits them a decent burial; after too heavy Roman casualties, Hadrian reports the big V to the Senate sans the customary greeting "I am well and the army is well"; Hadrian issues an edict banning Jews from Judea and the city of Jerualem except on the 9th of Av (Tisha B'Av) in July or Aug. until the 7th cent., completing the Jewish Diaspora (Heb. "Tefutzah" = scattered), the dispersion of the pesky oddball square-peg-in-a-round-hole Jews throughout the Roman Empire, creating the Wandering Jew, with a few clumps of Jews remaining in Galilee, Sepphoris, and Tiberias while the rest move to the Persian Sasanian Empire; Judea is renamed Syria-Palestina (coined by Herodotus), and the way is now clear for the spreading of the name Jah-Zeus (Jehovah-Zeus) (Jesus) by the empire-wide Catholic (universal, as in get all the pagans to join the Church no matter how much the original faith has to be diluted) conspiracy, when his real name was Chrestos?; Christians are banned until emperor Constantine I declares Christianity the official religion in 313; the name sticks until 324-5; Rabbi Akiva ben Joseph (50-135) is executed by the Romans after teaching the Torah in public after the revolt, leaving Sepher Yetsirah (Sefer Yezira) (Book of Creation), which goes with the Sepher Hazzohar (Book of Brightness) (Dan. 12:3) of his contemporary Simeon bar Jochai (Yochai), and teaches the mystical pantheistic Qabala (Qabbala) (Kabbala) (Kabbalah) (Cabala) (Cabbala) (Heb. "to receive, welcome"), in which there is no Creation, and Nature is due to the self-development of Adam Kadmon (first or ideal man), who is the absolute being God, who created the Universe via the 10 Sefiroth (numbers or principles), incl. the Spirit of God, the emanations of air, water, and fire, three spatial dimensions to the left, and three to the right; the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet determine the forms through which Creation can be understood by the human mind; its mystical numerology intrigues and undermines mystics, philosophers, and scientists until ? - man does not live by bread alone but by every word of whom?

In 137 C.E. amid mass whining, whooping, and hollering Emperor Hadrian finishes Romanizing Big J and renames Jerusalem to Colonia Aelia Capitolina, dedicated to Jupiter Capitolinus and rebuilt in Roman style, pissing-off the Jews, who don't want a repeat of the Antiochus IV Epiphanes fiasco; Hadrian builds the triple Ecce Homo Arch near the Struthion Pool as the entrance to the E forum, named after Pontius Pilate's speech in John 19:13 after a game is discovered in 1864 etched on a flagstone of the pool that allegedly was played by Roman soldiers before executing Jesus; Golgotha is covered with dirt and a temple to Venus is built on top in an attempt to squelch the pesky Christian religion; not phased, the bishop of Rome orders that the birthday of Mithra, er, Christ, i.e., Christmas be celebrated as a solemn feast, although it isn't ordered to be observed on Dec. 25 until 350 in order to take over the celebration of the Brumalis winter solstice celebration from the worshipers of Mithra and the celebration of Saturnalia (rebirth of the Sun) from the cootie-queen pagans; Hadrian renames the entire Iudaea Province to Syria Palaestina, after the Phoenicians or Philistines, as originally coined by ancient Greek historian Herodotus, in an attempt to de-Judaize the country permanently, which is now used by Saudi-financed anti-Israel propagandists to actually deny that Jews ever lived there; too bad, he didn't know that Jews don't get mad they get even, so maybe he doomed the Roman Empire right there, inducing them to finally launch the wildass Arabs at it after inventing a new nutso killer religion for them, see TLW's Islam Historyscope; call it a coincidence that Hadrian, the Jews' most hated emperor, was the first to wear a beard, imagine their mixed feelings at Abe Lincoln later; the whole Jesus fable was invented at this point to get even with the Romans, with the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 C.E. used as a blind screen so that later historyscopers would scope in vain 60 years too early? The Ebionites (Heb. "ebyon" = poor) sect of Jewish Christians who deny the divinity of Christ and consider St. Paul an apostate for declaring the supremacy of Christian teaching over the Mosaic Law head W across the Jordan River into Peraea (modern-day Jordan), isolating themselves from the main body of Christians and adopting a conservative Pharisaic creed that evolves into a combo of Christianity, Gnosticism, and Essenism, and split into groups who believe or reject the Virgin Birth; too bad, they die out by the 5th cent.; in 1960-1 Yigael Yadin (1917-84) excavates the Cave of Letters in the desert W of the Dead Sea, discovering a basket at the bottom of a privy containing 19 bronze items, which are now housed in the Shrine of the Book near Givat Ram in W Jerusalem, incl. a patera (libation dish) with an engraving of the Greek-Roman goddess Thetis, mother of Achilles, causing speculation as to whether these are sacred objects from the Temple of Jehovah (destroyed in 70); a purse containing the 35 Papers of Babatha, a woman who owned a date orchard in En-Geddi on the W shore of the Dead Sea is found, incl. dated orders by Bar Kokhba, showing him as a meany who threatened and ordered the arrest of fellow Jews. Comparison of C-14 dates caused Magen Broshi to propose Broshi's Law that the oldest extreme of the C-14 date range is the most accurate; bones of starved women and children are later found, along with remnants of a Roman army outpost on top of the mountain; for the perfect burger with fries, Cochin (Malabar) in SW India became a haven for Jews until modern times; the Diaspora didn't really happen, and modern Muslim Palestinians are their descendants?

In 138 C.E. the Jewish Sanhedrin moves from Jamneh to Usha in Galilee, going on to do it 2x.

In 165 C.E. the Jewish Sanhedrin moves to Sepphoris (Shefaram), "the Ornament of Galilee" (until 180) - funny how they love to meet near where Jeezy Christy allegedly came from?

In 180 C.E. the Jewish Sanhedrin is moved to Beth (Beit) She'Arim in the Lower Galilee 12 mi. SE of Haifa (until 210).

200

In 215 C.E. Athens-born Greek Christian theologian (convert) Clement of Alexandria (Titus Flavius Clemens) (b. 150) dies in Jerusalem, leaving his big trilogy incl. Protrepticus (Exhortation), an attempt to reason Greeks out of paganism, Paedagogus (Teacher), a Christian ethic based on the incarnate Logos, Stromata (Miscellanies), containing the term "Catholic" (universal), and Exhortation to the Heathen (Greeks), equating musical worship with idolatry; "For your gods did not abstain even from boys... These are the gods your wives are to worship?"

Judaism sets itself in concrete with no Jesus Christ in sight? In 217 C.E. the Hebrew Mishna(h) (Heb. "oral teaching"), which was up till now an oral tradition is closed by Judah Hanasi (Jehuda or Yehuda ha-Nasi) (135-217) (Rabbi Judah the Prince) in Galilee, where the Jews had been driven since 135; he becomes the last of six generations of rabbinical Tannaim (Heb. "teachers of the oral law") since 10 C.E.; the Mishnah is divided into six sedarim (orders), which are divided into 63 masechtoth (tractates), which are divided into perakim (chapters), which are divided into mishnayoth (teachings), which incl. both halacha (Heb. "law) and haggada (Heb. "story"); it incl. the tractate Pirke Avot (Sayings of the Fathers), sayings of the great rabbis from two cents. before to two cents. after Christ; the Aramaic Mishnah commentaries Palestinian (Jerusalem) Gemarra (Gemara) (397) (3x as long as the Mishnah) and Babylonian Gemarra (Gemara) (499) (11x as long as the Mishna) begin to be compiled by six generations of rabbinical Amoraim (Heb. "expounders") (ends 499), after which another six generations of rabbinical Saboraim (Heb. "reasoners") revise the Babylonian Gemarra to create the Babylonian Talmud (Heb. "teaching") (650) (2.4M words); in modern times, eds. of the Talmud incl. the commentary of French rabbi Rashi (Shlomo Yitzchaki) (1040-1105) on the interior margins, the Tosaphoth (Heb. "additions") by French and German rabbis of the 12th-13th cents. on the exterior margins, and the Tosefta (Heb. "supplement"), remnants of the oral law omitted by Jehuda Hanasi; the Midrash (Heb. "interpretation", "study") are addresses on various books of the Hebrew scriptures allegedly delivered by Tannaim or Annaim, then assembled in the 4th-12th cents., incl. Midrash (Heb. "great") Rabba(h) Sedar Olam Rabbah (Bible chronology from Creation to Alexander the Great), Mekhilta (Mechilta) (On Exodus), Sifra (On Leviticus), Pesikta (homilies on Bible passages), and the Five Megillot(h) (Scrolls) (five scrolls on Esther, the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, and Ecclesiastes); "He who walks four ells in Palestine is without sin"; "Even the merest talk of those who dwell in Palestine is Torah"; no surprise, during the Middle Ages the Jews of Germany and France study the Talmud far more than the Jewish Bible.

Speaking of modern times, by the way, it wasn't just the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Turks, Russians, or Germans, it seems that just about every group Jews came into contact with got filled with virulent rabid anti-Semites, which isn't hard to understand because of their label of Chosen People, plus the incredible wall of intellectual crap they surrounded themselves with. In recent times pseudo-scientific anti-Semites claimed that the Ashkenazi Jews from E Europe aren't really descended from the original Jews, hence they don't have any right to return to Israel where they can live free of anti-Semites, but the theory was exploded by both historical research and genetic studies, the latest in June 2010, DQ Blizzard Cakes, a delicious new flavor every month. Of course Judaism started out as a racist religion, actually a tribal one, the Chosen Tribes, but they claimed that Jehovah did the choosing not them, and since anybody can convert to Judaism, it isn't really racist, although only members of a certain tribe, the Levites can become Jewish priests and serve in the temple and live for free off everybody else, you figure it out, it seems there will have to be a WWIII before a new temple can be built, and according to Jehovah's, er, St. John's Revelation, by then they will all accept Christ and not need it, while according to St. Muhammad's Revelation the Quran the Muslim Messiah will arrive and exterminate every one of them pesky offspring of apes and pigs that doesn't convert to Islam, along with the blasphemer Christians who worship mere human prophet Jesus as the Son of God, so that Jerusalem will only have mosques, stay tuned and keep this handy.

In 267 C.E. Palmyran king (since 260) Odaenathus (b. 220) is assassinated along with his son (by his 1st wife) and designated heir Herodes near Emesa or Heraclea Pontica (to get her stepson Herodes out of the way?), and his widow Queen Septimia Zenobia (Gr. "power of Zeus") (Bat-Zabbai) (231-?) succeeds as regent for their emperor son Vaballathus (Lucius Julius Aurelius Septimius Vaballathus Athenodorus) (259-?) while holding de facto power, declaring the independence of Palmyra, but not really, pretending to be defending the frontiers for the Roman emperor - while the cat's away, the mice will play?

In spring 270 C.E. while he is off in Thrace fighting the Goths, Semitic pagan (worshiper of Bel) Queen Zenobia of Palmyra breaks with Roman emperor Claudius Gothicus and sends her gen. Septemius Zabdas (-273) to attack Bostra, capital of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea, defeating and killing Roman gov. Trassus then sacking the city and destroying the temple of Zeus Hammon, shrine of the defeated Legio III Cyrenaica; he then marches S along the Jordan River and easily subdues Judaea and Arabia incl. Petra, tightening Zenobia's grip on Syria with popular support in the capital of Antioch; the short-lived Palmyrene Empire is born (ends 272).

In 270 C.E. 20-y.-o. Egyptian Christian (St.) Anthony (Antony) the Great (251-356) becomes an ascetic, and in 285 he retires to a mountain across the Nile from Arsinoe (Arsinöe) near Lake Moeris, living in solitude the rest of his life and becoming the first Christian monk; by 300 he begins organizing other monks into communities of hermits (Gr. "of the desert") under his Rule of St. Anthony, and preaches against the Arian heresy; he lives to the age of 100 after 80 years of living alone in the wilderness, becoming patron saint of the poor; the Christian ascetic and Desert Mothers live in the deserts of Israel, Egypt, and Syria until the 5th cent. - I'll take the job?

In Apr. 272 C.E. after abandoning the trans-Danubian province of Dacia and settling its Roman pop. in a new Dacia carved out of Moesia, with Serdica as capital (in which he builds a mint), earning him the title of restitutor orbis (restorer of the world), Roman emperor Aurelian and his associate Marcus Aurelius Probus cross the Bosphorus to Asia Minor, taking Syrian cities before an expedition reaches Egypt in May, capturing Alexandria in early June followed by the rest of Egypt by the end of June, causing Queen Zenobia of Palmyra to withdraw her armies to Syria, where Aurelian defeats her army in May at the Battle of Immae near Antioch while she waits in Antioch, causing her to retreat with her army to Emesa after parading a fake Aurelian through the streets to spread rumors that he was captured; too bad, the Romans win the decisive Battle of Emesa, defeating her 70K-man army with their 180K-man army, with light losses on the Roman side and heavy ones on the Palmyran side, causing her and her son Vaballathus to flee in haste to the city of Palmyra to make their last stand, leaving the royal treasury behind; after repelling several Roman attacks, Zenobia and her son flee toward Persia to seek Sasanian help, but are captured on the E bank of the Euphrates River and taken back to the emperor, never being heard of again; after the city of Palmyra revolts again, Aurelian sacks it, loots its temples, massacres the pop., and razes the fortifications, reducing it to a slum; the Brucheion (royal quarter) of Alexandria is burned to the ground incl. the section that once contained the Library of Alexandria; the short-lived Palmyrene Empire (founded 270) is kaput; Gen. Zabdas is tried and executed next year, along with Greek Neoplatonic philosopher-rhetorician Gaius Cassius Longinus (b. 213), advisor to Queen Zenobia after she blames her rebellion on his counsel in order to save her own smooth perfumed skin.

300

In the five cents. following the Bar Kokhba revolt, Big J remained under Roman then Byzantine rule, which started out pagan until Roman emperor (306-37) Constantine I the Great (272-337) converted to Christianity in 312 C.E. and declared it the empire's official religion in 313 C.E., moving the empire's capital from Rome to new digs in Byzantium, which he called New Rome but became known as Constantinople, launching the Byzantine Empire.

In 313 C.E. after Constantine I legalizes Christianity throughout the Roman Empire, the Brotherhood (Holy Community) of the (All-)Holy Sepulchre (originally the Order of the Spoudaeoi) (Gr. "zealous") is founded in Jerusalem by Eastern Orthodox monks to guard the Christian holy places in the Holy Land esp. the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; it is headed by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, and survives to modern times.

Too bad, the Christians weren't satisfied with merely being legalized, but wanted to become the sole established state church, with its bishops on the govt. dole, which allowed the Roman establishment to systematically corrupt the Church from the top down, starting with the 318-bishop First Council of Nicaea in 325 C.E., which endorsed the age-old pagan doctrine of the Trinity championed by Alexandrian archdeacon Athanasius (296-373), despite clear lack of support in the Bible (dressed up in new clothes, with God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit as coequal persons in one Godhead, with the fact that the Egyptians had Isis-Osiris-Horus etc. only proving to them that the Devil knew about the real Trinity all along and tried to spread disinformation), declaring the Arians, followers of Alexandrian Egyptian Berber bishop Arius (250-336) (who thought Christ was a created being, hence could never be equal to God, which offended most Christians, who always regarded Christ as a god of some kind even if they couldn't understand the subtleties of how there could only be one God yet he could begat, forget it, catch the new season of How I Met Your Mother on CBS) to be heretics, after which the bishops increasingly called on the state to cancel the Edict of Toleration and use its might to crush Christian heresy (often those who were Jesus' real believers like in the early days) and paganism alike, especially so they could confiscate pagan temples and use the gold to build Christian churches, causing the pagans to fight back, and both them and the Christians to tear the empire apart with a long civil war that ended with the accession of emperor Theodosius ("God's gift") I the Great (347-95) in 379, who on Feb. 27, 380 issued an Epistula on the Nicene Creed, declaring Nicene Creed "Catholic Christianity" as the only legal imperial religion, ending state support of paganism; all heretical variations of Christianity, esp. Arianism are to be punished as crimes against the state, reversing Constantine I the Great's 313 Edict of Toleration, and ending the theological debate by fiat; religious freedom and toleration became kaput in Europe for the next thousand years. In 383 Theodosius I began a campaign to root out Arianism in the Eastern Roman Empire, passing laws forbidding Arian meetings; by 384 Arianism as a force was kaput, with only scattered pockets remaining, which didn't stop them from sending missionaries across the Rhine and Danube to convert the Germans; from now on every Roman emperor automatically takes the side of the pope against schismatics or heretics, which ultimately backfires as they welcome the Muslims as liberators. Of course, by this point the remaining pagans all found it easy to convert to Catholicism, it's name doesn't mean universal for nothing, because Catholicism reached out to them by incorporating pagan holidays and gods under laundered names, not to mention pagan doctrines. This only exposed the stiff-necked Jews as incorrigible holdouts, causing the Romans to tighten the screws. Hence, Christianity didn't invent the idea of convert-or-die, it invented the need for church-state separation, which took until Dec. 15, 1791, when the U.S. Bill of Rights was ratified after a huge complex struggle to free Westerners from the grip of the Church while still allowing anybody to be a member of that or any other Christian denomination, even to be an unrepentant gag, Jew. During God's Gift I's reign, concern for the increasing number of Greek-speaking Christian churches caused Latin to be adopted as the official language for the Roman Catholic Mass, whose name comes from the words "Ite, missa est" with which the priest dismisses the congregation. To throw a er, bone to the new Christians who were still pagan underneath, the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary became such a rage that Tertullian's old writings of 208 that dissed it got mashed, and pesky references in the Gospels to the "brethren" of Jesus (1 Cor. 9:5, Gal. 1:19, Mark 6:3, Mt. 13:55) were no longer interpreted to refer to later sons of Mary by Joseph. Instead bishop St. Epiphanius (310-403) of Salamis in Cyprus (author of the Panarion or Medicine Chest Against All Heresies) proposed the more PC theory that they are sons of Joseph by a former marriage, and Jerome later proposed the even safer theory that they are sons of Alpheus, the husband of Mary's sister, and hence only Jesus' cousins, and in 431 at the instigation of Alexandrian patriarch St. Cyril ("lordly") (376-444), the First Council of Ephesus declared heretical the doctrines of Nestorianism, by Syrian-born Constantinople archbishop (428-431) Nestorius (386-451) for refusal to call sinless-born Virgin Isis, er, Mary the Mother of God, only the Mother of Christ, causing him to be deposed and the Assyrian Church of the East to split and go its own way. If I were a Jew I'd be puking chunks as the supposedly monotheist Christians first promoted Christ then his mother to gods, and had the gall to call me nuts. Speaking of Jews, after becoming the established religion, Christendom showed a mean streak of intolerance for the Jews, with St. Ambrose of Milan (337-97) advocating a convert-or-die policy, until St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) came up with the "lovely brainwave" (Moses Mendelssohn's words) that they should be allowed to live and stay Jews, but be kept down as a wandering "witness people" that would serve as proof of what happens to those who reject Christ and his salvation, and hence must be kept from returning to Jerusalem and setting up their capital there as a matter of theology - clean makeup, easy breezy beautiful?

On May 3, 326 after restoring Jerusalem's name and making it a Christian rather than pagan city, Constantine I sends his mother James Cameron, er, St. Helena (246-330) on a 2-year pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where she founds the Church (Basilica) of the Nativity in Bethlehem on top of a cave, which becomes the oldest major church in the Holy Land, and oldest continuously-used place of worship in Christianity; Helena and Jerusalem bishop (since 312) St. Macarius (d. 334) raze the Roman bldgs. in Jerusalem incl. Emperor Hadrian's Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in the NW corner of Jerusalem, discovering a rock-cut tomb, which Helena and Macarius identify as the burial site of Jesus Christ, along with the alleged True Cross of Christ in the excavation site that she claims is distinguished from several others because of an alleged miracle in which a woman is cured in a blind test of three crosses, after which the Anastasis (Gr. "Resurrection") rotunda is built over it, along with the Martyrium basilica containing the traditional site of Calvary; the church is consecrated on Sept. 13, 335; it becomes the heart of the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem, which becomes a Christian tourist mecca; the Church of Eleona is built on the Mount of Olives; the Finding of the Holy Cross Festival is later celebrated each May 3.

In 333-4 the Bordeaux Pilgrim from Burdigala visits the Holy Land incl. Jerusalem, leaving the oldest known Christian itinerarium, titled Itinerarium Burdigalense.

I went sky-diving, how do you like me now? In 335 Roman emperor Constantine I the Great, who flopped and became an Arian gets his brother Dalmatius, censor of Antioch to convene the First Synod of Tyre, presided over by Bishop (since 314) Eusebius of Caesarea (Pamphili) (260-340), and attended by Athanasius with 48 Egyptian bishops, who are not allowed to leave to consecrate the new Church of the Resurrection containing the Sepulchre of Christ in nearby Jerusalem until they earn it by reversing the 325 Nicene Council and approving Arianism; after doing that, they depose and exile Athanasius on trumped-up charges of breaking a chalice in a church in Maraeotis, whipping or imprisoning six bishops, and murdering a 7th, Arsenius, even though Athanasius claims that the church doesn't exist, and produces Arsenius alive at the synod, which gets him cleared of those charges, but then backfires as a charge of threatening to cut off the grain supply from Egypt to Constantinople is not thrown out; Athanasius then boldly goes to Constantinople and confronts the emperor as he passes on his horse in the street, causing him to reconsider and let him go to Gaul to the court of Treves (Trier) for the next 28 mo. until the emperor dies, while refusing to fill his vacant seat in Alexandria; Arianism now has the upper hand in the Roman Empire.

On Sept. 28, 351 Constantius II leading 80K men defeats Magnentius and his 36K men at the Battle of Mursa on the Drava River in modern-day Croatia, becoming the bloodiest battle of the cent., with 24K casualties for Magnentius' army vs. 30K for Constantius II's; no surprise, since Magnentius favors paganism, Constantius II claims to have seen a cross in the sky over Jerusalem on the eve of the battle, securing Christianity as the Roman Empire's official religion.

In 351 after Julian's brother Gallus taxed them so heavily that many sold their children to pay, the Jews of Palestine staged the Jewish Revolt Against Constantius Gallus (ends 352), ending up losing thousands killed or enslaved and seeing Sephoris burned to the ground, with partial destruction of Tiberias and other cities - talk about a losing cause?

In 358 the Jewish Sanhedrin is dissolved by imperial decree.

In Jan. 361 new pagan emperor Julian launches a program to counter Christianity, appointing pagan priests to oppose Christian bishops, and granting special privileges to towns that never adopcted Christianity, closing the teaching profession to the pesky Christians and wowing the people by refusing the title of Dominus (Lord) and marching on foot on the calends of January with his new consuls Mamertinus and Nevitta from the palace to the senate, then declaring that the senate of Constantinople is equal to the Roman senate, and claiming himself to be a senator, which all later emperors copy; he restores the "soul" of the expiring cities of the empire (Libanius), incl. Nicopolis, Athens, Corinth, Argos, and the cities of Epirus and the Peloponnesus, and reinstates the Actiac games of Augustus; Julian allows the exiled super-intolerant Athanasius and his super-intolerant adherents Eusebius of Vercelli (Vercellae) et al. to return to Alexandria, where they convene the Synod of Alexandria, which supports the, guess, Athanasian Creed and condemns the erring Arians; meanwhile he foils an assassination plot at Antioch, and executes the son of coward Gen. Marcellus for another plot; let's not count the Anomoeans (Eunomians) out yet, they get their creed restored by the Synod of Antioch, which decrees that "The Son is in all things unlike the Father, as well in will as in substance"; on July 19 after being summoned, Jews from Syria and Asia Minor (except Tiberias) meet with Emperor Julian in Antioch, who informs them of his plan to combat the pesky religion of Christianity by restoring their worship in the Temple of Jerusalem (destroyed in 70 C.E.), causing celebrations in Jewish communities, plus a large influx of Jews to Jerusalem, where Julian appoints his friend Alypius of Antioch to supervise the rebuilding of the Temple, complete with special silver tools to construct the altar; too bad, Julian is KIA in Mesopotamia on June 26, 363 before the plans can be completed, and his joyless successor (Jovian finishes the Christianization of the Roman Empire - maybe they should switch from abstract algebra to topology?

On May 18-19, 363 the Galilee Earthquake of 363 rocks Jerusalem, causing underground gases to explode, ruining construction materials, also destroying half of the ancient city of Petra (where Indiana Jones finds the Holy Grail?); the reconstruction of the Temple of Jerusalem is halted by Julian's death on June 26 and opposition by the rabbis of Galilee and the patriarch, who believe that only the Messiah can rebuild the Temple; the old restrictive laws are reenacted and made more severe, and the Jews are again banned from Jerusalem, causing Jerome to report that the Jewish pop. of Palestine is "but a tenth part of their previous multitude".

On May 29, 363 after Shapur II's scorched earth policy leaves his troops short of supplies, Emperor Julian sieges the Persian city of Ctesiphon, pushing Persian forces back S into the city without capturing it, concluding a peace on June 16 by which Rome returns the territories W of the Tigris River, ending the Sixth Roman-Persian War (begun 337); on June 26 on his way back home after marching back along the Tigris River and burning his fleet of supply ships he is KIA in a battle in Frygium on the Persian frontier near Samarra by a Persian cavalryman's lance, ending the line of Constantine, and the next day Jovian (Flavius Jovianus) (331-64), a Christian is elected Roman emperor #72 (until Feb. 17, 364) by the army, going on to copy Julian and issue an edict of gen. toleration; too bad, Christanity has penetrated the army so fully that all future emperors are Christians, although it takes almost 30 years before official persecution begins again; meanwhile the Persians take over Mesopotamia and recapture Nisibis without a fight despite pleas from the pop. to emperor Jovian that they are willing to fight, causing the Roman pop. to move to Amida and the Christian School of Nisibis led by Ephrem the Syrian to flee to Edessa; Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus, who is in Nisibis at the time later disses Jovian in his writings.

In 379 a hostel is founded on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem by Roman monk-historian-theologian Tyrannius Rufinus of Aquileia (344-411) (friend of St. Jerome) and St. Melania the Elder (350-417), a learned ascetic aristocrat of Spanish descent, who is a cousin of St. Paulinus of Nola; in 385 St. Jerome (347-420) and his widowed friend St. Paula of Rome (347-404 stay at their hostel, using it as a model for their hostel in Bethlehem despite Jerome falling out with Melania for not being as ascetic as him; Rufinus leaves a church history along with a Latin trans. of Eusebius' church history that continues the work from Constantine I to Theodosius I (395).

In the 380s female Spanish noblewoman Egeria (Etheroiua) (Aetheria) makes a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, writing Peregrinatio (Itinerarium Egeriae), becoming the earliest known account of its kind; discovered in 1884 in a monastic library in Arezzo by Italian archeologist-historian Gian Francesco Gamurrini (1835-1923); about 385 she claims to witness the Holy Fire (Light) Ceremony in Christ's Sepulchure, in which a bright light springs from the small chapel enclosing the tomb, which later becomes a yearly ceremony by Orthodox Christians on Great/Holy Sat., the day before Easter.

In 390 the Byzantines establish the province of Palaestina Prima (I), which it loses in 614 to the Sassanid Empire, then regains in 628 and loses to the Muslims in 636.

About 390 Byzantine imperial family member Poemenia (Poimenia) builds the Byzantine-style circular Chapel of the Ascension (originally the Imbomon, Greek for "on the hill") on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem on the spot where Jesus allegedly ascended to Heaven after his resurrection, complete with a slab containing his footprint on a hillock near a small cave traditionally used to commemorate his Ascension, allegedly on the orders of Emperor Constantine's wife Helena, who visited the Holy Land in 326-8, and also ordered a sanctuary built on another spot she claimed Jesus taught the Lord's Prayer; the original Jewish Temple is forgotten by crowds of visiting Christians, who enjoy a Disneyland of Christian tourist sites outside the city walls; too bad, the armies of Persian shah Khosrau II destroy all the Christian bldgs. on the Mount of Olives in 614.

After becoming the established religion, Christendom shows a mean streak of intolerance for the Jews, with St. Ambrose of Milan (337-97) advocating a convert-or-die policy, until St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) comes up with the "lovely brainwave" (Moses Mendelssohn's words) that they should be allowed to live and stay Jews, but be kept down as a wandering "witness people" that would serve as proof of what happens to those who reject Christ and his salvation, and hence must be kept from returning to Jerusalem and setting up their capital there as a matter of theology - clean makeup, easy breezy beautiful?

400

In June 415 the Synod of Jerusalem sees Paulus Orosius communicate the decisions of the 411 Synod of Carthage and read several of St. Augustine's writings against Pelagius; too bad, the Greeks in attendance don't understand Latin, and Pelagus counters with the immortal soundbyte: "Et quis est mihi Augustinus?" ("Who is Augustine to me?"), after which Jerusalem archbishop John II accuses Orosius of heresy in front of the synod, causing him to later write "Liber Apologeticus" in his defense.

In 425 after his intolerant lifetime virgin sister Pulcheria ("beautiful") (399-453) (who acted as his regent from 408-16, and controlled him ever since) puts him up to it for authorizing new synagogues to be built and adjudicating disputes between Jews and Christians, T2 orders the execution of Jewish physician and Nasi (Hebrew for prince) (since 400) Gamaliel ("recompense of God") VI, who becomes the last Nasi of the Jewish Sanhedrin, abolishing his office in 429, and causing the House of Hillel (Hebrew for greatly praised) to become extinct, along with the Semicha, the tradition of judicial authority in an unbroken line from Moses.

In 438 Roman emperor (408-50) Theodosius II the Calligrapher (401-50) pub. the Theodosian Law Code (Codex Theodosianus), a collection of Roman laws issued since 312, formally separating the Eastern and Western Roman Empires; Section XVI.i.2 makes Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, and declares all other religions illegal; the ban against Jews in Jerusalem is lifted by Byzantine empress Aelia Eudocia (401-60) (daughter of a pagan father); in 439 the Theodosian Law Code is adopted by the Western side too.

In 484 Cappadocian-born monk St. Sabbas the Sanctified (439-532) founds the Great Lavra (Mar Saba) monastery overlooking the Kidron Valley S of Jerusalem halfway to the Dead Sea, going on to found several more monasteries in Palestine; in 491 he is ordained by Patriarch Salustius of Jerusalem and appointed archimandrite (superior abbot) of all the monasteries in Palaestina Prima, composing the Jerusalem Typikon, the first monastic rule of church services, becoming the std. for all Byzantine monasteries; it is supposed to host the last liturgy before the Second Coming of Christ.

500

In the 6th cent. C.E. the Paitanim Neo-Hebraic poets begin composing piyyutim (Jewish sacred poems).

In Sept. 517 the Synod (Council) of Epaone (Epao), presided over by St. Avitus and St. Viventiolus is held in Burgundy, France, passing edicts forbidding clergy to hunt, prohibiting attendance at Jewish banquets, and limiting consecration with chrism (oil and spices) to stone pillars and altars.

So, it was the Jews, not the Muslims or Christians who first came up with the idea of convert-or-die, and the Heinrich Himmlerite Jews boast the first Hitler? Sometime before 522 the last Yemenite king of Himyar (Homer) visits the oasis in Yathrib (Medina), and they kill his son, pissing him off and causing him to threaten to massacre the pop. and worse, cut down their palms, until two rabbis from the Jewish Banu Qurayza tribe come out and warn him that the town will one day be the home of prophet of the Arab Quraysh tribe, converting him to Judaism, after which the rabbis do miracles in front of the Yemenis, converting them too; for some strange reason the rabbis recognize the Qaaba as built by Abraham, advising the Yemenis to circle it with shaved heads; this year the Jewish Himyarites of the Kingdom of Saba (Himyar) in S Arabia (Yemen) (founded 110 B.C.E.) (who live in a land swarming with Arab polytheist pagans, but at least were fairly safe from the horrible Jewish-persecuting Byzantine and Roman Christians) under king (518-25) Yusuf Dhu Nuwas (Nawas) (-525) (a converted Arab) begin a campaign to convert Coptic Christians to Judaism by force to get even with them for persecuting Jews, massacring the Christian pop. of the Himyarite capital of Zafar (Arab. "victory") in the Yemeni highlands 80 mi. SSE of Sana'a, and burning their churches, destroying the other fortresses in the highlands, then going after the Arab Christian oasis of Najran in SW Arabia near the Yemeni frontier and massacring its 20K pop., then writing letters to the kings of Iraq and Persia encouraging them to do ditto, which Byzantine emperor Justin I finds out about, causing him to help Coptic Christian king Kaleb (Ella Atbeha) (Hellestheaeus) of Axum on the other side of the Red Sea in Abyssinia (Ethiopia) to come to their aid.

In 522 an epidemic of Bubonic plague, caused by Yersinia pestis, a mutated form of the relatively mild gut pathogen Yersinia pseudotuberculosis kills half the 200M pop. of the Mediterranean region, causing Justinian I to kiss and make up and end the 34-year schism between the Christian churches of Constantinople and Rome, professing to accept the Roman pope and putting Roman Catholic bishops onto Byzantine thrones, then taking the praise personally and teaching the people to pray to him as their future sovereign who is now a strict intolerant orthodox Roman Catholic thru-and-thru; after hearing of the blasphemies of gamblers, he prohibits gambling, and orders castration of homosexuals, causing several to die - all of which causes the pop. down at the S end of the Red Sea to see their chance to create a new world order?

In 522 Greek Nestorian monk Cosmas Indicopleustes ("he who sailed to India") begins traveling this year from one end of the habitable world to the other, and ends up in Alexandria in 535, writing the narrative Christian Topography (535-47), claiming that he has personally proved that the Earth is not a globe, but has one oblong temperate zone of 400 days journey in length and 200 days in breadth, encompassed by the ocean and covered by the solid crystal firmament; his work becomes the state of the art of Dark Ages geography, holding back exploration for a millennium?

In 523 after defeating the Christian Coptic Ethiopians from Axum who had invaded Arabia to help their brother Christians of Najran, Dhu Nawas orders them to give up that Christ crap and become Jews, and after they refuse, he has them thrown alive into a burning ditch, causing the Quran to later refer to "The cursed people of the ditch" (Sura 85:4); the news pisses-off the Byzantine emperor, who declares war on the Jewish Kingdom of Saba and sends a fleet to help the Axumites.

In 525 after coming to avenge the Coptic Christians of Najran burned alive in a pit for refusing to convert to Judaism, the Jewish Kingdom of Saba (Sheba) in Yemen in S Arabia (founded 110 B.C.E.) is conquered by 70K Christian Abyssinians (Ethiopians) under Eriat, and the Himyarites are assimilated into the N Arabian tribes; Eriat becomes ruler of Yemen (until ?) - so the idea of convert-or-die started with the Jews, not the Muslims or Christians, it's the halfway sale at Toys'R Us?

Pagan school = porno shop, so let's close them all? In 529 Byzantine Emperor Justinian I issues an edict shutting down any remaining pagan and Samaritan teachers, with the soundbyte: "We wish to widen the law once made by us and by our father of blessed memory against all remaining heresies (we call heresies those faiths which hold and believe things otherwise than the catholic and apostolic orthodox church), so that it ought to apply not only to them but also to Samaritans [Jews] and pagans. Thus, since they have had such an ill effect, they should have no influence nor enjoy any dignity, nor acting as teachers of any subjects, should they drag the minds of the simple to their errors and, in this way, turn the more ignorant of them against the pure and true orthodox faith; so we permit only those who are of the orthodox faith to teach and accept a public stipend", sending it to the Neo-Platonic Academy of Athens (founded -387), which closes, with its Damascus-born leader (scholarch) Damascius (458-540) ("last of the Neoplatonists") moving the school (six colleagues) and its precious scrolls in 532 to Ctesiphon under the protection of Khosrau I, who gets their security guaranteed in a 533 treaty with the Byzantines, allowing them to move to Alexandria; Damascius' pupil Simplicius of Cilicia (490-560) goes on to become the last great pagan philosopher, leaving commentaries on Aristotle. Justinian I passes a law ordering the synagogues of the Samaritans centered in Neapolis (modern-day Nablus), Palestine destroyed, and takes away their rights to bequeath property, causing them to revolt in the summer, only to be summarily crushed, af

In 533 the Second Council of Orleans orders Jews to stay indoors during Holy Week for their own protection, and prohibits them from holding public office.

In 535 the Council of Clermont forbids Jews from holding public positions in which they could impose penalties on Christians - no Judge Judys?

On May 7, 538 the Third Council of Orleans, presided by Lyon Archbishop Loup sets Sun. as the day of the Lord, forbidding field work; it also forbids clerics to practice usury or conjuring, and requires the bishop to redeem a Christian slave in the service of a Jew if he takes refuge in the church, superseding the constitutions of the Lower Roman Empire which require him to return the slave to its master.

In 560 a Christian mob burns down the Jewish synagogue in Orleans, France, causing the Jews to petition King Gunthram to rebuild it at public cost like Theodoric had done; when he refuses, Bishop Gregory of Tours issues the soundbyte: "O King glorious for wonderful wisdom."

In 570 an anon. Italian pilgrim visits Acre and writes about its beautiful Christian monasteries.

In May 589 the Third (3rd) Council of Toledo convenes, led by Spanish archbishop (St.) Leander of Seville (534-601, who delivers the closing sermon Homilia de Triumpho Ecclesiae ob Conversionem Gothorum (Triumph of the Church and Conversion of the Goths), with the soundbyte: "The peace of Christ has destroyed the wall of discord which the Devil had built up, and the house which division was bringing to ruin is united in and established upon Christ the cornerstone"; Arianism is now declared a heresy, and the repressive laws set out in the Council of Elvira are reinstituted, incl. forced conversion of Jews, who unsuccessfully try bribing Reccard I, causing St. Gregory the Great to praise him and send him gifts consisting of a piece of the True Cross, fragments of the chains of St. Peter, and some hairs of St. John the Baptist (really a chip off his chair, some old jewelry from one of his hos and some short hairs from his crotch?); the council adds the Filioque Clause to the Creed of Constantinople, changing "ex patre procedit" to "ex patre filioque procedit", i.e., the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son, pissing-off the Greek theologians, who insist that he proceeds not from but through the Son; actually, while the clergy was for using royal power to clamp down on the pesky Jews, the fact that they are rich and well-connected throughout the Mediterranean causes them to be tolerated, with Reccared I eliminating the death penalty for Jews proselytizing among Christians and ignoring a request from St. Gregory to use force to end Jewish trade in Christian slaves in Narbonne, but the prohibition on Jews holding public offices in which they can impose penalties on Christians is retained.

600

Meanwhile ever since the Romans kicked them out, the pesky Jewish illegal aliens kept sneaking back into their holy main base of Jerusalem, where they became a minority compared to the top dog "Roman" (Byzantine Greek) Christians, who treated them like dog doo for killing their Savior. The First Crusade? On Apr. 15, 614 the Persians under Sassanid king (590-628) Khosrau (Khusro) II (-628) begin sieging Byzantine-held Jerusalem, and on May 5 after 21 days force their way within the walls, aided by the Jews, and capture the city three weeks later at the end of May after slaughtering 66,555 and or enslaving 23K Christians, which the Jews eagerly participate in, leaving them in charge when the Persians leave, increasing Christian anti-Semitism; Jerusalem Patriarch Zacharias wanted to surrender the city but a group of fanatical young Christians vetoed him because of their belief that God would save them by a miracle; they sack the city, destroying the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and seize the True Cross of Christ as plunder, taking it to Ctesiphon along with the remaining pop., annexing all of Palestine; all the Christian bldgs. outside the city are destroyed incl. the Church of St. Stephen, the Eleona Basilica, and the Ascension Church; only the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is spared, allegedly because its door has a mosaic depicting Persian wise men; Jerusalem briefly becomes the nat. capital of the Jewish people for the first time since the Bar Kochba Revolt in 135, reviving Jewish hopes of the return of their Messiah (until 628); the Sudarium ("sweat cloth") of Christ is allegedly taken from Palestine by Christians and carried through N Africa, arriving in Spain in 616 and becoming the Sudarium of Oviedo, known for type AB blood stains allegedly matching some on the head portion of the Shroud of Turin, the alleged burial cloth of Christ; too bad, the Christians beginning using the Temple Mount as a garbage dump, which later freaks-out Caliph Omar when he takes over the city in 637.

In 628 Byzantine emperor (610-41) Heraclius I (575-641) defeatesPersian king Khosrau II and regains the True Cross, taking it back in 629 when he marches into Jerusalem, and the Jews suddenly flip-flop and claim to be on his side. But he was probably figuring out the Arab thing by now in his subconscious, as proved by a dream that the Byzantine Empire will be destroyed through a circumcised people, and ordered them massacred by fanatical monks (later covered-up by claiming the monks did it on their own just as he was about to conclude a peace with them?), causing tens of thousands of Jews to flee to Egypt, at least they got good libraries and beachfront property is available, it's the original Miami, driving them into the arms of the Christian Copts, who were sore at them for aiding the Persians also, and massacred some of them, but not all, since there were 40K left in Alexandria alone. On Mar. 21, 630 Heraclius I personally returned the True Cross to the Holy Sepulchre, after which he became holy than thou than usual and substituted the title Basileus for Imperator, I never felt so undressed in a bathtub. The Persian empire is kaput, and over the next few years they hand the Byzantines Armenia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Byzantine Mesopotamia, while "a series of dynastic intrigues and romantic murders enliven the palace but weaken the country [Persia]" (H.G. Wells).

To back up his words with action, in 627 Muhammad ordered an atrocity against the Jewish Qurayza Tribe in Medina, having the men and pubescent boys beheaded and the women and children enslaved, and stealing their land, that's right, Islam doesn't want Jews anywhere to live on any land Muslims don't own.

In 628 Muhammad attacked another tribe of Jews in Arabia in the Battle of Khaybar (Khaibar), and stole their land, forcing the survivors to hand them half their annual produce forever, even locusts only come once in several years. Too bad, in the 20th cent. the Jews popularized the term anti-Semitic to refer to Jew-haters, leaving their Semitic kissing cousins the Arabs (who speak a Semitic language) to play both ends against the middle, although if you believe the Jewish Bible (Old Testament), including Noah's Flood, the Arabs are Hamitic (descendants of Ham) not Semitic (descendants of Shem).

Too bad, after occupying Khaybar, Muhammad saw a beautiful Jewish babe and killed her husband, then lay with her. She responded by inviting him to a sumptuous dinner where she served poisoned sheep. After he detected the poison and spit the meat out, she told him that if he were a real prophet it wouldn't harm him, which he agrees with before having her killed. Too bad, the poison seems to have started working into his system, killing him three years later, proving that anybody who messes with the Jews loses. How ironic that modern Jew-hating Muslims like to chant about Khaybar, not realizing the ending, no wonder they never win any Nobel Prizes.

In 632 Arab pagan-turned-monotheist self-proclaimed prophet Muhammad (b. 570) died after having claimed to visit Jerusalem (actually "the farthest mosque") (Quran 17:1) in the fantastic one-night Isra and Mi'raj journey in 621 that couldn't have happened, but which gave his Muslim followers the excuse they needed to capture it in 637, after which according to Muhammad's divine revelation from Allah called the Quran Muslims must never ever give it back to infidels, and are promised paradise for martyrdom while fighting to defend it or retake it, diplomats not needed. His new religion claimed to actually be the one true old religion, with an incredibly arrogant but pivotal claim that the Jewish Bible has been falsified and corrupted (perverted) by Jews to make them the Chosen People instead of the Arabs, and that Jehovah, er, Allah has made him the ultimate final prophet to set the world straight and bring the world to its knees worshiping him his way, by persuasion or force, their choice. In Muslim-think, the refusal of the Jews to accept Muhammad as their final prophet and Islam as the one true religion was what caused Allah to command him to change the Qiblah (direction of prayer) to Mecca, and forever bar Jews from having a Jewish state with capital in Jerusalem, so I guess so far it's a push between Allah and Jehovah on that score. I won't comment on the veracity of the Bible, but of course Muhammad was a FRAUD, and his Allah was a FAKE, and indeed Muhammad was a dummy corporation for a sinister New World Order movement which covered its tracks up like they always do, leaving the Quran as a cover story for the winner's side after enough military successes. So, when it comes to Muhammad we can't be sure that anything about his life is even real, but let's go with the surface narrative for funners, because for once a religion founder is portrayed as a cruel warlord filled with mean vices, not a harmless sinless walking-on-water nonviolent miracle worker.

Big Mo's ashes weren't cold yet before the Sunni-Shiite Split rocked his kingdom on Earth, lasting to this day; it wasn't so much about theological differences as a dispute about who gets to rule the Muslim World, I'm shocked, I'm really shocked.

As for Jerusalem, after originally telling his followers to pray facing it, 16-1/2 mo. later Muhammad changed it to Mecca 800 mi. away, home of the Kaaba (Qaaba), admitting that boring Jerusalem is the direction in which Jews pray in Quran Sura 2 Al-Baqara (The Heifer), verse 145, although he loved to relieve himself while facing it (see Bukhari 1.4.147). Boring, but supreme in importance even to Muslims, who believe that there isn't a hands-breadth of space in Jerusalem where a prophet hasn't walked, and they must have it for Allah whatever the B.S., because that's the real game, Satan and his fake prophets vs. Jehovah God and his real prophets, especially Christ for control of Da Earth :)

On Aug. 23, 634 C.E. Abu Bakr (b. 573) dies, and is succeeded by Muhammad's adviser and brother-in-law (#1 Sahaba) Omar (Umar) (Arab. "eloquent", "long life") ibn Al-Khattab "the Great" (577-644) as caliph #2 (until Nov. 3, 644), who goes on to conquer Syria, Persia, and Egypt, defeat Byzantine emperor Heraclius I, and institute the Islamic taxation system, which requires "People of the Book" (Ahl al-Kitab) (pesky Jews and Christians, who go for that perverted version of the Quran they call the Little Library of Books or Bible) to pay a special poll tax called the jizya (see Surah 9:29), and (after too many feign conversion to avoid the ban on non-Muslim ownership of land) a special land tax called the kharaj in order to practice their faith and not be killed for failing to submit (it is usually grudgingly accepted with a slap in the face?), ending up financing the Muslim state when they capture Syria and Egypt, which have large Christian pops., meaning no taxes for the lucky Muslim faithful (gain the world and lose your soul jokes here?); Omar also creates garrison settlements (amsar) to keep Arab troops separate from newly conquered peoples, founding the new cities of Kufa (639) and Basra (636) in Iraq, and Fustat (641) in Egypt; he makes Islam attractive for soldiers by establishing the diwan, a list of soldiers entitled to govt. stipends ('ata), with the earlier converts getting higher pay. On Sept. 20 after reaching Damascus, being forced to withdraw to Yarmuk, defeating the Byzantines, then reattacking with the help of the Monophysites in Syria (who are tired of Roman Catholic persecution), the Muslims under Khalid ibn Walid capture Damascus, and force the Pact of Omar on the Christian dhimmis (people of the dhimma or protection pact), which prohibits them from building new churches or repairing existing ones, practicing their religion publicly or converting anyone to it, displaying the cross or ringing church bells, riding saddles or bearing arms, selling alcoholic beverages, displaying wine or pork openly, etc., and forced them to show respect to Muslims, give them their seats if asked, plus ree room and board for three days, etc., even forcing them to look different than Muslims so there will be no question who's superior to whom by wearing the zunnar (zonnar) (wide cloth belt) and different colored shoes, keeping to the side of the street and never using the Muslim greeting "as-Salamu alaykum", all this protection in return for paying the jizya (punishment tax); ascetic Damascus-born Egyptian-trained non-Chalcedonian monk Sophronius (560-638) flees and becomes Christian patriarch of Jerusalem (until 638), giving a Christmas sermon noting that the I-love-you-too-much Muslims already control Bethlehem, and calling them "unwitting representatives of God's inevitable chastisement of weak and wavering Christians"; meanwhile sometime after this, according to the Chanson de Roland (1140-70), trembling Christians get the idea that the Muslims worship Termagant (Termagaunt), a male god that is part of the Muslim Trinity, even though Muslims worship Allah and have no Trinity; by the time of William Shakespeare (1600) a termagant becomes a mannish woman, esp. a quarrelsome scolding woman or virago.

Focusing on the big year that the Muslims took Big J, and won't give it back, the year 636 wasn't the year 666, but to the superstitious it was 2 out of 3 at least. On July 23, 636 the Muslim Arabs under Gen. Khalid capture Gaza, the principal Jewish community in Byzantine Judea from the Byzantines, then in Nov. siege Jerusalem for 6 mo., taking it in Apr. 637, with Muslim caliph #2 (634-44) Omar (Umar) (586-644) personally receiving the city's submission on the insistence of Patriarch Sophronius, causing Omar to come from Medina to Jerusalem (600 mi.) humbly on a camel, carrying a bag of barley, a bag of dates, a water skin, and a wooden platter, with only one attendant; when his own emirs greet him in fine silks he throws a tantrum, as well as handfuls of dirt at them, impressing the Greek proprietors of Big J, who present him with a key to the city; he then meets with Monophysite Christian Patriarch (634-8) Sophronius (560-638) of Jerusalem, with whom he tours the Holy Places, making jokes about his followers being too expensive, and refusing an invitation to pray at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, saying he didn't want to endanger its status as a Christian temple, instead praying outside it on the steps E of the church; since Christian mucky-mucks had claimed that the Bible predicts that a humble but just and powerful man will come to Jerusalem riding on an ass and will actually prove to be a protector an ally to the Christians of Jerusalem, Sophronius dies a happy man; the happy Jews are allowed back and allowed to practice their religion but are forbidden to ride horses, hold judicial or civil posts or build new synagogues; Neapolis comes under Muslim rule, and its name is Arabicized to Nablus; the neighborhood of Silwan (Heb. "Shiloah", Gk. "Silwan") in modern-day East Jerusalem (on top of the old City of David) is granted to an agricultural community of cave-dwellers living there called Khan Silowna; Sophronius accepts the Umari Treaty (Umariyya Covenant), in which the Holy Sepulchre and the True Cross are protected, and all Christian churches and relics are left in Christian hands, with Christians protected as long as they pay I'm-your-whore protection money (jizya); the spot where Caliph Omar prayed outside the Holy Sepulchre becomes the site of the Mosque of Omar (Umar), which according to Gallic bishop Arculf, who lived in Jerusalem in 679-688 was a rectangular wooden structure built over ruins that could accommodate 3K worshipers; Caliph Omar argued about the location for this first Muslim mosque in Jerusalem with Yemeni Jewish (rabbi) convert to Islam Ka'b al-Ahbar (-653), who recommends building it N of the Rock (foundation of the Jewish Temple of Solomon), to which Omar replies "Oh you son of a Jew, is your Jewishness dominating your view?", explaining that that would force Muslims to bow down towards both Mecca and the Jewish Temple, and deciding to build it S of the Rock so that their asses face it instead; Jerusalem becomes Islam's 3rd holiest city after Mecca and Medina, for a long time being called Bayt al-Maqdes, then al-Quds al-Sharif, but not being regarded as a holy city until the 680s, when the caliph ruling from Damascus fights a revolt by the Muslims in control of Mecca, and decides to turn Big J into a counter-pilgrimage site, building the Dome of the Rock as the Disney World to their Disneyland; meanwhile the Muslims. who don't believe in Jesus' resurrection start calling the Anastasis al-qumamah ("the dungheap") instead of al-qiyamah ("the resurrection".

Pull over and let me drive? In 686 virulently anti-Semitic Spanish Roman Catholic #1 bishop Julian of Toledo (642-90) (of Jewish descent?) writes De Comprobatione Aetatis Sextae Contra Judaeos, expounding on the Messianic prophecies in the Bible with the intention of converting Jews while defending against Jewish arguments that Jesus is not the Messiah; it seems the Jews were converting Christians, despite the dire penalties? In 688 he writes Prognosticum Futuri Saeculi (3 vols.), a dissertation on death, the situation of souls before the final Parousia of Christ, and the resurrection of the dead, becoming a Medieval bestseller, with up to 2K mss. made by the 12th cent. No wonder the Jews act as a fifth column for the Muslims of Morocco for their 911 invasion of Spain.

In 688 to rub more salt into the wound, Umayyad caliph #5 (685-705) Abd al-Malik (646-705) commissions the construction of the Dome of the Rock on top of the ruins of the Jewish Temple of Jehovah (Temple Mount), which is completed in 692, becoming the oldest Islamic building to survive to modern times; 10th cent. Arab historian Al-Muqaddasi (945-1000) claimed that Abd al-Malik built the shrine in order to compete in grandeur with Jerusalem's monumental churches; over the next four cents. Jerusalem's prominence diminished as Arab powers in the region camel-jockeyed for control; the souls of sinners will be weighed here on Judgment Day?; inside is an Arabic inscription reading in part: "O People of the Book! Do not exaggerate in your religion nor utter aught concerning God save the truth. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a Messenger of God, and His Word which He conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit from Him. So believe in God and His messengers, and say not 'Three' - Cease! (it is) better for you! God is only One God. Far be it removed from His transcendent majesty that He should have a son" - the city that, as Saladin says, is nothing and everything?

700

So Jerusalem came to be considered Islam's 3rd holiest city after Mecca and Medina, just what was needed to put Islam into an eternal war over control of it with everybody, even though all Muslims between it and Mecca point their butt cracks at it while praying - time to try Domino's new pizza ends today? When the Muslims went to Bayt Al-Maqdes for the first time, they searched for the site of the Farthest (Far Away) Holy Mosque, AKA Al-Masjed Al-Aqsa or the Al-Aqsa Mosque that was mentioned in the Quran and Hadith and was originally completed in 709-15, destroyed by an earthquake in 745, then rebuilt in 754 and again in 780, destroyed by another earthquake in 1033, and rebuilt in 1035. They originally found the site full of rubbish, cleaned it up and started using it for prayers, and now after having decided that the Jewish state of Israel must go, fanatically claim it as the #1 reason they will never relinquish Jerusalem. "How can a mosque built nearly a century after the Qur'an was received establish what the Qur'an meant" when it mentioned the Farthest Mosque, according to Daniel Pipes. Answer: the Borg Hive concept of the Ummah, which never forgives or forgets or gives a square inch of conquered territory back, even for a king's ransom.

About 720 Jewish Syrian Serene claims to be the Messiah, causing Jews from Babylonia and Spain to join his campaign to recapture Palestine from the Muslims; too bad, he is taken POW, exposed as a charlatan by Caliph Yezid II, and executed. About 750 Obadiah Abu Isa ben Ishaq of Isfahan, Persia claims ditto, and leads 10K Jews to their defeat.

Umay out, Abbas in - watch your mouth or I'll kill you? In Jan. 750 the Christians in Frankland who were reeling from the pesky Saracens coming over the Pyreenes get a lucky break when the Sunni Abbasid (Abbassid) Movement of disaffected non-Arab Sunni Muslims and Shiites in Iraq and Khurasan, led by the Arab Abbasids (Abbasids) of Khurasan in NE Persia, who claim descent from Muhammad's paternal uncle Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, and whose Umayya clan is separate from Muhammad's Quraish clan (which they hate so bad that they even temporarily became Shiites to jockey for position against the Shinolas) , and who sent Persian (non-Arab) preacher Abu Muslim (718-55) out in advance to criticize Arab corruption and ethnocentrism and invite non-Arab Muslims like him to join, defeat Umayyid Caliph Marwan II at the Battle of the Great Zab River W of the Tigris River near Mosul, causing him to flee to Egypt, where he is captured and killed in Aug. in al-Khufa; Ibrahim's brother Abu al-Abbas as-Saffah (the Blood-Shedder or Slaughterer) (721-754) (did I mention that Islam is the religion of war and oozing blood?) becomes Abbasid caliph #1 (until 754); the Umayyid Dynasty (begun 661) ends, and the Abbasid (Abbassid) Dynasty is founded, moving the capital from Damascus to Baghdad, and controlling the caliphate for five cents. (37 caliphs) (until 1258), absorbing much of the pomp and ceremony of the Persian monarchy into their courts and going on to cultivate the arts and sciences and give Islam a fairly good name compared to the other dynasties, with an empire no longer consciously devoted to promoting Arabs per se, only the faith of Muhammad; Caliph al-Mansur orders the murder of Abu Muslim of Khurasan, renounce the Shiite origins of the Abbasid movement, and begin backing the Sunnis, stabbing the Arabs in the back and taking them off their high horses by putting them under the Persian Barmakid family, who are given the administration of the empire.

In 750 the Sunni Abbasids (who started in Harran, moved to Baghdad in 762, and end up getting overwhelmed by their own Turkic Mamluk slave army by 1258) capture Jerusalem (until 878).

About 750Obadiah (Ovadiah) ibn Yaqub al-Isfahani (Isaac ibn Jacob al-Isfahani) AKA Abu Isa of Isfahan, Persia claims to be a Jewish prophet, which is taken by some of his followers to mean that he is the Jewish Messiah, and leads 10K Jews to their defeat by the army of Caliph al-Mansur in Rayy beore they can take back the Holy Land for the Jewish people, after which there is a gen. persecution of the Jews of Isfahan.

In 762 Jewish exilarch Solomon dies, and his successor Anan ben David turns reformer a la the Shiites and Protestants, founding the Qaraite (Aramaic "qara" = to read, "qera" = text), ditching the newfangled Talmud and sticking only to the Torah like the old Sadduccees, causing the heads of the rabbinical colleges of Sura and Pumbeditha (near Baghdad) to elect his younger brother Chananya in his place; the office of Jewish exilarch (accepted by the caliphs as political head of all Jews in Armenia, Babylonia, Persia, Turkestan, and Yemen) ceases being hereditary and is elected by the rabbinical academies; the Qaraites gain followers in Palestine, Egypt, and Spain, and begin declining in the 12th cent., surviving in the 20th cent. in Arabia, S Russia, and Turkey. In the 9th cent. the Qaraites began interpreting the Torah symbolically, causing the orthodox Rabbanite sect to schism, taking every word literally incl. calculating the exact measurements of Jehovah's body and beard.

On Sept. 14, 786 Persian-born Harun al-Rashid (Haround al-Raschid) (763-809) (Arab. "Aaron the Rightly Guided"), hero of The 1001 Arabian Nights becomes Abbassid caliph #5 in Baghdad (until Mar. 24, 809), initially allowing his mother and PM Yahya of the Barmak family to run the govt., but later rising to the occasion and becoming the most famous of the Abbassid rulers, the last who governs a unified empire from Tunisia to C Asia, known for the magnificence of his court in Baghdad an establishing the House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikma) in Baghdad, launching the Islamic Golden Age of Learning (ends 1258) as his scholars begin to scour the Earth for ancient Greek and Syriac mss. to bring back and trans. into Arabic, incl. the works of Aristotle, Plato, Galen, and Hippocrates, and Sanskrit botanical and medicinal works; he becomes the first Abbasid ruler who doesn't want to visit Jerusalem, even though he returns through Syria several times after making his hajjj to Mecca; too bad, his central govt. begins to decay outside of Iraq, with local rulers setting up shop as independents while claiming to rule in his name; Jerusalem begins to be exploited by renegate Abbasid rulers whle Bedouins terrorize the countryside, causing the first overt tension between local Muslims and Christians, with Muslims resenting Christian wealth.

800

The Lion Trinity is born in Rome? On Dec. 23, 800 C.E. after being sent back to Rome by Charlemagne and kept in protective custody, Pope Leo III clears himself of Roman accusations of moral turpitude and is reinstated; on Dec. 25 (Christmas Day) Frankish king (since 768) Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus) (Karl der Grosse) (Charles the Great) (742-814) is crowned emperor of Rome by surprise as he is kneeling in prayer in the 4th cent. Church of St. Peter in Rome before St. Peter's tomb, and triple-threat Leo III pops up from the shadows and places a crown on his head, hailing him as Caesar and Augustus, with the rehearsed clergy and people shouting "Charles Augustus, crowned great and peace-loving emperor of the Romans, life and victory", causing Charlemagne to allegedly utter the soundbyte that he would never have entered the church that day if he had known the pope's intentions (he wanted to be crowned emperor in France sans the pope so he wouldn't owe him?); the First Reich begins (ends 1806), with capital at Aachen, which is likened to the New Jerusalem, complete with a throne modeled after King Solomon's; the term "Holy Empire" is used in 1157, and "Holy Roman Empire" in 1254; after trying to mollify the outraged Byzantines for stealing their imperial title by satisfying himself with "emperor, king of the Franks and Lombards", Charlemagne tries to erase the lost years since 476 C.E. and refound the Western Roman Empire (ends 1806), while his master the pope tries to make himself the supreme bishop of Christendom, reserving the title of Pope (Papa), and introducing azymes (unleavened bread) into the Eucharist; too bad, Leo III becomes the only pope in history to bow before an earthly king, but he later backtracks and asserts the right of popes to crown all emperors, who must bow before them, and later artists redraw the scene to make it PC; "... the only authentic nobility is the nobility of Visigothic/Merogingian origin. The Carolingians, then all others, are but usurpers. In effect, they were the functionaries of the king, charged with administering lands - who, after transmitting by heredity their right to govern these lands, then purely and simply seized power for themselves. In consecrating Charlemagne in the year 800, the Church perjured itself, for it had concluded, at the baptism of Clovis, an alliance with the Merovingians which had made France the eldest daughter of the Church" (Mathieu Paoli); too bad, after stirring up the Norse Vikings, the resurrected Western Empire lasts less than 30 years after Charlemagne's 814 death (until 843); at first the game is to challenge the Byzantine emperor's claim of universal temporal sovereignty and not get their butts kicked, and of course he refuses to recognize the elevation of an illiterate barbarian to the imperial purple, but Big Charles starts out to change their minds the tried and tested way with negotiations to marry Empress Irene and unite the two empires (by the power of Dick Almighty, oh those Slim Tips?); meanwhile he requires all males above age 12 to renew their oath of allegiance to both the empire and Christianity, making it a capital offense to refuse baptism, and tries to improve the admin. by dividing the empire into districts ruled by counts who defend the frontiers, while new missi dominici (imperial messengers) are hired to create a comm network; like any good emperor wanting to promote culture, he imports architects from Ravenna to Worms and Cologne to develop Romanesque Architecture (characterized by semi-circular arches, massive thick walls and symmetrical plan, sturdy pillars, groin vaults, large towers, and decorative arcading), and has poems sung to music at his court, which becomes a mecca for learned men from the empire, building up libraries of Greek and Roman mss., while Charlemagne sets an example by learning Latin and Greek (as well as German) and writing a grammar of his own language; his court has twelve peers called Paladins (from "palatine") (palace officers) (great knights) (douzepers) (actually a later fiction mixing up the old Roman Emperor and his Palatine Hill with King Arthur of Britain and his Knights of the Round Table); he also establishes a fleet to guard against Viking attacks in the Channel, causing them to invade Germany instead, discovering the Faroe (Sheep) Islands.; Charlemagne exchanges gifts with Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid, and the patriarch of Jerusalem sends Charlemagne the keys of the Anastasis along with some relics; Harun al-Rashid allows him to build a hospice in Jerusalem opposite the Anastasis, along with a church and splendid library; Charles goes on to erect a hostel in the Kidron Valley for pilgrims with 12 rooms and fields, vineyards, and market garden; after his death Latin chronicles claim that the caliph put Charles in er, charge of the Christians of Jerusalem, and wanted to give him the entire Holy Land although he could only make him owner of the Anastasis.

In 807 there are riots in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem between Greek Eastern Orthodox and Latin Catholics.

In 808 an earthquake in Jerusalem severely damages the Dome of the Rock.

In 832 Abbasid calph al-Ma'mun issues the first coins using the name al-Quds (Arab. "the Holy") for Jerualem; earlier Islamic coins bore the names Ilya and Filastin.

In 878 the Sunni Tulinids annex Palestine incl. Jerusalem to Egypt (until 939).

About 880 a group of Karaites (Jews who cling to the Torah and reject the Talmud) led by Daniel al-Qumusi (al-Kumisi) (-946) migrate from Khurasan to Jerusalem, after which he discovers documents belonging to the Qumran sect unearthed by a Bedouin's dog, claiming they prove that the Jewish Diaspora is about to end if Jews resettle Jerusalem in large enough numbers, calling on each Diaspora community to send at least five settlers, causing enough to arrive that Ibn Tulun permits them to establish their own quarter outside the city walls on the E slope of the Ophel to be safe from Rabbanates who adore the Talmud, going on to build a synagogue and organize the Mourners of Zion who stage continous prayer shifts at the city gates, dressed in sackcloth, bewailing the "desolation" of the Jewish Holy City and pub. Epistle to the Diaspora, which calls Jews who refuse to immigrate "fools who draw the Lord's wrath", pissing-off the Rabbanates, who fear that their messianism will bring tragedy, forbidding all Diaspora Jews make an aliyah to Jerusalem; being vegetarians the Karaites build a cheese factory on the Mount of Olives.

900

In 939 the Sunni Turkic Ikhshidids capture Jerusalem (until 969).

About 945 Byzantine emperor Constantine VII requires pesky untrustworthy antichrist Jews testifying in Christian courts to take the humiliating Oath More Judaico, which continues in use in Euro courts until the 20th cent.

In 969 the Ismaili Shiite Fatimids under gen. Gawhar al-Siqilli (928-93) take over Egypt, setting up their capital in Cairo, and taking Jerusalem from the Ikhshidids, burning the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and in 970-2 taking all of Palestine, after which the pop. of Jerusalem declines from 200K to less than 100K by 1099.

1000

In Sept. 1009 after ordering the destruction in 1003 of St. Mark's Church in Fustat, Egypt and replacing it with the al-Rashida Mosque, which impinges on nearby Jewish and Christian cemeteries, followed by orders to confiscate Christian bldgs., burn crosses, and build small mosques on their roofs, falling for advisors who tell him how rich and arrogant Christians in Jerusalem are, mad Egyptian Fatmid caliph #6 (996-1021) Al-Hakim (985-1021) orders the destruction of all churches (30K?) and synagogues in Jerusalem; his men sack and nearly destroy the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, along with the Anastasis and the Martyrdom of Constantine, leaving only a few portions of the Rotunda on Golgotha; he follows with legislation to segregate dhimmis from the Muslim ummah and force them to convert to Islam by making Christians wear heavy crosses around their necks and making Jews carry a large block of wood; in 1011 Jews are stoned in Fustat as they follow a funeral cortege, while the synagogue in Jerusalem is desecrated and its holy scrolls burned; 1016 he turns on Muslims, forcing them to subsitute his name for God in Friday prayers, sparking riots in Cairo, which only makes him madder, and in 1017 he forbids Muslims to fast on Ramadan or to make the hajj to Mecca, torturing those who disobey; luckily for everybody, one night in 1021 he rides out of Cairo alone into the desert and is never seen again, leaving Christian Jerusalem in ruins, after which in 1023 his sister Sitt al-Mulk sends Patriarch Nicephorus of Jerusalem to Constantinople to report on the situation and get authorization to rebuild, only to be interrupted in 1024 by a revolt against the Fatimids by the Bedouin Jarrah Tribe, who seize control of the roads in Palestine and lay the countryside waste. Not that Muslims care much about Jerusalem, with one 10th cent. Muslim native uttering the soundbyte: "Learned men are few, and Christians numerous".

in 1015 the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem collapses after an earthquake, and is rebuilt in 1022; another earthquake in 1016 damages jerusalem and Jaffa.

In 1021 Fatimid caliph Ali az-Zahir extensively renovates the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

In 1030 Fatimid caliph Ali az-Zahir makes a treaty with Byzantine emperor Romanos III Argyros authorizing the rebuilding of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and other churches in Jerusalem.

In 1042 after authorization by Fatimid caliph Ma'as al-Mustansir Billah, Byzantine emperor Constantine IX Monomachos pays for the restoration of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem along with several other Christian bldgs. incl. the Muristan Hospital, built by a group of Amalfi merchants about 1050.

On July 4, 1054 Chinese astronomers note a "guest star" in the constellation Taurus, the star Zeta Thauri in the Crab Nebula (later known as a source of gamma rays); it is visible in daylight for 23 days and at night for two years; American aborigines see it, along with Arab astronomers, but no European records it - maybe this is a sign that a new country will be born on July 4 halfway to China in America, which will never be ruled by the ever-split Church?

900 years before Joseph McCarthy a demogogue accuses the Church of infiltration by agents of an evil power, and it ends up with no head? On July 16, 1054 after Byzantine patriarch (since 1043) Michael Cerularius disputes Pope Leo IX's claim to jurisdiction in S Italy over the Norman takeover, and lifestyle disputes over unleavened bread (azymes), celibate clergy, Saturday fasts et al. reach the breaking point, Constantiopole Studion monk Niketas Stethatos (Nicetas Pectoratus) writes a bestseller, not stressing that, but instead attacking the Roman Catholics on theoretical lines, making a big thing of their addition in 633 of the 2-word "filioque" clause ("and from the Son") to the 381 First Council of Constantinople Creed, claiming it denies the supremacy of the Father in the Trinity (even though filio and non-filio churches had coexisted peacefully up till now?); after reading it and blowing his top, patriarch Michael Cerularius and his whole church are excommunicated by deceased Pope Leo IX's delegate, Benedictine cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida (Moyenmoutier) (1000-61) (Moyen Moutier), and he responds by excommunicating the pope and the entire Roman Catholic Church, and the hard-hearted Second Great Schism (last) of the churches of Rome and Constantinople begins (ends 1965?); from now on the Greek Orthodox Church, led by the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople rejects the supremacy of the Roman Catholic pope and the use of the word "purgatory", and only accepts the authority of its first seven ecumenical councils; Orthodox priests are permitted to marry, but only those from celibate monastic orders can become bishops (enjoying all the hos they can buy?); the major patriarchates are Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, with the Church of Russia added in 1598 - if you start me up, if you start me up I'll never stop?

In 1064 the Great German Pilgrimage (ends 1065), which incl. archbishops Siegfried of Mainz and Thiemo of Salzburg, and bishops Arnold of Bamberg and Altmann of Passau opens up future Crusader routes; too bad, after they reach the Holy Land Bedouins attack and plunder their fat purses, killing many before reaching their goal of Jerusalem.

In 1070 after being given permission by Egyptian caliph Ali az-Zahir, the Hospital (Order) of St. John the Baptist (Hospitalers) (Knights Hospitaller) (black mantle with a white cross) is founded in the Muristan Christian district of Jerusalem near the Holy Sepulchre by Amalfi Merchants led by Mauro of Pantaleone to take care of sick pilgrims who just came in from the rough 5-mo. journey from W France, establishing the Abbey of St. Mary of the Latins and the Nunnery of St. Mary Magdalene, manned by Benedictine monks from Montecassino, who in the 1060s established the Hospital of St John on the site of the Monastery of St. John the Baptist; in 1099 during the First Crusade they are militarized as the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem by the Blessed Gerard Thom (Thom) (Tum) (Tune) (Tenque) (1040-1120), and formally recognized by Pope Paschal II on Feb 15, 1113.

On Aug. 26, 1071 (Fri.) after rejecting all offers, the orthodox Sunni On Aug. 26, 1071 (Fri.) after first proposing a peace treaty, which is rejected, 30K orthodox Sunni Seljuk Turks from Turkestan under Sultan Alp Arslan ("Lion Hero") (Muhammad bin Dawud Chaghri) (1029-72) decisively defeat a 70K-man Byzantine force under Emperor Romanus IV Diogenes at the Battle of Manzikert (Malazgirt) (Melasgird) N of Lake Van, killing 2K-8K incl. the entire Varangian Guard along with the Norse and Anglo-Saxon mercenaries, and 2K Turkish mercenaries, capturing him after Andronicus Dukas and other magnates desert him along with 20K-35K mainly Frankish and Norman mercenaries, taking 4K POWs; Alp Arslan has the dusty tattered Romanus IV brought before him, and places his foot symbolically on his neck, then orders him to be treated as a king, releasing him after eight days for a 1.5M solidi ransom and a guarantee of 360K more each year; Turkoman chief Atsiz seizes and conquers Palestine; the Turks now control Jerusalem and have an open gate to the C Anatolian plateau, which they occupy and dechristianize (Muslimize) over the next two cents., cutting off all pilgrim routes to Jerusalem until the First Crusade in 1095; less-than-competent junior emperor (since May 22, 1067) Michael VII Ducas (Parapinakes) (Minus a Quarter) (1050-90), son of Constantine X is forced to assume rule by the bureaucrats as Roman Byzantine emperor #151 (until Mar. 24, 1078), appointing Byzantine scholar Michael Psellos (1017-78) as his chief adviser while devoting himself to learning instead of govt. admin., causing his military to deteriorate further; the Caliphate of Cairo in Egypt is still intact, as are the Dominions of the Almoravids in Africa and Spain; meanwhile Malik Danishmend founds a Seljuk principality in N and C Anatolia, which later becomes a rival to Rum. Alp Arslan returns from his campaign agains the Byzantines and deposes ruler (since 1054) Abu Nasr Mamlan II, ending the Rawwadid Dynasty (founded 979).

In summer 1073 while advancing S to defeat the starving Fatimid Empire in Egypt, the Sunni Turkic Great Seljuk Empire under emir Atsiz ibn Uvaq (Abq) (-1079) captures Jerusalem from the Fatimids.

In 1076 Khawrezmian Turkish mercenaries under Atsiz ibn Uvaq conquer S Syria incl. Damascus, displacing the Arabs for the next two cents.; Atsiz ibn Uvaq becomes the first Seljuk emir of Damascus, ordering the construction of the Citadel of Damscus; too bad, next year he unsuccessfully attacks Cairo, and is chased by the Fatimids back to Syria, quelling a revolt in Jerusalem and massacring the pop. while appealing to Tutush I, brother of Great Seljuk sultan Malik Shah I, who gets pissed-off at the massacre and orders him imprisoned and strangled then takes control of his territories, appointing Aruqud Dynasty founder Artuq bin Ekseb (-1091) as gov. of Jerusalem (until 1091).

In 1079 Abu Sa'id Taj ad-Dawla Tutush I (-1095) becomes Seljuk sultan of Damascus (until 1095), going on to conquer S Syria from the Turkomans, then kick the Fatimids out until they only have a thin strip of coastal Palestine.

In 1091 Artuq bin Ekseb dies, and is succeeded as gov. of Jerusalem by his sons Ilghazi (Najm ad-Din Ilghazi ibn Artuq) (-1122) and Sokmen.

In 1092 Malik Shah is assassinated by the hashed-out Assassins (Nizari Isma'ilis) along with his minister Nizam al-Mulk (b. 1018), and is succeeded as ruler of the Sunni Seljuks based in Iconium by his 5-y.-o. son Mahmud I (1087-92), who is overthrown by Berkyaruq (Berqyaruq) (d. 1104); Alp Arslan's son David Kilidge-Arslan (Kilij-Arslan) (d. 1100 ("sword of the lion") becomes rival sultan of the Seljuk Turks, moving the capital from Iconium (Konya) in S Turkey to Smyrna, becoming the first Seluk sultan to face the *!?*! Crusaders; the Great Seljuk Empire begins to tank as Malik Shah's four warring sons split it up, just at the worst time as the schismed Christians decide to link up long enough to take back the Holy Land?

In 1095 after taking Syria from his brother Seljuk sultan Malik Shah I in 1085 (losing it in 1086 and reconquering it in 1094) and finishing the Citadel of Damascus (begun 1076), Seljuq Damascus sultan (since 1079) Tutush I is KIA in a battle with Seljuk sultan (since 1093) Berkyaruq ibn Malikshah (-1105) near Ray along with his gen. Kakuyid Ali ibn Faramurz, and his younger son Duqaq (Abu Nasr Shams al-Muluk Duqaq (-1104) inherits Damascus, and elder son Ridwan (Fakhr al-Mulk Radwan) (-1113), inherits Aleppo, but gets ideas and seizes Damascus, launching a civil war, with Duqaq aided by Yaghi-Siyan of Antioch, and Ridwan aided by Jerusalem gov. Ilghazi and his brother Sokmen of the Artuqids; after Ridwan's atabeg Janah ad-Dawla splits and captures Homes from him, Yaghi-Siyan flops and marrries his daughter to Ridwan, and the two set out to attack Shaizar until they hear of the arrival of the infidel First Crusaders, and everybody returns home rather than unite to fight them; Tutush's kingdom in Syria falls apart as his sons contest the succession, making the Crusaders' work easier, even though the Seljuks continue to rule Syria E of the Frankish states until 1128.

In 1095 Persian Sunni jurist-theologian Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali (1058-1111) (Algazel), later called "Proof of Islam" gives up his chair at the Nizamiyya religious college in Baghdad, and begins 10 years of wandering and meditation to reconcile Suni and Sufi beliefs (until 1106), starting with a visit to Jerusalem in 1095-6, writing his magnum opus The Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya Ulum al-Din) (40 vols.), which becomes the std. Sufi textbook, and The Incoherence of the Philosophers (Tahafut al-Falasifa), dissing Islamic philosophers such as Avicenna (Ibn Sina) and Alpharabius (al-Farabi) for following Greek philosophy even when it contradicts Islam, claiming that God's will is the cause of material events not material laws, becoming a milestone in Muslim thought, diverging them from the Western scientific tradition.

In 1095 the Fatimids of Egypt under emir (sultan) Aphdal take advantage of the quarrels among the Seljuks and take Palestine incl. Jerusalem and Tyre; Peter the Hermit (Peter of Amiens) (1050-1115), a priest of Amiens in Picardy (a former soldier under the counts of Boulogne, who took holy orders after his wife got old and ugly) visits the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, gets pissed-off at the "sufferings of the natives and pilgrims of Palestine", and goes to ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople (1084-1111) Nicholas III Grammaticus (-1111) lobbying for Byzantine emperor (1081-1118) Alexius I Comnenus (Alexios I Komnenos) (1048-1118) to take it back, but is stonewalled, causing him to land in Bari and meet with Pope (1088-99) Urban II (Otto de Lagery) (1042-99), who shines to the idea, telling him to go out and preach the cause, which he does with gusto in Italy and France; "His diet was abstemious, his prayers long and fervent, and the alms which he received with one hand, he distributed with the other: his head was bare, his feet naked, his meagre body was wrapped in a coarse garment; he bore and displayed a weighty crucifix; and the ass on which he rode was sanctified, in the public eye, by the service of the man of God... every breast glowed with indignation when he challenged the warriors of the age to defend their brethren, and rescue their Saviour... The most perfect orator of Athens might have envied the success of his eloquence... and Christendom expected with impatience the counsels and decrees of the supreme pontiff" - Gibbon, Ch. 58; the whole story is phony baloney, made up by later writers as a coverup?; meanwhile, after receiving a letter from Byzantine emperor Alexius I seeking help against the Seljuks, Urban II hastily summons a church council to discuss the problem (really the opportunity to unite the two churches under himself); the 200-bishop, 4K-clergy, 30K-laity Council of Placentia hears Byzantine ambassadors pleading their Western European Christian brethren to come save Constantinople from the Turks, to take the battle to Muslim Asia before the Muslim Turks take the battle to Europe (later used by U.S. Pres. George Dubya Bush?), revealing the pope's true reason for the Crusade; like Bush, he wants Congress to approve it first, so he calls the 8-day Council of Clermont in Auvergne, France (his native country), which he attends on Nov. 27 with 13 archbishops, 225 bishops, and 400 priests, while thousands of adoring laity (plus lords and knights) attend; it proclaims the Truce of God (a suspension of hostilities four days of each week), places women, priests, husbandmen and merchants under the protection of the church from the current private wars, and the nine Christian Crusades to Jerusalem begin with the First Crusade when on Nov. 27 Pope Urban II gives a Killer Sermon, calling for an end to private wars among Christians and an all-out effort to sweep the Muslim infidels back and restore the site of the Holy Sepulchre into Christian hands, sweetened by a plenary (paid in full for all sins) indulgence for enlistment, telling them not to do it for vengeance but for contrition or penance; (you had to be there, but) as the crowd shouts "God wills it, God wills it!" (Deus vult, Deus vult!) (Deus lo volt) (Deix el volt), the pope exclaims, "And let this memorable word, the inspiration surely of the Holy Spirit, be forever adopted as your cry of battle, to animate the devotion and courage of the champions of Christ. His cross is the symbol of your salvation; wear it, a red, a bloody cross, as an external mark, on your breasts or shoulders, as a pledge of your sacred and irrevocable engagement"; after great numbers of clergy and laity get red and put the bloody cross on, and ask popey to lead them into battle, he, ahem, begs that his official duties preclude him from taking time from his busy schedule, and appoints Bishop Adhemar (Ademar) of Le Puy (-1098) (the first bishop he ever elevated) as his legate to the Crusades in Dec., and Count Raymond IV of Toulouse (Raymond I of Tripoli) (Raymond of Saint-Gilles) (1038-1105) as the military cmdr., with instructions to depart for the Holy Land on Aug. 15 of next year (Festival of the Assumption); meanwhile Urban II stays far from the action, traveling around in the rear giving more speeches to raise more suckers, er, soldiers and support; not to be left out, Benedictine brain man Guibert of Nogent (1055-1124) informs the Crusaders that Jerusalem must be seized as a necessary prelude to its eventual capture by Antichrist, followed by the Second Coming of Christ, with the soundbyte "The End of the World is already near" - he meant 1099, the next available Millennium Fever year?

The second stringers are down, so call in the first string? On Aug. 15, 1096 after selling Bouillon to Bishop Orbert of Liege for 1300 marks of silver and 3 marks of gold (1 mark = 230g), bilingual (French and German) Godfrey (Godfroi) (Godefroi) (Geoffrey) de Bouillon (1058-1100), duke (since 108) of Lower Lorraine and Margrave of Antwerp, a direct descendant of Charlemagne in the female line and a descendant of Sigisbert, last Merovingian king) leaves for the Crusades with his brothers Eustace and Baldwin at the head of 80K infantry and 10K cavalry; too bad, he starts out by declaring that he would avenge the blood of Jesus upon the Jews, and kill all who won't convert, abetted by a monk who claims that an inscription on the Holy Sepulchre orders all Christians to convert them; William I the Conqueror's eldest son Robert Curthose pawns Normandy to William II Rufus for 10K marks (1% of its yearly revenue) to finance his departure for the Holy Land, his party consisting of Frankish and Norman barons Tancred (1072-1112) (nephew of Robert Guiscard by his daughter Emma and Marquess Odo), Bohemund I de Hauteville, Count of Taranto (1057-1111) (son of Robert Guiscard) (the #1 military man of the First Crusade, who allegedly fights like a starved lion among a flock of sheep), Count (since 1093) Robert II of Flanders (1065-1111), and Count (since 1089) Stephen II of Blois and Chartres (1045-1102) (known for writing gung-ho Letters to Wife Adele About the Crusade), led by papal legate Bishop Adhemar of Puy and Raymond of Toulouse in several large contingents totaling well over 100K; on Dec. 25 Godfrey's main force of 60K arrives in Constantinople, where suspicious Emperor Alexius I is at first startled because he only asked the pope for 300 top knights, and instead sees a host of heretical locusts, which he locks outside the city gates, but finally gives up on stopping them and decides to use them, making the leaders promise to do homage to him for all territory conquered from their common infidel foes in return for giving them boat passage across the Bosphorus and opening food markets - I'll bet they renege?

In summer 1098 the Fatimids recapture Jerusalem, which turns out to be bad timing as Pope (1088-99) Urban II (1035-99), preaches the first Crusade, er, First Crusade, promising a set-up-house plenary indulgence from sins for all who joined, causing every robber, rapist, murderer and other criminal in Christendom to flock in, while the royals snub it, the highest ranking noble being leader Godfrey de Bouillon (1058-1100), duke of Lower Lorraine, who later gets a promotion to king of Jerusalem but turns it down because he didn't want another David Letterman extortion case.

Like the Sword and Cross program of Charlemagne, Christianity seems to have been corrupted by the Muslims themselves, their perception that they could get away with the convert-or-die thing working on their minds, as in the grass is redder on the other side and keep up with the Shits and Shinolas, so call it the what goes around comes around effect, act like a man, what's the matter with you. Sure, the Christians were only coming to the rescue of poor illegal immigrant pilgrims after hearing of Saracen atrocities, then got caught up in the moment, start pursuing your career in Christian criminal justice today. The Seljuks were their first targets, followed by the Fatimids who held Big J. Too bad, the Crusader scum who left in the first wave took their sweet time getting to the Holy Land, stopping to stage Jewish pogroms, in which many Christian bishops tried to protect them by offering them baptism, causing most to commit suicide, after which the Jewish pop. took 70 years to recover. Despite this, many Jews believed that a Christian V in Jerusalem would cause them to restore it to them, which didn't happen.

On June 7, 1099 after the Egyptian Fatimids under Caliph Mostali offer safe passage to the Holy Sepulchre along with expensive gifts, all in vain, and the Crusaders wait 10 mo. after the defeat of Kerboga "to enjoy the luxury of Syria" (Gibbon), 13K Crusaders begin the Siege of Jerusalem (pop. 200K) (ends July 15); the 40K Egyptian defenders under Aladin (Iftikhar) defeat the early assaults while awaiting reinforcements, which are too late, allowing the Crusaders to conquer the city on July 15 after (you guessed it) 40 days; on July 15 First Crusade leader Godfrey de Bouillon, whose camp was pitched on Mount Calvary enters Jerusalem, and his Crusaders merrily begin a 3-day massacre of the pop., killing 70K for Christ (incl. driving quaking Jews to their synagogue then burning them alive), while the flag of the Christian Cross flies over the city; "If you want to know what was done to the enemies found in the city, know this, that in the portico of Solomon and in his Temple, our men rode in the blood of the Saracens up to the knees of their horses" - Godfrey de Bouillon and Raymond Daimbert, Letter to Pope Urban II from Jerusalem; "They went together through the streets with their swords and spears in hand. All that they met they slew and smote right down, men, women, and children, sparing none... They slew so many in the streets that there were heaps of dead bodies, and one might not go nor pass but upon them that so lay dead... There was so much blood shed that the channels and gutters ran all with blood, and all the streets of the town were covered with dead men." (William of Tyre, 12th cent.); the Crusaders take the crescent off the top of the Dome of the Rock and replace it with a cross, then construct a Christian altar, only to see the Muslims take it back in 1187 and reverse the process.

Starting with Crusade #2 the royals took them over in order to get the credit. One permanent thing the Crusades generated that changed Euro history was the Knights Templar, named after the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, who were supposed to guard Christian pilgrims in their dangerous journeys to and from the coastal port of Jaffa, but ended up becoming the richest international organization in Europe with special protection from the papacy, getting into traveler's checks and banking and ending up with every royal in Europe owing them money, causing them to finally be ruthlessly exterminated starting on Friday the 13th, 1307 after being accused of worshiping Baphomet, a combo Satan, Muhammad, and goat, with Madonna's breasts but no bustiere, causing the remnants to mole into the Roman Catholic Church with a plot to destroy it from within as the so-called Illuminati, see about a zillion Web sites or the profound super-accurate historical tomes and films of Yankee Templar-wannabe Dan Brown (1964-), nyuk nyuk. As the blood dried, in 1099 the Crusaders created the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, which lasted until 1291.

After the Crusaders borrowed money from the Jews to finance their expeditions, and later faced the reality of repaying it with interest, fanning hatred, W Europe became an unfun place for Jews, esp. the rich ones.

1100

On May 17, 1102 the Second Battle of Ramla (Ramlah) (Ramleh) sees Baldwin I of Jerusalem bring only 500 knights against thousands of Egyptian Fatimids, and after the latter surprise them, the cocky Christian fools charge into the enemy lines only to be slaughtered, incl. Stephen of Blois and Hugh VI of Lusignan, after which Baldwin saves himself by barricading himself in Ramlah's only tower, then escaping under cover of darkness to Arsuf, where he talks an English ship capt. into breaking the Egyptian blockade of Jaffa, then rounds up a fleet of French and German Crusaders along with the True Cross for moral support and scores a V on May 27 against the way bigger Egyptian army at the Battle of Jaffa, using his cavalry to break the Egyptian lines and force them to flee to Ascalon, taking big booty; Stephen II of Blois is KIA in the final charge from the tower of Ramlah, where Conrad, constable of Jerusalem is captured, after which Stephen II's eldest son Guillaume is passed over for mental weakness, and his 2nd son Count Theobald II of Champagne (b. 1090) becomes count Theobald IV of Blois and Chartres (until 1151); Joscelin of Courtney decides to remain in Palestine, and ends up as count of Edessa in 1118; having kicked Crusader butt out of Asia Minor, Kilij Arslan I establishes his capital in Konya, and becomes a big man in the Muslim world, the first to kick Crusader butt; since he blocks the land route from Constantinople to Jerusalem, only the sea route remains for pilgrims; Tancred uses this fact to consolidate his power in Antioch without Byzantine interference, capturing Tarsus, Adana, and Massissa in Cilicia (SC Anatolia).

In summer 1102 English pilgrim Saewulf leaves Apulia for a tour of Palestine, taking ship at Monopoli and landing at Jaffa, then traveling by land to Jericho an Hebron, noting that the road between Jaffa and Jerusalem "was very dangerous ... because the Saracens are continually plotting an ambush... day and night always keeping a lookout for someone to attack"; in May 1103 he begins his return journey by ship from Jaffa, fighting off Saracen ships near Acre, and more between Cyprus and Constantinople, surving to write an account of his journeys.

On Mar. 20, 1144 (Mon. after Palm Sunday) or Mar. 22 (Wed.) (day before Passover) Christian tanner's apprentice St. William of Norwich is allegedly murdered by Jews Christ-style in Norwich, England to provide them with ritual blood, and his body is found on Mar. 25 (Sat.) in Thorpe Wood, causing the Jews to be blamed, and the Jewish quarter to be sacked and burned; William is canonized after Thomas of Mounmouth pub. a Latin work about him in 1173, claiming to be there; the Jews are accused of ritual murder for the first but not the last time, as the horrible bloody images of what Jews might be doing to Christians to make their yummy matzoh prove addictive to anti-Semites - the Medieval version of porno?

In 1148 fanatical Muslim Berbers capture and sack Cordova, Spain, and order Christians and Jews to convert to leave, causing Jewish brain man Maimonides (Rambam) (Moses ben Maimon) (1135-1204) to move with his family to Fez, Morroco in 1159, pretending to be Muslims for nine years since they offered Jews the same options. After hiking to Alexandria in 1165, he ends up in Cairo, where he rises to personal physician of Saladin's son and Saladin's vizier, and in 1176 (1177?) is made head of the Jewish community in Egypt, going on to talk Saladin into letting Jews settle again in Jerusalem after he conquers it in 1187.

In 1160 according to world traveler Benjamin of Tudela, after Amadiya, Iraq-born David Alrui (Alroy) (El-David) (Menahem ben Solomon) stirs up the Jews in Mesopotamia with the claim that he's the Jewish Messiah, his father-in-law kills him in his sleep; when the job of Messiah stays open and another claimant appears in 1225 in S Arabia, Maimonides writes Letter to the South, pooh-poohing him while keeping belief in a coming Jewish Messiah as one of the 13 principal tenets of the Jewish faith; he also writes the immortal soundbyte: "The other nations vanish, but the Jews last forever."

In 1173 Navarre-born Jewish world traveler Benjamin of Tudela (1130-73) dies in Castile, leaving The Travels of Benjamin Tudela, which claims that two Jewish workers hired to dig a tunnel on Mount Zion in Jerusalem on the ground floor of the Byzantine-era Hagia Zion church claim to discover King David's original palace, complete with gold crown and scepter, and decide it must be King David's Tomb, which incl. the Cenacle (Upper Room).

On Sept. 20-Oct. 2, 1187 the 1187 Siege of Jerusalem sees Big J wrested from the outnumbered Crusaders by cool all-black-wearing Tikriti-born Kurdish Sunni Muslim leader Saladin (1138-93), who gives the Christians safe passage to the coast then permits Jews as well as Muslims to return and settle. Under his Cairo-and-Damascus-based Ayyubid Dynasty, a period of major construction begins incl. houses, markets, public baths, pilgrim hostels, and Muslim religious endowments. Too bad, for most of the 13th cent. Jerusalem declines to the status of a village due to the waning of the Crusades and Ayyubid internecine struggles, and after the Crusaders are finally kicked out of the Middle East in 1291, the Christian pilgrims are fewer than before the Crusades started, and the Muslims are far less tolerant.

In 1189 at the London coronation of English king (1189-99) Richard I Lionheart (1157-99), a mob stages a Jewish pogrom, which spread sto Lincoln, Stanford, and Linn; meanwhile a mob led by Richard de Malabestia kills 300 Jews in York, while 150 Jews led by Rabbi Yom Tob commit suicide; 300 Jewish rabbis leave persecution in England and France to settle in Jerusalem, where they are welcomed by Saladin's brother Sultan al-Adil.

On Mar. 16, 1190 (Fri.) (night) (Shabbat-ha-Gadol) the Clifford's Tower Massacre in York, England saw 150 Jews huddled in a castle surrounded by mobs set their castle on fire to commit suicide, with the survivors being murdered, becoming England's worst case of anti-Semitism (until ?). Also in 1190 Philip II Augustus of France ordered 80 Jews executed in Orange, France after learning that one of his agents had been hanged by city authorities for murdering a Jew.

On Apr. 2. 1192 Richard I Lionheart of England sends his rep. Henry II of Champagne from Acre to Tyre to inform Conrad of Montferrat of his election as Latin king of Jerusalem, but on Apr. 28, a few days after Henry returns Conrad is murdered by two hashashin in Tyre, and when Henry is sent back to Tyre two days later to help with his coronation, he finds a funeral instead, and eight days later after supposedly wowing her with his virility (being 20 years younger than Conrad) he marries Conrad's pregnant widow Isabella of Jerusalem (1172-1205) (daughter of Amalric I and Maria Comnena), and becomes king of Jerusalem (until 1197); on July 29 the Crusaders, incl. 80 knights and 2K Genoese crossbowmen recapture Jaffa from 7K Muslim cavalry troops, and reach Jerusalem but fail to capture it, and on Sept. 2 after a trial balloon proposal of a marriage of Saladin's brother to Richard I's sister Joan, with Big J invested to the lucky groom, the Crusaders give up fighting for Christ and agree to the 3-year Peace of Ramlah (Ramleh) with Dinner Salad, er, Saladin, giving the Christians a strip of steak, er, coastal territory between Jaffa and Acre, plus access to Jerusalem, and it takes until 1229 for the Christians to recapture Big J; Guy de Lusignan resigns his title of king of Jerusalem, but still has the serviceable launchpad island of Cyprus (until 1194); meanwhile new king Henry II of Champagne meets with the Assassins in their fortress stronghold of al-Khaf, smokes, er, watches two of the fanatics kill themselves to prove what robots they are, then signs a treaty with their grandmaster, causing speculation of a plot with Richard to knock off Conrad all along - get my caddy and my calculator? On Oct. 9 Richard I returns from the Crusades, but suffers from seasickness and decides to cross the Alps disguised as a Knight Templar; too bad, he is captured on Dec. 11 at an inn near Vienna by his enemy Duke Leopold V of Austria (1157-94), then imprisoned (in violation of an unwritten law that Crusaders can't be detained) by orders of grudge-bearing HRE Henry VI in a dark castle in Durnstein (Durrenstein) on the Danube River on Dec. 21 (until Feb. 4, 1194); after his return to France Philip II Augustus begins scheming with Richard's brother John Lackland, getting Normandy handed over by secret treaty; Philip II tries to get Richard I handed over to him as his prisoner, but is refused.

In 1193 a new Mosque of Omar is built in Jerusalem by Saladin to commemorate the prayer that Caliph Omar made in 637 on the E steps of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where David allegedly once prayed, but on the S side instead after the entrance is moved; in 1417 the Al-Khanqah al-Salahiyya Mosque is built on the N side with an almost identical minaret, with the pair sited on a line intersecting the door of the Tomb of Jesus at exactly the same elevation, supposedly to "nullify" the Holy Sepulchre since Muslims don't believe in Jesus' death and resurrection.

1200

Christmas in England: The gift you'll love at a price you'll love even more? In 1218 English king (1216-72) Henry III (1207-72) proclaims the Edict of the Badge, based on the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, making England the first Euro nation to require Jews to wear a marking badge, causing many Jews to emigrate; next year France does ditto, followed by Hungary in 1279; a mass protest in Spain in 1219 causes it to be revoked in England; between this year and 1272 England imposes 49 levies for a total of 200K marks; in 1275 the Statute of the Jewry outlaws lending money at interest; after being given 15 years to get used to living without engaging in usury, the Jews are finally expelled in 1290, and not allowed to return until the time of Oliver Cromwell (1655).

On Mar. 23, 1228 Pope Gregory IX renews the excommunication of double-shuffling wannabe HRE (since Nov. 22, 1220) Frederick II Hohenstaufen (1194-1250) and proclaims a Crusade against his Sicilian lands, then is publicly insulted by a Ghibelline mob, causing him to pick up his holy robes and flee to Perugia, from where he directs an invasion of Apulia (ends 1229); on June 28 Frederick II finally sails for the Holy Land to lead the lay-royal Sixth (6th) Crusade (ends 1229), assisted by wealthy Richard of Cornwall, 1st Earl of Cornwall (1209-72) and Count Thibaud (Theobald) IV (the Troubadour) (the Posthumous) de Champagne (Navarre) (1201-53), but this only causes the pope to ban him a 2nd time; on July 21 he lands at Limassol, engages in a power play with John of Ibelin, the Old Lord of Beirut, sails for Acre, then goes to Jaffa where he holds truce conferences with Egyptian sultan Malik al-Kamil, nephew of Saladin, exposing his soft stance on Islam, helped by being fluent in Arabic; Stupor Mundi (Wonder of the World) Frederick II speaks six languages fluently, incl. Arabic, making him the first Crusader to speak dangerous Muslim talk, causing rumors that he might be the Antichrist.

On Feb. 18, 1229 the Crusaders under cool multilingual brain man HRE Frederick II negotiate the Treaty of Jaffa and Tell Ajul with al-Kamil, Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, ending the Sixth Crusade (begun 1228), agreeing to a commercial convention along with the surrender to the Crusaders of part of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, incl. the complete tour package of Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Lydda, along with a corridor to the sea for Christian tour groups, and a 10-year truce; since Jerusalem is wallless, neither ruler much cares?; Frederick II promises not to build the walls of Jerusalem; the Temple Mount incl. al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock remain in Muslim hands, along with the Crusader Oultrejordain (Transjordan) castles; the Christians retake Jerusalem until 1239, prohibiting Jews from living there; the Muslim and Christian pops. greet the news with riots, with mobs attacking al-Kamil's camp at Tel al-Ajul and having to be driven away by troops; Sheikh Sibt al-Jauzi speaks before sobbing crowds at the Great Mosque in Damascus, calling al-Kamil a traitor, which he lamely responds to by claiming he only gave up "some churches and ruined houses"; on Mar. 18 after no priest will do it, HRE Frederick II crowns himself king of Jerusalem in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, along with his infant son Conrad IV (b. 1228), for whom he acts as regent, then tours the Temple Mount, speaking with the attendants in Arabic and beating up a Christian priest who dares to enter al-Aqsa Mosque carrying a Bible, ordering the muezzin to be allowed to issue the daily calls to prayer, pissing-off the Templers, who plot to assassinate him; actually the patriarch of Jerusalem, who opposed Frederick II at every turn to please his boss the pope ordered all clergy locked up so they couldn't help in the ceremony; hobbled by his ban he leaves in June early in the morning while the Templers pelt him with manure and entrails, then seizes Cyprus with his Longobard troops, defeats a papal army in Sicily, and makes peace overtures to try to get the ban lifted; meanwhile the pope and the emperor trade epithets, accusing each other being the Antichrist (and they're both right?); former Latin king of Jerusalem (1210-25) John of Brienne returns to Jerusalem, and is chosen by the Latin barons of Constantinople to become regent of boy emperor Baldwin II of Constantinople, then becomes emperor in 1231 until he comes of age in 1237.

On Apr. 12, 1229 Raymond VII of Toulouse surrenders to 17-y.-o. Louis IX and his regent mother Blanche of Castile, and signs the Treaty of Paris (Meaux), ending the Albigensian Crusade (begun 1209), betrothing his heiress to Louis' brother Alphonse, while Louis IX is betrothed to Margaret of Provence (1221-95), marrying her on May 27, 1234, proceeding to steal Provence from the HRE; Raymond VII cedes over half of his territory to the king, retaining the remainder only during his life and agreeing to dismantle his fortifications in Toulouse et al., causing Occitan political autonomy to be kaput, and Cathars to lose their last political protection, with Raymond required to hunt them down as vassals of the king.

In 1234 after Rabbi Solomon ben Abraham of Montpellier in S France got antsy about all the Roman Catholic attacks on the Albigensian heretics, and didn't want his congregation to be next, he anathematized the philosophical works of Jewish brain man Maimonides (1135-1204), excommunicating all Jews who treat the Bible allegorically or even study science or profane lit.; Maimonides' supporters led by David Kimchi (Kimhi) (Qimhi) (1160-1235) (AKA Radak) and Jacob ben Machir ibn Tibbon (1236-1304) (AKA Prophatius) struck back by persuading the Jewish congregations of Beziers, Lunel, and Narbonne in Provence, and Sargossa and Lerida in Spain to excommunicate Solomon and his followers; Solomon counterattacked by denouncing Maimonides to the Dominican Inquisition in Montpellier, causing them to burn all his works there, followed by Paris in 1242, setting a precedent that makes books too hot to handle in Roman Catholic lands; too bad, 40 days later they burned the Talmud in Paris too; knowing that if you can get away with books, why not people, on June 13, 1234 Pope Gregory IX pub. the 5-vol. Liber Extra (Decretals of Gregory IX), a collection of 2K decretals which he had sent to the univs. of Bologna and Paris, repeating St. Augustine's belief that "every pagan, Jew, heretic, and schismatic will go to the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his demons", giving the force of canonical law to the doctrine of perpetual servitude of the Jews until Judgment Day, banning them from direct influence over the political process and the life of Christian states until the 19th cent. rise of liberalism; it contains the oldest surviving detailed Description of a Diabolical (Witches') Sabbath, describing the novice having to kiss an enormous toad, then a cold, pale, thin man, which causes him to forget the Catholic faith, then, after a feast, having to kiss a black cat, then the head devil (or devil's head), and finally participate in an orgy; Pope Boniface VIII added a 6th book in 1298 (dominica, nica, what?); meanwhile the Jewish war over Maimonides continued, with Maimonides' followers getting Solomon ben Abraham executed for ratting on fellow Jews, and his leading followers' tongues cut out; meanwhile a rabbinical ban on study of science was issued by Rabbi Don Astruc of Lunel (Abba Mari ben Moses ben Joseph) (Yarhi), supported by Rabbi Asher (Asheri) ben Yehiel (Jehiel) (1250-1327) (AKA Rabbenu Asher, Rosh) and Nacmanides (1194-1270) (AKA Ramban), causing his student Rabbi Solomon (Shlomo) ben Abraham ben Aderet (1235-1310) (AKA Rashba) of Barcelona to do ditto in 1305 for teaching any science, or studying it before age 25, except medicine, causing the rabbis of Montpellier to threaten to excommunicate any Jew who stops his son from studying science; the net result was the decline of science study in the Euro Jewish community, and a retreat into mysticism, esp. the Qabala - I got Scrombosis, I'm dead from the neck up?

In 1239 at the call of Pope Gregory IX, the Baron's Crusade of 1239 begins (ends 1241), led separately by king (since 1234) Theobald I the Troubadour of Navarre (1201-53) (count of Champagne since 1201) and super-rich earl (since 1225) Richard of Cornwall (1209-72) (2nd son of King John of England), with a side crusade to Constantinople led by Baldwin the Broke of Courtenay (1217-73) (last Latin emperor of Constantinople since 1228), which captures Tzurulum; in Nov. after Duke (1213-21) Peter Mauclerc I of Brittany (1187-1250) leaves on the march from Acre to Ascalon, he and his lt. Raoul de Soissons (1210-70) leave the main force and attack a Muslim cattle drive on the Jordan River en route to Damascus, holing-them up then taking their castle and seizing POWs and booty, pissed-off caravan leader An-Nasir Dawud (1206-61), emir (1229-48) of Kerak attacks Jerusalem, forcing the garrison of the citadel to surrender on Dec. 7, destroying its fortifications, but due to internecine warfare between the Ayyubids withdraws to Kerak in exchange for Crusader help against the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, allowing the Franks to return and take control of the city incl. the Temple Mount, causing the Christians to hang church bells in Al-Aqsa Mosque and celebrate Mass in the Dome of the Rock, pissing-off the local Muslim pop; meanwhile on Nov. 12 after the main army reaches Jaffa, a group of 400-600 knights breaks ranks and rides off on a night raid, meeting up with an Egyptian army under Rukn al-Din al-Hijawi in Gaza on Nov. 13 and getting soundly defeated before the main force can catch up and turn around to Acre.

In 1240 the Disputation of Paris in the court of French king St. Louis IX sees Franciscan Karaite Jewish convert Nicholas (Nicolas) Donin, who translated the Talmud and pressed 35 charges against it incl. a passage where Jesus of Nazareth is sent to Hell and boiled in shit for eternity, take on four rabbits, er, rabbis, incl. Yechiel ben Joseph of Paris (-1268), Moses of Coucy, Judah of Melun, and Samuel ben Solomon of Chateau-Thierry, accusing the Talmud of containing blasphemies against Jesus Christ, God, and the Christian religion, and obscenities, and wishing to make them chuck it so they will return to the pure Judaism of the Old Testament and become ripe for Christianity; too bad, Jew-hating Louis IX declares Donin the winner, and after a commission of Christian theologians passes judgment, 24 carriage loads of Jewish mss. incl. 10K-12K Talmuds are publicly burned in Paris in Louis IX's presence on June 17, 1244, with Louis IX uttering the soundbyte that the only way to debate with a Hell-bound Jew is to kill him "with a good thrust in the belly as far as the sword will go" - "once they start burning books it won't be long before they start burning people"? (Henrich Heine) The Carmelites on Mount Carmel (founded 1156) are forced out by the Muslims, settling in Cyprus, Messina, Provence, and England, where they become known as White Friars; in 1245 Pope Innocent IV sanctions a change from hermit to community life as a mendicant order. By this year the intelligentsia of Italy adopt Averroism, the doctrine that Natural Law rules the world without interference by God, that the world is coeternal with God, that there is one immortal soul AKA the active intellect of the cosmos, of which the individual soul is a transitory form, and that heaven and hell are fables invented to cow the people into morality; to fool the Inquisition they profess to believe the Bible and the Christian faith at the same time.

In Christian C Europe, the Jews were treated like untouchable merde, forced to hole-up in ghettos, albeit not altogether without their own consent, since their turf had to be under rabbinical rule anyway, the Sabbath Police. In May 1241 the first Frankfurt Pogrom (Judenschlacht) (Ger. "Battle of the Jews") over Jewish-Christian marriages and forced baptism of children of mixed marriages kills 180 Jews and a few Christians; 24 Jews avoid death by accepting baptism; the synagogue is plundered and the Torah scrolls destroyed; HRE Frederick II orders an i nvestigation, and in 1246 his son Conrad IV issues a pardon of the citizens of Frankfurt, concluding that the pogrom happened "from carelessness rather than deliberation". In 1285 a blood libel in Munich, Germany resulted in the death of 68 Jews; 180 more were burned alive in a synagogue. In 1286 a Jewish pogrom in Oberwesel, Germany started after some Jews are accused of draining the blood of a Christian, resulting in 40 killed; this caused the Jews to give up and begin emigrating from the Rhineland in Germany (incl. Mainz, Worms, and Speyer) to Palestine to live under the Muslims, while a minority headed for Poland and Lithuania, which welcomed them. In 1298 the entire Jewish pop. of Rottingen, Germany was burned to death after a charge of desecrating a consecrated host; pious Baron Rindfleisch led an armed band of Roman Catholics to exterminate the Jewish pop. of Wurzburg, plus 698 in Nuremberg, wiping out 140 Jewish congregations in 6 mo. On July 24, 1349 the remaining Jews of Frankfurt were murdered after they were blamed for the Black Plague, and in 1360 the emperor allowed more Jews to move in, but with less rights than before; by 1412 there were only 27 Jewish households in Frankfurt, which dropped to four in 1416 after new taxes were imposed.

In 1243 the Crusaders led by Richard of Cornwall retake Jerusalem for one year.

In July 1244 Jerusalem is surprise-attacked by Persianized Turkish Sunni Muslim Khwarezmian (Khwarazmian) (Khwarismian) mercenaries (freebooters and unemployed soldiers left over from the 1220 Mongol invasion) in the employ of Egyptian pasha Khwarazmi after he discovered the Christians intriguing against him; the garrison flees to the Tower of David and holds out for nearly six weeks, surrendering on Aug. 23, after which they sack the city, decimate the Christian pop., and drive out the Jews, leaving less than 2K people; Jerusalem remains under Egyptian control until 1517, and under Muslim control until 1917 when British Gen. Allenby captures it. In 1247 they in turn are driven out by the Ayyubids. In 1250-1517 Jerusalem is ruled by the Egyptian Muslim Mamluks (Mamelukes), Turkish slaves who overthrew their masters. During this period many clashes occur between the Mamluks on one side and the Crusaders and the Mongols on the other.

On Dec. 13, 1250 HRE (since Nov. 22 1220) Frederick II (b. 1194) dies in Castel Fiorentino, Sicily, leaving his legitimate son Conrad IV (1228-54) the throne of Germany (1237-54), Jerusalem (1228-54) and Sicily (as Conrad I) (1250-4); he makes his other crypto-legitimate son (did she or didn't she marry him first?) (he claims he is, and both have the same love of poetry and science?) Manfred of Sicily (1232-66) prince of Taranto and Conrad's rep in Italy; Pope Innocent IV continues his struggle against the Hohenstaufen succession, stirring up revolts in numerous cities, all of which Manfred is able to subdue except pesky Naples; meanwhile late Frederick II becomes "Gran Frederigo", the hero of S Italy, leaving the 589-page De Arte Venandi Cum Avibus (The Art of Hunting with Birds), describing bird anatomy, analyzing their flight and migrations, along with experiments with artificial incubation in his well-stocked menagerie, illustrating it with hundreds of accurate drawings; he also writes some of the first Italian Verse (which is born at his court?), and Latin translations of Aristotle, which are taken up by univ. students, launching a mini-Renaissance in Italy, even if he was German?

In 1255 English Christian boy Little St. Hugh (b. 1246) was allegedly ritually murdered by the Jews in Lincoln, England, after which the rabbi who allegedly presided over the ceremony was dragged by the tail of a horse through the streets and hanged, and another (the same?) Jew named Copin was executed after allegedly confessing that the Jews do it once a year; despite the intervention of Dominican monks, 18 more were hanged, and 90 were imprisoned in London for further investigation; Henry III transferred his "rights to mastery of the Jews" to his brother Richard for 5K marks. In the English Civil War of 1257-67, Jewish pogroms almost wiped out Jewish communities in Cambridge, Canterbury, Lincoln, London, Northampton, Winchester, and Worcester.

Speaking of parts west? On Mar. 1, 1260 after the Mongol forces of Hulagu Khan combined with the Franks under Bohemond VI of Antioch and the Cilician Armenians under Hetoum I and captured Aleppo, they hooked up with Hulagu's Christian Turkish gen. Kitbuqa (-1260) and captured Damascus, celebrating Xmas Mass in the Grand Mosque of the Umayyads (formerly the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist), profaning numerous mosques and sacking Jerusalem; An-Nasir Yusuf was KIA by Hulagu, and the Ayyubid Dynasty (founded 1171) became kaput, continuing in name only, with the Muslim power center in Cairo not Baghdad or Damascus; meanwhile the death of Great Khan Mongke caused Hulagu to leave for Karakorum to help decide who will succeed him, and he left only 10K horsemen in Syria under Kitbuqa to occupy it, who raided as far S as Ascalon and Jerusalem, and stationed a garrison of 1K in Gaza and another in Naplouse. On May 5, 1260 Kublai Khan (1215-94), grandson of Genghis Khan succeeded his brother Mongke (Mangu) as Great Khan of the Mongol Empire in N China and parts W, founding the (Great) Yuan Dynasty of China (ends 1368), after first moving the capital to the new city of Shangdu (Xanadu) while squabbling over secession; the Yuan dynastic name was officially adopted in 1271. In 1263 Nahmanides (Nachmanides) (1194-1270) reports that there are only a handful of Jews living in Jerusalem.

On Sept. 3, 1260 after the Mongols offered an alliance to the Franks but Pope Alexander IV forbade it, and Count Julian Grenier of Sidon (-1275) (son of Balian I and Margaret of Brienne) caused the death of a grandson of Kitbuqa, causing him to sack Sidon, pissing-off the Christians so bad they allowed them to pass through Crusader territory, 10K-20K Egyptian Mamluks defeat the Mongols in the watershed Battle of Ain (Ayn) Jalut (Arab. "Spring of Goliath") (Heb. "Spring of Herod) in the Palestinian desert in the Jezreel Valley near Ein Harod, becoming the first Mongol D that isn't avenged, forever defining the SW limit of Mongol expansion; Syria suffers severely from the Mongol invasion, worsened by subsequent invasions in 1281 and 1299. The Egyptians use portable hand cannon (midfa) using gunpowder cartridges charged with 2-3-15 (sulfur-carbon-saltpeter) gunpowder; on the way back to Cairo, its Mamluk ruler Al-Zahir al-Malik Baybars (Baibars) (-1277) ("panther") murdered Sultan Qutuz, and becomes Bahriyya sultan #1 of the Mamluk Empire (until 1277); the Kipchak Turkish Mamluks (Mamelukes) (Arab. "possessed", "owned") seize control of the Egyptian sultanate, ruling Egypt until 1517, and continuing as vassals of the Ottoman Empire until 1811, becoming known for kicking the Franks out of Palestine, and kicking the last Crusader's butt out of Asia; the Bahriyya Sultanate of the Mamluk Empire (ends 1382) ss founded, becoming the leading Muslim state, integrating and ruling the Syrian provinces in 1271-1516 while recruiting Mamluk soldier-slaves from the Caucasus, which causes ethnic tensions between Turks and Circassians (known for their beautiful babes); Cairo becomes the richest city W of the Indus River until 1300, with public works erected by exploited peasants; the usual form of succession is assassination; by the middle of this decade the Christians wake up and begin accepting Mongol feelers about a Franco-Mongol Alliance against the greater threat of the Muslims, the Mongols promising them Jerusalem in return for cooperation; too bad, despite several pro-Christian Buddhist Mongol khans sending embassies, it never happens, perhaps because the Christians demand their conversion first, giving Islam time to slam-dunk and convert them. According to Englsh historian Sir Steven Runciman (1903-2000) in his hit book "A History of the Crusades" (3 vols.) (1951-4): "Had the Mongol alliance been achieved and honestly implemented by the West, the existence of Outremer would almost certainly have been prolonged; the Mameluks would have been crippled if not destroyed; and the Ilkhanate of Persia would have survived as a power friendly to the Christians and the West."

On July 20-24, 1263 the Disputation of Barcelona sees Spanish king (1213-76) James I of Aragon host a debate about whether Jesus Christ was the Messiah, featuring Dominican friar (Sephardic Jewish convert) Pablo Christiani (nee Saul) and Spanish Kabbalist Rabbi Nachmanides (Nahmanides) (1194-1270) (Rabbi Moses ben Nachman) (Ramban), who insists that Torah passages claimed by Christians to predict the coming of a Messiah only speak of "Israel/Jacob my servant", meaning the Jewish people as a whole, and never predicted any kind of divine being, with the soundbyte: "I it seems most strange that... the Creator of Heaven and Earth resorted to the womb of a certain Jewish lady, grew there for nine months and was born as an infant, and afterwards grew up and was betrayed into the hands of his enemies who sentenced him to death and executed him, and that afterwards... he came to life and returned to his original place. The mind of a Jew, or any other person, simply cannot tolerate these assertions. If you have listened all your life to the priests who have filled your brain and the marrow of your bones with this doctrine, and it has settled into you because of that accustomed habit, then if you were hearing these ideas for the first time, now, as a grown adult, you would never have accepted them"; Ramban wins the debate and is awarded 300 gold coins by the king, who attends the Sinagoga Major and addresses the Jewish congregants, pissing-off the Christian pop., causing Ramban to go into exile in Palestine; Friar Christiani goes on to campaign against Judaism and beg the king and later Pope Clement IV to ban the Talmud, and get French king Louis IX to enforce the canonical edict requiring Jews to wear special badges.

In 1267 exiled Spanish Kabbalist Rabbi Nachmanides (Nahmanides) (1194-1270) (Rabbi Moses ben Nachman) (Ramban) makes aliyah to Jerusalem and reports that after persecution by the Khwarezmian Tatars there are only two Jewish families left living there, with the soundbyte: "Many are its forsaken places, and great is the desecration. The more sacred the place, the greater the devastation it has suffered. Jerusalem is the most desolate place of all. ... There are ten men who meet on the Sabbaths they hold services at their home. ... Even in its destruction, it is an exceedingly good land"; he immediately founds the Ramban Synagogue in a deserted house in the Jewish Quarter on Mount Zion, which becomes a center of Jewish life, attracting immigrants; ' he goes on to declare it to be obligatory for Jews to make aliyah to Jerusalem, and that peaceful coexistence with Christians and Muslims has its limits, with the soundbyte: "For we were enjoined to destroy those nations if they make war upon us. But if they wish to make peace, we shall make peace with them and let them stay upon certain conditions. But we shall not leve the land in their hands or those of any other nation at any time whatsoever."

In 1280 the first Jewish Ghetto to segregate Jews is created in Muslim Morocco; the word comes from the Venetian word for iron foundry after Jews are forced to live near one in 1516.

In 1288 Christian Ethiopian emperor (1270-85) Yekuno Amlak (-1285), founder of the Solomonic Dynasty sent a bishop on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and on his return he was captured by the sultan of Adal in Somalid (or Aden in Arabia), who tried to convert him to Islam and then circumcised him when he failed, pissing-off Amlak, who marched on him, kicked his circumcised butt, and captured his capital of Zeila. The story was related by Marco Polo.

On Apr. 4-May 18, 1291 the last Crusader (Frankish) state of Acre (Saint-Jean d'Acre) (Akka) in Syria is sieged and captured by the Mamluks, followed in May by Tyre; the Christian Crusades (begun 1095) end miserably with the expulsion of the Crusaders from the Middle East (Palestine), and the Mamluks in control of all of Egypt and Syria; Pope Nicholas IV calls upon all Christian princes to pray for all the needless deaths, er, take up arms against the Muslims one more time, and for synods to discuss the advisability of uniting the Knights Templar and the Knights of St. John, whose catfights he partly blames for the loss of the Ptolemais; in Aug. he sends a letter to Persian Mongol khan Arghun informing him of plans of Edward I of England to lead another Crusade to recapture the Holy Land, stating that it could only be successful with the help of the "powerful arm" of the Mongols, and asking Arghun to receive Christian baptism and march against the Mamluks; after Arghun dies in Mar. 1291, followed by Nicholas IV in Mar. 1292, Edward I sends Geoffrey de Langley to Persian Mongol khan Gaikhatu, leaving from Genoa and arriving in Tabriz, then returning to Genoa; "Had the Mongol alliance been achieved and honestly implemented by the West, the existence of Outremer would almost certainly have been prolonged; the Mameluks would have been crippled if not destroyed; and the Ilkhanate of Persia would have survived as a power friendly to the Christians and the West" (Sir Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades, p. 402); meanwhile the Knights of St. John are transferred to conveniently-located Cyprus; too bad, the Templars end up back in Europe with no coverstory and too much land and wealth, causing a ton of pissed-off royals who owe them money to get ideas? - they got sixteen years left?

On Dec. 22-23, 1299 after the Mongols invade Syria again (last time 1281) with an army of 10K Mongols and 10K Georgians and Armenians, and cross the Euphrates River and seize Aleppo, they win the Third Battle of Homs (Wadi al-Khaznadar) against 60K-90K Mamluks from Damascus, whose banner features a Star and Crescent Moon, which is later erroneously claimed to be adopted by Muslims after taking Constantinople in 1453; the Mongols lose 5K-14K KIA, vs. 40K-50K Mamluks KIA, after which the Mamluks flee S towards Damascus while being harassed by 12K Marionite and Druz bowmen seeking independence, leaving after which the Mongols sack Damascus and seige the citadel until 1300, when they have to retreat across the Euphrates River to stop an invasion by the Chagatais, leaving the Christians briefly in control of Syria and Palestine until the Mamluks return - Merry Christmas? The area also suffers from many earthquakes and the Black Plague. At least the pesky Arabs who now claim to have the right to Big J aree out to lunch for 267 years - oi vey?

1300

Meanwhile the permanent loss of Jerusalem, the so-called capital of Christendom changed the psyche of Christian Europe, unifying it around Rome, and later when Rome's Christian rival city Constantinopole fell to the Ottomans in 1453, it was a tough love thing, as now Rome had no rival in Christendom. Too bad they didn't automatically unite with Jews in helping them return and take it back because they required them to convert to Catholicism first, but maybe they will now that Israel needs them the most, let's hope.

The original Schindler's List? On Oct. 9, 1334 Polish king (1333-70) Kasimir (Casimir) III the Great (1310-70) confirms the privileges grantted to the Jews in 1264 by Boleslaw V the Chaste, enacting protection laws and allowing them to settle in Poland in large numbers as "people of the king".

Too bad, Roman Catholic Europe was going along great until the horrific Black Death of 1347-50, which exposed the Church as a phony with no pipeline to God, causing them to attempt a coverup by horrible pogroms of Jews throughout Europe, incl. Chillon, Basle, Stuggart, Ulm, Speyer, Dresden, Strasbourg, and Mainz, destroying 60 major and 150 minor Jewish communities, causing survivors to head for Poland, which welcomed them.

In 1342 Pope (1342-52) Clement VI (1291-1352) issues the bull Gratiam Agimus, making the Franciscans the official custodians of the Holy Places in the name of the Church; William of Ockham became gen. of the Franciscans; the office of Latin patriarch of Jerusalem is ' established, becoming head of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre (until 1489); in 1374 the office is moved to the Basilica di San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura in Rome.

While Jerusalem was slipping from the grasp of the Christians, they began generating romantic legends to flatter themselves that it was worth all the vats of blood. In 1356 French Franciscan Jean de Roquetaillade (d. 1366) pub. his Guide to the Tribulation, predicting the return of the Antichrist in 1366, followed in 1369-70 by a Millennial Sabbath, where Jerusalem will get a king again and rule the world. Too bad, it didn't happen, despite all them 6's and 3's in the dates. Either way, by 1450 the learned in Europe consider the Earth to be a flat disk surrounded by imprenetrable oceans with Jerusalem at the center of all nations and paradise somewhere in the Far East, and in 1472 Pope (1471-84) Sixtus IV (1414-84) approves the celebration of the Dodecaorton (Twelve Feasts), incl. the Feast of the Virgin Mary's Presentation in the Temple of Jerusalem in which she allegedly danced on its third step at age three, no wonder that pissed-off German Roman Catholic priest Martin Luther (1483-1546) launches the Protestant Reformation in 1517 to rid it of all this crap.

In Oct. 1365 the Alexandrian (King Peter's) Crusade sees the Knights of St. John under Peter I of Cyprus lead 400 ships which sack Alexandria in Egypt for two days, after which the Mamluks try to block the harbor with rubble and ban Venetian traders, forcing them to search for new trading routes; the news causes Muslims to arrest the whole Franciscan community in Jerusalem and close the Holy Sepulchre, causing the Franciscans to resort to suicide attacks.

On June 6, 1391 (Tammuz 1) taking advantage of the death of weak king John I last Oct. 9, who barely held Jew-hatred back, and the appointment of a weak regent council, a huge Jewish pogrom beginsin Seville, Spain, killing 4K Jews out of 7K families, followed by Cordoba, Toledo, Majorca, Barcelona, and Valencia, causing many Jews to fake conversion to Roman Catholicism, beginning the phenomenon of Crypto-Judaism, which later backfires as nobody but their hairdressers know for sure?

On Nov. 11, 1391 a group of four pissed-off Franciscans demand an audience with the qadi at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, and tell him that Muhammad was "a libertine, a murderer, a glutton, a despoiler who thought that the purpose of human life was eating, whoring, and wearing expensive clothes", refusing conversion to Islam before being executed and joyfully becoming martyrs for Christ, enduring beating and torture before being hacked into pieces by a mad mob and and burned.

1400

In 1418 the Jews are expelled from Trier, followed by Vienna in 1420, Cologne in 1424, Augsburg in 1438, Breslau in 1453, Magdeburg in 1493, Nuremberg in 1499, and Regensburg in 1519, leaving Frankfurt as one of their only remaining ghettos, which ironically let them grow rich as financial dealers. Also in 1420 the pesky Jews were expelled from Lyons, leaving the last Jews in France in Provence and the possessions of the Holy See; for a little good news, Pope (1417-31) Martin V (1368-1431) forcibly reinstated the old privileges of the Jews in Rome, and forbade forced baptism of Jewish children under age 12, meaning when you turn 12 you better find a new home quick. On Feb. 23, 1421 Martin V issues a bull reminding Christians that Christianity is derived from Judaism, and warning friars not to incite against the Jews; too bad, he withdraws it the next year - what a bunch of bull? In 1462 the Frankfurt Jews are finally walled up in a ghetto, which at first let the pop. grow to 260 in 1543 and 2.7K in 1613. During the 16th cent. Frankfurt becomes the #1 Jewish town in Germany, with a Talmudic academy and printing press, and it even serves as the collection point for moneys to be sent to poor Jews in Palestine. Too bad, when a rabbinical conference is held there in 1603 to pass laws regulating Jewish civil affairs, HRE Rudolf II gets pissed-off and declares it treasonous, withdrawing imperial protection for 25 years, allowing pogroms all over Germany until the Jewish towns pay a large fine to the archbishop of Cologne in 1631. Luckily or unluckily, depending on your sense of humor, the 1612-14 Fettmilch Rising in Frankfurt, led by gingerbread baker Vincenz Fettmilch (-1616) sees all 1,380 Jews plundered and expelled by a mob led by jealous guild members, resulting in the emperor intervening and having Fettmilch and six followers beheaded, and the Jews returned under imperial guard, with a stone imperial eagle placed at the gates of their ghetto with the inscription "Protected by the Roman Imperial Majesty and the Holy Empire", causing pogroms to virtually cease in Germany until the rise of the Nazis in the 20th cent. Right there the Jews of Europe realize that Europe is mellowing, and drop their preference for living in Muslim lands, rigging the game in Europe's favor ever since. Not that they want to move to Frankfurt, since the Christian town council sest a lid on the Jewish pop. at 500 familes, with a max of 12 marriages per year. In 1769 the Frankfurt town council rebuffs a petition by the Jews to be allowed to leave their ghetto on Sunday afternoons with the soundbyte: "An example of the unbounded arrogance of this people, who expend every effort to take all opportunities to set themselves up as equals to the Christian citizens." Too bad for the anti-Semites, on July 12, 1796 French Rev. troops under Gen. Jean Baptiste Kleber siege Frankfurt, which is garrisoned with Austrian troops, and on July 13-14 (night) they shell the ghetto, destroying one-third of the houses, causing its de facto abolishment, which doesn't stop the Christians from reestablishing it in 1816-64. In 1859-60 the Jews build a new synagogue which becomes the center of Reform Judaism until the Nazis destroy it on Kristallnacht on Nov. 9-10, 1938.

In 1482 after childless Queen Charlotte surrenders her rights to her nearest legitimate heir Charles I (the Warrior) (1468-90), son of Duke Amadeus IX of Savoy and Yolanda of Valois, daughter of Charles VII of France, he becomes duke of Savoy (until Mar. 13, 1490), although the Repub. of Venice holds it under protest of the House of Savoy; in 1485-90 he becomes titular king of Cyprus, Jerusalem, and Armenia.

In 1482 Swiss Dominican scholar Felix Fabri (1441-1502) visits Jerusalem, describing it as "a collection of all manner of abominations", incl. Saracens, Greeks, Syrians, Jacobites, Abyssianians, Nestorians, Armenians, Gregorians, Maronites, Turcomans, Bedouins, Assassins, a sect (Druzes?), Mamluks, and "the most accursed of all", Jews, whom the Muslims treat like merde, along with Latin Christians, who "long with all their hearts for Christian princes to come and subject all the country to the authority of the Church of Rome"; when/if they make it to the Holy Sepulchure the Christians go apeshit, making "such bitter heartfelt groans, such sweet wailings, and such deep sighs, such sorrow, such sobs from the inmost breast, such peace and gladsome solace" that he gags, finding the pilgrimage around the holy sites, with mandatory kneeling and prostration a drag, with the soundbyte: "To struggle after mental abstraction while boldly walking from place to place is exceedingly toilsome", also questioning the historicity of the Tomb of David and other sites. This doesn't stop (converso Jewish convert?) Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) from selling his expedition in search of a westward route to India to Spanish queen Isabella I the Catholic (1451-1504) by telling her in 1486 that all the spices he returned with could be turned into gold to finance yet another Crusader expedition to recapture Jerusalem and rebuild the temple to give Christ his signal to return. After finally talking her into it in 1492, it didn't turn out the way he planned, but after more voyages to the New World uncover vast riches that made the Spanish into the new Euro superpower, they forget about Jerusalem anyway when the pesky Protestant Reformation comes along, as if they didn't have their hands full ridding the Iberian Peninsula of pesky Jews, many of whom flee to Muslim lands.

In 1489 Pope Innocent VIII suppresses the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and merges it with the Knights Hospitaler (Knights of St. John of Jerusalem) under grandmaster Pierre d'Aubusson (1423-1503); in 1496 Pope Alexander VI restores the order, with a new grandmaster taking the place of the old Franciscan custodian of the Holy Land, who continues to act as ex-officio Latin patriarch of Jerusalem until 1830 - let me upgrade you?

781 years, and it was more than worth it? On Jan. 2, 1492 the keys of Granada are surrendered to the forces of "Los Reyes Catolicos" (the Catholic Kings) Ferdinand II (1452-1516) and Isabella I (1451-1504) of Aragon and Castile by Boabdil (Muhammad XII) (1460-1533), who flees to Fez in N Africa, ending a 10-year effort by the Catholic kings, and becoming the final defeat of the Muslims in Spain, who invaded way back in 711, and were on the loser's team since the 1212 Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, ending the Christian Reconquista (Sp. "reconquest") of Spain (begun 722); as Boabdil and his family leave the city, they pause at El Ultimo Suspiro del Moro (The Moor's Last Sigh) Bridge to look back at the glorious Alhambra ("red fortress"), and his mother tells him, "Weep like a woman for what you could not defend like a man"; meanwhile, wasting no time, after pulling strings with wealthy Marranos (closet Jews) Luis de Santangel(o), Gabriel Sanchez, and Juan Cabrero, auburn-haired (Marrano?) (front man for a Jewish conspiracy?) Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) meets with Ferdinand II and Isabella I in the Alhambra in Granada to beg for support for his proposed expedition to Cathay via the new improved westward ho route, promising to bring back gold and silver to finance an expedition to reclaim the Holy Land for Dear Christ, but they don't go for it, and he finally gives up and starts back for France to give their king the chance to become the next rich and admired Christian hero, but Isabella she-ain't-called-the-Catholic-for-nothing changes her mind at the last minute and sends messengers to stop him at the Bridge of Pinos, and they sign an agreement on Apr. 17, and the rest is, er, history - now America's ass is grass and whitey's got the lawnmower?

Two, two, two expulsions in one, or, You must really try these strawberries and blueberries, we can take care of you wandering Jews? On Feb. 1, 1492 Spanish inquisitor-gen. Tomas de Torquemada (1420-98) gives Spanish Jews 3 mo. to accept Roman Catholic Christinsanity, er, Christinanity, er, Christianity or leave the country, and when they prove stiff-necked like always, on May 1 (Omer 19) Catholic Kings Ferdinand II and Isabella I order the Expulsion of the Spanish Jews, incl. all 250K non-converted Swine from Spain (50K families); after frantically trying to get something of value for their possessions (exchanging a house for an ass, a vineyard for a piece of cloth, etc.), and swallowing their gold and silver coins before going through custom posts, the last boatload leaves on Aug. 3; the ban on Jews is not lifted until 1968; Portuguese-born Jewish royal adviser Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508) is expelled; a massive number of Sephardic Jews migrate to N Africa, where they find themselves more educated, connected, and sophisticated than the Muslims, finding toleration and moving into govt. positions, which ends up stretching Muslim tolerance; many emigrate to the Ottoman Empire, where Sultan Beyazid II welcomes them into Constantinople, Izmir, Salonika, and other cities in Anatolia, the Balkans and Arab lands; others emigrate to England and Am. - no shortage of bankers, doctors, and lawyers now?

How to lose 93 million friends in ten days, or, When he started out he didn't know where he was going, when he got there he didn't know where he was, and when he got back he didn't know where he'd been, until he looked between his legs? The biggest TV reality show without teleprompter or cue cards? On Aug. 3, 1492 (same day the Jews are expelled from Spain by Ferdinand II and Isabella I) after receiving 17K ducats from baptized Jewish finance minister Luis de Santangel (-1498) (who talked the monarchs into it), and allegedly receiving a vision from the Holy Spirit to bear Christ to the West Indies (or a vision from the Devil to carry his Catholic Church there?), writing "I could feel his hand upon me to sail to the Indies... There was no question that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit", 41-y.-o. Christopher (Gr. "Christ-bearer") Columbus (Lat. "dove") (1451-1506) (who is really working for the Illuminati, since his real name is Cristobal, i.e. "anointed of Baal or Satan", plus Colombo (It.) = Colom (Catalan) = Colon (Sp.) = anus?, and Lat. "paloma" = dove = penis?), and who has never been farther E than the Aegean Sea begins his First Voyage for Asia by going W instead of E, setting sail from Paloma, er, Palos, Spain for the island of La Gomera in the Canary Islands to pick up wine and water, getting into a romance with gov. Beatriz de Bobadilla y Ossorio (1462-1501) and staying for 1 mo. (returning in 1493 and 1498, when she marries somebody else), who gives him sugar cane cuttings, after which he sails for the "West Indies" (West Asia), thinking that his voyage will lead him to Cathay (China), Cipango (Japan), the Spice Islands (the Moluccas), then India in three ships with a total crew of 88, incl. five Marranos (converted Jews), incl. interpreter Luis de Torres, surgeon Marco, physician Bernal, and sailors Alonzo de la Calle and Gabriel Sanchez (who later sells Columbus on the idea of capturing 500 Indians to sell as slaves in Seville, becoming the beginning of Am. slavery); the crew is really Catalonian?; the ships incl. the caravel Pinta (Sp. "pint, spotted one") (the fastest), piloted by Martin Alonzo Pinzon (Pinzón) (1441-93), the caravel Nina (Niña) (Sp. "girl") (real name Santa Clara) (Columbus' favorite ship), piloted by his brother Vincente Yanez Pinzon (Yáñez Pinzón) (1461-1515) (who ends up going on all five of Columbus' voyages), and the 235-ton carack (nao) Santa Maria (real name Mariagallante = Gay Mary), Columbus' flagship (crew of 70) (Columbus calls it "La Capitana") (the Santa Maria was used in the 3rd voyage, but Christopher's son Ferdinand writes a history which starts the confusion going); since there are no watches yet to determine longitude at sea, Columbus sails first into the latitude of Cipango (Japan) (the Tropic of Cancer) and proceeds straight W, being helped greatly by the trade winds, which he discovers as he goes.

On Oct. 10, 1492 Columbus' crew nearly mutinies, and makes Columbus promise to return home if land isn't sighted in two days (sounds like a fairy tale concocted later to make them seem to enjoy divine favor?); on Oct. 11 (10 p.m.) a UFO is sighted, consisting of "a light glimmering at a great distance", which disappears and reappears several times, moving up and down "in sudden and passing gleams" - let me guess, a welcome signal from ETs? On Oct. 12 (Oct. 22 Gregorian) (Fri.) (2:00 a.m.) (after 36 days and 2.6K mi.), Pinta's crow's nest sailor Rodrigo de Triana (Juan Rodrigo Bermejo) (1469-?) does guess what, you guessed it, sights land (and later gets so pissed-off at not being given a reward that he moves to Africa and converts to Islam?), and Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) and his crew anchor at San Salvador (Sp. "Holy Savior") (Watlings) Island (called Guanahani by the aborigines) in the Bahamas just N of the Tropic of Cancer, at 23.5 deg. N 75 deg. W (the log books say 24 deg. N 75.5 deg. W) (named after pious pirate Watling, who forbade pillaging on Sundays, the residents renaming it San Salvador in 1926 to claim it as the place of Columbus' first landfall after 434 years of controversy, but it is never conclusively decided, with Cat Island and Samana Cay proposed), and Columbus dresses in full admiral's regalia to take possession of the new land in the name of Ferdinand and Isabella; having never seen a ship, the natives don't see them until a shaman convinces them that they're real, after which they greet Columbus with warm hospitality, causing him to write "They willingly traded everything they owned... They do not bear arms... They would make fine servants... They could easily be made Christians... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want"; after the natives present them with tobacco leaves, which they discard, they sail SW through the Great Bahama Bank, landing on Cuba on Oct. 17, thinking it is the Chinese continent, searching in vain for the magnificent cities described by Marco Polo; on Oct. 20 Columbus writes "I shall set sail for another very large island which I believe to be Cipango, according to the indications I receive from the Indians on board", which proves to be Hispaniola, and he finally lands on Haiti on Dec. 5.

On Dec. 26, 1492 Columbus writes in his journal that he had been hoping to find gold "in so great quantity that the Sovereigns within three years would undertake and prepare to go and conquer the Holy Places [Holy Land]"; chickens and rats are introduced to America; smallpox is also introduced to native Ams. as a get-unwell card by 1518; Jews are also introduced next year, with Portuguese Jews settling in St. Thomas Island, later becoming the first large plantation owners, running sugar factories with 3K African slaves; too bad, when the new discovery doesn't fulfill the original mission of furnishing a route to India and China, desperation sets in, causing the need to milk the New World for plunder and profit to take over, resulting in a mean cold systematic mass murder machine that goes on for cents. and reduces the native pop. to almost nil; Columbus hangs natives 13 at a time in honor of Christ and the 12 Apostles?

1500

On Aug. 24, 1516 the Ottomans under sultan (1512-20) Selim I the Grim (1465-1520) (first Ottoman sultan to assume the title of caliph of Islam) defeats the Mamluks at the Battle of Marj Dabiq (Mercidabik) (Marg Dayek) 26 mi. N of Halab (N of Aleppo) in Syria. The Morons, er, Mormons, er, Mamluks refuse to use gunpowder and artillery, calling it a "dishonorable weapon", relegating it to inferior units while taking on the Ottomans with valor and elan instead, - no wonder they lost? Selim I then takes Aleppo, followed on Sept. 26 by Damascus, then Palestine, and Jerusalem on Dec. 28. On Dec. 30 Sultan Selim I secretly visits Jerusalem for devotions, then annexes all of Syria and moves on to Cairo. The Turks generally remain in control of the Holy Land until 1917. Jerusalem enjoys a prosperous period of renewal and peace under big turbaned Ottoman caliph (1520-66) Suleiman I the Magnificent (1495-1566), incl. magnificent new walls around the Old City. Too bad, the two engineers in charge mistakenly leave Mt. Zion and King David's tomb outside the walls in 1538, pissing-off the sultan, who has them executed. Speaking of the walls around the Old City, in 1541 they seal the Golden Gate to prevent a possible entrance by the Jewish and/or Christian Messiah, putting a cemetery in front because it's taboo for a Jewish priest to walk through one. In 1556 an earthquake damages the city. During much of Ottoman rule, Jerusalem remains a provincial but religiously important center, but since it doesn't straddle the main trade route between Damascus and Cairo, it is a mainly a tourist trap. The Muslim Turks bring many innovations, incl. modern postal systems run by the various consulates, the use of the stagecoach and carriage, the wheelbarrow and the oil lantern, see 1001 Muslim Non-Inventions.

In 1523 Jewish mystery man (a swarthy dwarf in Oriental costume with Messianic claims) David Reubeni (Reuveni) (1490-1541) visits Jerusalem, claiming to be the Messiah, a prince of a remote Jewish kingdom that is the home of the 10 lost tribes of Israel, claiming he came to remove a stone from a pagan temple placed into the Western Wall of the Temple Mount by rebel Jeroboam during the reign of King Solomon, not realizing that the wall was built by Herod the Great, causing Jews to jeer him until he leaves, after which he turns up in Italy claiming to be King David; in Nov. 1525 after presenting a letter of recommendation from Pope Clement VI, he meets with King John III the Pious of Portugal in Almeirim, claiming that he is the son of dead King Suleiman of Habor, which has 300K Israelite subjects, seeking an alliance between Christians and Jews against the Muslims, which he finds hard to stomach since he is busy persecuting suspected Marranos (fake Jewish converts to Roman Catholicism), but agrees to grant him eight ships with 4K cannon; too bad, 5 mo. later after some conversos stage a revolt near Badajoz, the king asks him to leave his kingdom, and he heads for the papal court in Avignon, followed by Bologna then Ratisbon (Regensburg), where he is put in chains and taken to HRE Charles V in Mantua, who hands him over to the Inquisition for extra crispy.

In 1536 after receiving orders from Prophet Muhammad in a dream, Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent orders the rebuilding of the city walls of Jerusalem, building them 2 mi. long and 40 ft. high by 1541; Ottoman court architect Sinan designs the Damascus Gate in the N wall; the water system is overhauled and improved; Suleiman invites Jews to settle there; by 1553 the pop. of Jerusalem is 13,384 incl. 1,650 Jews and Christians.

In 1540 after being forced to flee to Paris and change his name to Villanovus, Freethinking Spanish physician Michael Servetus (1511-53) discovers the Pulmonary Circulation of the Blood. On Oct. 27, 1553 Swiss Protestant leader John Calvin (1509-64) burns his theological enemy, Unitarian (non-Trinitarian) Catalan scholar Michael Servetus (b. 1511) (who was captured while fleeing to his protection after escaping a prison of the Spanish Inquisition) in Geneva, executioner Guillaume Farel warning the audience: "(Servetus) is a wise man who doubtless thought he was teaching the truth, but he fell into the hands of the Devil... Be careful the same thing doesn't happen to you"; liberals lose their illusions about Bible-thumpers ever lightening up anything but a faggot, and a corner is turned in the fight for freedom of conscience? at his trial Servetus is ridiculed for describing Palestine as a sparse, sterile land when the Bible says it's the land of milk and honey; noted noble Paris-educated French Protestant ex-humanist poet Theodore Beza (1519-1605) backs Calvin up - I look bad, feel bad, which is most important?

In 1541 the Ottomans seal the Golden Gate on the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem to prevent a possible entrance by the Jewish and/or Christian Messiah, putting a cemetery in front because it's taboo for a Jewish priest to walk through one.

In 1543 Martin Luther (1483-1546) pub. On the Jews and Their Lies, which calls for their Nazi-like persecution incl. pogroms 400 years before the little-miss-sunshine Nazis, causing their persecution and expulsion from Prague, Worms, Vienna, Genoa, and the papal states over the next 130 years; "A base, whoring people, that is, no people of God, and their boast of lineage, circumcision, and law must be counted as filth"; "Full of the Devil's feces... which they wallow in like swine" (synagogues); "Incorrigible whore and an evil slut".

In 1561 the jealous Christian-run city council of Hagenau in Alsace, known as a fortified haven for wealthy Jews passes a regulation prohibiting non-resident Jews from attending the synagogue, under penalty of closing it; by now only six of the original houses settled by Jewish families in the 1160s are considered permanent, all other Jews being required to lease "temporary" houses at exorbitant fees, while all Jews are heavily taxed - who's zoomin' who?

In 1563 the Shulkhan (Shulchan) Arukh (Heb. "Set Table") Jewish law code was written in Safed, Palestine by Spanish-born rabbi Yosef Karo (Joseph ben Ephraim Karo) (1488-1575), and pub. in Venice in 1565, launching the age of the Acharonim (Heb. "last ones") poskim (legal judges), who succeed the Rishonim (Heb. "first ones"), who did the judging since the 11th cent., becoming the main Jewish law code to modern times.

In May 1566 despite the 1562 truce, Ottoman sultan (since 1520) Suleiman (Suleyman) I the Magnificent (b. 1494) leaves Constantinople with 100K-300K troops in his last Hungarian campaign against the Hapsburgs, with the goal of capturing Vienna; on Aug. 6-Sept. 8 the Battle of Szigetvar (Szigeth) in Croatia near the Hungarian border sees 2.3-3K Croatians under Nikola Subic Zrinski (1508-66) defend their fort to the last man after killing 20K Ottomans, holding back the Ottoman attack on Vienna, causing Cardinal Richelieu to later call it "the battle that saved civilization"; after capturing the strategic fort of Gyula (until 1694), Suleiman I falls ill and dies on Sept. 5/6/7, and is succeeded as Ottoman sultan #11 (until 1574) by his blonde-haired sauce-loving only surviving son Selim II (the Yellow) (the Sot) (1524-74), who takes the title of "Universal Lord of Everything Under the Sun, Descendant from Divine Lineage, Destroyer of the Christian Faith, Dominator of the Universe", then retires to his harem, leaving affairs of state to his Bosnian grand vizier Pasha Mehmet Sokullu (Sokollu) (1506-79), causing his princes to do the same, setting a bad example for the future as palace hos find a chance to rule behind the sultan's skirts, er, whatever they wear?; Portuguese-born Jewish financier Don Joseph Nasi (1524-79) becomes the sultan's diplomatic rep. and is appointed duke of Naxos; he and his aunt Dona Gracia Mendes Nasi (1510-69) finance the rebuilding of Tiberias in Palestine as a center for Jewish learning, unsuccessfully trying to resettle Jews there from the Papal States, which is dropped after Venice goes to war with the Ottomans; Suleimen's internal organs are buried in a shrine on the top of a hill near Szigetvar, which is destroyed in 1692 by the Hapsburgs, later the Szuz Maria Church 3km NE of the fortress.

In 1569 after resigning his position as chief rabbi and giving his fortune to the poor, Spanish-born Jewish sage Radbaz (David ben Solomon ibn Zimra (1479-1573) moves to Jerusalem, but soon relocate to Safed to escape high Ottoman taxes, spending the rest of his life on the rabbinical court.

The idea of Jews being restored to the Holy Land started coming to Christians in the late 16th century, all on the Protestant side. On Jan. 14, 1589 Anglican clergyman (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge U. grad) Francis Kett (b. 1547) was burned in the ditch of Norwich Castle for Arian heresy and for claiming that the Jews would one day return to their Promised Land, "leaping and dancing... clapping his hands... until the fire had consumed all his nether parts, and until he was stifled with the smoke." In 1615 a book by English clergyman (Queens' College, Cambridge U. grad) Thomas Brightman (1562-1607) titled Shall They Return to Jerusalem Again? was pub. posthumously, advocating the return of the Jews to the Holy Land, with the soundbyte: "There is nothing more certain: the prophets do everywhere confirm it and beat upon it." In 1621Sir Henry Finch (-1625) pub. The World's Great Restauration, or Calling of the Jews, and with them of all Nations and Kingdoms of the Earth to the Faith of Christ, predicting the restoration of the Holy Land to the Jews in the near future, followed by a worldwide empire, albeit after accepting Christ, pissing-off King (1603-25) James I (1566-1625), who just topped Shakespeare by publishing the King James Bible in 1611, and pushed the divine right of kings, namely his, leaving no room for any worldwide anything, and had him arrested until he disavowed his opinions. The Roman Catholics, who would never let Christ-killer Jews have any kind of kingdom until they saw the light and became good Catholics didn't see it that way. In 1590 Spanish Jesuit priest Francisco Ribera (1537-91) pub. In Sacrum Beati Ioannis Apostoli, & Evangelistiae Apocalypsin Commentarii, which uses Daniel 9:27 and its week #69 of 70 to interpret the Bible Book of Revelation as predicting a coming Antichrist who will reign for 3-1/2 years (1260 days), rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem, deny Christ, claim to be God, and conquer the world. Italian Jesuit Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) (the one who did Galileo in for challenging the Church dogma that the Earth is flat) added that he will be a Jew. This contrasts with their archenemy Martin Luther (1483-1546), a rabid Jew-hater who had been claiming that the papacy is the Antichrist and that it had already been 1260 years since the Catholic Church began its evil rule, and the End Times are already happening, yes, it's all about the final fate of Jerusalem, starting an eternal war between the two camps over who, when, and how Jerusalem will return to Jewish control, of course with both camps believing that ultimately the Jews will accept Christ, with or without the papacy, although they both seem to have forgotten that Muhammad was supposed to be the Antichrist, not some Jew, don't ask me if they even realized that Muslims believed that Christ is a Muslim and would return to help them defeat the Christians and Jews and take Jerusalem and the world for Muhammad and Allah. No surprise, with such a luscious menage a trois, in 1826 Samuel Roffey Maitland (1792-1866) pub. An Attempt to Elucidate the Prophecies Concerning Antichrist, dredging up the irresistible Jesuit interpretation of Revelation and injecting it into the Church of England, from which U.S. Protestants later got it and spread it, while trying to coverup the Jesuit origin since they wanted to keep calling the papacy the Antichrist too.

1600

On June 30-July 8, 1601 English traveler John Sanderson visits Jerusalem, writing the soundbyte: "In the church [of the Holy Sepulcher], whose distance is twenty or twenty-five paces, are divers altars or divers sorts of Christians. But first I noted in the church door two great holes at which is daily given in the victuals to all sorts of religious persons which keep continually in the said church; for the Turks never open the door except for some pilgrims who first pay the cadie [qadi], who is the chief justice, the Great Turk's due: upon every one under the pope's banner, which they call Franks, nine sequins in gold, and Greeks under the patriarch four and a half, with other Christians alike, [or] some less."

On Apr. 9, 1609 Spanish king (1598-1621) Philip III (1578-1621) took care of some unfinished business and ordered the expulsion of the remaining Moriscos (Jews and Muslims of Moorish ancestry who faked Christian conversion since the days of Cardinal Francisco Jimenez in 1492-1501); by 1614 over 275K were expelled; the Roman Catholic Spanish went on to erase all traces of Muslim occupation of Spain, and burn 1M Arabic books - what was that ruckus in 711?

In 1621 Sir Henry Fitch (-1625) of England pub. The World's Great Restauration, or Calling of the Jews, and with them of all Nations and Kingdoms of the Earth to the Faith of Christ, claiming that the Jews will be restored to the Holy Land, then establish a worldwide empire after accepting Christ, getting him in trouble with James I (for threatening his divine right to rule England?), who has him arrested in Apr. 1621 until he disavows his work.

Too bad for King James I, his beautiful poetic English Bible caused a fundamentalist religious revolution in Britain with Bible-thumpers called Puritans, who started the English Civil War (1642-51) and beheaded his son Charles I (1600-49) in 1649 and set up a Bible-thumping theocracy under Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), who was known for three big moles on his face, which he ordered his portrait painter not to coverup, with the immortal soundbyte "Warts and all". That same year English Baptists Ebenezer and Joanna Cartwright wrote from Amsterdam, calling for Parliament to lift the ban on Jews in England, from which they had been expelled since the days of Edward I Longshanks (1290).

In 1650 the European pop. of Ashkenazi Jews was 100K (vs. 2M in 1800, 8M in 1900). That year Portuguese-born Dutch rabbi Menassah ben Israel (Manoel Dias Soeiro) (1604-57) (teacher of Spinoza) pub. Hope of Israel, arguing for readmission of Jews to England with the killer argument that until Jews live in all lands Christ won't return. The same year Irish archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656) pub. Annals of the World: The Origin of Time, and Continued to the Beginning of the Emperor Vespasian's Reign and the Total Destruction and Abolition of the Temple and Commonwealth of the Jews (Annales Veteris Testamenti, a Prima Mundi Origine Deducti), a 1600-page Latin tome that uses the Bible to date the creation of the world to Sunday, October 23, 4004 B.C., no surprise a Christian would have it on Sunday not Saturday or Friday. T he immediate result was to put the pressure on Bible-thumpers to figure out when and how the world will end with a victory for their precious Christ, forcing them to factor the pesky Jews in. In 1654 the first Jew, Jacob Barsimson emigrated from Holland to New Amsterdam (later New York), after which many more Jews followed him to New Amsterdam and Newport, R.I., going on to establish trade with the Indians in firewater and cheap trinkets and pump up the African slave trade. Also in 1654 the Portuguese under Joao IV the Fortunate won a naval V over the Dutch off the coast of Brazil (first 1649), and took Brazil back from them, bringing the Inquisition with them, causing the Jews to flee, and the first group of Jews in North America arrived in New Amsterdam from Brazil, 23 Sephardic Jews from Recife who had been expelled from Spain in 1492, sought refuge in Holland, then migrated to Dutch-occupied Brazil), and founded Congregation Shearith Israel, the city's only Jewish synagogue until 1825. The Jews now had a beachhead in the New World, and unlike Europe, the govt. imposed virtually no restrictions on them, and let them accumulate unlimited wealth without confiscating it, causing the unique American Jew to develop - 335 years to Seinfeld. In Dec. 1655 after Portuguese-born Dutch Jewish leader Menasseh ben Israel (Manoel Dias Soeiro) (1604-57) (teacher of Baruch de Spinoza) arrives in London and Oliver Cromwell summons the Whitehall Conference, the Jews are officially readmitted to England for the first time since 1290, with Portuguese Jewish merchant Antonio Fernandez Carvajal (1590-1659) becoming #1; Spanish Marrano Jews posing as Roman Catholics had already been living in England, and next year when England declares war against Spain they are forced to admit their Judaism to avoid arrest; they bought their way back in by financing Cromwell's civil wars? - I'm a menudo guy, alright? When Cromwell died, the English freaked at the approaching Millennial Fever Year 1666 and invited Charles I's son Charles II (1630-85) back in on a red carpet in 1660, and he had Cromwell's body dug up and desecrated, his head passed around as a toy; it wasn't until Mar. 25, 1960 that his grisly head-on-a-spike, finally came to a rest on the grounds of Cambridge U., where it was buried near a chapel at Sidney Sussex College.

In 1666 speaking of Jewish Messiahs with designs on riding into Jerusalem, Millennium Fever hits the Christian world again, and this time Smyrna-born Qabbalistic Jewish rabbi Sabbatai (Shabbethai) Zevi (1626-76) milks it for all it was worth, proclaiming himself the Messiah in 1648, moving to Cairo and getting rich, proclaiming himself again in 1665 in Aleppo, Syria in a Jewish synagogue, making him famous throughout Europe and causing groupies from as far away as France to arrive. Too bad, in the Big Year 1666 he made the mistake of going to Constantinople to crown himself sultan with the help of Jehovah, who didn't go along with it, and he is arrested and imprisoned, but bribes his way out, and escapes beheading by pretending to convert to Islam and donning a turban, which pleases the real sultan, who makes him the royal doorkeeper, but after he is caught trying to convert Muslims to Judaism on the sly, he is banished to Montenegro until he croaks, after which his diehard followers continue his Sabbatean Cult to this day, with 100K true believers in today's Turkey, some of whom were alleged to be behind Zionism and Freemasonry, stay forever young.

On Sept. 11-12, 1683 (you guessed it, the original 9/11) the Battle of Vienna (Kahlenberg) saw the horrible Ottoman Empire stopped militarily in its jihad to take over Europe, giving the Christian world a breather and allowing it to spurt ahead scientifically, leaving the Muslim world in the rearview mirror to this day.

The Jews always have Jerusalem in their main windshield. In 1695-6 multilingual Dutch scholar Adriaan Reland (Hadriani Relandi) (1676-1718) toured Palestine, and surveyed 2.5K places mentioned in the Bible (Tanakh) or Mishnah, drawing a map and taking a census, then publishing it all in 1714 in the book Palestina. Far from a Muslim state of Palestine or anything else, he found that most of Palestine was desolate, with most of the pop. concentrated in Jerusalem, Acre, Tzfat, Jaffa, Tiberius, and Gaza, and most of them Jews, with Christians being #2. The few Muslims he saw were nomad Bedouins, with 120 Muslims of the Natsha family and 70 Shomronites living in Nablus (Shchem), the most he found in one place. In contrast, 700 Christians lived in Nazareth in Galilee, and 5K lived in Jerusalem, mostly Jews, with some Christians. Gaza had 550 residents, 50% Jews, and most of the rest Christians. Tiberius and Tzfat were mostly Jewish. Of course he didn't find a single settlement that had an Arabic name other than Ramla, which was founded by the Umayyads in 705-715 because it lies on the Via Maris that connects Cairo with Damascus and is also at the intersection of the road between Jaffa and Jerusalem. In 1705 Reland pub. the first Euro work that attempted to describe Islam objectively, chick-a-boom chick-a-boom.

in 1697 English Anglican clergyman Henry Maundrell (1665-1701), chaplain to the Levant Co. in Syria since Dec. 20, 1695 makes an Easter pilgrimage to Jerusalem, later pub. Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem at Ester A.D. 1697 in Oxford, which becomes a minor travel classic.

1700

The news must have spread fast. In 1700 with financing by German-born Jewish banker ("the Judenkaiser") Samuel Oppenheimer (1630-1703), Judah the Pious (Judah he-Hasid Segal ha-Levi) (1600-1700) settle in Jerusalem with 1K Ashkenazi followers, joining 200 Ashkenazi and 1K Sephardic Jews already there, resulting in the Ashkenazi building a synagogue on credit and getting it taken back in 1720 by the Arab creditors, who set it on fire, after which the Turks decide to ban all Ashkenazis, causing most to move to other cities, while some pretend to be Sephardics; in 1864 the Ashkenazi Hurvat Yehudah he-Hasid (Destroyed Place of Judah the Pious) is rebuilt, then destroyed in 1948 by the Arab Legion. Meanwhile in 1700 Mannheim-born Johann Andreas Eisenmenger (1654-1704) pub. Entdecktes Judenthum (Judaism Unmasked) (2 vols.) (Frankfurt), which cites 193 Jewish books and rabbinical tracts with extensive and accurate erudition to expose the Jewish religion as barbarous, superstitious, and promotious, er, promoting murder of non-Jews, recommending that they lose their "freedom in trade" that is threatening to make them "lords" over the Germans, and that synagogues, public worship, and rabbis be banned, claiming that the Germans descended from the Canaanites, whom the Jews were commanded by Jehovah to destroy in Deut. 7:16., causing Jewish banker Samuel Oppenheimer to pay big bucks to get his patron Hapsburg HRE Leopold I to ban the book, helped by the Jesuits, who claim it slanders Roman Catholicism, which only makes it more popular, becoming a sourcebook for all future anti-Talmudic lit.; Eisenmenger dies of grief?

In 1703 the pop. of Jerusalem led by Muhammad ibn Mustafa al-Husaini revolts against the excessive taxation of gov. Jurji Muhammad Pasha, taking his citadel and causing him to flee; al-Husaini becomes the new gov. until Nov. 1705 when new provincial gov. of Damascus Jurji Muhammad attacks Jerusalem with 2K Janissaries and regains control.

In 1714 Dutch scholar Adriaan Reland (Hadriani Relandi) (1676-1718) pub. Palestina ex Monumentis Veteribus Illustrata, about his tour of Palestine, where he surveyed 2.5K places mentioned in the Bible or Mishnah, drawing a map and taking a census; he finds that most of Palestine is desolate, with most of the pop. concentrated in Jerusalem, Acre, Tzfat, Jaffa, Tiberius, and Gaza, and most of them Jews, with Christians being #2; the few Muslims he sees are nomad Bedouins, with 120 Muslims of the Natsha family and 70 Shomronites living in Nablus (Shchem), the most he finds in one place; in contrast, 700 Christians live in Nazareth in Galilee, and 5K live in Jerusalem, mostly Jews, with some Christians; Gaza has 550 residents, 50% Jews, and most of the rest Christians; Tiberius and Tzfat are mostly Jewish.

In 1720 after falling behind in their payments, their Turkish landlords evict the Ashkenazi Jews from Jerusalem; 200 families relocate to Hebron, Safed, and Damascus, and don't return for a cent.

In 1757 Ottoman sultan Osman III isues the Status Quo firman, dividing ownership and responsibilities of various Christian holy places in Jerusalem and Bethlehem; he follows with firmans in 1852 and 1853 requiring consensus from all six Christian communities for changes; the firmans receive internat. recognition in Article 9 of the 1856 Treaty of Paris.

In 1757 in Poland Jacob Frank (1726-91), leader of the anti-Talmud Zoharistic Jews talks Bishop Mikolaj Dembowski of Kaminiec Podolski into ordering all 10K copies of the Talmud in the city burned, after which the rabbis begin persecuting him and he responds by declaring himmself the successor of Sabbatai Zevi and Osman Baba, converting to the Christian religion, causing Roman Catholics and Protestants to vie for their allegiance, and in 1759 Frank and his followers are baptized in the churches of Lwow, with members of the Polish nobility (szlachta) acting as godparents; on Sept. 17, 1759 Frank is baptized in Lwow under the name Joseph (Jozef), and again on Sept. 18 in Warsaw, with Augustus II as his godfather. Too bad, on Feb. 6, 1760 Frank is arrested in Warsaw for heresy, and imprisoned for 13 years in the Czestochowa Monastery, turning him into a martyr while he proclaims his new religion of Daas (Heb. "knowledge"); after his release in Aug. 1772, he lives in Brno, Moravia until 1786, receiving royal visitors incl. Tsar Paul I of Russia and Emperor Joseph II of Austria while making fans of Maria Theresa, until he gets to uppity and is exiled to Offenbach, Germany with his daughter Eve Frank (-1816), who takes over after he dies; the mothers of Frederic Chopin, Adam Mickiewicz, and Julius Slowacki are converted Frankist Jews?

In 1761 the modern town of Haifa, Palestine on Mt. Carmel is founded by Sheikh Daher el-Omar (1690-1775) 1.5 mi. E of the site of ancient Sycaminum (Tell el-Semak); he became the closest thing to a Muslim ruler of Palestine, ruling Tiberias, Acre, Galilee, and Nazareth while fighting off the jealous Ottomans, who claimed to rule it, siding with Egypt when it rebelled in 1768. Too bad for the PLO, he never became the official ruler of Jerusalem, or Palestine either, just parts of it.

In 1779 German Christian brain man Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-81) wrotes the play Nathan the Wise, showing how wise Jewish merchant Nathan, an anonymous Knights Templar, and wise sultan Saladin worked to bridge the gaps between their three faiths and develop friendship and tolerance, along with rationalism (rejection of miracles); of course the town council of Frankfurt banned it. In 1781 German Christian brain man Christian Wilhelm von Dohm (1751-1820) pub. Concerning the Improvement of the Civil Status of the Jews (2 vols.), arguing for giving Jews civil rights, causing HRE Joseph II to issue an Act of Toleration (Toleranzpatent) this year for Jews in the Austrian empire, on the condition of compulsory military service, leading to riots in Galicia. In 1783 Dohm's friend, Berlin-based Jewish brain man (known as "the little huncback") Moses Mendelssohn (1729-86) (ancestor of composer Felix Mendelssohn), father of the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) pub. Jerusalem; or On Religious Power and Judaism, making a plea for freedom of conscience for I-really-love-you-oh-you're-my-best-friends Jews, arguing against the stern Jewish god, saying that on Mt. Sinai Jehovah never commanded Jews to action, only appealed to them; too bad, after he got too secular, all of his grandchildren converted to Christianity. The Jewish Enlightenment was basically the false dream that if Jews chucked orthodoxy and tried to fit into Euro society and even become nationalists, such as good Germans or good British, anti-Semitism would go away. Up until the creation of the Jewish state of Israel, this only seemed to make anti-Semites get more down and dirty. At least there was a Jewish Enlightenment, which was ironically possible because as Mendelssohn observed, their god Jehovah wasn't a world-ruling tyrant like Allah, er, forget it.

Everybody today knows that Palestine was a thriving Arab Muslim country until the mean Nazi-like Jews stole and occupied it, right? Wrong. In 1784 French philosopher-Orientalist Constantin Francois de Chasseboeuf, Comte de Volney (1757-1820) (born Boisgiras, changing his name to Volney = Voltaire + Ferney) visits Palestine, and after leaving Nablus arrived "at a town, which... presents a striking example of the vicissitudes of human affairs, when we behold its walls levelled, its ditches filled up, and all its buildings embarrassed by ruins, we scarcely can believe we view that celebrated metropolis, which, formely, withstood the efforts of the most powerful empires... In a word, we with difficulty recognize Jerusalem"; he goes on to conduct the first scientific survey of Jerusalem, noting the huge profits made by the Ottomans from the stupidity of the Christian factions by playing them off against each other, and how few pilgrims come to the city from Europe. In 1787 Volney pub. Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie, about his trip to Egypt and Syria (incl. Lebanon and Palestine) in 1782-5; "Palestine is a ruined and desolate land"; "The peasants are incessantly making inroads on each other's lands, destroying their corn, durra, sesame and olive-trees, and carrying off their sheep, goats and camels. The Turks, who are everywhere negligent in repressing similar disorders, are attentive to them here, since their authority is very precarious. The Bedouin, whose camps occupy the level country, are continually at open hostility."

In 1789-99 the French Revolution spreads Enlightenment throughout Europe, giving Jews more ideas and causing them to work for their rights, only to be attacked by the reactionaries, who stoop lower and lower into what they called scientific racism and conspiracy theories to keep them down, when not engaging in horrible pogroms, what's in your wallet? The discovery of photography in France in 1825 by (Joseph) Nicephore Niepce (Nicéphore Niépce) (1765-1833) soon causes the racists to discover the delightful hooked noses and ratlike visages of European Jews, all they ever talk about is that boat, the boat, the boat, the boat.

Let's skip forward to the era of Corsican-born French rags-to-riches emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). On May 19-20, 1798 the French Invasion of Egypt (ends 1801), Napoleon's most romantic adventure began after he reconnoitered a British force under Commodore Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) that was scattered by a storm, and his dismasted flagship HMS Vanguard secretly sailed for Egypt from Toulon with 38K men, incl. a boatload of 167 savants (scientists and mathematicians) (Monge, Berthollet, Fourier) (incl. Orientalists from his Institut d'Egypt, which was founded in Cairo) in a fleet of 300 transport ships, 13 ships of the line and seven frigates, with vague grandiose plans of conquering all of the East like Alexander the Great, starting with the Ottoman Empire, cutting off British access to India. On June 9 they arrived in Malta, and took it by June 12, expelling the 322 Knights of Malta (St. John) (Hospitallers) still defending it under grandmaster de Hompesch, and abolishing all religious orders on the island, reforming its govt. and stealing their library and treasures (pissing off Tsar Paul I, who was also a grandmaster, and was trying to finagle the first Russian warm water port there). On July 1 after slipping by Nelson's clueless fleet on the night of June 22-23, Nappy landed 5K troops in Alexandria, Egypt, capturing it by July 2, then landing the rest of his troops, giving a speech to the Egyptian crowd with the soundbyte "We are the true Muslims", trying to sell them on his being a fan of Muhammad, which they didn't buy. After kicking the butts of Murad Bey and his best cavalry on July 13 in the Battle of Shubrakhit, Nappy's troops marched through the grueling desert and defeated Murad Bey's Mamluks at the Battle of the Pyramids on July 21, capturing Cairo after losing only 30 killed and 300 wounded vs. 3K Mamluk casualties. Back in Britain they finally learned of Nappy's invasion from French newspapers on July 12. Meanwhile Nelson's British fleet reached Alexandria on June 29, then went W instead of E, and swung back, sailing along the S coast of Crete and back to Syracuse on July 19, never finding Nappy. On July 25 Napoleon defeated 10K Turks supported by the British at the Battle of Aboukir (Abu Qir) (Abukir) Bay (14.5 mi. NE of Alexandria), making him master pharaoh of Egypt. Murad Bey retreated to Upper Egypt, and Ibrahim Bey to Palestine. Never fear, after heading for Greece, and receiving news of the French position on July 29, on Aug. 1-2 the British navy under Nelson finally arrived back in Alexandria to save the day, and sunk most of the French fleet (emptied of troops) in Aboukir Bay in the Battle of the Nile (only two of 13 French ships of the line escaped, while no British ships were lost), cutting Napoleon off from France, which ended his threat of conquering India and the East, but only pissed him off into invading Palestine and Syria. The 98-gun line-of-battle ship Fighting Temeraire was captured by the British, later gaining fame in the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar. The USS Constellation, commanded by Commodore Truxton captured the French frigate L'Insurgente; French capt. Aristide Aubert Du Petit Thouars (1760-98) of the Tonnant forced HMS Bellerophon to lower its flag, forced HMS Majestic to break off combat, then died in a bucket filled with wheat with both of his legs and one arm blown off, commanding to the end, his last order being to nail the flag of his ship to the mizzen-mast and never give up the ship, which was later captured. Meanwhile in July the suddenly-the-old-world-changes Rosetta Stone was found in Qayitbey Castle in the small Egyptian village of Raschid (Rosette) by French capt. Pierre-Francois Blouchard, who reported it to French gen. Jacques-Francois de Menou, Baron de Boussay (1750-1810), who, on Nappy's orders to be friendly with the natives feigned conversion to Islam under the name 'Aly Napoleon Bonaparte, and married Egyptian woman Sitta Zoubeida, daughter of a bathhouse keeper whom he mistakenly believed was of the Egyptian aristocracy because she claimed to be a descendant of Prophet Muhammad. A 36-in. piece of black basalt containing a decree of the Egyptian priests of Ptolemy V Epiphanes (-205 to -181) in parallel hieroglyphics, demotic and Greek characters, it proved to be the key to the lost art of reading hieroglyphics after the Egyptian Inst. was founded in Cairo on Aug. 22. On Mar. 3-7, 1799 after invading Egypt, Napoleon captured former Crusader port Jaffa, stinking himself up by executing all 3K of the garrison, pissing off the whole Ottoman army to resist to the last man. On Mar. 18 he sieged the port of Acre, which was defended by Ottomans assisted by the British navy under adm. Sir William Sidney Smith (1764-1840), causing him to give up after nine assaults. On Apr. 16 he won the Battle of Mt. Tabor, then returned to Acre, breached its walls with artillery on May 4, but after hearing about an approaching Ottoman army from Cyprus gave up on May 20, and returned to Egypt after uttering the soundbyte "That man made me miss my destiny" (referring to Smith). Lebanese emir #6 (1788-1840) Bashir Chehab (Shihab) II (1767-1850) refused to assist Nappy even though he and his family converted from Sunni Muslim to Marionite Christianity; a bloody war between the Marionites and Druzes in 1821-5 didn't get French aid either, even though Chehab won, but he ended up getting deposed by the Ottomans with British help in 1840, and the Chehab Dynasty founded in 1697 ended in 1842. A proclamation dated Apr. 20 making Palestine an independent Jewish state, which Nappy intended to proclaim from Jerusalem after taking Acre was trash-canned, conspiracy theories here, at least any Jews who wanted to restore their state knew they had to first take care of Britain and the Ottomans at the same time. Too bad that Euros had become Islam history ignoramuses by then and didn't seem to know about the thousand years of Hell that Islam had put the West through until the Ottomans were stopped in 1683, else they would have dropped their petty squabbles and united behind an all-out push to destroy Islam off the face of the Earth then and there, which they might have actually accomplished by now, instead of making us face a resurgent Islam in the 21st century. Instead, Euros contented themselves with calling the Ottoman Empire the "sick man of Europe" and working to dismantle it and whittle it down to just Turkey, dismantling the caliphate in the 1920s then blithely believing that Islam was dead or would dissolve in the light of Science, only to get the rude shock of 9/11, welcome to T2. Poor little Israel of course was the canary in the cage in the mine that had to get sick so the West could believe that Islam was baack, stay tuned.

Late in the 18th cent. several thousand persecuted mainly rich merchant Jews from Arab countries, incl. Iraq (esp. Baghdad), Syria, Yemen and Persia begin immigrating to India, becoming known as the Yehudi or Baghdadi Jews, and settling in commercial cities such as Surat, Bombay and Calcutta, as well as Rangoon, Burma, later adopting the English language and migrating to England by the end of the 19th cent. Meanwhile in 1790 after living for generations in Morocco and building the cities of Meknes and Fez, a change in rulers causes the Jews to be expelled, and 60 jump to their deaths by fire rather than convert to Islam on the orders of Moulay Yazid. The U.S. Jewish pop. at this time is about 2K, mainly Sephardim, although Ashkenazim from C and E Europe are beginning to arrive.

1800

In the early 19th cent. the Christian Restorationist movement to restore the Jews to Israel gets going, with prominent members incl. U.S. Pres. #2 (1797-1801) John Adams (1735-1826) and "Moby-Dick" novelist Herman Melville (1819-91).

On May 30, 1806 new emperor (since May 18, 1804) Napoleon I issues a decree calling for an Assembly of Jewish Notables, and on July 23 the first meeting of the Sanhedrin since the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. is held in Paris at the City Hall, consisting of 111 Jewish reps. from all the depts. of France and N Italy, which pisses-off Russia, Austria, Prussia, and England, causing Napoleon on Nov. 29 after his V at Jena to give a speech in Posen making Judaism the official fifth column, er, third religion of France, proclaiming the long-disputed loyalty of the 40K Jews in France (1K in Paris) and making them into French citizens, but also depriving some Jews of their economic freedom. Thanks to Napoleon, Portugal gives Jews their freedom in 1811, followed by Prussia in 1812, Holland in 1830, Sweden in 1834, and Switzerland in 1838. After Napoleon falls in the 1815 Battle of Waterloo, Prussia reneges, along with France, until 1830, when it restores Nappy's laws.

In 1808 a fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem begins in St. Helena's tomb in the Armenian section, and demolishes the whole bldg., collapsing the pillars supporting the dome, after which each sect blames the other while fighting for the honor of rebuilding it, with the Greeks winning high bidder and beginning work in 1819, pissing-off the Muslims who riot in front of the governor's residence demanding the work to be stopped, spreading to the whole city, expelling the governor from the city and attacking the Greek Orthodox patriarchate and occupying the Citadel, until the gov. of Damascus sends troops, who capture and behead 46 leaders and send their heads back to Damascus; the work is finished after the Greek erase all traces of Latin control incl. the graves of Crusaders Godfrey of Buillon and Baldwin I, and place a Greek monk on permanent guard, leaving the Roman Catholic Franciscan only the N end, the Armenians the Crypt of St. Helena, the Copts a small chapel to the W, and the Syrians a chapel on the Rotunda, forcing the Ethiopians to build a church-monastery on the roof; a Mulim family is given possession of the keys to the church, locking and unlocking it under control of the authorities with Turkish guards stationed outside to keep the sects from fighting; "The copts, say, are standing before the shrine: long before they have finished their service of sixty minutes, the Armenians hve gathered in numbers around the choir, not to join in the prayers and genufletions but to hum profane airs, to hiss the Coptic priests, to jabber and jest and snarl at the morning prayers."

In 1811 Egypt under Albanian import Pasha Mehmet (Muhammad) Ali (1769-1849) throws off the Mamluks, establishing a dynasty that ruled until 1952; he does it by inviting the Mamluk leaders to a banquet in Cairo, then having them murdered and sending his army to rout their forces, after which he tried to establish his own empire on the decaying remains of the Ottoman one, modernizing and Westernizing Egypt and nationalizing and confiscating as much land as he could from farmers while building armaments factories and a navy. In 1812 he captured the Hejaz, turning the Saudis against him, which he took care of by capturing family head Abdullah ibn Saud and executing him. In 1820 he began taking over Sudan, using it as a base to capture Nubian slaves and expand towards Ethiopia and Uganda, founding the city of Khartoum (Arabic for elephant's trunk) in 1823 at the junction of the Blue and White Nile Rivers. Too bad, he gets too big for his britches and agrees to help the sultan crush the Greek revolt in return for a gift of Crete, and after his son Ibrahim Pasha (1789-1848) stinks himself up in the Peloponnese since 1825 with horrible Allah-pleasing atrocities, his navy, commanded by an Ottoman admiral is sunk by the Europeans (British, French and Russians) on Oct. 20, 1827 at the naval Battle of Navarino Bay in Pylos, Greece, causing him to build another and try to take Syria and the Levant from the Ottomans in 1831 (they owed him, right?), and in 1838 he declares complete independence, but Britain, Austria-Hungary, Prussia and Russia intervene to force him to give up Syria and Crete in 1840 in return for recognizing his right to hereditary rule over Egypt and Sudan while remaining an Ottoman vassal.

On Aug. 2, 1819 after Jewish reps got too pesky and formally demanded emancipation at the 1815 Congress of Vienna, the anti-Jewish Hep-Hep Riots begin in Wurzburg, spreading to Frankfurt, Bohemia, Poland, Latvia,and Denmark, killing many Jews and destroying their property. The cry "hep-hep" is allegedly an acronym for the Crusader rallying cry "Hierosolyma est perdita" (Jerusalem is lost). Too bad that Jews have to suffer for over another 100 years and go through the Nazi Holocaust before Europe finally lets them go and accepts a Jewish homeland in Israel.

In 1820-9 German Jewish writer Isaak Markus (Marcus) Jost (1793-1860) pub. the 9-vol. The History of the Israelites from the Time of the Maccabees, the first serious modern work on Jewish history, which had languished for centuries as Jews felt that the Bible was all the history they needed since Messiah was due any minute. Too bad, the thrust of this work was that the Bible miracles were bunk, the Messiah was a fairy tale, and Jews needed to secularize and assimilate, down by the Boardwalk, down by the sea, yah. No surprise, as Jews experienced anti-Semitism and resistance to assimilation, Jewish historians began going the other way, portraying Jews as an alien race that should not only stay separate but return to their ancestral homeland, all the better that Jehovah promised it to them in the Bible, surprise bridesmaids take over, next on Oxygen. Of course in practice the so-called Jews were a motley crew of peoples who were alien mainly because they lived in ghettos and practised Kosher and other religious laws, but in the 19th century racial theories were as thick as flies on shit, and Jews couldn't be faulted for joining the rage, that's the story of, that's the glory of love. Scientific proof of Semitic genes took until the 21st cent., by which time so much shit hit the fan that a whole new reason for a homeland arose, namely, because they needed a haven from anti-Semitism, never mind that Muslimland is the world's most anti-Semitic region.

On Mar. 6, 1821 after groaning under Ottoman oppression since the fall of Constantinople in 1453, an uprising in Jassy, Wallachia sparks the successful Greek War of Independence (Rev.) (Reign of Terror) against the Ottoman Empire (ends July 21, 1832) after the secret Filiki Eteria (Society of Friends) (founded 1814) declares independence on Mar. 17 and proclaims a liberal repub. constitution; brothers Alexander Ypsilanti (Ypsilantis) (1792-1828) and Demetrius (Demetrios) Ypsilanti (Ypsilantis) (1793-1832) lead a small force of gay Greeks; Britain suspects "a fixed intention to make Constantinople a seat of her power", and begins negotiations to keep Russia out of it, and even though Alexander Ypsilanti is aide-de-camp to Tsar Alexander I and head of the Philike Hetaeria, the tsar refuses to aid them, and the revolt is crushed in a few mo. (300 Greeks vs. 30K Turks?); meanwhile on Mar. 22 another uprising in Morea (Peloponnesus) begins in Patras in W Greece, led by Archbishop Germanos of Patra (1771-1826); until 1824 the Greeks, led by Top Guns Bozo, Loco, Maverick, and Sidewinder, er, Marco Bozzaris (1788-1823) (subject of a cool poem by Am. poet Fitz-Greene Halleck (1790-1867)), Teodoros Kolokotronis (1770-1843), Prince Alexandros Mavrokordatos (1791-1865), and Andreas Vokos Miaoulis (1768-1835) fight without foreign support for their F-14 Tomcats, although a handful of Euro wannabe Alexander the Greats volunteer, incl. fat, club-footed British poet George Gordon Byron (Noel), 6th Baron Byron (OE "cow barn") (1788-1824) and his four pet geese, who gamely rush in to aid the cause of the oppressed Greeks, gaining the sympathy of the British public; one of Byron's numerous yo-yo diets is soda biscuits and vinegar?; the Greek revolt sparks Muslim demonstrations against Christians in Jerusalem, esp. the Greek Orthodox, while Ottoman authorities try to protect them.

To recap, after 1683 the horrible Ottoman Empire, spawn of Satan was effectively qurantined, er, quarantined as a criminal enterprise, and fell more and more behind the West, causing Orthodox Christian Russian tsar (1825-55) Nicholas I (1796-1855) to call it "the sick man of Europe". The 19th cent. saw Britain expand worldwide via its navy, creating "the empire on which the Sun never sets" under Anglican Christian queen (1837-1901) Victoria (1819-1901). In 1838 the Treaty of Balta Liman with Britain was the start of major Euro power interference in the Ottoman Empire. As Christian mostly Protestant nations Britain, Russia, Austria, Germany, and the U.S. became new giant kids on the world block, the Ottoman Empire began to fracture as its former vassals revolted, starting with Greece in 1821-9, Romania in 1859, and Bulgaria in 1876-8, contracting around Turkey, which became a poor backward hellhole filled with hookah-smoking pashas, slaves and buggers, all headed straight to Muhammad's paradise of Hell. Too bad, in 1853-6 the Crimean War saw Protestant Britain side with Muslim Turkey against Orthodox Catholic Russia, causing history-versed English future Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-90) to complain that it besmirched British integrity to prop up the Ottomans, what did he know, he bolted the Anglican Church for the Roman Catholic Church. Meanwhile, although there were no Muslims left in Europe, the British and French began invading Muslim lands, and in 1830 the French colonized Athens, and in 1839 the British colonized Aden. Too bad, the superior Christian White is Right British Empire stunk itself up in India in 1857 with the Sepoy Revolt, which they started by forcing Muslim soldiers to use new paper cartridges that were greased with pig fat and had to be bitten off, violating their halal food code, and compounded by a false story about a Black Hole of Calcutta set up by the Nawab of Bengal on June 19, 1756, which was to say the least exaggerated. Of course after atrocities on both sides the Brits won, and ruled India with a mean iron hand, their White Man's Burden and all that rot, pip pip, bloody bloody. Meanwhile in 1853 (100 years before TLW's birth) big brain polyglot English explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-90) dressed up as an Arab and snuck into Mecca to wow Euros with the stories, too bad he didn't bring a suitcase nuke, along with his translations of the 1001 Nights and the Kama Sutra, thanks for the memories. Meanwhile on Nov. 24, 1859 English biologist Charles Robert Darwin (1809-82) pub. his world-shaking book On the Origin of Species, causing an intellectual and social upheaval in the West as people began to realize that all revealed religion, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim is moose hockey since God didn't create man in the Garden of Eden or anything else, he evolved from apes and trilobites, a wait till later I'll give you the details but throw off religion now kind of thing, causing German Jewish intellectual (who liked to study in the British Museum in London) Karl Marx (1818-83) to get jets and find the missing ingredient in his Communist theories that wasn't supplied by the Christian Gospels, causing him to coin the immortal sayings "Religion is the opium of the people" and "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the spirit of a spiritless situation", along with the conclusion "The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the peo*ple is required for their real happiness." Too bad, the new godless Darwinian survival of the fittest rulers threw the baby out with the bathwater and dumped the entire Judaeo-Christian moral code, ruining the world with two horrible world wars and setting it back maybe 50 years while leaving the Muslim World basically untouched, allowing it to plan a retro comeback while gloating that even their horrible cruel Ottoman sultans weren't as bad as Stalin, Mao or Hitler, probably because they believed in some kind of God. Talk about missed chances, Marx didn't like Islam any more than he did Christianity, and recognized it for what it was: "Islamism proscribes the nation of the Infidels, constituting a state of permanent hostility between the Mussulman and the unbeliever." But since he lived in a Christian world, his followers went after Christianity first, sadly failing to realize that this would lead to a revival of Islam that threatened them as well, welcome to today. More precisely, the atheistic Soviets actually coddled Muslims because their empire covered so many Muslim states, and to coverup the mental contradiction that they were simultaneously attempting to extirpate all traces of Christendom while underestimating them by letting them stay Muslim as long as they pretended to be Communist, they would call Sharia an immature form of Socialism that they would evolve out of into secularism. Therefore, when the Soviet Union fell, they had actually helped the new Muslim states get more Islamic and close in on Russia, pass me some ipecac.

In 1827 the Allegemeine Deutsche Real-Encyklopaidie calls Palestine "desolate and roamed through by Arab robber-bands."

In 1827 Italian-born British Jewish financier and philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore (1784-1885) visits the Holy Land for the first of seven times (last in 1875), donating large sums of money to build up the Jewish community in Jerusalem, and building the Moses Montefiore (Jaffa Gate) Windmill in 1857 in Yemin Moshe, the first Jewish neighborhood outside the Old City walls, established in 1891.

In 1831 Albanian-born Egyptian khedive Mehmet Ali (1769-1849) annexes Jerusalem, causing foreign missions and consulates to begin to establish a foothold in the city; in 1836 his son Ibrahim Pasha (1789-1848) allows Jerusalem's Jewish residents to restore four major synagogues, among them the Hurvat Yehuda he-Hasid ("Ruin of Judah the Pious") Synagogue, which is rebuilt in 1864, then destroyed by the Arab Legion in 1948.

On May 19, 1834 the 1834 Arab Revolt in Palestine begins (ends Aug.) after new Damascus gov. Mustafa Pasha increases the taxes in Palestine by 10x and orders one-fifth of all fighting-age Muslims conscripted, into the Egyptian army of Mehmet Ali, causing Qasim al-Ahmad to rally the Arab clans (peasants and Bedouins) and notify Egyptian officials that they won't supply any more troops, causing Mehmet Ali's son Ibraham Pasha to send troops, after which Qasim leads his forces from Nablus, aided by the Abu Ghosh clan, entering Jerusalem on May 31, driving out the Ottoman garrison and capturing the citadel, then expelling all non-Arabs from the city until Sidon gov. Abdallah Pasha arrives with 2K troops and seven cannons, bombarding the city from the Mount of Olives for a week before the rebels force them to accede to their demands to lower the taxes, leave Jerusalem in the hands of Arab officials, and plege non-interference, becoming the first modern example of Arab solidarity in Jerusalem, raising Arab consciousness.

In 1835 French politician Alpohnse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (1790-1869) pub. Visit to the Holy Land; or, Recollections of the East, with the soundbyte about Palestine: "a complete eternal silence reigns in the town, on the highways, in the country... the tomb of a whole people."

In 1837 after getting appointed by Pres. James Madison in 1813 as U.S. consul to Tunis, where he rescued U.S. citizens from Muslim slavery, only to be removed in 1815 by U.S. secy. of state James Monroe for his Jewish religion, pissing him off and causing him to raise a stink about church-state separation, receiving support from Madison, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, then purchasing land on Grand Island in the Niagara River in 1825 for his new Jewish refuge of Ararat, City of Refuge for the Jews, and holding a big ceremony on Sept. 2, 1825 incl. Jews, Freemasons, a N.Y. militia co., and municipal leaders then changing heart and giving up in favor of a Jewish state in Israel, Philly-born Jewish playwright Mordecai Manuel Noah (1785-1851) (first Jew born in the U.S. to achieve nat. prominence) pub. Discourse on the Evidences of the American Indians being the descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, delighting Mormons by obliquely backing their Book of Mormon, followed in 1845 by Discourse on the Restoration of the Jews, calling on Americans to take the lead in helping Jews return to Israel.

In 1839 the first British consulate opens in Jerusalem after persuasion by ardent Zionist Tory MP Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury (1801-85), who in Jan. pub. an article in the Quarterly Review proposing resettlement of Jews in Palestine, the first by a major politician, and talks British foreign secy. Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784-1865) (AKA Pam) into stepping up plans to return Jews.

In 1839 talking about the Sick Man of Europe, in response to the ascendancy of the West, under British pressure the crumbling Ottoman Empire and caliphate begins the Tanzimat (Reorganization) Era (ended 1876), which features modernization and secular reforms, starting with abolition of public slave markets in the 1840s, and eventually incl. religious tolerance, even decriminalization of homosexuality in 1858, which only pisses-off the hardcore Muslims more, leading to a reactionary movement that resisted all reforms. On Feb. 18, 1856 Ottoman Sultan Abdul Mejid I issues the Imperial Rescript, containing the germs of individual liberty and constitutional govt. in a Muslim nation; too bad in Feb. after Muslim intolerance asserts itself, the Hamayouni (Hamayoni) Decree requires express permission from the sultan for Christians to construct a new church or even repair one; it still hasn't been repealed. Still, in the light of the sell-out Ottoman caliphate, I guess the modern movement to restore the caliphate in order to enact homosexuality-hating Sharia will have to forget the old one.

In 1840 this year is classified as a fun-with-Bambi Messianic Year by the Qabbalists (Kabbalists) in Europe, maybe because the Ottomans reestablish control of Jerusalem , which has a pop. of 10,750 incl. 3K Jews and 3,359 Christians, giving foreigners permission to buy land in 1850, after which the Jewish pop. zooms, becoming the majority group in 1850 (6K vs. 5,350 Muslims and 3,650 Christians), followed by 8K in in 1860, 11K in 1870, 17K in 1880, 25K in 1890, 35K in 1900, 45K in 1910, and 34.4K in 1921.

On Nov. 4, 1840 Palmerston takes out a full-page ad in the Times of London addressed to the Protestant monarchs of Europe, calling for them to help restore the Jews to the Holy Land, which stirs up a group of 320 Christians to send a letter to Palmerston on Mar. 2, 1841 "to remind your Lordship that the land of Palestine was bestowed by the Sovereign of the Universe upon the descendants of Abraham as a permanent and inalienable possession nearly 4,000 years ago, and that neither conquests nor treaties among men can possibly affect their Title to it. He has also decreed that they shall again return to their country and that the Gentiles shall be employed as the means of their restoration."

On Dec. 7, 1841 after Britain and Prussia jointly appoint him as the first Protestant bishop in Jerusalem, Hebrew-speaking Prussian-born Jewish convert Michael Solomon Alexander (1799-1845) is ordained as the first Anglican bishop of the United Church of England and Ireland in Jerusalem, and sent by Queen Victoria and PM Gladstone on a warship to Jaffa with a number of missionaries, arriving in Jerusalem on Jan. 21, 1842, and founding the first Anglican church outside of England, announcing his intention of bringing Jews to Christ, pissing them off, esp. after baptiizng three Jews on May 21, 1843 in the new Hebrew Christ Church near the Jaffa Gate and next door to the British consulate; more Jews are baptized in 1844; the Roman Catholic Church responds by reestablishing their Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem; Alexander dies on Nov. 23, 1845.

In 1841 after traveling to Palestine in 1838, Southington, Conn.-born Biblical archeologist ("Father of Biblical Geography/Archeology/Palestinology") Edward Robinson (1794-1863) pub. his magnum opus Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea (and the Adjacent Regions) (3 vols.), pioneering Biblical geography by identifying numerous Bible sites for the first time incl. Robinson's Arch in Jerusalem; he returns in 1852, pub. an enlarged ed. in 1856.

In 1841-4 French photographer Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey (1804-92) tours the Holy Land incl. Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Greece, and Palestine, making the first modern photographs (daguerreotypes) of Jerusalem; they are discovered in the 1920s, and first exhibited on Jan. 30, 2019 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; in May 2003 Qatar Sheikh Saud Al Thani buys one for a world record price of £565,250 ($922,488).

In 1842 German Bible scholar Otto Thenius visits Jerusalem, proposing that a rocky knoll next to Jeremiah's Grotto N of the Damascus Gate was the Biblical Golgotha ("place of the skull") where Jesus Christ was crucified along with the rock-cut Garden Tomb, which makes fans of several Protestant scholars incl. English scholar Canon Henry Baker Tristram, and Fisher Howe, co-founder of Union Theological Seminary in N.Y. , who claims independent discovery; in 1872 British Royal Engineers Lt. Claude Reignier Conder (1848-1910) is sent by the Palestine Exploration Fund to conduct a mapping survey of Western Palestine, backing up Thenius' theory and making more fans, esp. British Maj.-Gen. Charles George "Chinese" Gordon (1833-85), who visits Jerusalem in 1883 and gains mucho publicity for the idea, causing it to become known as Gordon's Calvary.

In 1844 the U.S. opens a consulate in Jerusalem, with the new consul gen. planting a U.S. flag at the Jaffa Gate and declaring that the U.S. "extended its protection to the Jews of Jerusalem"; meanwhile the first Census of Jerusalem by the Prussian consul Ernst-Gustav Schultz lists 7,120 Jews, 5,000 Muslims, and 3,390 Christians, plus 800 Turkish soldiers and 100 Europeans; Jews outnumber Muslim Arabs by 2-1 in Jerusalem?; many Egyptian Muslims remain there, while Jews from Algiers and North Africa begin to settle in the city in growing numbers, call it a population war; in the 1840s and 1850s, the international powers begin a tug-of-war in Palestine as they sought to extend their protection over the region's religious minorities, a struggle carried out mainly through consular representatives in Jerusalem; the tide of Christian pilgrims increases under the Ottomans, doubling the city's pop. each Easter.

In 1844 New York U. Presbyterian Hebrew prof. Rev. George Bush (1796-1859) (ancestor of U.S. presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush) pub. the bestseller (1M copies) The Valley of Vision; or, The Dry Bones of Israel Revisited, calling for "elevating" the Jews, which "the thralldom and oppression... has so long ground... to the dust" to "a rank of honorable repute among the nations of the Earth" via a new Jewish state in guess where, uttering the soundbytes: "It will blaze in notoriety", and "It will flash a splendid demonstration upon all kindreds and tongues of the truth." Of course he was an Islam history ignoramus else he'd never have assumed that the Muslims would go along with this program, maybe ignorance is hereditary :)

In 1844 Church of Scotland minister Alexander Keith (1781-1880) pub. The Land of Israel According to the Covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, adding: In his [Volney's] day the land had not fully reached its last degree of desolation and depopulation." Okay, he was biased, since he was a Christian Restorationist, coining the slogan "A land without a people for a people without a land", along with the soundbyte "Greece was given to the Greeks, and in seeking any government for Syria, may not a confederacy of kings give Judea to the Jews?", like Mubarak's Egypt maybe democracy is not such a good thing in this particular case.

On July 23, 1845 after the increase of Catholic pilgrims to 4.2K made exclusive control by the Franciscans inappropriate, Pope Pius IX issues the bull Nulla Celebrior, reestablishing the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem along with the Order of the Holy Sepulchre for the first time since the Crusades, with bishop Giuseppe (Joseph) Valerga (1813-72) as the first, superseding the Franciscan control that began in 1342; he arrives in Jerusalem on Jan. 17, 1846 and enters the Holy Sepulchre; the papacy retains the title of grand master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre until 1949.

In Oct. 1847 after it falls into disrepair and becomes vulnerable to looting, losing its marble flooring, a silver star allegedly marking the exact spot of Jesus Christ's birth in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is stolen, causing a brawl between Greek and Latin clergy, which leads to a dispute between France and Russia, which leads Napoleon III of France in Dec. 1852 to force the Ottomans to recognize France as the sovereign authority over Christian sites in the Holy Land, after which the Ottoman sultan replaces the silver star, complete with a Latin inscription, pissing-off the Russians, who send armies to the Danube River, causing the sultan to back down and reverse his decision, restoring the Greeks to sovereign authority, which later gives Britain and France an excuse to go to war with Russia to stop their advance into Ottoman territory, leading to the 1854 Crimean War.

In 1847 London-born Am. Restorationist John Thomas (1805-71), friend of Restoration Movement founder Alexander Campbell founds the crypto-Anabaptist Unitarian (anti-trinitarian) Christadelphian (Gr. "brethren in Christ") sect in America, claiming to be a return to first cent. apostolic Christianity, going on to promote a nat. homeland for Jews in Israel, claiming that Britain would play a leading role; by modern times there are 50K members in 120 countries.

On July 29-Aug. 26, 1849 the 1847 British Gen. Election becomes a V for the Conservatives led by Lord Stanley, with 367 seats, vs. 271 for the Whig Party led by Lord John Russell, while the free trader Peelites led by former PM Sir Robert Peel exit the Whig Party; the Irish Repeal Party of John O'Connell wins 20 of 329 seats; Liberal Lionel Nathan de Rothschild (1808-79), son of British Jewish banking house founder Nathan Mayer Rotschild is elected to the British House of Commons from the city of London; too bad, he won't take a Christian oath to be seated, causing a political struggle, with Lord Russell proposing that the oath be amended to allow him to take his seat, and Benjamin Disraeli backing him, arguing that Christianity is "completed Judaism", with the soundbyte: "Where is your Christianity if you do not believe in their Judaism?", while Oxford Bishop Samuel Wilberforce argues against it, implying that the Jews paid-off Russell, after which all but one member (Disraeli) of the future protection cabinet votes against the measure; Conservative Commons leader Lord George Bentinck resigns, and is succeeded by Lord Granby; in 1858 Rothschild is finally allowed to take a Jewish oath, after which in 1868 Queen Victoria refuses to elevate him to the House of Lords, but mellows and elevates his son Nathan Mayer de Rotschild in 1885, who becomes the first unconverted Jewish member.

In 1849 U.S. Navy Lt. William Francis Lynch (1801-65) pub. Narrative of the United States Expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea, about his 1848 U.S. Navy expedition to measure the elevation of the Dead Sea after visiting Jerusalem and environs, attributing the desertion of Palestinian villages to "frequent forays of the wandering Bedouin".

In 1850 after Sir Moses Montefiori and George Gawler visited Palestine in 1849 and started planning for Jewish resettlement, Reformist Ottoman sultan (1839-61) Abdulmejid I rejects a Zionist proposal to allow Jewish migration to Palestine from James Finn of the British Society for the Promotion of Jewish Agricultural Labor in the Holy Land - you and what army?

In 1854 the Evelina de Rothschild School for Girls is founded in Jerusalem; in 1900 Annie Landau (1873-1945) became headmistress, pub. an article in the Jewish Chronicle of Oct. 30, 1903 that gives Jerusalem's pop. as 40K Jews, 14K Muslims, and 6K Christians.

In 1858 British consul to Palestine (1846-63) James Finn (1806-72) pub. A View from Jerusalem, 1848-1858, with the soundbyte: "The country is in a considerable degree empty of inhabitants and therefore its greatest need is a body of population"; in 1865 Finn founds the Palestine Exploration Fund to explore and map it out and help Jews move in and form agricultural colonies, obviously there weren't enough Allah Akbar "Palestinians" around to lift a porta potty.

In 1860 the Alliance Israelite Universelle is founded in Paris by French Jewish statesman Adolphe Cremieux (Crémieux) (Isaac Moise) (1796-1880) to fight for Jewish rights, with the slogan "All Jews bear responsibility for one another." After opening a school for Jewish children in Tetouan, Morocco in 1862, in 1870 it founds the Mikveh Israel ("Hope of Israel"). the first Jewish agricultural school in Palestine.; by 1900 it operates 100 schools with a student pop. of 26K, and by 2010 it educates 1M Jewish children.

In the 1860s the British Israel Movement iss launched in Britain by the Freemasons and Jews to create a new state of Israel in Ottoman-controlled Muslim-filled Palestine.

In 1860 the Russian Compound is founded in Big J, followed in 1869 by Mishkenot Sha'ananim, the first Jewish neighborhood outside the walls of the Old City, on a hill across from Mt. Zion, which is walled to fend off Arab Bedouin attacks; in 1873-5 Mea Shearim is built by ultra-orthodox Haredi (Charedi) Jews, bringing the look to the Wailing Wall.

In 1862 Bonn-born French-Jewish philosopher Moses Hess (1812-75) pub. Rome and Jerusalem: The Last National Quetion (Leipzig), his magnum opus, which argues for a Marxist-Socialist Jewish state in Palestine to bring about "the Sabbath of history" after mass immigration of Jewish working class people who found rural kibbutzim and moshavim seeking "redemption of the soil", along with an urban Jewish proletariat, becoming the founder of leftist Labor (Socialist) Zionism>, diverging from Marx and Engels by seeing the struggle of races or nationalities as more important than economic classes, becoming one of the first to notice the rise of race-based anti-Semitism in Germany; too bad, Euro Jews still prefer cultural assimilation; makes fans of Theodor Herzl (who brings it back from the grave) and Vladimir Jabotinsky.

In 1863 the Jerusalem City Council is set up by the Jewish pop. I n the 1860s new neighborhoods begin to develop outside the Old City walls to house pilgrims and relieve the intense overcrowding and poor sanitation inside the city.

On Jan. 1, 1863 the 112 km. Beirut-Damascus Road opens, becoming the first major road in the Middle East for wheeled traffic, shortening the journey from 3 days to 13 hours, and causing Beirut to become the main harbor for the E Mediterranean seaboard.

In 1865 after visiting Palestine in 1858 and 1863, Anglican clergyman Rev. Henry Baker Tristram (1822-1906) pub. The Land of Israel, a Journal with Reference to its Physical History, with the soundbyte that "both in the north and south [of the Sharon Plain], land is going out of cultivation, and whole villages are rapidly disappearing from the face of the earth. Since the year 1838, no less than 20 villages have been thus erased from the map and the stationary population extirpated."

In 1866 the British consulate reported that Jerusalem has a pop. of 15K, incl. 8K Jews, 4.5K Muslims, and 2.5K Christians, which makes Jews a majority.

In 1867 an Am. missionary reports the pop. of Jerusalem as 15K, with 4K-5K Jews and 6K Muslims.; every year there are 5K-6K Russian Christian pilgrims; in 1914 Big J has a pop. of 65K incl. 45K Jews, a clear majority.

Did I mention unconverted? Yes, there were side-switchers in the Tribe. In 1868 and again in 1874-80 in Merry Ole England, Conservative Jewish-born Anglican convert Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81) works his way up to prime minister, selling out his Jewishness for the glorious British Empire, while retaining a belief in Jewish racial superiority, especially his own, and uttering the immortal soundbyte when somebody tried dissing him for being Jewish: "Yes, I am a Jew, and when the ancestors of the right honorable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon." Make it special, pure Hershey's. Too bad, he never backs the Zionist cause openly, although in secret who knows, although if so it's hard to figure out why he backed British support of the Ottoman Empire against Russian expansion.

In 1869 the Jerusalem-Jaffa Road was opened, although there wasn't much wheeled traffic until 1914 and WWI.

In 1869 Yankee author (an areligious netural observer) Mark Twain (1835-1910) pub. The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims' Progress, about his cruise aboard the Quaker City through Europe and the Holy Land with a group of religious pilgrims, becoming his best-selling work. In Ch. 46 he writes about the Jezreel Valley in Galilee: "There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent; not for thirty miles in either direction. There are two or three small clusters of Bedouin tents, but not a single permanent habitation. One may ride ten miles hereabouts and not see ten human beings." Ch. 47: "We traversed some miles of desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds - a silent, mournful expanse, wherein we saw only three persons - Arabs, with nothing on but a long coarse skirt like the 'tow-linen' shirts which used to form the only summer garment of little negro boys on Southern plantations." Ch. 48: "It is solitude, for birds and squirrels on the shore and fishes in the water are all the creatures that are near to make it otherwise, but it is not the sort of solitude to make one dreary. Come to Galilee for that." Ch. 49: "We reached Tabor safely, and considerably in advance of that old iron-clad swindle of a guard. We never saw a human being on the whole route, much less lawless hordes of Bedouins." Ch. 52: "The pilgrims took what was left of the hallowed ruin, and we pressed on toward the goal of our crusade, renowned Jerusalem... There was hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country." Ch. 53: "To reproduce a Jerusalem street, it would only be necessary to upend a chicken coop and hang it before each window in an alley of American houses." Ch. 56: "We visited all the holy places about Jerusalem which we had left unvisited when we journeyed to the Jordan and then, about three o'clock one afternoon, we fell into procession and marched out at the stately Damascus gate, and the walls of Jerusalem shut us out forever. We paused on the summit of a distant hill and took a final look and made a final farewell to the venerable city which had been such a good home to us... Nazareth is forlorn; about that ford of Jordan where the hosts of Israel entered the Promised Land with songs of rejoicing, one finds only a squalid camp of fantastic Bedouins of the desert; Jericho the accursed, lies a mouldering ruin, to-day, even as Joshua's miracle left it more than three thousand years ago. Bethlehem and Bethany, in their poverty and humiliation, have nothing about them now to remind one that they once knew the high honor of the Saviour's presence; the hallowed spot where the shepherds watched their flocks by night, and where the angels sang Peace on earth, good will to men, is untenanted by any living creature... Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes. Over it broods the spell of a curse that has withered its fields and fettered its energies... Palestine is desolate and unlovely. And why should it be otherwise? Can the curse of the Deity beautify a land? Palestine is no more of this work-day world. It is sacred to poetry and tradition - it is dream-land." Duh, where are all the Palestinian Arabs who now cry to return to their national homeland? Clearly, Palestine was a project for anybody who wanted to turn it into a nation, lazy Arab jokes here.

On Jan. 5, 1873 after ample rains in 1872 caus Jews to quit buying water from the Arab residents of Shiloach (Silwan), pissing-them off, Hungarian-born Talmudic scholar Aaron Hershler (b. 1850) is murdered by Arabs Jerusalem, becoming the first Jewish victim of Arab terrorism in Israel.

In 1878 Petah Tikva (Heb. "Opening of Hope") (from Hosea 2:17) (modern-day pop. 194K) in the Anchor Valley near Jericho in C Israel is founded as the first modern Jewish agricultural settlement in Ottoman-controlled Palestine; too bad, the sultan kicks them out, and they resettle near the source of the Yarkon River in the middle of a malarial swamp 7 mi. E of Tel Aviv, which forces them out until 1883 after Baron Edmond de Rothschild pays to drain it; the first Arab attack on Jews in Palestine occurs here in 1886, followed by Arab rioting in May 1921.

In 1879 Magdeburg, Germany-born activist Wilhelm Marr (1819-1904) pub. The Victory of Judaism over Germandom, Considered from a Non-Religious Point of View, which coins the term "anti-Semitism" (later Antisemitism) for Jew-hatred, and founds the League of Anti-Semites to stop the Jews from taking over Germany; before dying he recanted and apologized to the Jews, not that he could stop the monster.

In 1880 after visiting Palestine in 1879, then going to Constantinople to unsuccessfully negotiate for a lease of the N half of the Holy Land for Jewish settlement, then receiving funds from Christians, Jews, and Christadelphians to purchase land in Galilee, British MP Laurence Oliphant (1829-88) pub. The Land of Gilead, promoting Jewish settlement of Jordan under British protection while respecting Turkish sovereignty, incl. repatriation of Jews from E Europe and Russia along with the driving out of "warlike" Bedouins and settling Arabs on reservations a la the Indians of America. In 1886 his Ukrainian-born secy. Naftali Herz Imber (1856-1909) pub. a book of poetry with the lyrics for "Hatikvah", which became the nat. anthem of Israel.

On Mar. 13, 1881 Tsar (since 1855) Alexander II (1818-81) (who freed the serfs on Mar. 3, 1861, causing them to mix with Jews, stirring up envy) was assassinated by a group of 15, one of whom, Gesya Gelfman (Hesya Helfman) was Jewish, causing a wave of pogroms encouraged by his son, Tsar (1881-94) Alexander III (1845-94), and resulting in the 1881-2 First (Farmers') Aliyah, the Hebrew word Aliyah meaning ascent (opposite of Yeridah meaning descent), which saw 25K-35K Jews funded by French Rothschild banking family member ("the Famous Benefactor") Baron Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild (1845-1934) ascend, er, immigrate to Palestine from Russia and E Europe by 1904, adding to the 12K already there, dominated by Socialist Zionists who established 23 kibbutzes (agricultural settlements); by 1914 2M Jews emigrated from Russia. The whole idea pissed-off the Muslim Ottoman govt., which issued orders prohibiting Jewish settlement in Palestine, followed in 1892 by restrictions on purchasing land, although baksheesh-taking local officials looked the other way. In 1881 Lithuanian Jew Elieser (Eliezer) Ben-Yehuda (1858-1922) (original name Eliezer Yitzhak Perlman) emigrated to Palestine, dedicating himself to reviving Hebrew as a living language, and going on to publish a Hebrew dictionary and coin new Hebrew words for modern living by transforming vernacular Arabic, causing Jewish to be adopted as the nat. language of Israel despite orthodox rabbis opposing it since the language is too holy for that for them. On Nov. 6, 1884 the Kattowitz (Katowice) Conference in Katowice, Germany for lovers of Zion (Chibath Zion) (many from Russia) gained Zionism its first internat. recognition. In 1904-14 after more horrible Russian pogroms, the Second Aliyah saw 40K more Jews join them, followed by a Third Aliyah in 1919-23 of 40K more from Europe and Russia. Once they arrived, they purchased land and set up collective farms called Kibbutzes (Kibbutzim), turning the backward desert shithole populated by Arab Bedouins into productive agricultural land. Too bad, this backfired in attracting Arabs to the area like honey attracts insects, fomenting big trouble later. Make that sooner, since they started by raiding the Kibbutzes like Huns. The Russky Jews naturally brought their Communist indoctrination with them, causing the Kibbutzes to become little Zionist Commie paradises sans atheism, after which the horrors of Stalinism along with the rise of the capitalist U.S. caused the Kibbutz movement to fade in the 1970s. One famous Kibbutznik was Russian-born Golda Meir (1898-1978), who worked on a Kibbutz in 1921-32 then became Israeli PM #4 in 1969-74 (first in the world who wasn't the wife or daughter of a previous head of govt.), and uttered the immortal soundbyte about the death-wish jihadist Muslims: "There will be no peace until they love their children more than they hate us."

On May 10, 1882 the Alliance Colony Jewish agricultural community is founded in Pittsgrove Township, Salem County, N.J. after funding by the Baron de Hirsch Fund, named after the Alliane Israelite Universelle of Paris; by 1901 there are 151 adults and 345 children on 78 farms covering 1,886 acres; another Jewish agricultural colony is founded in Cumberland County, N.J.; too bad, they gradually fade away, while the Hirsch Villages founded in Israel blossom.

In 1882 Jewish immigration to the U.S. from Eastern Europe begins to greatly increase as mainly young people seek to escape the anti-Semitic stinkhole of Russia and Austria-Hungary; by 1927 80% of 4.2M U.S. Jews are of Eastern European origin.

In 1882 Rishon LeZion in WC Israel is founded by European Jewish immigrants, becoming the 2nd Jewish agricultural community in Palestine after Petah Tikvah.

In 1884 after seducing his wife's 13-y.o. sister Yuliana Dmitrievna "Justine" Glinka (1844-1918) in 1857, and getting her pregnant, Russian historical novelist Vsevolod Sergeyevich Solovyov (1849-1903), son of historian Sergei Solovyov and brother of philosopher Vladimir Solovyov flees to Paris and hooks up with Theosophy founder Madame Blavatsky, but breaks with her in 1886, denouncing her as a failed spy for the Okhrana; meanwhile Glinka moves to Paris and also hooks up with Blavatsky, becoming a secret agent of Okhrana chief in Paris (1885-1902) Pyotr Ivanovich Rachkovsky (1853-1910), allegedly delivering the infamous "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" to him. In 1903 after mystic Russian priest Sergius (Sergei) Alexandrovich Nilus (1862-1929) allegedly writes and presents it to the tsar, who declares it a fabrication and banishes him from the court, the Black Hundreds newspaper Znamya, owned by far-right anti-Semite Pavel Alekandrovich Krushevan (1860-1909) pub. the anon. Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, detailing an alleged Zionist meeting in Basle in 1897 where plans were made by Jews and Freemasons to subvert and destroy Christendom and rule Da World, starting with the overthrow of the holy Russian govt.; in 1905 it is repub. as an appendix to a book by mystical philosopher Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov (1853-1900), and it finally catches on as proved by 600 Okhrana-inspired Jewish pogroms throughout Russia that kill thousands in an effort to divert worker and peasant discontent away from the shaky govt.; although the Protocols are a total fabrication, they become a worldwide bestseller with anti-Semites until ?, and a favorite of Adolf Hitler; in 1921 the London Times claims them to be authentic before recanting; the first Arabic trans. appears in 1925, becoming a bestseller after the 1948 establishment of the State of Israel (until ?); the real author is Paris-based Okhrana agent Matvei (Mathieu) Vasilyevich Golovinski (1865-1920)?; meanwhile in 1903 the Sixth Zionist Congress declines an offer for Jewish settlement in E Africa, causing Israel Zangwill and his English followers to walk out. In 1921 American automobile king Henry Ford (1863-1947) crows loudly about the Protocols, sponsoring the printing of 500K copies and saying "they fit in with what is going on... They are sixteen years old and have fitted the world situation up to this time. They fit now." It's probably still a bestseller today on the Internet, although it's a total work of fiction, as if real Jews would write it all down in Russian not Hebrew and leave it where their worst enemies could get it, then not later claim copyright when they saw all the millions being printed, when not dodging horrible pogroms that is. The nice part about it is that every time the Jews overcome some obstacle to have a good future, the Protocols are dragged out and cited to prove it was all part of their insidious age-old plan to take over the world sans numbers or army, just pure brains, despite being an inferior race, while if something bad happens to the Jews, the Protocols are dragged out and cited to prove that the good guys are beating them, call it a new self-fulfilling edition of St. Mazel Tov's Revelation. Worse for anti-Semites, the Protocols declare that the future king of da world will be of "the dynastic roots of King David", and that "the King of the Jews will be the real Pope, "the patriarch of an international church", that "Certain members of the seed of David will prepare the Kings and their heirs... Only the King and the three who stood sponsor for him will know what's coming", and end with the statement: "Signed by the representatives of Sion of the 33rd Degree" of Freemasonry, who aren't practicing Jews but use the bloodline of King David as a punchline for their king of the Jews, Jesus. In other words, it was written by anti-Semitic Christians with their heads stuck up their butts. Okay, a lot of wealthy internat. banker Jews were into Freemasonry and any and all movements to create a One World Govt. (OWG) that they thought they could control via money, and some might have financed them if not attended their orgies. But is it their fault? Since Charlemagne the Jews were into banking and interest, after they were forced into it by Christendom as fit only for lowlife scum like them, not for good Christians, who reserved real jobs in govt. and military service for themselves.

Prominent old Jewish banking families incl. the Rothschild ("red shield") Family, the Pereire (Péreire) Family, the Warburg Family, and the Oppenheim Family, who between them are alleged to help Jews control the world through the international banking system, which after WWII they have made so convoluted and interdependent that they can starve any country that gets pesky at will, except Muslim ones of course, they are into Islamic banking that has a different set of rules. Maybe not, ask George Soros (Gyorgy Schwartz) (1930-).

In 1888 American Methodist minister (ardent Christian Zionist) William Eugene Blackstone (1841-1935) visited Palestine, coming back enthused with the prospects of a new Israel, then organizing the Nov. 24-25, 1890 Conference on the Past, Present, and Future of Israel at his First Methodist Episcopal Church in Chicago, Ill., which incl. Jewish leaders and called on the Ottomans and other great powers to give Palestine back to the Jews. In 1891 he beat Herzl to the punch and got the Blackstone Memorial petition calling for American support of you know what signed by 413 prominent U.S. Christian and Jewish leaders, incl. John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, and Cyrus McCormick, and presented it to U.S. pres. Benjamin Harrison and secy. of state James G. Blaine, with the soundbyte "for they never abandoned the land. They made no treaty, they did not even surrender. They simply succombed, after the most desperate conflict, to the overwhelming power of the Romans." U.S. Supreme Court justice Louis D. Brandeis, head of the U.S. Zionist movement later became a fan, getting him to reissue the Blackstone Memorial to Pres. Wilson to assure his support for the 1917 Balfour Declaration. In 1902 when Uganda was offered to the Jews as an alternate homeland, Blackstone personally contacted Theodor Herzl to send him his personal Bible redlining Biblical references to a Jewish restoration in Palestine, which Herzl kept on his desk for years.

In 1891 the Boston Flag of Judah consisting of two blue horizontal stripes on a white background with a Star of David in the center is created by Lithuanian-born Rabbi Jacob Baruch Askowith of Boston, Mass., and displayed in next year's 400th anniv. Columbus Day Parade; the word "Maccabee" in Hebrew letters is later replaced by "Zion", and adopted by the Second Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland in 1898, then flown at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Mo., gaining internat. attention, finally being adopted in 1948 by the new Jewish state of Israel.

In 1892 Lithuanian Roman Catholic priest Father Justinas Bonaventure Pranaitis (1861-1917) pub. The Talmud Unmasked, based on Johannes Eisenmenger et al., which uses direct quotes to show that Jews regard non-Jews as cattle that can be robbed and murdered, and blasphemes Christ; he is later defrocked and discredited as an amateur in court.

On Mar. 31, 1893 the Dundee Advertiser in Scotland pub. a speech by R. Scott Moncrieff, commissioner of the Society for the Relief of Persecuted Jews about a visit to Palestine he made in Aug. 1891, with the soundbyte: "The question was often asked how many Jews there were in Palestine, and that question he had endeavoured to find an answer to. In Palestine he found after much inquiry - although he had considerable difficulty in getting reliable facts - that there were at least 75,000 Jews, young and old. The great bulk - much more than half - of the Jews were in Jerusalem. After inquiring at different Rabbis and at Christian residenters, he was led to conclude that there must be at least 45,000 Jews in and around Jerusalem."

On Sept. 11-27, 1893 the first annual World Parliament of Religions at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Ill. brings together Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Christian Scientists, Spiritualists, Confucians, Baha'is, Jains, polytheists, and pagans in an attempt to "combine into one world-religion what is best", becoming the first interfaith gathering, birthing a global movement; too bad, it doesn't work, since they all think they've got the only truth; Nat. Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) is founded by Hannah Greenebaum Solomon (1858-1942), becoming the first nat. assoc. of Jewish women, pissing-off Jewish men; Hindu guru Swami Vivekananda (Narendra Nath Datta) (1863-1902) gives an inspiring speech on the opening day starting with "Sisters and Brothers of America", introducing Hinduism and the philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western World.

On Nov. 1, 1893 the Western Mail of Cardiff, Wales pub. an interview with Arab Christian Yusuf Audi, "chief of the Dahr Awad tribe", "a lineal descendant of Jonadab, the son of Rechab", describing the laziness and illiteracy of the Muslims in Palestine, with the soundbyte: "The Jews, who number 35,000 are in a majority, and all the remainder are either Mohammedans or Christians, there being about 20,000 of each."

In 1894 the Dreyfus Affair stunk France up after French Alsatian Jewish military officer Capt. Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935) was framed for treason (selling secret military info. to the Germans) and convicted "in camera" by royalist anti-republican officers, then stripped of rank and his sword broken, and made into an example of traitors in the republican govt. in an attempt to discredit it. It took until 1906 for him to be released from priz. French Jewish deputy Joseph Reinach (1856-1921) (oldest of the three famous Reinach archeologist brothers, and a former assoc. of Leon Gambetta) championed Dreyfus' cause, only to be criticized for defending him only because they were both Jews, causing him to lose his seat in the chamber of deputies. Austrian-Hungarian-born Jew Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), Paris correspondent for the Vienna Neue Freie Presse covered the story, causing him to freak and abandon the idea of gradual assimilation of Jews like him into Christian Europe, predict a future Holocaust and begin advocating a separate Jewish state, founding let's-have-our-own-Jewish-state Zionism. He ended up predicting a Holocaust 33x in his writings, making him a genuine Jewish prophet. Actually, in Mar. 1881 after Herzl applied for membership, the Lesehall at the U. of Vienna was dissolved after a discussion degenerated into vicious anti-Semitism, causing him to join the Fraternity Albia instead; too bad, two years later the members attended a Richard Wagner memorial which turned into an anti-Semitic rally, after which his resignation was refused so they can throw them out on their own terms, causing him to decide that Jews had no future in Europe already.

On Aug. 29-31, 1897 the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland was led by Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) and Max Simon Nordau (1849-1923), formulating a Zionist platform and founding the Zionist Org. (ZO), adopting Hatikvah as its anthem; Red Cross founder Henri Dunant was a prize guest; the Zionist Org. of Am. was founded to represent Am. Jews to the ZO; they went on to revive the Hebrew language; Herzl went on to meet with the pope, kaiser, sultan (4x), and other leaders to garner support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, becoming the first Zionist efforts to establish a Jewish state in Israel; the refusal of Sultan Abdulhamid II to give land to Jews for settlement leads to the abolition of the sultanate and caliphate?; Zionist leader Litman Rosenthal had a conversation with Herzl, in which he uttered his Great War Prophecy: "The great European war must come. With my watch in hand do I await this terrible moment. After the great European war is ended the Peace Conference will assemble. We must be ready for that time. We will assuredly be called to this great conference of the nations and we must prove to them the urgent importance of a Zionist solution to the Jewish Question." On Oct. 28, 1898 uppity Herzl briefly met with German kaiser (1888-1918) Wilhelm II (1859-1941) outside the city walls of Big J, through the wall they can see the baseball field, over there is the old warehouse with a tin roof. The kaiser was riding a white stallion and wearing a gold helmet, and after Herzl waited with his cheap safari hat in hand for an official recognition of his plan for resettling Jews in Israel, the kaiser uttered the soundbyte "The land needs water, very much wasser", promising to put in a good word with the sultan for a Jewish chartered co. in Palestine under German protection. Instead it backfired as the kaiser strengthened Ottoman-German ties, helping launch the Pan-Arab movement with Germany as their #1 weapons supplier, investing heavily in the Baghdad Railway (1899) and other capital projects, then allying with them against the West in horrible WWI, the love between the anti-Semitic Germans and anti-Semitic Arabs will never end. In 1904 Herzl tried Pope (1903-14) Pius X (1835-1914), asking for Vatican support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, apparently unaware of the St. Augustine lovely brainwave. The pope's reply was the immortal soundbyte: "The Jews who should have been the first to acknowledge Jesus Christ have not done so to this day. And so if you come to Palestine and settle your people there, we will be ready with churches and priests to baptize all of you." Looking for love, starting tonight at the all-new Bachelor Pad. Of course, the Vatican refused to recognize the new state of Israel in 1948, stalling until Pope John Paul II did it in 1994, after even the PLO did it. Not that it was easy getting even fellow Jews on board. In Aug. 1902 Baron Rothschild wrote a Letter to Theodor Herzl, with the soundbyte that he "should view with horror the establishment of a Jewish colony pure and simple; such a colony would be Imperium Imperio; it would be a Ghetto with the prejudice of the Ghetto; it would be a small petty Jewish state, orthodox and illiberal, excluding the Gentile and the Christian."

In 1897-8 Brookline, Mass.-born John Lawson Stoddard (1850-1931) pub. John Stoddard's Lectures (10 vols.); vol. 2 promotes the restoration of the Jews to Israel, with the soundbyte: "You are a people without a country; there is a country without a people. Be united. Fulfill the dreams of your old poets and patriarchs. Go back, go back to the land of Abraham", which is popularized as "A land without a people for a people without a land."

Most of the 20th century for Jews was wasted fighting against last-gasp attempts at retro fascist Euro dictatorships, usually fueled by ever-popular anti-Semitism, with dreams of a new Charlemagne dancing in their heads. Throughout the 19th century anti-Semitism was festering bigtime in Europe, especially in Germany. In 1899 British-born Germanophile Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855-1927) pub. The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century (Die Grundlagen des Neunzehnten Jahrhunderts), which became a big hit with the pan-Germanic "Aryan" movement, claiming that the "noble" Aryan race (Germans, Celts, Slavs, Greeks, Latins) (all descended from the Proto-Indo-Europeans) have always ruled Euro civilization, and of course the Nordic or Teutonic peoples are at the top of the Aryan heap, with the soundbyte "Physically and mentally the Aryans are pre-eminent among all peoples; for that reason they are by right... the lords of the world. Do we not see the homo syriacus develop just as well and as happily in the position of slave as of master? Do the Chinese not show us another example of the same nature?" According to him, the Germanic takedown of the Roman Empire was good because the Romans were infected with pesky hooked-nose "homo judaeica" (Jews), who were "infusing Near Eastern poison into the European body politic". "All historically great races and nations have been produced by mixing, but wherever the difference of type is too great to be bridged over, then we have mongrels." Sounds good, until he claimed that since Jesus is God, he must have really not been Jewish, but Aryan. After selling 100K copies by the start of WWII, Kaiser Wilhelm II awarded him a medal in 1916 and gave him German citizenship, after which Hitler lapped it up and guess what happened. Funny that Hitler's British appeaser was named you know what.

In 1899 Avraham (Albert) Entebbe led five noted Jewish artists in a renovation of the Muslim Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem; an iron panel commemorating the work was later destroyed by Jew-hating Muslims.

1900

On Dec. 26-31, 1901 the Fifth Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland established the Jewish Nat. Fund to purchase and develop land in Palestine for Jewish settlement; by 2007 it owned 13% of the total land in Israel, has developed 250K acres, established 1K+ parks, built 180 dams and reservoirs, and planted 240M trees; eventually Israeli-owned land could be leased by Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel, so much for apartheid.

On Feb. 27, 1902 the Anglo Palestine Co. in London is founded by Zionists to promote Jewish development of Palestine; it openesits first branch in Jaffa in 1903; in 1950 it was renamed Bank Leumi Le-Israel (Nat. Bank of Israel); in 1983 it is nationalized.

On Apr. 6-7, 1903 the Kishinev Pogrom in Bessarabia was instigated by Russian officials, causing Jewish poet Chaim Nachman Bialik (1873-1934) to compose the poem The City of Slaughter, chastising the Jews for not defending themselves, and throwing a monkey wrench in the Zionist movement as it split over a 1902 offer by the British govt. to create a Jewish homeland in Uganda; after another pogrom in 1905 in Kishinev, the American Jewish Committee (AJC), dedicated to the advancement of the interests of U.S. Jewry was formed in 1906 by Am. Reform rabbi Judah Leon Magnes (1877-1948), German-born Am. financier Jacob Henry (Jakob Heinrich) Schiff (1847-1920) et al.

In 1907-10 the Augusta Victoria Sanatorium on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, named after Kaiser Wilhelm II's wife was built, joining the 1888 Church of the Ascension, becoming the center of the German Protestant community in Ottoman Palestine; in spring 1914 the home of wealthy English atty. Sir John Gray Hill was purchased by Zionists for a Zionist univ., making for a 3-way contest - don't say war?

In 1909 after chief Zionist land agent Arthur Ruppin (1876-1943) helps get a loan, the Mediterranean coastal town of Tel Aviv (Heb. "hill of spring", from Ezek. 3:15) (Ahuzat Bayit until 1910) (modern-day pop. 394K) is founded in Palestine by 60 Jewish families as a Jewish ghetto on some abandoned sand dunes near the Arab town of Jaffa, becoming the first all-Jewish town since the Diaspora, and the garden spot of Palestine, going on to become Israel's 2nd largest city, with 390K in the city and 3.2 million in the Gush Dan metro area after Jaffa is merged with it in 1950. In contrast, Arab towns were depopulated hellholes, such as Kakun in the Sharon Valley.

In 1909 H,.E.W Young, British vice-consul in Mosul wrote the soundbyte: "The attitude of the Muslims toward the Christians and the Jews is that of a master towards slaves, whom he treats with a certain lordly tolerance so long as they keep their place. Any sign of pretension to equality is promptly repressed."

1910

On Oct. 29, 1910 Degania Alef was founded by 12 Jewish Zionist pioneers (10 men, 2 women), becoming Palestine's first kibbutz; starting out socialist, it goes capitalist in 2007.

In 1911 the 11th ed. of the Encyclopaedia Britannica is pub., with the article on Palestine by Irish Biblical archeologist Robert Alexander Stewart Macalister (1870-1950) claiming a pop. of 650K and 22 different ethnicities living there.

In 1911 Awni Abd al-Hadi (1889-1970) and Muhammad Rafiq al-Tamimi (1889-1957) found the underground Al-Fatat (Young Arab Society), devoted to Arab unity and independence from the Ottomans a la the Young Turks.

In 1912 German-born Jewish Macy's dept. store co-owner Nathan Straus (1848-1931), known for funding milk pasteurization to combat infant mortality and giving away meals for 1 cent each visits Palestine, becoming a big fan; when his brother Isidor (the other co-owner) and his wife are killed on the Titanic, he gets religion and devotes two-thirds of his fortune to helping Palestine. In 1927 the Israeli city of Netanya 18 mi. N of Tel Aviv is founded and named in his honor, along with Rehov Straus in Jerusalem. His son Nathan Jr. was friends with Anne Frank's daughter Otto Frank.

On June 18-23, 1913 the First Arab Congress was held in Paris to discuss the granting of more autonomy to Arabs by the crumbling Ottomans, launching Arab nationalism. Of course the real reason was anger over all them Jews moving in, buying land, and outperforming them. In Aug. 1922 the Fifth Arab Congress was held in Nablus, followed in June 1923 by the Sixth Arab Congress in Jaffa, followed in June 1928 by the Seventh Arab Congress in Beisan. The 1922 Fifth Arab Congress send out a Manifesto to all Muslims and Christians in Palestine, with the following soundbyte: "We the delegates of the Arab people of Palestine in the Fifth Congress held at Nablus pledge ourselves to Allah, to history and to the nation to continue our endeavors looking toward the independence of our country, to bring about Arab unity by all legal and lawful means, and to refuse the Jewish National Home, and Zionist immigration", calling on all to refuse to sell land to Jews and boycott them. Meanwhile in 1913 the British Palestine Royal Commission issued its report, with the soundbyte: "The area was underpopulated 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 immigrants - both Jewish and Arab." On Jan. 7, 1916 the Arab Bureau was founded in Cairo, becoming the center of the British intel network in the Middle East.

In 1913 the Leo Frank Case shows the extent of anti-Jewish prejudice in the Am. South, and leads directly to the founding of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of B'nai B'rith in Oct. after 29-y.-o. Jewish pencil factory manager Leo Max Frank (1884-1915) is framed for the rape-murder of a 13-y.-o. girl who worked in his Atlanta, Ga. factory, railroaded by Ga. politician and KKK man Thomas Edward "Tom" Watson (1856-1922) and sentenced to hang; after the sentence is commuted to life imprisonment by the gov., on Aug. 17, 1915 a mob of 40 middle-class whites called the Knights of Mary Phagan speeds his life up by taking him from the state pen at Milledgeville to the town of Marietta and lynching him; future U.S. pres. Lyndon Baines Johnson sees his grandfather Big Sam Johnson and his father Little Sam Johnson work for clemency for Leo Frank, causing the KKK to threaten their lives, and turning LBJ into a lifelong enemy of the KKK and anti-Semitism.

On Aug. 4, 1914 - Nov. 11, 1918 the horrific World War I caused 15M deaths and 39M military casualties. and destroyed the Old Order of white formerly Christian Europe. The Jews supposedly had nothing to do with it, other than maybe financing all sides and making about ten mints, but they sure saw their chance to spend it as the Ottoman Empire was fatally weakened. Er, the Jews were accused of having everything to do it, by the increasing numbers of anti-Semites in Europe.

On Aug. 31, 1914 a telegram is sent by U.S. ambassador to Turkey Henry Morgenthau Sr. to New York City Jewish philanthropist Jacob Schiff for $50K to keep them from starving, causing the formation of the Am. Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) to provide assistance to the 59K Jews (Yishuv) living in Ottoman-controlled Palestine. On Nov. 12, 1919 the New York Times pub. the article Tells Sad Plight of Jews, in which Felix Moritz Warburg (1871-1937), head of the JDC of New York City (founded 1914) claims that 6M Jews, half the world Jewish pop. have been "reduced to tragically unbelievable poverty, starvation and disease".

In Dec. 1914 new Turkish military cmdr. of Palestine Gen. Djemal Pasha (1872-1922) rounds up 500 Russian immigrant Jews and deports them from Jaffa to Egypt; in Beirut he hangs several leaders of the Arab nationalist movement; in Jerusalem he disbands a Jewish militia set up by the local Otomanization Committee to fight the Allies, ordering the execution of anyone carrying Zionist documents, and expelling Zionists David Ben-Gurion (David Grün) (1886-1973) and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi (1884-1963), who are put on a ship in Jaffa with a note banning them from the Ottoman Empire forever, after which they travel to the U.S. and switch sides to the Allies, forming a new Jewish Legion.

On Mar. 25, 1915 British colonial secy. (1910-15) Lewis (Reginald) Vernon "Loulou" Harcourt (1863-1922) sends a memo to the British War Council titled The Spoils, proposing that after the expected easy defeat of Turkey, Britain annex Mesopotamia "as an outlet for Indian immigration", and offer Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth (the "Holy Places") to the U.S. as a mandate, while Lord Kitchener suggests British annexation of Aleppo and Alexandretta, making Haifa a British port and oil pipeline terminal linking to Mosul, the British Admiralty suggests annexing the entire Euphrates River Valley from Urfa and Baghdad to Basra to block Russian expansion, British secular Jewish diplomat Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel (1870-1963) kibbutzes for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, British Conservative MP Col. Sir Mark Sykes (1879-1919) proposes giving Palestine incl. Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Jaffa to a "special Russian admin.", and Winston Churchill suggests giving Palestine to Belgium, and urges another naval attack to make an army landing unnecessary; Sykes and his group at Lord Kitchener's War office resurrect the names Syria, Palestine, Iraq, and Mesopotamia, and design the Arab Revolt Flag with its green-red-black-white colors.

On May 19, 1916 Britain and France concluded the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement, partitioning the postwar Middle East and recognizing an independent confederation of Arab states; France receives Cilicia, Lebanon, coastal Syria, and a sphere of influence stretching E to Mosul; Britain received Baghdad and Basra, Haifa, Acre, and a sphere of influence between the new pasted-together state of Iraq and Palestine, which was to be placed under an internat. admin; the remainder went to one or more new Arab states; the latter later grumbled that they were supposed to receive Palestine? Speaking of Palestine, as Theodore Herzl envisaged in his 1902 novel "Altneuland", in the 1920s Haifa was turned into a deep water port.

On Aug. 23, 1917 British Liberal politician Edwin Samuel Montagu (1879-1924) (2nd Jew in the British Cabinet) submits a Memorandum on the Balfour Declaration to the British Cabinet, claiming that the Jews are not a nation, have no exclusive intrinsic connection to Palestine, hence have no special rights to the land, and that a Jewish homeland would become a "Jewish world's ghetto".

On Sept. 12, 1917 Russian-born Jewish physician M.L. Rothstein writes a letter to Lord Francis Bertie, British ambassador to France, asking for British support "for the conquest of the Turkish province of El Hassa", an oasis on the E coast of Arabia, which was promised to the Ibn Saud family, with the soundbyte: "I undertake to assemble, for next spring, a Jewish fighting troop, a force of 120,000 strong men", that British troops could double, which could assemble in Bahrain, attacking once they reach the "coup de main" of 30K, turning the province into a "Jewish state, un Etat juif" and baiting Turkey into a "state of war", causing Jewish troops to respond with their own campaign; on Oct. 3 Lord Balfour's private secy. tells Bertie to nix the proposal.

On Nov. 2, 1917 after Russian-born Jewish U. of Manchester chemistry prof. Chaim Azriel Weizmann (1874-1952) invents the ABE Process, which extracts cordite from British chestnuts for production of cordite for explosive shells, and PM David Lloyd-George asks him how to repay him, getting the reply "All I want is a homeland for my people", British Conservative foreign secy. Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl Balfour (1848-1930) sent an official letter to British Jewish Zionist scion Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild (1868-1937) known as the Balfour Declaration, announcing "His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country." Pip pip jolly jolly and all that rot.

On Nov. 17-Dec. 30, 1917 the Battle of Jerusalem sees the British Army led by field marshal Sir Edmund Allenby (1961-1936) fight to capture Jerusalem, sieging it on Dec. 8, and capturing it on Dec. 9 after the Turkish defenders slip away overnight to Nablus and Jericho, and British Pvts. Church and Andrews encounter a group of dignitaries (mayor, priests, rabbis, and imams) early in the morning carrying a white flag while out searching for eggs, with Gen. Allenby pissing-off the Muslims by announcing that the Crusades have been completed and triumphally entering the Old City on foot Jesus-style through the Jaffa Gate on Dec. 11, which PM David Lloyd George calls a "Christmas present for the British people"; back in 1191 English king Richard I Lionheart got as close as the egg-loving privates, but never captured Big J; actually Allenby did it to avoid copying the Kaiser's triumphal horseback entry in 1898, and afterwards no Allied flags are flown over the city, and Indian Muslim troops are sent to guard the Dome of the Rock; Allenby's proclamation of goodwill is read aloud in English, French, Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, and Greek; church bells are rung in Rome and London, and Jews worldwide are turned on by hopes of a national you know what; in Jerusalem Allenby obtains a fighting spider he names Hindenburg, which can bite off a scorpion's tail; the name Allenby bears a calligraphic resemblance to the Arabic prophet Al-Neby, causing some to think of him as a Muslim liberator, assuming that he knows that no land once ruled in Allah's name can ever be ruled by infidels, esp. pesky Jews, without Muslims being required to declare jihad?

In Mar. 1918 in accordance with the Balfour Declaration, the Zionist Commission for Palestine, chaired by Chaim Weizmann was formed to promote a Jewish state in Palestine, sending reps to study conditions and make recommendations to the British govt.; it received official recognition in 1922, and evolved into the provisional govt. of Israel on May 14, 1948, while ending up ignoring a promise to Palestinians to consult them on the issue; Balfour uttered the soundbyte to U.S. Assoc. Jstice Louis Brandeis, leader of the U.S. Zionist movement: "The situation is further complicated by an agreement made early in November (1918) by the British and French, and brought to the President's attention, telling the people of the East that their wishes would be consulted in the disposition of their future... Palestine should be excluded from the terms of reference because the Powers had committed themselves to the Zionist programme which inevitably excluded numerical self-determination. Palestine presented a unique situation. We are dealing not with the wishes of an existing community but are consciously seeking to reconstitute a new community and definitely building for a numerical majority in the future."

On July 24, 1918 the Hebrew U. of Jerusalem is founded, becoming Israel's 2nd oldest univ.; the first board of govs. incl. Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Martin Buber, and Chaim Weizmann; students later incl. seven Nobel Prize winners and four Israeli PMs. On Apr. 1 its campus on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem was opened by Aaron Shulov and Yocheved Shulov et al., with civic planning by Sir Patrick Geddes (1854-1932) and a bldg. designed by Eric Mendelsohn; the cornerstone is laid by Lord Balfour; chancellor #1 was San Francisco, Calif.-born Reform rabbi Judah Leon Magnes (1877-1948) (co-founder of the Am. Jewish Committee in 1906), who went to Palestine in 1922 and became a leader of the univ. movement, going on to advocate Arab-Jewish cooperation and turn the univ. into a center of Muslim as well as Hebraic learning.

On Nov. 11, 1918 an armistice was signed, and on June 28, 1919 the Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending WWI and creating the League of Nations. After pogroms in Europe and the opening of the Suez Canal attracted them, the Jewish pop. of Egypt was 75K-80K by the end of WWI, but by 2004 it was down to less than 100.

On Jan. 3, 1919 the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement is signed by Faisal and Chaim Weizmann, agreeing to cooperate in the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine along with an Arab nation E of the Jordan River; too bad, there never were any such thing as Arab Muslim Palestinians, so they had no power to stop Faisal from reneging and forcing them back on the Jews. On Aug. 11, 1919 Arthur James Balfour writes a memo to Lord Curzon, with the soundbyte: "The contradiction between the letters of the Covenant and the policy of the Allies is even more flagrant in the case of the 'independent nation' of Palestine than in that of the 'independent nation' of Syria. For in Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country, though the American Commission has been going through the form of asking what they are. The four Great Powers are committed to Zionism. And Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land."

1920

On Mar. 1, 1920 the Battle of Tel Hai (Chai) (Heb. "Hill of Life") in N Palestine between Jewish settlers and Arab bedouins became the first battle between future Israel and Syria; eight Jews were killed, incl. two women and six men, incl. Russian-born Joseph Trumpeldor (b. 1880), inspiring Jews in Jerusalem and becoming an inspiration for the creation of Israel; the town of Kiryat Shemona ("Town of Eight") was later named after them; Trumpeldor's last words: "Never mind, it is good to die for our country"; meanwhile the idea of a Muslim Palestinian nation is born; "In January 1920, Palestinian nationalism hardly existed; by December of that critical year, it had been born." (Daniel Pipes)

On Apr. 25, 1920 the San Remo Resolution, AKA the Jewish Magna Charta incorporated the 1917 Balfour Declaration and Article 22 of the League of Nations Covenant, unanimously approving the British Mandate of Palestine, giving the world's Jews the right to reconstitute their nat. home in Palestine under British protection, and conferring on Britain the mandate to bring this into effect in the area covered by present-day Israel, Jordan, Judea, Samaria, and Gaza by promoting their resettlement; it's still in effect today. The original British Mandate for Palestine extended east of the Jordan River all the way to Iraq.

Meanwhile on July 1, 1920 the British appointed Zionist Jew Sir Herbert Louis Samuel (1870-1963) as British high commissioner of Palestine #1 (until June 20, 1925), pissing-off the Muslims and Christians. On July 7-24 the World Zionist Conference in London, England establishes Keren Hayesod (haYesod) (Heb. "The Foundation Fund") to raise funds for the creation of the Jewish state of Israel; in Jan. 1956 it becomes an official Israeli org. The Arabs now call 1920 the Year of the Catastrophe (Am an-Nakba), since after hearing the bad news they begin uprisings in Syria, Palestine, and Iraq; meanwhile Arab and other Muslim countries get busy expelling 900K Jews between 1920-70, of which 600K end up settling in Israel and 300K in France.

On May 1-7, 1921 the Jaffa Riots (Heb. Me'oraot Tarpa) in the Palestine Mandate started out as a fight between two groups of Jews that attracted madass Muslim Arabs; "Arab men bearing clubs, knives, swords, and some pistols broke into Jewish buildings and murdered their inhabitants, while women followed to loot. They attacked Jewish pedestrians and destroyed Jewish homes and stores. They beat and killed Jews in their homes, including children, and in some cases split open the victims' skulls"; the Haycraft Commission of Inquiry whitewashed it with the report "Palestine: Disturbances in May 1921", blaming it on the Jews as well as Arabs: "The fundamental cause of the Jaffa riots and the subsequent acts of violence was a feeling among the Arabs of discontent with, and hostility to, the Jews, due to political and economic causes, and connected with Jewish immigration, and with their conception of Zionist policy as derived from Jewish exponents", causing British high commissioner Herbert Samuel Samuel to limit Jewish immigration to the region "only to the extent that it did not burden the economy"; Jews at that time were only 15% of the pop.

In 1921 British military gov. of Jerusalem (since 1917) Sir Ronald Henry Amherst Storrs (1881-1955) ("the most brilliant Englishman in the Middle East" - T.E. Lawrence) was appointed British civilian gov. of Jerusalem and Judea (until 1926), insisting that all of the bldgs. in Jerusalem be built or faced with white Jerusalem stone - nothing's too good for my Jesus?

In 1921 attempting to bend over backwards to please the Arabs, Sir Herbert Samuel appointed rabidly anti-Semitic Mohammad Amin al-Husayni (al-Husseini) (1895-1974) as grand mufti of Palestine (until 1948), allowing him to become the most powerful figure in the mandate, working to destroy Zionism, stinking himself up by backing Hitler and asking him in 1941 to oppose the establishment of a Jewish nat. home in Palestine; in 1941-5 he lived in Berlin, becoming big friends with Islam admirer SS man Heinrich Himmler, who helped him found the volunteer Waffen-SS div. in Bosnia made up mostly of Bosnian Muslims, who were all issued al-Insani's booklet Islam and Judaism, which begins: "For us Muslims it is unworthy to utter the word Islam in the same breath with Judaism, since Islam stands high over its perfidious adversary."

In 1921 Bank Hapoalim was founded in Tel Aviv by the World Zionist Org. and the Histadrug trade union congress (Gen. Federation of Laborers in the Land of Israel); it went on to become Israel's largest bank.

On Apr. 18-22, 1922 the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs held hearings on a resolution expressing satisfaction with the Balfour Declaration, with France, Italy, Serbia, Greece, Netherlands, Siam, China, and Japan sending letters expressing support; on June 30 a joint resolution of both houses of the U.S. Congress endorses a mandate for Palestine, and confirms the right of Jews to settle anywhere between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River.

In June 1922 the League of Nations Lausanne Conference in Switzerland entrusted the U.K. to administer the Mandate for Palestine, along with the neighbouring Mandate of Transjordan to the E across the River Jordan, and the Mandate for Mesopotamia beyond it. On July 24, 1922 after both houses of the U.S. Congress approved it on June 30, the League of Nations enacted the British Mandate for Palestine as a first step towards implementation of the Balfour Declaration, calling for the establishment of a Jewish nat. home, with the right to increase Jewish settlement in all of the historical territory of Israel, incl. Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem; in Aug. 1922 the 5th Arab Congress in Nablus rejected the mandate, and Arab riots and pressure led to the Churchill White Paper, which postponed the provisions of the mandate in Eastern Palestine (E of the Jordan River), giving it to the Arab Hashemi family and effectively denying Jews access to three-fourths of Palestine for the purpose of settlement in the new state of Transjordan, with Sharif Abdullah Ibn Hussein granted autonomy by Britain within the Palestinian mandate; Winston's Hiccup (Churchill's Sneeze), a narrow of strip of Transjordan extending into Iraq was attributed to Winston Churchill drawing the boundary after a big meal; later Article 80 of the U.N. Charter stipulated that the U.N. shall recognize all decisions made by the League of Nations council. Under the British, new garden suburbs were built in the W and N parts of the city, and institutions of higher learning such as Hebrew U. of Jerusalem (1918) were founded. Of course, it was only later that in frustration at not exterminating Israel the Arabs came up with the ploy that they want a Palestinian state, but in the 1920s both Jordan and Syria attempted to annex the territory for themselves, and kept playing it that way forever.

In 1922-48 the total pop. of Big J rose from 52K to 165K, consisting of two-third Jews and one-third Arabs, both Arab Muslims and Christians. Too bad, they could never get along, and riots occurred, starting on Apr. 4-7, 1920 with the 1920 Nabi Musa Riots, which saw 60K-70K Arabs massed in the city square of Old Jerusalem shouting "Palestine is our land, and Jews are our dogs" ransack the Jewish Quarter, looting homes and shops, wounding 160 Jews until the British moved in to stop it, with a total of four Arabs and five Jews killed, and 216 Jews and 23 Arabs wounded. Ironically, most of the Jewish victims were anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews.

In 1924 the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) in Haifa, endorsed by Albert Einstein, who visited in 1923 and planted the first palm tree finally opened its doors with 17 students after foundations were laid in 1912, and now the did-I-mention smartest people on Earth were unleashed; in 1925 British Zionist industrialist Alfred Moritz Mond, 1st Baron Melchett (1868-1930) became pres. #1.

In 1925 the Am. Palestine Line (founded 1924) flies the flag of Judea for the first time since the 1st cent. as 500 Jewish colonists leave New York City. In 1925 the anti-Marxist Gordonia Youth Movement isfounded in Poland to promote emigration to kibbutzes in Palestine.

In 1925 British field marshal Herbert Charles Onslow Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer (1857-1932) is appointed British high commissioner #2 of Palestine (until 1928), pissing off the Arabs by standing for the Zionist national anthem" "Hatikva" in Tel Aviv, to which he replies that they would feel offended if he stayed seated when the Palestinian national anthem was played, to which they reply that they didn't have one - until 1996, lazy Arab jokes here - with the inspiring words "Palestine is my home, Palestine is my fire, Palestine is my revenge... I will live as a revolutionist, I will remain a revolutionist, I will end as a revolutionist, until my country returns". On Aug. 22, 1929 after he was succeeded as commissioner #3 by British Lt. Col. Sir John Robert Chancellor (1870-1952) (until 1931), the 1929 Palestine Riots, AKA the Western Wall or Buraq Uprising broke out in Palestine between Arabs and Jews, sparked by a dispute over prayer at the Western (Wailing) Wall, when the women brought chairs to sit on, all because the Jews put up a screen between the men and women during their Yom Kippur prayers, and the Arabs claimed that violated a Sharia rule forbidding them from construction in the area, plus they believe that the wall is where Muhammad mounted his wing steed on the way to heaven. 116 Arabs and 133 Jews were killed, and 339 wounded. Chancellor was in London at the time, and when he returned, he started out critical of Arab attacks then fell silent, and helped lead the British retreat from Zionism and the Balfour Declaration, the era of Arab oil money was arriving and greasing Britain's wheels. On Aug. 23-24, 1929 the 1929 Hebron Massacre sees 67 of 800 Jews massacred in Hebron, 20 mi. S of Jerusalem, site of the Cave of the Patriarchs (#2 holy site in Judaism after the Temple Mount in Jerusalem), causing the rest to be evacuated, after which they don't return permanently until after the 1967 Six Day War; the massacre started when the Arabs heard rumors that the Jews were seizing Muslim holy places and massacring Jews in Jerusalem, causing them to switch to the Allah Akbar mode and start doing their own massacring.

In 1929 the Jewish Agency for Israel (Sochnut) (JAFI) (founded in 1908 as the Palestinian Office, later the Zionist Commision, and the Palestine Zionist Executive) begins representing all Zionist and non-Zionist Jews, serving as their pre-state govt. Too bad, on Feb. 25, 1994 during the overlapping holidays of Purim and Ramadan the Cave of the Patriarchs Massacre in Hebron on the occupied West Bank saw ultra-right Jewish settler Baruch Kappel Goldstein (1956-94) massacre 29 (39-52?) and wound 100+ Muslims praying in a mosque, until the survivors beat him to death, after which riots throughout the occupied territories caused 19 Palestinians to be killed by Israeli forces in the next 48 hours. You guessed it, on Mar. 1 as revenge for the massacre, Lebanese-born Muslim Am. immigrant Rashid Baz (1966-) opened fire on a van carrying over a dozen Hasidic students on the entrance ramp to the Brooklyn Bridge, killing 16-y.-o. Ari Halberstam (b. 1977) while shouting "Kill the Jews"; four others were wounded. On Jan. 18, 1995 Baz was sentenced to 141 years in prison; the ramp was renamed after Halberstam in 1995.

Speaking of uppity, the growing Zionist Movement among world Jewry to reestablish their old Jewish homeland in Palestine, founded by did-I-mention Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) et al. was fought tooth and nail by both the Egyptian-based Sunni Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna (1906-49), and the Muslim Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (1921-48) Mohammad Amin al-Husayni (al-Husseini) (1895-1974), who finally lost after getting friendly with German chancellor (1933-45) Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), instigating a failed pro-Nazi putsch in Baghdad and hiking to Germany for protection, then seeing Hitler's can kicked in WWII, leaving him looking like an idiot to the U.S. and U.N. Hasan al-Banna supported him and helped save him from being tried as a war criminal. Hitler seems to have channeled Islam and mixed it with Darwinism and white supremacy in his Nazi philosophy, taking advantage of the mass number of German Islam history ignoramuses to put it over on them, sometimes making lame references to God to back him up, while pushing his own Bible Mein Kampf (1925-6), which contains several parallels to the Quran. As Der Fuhrer was building up his military strength and openly telling everybody what he was going to do, the Brits led by PM (1937-40) Arthur Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940) kissed his hiney with an appeasement policy, allowing him to pick his time to invade for maximum advantage. Without the intervention of the U.S., combined with his failure to take the Soviet Union out, giving him a two-front war, we'd all be speaking German today and he would be in the throes of his final solution not only of the Jews but the Muslims. Da Mufti is known for the soundbyte: "Arise, O sons of Arabia, fight for your sacred rights, kill the Jews wherever you find them. Their spilled blood pleases Allah, our history, and religion." Hitler reciprocated with the soundbyte "Only in the Roman Empire and in Spain under Arab domination has culture been a potent factor. Under the Arab, the standard attained was wholly admirable; to Spain flocked the greatest scientists, thinkers, astronomers, and mathematicians of the world, and side by side there flourished a spirit of sweet human tolerance and a sense of purist chivalry. Then with the advent of Christianity, came the barbarians. Had Charles Martel not been victorious at Poitiers - already you see the world had fallen into the hands of the Jews. So gutless a thing, Christianity!"

Where did Hitler get his contempt for Christianity and admiration for Islam? German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900), who bit the Darwin bug bigtime and created the idea of the Superman (Übermensch), coined the phrase "God is dead", and preached the Will to Power in his work Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883-5), with the soundbyte "What is ape to man? A laughing stock or painful embarrassment. And man shall be the same thing to superman." He also wrote the book The Antichrist (1895), knocking Christianity as a religion of pity for weak losers only, which drags supermen down with hatred of Nature, where survival of the fittest rules. No surprise that Nietzsche went mad before croaking, he proved to be no superman, just a normal man who failed to grow and couldn't even stand to see a horse being mistreated, a life wasted on philosophy rather than a wife, kids and grandkids. Too bad that equally celibate wasted life Hitler was an Islam history ignoramus like his Volk, or he'd have known that just because Muslims don't have pity, that doesn't make them supermen, just religious fanatics who will play him like a fiddle for an advantage in the war to make him and his entire nation submit to Allah. The Nazis spent the 1930s and 1940s spreading anti-Jewish propaganda in Arab lands, telling them that the Jews were trying to take over the world and destroy Islam, and that Hitler was the Shiite Mahdi come to lead the resistance, etc. No surprise that Muslims admired and even loved Hitler, since his whole program was to reverse all the gains made by Western liberals, especially the idea of a democratic republic, and replace it with a dictatorial regime run by a near-holy Fuehrer or Great Leader, him, whose goals were enunciated in his Bible Mein Kampf, which translated means My Struggle, or maybe now you get it, My Jihad, maybe if he had won he would have finished off Islam by sheer genocide, would serve them right.

Hitler went crazy too and committed suicide as the Allies closed in on his Fuhrerbunker in Berlin, taking his bizarre Nazi philosophy down the Fuhrertoilet as the whole German nation proved to be no supermen, shoosh Blondie. Speaking of shitting yellow, it was the Muslims, who from square one when Prophet M banned them from Mecca treated them as merde and made them pay the jizya tax, who forced them to wear yellow badges back in 9th cent. Baghdad, and Hitler copied it after the Mufti's hearty recommendation, that's why modern Westerners are fascinated with Islam, it's horrible Stormtroopers are little different than Islamic jihadists, only with more potent weapons and armor, and to listen to them, Aryan (Iranian) to boot.

While Hitler was still a nobody, in 1923 Russian Zionist thinker Ze'ev Jabotinsky (Vladimir Yevgenyevich Zhabotinsky) (1880-1940) pub. The Iron Wall, arguing that the Muslims will never accept a Jewish state of Israel other than by pure force, and that an iron wall should be built around the new state first, and negotiations if any to jockey for position or a longshot peace and possible incorporation of Arab citizens started second. Time has proven the wisdom of this, da? In 1920 after Arab riots, the Zionist Jewish Haganah (Heb. "the defense") paramilitary org. was founded in Palestine (until 1948), growing to 160K members, plus a 6K-member unit called the Palmach; actually there was an underground Haganah in Palestine since Ottoman times. In 1931 the most radical elements led by Jabotinsky split off and formed the Irgun Tsva'i-Leumi (Heb. "Nat. Military Org.") (AKA Etzel), followed in 1940 by the 200-300 member hardcore Lehi (Stern) Gang (Lhamei Herut Yisrael) (Fighters for the Freedom of Israel).

Too bad, on June 30, 1924 after the orthodox Eida Chareidis group splits with the secular Jewish Zionists over their program to create a secular "new Jew" for a future state of Israel and begins contacting Arabs and Brits, Dutch-born Eida Chareidis leader Jacob Israel de Haan (b. 1881) is assassinated by the Haganah under Yitzhak Ben-Zvi as he leaves the synagogue of the Shaarei Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem, stopping the group from negotiating with the British for a separate peace, becoming the first victim of Zionist political violence, and launching an eternal war between secular and religious Jews.

1930

On Jan. 5, 1930 the Mapai (Mifleget Poalei Eretz Yisrael) (Workers' Party of the Land of Israel) Party was founded by the merger of Hapoel Hatzair and Ahdut HaAvoda, becoming a member of the Labour and Socialist Internat. (until 1940); in the mid-1930s it was taken over by David Ben-Gurion (David Grün) (1886-1973), making him the de facto leader of the Jewish community (Yishuv) in Palestine.

On Oct. 1, 1930 (Yom Kippur) Hassidic rabbi Moshe Zvi Segal (1904-85) blew the shofar (ram's horn) at the Kosel (Kotel) HaMaaravi (Western Wall) in Jerusalem in violation of British law (allegedly to avoid offending Muslim Arabs, who still thought Allah owned the Holy Land), and was arrested, which didn't stop others from doing it every year until the end of British occupation in 1947, I may seem stupid but that's just to get your mother not to ask me to do stuff.

In 1930 Kibbutz Na'an near Rehovot, Israel was founded, becoming the first kibbutz established by Jews born in Eretz Israel.

In 1930 German Jewish Zionist philsopher Theodor Lessing (1872-1933) pub. Jewish Self-Hatred (Der Judische Selbsthass), nailing it on the head about there being so many Jewish intellectuals who promote anti-Semitism, which didn't stop him from being assassinated by Czech. Nazy sympathizers in 1933.

After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany on Jan. 30, 1933, the world Jewish community immediately started a world boycott of Germany in a rather cruel attempt to starve it into ousting him, which only backfired by uniting the German people against the Jews in Germany, a mere 1% of the pop. who were viewed as an enemy fifth column, making them receptive to anti-Semitic propaganda about the rat-like Jews wanting to get their pure German women and mongrelize their nation while enslaving it with world banking tricks. On Mar. 12, 1933 the American Jewish Congress announced a protest to be held at Madison Square Garden on Mar. 27, along with a Jewish Boycott of German Goods; on Mar. 23 20K Jews protested at New York City Hall; on Mar. 27 there were simultaneous protest rallies in New York City, Boston, Philly, Cleveland et al., causing the London Daily Express to carry the headline "Judea Declares War on Germany - Jews of All the World Unite - Boycott of German Goods - Mass Demonstration", describing a "holy war" of the Jews against Germany. On Apr. 1, 1933 the Nazis began boycotting Jewish businesses, obviously Kosher food makes you fat. Meanwhile Zionist leaders saw their chance in using the Nazi regime as the cause that would turn German Jews into Zionists and cause them to emigrate to Palestine, and Hitler struck the secret Transfer Agreement with them to transfer German Jews to Palestine. Too bad, the British demanded that each Jew pay 1K pounds sterling upon arrival in Haifa or other ports in Palestine, causing Zionists to subvert the worldwide Jewish boycott of Germany in order to allow Jewish capital to leave with them via internat. merchandise transactions. Meanwhile on Mar. 12, 1933 Sachsenhausen (Oranienburg), the first German concentration camp opened outside Berlin, followed on Mar. 22 by Dachau concentration camp. Homosexuals were identified by pink triangles on their stripey uniforms, Jews by yellow, and vagrants by black. Paragraph 175, which was passed this year making homosexuality a capital crime was left on the books for 24 years after the end of WWII, and many of the pink triangle POWs were kept in prison by the FRG, after which the pink triangle became the symbol of the gay movement, and it took until 2002 for the German govt. to issue an official apology. By 1945 8M-10M were interned in concentration camps, and at least half died. On Sept. 15, 1935 the Nuremberg Laws in Germany dispossessed all 600K Jews from German citizenship, causing 150K to flee by 1938, most to Palestine. In Mar. 1938 the Nazis annexed Austria, making the 200K Austrian Jews stateless also. On Nov. 9-10, 1938 the fit hit the shan on Kristallnacht (Crystal Night) (Night of Broken Glass), which saw the Nazi mobs organized by "blonde beast" Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich (1904-42) stage an anti-Jewish pogrom in Germany and Austria on the pretext of the Nov. 7 assassination of minor German closet gay diplomat Ernst Eduard vom Rath (1909-38) (AKA Madame Ambassadeur), murdering 91 Jews and arresting 25K-35K and shipping them to concentration camps for fresh air and exercise, while destroying thousands of homes and businesses along with 267 synagogues, causing 1 billion marks in damage, I'm in good shape for the shape I'm in. On Nov. 12 after confiscating all firearms from Jews, all Jewish retail establishments in Germany were ordered to close by the end of the year, and on Nov. 15 Jewish children were expelled from German schools, all of which caused some Jews to commit suicide out of despair, they tried so hard to assimilate, now what. Public outcry over what Germany claimed was an "internal affair" caused the British to lower barriers against Jewish immigration, while Nazi leaders decided to keep future cleansing actions as secret as possible. While U.S. leaders did nada, American journalist Dorothy Thompson (1893-1961) championed the cause of Herschel Feibel Grynszpan (Grunspahn) (Greenspan) (1921-45), a German-born Polish Jewish immigrant to France, whose assassinated vom Rath, broadcasting over NBC radio to 5M listeners and raising $40K for the Journalists' Defense Fund, which paid for top Euro lawyer Vincent de Moro-Giafferi (1878-1956) to defend him using the defense that it was a crime of passion not politics since he and Rath had been sexual lovers. After this caused the trial to get repeatedly delayed, the Nazis ended up capturing him after their 1940 invasion of France, then end up with the same problem about trying him publicly, after which he disappeared during the war in a Nazi prison. In 2008 Jewish journalist Yaron Svoray uncovered a dump in Klandorf near Brandenburg, Germany (N of Berlin) that was used by the Nazis to deposit rejected loot from Kristallnacht. During Kristallnacht, the synagogue of Cologne was destroyed, and was not rebuilt until 1959, after which in Aug. 2005 Pope Benedict XVI visited it during his first foreign trip to preside over World Youth Day. In Mar. 1939 Hitler moved into the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia, making another 200K Jews into people without a country. Meanwhile on July 6-13, 1938 on the eve of Hitler's world war nightmare, the Evian Conference, convened by U.S. pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Evian-les-Bains, France tried to find countries willing to accept Jewish refugees from Germany. Too bad, only the Dominican Republic offered to accept 100K, while a resolution condemning German persecution of Jews failed to pass, and any mention of Palestine as a place for them to go was deleted, along with mention that the U.S. was balking at filling its immigration quotas. In May 1939 the British (MacDonald) White Paper capped Jewish immigration to Palestine to 75K over five years, after which the Arab majority was left to give its permission for more, causing the Aliyah Bet (Heb. "Ascent B") of illegal Jewish immigration to Palestine to begin (until May 14, 1948), which the Brits tried to stop with a naval blockade of the Palestine coast involving 100K troops and a network of coastal radar stations and long-range patrol planes, with captured refugees put in British prison camps in Palestine, Cyprus, and Kenya. Of the 100K who attempted to enter Palestine on 142 voyages in 120 ships, 50K+ were stopped and imprisoned, and 1.6K drowned at sea. After the horrors of WWI, these actions guilt-tripped all the nations involved into backing a new ghetto, er, homeland for the Jews, as long as it wasn't in their backyard, with the Arabs told to like it or lump it, since they supported cold dead Hitler.

On Apr. 2, 1936 the Saudi-Iraqi Treaty of Non-Aggression and Arab Brotherhood was signed in union against a Jewish Palestine, promoting Pan-Arabism with the view towards forming an Arab federation, no talk of an Arab nation of Palestine back then. In Apr. the 1936-9 Arab Revolt in Palestine began after mass Jewish immigration and land development triggered Arab anti-Semitism fueled by Jerusalem mufti Amin al-Husayni and the Nazis, resulting in Arab riots against the Jews in Jaffa, killing 16 and wounding several, followed by Arab highwaymen holding up Jewish cars on the road between Tulkarm and Nablus then killing them; by late Apr. Jews buses were stoned and fired on, and Jewish settlements in the N burned; in May-June the Arabs attack Jewish property and sabotage public utilities; on May 16 three Jews were murdered and two wounded as they leave a Jewish cinema; in Apr. the Arab High Committee in Palestine was formed by al-Husayni to combat Zionism, calling for a boycott of Jewish goods and services, along with a gen. strike, which ramped up in Aug. after four Arab leaders called in vain for peace negotiations. On Oct. 12, 1936 after British troops arrived in Palestine to stop the fighting, the Arab High Committee called off their gen. strike, after which the British govt. appointed the British Peel (Palestinian Royal) Commission, which arrived in Jerusalem on Nov. 11, 1936 to study the situation; the Arabs boycotted the meetings. On July 7, 1937 they pub. a report in Britain recommending that Palestine be split into a Jewish and an Arab state, with Britain maintaining their mandate only over Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and a corridor to the sea, but no surprise, the Arabs rejected it, and continued rioting until 1939, by which time over 15% of the adult male Palestinian Arab pop. between ages 20-60 had been killed, wounded, imprisoned, or exiled, i.e., up to 5K killed and 15K wounded, vs. up to several hundred Jews killed. On May 17, 1939 the British govt. pub. the Woodhouse Partition Plan for Palestine for separating the Arab and Jewish pops. after negotiations with Arabs and Jews fell through, let's say we've made it into Round 2. At that time it was the Jews not Arabs who were called Palestinians. David Ben-Gurion later wrote "Had partition been carried out, the history of our people would have been different and six million Jews in Europe would not have been killed - most of them would be in Israel."

In 1938 oil was discovered in the backward Sharia hellhole kingdom of Saudi Arabia, changing the balance of power in the Middle East bigtime. As its main customer, the U.S. could have demanded establishment of democracy, human rights, a Jewish state of Israel, etc. in exchange for military protection, but crafty king #1 (1932-53) Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud (1876-1953) instead turned the U.S. into its protector sans conditions, even making them believe they had to protect the horrible monarchy there. We're still suffering from this horrible history ignoramus mistake. On Oct. 27, 1973 he issued a Statement on Palestine Partition, with the soundbyte: "Our hatred for the Jews dates from Allah's condemnation of them for their persecution and rejection of Isa (Jesus Christ), and their subsequent rejection later of His chosen Prophet. It is beyond our understanding how your Government, representing the first Christian power in the world today, can wish to assist and reward these very same Jews who maltreated your Isa (Jesus)." Also the soundbyte: "The main thing at all costs is to prevent the Jews from having an independent state of their own sliced out of Arab territory with no one to guide their future acts and policy. For from such will come a perpetual struggle with the Arabs living round them." Also the soundbyte: "It were far preferable form every point of view if Great Britain were to make Palestine a British Possession and rule it for the next 100 years, rather than to partition it in the way they propose: such partition cannot possibly solve the difficulty but must only perpetuate it and lead to war and misery." And the soundbyte: "Today I am the Imam or Spiritual Leader as well as the Temporal Ruler of the greater part of Arabia. I also have not a little influence in all the great Muslim countries of the world." Yah, a lot of influence. To this day the Saudis pull strings to throw Arabs at Israel in eternal jihad while pretending to be against Islamic extremism but actually secretly funding it, and juking the U.S. around anytime it pleases. Despite the smokescreen of the fake Palestinian national movement, the Saudis are the nut to crack. Only when the U.S. stands up to them can any real permanent peace be possible, but with a president like Obama who bows to him and sticks out his tongue looking for his holy ass crack to lick, forget it. Speaking of nut to crack, one more soundbyte from Ibn Saud's 1973 letter: "Verily the word of Allah teaches us, and we implicitly believe this, that for a Muslim to kill a Jew, or for him to be killed by a Jew ensures him an immediate entry into Paradise and into the august presence of Allah. What more then can a Muslim want in this hard world, and that is what my people are repeatedly reminding me of?"

On July 6, 1939 U.S. Rep. (D-Mass.) (1928-71) John William "Old Jawn" McCormack (1891-1981)Speech on a Jewish Homeland in Palestine, dissing the 1939 British White Paper restricting Jewish immigration and calling for a permanent Jewish nation.

In 1939 the United Jewish Appeal was founded by William Rosenwald (1903-96) (son of Sears, Roebuck & Co. chmn. Julius Rosenwald) et al. to provide funds for Jewish refugees in Europe and Palestine.

In 1939-45 horrific $3.5T World War II resulted in 24M military and 49M civilian deaths, and featured the low Jewish Holocaust (Shoah) by the German Nazis, I guess it was the Jews' fault for not ransoming themselves to go to Israel before they could round them up for the camps. The whole experience turned Jews from lovers into fighters, ramping up the Zionist movement with full world sympathy and support by new world superpower U.S., which had its own guilt trip because on Nov. 24, 1942 Budapest-born Am. Zionist leader Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise (1874-1949) announced in a press conference in Washington, D.C. that he was authorized by the U.S. State Dept. to confirm that the Nazis had murdered 2M Jews as part of a plan to exterminate all Jews in Europe; too bad, the nat. newspapers didn't consider it front page news, and the U.S. govt. did nada. After the war ended and Americans toured the concentration camps in horror, Polish-born Jewish scholar Raphael Lemkin (1900-59), who single-handedly led an unsuccessful campaign to get the League of Nations to give internat. protections against genocide starting in 1933 finally got what he wanted after his own people got it, namely the Dec. 9, 1948 U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Gen. Assembly Resolution 260), which didn't come in force until Jan. 12, 1951, and which the U.S. still didn't ratify until 1988.

1940

As WWII dragged on the fit hit the shan with the Brits, who started out mildly pro-Zionist but as the Arabs and their oil money became more important started to back off. On June 1-2, 1941 after Jerusalem grand mufti Amin al-Husseini fled to Iraq in 1939 with 400 Palestinian supporters and whipped up anti-Jewish feeling, helped by Nazi propaganda, the Farhud (Farhoud) (Arabic "violent dispossession") saw Muslim Nazi sympathizers in Baghdad and Basra, Iraq stage a pogrom against the long-settled (2.6K years) Jewish pop., killing 180, wounding hundreds, and destroying 900 Jewish homes and 586 shops; British authorities stood by and didn't pub. their official report until 1958; the dissolution of the Iraqi Jewish community began, complete with Nuremberg-style laws, and 90% fled to Israel after 1948, along with 1M Jews from the Arab world. In June 1941 the Am. Council for Judaism was founded by Reformed Jewish rabbis Henry Cohen, Abraham Cronbach, Morris Lazaron, David Philipson, and Louis Wolsey, who didn't think that Jews should have a nat. state and oppose Zionism; supporters incl. Sumner Welles and Dean Acheson; New York Times publisher (1935-61) Arthur Hays Sulzberger (1891-1968) (a Reform Jew), who told his editors to bury news of the Nazi genocide on the back pages and omit descriptions of victims as Jews enthusiastically supports it with frequent coverage; in 1946 after visiting a Nazi concentration camp, he gave a speech with the soundbyte: "It is my judgment that thousands dead might now be alive" if the Zionists had put "less emphasis on statehood." On Dec. 17, 1942 British foreign secy. Sir Anthony Eden told the British House of Commons "The German authorities are now carrying into effect Hitler's oft-repeated intention to exterminate the Jewish people of Europe", causing the U.S. to declare that these crimes will be avenged. On Dec. 24, 1942 to counter the German-American Bund, a Christmas Declaration by Men and Women of German Ancestry condemning Nazism, written by Dorothy Thompson and signed by 50 prominent German-Ams. incl. Babe Ruth was printed in 10 major U.S. daily newspapers incl. the New York Times, paid for by the World Jewish Congress. On July 14, 1945 the Labour Party swept away Winston Churchill and his Conservative Party, with new PM (1945-51) Clement Attlee (1883-1967) turning the British govt. against the Zionist cause and keeping the White Paper restrictions in place, and foreign secy. (1945-51) Ernest Bevin (1881-1951) telling Jews not "to get too much at the head of the queue", herding tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors that ran the British naval blockade into British concentration camps in Cyprus, better food than the Nazi ones and that's about it. Bevin even told the British ambassador to the U.S.: "Should we accept the view that all the Jews or the bulk of them must leave Germany? I do not accept that view. They have gone through, it is true, the most terrible massacre and persecution, but on the other hand they have got through it and a number have survived." New PM Attlee even tried comparing Jews trying to leave Europe for Israel to Nazi troops, and in 1947 Sir Arthur Tedder (1890-1967), chief of the air staff (1946-50) uttered the soundbyte: "If one of the two communities had to be antagonized, it was preferable, from the purely military angle, that a solution should be found which did not involve the continuing hostility of the Arabs, for in that event our difficulties would not be confined to Palestine but would extend throughout the whole of the Middle East." British gen. Sir Alan Gordon Cunningham (1887-1983), last British high commissioner for Palestine in 1945-8 uttered the soundbyte "The forces of nationalism are accompanied by the psychology of the Jew, which it is important to recognize as something quite abnormal and unresponsive to rational treatment", pip pip bloody bloody and all that rot.

On July 22, 1946 irrational Zionist Lehi (Stern Gang) extremists, incl. Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir (who in 1988 uttered the immortal soundbyte about Arabs: "We say to them from the heights of this mountain and from the perspective of thousands of years of history that they are like grasshoppers compared to us") blew up the SW corner of the 5-star pink limestone King David Hotel (opened 1931) containing British administrative offices, killing 91 and injuring 45, turning it into a Zionist stronghold on May 4, 1948 when the British flag was lowered, overlooking the no-man's land armistice line between Israeli and Jordanian territory. So it was the Jews who invented modern publicity-seeking terrorism? The affair turned #1 Am. journalist Dorothy Thompson (1893-1961) (supporter since 1920) against Zionism, causing the Zionists to put on the screws, getting her column dropped by the New York Post, along with other newspapers, tanking her career; in 1951 she founded the pro-Arab Am. Friends of the Middle East; funded by the CIA and ARAMCO?

On Oct. 6, 1943 the Rabbis' March, led by Russian-born Zionist Peter Bergson (Hillel Kook) (1915-2001) (nephew of the chief rabbi of the Palestine mandate) sees 400-500 Orthodox rabbis march in Washington, D.C. demanding that the U.S. govt. help the Jews in Europe, which only pisses-off FDR, who sneaks out the back of the White House and snubs them, causing them to stand in front and read their petition to his secy. Marvin McIntyre, after which FDR sics the FBI and IRS on them, who grudgingly give them a clean bill of health.

In 1944 Lebanese Marionite Christian scholar Philip Khuri Hitti (1886-1978), a Princeton U. prof. who introduced the field or Arab culture studies to the U.S. testifies before a U.S. House committee that there has never been an entity called Palestine, and that it was historically part of Syria, hence the creation of a Jewish state of Palestine would be opposed by Arabs; after the proclamation of the Jewish State of Israel in 1948, and repeated failure to destroy it by jihad, Arab propaganda artists reverse the argument and claim that Israelis are oppressing their Muslim state of Palestine.

On Feb. 15, 1945 Pres. Roosevelt (FDR) meets aboard the USS Quincy in the Great Bitter Lake of the Suez Canal with Saudi King Abdulaziz Al-Saud (Ibn Saud), who insists that a tent be built for him because he won't sleep in an "iron cabin"; after FDR proposes a Jewish state in Palestine, Ibn Saud tells him that the Muslim World won't accept a Jewish state or a temporary haven in Libya, and that the Jews should go back to Germany and not try to horn in on Arab land; FDR assures him that he will do nothing to assist the Jews against the Arabs in Palestine, and that he will never do anything to harm the Arab people and that the U.S. will not many any changes to its policy on Palestine without prior consultation with both sides; on Feb. 17 Ibn Saud meets with British PM Winston Churchill in the Grand Hotel du Lac on the Fayyoun Oasis 50 mi. S of Cairo, and Churchill takes a harder line, trying to pressure him into using his influence to get the Arab world to accomodate Zionist aspirations, and making no promises to temper support for the Zionists with sensitivity to Arab rights. On Mar. 1 after telling Stalin in Yalta that "there was only one concession he thought he might offer and that was to give him the six million Jews in the United States", Pres. Roosevelt addresses a joint session of Congress, and proclaims the Yalta Conference a success; he utters the soundbyte: "I learned more about the whole problem, the Moslem problem, the Jewish problem, by talking with Ibn Saud for five minutes than I could have learned in the exchange of two or three dozen letters" - call for a free brochure?

In July 1946 British deputy PM (1945-51) Herbert Stanley Morrison (1888-1965) and U.S. ambassador Henry Francis Grady (1882-1957) proposed the Morrison-Grady Plan to solve the Palestine problem by federalization under overall British trusteeship; both Arabs and Jews rejected the idea of British control - welcome to the sea of love?

On Oct. 4, 1946 (Yom Kuppur) Pres. Truman issued a statement endorsing the Zionist solution in Palestine of a partition and a "viable Jewish state", shutting the British up.

On Nov. 29, 1947 as the British Mandate for Palestine was expiring, after extensive Zionist lobbying by superbrain Jew Abba Eban (1915-2002) and Lithuanian-born Am. Zionist rabbi Abba Hillel Silver (1893-1963) of Cleveland, Ohio, the U.N. by a two-thirds majority (33-13 with 10 abstentions) approved the U.N. Partition Plan for Palestine (U.N. Gen. Assembly Resolution 181), which recommends the partition of mother-of-all-headaches Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state starting next May 15, giving the Jews three slivers of disconnected land along the Mediterranean coast and the Sinai Desert, 60% in the Negev Desert, along with "the creation of a special international regime in the City of Jerusalem, constituting it as a corpus separatum under the administration of the United Nations", with Jews given access to it only as an island cut off from their slivers, surrounded by Arab-controlled land, what an insult; the international regime (which also incl. the city of Bethlehem) was to remain in force for a period of 10 years, after which referendum was to be held in which the residents were to decide the future regime of their city; of course the Arabs rejected even this generous plan that gave them about 90% of the original Palestine Mandate, not only in Transjordan and the U.N. partition area, but in the new state of Israel, 800K Arabs bumping elbows with 1.2M Jews, with Jews barred from settling in the 35K sq. mi. of Transjordan, later renamed Jordan, a probable double snub on Christians and their John the Baptist; the Muslim Arabs immediately declared jihad against the 600K Jews there, starting with a fatwa by the ulema at Al-Ahzar U. in Cairo calling for "jihad to save Palestine and defend the Al-Aqsa Mosque"; Czech foreign minister Jan Masaryk helped the Hagana smuggle Jews into Palestine in defiance of the British naval blockade, and next Jan. 14 signed a $750K deal to sell Israel 4,570 Mauser rifles, 225 light machine guns, and 5M bullets; the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon was founded, later becoming Hezbollah; the seaport of Haifa at the base of Mt. Carmel on the S shore of the Bay of Acre, where the British-owned oil pipeline from Iraq terminates was included in Israel, becoming a main scene of attacks by the Arab League; after the Arabs placed the Jewish pop. in Jerusalem under siege in 1948, Israel regarded the internationalization proposals null and void, and established Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 1950.

Of course, Resolution 181 didn't create or recognize any new Jewish or Arab state, but just recommended a process to get to that point, after which "sympathetic consideration" was to be given to their U.N. membership applications. No surprise, thanks to the relentless hate-filled anti-Semitic ideology of Islam, the Arabs blew it bigtime. After getting the U.S. to impose an arms embargo on the region in Dec. 5, 1947 (which lasted until the 1967 Six-Day War), forcing the Israelis to turn to the Soviet Bloc for arms, the Allah Akbars, who got their military supplies from the Brits got violent all over the Promised Land, spawning "the Father of Jihad" Abu Nidal (Sabri Khalil al-Banna) (1937-2002), founder of Fatah (Revolutionary Council), the original Osama bin Laden, son of the richest man in the British Mandate of Palestine, who owned 6K acres of orange groves S of Jaffa near Ashkelon, and had 13 wives, 16 sons, and 8 daughters, but treated him as a bastard because his mother was one of his maids, 15 years old when she got pregnant, you saw the man and got the word, right, right again, what'd he say? After fleeing the fighting in 1947, he ended up in Yasser Arafat's PLO, then split in 1974 to set up his own terrorist org. that killed or injured 900+ in 20 countries.

In 1947 Zim Integrated Shipping Services of Haifa, Israel (founded 1945) purchased and refurbished SS Kedma(h), using it to transport hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants from Britain; in 1948 Princess Elizabeth helped send it off as the first officially Zionist ship flying the Israeli flag.

On Feb. 17, 1948 learned Yemeni king (since 1918) Imam Yahya (b. 1869) was assassinated by British-backed assassin Alqardaei of the Bani Murad tribe, which king Abdullah I of Jordan compared to the death of caliph #3 Othman, and his son Ahmad bin Yahya Hamidaddin (1891-1962) became the next-to-last Shiite Zaidi king of Yemen (until Sept. 18, 1962), going on to modernize the military and form ties with the Soviet Union and China while trying to annex Aden; meanwhile the creation of the Jewish State of Israel pissed-off Arabs in Aden, who rioted and killed scores of Jews and destroyed their homes and shops, causing Israel to begin Operation Magic Carpet to airlift 50K Jews to Israel, leaving 10K in Yemen; after the Zaydi imamate was overthrown and civil war broke out, more exited, followed by 1.2K more during the 1991 Gulf War; by 2009 the persecuted remainder concentrated in Saada and Raydah were down to 350. <.p>

On Mar. 13, 1948 after hearing that he refuses to meet him, Pres. Truman's old Jewish business partner from Mo. Edward "Eddie" Jacobson (1891-1955) pushes Chaim Weizmann on him to hear his arguments, with the soundbyte: "Your hero is Andrew Jackson. I have a hero too. He's the greatest Jew alive. I'm talking about Chaim Weizmann. He's an old man and very sick, and he has traveled thousands of miles to see you. And now you're putting him off. This isn't like you, Harry", causing Truman to agree after uttering the soundbyte "You win, you baldheaded son of a bitch", causing him to drop the anti-Zionist policy of top U.S. State Dept. advisor George Frost Kennan (1904-2005), who wrote position papers in Jan. and Feb. calling for the 2-state plan to be abandoned and a U.N. trusteeship to be established in the belief that a Jewish state couldn't survive a military attack by the Arab world, later writing: "When we lent our support, nearly thirty years ago, we accepted a certain share of the responsibility for the success of the undertaking", adding that the U.S. should do everything to help Israel survive "short of the actual dispatch and employment of combat forces".

Too bad, on Apr. 9, 1948 the Deir Yassin Massacre saw the Zionist Irgun Zwei Leumi terrorist org. of Menachem Begin (1913-92) attack the small Arab village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, massacring 300 of all ages; really just 100? They followed it with 254 more on Apr. 13, 90 more on Apr. 19, and 100 more on May 18. On May 13 they attacked and seized Jaffa, the Arab outpost in Jewish territory, causing all but 15K of the Arab pop. to flee. After the first truce on July 9-19, 1948, the Jews under Yitzhak Rabin (1922-95) launched Operation Danny to strike out E from Tel Aviv and push towards Jerusalem, capturing Lydda (Lod) and Ramla (Ramle), after which only a few hundred of 50K-70K Arab residents remained, to make an omelet you have to break a few eggs. Jewish terrorists went on to depopulate 531 Palestinian towns and villages, and 11 urban neighborhoods, killing or displacing 450K-725K Arabs in the 1948 Palestinian Exodus, many of whom really fled Palestine on their own initiative or under Arab orders as the Arab armies attacked the Jews like turbaned Nazis, later causing a propaganda war, it depends on whom you believe, not even a genius can figure it out, but the Arab Higher Committee (AHC), the de facto Muslim govt. ordered tens of thousands of Arabs to evacuate Haifa on Apr. 21-22, after ordering the 6K Arabs out of Tiberias a few days earlier despite Jewish protestations, and later it ordered the partial or complete evacuation of the Arab. pops. of Jaffa, Jerusalem, and Beisan, and on Apr. 30 they allegedly ordered the evacuation of all Arab villages between Tel Aviv and Haifa. The AHC gave the excuse either that the Arab army needed maneuvering room, or that the Jews would take them hostage, or that remaining in a Jewish state would make them into traitors. Speaking of geniuses, on Apr. 10, 1948 after being solicited by the Stern Gang, Albert Einstein wrote them a letter calling them a "terrorist organization" full of "misled and criminal people". Meanwhile on Apr. 13, 1948 the Hadassah Medical Convoy Massacre saw the Arabs massacre a Jewish medical convoy, killing 79, mostly doctors and nurses.

The 1947 U.N. Partition Plan was never implemented.

On Jan. 13, 1948 the first Arab jihadist attack was at Gush Etzion in the hills of Hebron, followed by more attacks on Jan. 14 and Jan. 16, indulge in some Me time.

A big day for Bible thumpers and Millennium Feverists? "Thus says the Lord God: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel." (Ezekiel 37:12) On May 14, 1948 (midnight) the Jewish Nat. Council in Tel Aviv, Palestine proclaimed the new Jewish State of Israel, with David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973) (known for the soundbyte "The Bible is our deed to the land of Israel") as PM #1 (until Jan. 24, 1954); it incl. an Unwritten Israeli Constitution, and a unicameral Knesset (Heb. "assembly"), whose HQ along with the Israeli Supreme Court bldg. are paid for by Yad Hanadiv (Rothschild Foundation), chaired by wealthy English Zionist Dorothy Mathilde de Rothschild (nee Pinto) (1895-1988); "We offer peace and amity to all the neighboring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East"; the U.S. recognized it 11 min. later, but Pres. Truman refuses to call it a Jewish state, although he ignored advice from U.S. secy. of state George Marshall et al. in order to recognize it because he believed that it fulfills Biblical prophecy?; "Thus says the Lord God: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel." (Ezekiel 37:12); the Israeli army had nine obsolete planes for an air force, no cannons or tanks, and 60K trained fighters, only 18.9K of them fully ready for fighting, causing operations chief Yigael Yadin to tell David Ben-Gurion, "The best we can tell you is that we have a 50-50 chance." On May 15 the British Palestine Mandate ended and the British withdrew, leading to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War with Arab states as Lebanese, Syrian, Iraqi, Egyptian, and Transjordanian troops, supported by Saudi and Yemenite troops attack, screaming "Allahu Akbar", "Jihad", and "Idbah al-Yahud" (slaughter the Jews), showing that it isn't a nationalist but a religious struggle, and sorry, but Islam will never accept the Jewish state of Israel; the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon is founded to wage jihad, later becoming Hezbollah; on May 15 Egyptian Arab League secy.-gen. #1 (1945-52) Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam Pasha (1893-1976) uttered the soundbyte "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre"; on May 17 the Soviet Union recognized Israel; Jordanian King Abdullah Ibn Hussein's British-trained Arab League under British Lt. Gen. Sir John Bagot Glubb (1897-1986) (AKA Glubb Pasha) seized control of Judea and Samaria, along with the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem on May 28 ("The blackest event in Israel's War of Independence") and annexed them, cutting off access by Jews to the Western Wall until 1967, going on to destroy or desecrate 50+ synagogues in the Jewish Quarter; only Great Britain and Pakistan recognized the annexation; Egypt occupied (but didn't annex) Gaza; on May 22 the U.N. Security Council voted 8-0-3 (Ukraine, U.S.S.R., Syria) to order a ceasefire in Palestine; U.S. aircraft manufacturer Adolf "Al" Schwimmer (1917-2011) violated U.S. laws to smuggle surplus aircraft and found the Israeli Air Force on May 28, is convicted in 1950 of violating the U.S. Neutrality Act, and becomes pres. of Israel Aircraft Industries until 1978, finally receiving a pardon by Pres. Bill Clinton in 2000; on May 29 the U.N. Truce Supervision Org. (UNTSO) (the first U.N. peacekeeping force) was established, with HQ in Jerusalem to oversee the truce; Golda Meir (1898-1978) became the Israeli ambassador to the U.N; after losing 6,373 of 650K Israelis and spending $500M to achieve the truce; on July 7 the U.N. Security Council voted 8-0-3 (Ukraine, U.S.S.R., Syria) to urgently appeal to prolong the truce in Palestine; Ha Tikva(h) became the Israeli national anthem; the knee-jerk reaction of Arabs was to expel all Jews from Arab cities from Casablanca to Baghdad; the Christian pop. of Jordanian Jerusalem fell from 25K to 11K by 1967 as restrictive laws were placed on them; the Vatican hid the Temple Menorah and other holy vessels looted from the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. so that they couldn't be used by the Israelis to rebuild it; they are returned on ?

BTW, it was after reading Azzam's 1938 book "The Hero of Heroes, or The Most Prominent Attribute of the Prophet Muhammad", which touts Muhammad for combining thought with action and claims that Islam is incompatible with fanatical attachment to "tribe, nation, color, language or culture" that Malcolm X decided to ditch the black racist Nation of Islam and convert to traditional Sunni Islam, monkey see monkey don't do, jokes about the Quran calling Jews apes here not.

On May 20, 1948 Swedish diplomat Count Folke Bernadotte (1895-1948) was appointed as the first U.N. mediator on Palestine. On June 28 he made the first formal peace proposal to the Arabs and Israelis, proposing that Palestinian and Transjordan form a "union, comprising two members, one Arab and one Jewish". After that was rejected, he made a 2nd proposal on Sept. 16 for two independent states. On Sept. 17 (Fri.) he was assassinated in Jerusalem by the Zionist Lehi terrorist group (AKA the Stern Gang), who wrongly believed that the Israeli govt. was about to accept the proposal. On Sept. 18 the U.N. Security Council voted 11-0-0 to condemn the killing as "a cowardly act which appears to have been committed by a criminal group of terrorists", after which the Lehi group was disarmed and its members arrested, but nobody was ever charged with the killing, causing Sweden to have frosty relations with Israel, even though it recognized it in 1950. In Sept. the Israeli govt. also dissolved the Irgun Zionist terrorist org. (founded 1931), whose members later founded the right-wing Herut (Heb. "freedom") Party, predecessor of the Likud Party; Bernadotte was succeeded as U.N. mediator #2 by U.S. diplomat Ralph Johnson Bunche (1904-71), who worked out a truce on Nov. 4, 1948 (U.N. Security Council Resolution 61) and an armistice on Nov. 16 (U.N. Security Council Resolution 62), and on Dec. 29, 1950 becoame the first African-American to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Bernadotte was succeeded as U.N. mediator #2 by U.S. diplomat Ralph Johnson Bunche (1904-71), who worked out an armistice agreement in 1948, and on Dec. 29, 1950 became the first African-American to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Speaking of Nobel Prizes, the reason that little tiny Israel always kicks the butts of the hordes of Muslims surrounding it is that Jews are just plain smarter. Over the past 105 years, 14 million Jews have won 180 Nobel Prizes, vs. only 3 won by 1.5 billion Muslims, check it out, yah. Actually, it's the fact that reading the Hebrew Bible builds IQ, while chanting the sick Quran lowers it, shake it and see, it's like a demolition derby.

On June 8, 1948 back in the U.S., New York City-born Jewish comedian Milton "Uncle Miltie" Berle (Mendel Berlinger) (1908-2002) hosted the first 1-hour Texaco Star Theater, which caused TV to become wildly popular in the U.S., causing Berle to be called "Mr. Television"; the show lasted until June 1956.

On June 10, 1948 Israeli Army (former U.S. Army) Col. (former U.S. Army) Col. David Daniel "Mickey" Marcus (b. 1901) was shot and killed by his own sentries while urinating in a field because he was wrapped in a bed sheet and they mistook him for an Arab.

On July 23, 1948 Pres. Truman appoints Coldwater, Ohio-born Zionist James Grover McDonald (1886-1964) (League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 1933-5) as U.S. special envoy to Israel against the advice of the State Dept., getting promoted to full ambassador in Feb. 1949 (until 1951).

In Sept. 1948 El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (Arab. "skywards") airline was founded by the new state of Israel, with its first flight from Geneva to Tel Aviv. On Oct. 1, 1948 Jerusalem mufti Amin al-Husayni declared the All-Palestine Govt. before the Palestine Nat. Council in Gaza; too bad, Gaza is run by Egypt, which letsthe new state die on the vine.

The 1948 war resulted in Jerusalem being divided, with West Jerusalem proclaimed territory of Israel on July 26, 1948, with the old walled city lying entirely on the Jordanian side of the line. A no-man's land between East and West Jerusalem came into being in Nov. 1948, after which dashing Moshe Dayan (1915-81), cmdr. of the Israeli forces in Jerusalem met with his Jordanian counterpart Abdullah el Tell (1918-) in a deserted house in Jerusalem's Musrara neighborhood, and marked out their respective positions, Israel's in red and Jordan's in green. This rough map, which was not meant as an official one became the final line in the 1949 Armistice Agreements, which divided the city and left Mt. Scopus as an Israeli exclave inside East Jerusalem. Barbed wire and concrete barriers ran down the center of the city, passing close by Jaffa Gate on the W side of the old walled city, and a crossing point was established at Mandelbaum Gate slightly to the N of the old walled city. Frequent military skirmishes threatened the ceasefire.

On Dec. 11, 1948 by 35-23 the non-binding U.N. Gen. Assembly Resolution 194 was passed, calling for the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes; all six Arab countries at the U.N. (Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen) voted against it; Israel wasn't a U.N. member yet; of course their homes are somewhere in the vast Arab territory surrounding Israel, but because of the doctrine of Islam the Arab puppetmasters force fake so-called Palestinian refugees on Israel as front line troops in their jihad to exterminate Israel from the map, while pulling every trick to turn black white and white black to paint poor outnumbered surrounded Israel as the bad guys and the sea of 300 million Arabs working to destroy them as the good guys, or even the victims; the net result is that by 2016 there are still 4M Palestinian refugees squatting in squalid U.N. camps while the Arab nations refuse to absorb them, while there are zero Jewish refugees waiting to be absorbed by the Jewish state of Israel.

After 1948 Jordan was able to take control of all the holy places inside the old walled city, and contrary to the terms of the agreement denied Israelis access to Jewish holy sites, many of which were desecrated. Jordan allowed only very limited access to Christian holy sites. Of course, during this period, the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque underwent major renovations, real Quran-thumping Arabs put their money in that rather than helping Arab refugees. The unexpected weakness of the backward lazy Arabs against the crack Israeli military even caused the British govt. to start about-facing. On Jan. 17, 1949 after Israeli planes shot down four British RAF planes flying with Egyptian squadrons over the Israeli-Egypt border on Jan. 7, health minister (1945-51) Aneurin Bevan (1897-1960) openly questioned the cabinet about the wisdom of relying on the "unstable and reactionary governments of the Arab states", and told them that Britain "should have done better to base our position in the Middle East on the friendship of the Jews, who, if we had pursued a different policy, would have been glad to give us all the facilities we needed to establish strong military bases in Palestine." Even then, the British cabinet would only recognize the Jewish state of Israel in return for U.S. de facto recognition of Jordan, throwing in the release of the 9K detainees in Cyprus as a sop, and they were both concerned about Communist Jews in Israel turning it pro-Soviet. Meanwhile #1 Hollywood screenwriter of the 20th century Ben Hecht (1894-1964) ("the Shakespeare of Hollywood"), a Jewish-American whose prodigious output incl. "Scarface", "The Front Page", "Stagecoach", "Gone With the Wind", "Gunga Din", "His Girl Friday", and "Spellbound", who went Zionist and began doing all he could to save the Jews from the Holocaust during WWII, publishing an article in Reader's Digest in 1943 about the plight of 6 million Jews in Europe, responded to the blowing up of the King David Hotel with the soundbyte "Every time you blow up a British arsenal, or wreck a British jail, or send a British railroad sky high, or rob a British bank, or let go with your guns at the British betrayers and invaders of your homeland, the Jews of America make a little holiday in their hearts", causing the British govt. to blacklist his films from 1948-51, stinking themselves up. In 1943 Hecht wrote the musical pageant "We Will Never Die", about the plight of the Jews in Europe, produced by Billy Rose and Ernst Lubitsch, with help from composer Kurt Well, performed for 40K at Madison Square Garden in two shows then performed nationwide in an attempt to get the U.S. govt. to do something in vain, causing Hecht to complain "The pageant has accomplished nothing. Actually, all we have done is make a lot of Jews cry, which is not a unique accomplishment."

On Mar. 4, 1949 the U.N. Security Council voted 9-1-1 (Egypt against, U.K. abstaining) for Resolution 69 authorizing the admission of Israel; on May 11 U.N. Gen. Assembly Resolution 273 was passed by 37-12-9, admitting the state of Israel to the U.N. as member #59, with the soundbyte that it "decides that Israel is a peace loving State which accepts the obligations contained in the Charter and is able and willing to carry out those obligations", raising the Israeli flag on the U.N. bldg.

On Aug. 12, 1949 the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (GCIV) was adopted by the U.N. Gen. Assembly, becoming the first to protect civilians in a war zone, forbidding "individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country", which doesn't stop mass persecution of Jews in Arab lands, resulting in mass flight to you guessed it, the Jewish state of Israel; by 2018 196 countries are a party; meanwhile the Second Geneva Convention is adopted, replacing the 1907 Hague Convention, extending the First Geneva Convention to protect the wounded, sick, and shipwrecked members of the armed forces at sea; all four conventions and pub. in 4 vols. in 1952-8.

On Dec. 8, 1949 the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was established after its 1-year mandate ran out, and today it's still in charge of giving aid to 400K Palestinian "refugees" in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, reaching 5M by 2010, becoming a giant bureaucracy with 20K+ employees that seemingly seeks to perpetuate the problem to stay in biz, allowing the children to be systematically indoctrinated with Jew hatred and trained for jihad; too bad, a U.S. State Dept. report in 2018 claims tht the true number of Palestinian refugees is 20K. Meanwhile after pogroms in British-occupied Libya in 1945 killed hundreds of Jews and destroyed many shops and synagogues, 30K Libyan Jews wisely flee for Israel between 1949-51 before Libya became independent in 1951, and PM Mahmoud Muntasser proclaimed that the 8K remaining Jews in Libya had "no future", are you a gambling kind of gal, which was proved true as virtually all remaining Jews were expelled after the 1967 Six-Day War.

On Dec. 13, 1949 Israel declared Jerusalem as its capital, moving from Tel Aviv, pissing-off Jordan, which formally annexed East Jerusalem, subjecting it to Jordanian law; only Britain and maybe Pakistan formally recognized the annexation; Israel and Jordan began electing parallel lines of mayors of West and East Jerusalem (until ?); New York archibishop (1939-) cardinal (1946-) Francis Joseph Spellman (1889-1967) was instrumental in getting Latin Am. countries to vote for Israel's admission by 37-12.

1950

On April 24, 1950 Jordan officially annexed Judea and Samaria, which they began to call the West Bank (of the Jordan River), causing other members of the Arab League to protest that they should get some, after which satisfied gloating Britain finally recognized Israel on Apr. 27, ever see a dad trying to choke a bus driver in Disneyland? On July 5, 1950 the Israeli Knesset passed the Law of Return, granting every Jew "the right to come to this country as an oleh" (immigrant). In 1951 the entire Jewish community of 130K+ began fleeing Iraq for Israel, leaving behind assets estimated at over $150M. Cuba supplied Aerea de Cuba planes and pilots to bring nearly 150K Jews to Israel from Iraq, Iran, Yemen and India by 1953, although it was kept secret until 2010. Meanwhile the Arab League established the Bureau for Boycotting Israel in Damascus, Syria, and Iraq joined it, banning dealings with Israeli cos. and those with Israeli shareholders. Later Israel's desire to get the sanctions lifted caused them to pressure the U.S. into the 2003 Iraq War?

So was launched the outnumbered surrounded Jewish state of Israel, all 8.5K sq. mi. of it, smaller than every U.S. state except Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island, only 2% the size of Egypt, 35% the size of Jordan, 12% the size of Syria, and a mere speck compared to Turkey or Iran. Today it has 7.4 million people, compared to 350 million in the 5.2 million square miles of the Arab world. Yet compared to the vast Muslim world, it far outshines every Muslim country economically, poltically, socially, industrially, and scientifically - somebody stop me before I convert. Since the 1800s, the Jewish settlers in Ottoman Palestine had been turning it from a depopulated hellhole into a paradise, making the desert bloom and all that jazz, and now that the Arabs were cleared out either by force or by choice, like I care, they have plenty of Arab territory to move into and keep backward, the Jews enjoyed a period of relative peace and quiet. Actually, the truth is that Jews are more into making the desert bloom with new cities, not crops. In the 1944-5 growing season the Arabs produced 92.8% of the agricultural output, worth 17 million Palestinian pounds, which is no surprise since Jews only owned 7% of the land until the Palestinians fled and/or were expelled, after which the Jews destroyed most of their farms and olive and orange groves as too labor-intensive. Still, the state of Israel ramped up agricultural output bigtime, reaching $3.6 billion in 2006, with only 2.6% of the pop. employed in agriculture.

On Sept. 10, 1952 the Luxembourg Treaty was signed, whereby West Germany agreed to pay Israel 3B marks as reparations for "material" damage suffered by Jews at the hands of the Nazis, along with 450M marks to Jewish orgs. Germany began paying reparations to the Jewish people in 1953, the payments reaching 56.3B German marks by the end of 1983.

On Nov. 17, 1952 Abba Eban offered the presidency of Israel to superbrain scientist Albert Einstein, who politely declined.

Speaking of tears, in 1953 the Yad Vashem (VaShem) memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust (named after Isaiah 56:5, "And to them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name") was established at the foot of Mt. Herzl on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem, featuring walls lined with photos of victims. Meanwhile the small strip of land called Israel was surrounded by a sea of hate-filled Muslims who would love to create another Holocaust. Sadly, an Israel this size is doomed to extermination the moment the U.S. can't protect it any longer, which is why I'm giving it only a coin-flip chance of survival to 2048 unless a miracle happens, sorry.

Speaking of surrounded, under the Palestine Mandate, Israel's territory would have been 6x as large as it is now, but thanks to Arabs with no respect for the U.N. they had to fight to keep what little they have. Since 1967 when Israel allegedly occupied Arab territory, it has ceded territory 3x its own size, despite having one of the world's highest pop. densities, yet the Muslim world and its Western backers continue demanding that it continue giving up land even though over 7 million Israelis live on a piece of land smaller than New Hampshire. Speaking of pop. density, Israel has the 30th highest in the world (365 per mi.), barely ahead of Netherlands (#28), Puerto Rico (#24), and South Korea (#22). When eliminating islands, city states and principalities from the list, Israel actually has the 10th highest population density in the world behind India, Japan and Rwanda. Of course the Arab squatters in the so-called Palestinian Territories are at #14 on the big list at er, 666.6. Thanks to horrible Islam, not only is Israel outnumbered and surrounded, it's well-nigh indefensible, with its width at its narrowest point less than 10 mi. (15km). Surrounded by hostile Muslim countries dedicated to its extermination, if they ever get their act together, their armies can cut Israel in half in only a matter of hours, then set up two big concentration camps and go to work. Worse, the narrow point of Israel intersects the big kahuna city of Jerusalem, yet that is precisely the city that every outside so-called peacemaker from Carter to Obama want to slice into and turn into a geographically contiguous state for Hamas and Fatah, nicely cutting Israel in two at its must vulnerable point and setting it up for the final kill. Any real peacemaker will want to persuade or force all Arab Muslims to resettle far away from Israel, and give it a much larger territory with a deep buffer zone on all sides, incl. everything from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River at least. Compare this with the current peace talk series number umpty-ump and see what a waste it is. Why oh why didn't the mighty U.S. back in the 1940s and 1950s force the Arabs to give up enough land to make Israel truly secure even without its future military backing? Because the Arabs played our presidents off for suckers, and now that the U.S. has drained itself in Iraq and Afghanistan while Muslim nations are on the verge of getting nukes and swamping the West with Trojan Horse immigrants who are busily infiltrating the govts., not to mention the U.N., they're laughing their turbans off, pass the sheep eyes and sign up for Arab Facebook and start bidding on your future Jewish harem slaves. Why doesn't the world unite to give Israel the extra territory it needs so that its survival isn't in jeopardy any more than any Muslim nation? Because of horrible Islam whose Muhammad and Allah decree that Israel be exterminated and Muslim superiority Sharia be erected instead, with what's left of the Jews reduced to corpses, slaves or dhimmis paying jizya protection money to the fat lazy Arab bastards, that's why. The well-funded Arab propaganda machine currently has half the world believing that Israel is the bad guy and wants to take over the world, and that the Arabs are poor helpless victims on the verge of extermination, when it's just the opposite, read that again 50 times until you can live with yourself, don't blame me I'm just the messenger, then read on.

Speaking of bad guys, Judaism like everything else has its bad side, and many Jews never forgive or forget an injury, causing them to turn into relentless (no statute of limitations) Nazi hunters, led by Austrian-born Simon Wiesenthal (1908-2005), who spearheaded the kidnapping of Nazi Adolf Eichmann (1906-62) in Argentina, followed by a show trial and execution in Israel, then founded the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) in Los Angeles, Calif. 1977. Another famous Jewish American is Holocaust survivor Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel (1928-), whose touching story of surviving Auschwitz was perhaps a little exaggerated, but tear-jerking, but who went beyond the Nazis to blame the Roman Catholic Church for condoning the Holocaust, accusing Pope (1939-58) Pius XII (1876-1958) of condoning Jewish persecution via "silence". He even went beyond that to his famous 1971 statement "The sincere Christian knows that what died in Auschwitz was not the Jewish people but Christianity", implying that the Jews' suffering was equal to Christ's on the cross. Another Jewish American who stunk the Jewish cause up a bit was orthodox Rabbi Meir Kahane (1932-90), founder of the Jewish Defense League that adopted Nazi tactics in defense of Judaism. He was assassinated in Manhattan by a Muslim hit man, partially vindicating his paranoia.

Meanwhile the Bible-thumping Christians had their own ideas about the Restoration of Israel, not caring so much that Jews were moving back and setting up a Jewish state as they were slobbering over the thought that Jesus' return from Heaven must be nigh, when he will make them all see the light and become good Christians. The practical effect was to create widespread support for the state of Israel in the super-powerful super-rich U.S., along with the so-called Israel lobby in the U.S., which Muslims totally misunderstood, taking it for Jewish control of the U.S., as if it had somehow enslaved it. Without the Jesus angle, all the Jewish power in the world couldn't have swung the U.S. so pro-Israel, sorry. Nor can all the Israeli mistakes, goof-ups and covered-up atrocities make the U.S. drop support for it either, rather, it just makes Christians more sure that the Jews will see the error of their ways and finally accept you know who, gaining divine support to finish off all their hate-filled enemies. In fact, if the Jews and Muslims would agree that Israel had a right to exist, and there were no apocalyptic battle of Armageddon requiring Christ to personally arrive to turn the tide before the world destroyed itself, the Bible would be proved to be a pile of crap, ask for big brain Stephen Hawking to supply the necessary mathematical analysis. So we've come to the real reason that Big J is the #1 key city for world peace, because after there is then either we will enter the Worldwide God Age or the Worldwide Atheist Age. Meanwhile the strong support of Israel by the U.S. among Jews and non-Jews alike also helps rein-in the undemocratic retro ultra-orthodox element and keep it fairly democratic.

Not that the state of Israel doesn't have its dirty laundry, it is a composite state with immigrants from bad countries like the Soviet Union, and some no doubt brought some bad ideas with them, plus the ultra-orthodox hardliners who sometimes rival Muslims in genocidal impulses, hopefully Israel will always keep them in check and be a credit to the world. On Oct. 14, 1953 the Qibya Massacre saw Israeli troops under Ariel "Arik" Sharon (Ariel Scheinermann) (1948-) get even for hate-filled Arab Muslim cross-border raids by crossing the Green Line to attack the village of Qibya on the West Bank under Operation Shoshana, killing 69 Arabs, many by blowing up 45 houses with them inside, plus a school and mosque. This was so blatantly Nazi-like that not only the U.N. and U.S. but many Jewish communities worldwide condemned Israel. Maybe this is where Judaism split into permanent pro and anti-Zionist camps, with the anti-Zionist camp no longer limited to Jewish fundamentalist Bible-thumpers who wanted to wait for the Messiah to lead them into Israel and Jerusalem and be their king, although non-religious Jews had to explain where Jews were supposed to live if not Israel, some former Indian rez in Arizona? Nobody ever got prosecuted for the massacre, and Sharon went on to become Israeli PM #11 in 2001-6, oy vey. On Oct. 29, 1956 the Kufr Qasem Massacre saw the Israeli military sandbag some Palestinians with Israeli citizenship by suddenly changing curfew hours while they were trying to return home, killing 47, incl. 15 women and 11 children. This time the cmdr., Maj. Shmuel Melinki was court-martialed and found guilty of killing 43 civilians, receiving 17 years in prison, and others were given sentences of 7-15 years, although the gen. in charge was only reprimanded and fined one piaster (10 cents). Too bad, after appeals none of them served more than three years in prison, and Melinki got a promotion.

In 1953 the first Israeli Prizes are awarded by the Israeli govt.

In 1953 after rumors that the Eisenhower admin. is about to investigate the Am. Zionist Council, the Am. Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) (originally Am. Zionist Committee for Public Affairs) was founded by Isaiah L. "Si" Kenen to lobby the U.S. govt. in support of Israel, growing to 100K members by 2016; it went on to become a powerful non-partisan lobby, which some blame for 9/11; King Saud of Saudi Arabia asked U.S. diplomats to finance a pro-Arab lobby to counter it, becoming the start of the Arab lobby in the U.S.; meanwhile Muslim Sunni scholar Taqiuddin al-Nabhani (1909-77) founded the Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation) in Jerusalem, with the goal of uniting all Muslim countries under a new caliphate incl. Sharia and the extermination of Israel, spreading to 40+ countries with 1M members, many in the U.K.

On Apr. 19, 1954 Pres. Truman's asst. secy. of state for Near Eastern Affairs (1952-5) Brig. Gen. Henry Alfred Byroade (1913-93) gave a speech to the World Affairs Council in Dayton, Ohio, calling on Israelis to "look upon yourselves as a Middle Eastern state rather than as a headquarters... of a worldwide grouping of people of a particular religious faith", calling on them to "drop the attitude of the conqueror" and halt "retaliatory killings", along with large-scale immigration, while telling the Arabs "You should accept this state of Israel as an accomplished fact"; too bad, the Arabs will never accept a Jewish state of Israel, so his policy was DOA?

On July 2, 1954 the Lavon Affair AKA Operation Susannah, led by Israel Col. Binyamin Gibli used Egyptian Jews to engage in false flag operations by bombing U.S. and British civilian targets in Egypt and blaming them on Egyptian Communists and the Muslim Brotherhood in order to keep the British occupation of the Suez Canal zone going, starting with a post office in Alexandria, followed on July 14 by the U.S. Info. Agency libraries in Alexandria and Cairo, and a British-owned theater; on Dec. 11 several arrested suspects were tried, with Israel denying knowledge and accusing Egypt of anti-Semitism to discredit them; on Jan. 27 Moshe Marzouk and Shmuel Azar were sentenced to death, several received lengthy prison terms, and two were acquitted; after he was caught lying to PM Moshe Sharett, Israeli defense minister Pinhas Levon resigned on Feb. 17, 1955, and was succeeded by former PM David Ben-Gurion on Feb. 21 (until June 26, 1963); Sharett resigned on Nov. 3, 1955, after which it becomes known as the Bad Business or Unfortunate Affair; on Mar. 30, 2005 Israel honored nine of the operatives.

On Nov. 3, 1955 former PM #1 (1948-54) David Ben-Gurion returns from retirement and becomes Israeli PM again (until June 26, 1963), creating the Periphery Doctrine, that Israel should seek regional partners against the Arab Core of states led by Egypt.

The Kufr Qasem Massacre went on while the Suez War (Crisis) (Oct. 29-Nov. 7, 1956) was beginning, benefitting from the diversion. Ever since upstart Sunni Muslim Gamal (Arab. "camel") Abdel Nasser (1918-70) toppled the monarchy of King Farouk in 1954, and began promoting pan-Arab nationalism along with Socialism, pulling together his own Third World bloc, he pissed off former colonial powers Britain and France, but when he nationalized the Suez Canal on July 26, 1956 after the Brits removed their troops, stealing it from British and French shareholders, was it the Socialism or the resurgent Islamism that broke the camel's back? Ask Disraeli how, but on Oct. 29, 1956 (Mon.) 100K Israeli troops invaded Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, giving Britain and France an excuse to issue an ultimatum to Egypt and Israel on Oct. 30 calling for a ceasefire, then citing their right to reoccupy the canal under the May 25, 1950 Tripartite Declaration (Agreement) that guaranteed the territorial status quo. On Oct. 31, 1956 Cyprus-based British bombers bombed Egyptian airfields, causing Ike to go nonlinear, and in the evening he went on TV, saying "We cannot subscribe to one law for the weak, another for those allied to us." On Nov. 5 British paratroopers began landing on the N end of the canal, causing Col. Sanders lookalike Soviet PM (1955-58) Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin (1895-1975) to warn that nukes will be used if they don't withdraw, and asking the U.S. for an alliance with the Soviet Union, to which Ike replied "Those British, they're still my right arm", accusing the Soviets of trying to divert attention from Hungary, then deciding to send aid to Israel, also issuing the Washington Declaration with British PM (1955-57) Sir Robert Anthony Eden (1897-1977); on Nov. 6 French infantry seized the E side of the canal, but the U.S. intervened, arranging a ceasefire on Nov. 7 and demanding full British and French withdrawal, which they caved-in and obeyed. In Nov. a U.N. Emergency Force was created, organized by Lester Bowles "Mike" Pearson (1897-1972) of Canada (who won the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize for it, and became Canadian PM #14 in 1963-8), and in Dec. it supervised withdrawal of French and British forces (ends Jan. 1957), while the U.N. fleet left the Suez Canal. Egypt agreed to pay $81M in reparations to the World Bank, and the Sinai was demilitarized, with U.N. troops deployed along the Egyptian-Israeli border, and the U.S. committing to keeping the Straits of Tiran open to Israeli shipping, all of which set the pan-Arab movement back bigtime. In Nov. Eden, his health breaking down, went on vacation on Ian Fleming's 007 estate in Jamaica, allowing Maurice Harold Macmillian (1894-1986) to work to push him out of office on Jan. 10, 1957 to Oct. 18, 1963, becoming known for the soundbyte that the British "never had it so good". On Oct. 29, 1956 (evening) Jewish-controlled NBC-TV took advantage of all the news to debut The Huntley-Brinkley Report (until July 31, 1970), with co-anchors Chester Robert "Chet" Huntley (1911-74) and David McClure Brinkley (1920-2003). Each show closes with "Good night, Chet. Good night, David. And good night for NBC News", which the Jewish producer Reuven Frank (1920-2006) made them say, although they didn't like it. Speaking of Jewish control of U.S. media, on Nov. 3 CBS-TV aired the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz (the ultimate explanation for what makes an American, namely, an insular mentality that attempts to retain its innocence but can stoop to dirty work against wicked witches and monkeys when required) for the first time, becoming an annual tradition, gee it's nice to be home in safe Muslim-free Jew-controlled Hollywood-Kansas. The net result of the Suez Crisis was to ensure that the Palestinian Arabs would never be resettled in Egypt when they could be used as a fifth column for exterminating Israel. It was also the last time that the decrepit Brits had any power play to make in the Middle East. Talking about power in the Middle East, in 1957 Nasser explained why Egypt and Jordan never allow Palestinian self-determination and keep them in squalid settlements: "The Palestinians are useful to the Arab states as they are. We will always see that they do not become too powerful." In 1974 Hafez al-Assad of Syria added that Palestine is "not only a part of the Arab homeland but a basic part of southern Syria."

In 1956 after a request from Pres. Eisenhower for a unified voice for the Am. Jewish community, the Conference of Presidents of Major Am. Jewish Orgs. (CoP) was founded.

On June 2, 1957 German-born Semitic Action leader Uri Avneri (Avnery) ((Helmut Ostermann) (1923-2018) pub. the first detailed plan for an independent Palestinian state; next Sept. 1 he helps write the Hebrew Manifesto, proposing a sovereign Palestinian state next to Israel, with a 2-state federation that gradually increases its jurisdiction; on July 3, 1982 he crosses the battle lines during the Siege of Beirut to meet Yassir Arafat, becoming his first meeting with a hated Israeli, going on to pub. "My Friend, the Enemy" (1986).

In 1958 new Pope John XXIII dedicated the Supreme Religious Center for World Jewry in Jerusalem.

Speaking of hate-filled Muslims, the existence of a Jewish state in Palestine, no matter how small, and no matter how cleaned-up the govt. got, forever stuck in the craw of Arab Muslims, who insisted on clinging to the 7th cent. Quran which commands them to conquer the world for Islam and set up its horrible retro Sharia, and to never ever give up a single square inch, with the reward of paradise for martyrdom while fighting to expand or recover territory, not for being a designer or inventor or whatever, a fighter. On Jan. 5, 1956 Egyptian grand mufti Sheikh Hassan Mamoun issued a fatwa to the effect that since Palestine had long been conquered by jihad, it was a permanent possession of the global Muslim Umma, hence regardless of the U.N. or Jewish-oriented history, the Jews usurped Allah's territory and therefore no Muslim can ever conclude a peace with them, no matter how stupid the Yankees are to think they can mediate one. In 1961 Jaffa-born intellectual Shafiq al-Hout (Shafik al-Hut) (1932-2009) and Jaffa-born Ahmed Jibril (1938-) founded the militant Syrian-backed Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF); in 1964 al-Hout became a co-founder of the PLO, representing it at the U.N. and in Lebanon, then resigning after Arafat signed the 1993 Oslo Accords; the fake Arab Muslim "Palestinian" nationality was dreamed up by the KGB in 1964 for Soviet-trained Yasser Arafat, who uttered the soundbyte: "The Palestinian people have no national identity. I, Yasser Arafat, man of destiny, will give them that identity through conflict with Israel." In 1964 after years of subversive movements, Nasser's backing the out-in-the-open Palestine Liberation Org. (PLO) was founded to end the Jewish state by violence and terrorism, not just in the Middle East, but anywhere they think it might advance the cause. Like many if not most so-called Palestinians, the founder Yasser Arafat (1929-2004) (grand-nephew of Jew-hating Nazi ally grand mufti Amin al-Husseini) was born not there, but in his case in Cairo, but Arabs started out by taking the territory by fear, force, and violence in the 7th cent. and aren't about to change as long as they stick with Islam.

Don't take my word for it. In 1959 after urging by the PLO so that Palestinian refugees in Arab countries won't be assimilated and forget their problem, the Arab League promulgated Decision Number 1457, to wit: "Arab states will reject the giving of citizenship to applicants of Palestinian origin in order to prevent their integration into the host countries." The 1964 PLO National Charter puts it quite honestly: "The Palestinian people firmly believe in Arab unity, and in order to play its role in realizing this goal, it must, at this stage of its struggle, preserve its Palestinian personality and all its constituents. It must strengthen the consciousness of its existence and stance and stand against any attempt or plan that may weaken or disintegrate its personality." Where's the paper snowflakes? How about the 1988 Hamas Charter: "As for the objectives: They are the fighting against the false, defeating it and vanquishing it so that justice could prevail, homelands be retrieved and from its mosques would the voice of the mu'azen emerge declaring the establishment of the state of Islam, so that people and things would return each to their right places and Allah is our helper." That's a lot of pizza for a little dough. For a triple confirmation, let's look at the 2003 Palestinian Constitution: "Palestine is part of the large Arab World, and the Palestinian people are part of the Arab Nation. Arab Unity is an objective which the Palestinian People shall work to achieve."

So actually, there really isn't such a thing as a Palestinian, it's a political term only. There never was a nation of Palestine that the Jews stole from anybody, it was just one of many provinces of the Ottoman Empire from 1517-1917 that was backward and depopulated until Jews began moving in and reclaiming the desert, after which the creation of the Jewish state of Israel in 1948 followed by an Arab-launched war caused many Arabs to flee to neighboring Muslim lands, who wouldn't accept them as citizens but forced them into camps and threw them back at the Israelis to use as cannon fodder in their jihad for Allah, after all, paradise complete with virgins and great lodgings beats all that cruddy desert land, right, so go get your martyrdom today fighting and killing infidel Jews, and if not today then tomorrow. To quote Zuheir (Zuhair) Mohsen (1936-79), leader of the Syrian-backed As-Sa'iqa ("thunderbolt or storm") (main rival to Arafat's Fatah in the PLO) in Mar. 1977 in an interview with the Dutch newspaper "Trouw": "The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism. For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheba and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan." Way back in 1938 Ziff-Davis pub. co-founder William Ziff (1898-1953) pub. The Rape of Palestine in London, exploding the myth that Palestine is the age-old home of the Arabs; "In 1830 the Albanian conqueror Mehemet Ali colonized Jaffa, Nablus, and Beisan with Egyptian soldiers and their Sudanese allies. Fourteen years later, Lynch estimated the thirteen thousand inhabitants of Jaffa to be composed of eight thousand Turco-Egyptians, four thousand Greeks and Armenians, and one thousand Jews and Maronites. He did not consider that there were any Arabs at all in that city." By 2011 they didn't even try to hide it anymore, with Hamas MP and cleric Yunis Al-Astal uttering the Al-Aqsa TV soundbytes: "The Jews are brought in droves to Palestine so that the Palestinians, and the Islamic nation behind them will have the honor of annihilating the evil of this gang"; "All the predators, all the birds of prey, all the dangerous reptiles and insects, and all the lethal bacteria are far less dangerous than the Jews"; "In just a few years, all the Zionists and the settlers will realize that their arrival in Palestine was for the purpose of the great massacre, by means of which Allah wants to relieve humanity of their evil." "When Palestine is liberated and its people return to it, and the entire region, with the grace of Allah, will have turned into the United States of Islam, the land of Palestine will become the capital of the Islamic Caliphate, and all these countries will turn into states within the Caliphate. When this happens, any Palestinian will be able to live anywhere, because the land of Islam is the property of all Muslims"; "Until this happens, we must reject all the resettlement plans, naturalization, or even reparations prior to the return of the refugees." On Mar. 23, 2013 Hamas minister Fathi Hammad uttered the soundbyte: "Who are Palestinians? Palestinians don't come from Palestine... Brothers, half of the Palestinians are Egyptians and the other half are Saudis."

To skip ahead. In 1984 American journalist Joan Peters (1938-) pub. the controversial book From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict Over Palestine, which claimed that most of the Palestinian Arabs arrived after Jewish settlers started developing the land, which might or might not be true, but is actually irrelevant to the fact that Palestinian Arabs are Arabs, their true heart is in Mecca, which they consider the center of their empire however far outward it spreads, and they believe that Allah gave them all land that they or their ancestors have conquered forever, hence will never concede a square inch of it as long as they believe in Allah and the Quran, rather, they will ever work to keep spreading the outer radius of their Ummah or Borg Hive worldwide. By the way, Jordan keeps over 1 million Palestinians in refugee camps, as does Syria and Lebanon, for a total of over 3 million, while Israel has only 1.3 million, yet Saudi-financed anti-Israeli propaganda makes Israel appear to be responsible for the plight of all Palestinians. Why don't Palestinians demand that Jordan, Syria or Lebanon either assimilate them or let them create a Palestinian state? Because it's not about that, it's about the Muslim Ummah that stretches to Mecca being restored after the Jewish breach is cleansed like a disease. On Dec. 11, 1984 Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech to the U.N. Gen. Assembly on why Jordan is the real Palestine, with the soundbyte: "Clearly, in Eastern and Western Palestine, there are only two peoples, the Arabs and the Jews. Just as clearly, there are only two states in that area, Jordan and Israel. The Arab State of Jordan, containing some three million Arabs, does not allow a single Jew to live there. It also contains 4/5 of the territory originally allocated by this body's predecessor, the League of Nations, for the Jewish national home. The other state, Israel, has a population of over four million, of which 1/6 is Arab. It contains less than 1/5 of the territory originally allocated to the Jews under the Mandate... It cannot be said, therefore, that the Arabs of Palestine are lacking a state of their own. The demand for a second Palestinian Arab State in Western Palestine, and a 22nd Arab State in the world, is merely the latest attempt to push Israel back into the hopelessly vulnerable armistice lines of 1949." To give equal time to the other side, in 1997 Palestinian-American historian Rashid Ismail Khalidi (1948-) (a good friend of Pres. Barack Obama) pub. Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness, which although admitting there never was an Arab state of Palestine before the creation of the Jewish state of Israel in 1948, claims they had formed a "national consciousness" before that because of the Zionist movement, hence all zillion of them should have the right to crowd into Israel's little strip of land in the huge Arab Ummah and set up Sharia like in the rest of the Ummah, then poof goes their national identity and here comes holy killing with Frontline Plus with help of the entire Ummah, hello, what do you think I got stamped on my forehead, the word Dummas?

1960

On Dec. 16, 1960 Otto Preminger's Exodus (United Artists) debuts, written by Dalton Trumbo based on the 1958 Leon Uris novel and filmed in Cyprus and Israel, starring Paul Newman, Sal Mineo, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb, Gregory Ratoff et al. as heroic good-guy Jews trying to ram their way into British-run Palestine after WWII, while the native Muslims are treated like prejudiced throwbacks who should wake up and become their friends?; costs a phenomenal $4.5M to make, and lasts 220 min., doing $20M worldwide box office, causing comedian Mort Sahl to issue the review "Otto, let my people go"; "I will never divulge the name of a fellow member of the Irgun"; watch trailer.

On Jan. 31, 1962 after he delivered a lecture at McGill U. questioning the right of Israel to exist and equating Israelis to Nazis, labelling Judaism a "fossil", the Montreal Debate on Israel between British historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee (1889-1975) and Israeli ambassador to Canada Yaacov Herzog (1921-72) (brother of Chaim Herzog) before a nat. audience sees Herzog getting Toynbee to admit that all nations sometimes commit murder and is no reason to single-out Israel to question its right to exist, and also that "Israel can defossilize, just as you can defrost a car", making him an Israeli hero.

On Jan. 5, 1964 Pope (1963-78) Paul VI (1897-1978) visited Jerusalem, conferring with Ecumenical Patriarch (1948-72) Athenagoras I (1886-1972) in the first meeting between the Latin and Greek Catholic Church heads since the 15th cent. In his honor the winding road leading up to Mount Zion (the closest Jews were allowed to get to their ancient temple by the Jordanians) was paved and named Pope's Way. In 1965 Hungarian-born Theodor "Teddy" Kollek (1911-2007) was elected mayor of West Jerusalem (until 1993), going on to turn it into a modern city and become known as "the greatest builder of Jerusalem since Herod I the Great". When Israel took over East Jerusalem in 1967, he provided milk to Arab children and other niceties that caused some Israelis to grumble that he's pro-Arab. In 1965 with his sponsorship the Israel Museum was built in Givat Ram in W Jerusalem (near the Knesset, Israeli Supreme Court and Hebrew U. of Jerusalem), containing the Shrine of the Book to house the Dead Sea Scrolls (discovered in 1947 in Qumran). On Aug. 31, 1966 a new Knesset Bldg. was dedicated.

In Mar. 1964 the phrase "Zionism = Racism" was born at the U.N. Subcommission on the Prevention and Discrimination and the Protection of Minorities after the U.S. proposes that anti-Semitism be recognized as a form of racism, and the anti-Semitic Soviet Union counters next Oct. by reversing the equation.

On Mar. 3, 1965 Tunisian pres. #1 (since July 25, 1957) Habib Bourguiba (1903-2000) delivered his Jericho Speech, advocating a fair and lasting peace between the Palestinians and Israelis based on the 1947 U.N. resolution. On May 17, 1965 Israeli PM #3 (1963-9) Levi Eshkol (Skolnik) (1895-1969) proposed the Eshkol Plan for peace via a mutual security pact between Israel and its Muslim neighbors as long as they accept resettlement of Arab Palestinians in Arab territory, with financial support by Israel; it is rejected.

Too bad, just as Israel seemed to be smooth-sailing, the Arabs noticed that 1966 is a Millennium Fever (666) year, and decided to strike while the iron is hot? On Nov. 13, 1966 after an al-Fatah land mine kills three Israeli soldiers on border patrol two days earlier, despite a Jordanian effort to curb Fatah sabotage since last year, Israeli forces attack the Jordanian-held village of Sammu, Jordan, in reprisal for PLO raids, killing 16 and losing one Israeli, becoming Israel's largest military operation since the 1956 Suez Crises, helping lead to the Six-Day War.

In 1967 Wadi (Wadie) Haddad (1927-78) founded the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which became the 2nd largest member of the PLO after Fatah, becoming fond of hijacking airplanes.

The best defense is a good offense? Israel looks the abyss in the patched eye and saves itself, but for how long nobody knows, while its backer the U.S. flirts with a mini-Armageddon on 6-6-67? On June 1, 1967 kibbutz-born eye-patched Gen. Moshe Dayan (1915-81) (known for the soundbyte "Israel has no foreign policy, only a defense policy") is named defense minister of Israel, uniting Israelis around his charisma and gaining acceptance of a first strike on Egypt; on June 5 (Mon.) (7:50 a.m.) (6-5-6-7) the Six-Day War breaks out as the Israeli Air Force, led by RAF veteran Ezer Weizman (1924-2005) sneak-attacks and destroys the Egyptian Air Force in 3 hours, destroying 280 aircraft, then wipes out the Syrian Air Force in another 2 hours, followed by the Jordanian Air Force in minutes after breaking a deal with Israel to stay out of the war if Israel wouldn't touch the West Bank and Jerusalem, Jordan begins shelling Jerusalem, causing the mini-Armageddon-like Battle for Ammunition Hill, which Israel wins (partly because the Egyptians control the Jordanian army, and want them to go to Sinai instead), capturing the Arab sector of Jerusalem on June 7 and all of Jerusalem on June 10 for the first time since being expelled by the Romans in 70 C.E., which causes Jordanian king (since 1952) Hussein I bin Talal (1935-99) (head of the Hashemites, whose main historical responsibility is guarding the Haran Al-Sharif Noble Sanctuary in Jerusalem) to go nonlinear; meanwhile the Egyptian generals, led by CIC Gen. Mohamed Fawzi (1915-2000) lie to their own people, filling Egyptian broadcasts with news of Egyptian Vs, while they actually order a hasty withdrawal, which turns into a sauve qui peut, allowing the Israelis to trap, encircle, and destroy the Egyptian army, capturing tens of thousands by June 6; Israeli Lt. Gen. Motta Gur utters the soundbyte: "Har HaBayit B'Yadenu" (the Temple Mount is in our hands), which is broadcast worldwide; on June 6 the First Arab Oil Embargo against the U.S. and U.K. for supporting Israel militarily begins, ending on Sept. 1 without significantly decreasing oil available in the U.S. due to lack of solidarity, causing the Arabs to get their act together for the 2nd embargo on 1973?; on June 7 Israel takes E Jerusalem and the Old City from Jordan, causing Israeli paratroopers to sing her new song Jerusalem of Gold (Yerushalayim Shel Zahav) at the Western Wall, causing Israeli-born songwriter Naomi Shemer (nee Sapir) (1930-2004) to write a new final verse countering the lamentations in the 2nd verse, after which the song becomes Israel's unofficial nat. anthem compared to the official anthem "Hatikvah"; on June 9 Israel invades Syria and captures the Golan Heights, bringing the world to the brink of WWIII as Kosygin calls LBJ on the Hot Line and threatens intervention, severing diplomatic relations with Israel on June 10, causing LBJ to pressure the Israelis for a ceasefire, which they implement on June 10 at 6 p.m. as their forces are only 40 mi. from Damascus; Fidel Castro sends 500 Soviet T-55 tanks with crack cmdrs. to support Syria, which Israel's military easily obliterate, after which Castro next year personally decorates Yasser Arafat with the Bay of Pigs Medal, Cuba's highest honor; Kosygin's actions revitalize the Zionist movement in the Soviet Union, causing hundreds of thousands to emigrate to Israel in the 1970s and 1980s; on June 19 U.N. delegate Abba Eban (1915-2002) tells the U.N. Gen. Assembly: "The threat to Israel was a menace to the very foundations of the international order. The state thus threatened bore a name which stirred the deepest memories of civilized mankind, and the people of the threatened state were the surviving remnants of millions, who in living memory had been wiped out by a dictatorship more powerful, though scarcely more malicious, than Nasser's Egypt"; on June 27 Israel incorporates the Arab sector of Jerusalem with the rest of the city, with a guarantee of freedom of access to the holy places, which on July 4 the U.N. asks them to reverse, and the Israelis reject on July 14; the Israeli army under gen. Ariel Sharon (1928-2014) recaptures the Mitla Pass on the Sinai Peninsula (taken in 1956); Israel increases its land area by 3.5x, incl. the Sinai Peninsula, Golan Heights, West Bank (of the Jordan River), and Gaza Strip, absorbing half the pop. and economic resources of Jordan, trapping 1.5M Palestinians; LBJ makes "land for peace" (no Israeli withdrawal from occupied areas without peace) the official U.S. policy, which lasts for decades (until ?); Moshe Dayan is against keeping Jerusalem, asking "Who needs this Vatican?", but thousands of gleeful Jews visit it, and demand that it become the new Israeli capital instead of Tel Aviv; Nasser goes on TV admitting to defeat and blaming the Americans and British for helping Israel, then offering to resign, but after spontaneous demonstrations he stays on, more popular than ever, going on to purge the Egyptian military of slackers and receive military and economic assistance from the Soviets after a visit by Soviet pres. Nikolai Podgorny, who might have started the war by falsely telling Egyptian vice-pres. Anwar Sadat that Israeli troops were massing along the Syrian border before the war broke out, and later this year holds a dialogue with Pope Paul VI as part of the latter's ostpolitik, giving greater freedom to the Roman Catholic Church in Eastern Europe; the war causes the Suez Canal to be closed, causing Egypt to lose $250M a year in revenues, after which the building of supertankers that are too large to pass through kills its market further, with only 35% of tankers able to pass through fully-laden by the mid-1970s; in 1982 the New York Times quotes Menachem Begin as saying "In June 1967, we had a choice. The Egyptian Army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him"; in Feb. 2015 the film Censored Voices debuts, revealing that Egypt, Syria, and Jordan weren't going to attack Israel, and Israel knew it, attacking anyway to destroy the Egyptian army and capture the West Bank?; (time for a diaper change?) despite Dayan issuing the soundbyte "I'm waiting for a phone call" from the Arabs to negotiate a lasting peace, on Aug. 29 the Khartoum Arab League Summit in Sudan convenes, blaming the secular govts. of the Arab world for the D and demanding a return to Islamic fundamentalism, and on Sept. 1 it proclaims the Khartoum Resolution, with the "Three Nos": no peace, no negotiations, and no acceptance of Israel, beginning the War of Attrition between Egypt and Israel (ends Aug. 1970), characterized by escalating artillery duels, air raids and commando missions, while all Arab League members agree to arm for a final assault on Israel, although actually their govts. are totally incapable of absorbing the shocking truth that they are a whipped dog despite being a giant and Israel little more than a very smart mouse one defeat away from total annihilation?; Palestinian-born Sabri Khalil al-Banna (1937-2002), who had fled Palestine during the 1947 fighting, joined the Ba'ath Party in Nablus, Jordan at age 18, fled to Saudi Arabia when the party was banned in 1957, and ended up outed, imprisoned, tortured and expelled, joins the Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction of the PLO, going on to become their rep. in Khartoum next year, where he helps slaughter 2.7M Christians and animists, later adopting the name Abu Nidal (Arab. "Father of the Struggle"); meanwhile #1 Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum (1904-75) tours the Arab world on behalf of Egypt, raising $2M for the govt. - if only most of the Jewish leaders and soldiers weren't agnostic and even atheistic, their miracle V might be enough to make one believe in the Jewish god Jehovah?

Too bad, on June 8, 1967 (2:00 p.m.) the USS Liberty Incident saw the Israelis attack a U.S. Navy intel ship in internat. waters N of the Sinai Peninsula 29.3 mi. from Arish, Egypt, killing 34 crewmen and wounding 171, later claiming mistaken identity and paying reparations, although the sailors claimed it wasn't mistaken identity, giving anti-Semitic propagandists a bale of hay to toss with their pitchforks. The official explanation was that Israel believed it to be an Egyptian vessel; the Navy brass called LBJ personally and he told them to let the ship sink?; Cmdr. William L. McGonagle (1926-99) was awarded the Medal of Honor for keeping it afloat; Israel apologized and paid over $12M compensation; it was really an attempt run by LBJ and the Israeli brass to frame Egypt so the U.S. could enter the war on Israel's side?

Backing up, on June 1, 1967 the Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released in the U.K., followed by the U.S. on June 2, being certified gold the day of release. The album photo incl. an image of Marlon Brando from 1953's "The Wild One", and writer Terry Southern. It held the #1 slot in Britain for 27 weeks and in the U.S. for 19 weeks. The hippie theme was just right for the Summer of Love, which began in the U.S. as the Hippie (Hippy) Movement arrived bigtime. On June 25, 1967 the 2.5-hour Our World Satellite Broadcast, with performers from 19 nations and an audience of 400M featured the Beatles singing "All You Need is Love" along with an orchestra and invited friends incl. the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Moon, and Graham Nash . Baby Boomer activism began with masturbating to Beatles music in white suburban bedrooms, then progressed to becoming hippies and moving into cheap lodgings, parks and communes and driving VW buses while getting high and practicing free love, after which the 1960s ended and they got real, pairing up and joining the corporate ladder-climbing world and becoming Yuppies, changing everything they touch, all with the Vietnam War as their Judge. Meanwhile the-best-defense-is-a-good-offense Israel looked the abyss in the patched eye and saved itself, but for how long nobody knows yet, while its backer the U.S. flirted with their own mini-Armageddon on 6-6-67. On May 22-23, 1967 (night) after being falsely told by the Soviet Union that Israel was planning to attack Syria, and pressuring the U.N. peacekeeping force in the Sinai to withdraw, Egyptian pres. Abdel Gamal Nasser closed the Straits of Tiran at the S end of the Red Sea, blocking Israeli naval traffic to the port of Elat, and positioned a 100K-man army in the Sinai with plans to attack Israel, getting the Arab League behind him with a hastily signed inter-Arab military pact which incl. Jordan, who mended their fences and handed control of their army to him; chain-smoking Israeli army chief of staff Yitzhak Rabin had a breakdown the same day. Pres. Johnson told Israeli PM #3 (1963-9) Levi Eshkol (Skolnik) (1895-1969) not to attack first, causing him to order a response to be postponed for 48 hours. On May 23 U.N. secy.-gen. U Thant talked with Nasser in Cairo, and Soviet PM Alexei Kosygin also told him to postpone a 1st strike. On May 28 Eshkol gave a live speech to the nation in which he stumbled and stuttered, causing dismay, leading to the "Night of Generals" as agreement was reached to get Gen. Moshe Dayan to become defense minister, since he distinguished himself against the Egyptians in 1956 and can talk real good. On June 1 kibbutz-born eye-patched Gen. Moshe Dayan (1915-81) (known for the soundbyte "Israel has no foreign policy, only a defense policy") was named defense minister of Israel, uniting Israelis around his charisma, and gaining acceptance of a first strike on Egypt. On June 5 (Mon.) (7:50 a.m.) (6-5-6-7) the Six-Day War broke out as the Israeli Air Force, led by RAF veteran Ezer Weizman (1924-2005) sneak-attacked and destroyed the Egyptian Air Force in 3 hours, destroying 280 aircraft, then wiped out the Syrian Air Force in another 2 hours, followed by the Jordanian Air Force in minutes; after breaking a deal with Israel to stay out of the war if Israel wouldn't touch the West Bank and Jerusalem, Jordan began shelling Jerusalem, causing the mini-Armageddon-like Battle for Ammunition Hill, which Israel won (partly because the Egyptians controlled the Jordanian army, and wanted them to go to Sinai instead), capturing the Arab sector of Jerusalem on June 7 and all of Jerusalem on June 10 for the first time since being expelled by the Romans in 70 C.E., which caused Jordanian king (since 1952) Hussein bin Talal (1935-99) (head of the Hashemites, whose main historical responsibility is guarding the Haran Al-Sharif Noble Sanctuary in Jerusalem) to go nonlinear. Meanwhile the Egyptian generals lied to their own people, filling Egyptian broadcasts with news of Egyptian victories, while they actually ordered a hasty withdrawal, which turned into a sauve qui peut, allowing the Israelis to trap, encircle, and destroy the Egyptian army, capturing tens of thousands by June 6. Lt. Gen. Motta Gur uttered the soundbyte: "Har HaBayit B'Yadenu" (the Temple Mount is in our hands), which was broadcast worldwide. On June 6 the First Arab Oil Embargo against the U.S. and U.K. for supporting Israel militarily began, ending on Sept. 1 without significantly decreasing oil available in the U.S. due to lack of solidarity, causing them to get their act together for the 2nd embargo on 1973. On June 9 Israel invaded Syria and captured the Golan Heights, bringing the world to the brink of WWIII as Soviet PM (1964-80) Alexei Kosygin (1904-80) called U.S. pres. #26 (1963-9) Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-73) on the Hot Line and threatened intervention, severing diplomatic relations with Israel on June 10, causing LBJ to pressure the Israelis for a ceasefire, which they implemented on June 10 at 6 p.m. as their forces were only 40 mi. from Damascus. On June 19 U.N. delegate Abba Eban (1915-2002) told the U.N. Gen. Assembly "The threat to Israel was a menace to the very foundations of the international order. The state thus threatened bore a name which stirred the deepest memories of civilized mankind, and the people of the threatened state were the surviving remnants of millions, who in living memory had been wiped out by a dictatorship more powerful, though scarcely more malicious, than Nasser's Egypt." On June 27 Israel incorporated the Arab sector of Jerusalem with the rest of the city, with a guarantee of freedom of access to the holy places, which on July 4 the U.N. asked them to reverse, and the Israelis rejected on July 14. The Israeli army under gen. Ariel "Arik" Sharon (1928-) recaptured the Mitla Pass on the Sinai Peninsula (taken in 1956). Israel increased its land area by 3.5 times, incl. the Sinai Peninsula, Golan Heights, West Bank (of the Jordan River), and Gaza Strip, absorbing half the pop. and economic resources of Jordan, trapping 1.5M Palestinians. LBJ made "land for peace" (no Israeli withdrawal from occupied areas without peace) the official U.S. policy, which lasted for decades (until Pres. Obama?). Moshe Dayan was against keeping Jerusalem, asking "Who needs this Vatican?", but thousands of gleeful Jews visited it, and demanded that it become the new Israeli capital instead of Tel Aviv. Nasser went on TV admitting to defeat and blaming the Americans and British for helping Israel, then offering to resign, but after spontaneous demonstrations he stays on, more popular than ever, going on to purge the Egyptian military of slackers and receive military and economic assistance from the Soviets after a visit by Soviet pres. (1965-77) Nikolai Podgorny (1903-82). who might have started the war by falsely telling Egyptian vice-pres. Anwar Sadat that Israeli troops were massing along the Syrian border before the war broke out, and later in the year held a dialogue with Pope Paul VI as part of the latter's ostpolitik, giving greater freedom to the Roman Catholic Church in Eastern Europe. The war caused the Suez Canal to be closed, causing Egypt to lose $250M a year in revenues, after which the building of supertankers that are too large to pass through killed its market further, with only 35% of tankers able to pass through fully laden by the mid-1970s. Too bad, despite Dayan issuing the soundbyte "I'm waiting for a phone call" from the Arabs to negotiate a lasting peace, on Aug. 29 the Khartoum Arab League Summit in Sudan convened, blaming the secular govts. of the Arab world for the D and demanding a return to Islamic fundamentalism, and on Sept. 1 it proclaimed the Khartoum Revolution, with the "Three Nos": no peace, no negotiations, and no acceptance of Israel, which might have given back the conquered territories for peace, beginning the War of Attrition between Egypt and Israel (ends Aug. 1970), characterized by escalating artillery duels, air raids and commando missions, while all Arab League members agreed to arm for a final assault on Israel, although actually their govts. were totally incapable of absorbing the shocking truth that they were a whipped dog despite being a giant and Israel little more than a very smart mouse one defeat away from total annihilation. Meanwhile #1 Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum (1904-75) toured the Arab world on behalf of Egypt, raising $2M for the govt. If only most of the Jewish leaders and soldiers weren't agnostic and even atheistic, their miracle V might be enough to make one believe in the Jewish god Jehovah :) Too bad, all types of Jews seemed to conspire to create a state where Muslim Arabs have inferior rights to them, and as the years went by Israel stunk itself up by a number of abuses, not that Palestinians didn't stink themselves up by their determination to expel the Jews from the region by all means available, the whole situation stinks. Obviously either the Arabs should give up Islam and become areligious or Jewish, or they should just resettle in a Muslim land, there's plenty available, such as Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Ah, but they don't want life, they want death, in exchange for martyrdom while fighting the Jews, so that they will live forever in Allah's paradise, which far exceeds the lifestyle available in any Muslim land - oy vey?

In Aug. 1967 speaking of American Christian support of Israel and anti-Semitism, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-68), writes a Letter to an Anti-Zionist Friend, which goes as follows: "You declare, my friend, that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely 'anti-Zionist.' And I say, let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God's green earth: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews - this is God's own truth. Antisemitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind. In this we are in full agreement. So know also this: anti-Zionist is inherently antisemitic, and ever will be so. Why is this? You know that Zionism is nothing less than the dream and ideal of the Jewish people returning to live in their own land. The Jewish people, the Scriptures tell us, once enjoyed a flourishing Commonwealth in the Holy Land. From this they were expelled by the Roman tyrant, the same Romans who cruelly murdered Our Lord. Driven from their homeland, their nation in ashes, forced to wander the globe, the Jewish people time and again suffered the lash of whichever tyrant happened to rule over them. The Negro people, my friend, know what it is to suffer the torment of tyranny under rulers not of our choosing. Our brothers in Africa have begged, pleaded, requested - DEMANDED the recognition and realization of our inborn right to live in peace under our own sovereignty in our own country. How easy it should be, for anyone who holds dear this inalienable right of all mankind, to understand and support the right of the Jewish People to live in their ancient Land of Israel. All men of good will exult in the fulfilment of God's promise, that his People should return in joy to rebuild their plundered land. This is Zionism, nothing more, nothing less. And what is anti-Zionist? It is the denial to the Jewish people of a fundamental right that we justly claim for the people of Africa and freely accord all other nations of the Globe. It is discrimination against Jews, my friend, because they are Jews. In short, it is antisemitism. The antisemite rejoices at any opportunity to vent his malice. The times have made it unpopular, in the West, to proclaim openly a hatred of the Jews. This being the case, the antisemite must constantly seek new forms and forums for his poison. How he must revel in the new masquerade! He does not hate the Jews, he is just 'anti-Zionist'! My friend, I do not accuse you of deliberate antisemitism. I know you feel, as I do, a deep love of truth and justice and a revulsion for racism, prejudice, and discrimination. But I know you have been misled - as others have been - into thinking you can be 'anti-Zionist' and yet remain true to these heartfelt principles that you and I share. Let my words echo in the depths of your soul: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews - make no mistake about it."

On Nov. 22, 1967 (JFK Assassination Day) the U.N. Security Council voted 15-0-0 to approve Resolution 242, calling for Israel to withdraw from territories it captured in the Six-Day War, an end to belligerency, and recognition of the right of every state in the area "to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries", while implicitly calling on adversaries to recognize Israel's right to exist; U.S. ambassador #6 to the U.N. (since July 28, 1965) Arthur Joseph Goldberg (1908-90) (drafter of the resolution) uttered the soundbyte: "I never described Jerusalem as occupied territory... Resolution 242 in no way refers to Jerusalem, and this omission was deliberate", and "It can be inferred from the incorporation of the words secure and recognized boundaries that the territorial adjustments to be made by the parties in their peace settlements could encompass less than a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from occupied territories"; the principle of land for peace becomes the basis of all future peace agreements between Israel and the Arabs until ?

On Nov. 27, 1967 French pres. (1959-69) Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970) suddenly dropped his longtime support of Israel, incl. providing them with weapons, calling the Jews an "elite people, sure of themselves and domineering", and labelling Israel as an expansionist state for occupying large areas containing almost 1 million Palestinians, which caused the U.S. under LBJ to step up to the plate as Israel's main backer, a policy followed by all succeeding U.S. presidents, who staunchly championed Israel and backed Congress in providing them with $100B in aid by the end of the century.

Speaking of LBJ, in 1938 after his Zionist aunt Jessie Johnson Hatcher influenced him, U.S. Dem. congressman Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-73), who took office in 1937 and supported an immigration bill for Jews from Lithuania and Poland stuck his neck out to arrange for visas for Jews in Warsaw then smuggle them through the port of Galveston, Tex. into the U.S. in 1938-9, saving 400-500 from the Nazis. He then became the first member of Congress to enlist in the Armed Forces after the Pearl Harbor attack, serving in the Navy in the Pacific and winning a Silver Star. After visiting the Nazi Dachau death camp on June 4, 1945 and getting revolted, his pro-Israel views were cemented for life. Duh, Pres. Obama is no LBJ.

On June 26, 1968 Des Moines, Iowa-born former undersecy. of state for economic affairs in the Kennedy admin. (1961-8) George Wildman Ball (1909-94), known for Ball's Rule of Power "Nothing propinks like propinquity", and who was called crazy by JFK for suggesting that the Vietnamese War one day might need up to 300K troops, then helped overthrow Pres. Ngo Dinh Diem replaced resigning Arthur J. Goldberg as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. #7 (until Sept. 25), becoming known for his pro-Israel quotes incl. "Until 1956, Americans treated Israel not much differently from other friendly states", "Yet the wonder of it all is that, while engaged in a seemingly endless struggle, the Israelis have managed to turn a desert into a garden"; "Most Americans approach the problems of the Middle East with a pro-Israeli bias, and rightly so", "Not only must Americans admire Israel, there can be no doubt that we have an interest in, and special responsibility for, that valiant nation", and "The question is no longer whether the United States should contribute to assuring Israel's survival and prosperity; that goes without saying."

In 1968 Polish Communist leader (since 1946) Wladyslaw Gomulka (1905-82) helped stir up anti-Semitic feelings; within the next two years most of the 30K Polish Jews were forced to leave.

On Sept. 25, 1969 after the Jewish V against the Muslims in the June 5-10, 1967 Six-Day War pissed-off Muslims worldwide, the 57-nation Org. of the Islamic Conference (OIC) was formed in Rabat, Morroco as a Muslim alternative to the infidel U.N. A disguise for a coming caliphate, it controls most of the world's proven energy reserves, and indeed has been corrupting the U.N. and turning it into its puppet in order to foist Sharia on the infidel world. In Jan. 1981 it held a summit meeting, where it declared that "Palestine should be viewed as the parmount issue of Muslim nations." Of course, the OIC wants to exterminate Israel and reabsorb it into the Arab Ummah or Borg Hive. Their biggest V to this end in recent years is a de facto takeover of UNESCO.

1970

On Jan. 1, 1970 (night) Fatah terrorists from Lebanon infiltrated Israel and kidnapped night watchman Shmuel Rosenwasser from Metula, Israel, becoming the first Muslim terrorist kidnapping in Israel. On Sept. 6, 1970 the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) (founded 1967) attempted to hijack El Al Flight 219 en route from Amsterdam to New York City, but Israeli skymarshals foiled it, killing Nicaraguan terrorist Patrick Arguello, and capturing Palestinian terrorist ("Poster Girl of the Palestinian Militancy") Leila Khaled (1944-), who was jailed in Britain and held in anticipation of a prisoner swap. On Sept. 6 and Sept. 9, 1970 after civil war broke out in half-Palestinian Jordan between the govt. of king (since 1952) Hussein I bin Talal (1935-99) (whose army is all Bedouin) and Palestinian guerrillas of the PLO and PFLP, the latter hijacked three jetliners containing 305 hostages, landed them in "Revolution Airport" (Dawson's Field) in hard ground desert 30 mi. from PLO-controlled Amman, and invited televised negotiations with the West in an attempt to get Palestinian POWs released, while the Jordanian army surrounded them in a double standoff, becoming the first time that Palestinians attack innocents for political gain and publicity; the U.S. played, but Israel wouldn't negotiate with terrorists, and Jewish hostages were separated out, stirring outrage and almost leading to an Israeli attack; Pres. Nixon ordered Palestinian sites in the area to be bombed, but defense secy. Melvin R. Laird faked him out by claiming bad weather, later admitting he lied. 105 women and children were released, and ended up in a hotel in Amman in the middle of a shooting war before they are shepherded out of the country on Sept. 9. On Sept. 12 the stinking planes were blown up on the ground, and the Jordanian army moved in, but all the hijackers escaped with the hostages, holding them for several weeks until PFLP terrorist Leila Khaled was released on Oct. 1. On Sept. 15, 1970 PLO leader (since 1968) Yasser Arafat (1929-2004) threatened to make a cemetery of Jordan, and on Sept. 16 Hussein launched a drive to push the PLO into Lebanon, sending his 60th Armored Brigade to attack the Palestinian HQ in Amman, along with Palestinian camps in Irbid, Salt, Sweileh, Baqaa, Wehdat and Zarqa. Yasser Arafat claimed that the Jordanian army killed 10K-25K Palestinians, with the survivors being pushed out of the country. This action caused the PFLP to make repeated assassination attempts on Hussein, and hijack four airliners belonging to Swiss Air, Pan AM, TWA and BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation), after which they gave up hijacking as a tactic by next year, helped by a secret deal with Switzerland to not attack it in return for diplomatic support?; the Syrians invaded in Soviet-built tanks until threats of U.S. and Israeli intervention cause them to withdraw; the militant Palestinian Black September Org. (BSO) was founded in response. On Sept. 21 Hussein sent a plea to Israel for air support via the British embassy, but they didn't respond. On Sept. 26 after five Arab leaders led by UAR pres. Gamal Abdel Nasser met in Cairo, blaming the U.S. for Israel's refusal to give up territory and building settlements, and accusing them of using captured Arab oil resources to help Israel, King Hussein appointed a new "govt. of national reconciliation", with Palestinian leader Ahmed Toukan (1903-81) as PM (until Oct. 28), and a ceasefire was signed on Sept. 27, after which Nasser died of a heart attack in Cairo on Sept. 28. On Oct. 1 Jordan recognized Al-Fatah alone among 10 guerrilla groups; the 13-day crisis left 2K dead, but Hussein kept his wobbling crown. Too bad, if the Palestinians had succeeded in taking over Jordan, they could have finally had a Palestinian state and homeland, and, er, there's still that pesky Quran telling the Muslims to never accept a Jewish state of Israel.

On Sept. 5-6, 1972 the 1972 Munich Massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics stunk the PLO up forever, although it was officially staged by Black September, just the same Palestinians with names changed to protect the guilty. On Aug. 17, 2010 after years of so-called progress toward peace, Amin Al-Hindi, last surviving planner of the massacre died in Jordan, and Palestinian Authority chmn. Mahmoud Abbas stunk himself up by giving him a military funeral and calling him a "patriotic leader" and "martyr".

On Mar. 4, 1973 Israeli PM Golda Meir visited New York City after the U.S. foiled a plot by Black September to detonate three car bombs at JFK Airport and two locations in Manhattan.

On Apr. 15, 1973 U.S. Sen. (D-Ark.) (1945-75) James William Fulbright (1905-95) appears on CBS-TV's Face the Nation, and utters the soundbyte: "Israel controls the United States Senate"; he later becomes a registered lobbyist for Saudi Arabia.

On Oct. 6-26, 1973 the Yom Kippur (Ramadan) (October) (Fourth Arab-Israeli) War saw Israeli surprise-attacked by Egypt, Syria, and a coalition of Arab states on the holiest day in Judaism, which coincided with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. After four days, the Egyptians who crossed the Suez Canal bogged down, and with emergency U.S. help the Israelis counterattacked and crossed the canal themselves. Meanwhile a massive Syrian attack on the Golan Heights was pushed back in the Yom Kuppur (Ramadan) (October) War of Oct. 6-25, 1973. In Oct. 1973 to "get" the U.S. for supporting Israel in the Yom Kippur War, OPEC proclaimed an oil embargo, creating the 1973 Oil Crisis, which they finally dropped in Mar. 1974 after messing the U.S. and world economies up. The fallout led to Egypt leaving the Soviet sphere of influence and normalizing relations with Israel in the Camp David Accords, signed on Sept. 17, 1978 by Israeli PM #6 (1977-83) Menachem Begin (1913-92) and Egyptian pres. #3 (1970-81) Anwar El Sadat (1918-81) after negotiations with U.S. Democratic pres. #39 (1977-81) James Earl "Jimmy" Carter (1924-). No surprise, Sadat was assassinated by the Muslim Brotherhood for his infidel sell-out, after which Muhammad Hosni Mubarak (1928-) became pres. #4 of the Arab Repub. of Egypt, lasting so long he began to be called the Sphinx of Egypt, at least he's been keeping the Muslim Brotherhood down. Meanwhile on July 3, 1979, Carter signed the first directive giving secret aid to the Islamic anti-Soviet forces in Kabul, did the Council on Foreign Relations make that call?

Speaking of making calls, U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia (1973-6) James Elmer Akins (1926-2010) (a Quaker) was the first with pro-Palestinian sympathies, dealing with the 1973 Oil Crisis by telling oil companies to "hammer home the point that oil restrictions are not going to be lifted unless political struggle is settled in a manner satisfactory to Arabs", which helped get him fired by secy. of state Henry Kissinger, but not before he claimed to have built trust with King (1964-75) Faisal (1904-75), turning him from rejecting the very idea of a Jewish state of Israel to accepting its legitimacy within its pre-1967 borders, which Abba Eban called the "Auschwitz borders" - yes, but for how long?

The Muslims never give up, that's what it means to be a Muslim, total inability to deny their god Allah's orders to dominate the Earth no matter how many have to die. In June 1974 the PLO adopted a "phased strategy", meaning that it will seize any territory from Israel it can by any means available then use it as a springboard for more until it achieves the "complete liberation of Palestine", welcome to Hell's Kitchen and the dream of becoming head chef. At least they used the right word, liberation, not restoration.

On Nov. 13, 1974 the U.N. Question of Palestine Debate featured PLO chmn. Yasser Arafat (1929-2004) (picked by an Arab summit over King Hussein I of Jordan) addressing the U.N. Gen. Assembly wearing a fatigue uniform complete with pistol, giving a speech calling for "one democratic state" to replace Israel, after which Israeli chief delegate Yosef "Joe" Tekoah (1926-91) denounces his speech; on Nov. 22 the U.N. by 89-8-37 adopts U.N. Gen. Assembly Resolution 3236 and U.N. Gen. Assembly Resolution 3237, recognizing "the right of the Palestinian people to regain its rights by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter", and giving the PLO status as their rep, with U.N. observer status; European Community countries support the continued existence of Israel; meanwhile left-wing secular Palestinian radical rejectionist (rejecting a peaceful settlement with Israel) Abu Nidal (Arab. "Father of the Struggle") (real name Sabri Khalil al-Banna) (1937-2002) founds the Abu Nidal ("father of struggle") Org. (ANO) after being expelled from Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction in the PLO in Mar., going on to orchestrate random cruelty attacks in 20 countries that kill or injure 900+, calling himself "the Father of Jihad", with the soundbyte "I am the evil spirit of the secret services. I am the evil spirit which moves around only at night causing them nightmares" - love stinks?

On Nov. 10, 1975 by 72-35-32 the infamous Arab-sponsored U.N. General Assembly Resolution 3379 (co-sponsored by Fidel Castro) is adopted, equating Zionism with racism, as if wanting to live in one's ancestral homeland after two thousand years of suffering racism is racist, and wanting pesky hate-filled Muslim locust Arabs to resettle in Arab lands with others of the same mental sickness instead of fighting their attempts at setting up Muslim superiority Sharia where Jews have to pay a yearly jizya tax just to not be murdered is racial discrimination, when they're all the same race and it's about religious ideology. Of course it caused a worldwide Jewish outcry, with U.S. ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan saying that the U.S. will never "acquiesce in this infamous act". It was revoked on Dec. 16, 1991, becoming the first and only resolution the U.N. ever revoked. Meanwhile in 1975 German-born U.S. secy. of state #56 (1973-77) Henry Alfred Kissinger (1923-) met with an Iraqi diplomat, and uttered the soundbyte "We don't need Israel for influence in the Arab world. On the contrary, Israel does us more harm than good in the Arab world... We can't negotiate about the existence of Israel but we can reduce its size to historical proportions."

Despite many Soviet Jews, who were supposed to assimilate into the atheistic Soviet society and submerge their Jewish identity wanting to emigrate to Israel as their right, the govt. didn't see it that way, it was a brain drain to them, plus Israel was allied with their archenemy the U.S., and by the early 1970s they closed the spigot with onerous emigration laws, incl. a "diploma tax", leading Jews to become "refuseniks", refusing to stay in the Soviet Union if they could find a way to get to Israel by hook or crook, pissing the Soviet govt. off even bigger. In 1974 under pro-Israel Pres. Ford the U.S. Jackson-Vanek Amendment tied trade relations with the Soviet Union directly to the question of Jewish emigration, putting them under economic as well as political pressure to let them go. In July-Aug. 1975 the Helsinki Agreement (Accords) (Declaration) was signed by the Soviets, guaranteeing human rights and self-determination, I wonder who they thought they were fooling. On Jan. 26, 1977 the U.S. State Dept. charged the Soviet-dominated govt. of Czechoslovakia with violating for cracking down on dissidents Vaclav Havel, Jan Patocka et al., who signed Charter 77 (which was smuggled to West Germany and signed by 1.2K), which started as a protest against the 1976 arrest of the rock band Plastic People of the Universe, it was like an NFL game there were red jerseys all over the place. On Jan. 28, 1977 the U.S. warned the Soviets not to crack down on Soviet non-Jewish dissident Nobel scientist Andrei Sakharov (1921-89) for accusing the KGB of planting a bomb in a Moscow subway car and framing dissidents for it. On Mar. 1 Pres. Carter met at the White House with exiled Soviet non-Jewish dissident Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky (1942-), of course with non-Jews exile from Mother Russia is worse than death. On Mar. 15, 1977 after sizing Carter up as a whimp, the Soviets went after the Jewish refuseniks, starting with Ukrainian Jewish scientist Anatoly "Natan" Borisovich Shcharansky (Sharansky) (1948-), who was arrested by the Soviets for working with the CIA, after which they rebuffed a U.S. protest and charged him with treason on June 1 along with Jewish nuclear physicist Yuri Feodorovich Orlov (1924-) and Jewish journalist Alexander "Alik" Ilyich Ginzburg (1936-2002). In 1978 they were convicted of "anti-Soviet agitation" and sentenced to 7, 13 and 8 years respectively. Jewish refusenik Vladimir Slepak got 5 years of internal exile for "malicious hooliganism". Despite world opinion, Shcharansky was imprisoned, then released to the West in 1986 after the U.S. dumped whimpy anti-Israel president Carter for strong pro-Israel Reagan, who launched an arms buildup that the Soviets couldn't match, later emigrating to Israel. Orlov was deported in 1986 to the U.S., after which the Soviet Union itself soon fell, allowing Jews to emigrate to Israel freely. At his trial, Shcharansky uttered the courtroom soundbyte: "For more that two thousand years the Jewish people, my people, have been dispersed. But wherever they are, wherever Jews are found, every year they have repeated, 'Next year in Jerusalem.' Now, when I am further than ever from my people... facing many arduous years of imprisonment, I say, turning to my people... 'Next year in Jerusalem'."

On June 27, 1976 Air France Flight 139 (A-300 Airbus) en route to Paris is hijacked over Greece by 10 members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to Bengazi, Libya, after which Ugandan dictator Idi Amin invites them to fly to Entebbe Airport outside Kampala, where they demand the release of 53 prisoners being held in Europe, Kenya, and Israel; on June 29 they release 47 women, children, and sick passengers, followed by 100 more on July 1, keeping 98 passengers and 12 crew hostage; on July 4 after pro-Israeli English actress (who converted to Reform Judaism in 1959 to marry Eddie Fisher) Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011) offers herself as a hostage in vain, Israel's Sayeret Matkal launches Operation Entebbe (Thunderbolt) (Jonathan), a daring dawn mission to rescue the hostages, freeing all but three; Jonathan (Yonatan) "Yoni" Netanyahu (b. 1946), brother of Benjamin Netanyahu is KIA along with 25 Ugandan soldiers and all the hijackers; five commandos were wounded, incl. Soviet-born Israeli comamando Ida Borowicz (b. 1920).

On Mar. 11, 1978 after fighting broke out between Syria and the Lebanese Christian militia in Feb., the Coastal Road Massacre saw Fatah members led by 18-y.-o. female jihadist Dalal Mughrabi (1959-78) sail from Lebanon into Israel in rubber boats and kill a U.S. tourist on the beach, then hijack a bus near Haifa, then hijack a 2nd bus en route to Tel Aviv, causing a chase and shootout killing 37 and wounding 76 Israeli civilians; on Mar. 14 Israel launched Operation Litani, invading S Lebanon up to the Litani River to destroy PLO bases and push them N of the River, causing the U.N. Security Council on Mar. 19 to pass Resolution 425, followed on Mar. 19 by Resolution 426 calling for their withdrawal and the establishment of a 6-mo. peacekeeping force, after which they began withdrawing on Apr. 11, allowing the peacekeepers to occupy a buffer zone between the border and the Litani River after creating 285K refugees and killing 1K-2K, mostly civilians, while losing only 20 Israeli soldiers, although some were later court-martialed for strangling and executing peasants; after Yasir Arafat agreed to keep his forces out of the buffer zone on May 24, the Israeli withdrawal was completed on June 13, turning over posts to Christian militia who set up an independent enclave.

In Aug. 1978 Mustafa Dodin et al. formed the Village Leagues to seek a negotiated peace treaty with Israel in opposition to the PLO, pissing them off along with leftist Israelis, who considered the PLO as the only authentic voice of the Palestinian people; in 1981 PM Ariel Sharon appointed Menaham Milson of Hebrew U. as cmdr. of the West Bank, but he resigned in Sept. 1982 over the Sabra and Shatila Massacres, after which the movement started to fizzle.

In 1979 after being inspired by the Iranian Rev., the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) (Harakat al-Jihad al-Islami al-Filastini) was founded as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood by Fathi Shaqaqi (1951-95) and Sheik Odeh (Abd Al Aziz Awda), with the goal of destroying Israel, but only after establishing true Islam throughout the world, which later caused Hamas to break off and put the priority of destroying Israel first before establishing true Islam.

1980

On Apr. 24, 1980 the U.S. attempts Operation Desert One (Eagle Claw), a rescue of the 53 Iranian hostages by 90 commandos in six C-130 transport planes, which take off from S Egypt and land 300 mi. SE of Tehran; too bad, it fails when three helis are damaged in a sandstorm and a 4th heli collides on the ground with a C-130, killing eight; on Apr. 25 Pres. Carter announces the disaster on TV; Ayatollah Khomeini threatens to kill the hostages if the U.S. tries another "silly maneuver"; in Oct. the failure causes the super-elite do-it-all SEAL Team Six to be founded in Dam Neck, Va. for counterterrorist ops; by 2011 there are 300 members; meanwhile after Pres. Carter pressures him into surrendering the Sinai in exchange for a peace treaty with Egypt, causing him to fear that he will also force him to accept a Palestinian state, Israeli PM Menachem Begin shifts Israel's political support to Repub. candidate Ronald Reagan, helping insure Carter's lopsided defeat?; the CIA and Israeli Likud begin plotting to oust Carter, leading to the October Surprise Conspiracy?

On July 30, 1980 the Israeli Knesset passed the Basic Law for Jerusalem, declaring it Israel's "eternal and indivisible capital"; on Aug. 20 the U.N. Security Council voted 14-0-1 (the U.S. abstaining) for Resolution 478, which declares it a violation of internat. law that is "null and void" and "must be rescinded", and calls for member states to withdraw their diplomatic missions from the city, causing many to relocate to greater Tel Aviv, and others to the Jerusalem suburb of Mevaseret Zion, located on a mountain ridge 10 km. away straddling the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. Sorry, but you won't see me crying as the Jews systematically seek to weather misguided international pressure, backed by ever-plentiful Saudi funding to reclaim their City of David from the Muslim locusts, usually with U.S. backing, tacit or otherwise, until Obama became president that is. In 2004 88 Arab homes in the Al Buston neighborhood were demolished, followed by 22 more in the Silwan neighborhood S of the Old City walls to make way for the King's Garden anti-Semitic Arabs and Western leftists bigtime, of course there's no historical evidence of King David yet, his wives sold the family silverware, go Israel, domo arigato meesta roboto. On July 9, 2004 the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled 14-1 that the construction of a wall by Israel in the Palestinian Occupied Territory, along with "Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territory, incl. East Jerusalem, are illegal and an obstacle to peace and to economic and social development (and) have been established in breach of international law." Of course, Israel told them to screw themselves, while pumping efforts to annex East Jerusalem, where, along with the West Bank and Golan some 500K Jews live, growing by 4%-6% a year. By 2009, Jewish settlements covered one-third of East Jerusalem land, and another one-third was designed as an "unplanned area" where development isn't allowed, while Palestinian construction was only allowed in 13% with proper permits, she works hard for the money. Israel began removing Arab graves to make way for a definitely un-Islamic Museum of Tolerance, what do intolerant Arabs care, they all went to paradise for killing Jews, right? They've also been busy excavating under and around the eyesore Al-Aqsa Mosque, let's hope it falls into a mile-deep sinkhole and finds Muhammad. In 2007 Israel began excavating a pathway from the Western Wall to the compound, sparking more hate-filled Arab violence sans help from Allah Akbar. On Mar. 28, 2010 the Kuwait News Agency reported that Palestinian chief justice Sheikh Tayseer Rajab Al-Tamimi called for Palestinians "to exert more efforts and unite in order to protect the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque", calling on them to "defy attempts to storm the holy shrine." Meanwhile the same day Israeli minister Uzi Landau outlined a new vision of a world no longer dependent on oil, calling it the best way to defeat "Islamic terror", saying "Whoever wants to fight radical Islam and terrorist organizations should know that by purchasing gasoline, he's giving terrorists increased motivation." The heat of the moment showed in your eyes? On May 11, 2009 Tamimi ruined an evening devoted to interfaith dialog about tolerance with Pope Benedict XVI with a rant against Israel for "killing Gaza's children", "bulldozing Palestinian homes", and "destroying mosques", causing the pope to walk out. If I moved next door to Tameaney I'd buy at least 50 mean dogs. But I'm getting ahead.

In Aug. 1981 Mass.-born John Edwin Mroz (1948-2014), dir. of Middle East studies at the U.N.-affiliated Internat. Peace Academy was contacted by PLO chmn. Yasser Arafat, who offered to negotiate on acknowledging the existence of Israel in exchange for official recognition by the U.S., causing him to travel to Beirut after authorization by U.S. state secy. Alexander M. Haig Jr., meeting with Arafat 50+ times, getting Arafat's tentative approval for mutual recognition by May 1982; too bad, the June 6, 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon caused the plans to be called off, after which the White House denied knowledge of his operation; it takes until 1993 for the Israel and PLO to formally recognize each other.

On Dec. 14, 1981 after Syrian dictator Hafiz al-Asad uttered the soundbyte that he will never make peace with Israel "even in a hundred years", Israeli PM Menachem Begin annexed the Golan Heights (seized from Syria in 1967), and the Knesset ratified it the same day, pissing-off the U.S., which on Dec. 18 suspended the Dec. 1 U.S.-Israel Strategic Cooperation Agreement; on Dec. 20 U.S. ambassador Samuel Lewis met with Begin in Tel Aviv, and received a dressing-down, with the soundbyte: "The people of Israel have lived 3,700 years without a memorandum of understanding with America, and will continue to live for another 3,700", bringing up the Inquisition, Vietnam War, and anti-Semitism in the U.S., after which the Reagan admin. backs down; meanwhile on Dec. 17 the U.N. Security Council voted 13-0-2 (East Germany, U.S.S.R.) for Resolution 497, declaring the annexation "null and void and without international legal effect", calling on Israel to rescind it; next Jan. 28 after they refused, they voted 13-0-2 (U.K., U.S.) for Resolution 500 to call an emergency meeting of the Gen. Assembly.

In 1981 the walled Old City of Jerusalem was declared a World Heritage Site.

In spring 1982 the 1982 Lebanon War began after Palestinian terrorists entrenched themselves in S Lebanon, launching rockets and artillery at N Israel; on Apr. 3 Lebanese Armed Rev. Faction terrorist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah assassinated Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov in his Paris apt. with a Czech 7.65 mm pistol used to kill U.S. embassy military attache Charles Robert Ray in Jan., and escaped into the subway, causing Israel to strike PLO strongholds in Lebanon on Apr. 21 (first since the July 30, 1981 ceasefire, during which time the PLO staged 130 guerrilla attacks inside Israel); on Apr. 25 Israeli forces withdrew from the Sinai per the 1978 Camp David Accords; on May 9 Israeli planes struck PLO bases S of Beirut, causing the PLO to reply with artillery fire across the border; Abdallah was convicted in Feb. 1987 of the murders of Ray and Barsimantov and sentenced to life in prison. On June 3, 1982 Israeli ambassador Shlomo Argov (1929-2003) was critically wounded in front of the Dorchester Hotel in Park Lane, London by three members of the Abu Nidal Org. (ANO), but although shot in the head and in a coma for 3 mo., he survived. On June 6, 1982 never-forgive-never-forget Israel launched Operation Peace for the Galilee to wipe out Palestinian bases and SAM sites in Lebanon, ignoring a June 6 U.N. Security Council vote to withdraw, and capturing the 12th cent. Beaufort Castle on June 6, downing dozens of Soviet-made Syrian MiGs along with Syrian SAMs in the Bekaa Valley, reaching the outskirts of Beirut on June 10, causing Arafat and his PLO loyalists to flee into Beirut, and causing Orthodox Jewish Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz (1903-94) to accuse Israel of a "Judeo-Nazi" mentality; in reaction, with Iranian (Ayatollah Khomeini) help, Islamic radicals formed Hezbollah ("party of God"), a radical offshoot of the Shiite Muslim movement Amal, with the goal of making Lebanon an Islamic state and exterminating Israel, causing Yitzhak Rabin to utter the soundbyte "We let the Shia genie out of the bottle"; the Israelis withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, leaving Hezbollah dominant; by 2005 Iran was giving them $20M-$40M per mo. and they had formed a state within a state.

Even as the Arabs unite and position for the final kill, not even Zionist Jews are a solid block. On July 3, 1982 after becoming an atheist and dumping Zionism because of his perception that it's run by the Orthodox, combined with his ignorance of Islam, German-born Israeli former Irgun and Knesset member Uri Avneri (Avnery) (1923-) crossed the battle lines during the Battle of Beirut and became the first Israeli to personally meet with Yasser Arafat, founding the leftist Gush Shalom (Peace Coalition) in 1993. In 2003 longtime Jewish Zionist scholar Tony R. Judt (1948-2010) came out against Israel, calling it a "belligerently intolerant, faith-driven ethno state" and calling for its conversion "from a Jewish state to a binational one" that incl. guess what, causing a firestorm of controversy. I think he meant bireligious one, but either way it's too bad he can't grok the historical right of Jews to Israel, and how Arabs have no right, just their evil idol in Mecca and his Quran that makes them keep throwing themselves at it. As to ethno state, why doesn't he take on China, he'll need a thousand lifetimes for that cause. Another Israeli Jew who turned against Israel for its perceived oppression of Palestinians is Gideon Levy (1953-), ed. of Haaretz, who sticks it in Israelis' faces by crossing into the occupied Palestinian territories and reporting every bad thing he sees or hears, causing him to be called the most hated man in Israel. He wants an unconditional Israeli pullout instead of an unconditional Arab pullout, maybe it never occurred to him. Another famous Jewish brain man is Avram Noam Chomsky (1928-), founder of modern linguistics, who also buys the propaganda about the Palestinian "indigenous population" and that Israel is racist not to incorporate them as equal citizens, but who nevertheless supports a 2-state solution, and who questions the 6 million figure in the Holocaust, which despite no actual historical verification has become a sacred cow among Zionists who have an active pressure campaign to block verification attempts for fear that the number might not come out right, as if it matters, I guessed I missed that part of the Bible. On May 16, 2010 Chomsky was allegedly barred by the Israelis from entering the West Bank from Jordan, after which the Israeli govt. claimed it was just a border guard screwup. Another Jewish scholar who turned against Israel is American prof. Richard Anderson Falk (1930-), who uttered the soundbyte that it is not "an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians with the criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity." Another is Jerusalem-born novelist Amos Oz (Klausner) (1939-), who in 2004 pub. the essay "How To Cure a Fanatic", which concludes that the whole Israeli-Palesinian conflict is just a real estate dispute, ask George Soros how big a check to write if they'll just clear out. Talking about screwed up, the ultimate is "Hebrew speaking Palestinian" "proud self-hating Jew" "ex-Jew" Gilad Atzmon (1963-), a popular Israeli-born jazz musician based in England, who started out Zionist then turned virulently anti-Zionist and began calling for the Palestian right of return to the "stolen land" of Israel to swamp the Nazi-like invader Jews out, along with a 1-state solution, a purely secular state, hehe, Allah Akbar, uttering the soundbyte that this kind of justice for the pesky Palestinians is "at the heart of the battle for a better world", even backing Helen Thomas. In 2001 he became a novelist, publishing A Guide to the Perplexed, portraying Israel as replaced by a Palestinian state in 2012 after "the unthinking Chosen" who "cling to clods of earth that don't belong to them" are defeated, and their propaganda that "argues that the Holocaust is invoked as a kind of reflexive propaganda designed to shield the Zionist state from responsibility for any transgression against Palestinians" is laughed away. Like Chomsky he doesn't go for the unsupported 6 million figure, saying "As it happened, it took me many years to understand that the Holocaust, the core belief of the contemporary Jewish faith, was not at all an historical narrative, for historical narratives do not need the protection of the law and politicians." Interestingly, he admits that "the Jews were responsible for the killing of Jesus", adding "How is that people living today feel accountable or chased for a crime committed by their great great ancestors almost 2,000 years ago." Yes, anti-Semitism has many deep roots, and his copping-out to Islam and its demands for total superiority in their indivisible Ummah won't save him anymore than other Jews, making them an ethnic group on the hairy edge of the Abyss, who can't afford the luxury of self-hate. Maybe he will study this Historyscope and wake up that he is a Jew even to Muslims, who would love to you know what in the final extermination after weakening the U.S. enough. Another anti-Zionist Israeli Jew is Oren Yiftachel (1956-) of Ben Gurion U. in the Negev, who blames Zionism for creating an "ethnocracy", and wants to turn the Negev into the mini-state of Bedouinstan, let's do names later, what's that Jew's last fixed position? Another Jewish flip-flopper is former Knesset member Avraham Burg (1955-), who pub. The Holocaust Is Over: We Must Rise from Its Ashes in 2008, shocking fellow Israelis by his pretzel logic of comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, as if they're both morally equivalent because they are both stubbornly retro nation-states in a world increasingly going toward one world govt., although Nazi Germany was all about one world govt. too, theirs, a world free of Jews forever, oi vey. Burg made the statement that Jews shouldn't wallow in the Holocaust, which is right-on, since the right of Israel to exist goes back 3,000 years and doesn't depend on it, but he also said that "this is Hitler's paradoxical and tragic victory", when actually it's about strength and fighting to keep their Jewish homeland, a failure of will being the only real victory for Hitler, sorry, Burg is one. Another one is real victory for Hitler, sorry, Burg is one. Another one is Jerusalem-born David Grossman (1954-), who in 1998 pub. The Yellow Wind, taking the side of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, getting his novels on Pres. Obama's reading list with the soundbyte "I could not understand how an entire nation like mine, an enlightened nation by all accounts, is able to train itself to live as a conqueror without making its own life wretched", any friend of the big balls is a friend of mine. Another one is Michael Neumann (1946-), who in 2005 pub. "The Case Against Israel" in reply to "The Case for Israel" (2003) by pro-Israeli Harvard law prof. Alan Dershowitz (1938-), claiming that the true goal of Israel is to exterminate the so-called Palestinian people, with the soundbyte "True, Israel has enough PR-savvy to eliminate them with an American rather than a Hitlerian level of violence. This is a kinder, gentler genocide that portrays its perpetrators as victims." Neumann gives away his ignorance of Islam with the soundbyte "Just imagine if the U.S. stopped backing Israel and gave even moderate support to the Palestinians. Suddenly Islam and America would be on the same side." Duh, Islam declared war on the world way before there was a state of Israel or a U.S., and with Israel out of the way today they'd just be one step closer to planting the Islamic flag in Washington, yes, at that point they'd be on the same side, and most of us would be dead or enslaved. Another pro-Palestinian American Jew is Norman Gary Finkelstein (1953-), who in 2001 pub. "The Holocaust Industry", claiming that the Zionists use the Holocaust to turn cash from the Germans and the Swiss, then rake the money for themselves and leave little for actual survivors. He got into a big catfight with Dershowitz, jokes about two Jews digging the Grand Canyon fighting over a dropped penny here. A milder one is Jewish-American journalist Richard Ben Cramer (1950-), who pub. How Israel Lost: Four Questions in 2004, which takes the "plague on both your houses" approach and asks Israel why it doesn't give Gaza and the West Bank back, as if Israel's original smaller version was the only pure one, when maybe it needed to be much much larger to start with. I saved the best for last, Austrian-born Tel Aviv U. prof. Shlomo Sand (1946-), who in 2008 pub. the internat. bestseller (favorite with anti-Semites everywhere) The Invention of the Jewish People, which seizes on a soundbyte that 15% of the ancient Roman Empire was Jewish because of mass conversion to claim that there never was a Jewish "nation-race", that many Jews are really descendants of converted Arabs, Berbers, Khazars, etc., and that Zionists have created the myth for "racist thinking", with the soundbyte "The ideal project for solving the century-long conflict... would be the creation of a democratic binational state between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River." How about the ideal project being the creation of a democratic uninational state in the same region composed only of Jews, after all the Muslims either skedaddle or convert? Actually nobody knows the real Jewish pop. of the ancient Roman Empire, even in Israel, and as for Rome itself, the Jews were forced to live in one of the shittiest areas with a poisoned aqueduct, and their Jewish catacombs don't seem to hold that many people, 50K maybe, with most of them fleeing from Israel because of the Roman wars, or brought in as slaves by the Romans and later freed, with any uncircumcised Roman who converted to Judaism and quit eating pork and started studying the seditious laws of Moses being treated as a leper by the aristocracy, and likely confused with a Christian, so to propose a master theory of Jewish history as a total fiction cooked up by racists based on somebody's estimate of that long-dead pop. is not only shakier than Japan during an earthquake, the work of an Israel history ignoramus who is too lazy to study the subject before pontificating about it, it's obviously a tawdry attempt to push a modern political agenda, like anti-Semitism and the illegitimization of the Jewish state of Israel, tell me, does a thief or robber turn on the lights when robbing your house.

In 1982 speaking of the Reagan admin. backing down, Iraeli foreign affairs advisor Oded Yinon pub. A Strategy for Israel in the 1980s, which anti-Zionist prof. Israel Shahak (1933-2001) later retitled "The Zionist Plan for the Middle East", with the key points that Israel must dominate its region, become a world power, and keep Arab nations divided and Balkanized, hose A and hose B, that was one of your father's jokes. Israel should have given Jordan to the Palestinians after the Six-Day War in order to rid itself of them, and made a mistake by making peace with Egypt, which should be invaded to take the Sinai Peninsula and create a Christian Coptic state in Upper Egypt along with a number of fractured Muslim states. Lebanon and Syria should be divided into Marionite Christian, Shiite Alawi, Druze, and Sunni states, while Iraq should be targeted for its oil, the net result being that all these states can be made to rely on Israel for their security, while it resettles so-called Palestinians in Arab territories to clear Israel for Jews. With enough U.S. support, they might have pulled it off even while the Soviet Union existed, much less after, making it all the more ready to take on horrible Iran and Turkey, but the plan is now mainly used for anti-Israeli propaganda by Palestinians and their allies after a series of fence-sitting or pro-Palestinian-leaning U.S. presidents who instead wanted to contract Israel to a "small and friendly state" on Henry Kissinger's advice, under the misguided assumption that the U.S. can militarily shield it, despite the Palestinians forever wanting to crush Israel out of existence and put the Jewish minority under Muslim Sharia complete with jizya payments. That evil Saudi Arabia is the #1 nut to crack to cause the jihad on Israel to stop, and that the Saudis can easily finance resettlement of Palestinians in Arab lands incl. their own country, wasn't mentioned. Yes, the new settlers might try to overthrow the Saudi royals and use the oil to start a new jihad, but that's not too likely if they are given their own settlements that can be militarily guarded, and even in the remote chance that the royals fall, by then Israel and the U.S. could have solidified the defenses of the buffer zone, and started playing Iran off against it to keep it from leaving home, alas maybe somebody's listening to my chicken scratches.

On Mar. 28, 1985 after they fled from Ethiopia and 2K died in Jan., Operation Sheba secretly flew 494 of 2K stranded Falashas from Sudan to Israel aboard U.S. Air Force transport planes despite strong protests by the govt. of Mengistu Haile Mariam; by 2003 there were 60K Falashas living in Israel. So much for Israel being racist.

On Dec. 6, 1987 a Jewish salesman was stabbed to death in Gaza, followed on Dec. 8 by an Israeli army tank transporter accidentally on purpose running into a group of Palestinians from Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza, killing four and injuring seven, causing the pissed-off Palestinians to launch the First Intifada (Intefadeh) (Arab. "shaking off") (1987-93), spreading from the Jabalia refugee camp through Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, and resulting in 3.6K Molotov cocktail, 100 hand grenade, and 600 gun or explosive attacks on Israeli forces. The growing Palestinian pop. showed off its increasing radicalization by beginning a general resistance to the Israelis and their obvious plans of annexation of all the territory they can get away with by staging demonstrations featuring stone-throwing boys, along with general strikes, boycotts of Israeli products, tax defiance, etc., resulting in a death toll of 1.1K Palestinians and 164 Israelis, plus another 1K Palestinians killed by their own for alleged collaboration, he was choking me with his elbow and squishing my face with the palm of his hand. On July 30, 1988 Jordanian King Hussein I dissolved his country's lower house of parliament, half of whose 60 members were from the Israeli-occupied West Bank; on July 31 in a televised speech Hussein called for an independent Palestinian state in the Israeli-occupied territories and urged the Palestinians to take affairs into their own hands, giving them no choice by disenfranchising and cutting all ties with all Arabs living on the West Bank - no mention of a Palestinian state in Jordan? On Nov. 12-15, 1988 the Palestine Nat. Council, the legislative body of the PLO met in Algiers, and on Nov. 15 the Palestinian Declaration of Independence was adopted by the PLO, er, Palestine Nat. Council in Algiers, proclaiming the Muslim state of Palestine, forgetting that they denied the validity of the 1947 U.N. resolution sanctioning the creation of a Jewish state, and flopping to cite its simultaneous sanctioning of the creation of a Palestinian state; on Nov. 20 Egypt and China recognized it; it was eventually recognized by 100 countries; there is no de facto state of Palestine until ? On Dec. 13, 1988 PLO chmn. Yasser Arafat addressed the U.N. Gen. Assembly in Geneva, where it had reconvened after the U.S. refused to grant Arafat a visa to visit New York, and on Dec. 14 in a dramatic policy shift Pres. Reagan authorized the U.S. to enter into a "substantive dialogue" with the PLO after Arafat claimed that he was renouncing "all forms of terrorism"; on Dec. 15 U.S. ambassador to Tunisia (1987-91) Robert H. Pelletreau Jr. (1935-) telephoned the PLO HQ in Tunisia; on Dec. 17 Israeli PM Yitzhak Shamir expressed shock, calling the U.S. decision a "painful blow". On Dec. 15 after only Israel and the U.S. opposed it, Gen. Assembly Resolution 43/176 was adopted, titled "Question of Palestine' calling for a U.N.-sponsored Internat. Peace Conference on the Middle East, with the principles for comprehensive peace being withdrawal of Israel from occupied Palestine territories incl. Jerusalem and other occupied Arab territories, security of all states in the region incl. those named in Resolution 181, within secure internationally-recognized boundaries, execution of Resolution 194, dismantling of Israeli settlements, and free access to holy places; the same day Gen. Assembly Resolution 43/177 was adopted, recognizing the proclamation of the State of Palestine, supporting Palestinian (PLO) sovereignty over occupied Palestinian territories, and recalling Resolution 181.

Meanwhile in 1987 monkey-see-monkey-do Palestinian Allah-Akbars Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin (1937-2004) (a blind paraplegic) and Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi (1947-2004) (a physician) founded Hamas ("Islamic Resistance Movement"), with a 1988 charter calling for the extermination of Israel and its replacement by an Islamic state complete with down-home Sharia, behead that gardener's halfwit nephew. Al-Rantissi is known for the soundbyte: "We will kill Jews everywhere. There will be no security for any Jews, those who came from America, Russia or anywhere". No surprise, he also denied the Jewish Holocaust. In 1989 Hamas began terrorist attacks against Israeli Jews, starting on Feb. 18 with the kidnapping-murder of Israeli soldier Avi Sasportas, followed on May 4 with the kidnapping-murder of Israeli soldier Ilan Sa'adon, then a bomb murder of Canadian tourist Marnie Kimelman on a beach in Tel Aviv on July 28, followed on Dec. 14, 1990 by the murder of three workers at an aluminum factory in Jaffa. On Oct. 11, 1991 Master Sgt. Aaron Agmon Klijami and Sgt. Shmuel Michaeli were run over and murdered at Tel Hashomer by a terrorist in a van at a hitchhiking stop, injuring 11 other soldiers, don't ride the bus next door to Palestinians. On May 27, 1992 Israeli schoolteacher-rabbi Shmuel Biran was murdered while crossing a 2-lane highway, you gotta remember this ain't Hollywood.

1990

On Oct. 8, 1990 (Black Monday) (10 a.m.) after Palestinians rained stones on Jews at the Western Wall in Jerusalem observing the Feast of Sukkot, Israeli police opened fire on them on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, killing 20+ and injuring 150+, becoming known as the Al-Aqsa (Temple Mount) Massacre. On Oct. 12 the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to condemn Israel via Resolution 672, sending a mission to investigate, which Israel snubbed, causing Resolution 673 to be passed on Oct. 24 urging them to reconsider, which they didn't, after which the U.N. pub. a report anyway.

On Aug. 2, 1990 - Feb. 28, 1991 the Gulf War saw the U.S.-led U.N. coalition force kick Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's butt out of Kuwait; too bad, Yasser Arafat supported the bum, causing the Palestinian expulsion from Kuwait of 450K Palestinians in Mar. 1991, reducing their percentage in the 2.2M Kuwaiti pop. from 30% to 3%; on Dec. 12, 2004 Mahmoud Abbas apologized for supporting Sodamn Insane. On Mar. 2, 1991 Syrian defense minister Lt. Gen. Mustafa Tlass (1932-) said in a radio broadcast that Yasser Arafat has lost all his internat. standing for supporting Iraq in the Gulf conflict, calling it a betrayal because Kuwait's ruling al-Sabah family supported his mainstream Fatah movement within the PLO.

On Jan. 14/15, 1991 a turncoat bodyguard working for the Abu Nidal faction assassinates Yasser Arafat's two senior deputies, Salah Mesbah Khalaf (Abu Iyad) (b. 1933), and Fakhri al-Omari (Abu Mohammed), and PLO security chief Hayel Abdel-Hamid in a house outside Tunis, then holds Abdel-Hamid's wife and daughters hostage for six hours before being arrested; Khalaf had flopped to support a 2-state solution?

On July 13, 1992 former PM #5 (1974-7) Yitzak Rabin (1922-95) became PM of Israel again (until Nov. 4, 1995), which Hamas responded to by waging a virtual border war. On Oct. 25, 1992 Israeli soldier Shmuel Geresh was murdered by Hamas killers near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. On Dec. 13, 1992 Israeli border policeman Nissim Toledano was kidnapped by Hamas, and left dead in a ditch, causing pissed-off Israel to arrest 1.6K Palestinians, and on Dec. 16 order the deportation for up to two years to S Lebanon of 400 members of Hamas. Too bad, after Israel couldn't prove which ones were responsible for the months of violent attacks, the leftists whooped it up, and the U.N. issued a unanimous resolution condemning the deportation, calling them "civilians", even though they're murderous terrorists, and threatening sanctions, and Lebanon refused to accept them, after which 100 were returned immediately, and the remainder a year later, allowing Hamas to regroup in its efforts to exterminate Israel, knowing it could count on worlwide leftist support inside and outside the U.N. to save it, which it uses to this day. On Dec. 21, 1992 after this horrible year, Rabin delivered a Speech to the Knesset, with the soundbyte: "I have no pity in my heart, nor do I shed tears [for Hamas terrorists]. I see the media whining their hypocritical speeches, and I think instead of Nissim Toledano's orphaned children, the widow of Shmuel Biran, and the bereaved parents of Shmuel Geresh." Too bad, Rabin then adopted the radical policy of appeasing Islam, er, the PLO. After taking back the Hamas hatemongers, followed by secret negotiations and a surprise announcement, on Sept. 13, 1993 Yitzhak Rabin, PLO chmn. Yasser Arafat, and U.S. pres. Bill Clinton signed the Oslo Accords (Agreement) (Declaration of Principles Between Israel and the PLO), which incl. the first-ever Israeli recognition of the PLO, and created a Palestinian Nat. Authority (PNA) (originally the Palestinian Authority) with limited autonomy, making Jerusalem negotiable for the first time, and calling for Israeli military withdrawal from most of the Gaza Strip and 27% of the West Bank, with Arafat given control, with Clinton later uttering the soundbyte: "I killed myself to give the Palestinians a state." Rabin, Arafat, and Shimon Peres received the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for it, despite the fact that the PNA emblem (coat of arms) looks remarkably similar to the Nazi emblem. The leftists in Israel the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. to lobby the U.S. govt. to give millions to the Palestinian Authority in the belief that the Oslo process would work. Too bad, 7 mo. after the Rabin-Arafat handshake, Arafat "made sure it would be a failure" as the first Palestinian suicide bomber appeared on Apr. 6, 1994, murdering eight Israelis on a bus in Afula, tragedians as good as Sophocles couldn't handle this material. On May 10, 1994 Arafat gave a speech in Johannesburg, South Africa, comparing the accords to the Hudabiya or temporary truce with the Koraish tribe signed by Muhammad, which he abrogated two years later, slaughtering the Koraish and conquering Mecca. On Oct. 5, 1995 Rabin gave a Speech on the Ratification of the Israel-Palestinian Interim to the Knesset, with the soundbyte about a proposed Palestinian state: "We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority. The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines." After a 7-year trial period a final treaty was to be signed on Sept. 14, 2000. On Sept. 30, 1994 the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) (founded 1981) (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE) announced that it is ending the "secondary" and "tertiary" aspects of its 1946 economic boycott against Israel, but is keeping the "primary" boycott of direct trade. A family reunification provision for Arabs caused 137K Palestinians to move to Israel by 2002 after some engaged in sham or polygamous marriages, and some used the photo opp to turn terrorist. Harold Lee "Hal" Lindsey (1929-) and other Bible-thumpers thumped out Bible prophecies, bolstered by 9-13-93 having hidden 666 connotations: "And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week; and for half of the week he shall cause sacrifice and offering to cease; and upon the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator" (Dan. 9:27), claiming that the European Union (EU), based in Strasbourg, France will become a new Roman Empire that will bring guess what Armageddon. Since 1993 about 30% of Israelis have protested Rabin's policy of appeasing the PLO, and in the next six elections, the right won four by pledging to abandon this policy, and in the 1999 election Ehud Barak and the left won by running on a rightist platform, maybe the Israelis will form their own Tea Party. On Oct. 23, 1995 the U.S. Jerusalem Embassy Act was overwhelmingly passed by Congress to fund the move of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv back to Jerusalem, reaffirming it as the undivided recognized capital of Israel, and giving itself until 1999 to move it; too bad, Pres. Clinton claimed that it infringes on executive branch control of foreign affairs, and used a nat. security waiver to delay the move every 6 mo., which each succeeding pres. continued until Pres. Trump in 2018; in Oct. 2010 the U.S. opened a consulate in the S Arnona neighborhood for U.S. citizens living on the W side, who had to use the cramped facility on the Arab-dominated E side. In Oct. 2010 the U.S. opened a consulate in the S Arnona neighborhood for U.S. citizens living on the W side, who had to use the cramped facility on the Arab-dominated E side. Too bad, on Nov. 4, 1995 Rabin was murdered by right-wing Orthodox Jewish law student Yigal Amir (1970-) for signing them, who claimed after his arrest to be on a mission from Jehovah, and used Frederick Forsyth's 1971 novel "The Day of the Jackal" as a manual, claiming to be a lone gunman in vain as the Israeli govt. claimed a right-wing conspiracy, accusing Amir's brother Hagai and an army sgt. of involvement, it seems that Israel's govt. is afraid of Jewish as well as Islamic fundamentalism. Speaking of the f-word, another little soundbyte from Rabin's above speech should be remembered: "Our struggle against murderous Islamic terror is also meant to awaken the world which is lying in slumber. We call on all nations and all people to devote their attention to the great danger inherent in Islamic fundamentalism. That is the real and serious danger which threatens the peace of the world in the forthcoming years."

On Apr. 11, 1996 Israel began Operation Grapes of Wrath air offensive against Hezbollah party leaders in Beirut and S Lebanon, conducting 1.1K airraids and using 25,132 artillery shells; too bad, on Apr. 18 the Qana Massacre saw an Israeli artillery barrage mistakenly hit the U.N. peacekeeping camp in Qana, S Lebanon, killing 106 Lebanese civilians; Israeli PM Shimon Peres described it as a "grave error"; on Apr. 27 U.S. secy. of state Warren Christopher (deputy atty. gen. under LBJ) mediated an end to the operation; the Qana massacre is used by al-Qaida to recruit members, incl. Mohammed Atta.

On June 18, 1996 Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (1949-) became Israeli PM #9 (until July 6, 1999), the first born after the state of Israel's foundation in 1948. On Jan. 15, 1997 an accord brokered by U.S. special Middle East coordinator (since 1993) (Jewish) Dennis B. Ross (1948-) was signed by Netanyahu and the Palestine Nat. Authority, agreeing to an Israeli pullout from 80% of the West Bank city of Hebron, giving the PNA control over virtually the entire Arab pop. of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, as well as 40% of the land; too bad, on Mar. 18 bulldozers began prepping the ground for the hilltop Har Homa (Heb. "Wall Mountain") housing project (opens Jan. 2002), inflaming the Palestinians, who attacked Israeli soldiers, causing the dozers to be protected with soldiers in riot gear. On July 6, 1999 Netanyahu was succeeded by Ehud Barak (1942-), who became Israeli PM #10 (until Mar. 7, 2001).

In Aug.-Sept. 1998 secret talks for a peace deal between Israel and Syria were conducted by Am. businessman Ronald Lauder and George Nader, ed. of the journal Middle East Insight; too bad, despite Benjamin Netanyahu's support, it is tabled over objections by Israeli defense and foreign ministers.

2000

On Jan. 12, 2000 after New York City-born Israeli rep Ronald Steven Lauder (1944-) (son of cosmetics magnate Estee Lauder) (appointed by outgoing PM Benjamin Netanyahu) and Syrian pres. (since Mar. 12, 1971) Hafez al-Assad (1930-2000) produce the draft "Treaty of Peace Between Israel and Syria" based on land (the Golan Heights) for peace, peace negotiations between Israeli PM Ehud Barak and Syrian foreign minister Farouk al-Shara are held in Shepherdstown, W. Va.; too bad, they fall through when al-Assad dies on June 10. On Jan. 22-27, 2000 after being put together by frantic lame duck U.S. pres. #42 (1993-2001) William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (1946-), who came up with a variety of compromises to consider, Israel and Palestine officials met in Taba, Egypt, but failed to reach a peace accord after Palestine Nat. Council chmn. Salim Za'anun said in Feb. that the PLO Covenant calling for Israel's destruction has never been changed, and in Mar. Faysal al-Husseini uttered the soundbyte "We may lose or win, but our eyes will continue to aspire to the strategic goal, namely, to Palestine from the river to the sea." On Feb. 24, 2000 after Iraq refused him entry, Pope (1978-2005) John Paul II (1920-2005). who on Mar. 16, 1998 issued an Apology for the Holocaust, made a "virtual pilgrimage" of Old Testament prophet Abraham's city of Ur, using props and videotape, then traveled for real to Egypt, where he visited the place believed by many to be the Biblical Mount Sinai, then went to Bethlehem and Jerusalem in an effort to reconcile all three Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), you're the one that I want, yoo-hoo-hoo. Too bad, when he visited a Palestinian refugee camp on the West Bank to deplore the plight of the residents, and expressed empathy in English for the hardships of refugee life, his remarks were not translated into Arabic.

On May 23, 2000 Israeli troops unilaterally withdrew from S Lebanon to the border after 22 years of occupation, and PM Ehud Barak announced "The 18-year tragedy is over", referring to the 1982 Israeli invasion that took over the "buffer zone" to protect N Israel from attacks by Hezbollah guerrillas, who now ride through the zone in triumph, claiming that they chased the Israelis out and that their withdrawal was "slinking and servile"; call him smart or dumb, but in 2001 after leaving office Netanyahu visited a home in Ofra in the West Bank to pay condolences to the family of an Israeli man killed by Palestinians, and admitted that he was fooling Pres. Clinton by making token withdrawals from the West Bank per the Oslo Accords while actually entrenching the occupation, which didn't come out until 2010, after he became PM again on Mar. 31, 2009. On July 11-25, 2000 the 2000 Camp David Summit between Pres. Clinton, Yasir Arafat, and Ehud Barak saw Barak propose turning 92% of the West Bank into a Palestinian state, with Palestinian sovereignty over the Christian and Muslim quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem, but no agreement is reached after Arafat utters the soundbyte that the PLO's demands for sovereignty in East Jerusalem "not only refer to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Temple Mount mosques, and the Armenian quarter, but it is Jerusalem in its entirety, entirety, entirety", incl. the Western Wall, which he calls the Al-Buraq Wall, insisting that there never had been any Jewish temples on the Temple Mount; after the talks fail, Arafat responded to by pumping up local violence, since all along all he wanted was the destruction of Israel, not the creation of a Palestinian state?; on Aug. 9, 2001 Robert Malley (1963-), special asst. to Pres. Clinton for Arab-Israeli Affairs, and Hussein Agha pub. Camp David: The Tragedy of Errors, which blames Barak not Arafat for the failure of the summit; Malley later becomes a favorite adviser of Pres. Obama - home depot, you can do it, we can help? On July 14, 2000 Palestinian activist Hanan Ashrawi gave an interview to NPR's "Morning Edition", uttering the soundbyte: "The more you maintain settlements in the West Bank, the more areas of friction you have... You are creating not only a situation of volatility, you are creating an apartheid system: two sets of people on the same land subject to two sets of law, with Israeli extraterritoriality in the West Bank." Not that Arafat wasn't doing his part in building an extensive terrorist infrastructure in his terror, er, territories, they understood each other well despite the utter stupidity of outside powers.

On Sept. 27-28, 2000 the efforts of negotiators became a big laugh when the Second (Al-Aqsa) Intifada ("shaking off") began after Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount, causing the Allah Akbars to see red, resulting in 5.5K Palestinians and 1K Israelis (proportionally equivalent to 42K Americans killed in eight years of Vietnam) killed for nothing but horrible Islam. On Sept. 30 (3:00 p.m.) (Rosh Hashanah) the Muhammad al-Durrah Incident (Hoax) allegedly happens, after which French TV network France 2 runs a tape dubbed by French Jewish activist Charles Enderlin (1945-) accusing Israeli forces of killing 12-y.-o. Palestinian boy Mohammed al-Dura (1988-) while cowering in his father's arms at the Netzarim Junction S of Gaza City, becoming a cause celebre for Palestinians and helping fuel the Second Intifada; it is later revealed as a staged hoax by French Jewish media analyst Philippe Karsenty (1966-), causing him to be successfully sued for defamation by the network even though the Israeli govt., which initially accepts responsibility reverses its stand in Sept. 2007; the boy was never killed, or was killed by Palestinians by accident or for propaganda purposes?

In Jan. 2001 Canadian foreign affairs minister John Manley offered to second an Apr. 2000 offer from Canadian PM Jean Chrétien to resettle supposedly oppressed Palestinians in Canada, but PLO spokesman Ahmed Abdel Rahman rejected them, with the soundbyte: "We reject any kind of settlement of refugees in Arab countries, or in Canada", after which Manley was burned in effigy near the West Bank city of Nablus, and Hussum Khader, head of the largest Palestinian Fatah militia in Nablus uttered the soundbyte: "If Canada is serious about resettlement you could expect military attacks in Ottawa or Montreal."

On Mar. 7, 2001 right-wing Likud party leader Ariel "Arik" Sharon (Scheinermann) (1928-) became Israeli PM #11 (until Apr. 14, 2006), laboring under the stink of being indirectly involved in the 1982 massacre of Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee caps in Lebanon, maybe all them rocket attacks caused Israel to reach for a guy who can give it as well as take it. On Apr. 30, 2001 the Mitchell Report by U.S. Sen. (D-Maine) (Senate majority leader in 1989-95) George John Mitchell Jr. (1933-), who was sent to study Arab violence in Palestine to get the peace process back on track after the 2000 Camp David Summit recommended a cessation of all violence, a full-scale effort by the Palestinian Authority to prevent terrorism, a freeze on Israeli settlement activity, and resumption of negotiations; neither the Israelis nor Palestinians implemented his recommendations, although the U.S. and Palestinians latched onto the settlement issue, and on Jan. 22, 2009 Mitchell was named special envoy for the Middle East. Meanwhile on May 31, 2001 the Eurasia Party was founded by Russian Communist activist Alexander (Aleksandr) Dugin (1962-) to head an "anti-American revolution" by hooking up with China, Islam, and anti-American forces in W Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Russian pres. #2 (2000-8) Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (1952-) became a supporter, making the mistake of thinking that an enemy of my enemy is my friend, which with Islam is one of history's most famous last words, and with America is doubly dumb because the U.S. has always wanted to be Russia's friend, if they will only get over that Commie and Soviet imperialist b.s. - either way, no good news for the U.S. and Israel. Too bad for Putin, the hardcore Islamists in Islam aren't going for his program even as a ruse to get rid of Israel, and are hard at work trying to undermine Russia with terrorism and immigration.

On Aug. 31-Sept. 8, 2001 the World Conference Against Racism (Durban I) in Durban, South Africa issues a Report on the Slave Trade, calling slavery a "crime against humanity" and demanding apologies and reparations; it recognizes Islamophobia (not Islamophilia?) as a form of prejudice; too bad, under chmn. Mary Robinson of Ireland it goes on to condemn Israel for racism and apartheid, causing the U.S. to walk out, with U.S. state secy. Colin Powell uttering the soundbyte: "I know that you do not combat racism by conferences that produce declarations containing hateful language, some of which is a throwback to the days of Zionism equals racism, or supports the idea that we have made too much of the Holocaust, or suggests that apartheid exists in Israel, or that singles out only one country in the world, Israel, for censure and abuse"; too bad, in Nov. 2010 Pres. Obama awards Robinson the Medal of Freedom.

In Oct. 2001 the Palestinians began firing Qassam steel artillery rockets (range 3 mi.) into Israeli settlements, followed on Feb. 10, 2002 by Israel itself, incl. the S Israeli city of Sderot on Mar. 5, with some reaching the far edge of Ashkelon. 1K rockets were launched in 2006, 1.75K in 2008, killing 22 Israelis by 2010. After the Palestinians added Russian Grad missiles (range 12 mi.) and Iranian Fajr missiles (range 25 mi.) to their arsenal, the U.S. in 2009 began building the $400M Iron Dome System for Israel to protect Israeli towns from Palestinian rockets coming from the Gaza Strip.

In Dec. 2001 Shiite Muslim Iranian pres. #4 (1989-97) Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1934-) (richest person in Iran) gives a speech containing the doomsday soundbyte: "If one day the Islamic world [acquires nuclear weapons], then the imperialists' strategy will reach a standstill because the use of even one nuclear bomb inside Israel will destroy everything. However, it will only harm the Islamic world. It is not irrational to contemplate such an eventuality. Jews shall expect to be once again scattered and wandering around the globe the day when this appendix is extracted from the region and the Muslim world."

On Mar. 27, 2002 the Passover Massacre suicide bombing at the Park Hotel in Netanya, Israel by Hamas killed 30 and injured 140 Israeli civilians; on Mar. 28 after New York Times journalist (Jewish) Thomas Friedman (1953-) met with Saudi crown pince Abdullah in Feb. and urged him to make peace, the 2002 Arab League Summit was held in Beirut, Lebanon; it was not attended by PLO leader Yasser Arafat because the Israelis kept him under house arrest in Ramallah; the Arab (Saudi) Peace Initiative was proposed, calling for normalizing relations between the Arab world and Israel after a complete withdrawal from the occupied territories incl. East Jerusalem, and a "just settlement" of the Palestinian refugee problem based on U.N. Resolution 194; too bad, Israeli PM Ariel Sharon called it a "non-starter" because it would replace U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338, which call for bilateral negotiations, and the Palestinian Authority was split, and it hangs in the air until ?; on Mar. 29 never-forgiving Israel mounted Operation Defensive Wall (Shield) in the West Bank (ends May 3), arresting Palestinian leaders and imprisoning Yasser Arafat (whom they declare an enemy) in his Mukata Compound in Ramallah; an atrocity was alleged at the Jenin refugee camp; militants took over the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem; Arafat was released; meanwhile between Mar. 29 and Apr. 21 14 Muslim suicide bombers killed dozens of Israeli civilians and wound hundreds more; on Apr. 14 Marwan Barghouti was arrested for terrorism and murder, protesting his innocence and claiming that Israeli courts have no jurisdiction, and was convicted on May 20, 2004 of three terrorist attacks that killed five, receiving five life sentences plus 40 years, after which there were internat. calls for his release. Speaking of clueless Yankee presidents, on June 24, 2002 Repub. Pres. #43 (2001-9) George Walker "Dubya" Bush (1946-) delivered his Speech on the Israeli-Palestinian Settlement, calling for a democratic Palestinian state run by new leadership, anybody but Yasser Arafat, but only after they abandon terror and implement dem. reforms, causing First Lady Barbara Bush to refer to her hubby as the "first Jewish president.". The speech incl. the clueless soundbyte: "It is untenable for Israeli citizens to live in terror. It is untenable for Palestinians to live in squalor and occupation. And the current situation offers no prospect that life will improve. Israeli citizens will continue to be victimized by terrorists, and so Israel will continue to defend herself. In the situation the Palestinian people will grow more and more miserable. My vision is two states, living side by side in peace and security. There is simply no way to achieve that peace until all parties fight terror. Yet, at this critical moment, if all parties will break with the past and set out on a new path, we can overcome the darkness with the light of hope. Peace requires a new and different Palestinian leadership, so that a Palestinian state can be born." How about a new and different non-fundamentalist Saudi leadership that allows Arabs to be resettled far away from Israel forever? On Nov. 13, 2002 U.N. Secy.-Gen. Kofi Annan gave a speech at the U. of Md., denouncing Israel for expropriating Arab land, and calling for it to give up nearly all of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 and live side-by-side with a fairy tale peaceful Palestinian state; on the same day prominent Israeli rabbi Rav Leor said that Jewish law supports the annihilation of all non-Jews in Israel; on the same day Egyptian pres. Hosni Mubarak called for the U.N. to require Israel as well as Iraq to surrender all WMD and submit to U.N. weapons inspection.

On Apr. 2-May 10, 2002 the Siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem sees Israeli defense forces siege dozens of Palestinian militants after occupying Bethlehem as part of Operation Defensive Shield who hold the 200 monks hostage, finally giving up and being deported to the Gaza Strip and Europe.

On Apr. 30, 2003 after 30 mo. of violence the Quartet (U.S., EU, Russia, and the secy.-gen. of the U.N.) issues the Middle East Roadmap for Peace, outlining a 3-phase plan to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, namely, Phase 1: "Ending terror and violence, normalizing Palestinian life, and building Palestinian institutions", Phase 2: "Interim agreement with a Palestinian state having provisional borders and attributes of sovereigny... as a way station to a permanent status settlement", and Phase 3: "Permanent status agreement and the end of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict"; on May 23 it is endorsed by Ariel Sharon, and on May 25 by the Israeli cabinet, followed on June 4 by Mahmoud Abbas; on Nov. 20, 2003 Resolution 1515 based on it is adopted unanimously by the U.N. Security Council, incl. Syria, calling for a permanent 2-state solution after the cessation of violence, reform of the Palestinian Nat. Authority, and dismantling of the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure, along with the "illegal outposts" of Israel; on Mar. 19, 2010 the Quartet endorses it again. On Dec. 1, 2003 after two years of secret negotiations, the Geneva Accord (Initiative) was announced in Geneva, claiming to be a model permanent status agreement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with a 2-state solution giving almost all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to the Palestinians, and returning Israel's borders to the start of the 1967 Six-Day War, with East Jerusalem becoming the capital of the Palestinian state and West Jerusalem of Israel, and Palestinians agreeing to limit their "right of return" and make no more demands - ust what the world needs, a 22nd Arab state? Of course, Allah told them to use deception and lying to trick infidels into making concessions, then to repudiate treaties and go on with the M:I of taking it all, so guess what will happen if Israel falls for it? On May 6, 2004 U.N. Gen. Assembly Resolution 58/292 was adopted, titled "Status of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem", affirming that Palestinian territory incl. East Jerusalem is under military occupation by Israel, which is obligated by the Geneva Convention to protect civilians, supporting the 2-state solution based on pre-1967 borders.

Jerusalem aside, the Israelis have bent over backwards to give the pesky Arabs who won't move out of Palestine some Lebensraum so they can squat and plan to kill Jews for Allah. On Mar. 22, 2004 Hamas founder and Palestinian leader Sheik Yassin was assassinated along with nine bystanders in Gaza City by an Israeli Apache heli. On Mar. 23, 2004 other Hamas co-founder Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi was named his successor, and on Apr. 17 he was ditto by an Israeli Apache heli, which killed two others and wounded four. The U.S. waffled about whether to support or condemn their ally for this great coup d'etat. On June 6, 2004 Israeli PM Ariel Sharon got his Hitnatkut Unilateral Disengagement Plan approved by the Knesset to forcibly evict all Israelis from the Gaza Strip and four settlements on the N West Bank. Not that Israelis are a bunch of Gandhis or Jesuses. On July 25, 2004 Israeli protesters of PM Ariel Sharon's Gaza Strip withdrawal plan formed a 55-mi. human chain from Gasa to Jerusalem. On Nov. 11, 2004 Yasser Arafat died in Paris, ending an era. On Jan. 15, 2005 new PLO chmn. Mahmoud Abbas (1935-) of the Fatah Party was sworn in as pres. of the Palestinian Nat. Authority (PA), and armed Palestinian factions swore to press ahead with attacks, but the PLO called for an end to them. Despite this, on Jan. 16 Hamas renewed rocket and mortar fire against Jewish settlers. The same day Sharon warned Palestinian PM Ahmed Qureia that he has given the army orders to act "without restrictions" against any acts of Palestinian terrorism, and the latter responded with a statement demanding a halt to "all military acts that harm our national interests and provide excuses to Israel". On May 15, 2005 Abbas gave a televised speech, in which he uttered the soundbyte: "We see the light, you may have Jerusalem and the entire surrounding region so you can survive and thrive in peace forever and worship God as you please", er, the establishment of Israel was a historic injustice to Arabs, and "We are telling the entire world, today Gaza and tomorrow Jerusalem." Actually, to his credit, on Aug. 20, 2010 he uttered the soundbyte: "Nobody denies the Jewish history in the Middle East. A third of our Holy Quran talks about the Jews in the Middle East, in this area. Nobody from our side denies that the Jews were in Palestine, were in the Middle East." On Aug. 3, 2005 the Islamic Jihad promised that it would fire no more rockets at Israelis as the planned Aug. 15 Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip approached, that's nice of them. In Ofakim in S Israel thousands of Jewish settlers scuffled with Israeli police as they tried to march toward the Jewish Gush Katif settlements that were set to be evacuated, which incl. the village of Kfar Darom, home of murdered Rabbi Shmuel Biran. On Aug. 4 extremist Israeli rabbis pronounced an ancient Aramaic death curse on Ariel Sharon, identical to the one they put on assassinated PM Rabin. On Aug. 4, 2005 19-y.-o. Israeli army deserter Eden Natan Zada (1986-), upset over the planned evacuation opened fire in a bus in Shfaram in N Israel carrying Israeli Arab passengers, killing four and wounding 13 before being beaten to death by an angry crowd, run the sad Jewish violin music. On Aug. 13, 2005 the Israeli army began the forced evacuation of the symbolic Gush Katif settlement in SW Gaza Strip. The residents were evicted on Aug. 22, after which overjoyed Palestinians moved in and destroyed four synagogues while looting the homes and moving in. Meanwhile on Aug. 15 8.5K Israeli settlers (1.6K families), "assisted" by 15K army troops with orders to use force if needed began evacuating all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip (plus the four in the N West Bank) after 38 years of occupation. Some settlers painted pig faces on their floors to offend any of the 1.3M Palestinians who might take over, while others burned their houses down. On Aug. 16 hundreds of settlers hunkered down in advance of a midnight deadline to leave. By Aug. 17 only 600 families remained. Meanwhile 122K Palestinians living in Jordan, 401K in Syria, and 394.5K in Lebanon were all hoping to return. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Muhammad Salih Erekat (1955-) (known for negotiating the Oslo Accords) issued the soundbyte: "At this moment of our history, we extend our arms to Mr. Sharon... to please join us back at the negotiating table." The great menorah (7-branch) was removed from the last synagogue by Jewish men walking single file carrying it on a rod, bringing back memories of the Arch of Titus in 81 C.E. 180 Israeli families set up the Halutza (Heb. "pioneer") agricultural community along the Gaza-Egypt border, piping in desalinated water from the Mediterranean coast, and by 2010 were exporting $50M a year of produce, more lazy Arab jokes here. Actually, between 1948 and 2010 Israel multiplied the volume of export goods by 13,400 times, and pumped up the dollar value from $6M to $80.5B.

Let's face it, time is running out for Israel, 9 mo. a pop, lazy baby-making jokes here. In 2003 Benjamin Netanyahu openly fretted about the Demographic Bomb of higher Arab than Jewish fertility rates, saying that if the percentage of Arab citizens of Israel rises much above its current level of 20%, Israel will lose its Jewish identity. The probably biased Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) claims that Arab Muslim Palestinians will outnumber Jews in historical Palestine by late 2020 (7.2M vs. 6.8M). Actually, a 2005 study by the American-Israeli Demographic Research Group found that Israeli birthrates are the highest in the Western world, and fast approaching Palestinian birthrates, although the birthrates of the ultra-Orthodox Haredim are higher than other Jews, and they love to shun work for religious study. But the real question is why have any Palestinians in Israel? The answer is to persuade, bribe, or force Arabs to resettle in other Arab territories and leave Israel to the Jewish people, but that's just the answer the Arabs won't talk about, because of you guessed it the horrible Quran, a book they treat like an idol and are slaved to mentally, I'm quite happy thank you very much. Speaking of ulta-orthodox, in Jan. 2005 the Jewish Sanhedrin (70 rabbis) in Tiberias, Israel met for the first time since 475 C.E.; meanwhile the Cohen Modal Haplotype was discovered, permitting Jews qualified to act as priests to be ID'd, causing Rabbi Yisrael Ariel et al. to go ahead with extensive plans for rebuilding the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem - when/if I can only imagine?

Getting back to Jerusalem, it seems to be a favorite site for Palestinian terrorist attacks, incl. the Aug. 9, 2001 Hamas terrorist attack on the busy Sbarro Restaurant in Jerusalem, which killed 15 and injured hundreds, and the Mar. 6, 2008 attack on the Mercaz HaRav top yeshiva in Jerusalem, which killed eight and wounded nine students before the gunmen were killed.

On July 9, 2005 the BDS movement was founded by Palestinians to campaign for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel - BDS doesn't sound like jihad, what a breakthrough.

On Jan. 26, 2006 Pres. George W. Bush held his 22nd solo news conference to soothe frayed nerves over Palestine, saying that the U.S. won't deal with an org. devoted to the destruction of Israel, with the soundbyte "Peace is never dead because people want peace." On Apr. 14, 2006 former mayor of Jerusalem (1993-2003) Ehud Olmert (1945-) became Israeli PM #12 (until Mar. 31, 2009). On July 11, 2006 Hezbollah militants captured Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev in a cross-border raid, causing Israel to invade Lebanon on July 12, shutting down Beirut Internat. Airport, which caused Hezbollah to fire rockets into 20 Israeli towns, incl. one of which lands in a train station in Haifa, killing eight, causing the Israeli PM to go nonlinear, causing the Middle East to go into the hairy edge of war; on July 16 the 6th day of hostilities caused the death toll to top 230 (210 Lebanese, 24 Israelis, incl. 410 Lebanese and 303 Israelis wounded) as hundreds of U.S. evacuees from Lebanon flew into Cyprus; meanwhile on July 16 world leaders incl. British PM Tony Blair and U.N. Secy.-Gen. Kofi Annan called for deployment of internat. forces to stop the bombardment of Israel, while Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah (1961-) said the battle has just begun; on July 17 Israel briefly sent troops into Lebanon while Hezbollah rockets knock down a 3-story house in N Israel; on July 19 mass evacuation to Cyprus of the 25K Americans and other foreigners by U.S. Navy and Marines began.

On Nov. 27, 2007 Ehud Olmet met with Mahmoud Abbas at the U.S.-led Annapolis Conference in Md., where he proposed to give the Palestinians 97% of the West Bank and the entire Gaza Strip and let them have their own independent state in return for recognizing Israel, which Abbas rejected, insisting instead on the so-called right of return of all Palestinians to Israel, which would swamp the Jews out and let them take over by squatting, in other words, a non-starter. Meanwhile in Nov.-Dec., 2007 Egyptian Muslim cleric Sayyed Imam al-Sharif (1950-), whose 1988 book "The Essential Guide for Preparation" became the bible for jihadists incl. Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, calling jihad the natural state of Islam because Muslims must always be at war with unbelievers, with the soundbyte: "The real objective was not victory over the Soviets but martyrdom and eternal salvation", and who has been imprisoned in Yemen since 9/11, suddenly flip-flopped in prison, publishing "Document of Right Guidance for Jihad Activity in Egypt and the World", claiming that the Quran actually prohibits most forms of terrorism, with the soundbyte: "There is nothing that invokes the anger of God and His wrath like the unwarranted spilling of blood and wrecking of property", adding "Oh, you young people, do not be deceived by the heroes of the Internet, the leaders of the microphones, who are launching statements inciting the youth while living under the protection of intelligence services, or of a tribe, or in a distant cave or under political asylum in an infidel country. They have thrown many others before you into the infernos, graves, and prisons", and "God permitted peace treaties and ceasefires with the infidels, either in exchange for money or without it, all of this in order to protect the Muslims, in contrast with those who push them into peril." Too bad, al-Qaida and the Palestinians blow him off and continue their jihad, with plenty of Islamic clerics backing them up because the Quran isn't written in invisible ink, see Sura 9:11.

On June 10-15, 2007 after Fatah lost the 2006 parliamentary elections, the Battle of Gaza saw Hamas violently take control of Gaza from Fatah, dissolving the unity govt.and de facto dividing the Palestinian territories in two after killing 118 and injuring 550; on June 11 a rocket-propelled grenade hit the Gaza City home of Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh hours after Hamas gunmen siege the home of senior Fatah official Jamal Abu al-Jediyan in N Gazi, then drag him outside and kill him; on June 13-14 Hamas fighters took over the Gaza Strip from Yasser Arafat's Fatah in a fierce battle, then held a parade where their green flags were displayed; on June 15 Israeli PM Ehud Olmert ordered a Gaza Blockade (until ?); on June 17 a new govt. led by pres. Mahmoud Abbas was sworn-in in Ramallah despite Hamas protests, and he immediately outlawed Hamas militants and announced that he'll work to restore foreign aid and end the 15-mo. boycott; meanwhile Israeli PM Ehud Olmert said in New York City that Israel will be a "genuine partner" of the new govt. and will consider releasing frozen tax funds; on June 18 the Bush admin. lifted its embargo. On June 15 Salam Fayyad (1952-) became PM of the Palestinian Nat. Authority (until ?). On June 28 he met with 800 Muslim clergy in Ramallah, and told them that he won't tolerate calls for violence delivered from mosque pulpits, causing Clintonites in the U.S. to rally behind him as the hero who will end corruption in Fatah, make it more popular than Hamas, and lead the united Palestinians to sign a permanent 2-state peace solution with Israel. Too bad, the pop. are actually Hudnaites, who just want to buy time with a truce so they can get well and begin another war to crush Israel, and even Fatah can't sign any final agreement with Israel that confirms its existence as a Jewish state with defined borders, I'm flashing back on death camps.

But Israel is the world's greatest terrorist org.? Duh, as of 2007, of the total of 11M Muslims violently killed worldwide in 1948-2007, only 35K (0.3%) died fighting Israel, while 90% were killed by fellow Muslims.

In May 2008 U.S. state secy. #66 (2005-9) Condoleezza Rice (1954-) visited Jerusalem and had dinner with Israeli PM Ehud Olmert, who shocked her by how far he was willing to go for peace, incl. offering to give away nearly the entire West Bank, divide Jerusalem, and allow 5K Palestinian refugees to settle in Israel; too bad, Mahmoud Abbas rejected the offer because he wants all 4M Palestinian refugees to "go home"; on Sept. 18 Olmert offered Abbas a similar incl. a 2-state solution, which Abbas also turns down, killing negotiations; he finally admits it in Nov. 2015. Meanwhile the U.S. Naval Vessel Transfer Act of 2008 was a 10-year aid package to Israel that requires that military aid maintain Israel's "qualitative military edge" over any combination of states and non-state actors.

On Nov. 24, 2008 after it was designated by the U.S. govt. as a terrorist org. and shut down and stripped of assets, and a federal grand jury in Dallas, Tex. indicts it in 2004, causing the largest terrorism financing prosecution in U.S. history (until ?), Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (originally the Occupied Land Fund) (founded 1989) in Richardson, Tex., largest Muslim charity in the U.S. was convicted of funneling millions of dollars to Hamas in 2008-9, a rare V for the Bush admin, giving five officers sentences of 15-65 years in prison in 2009 for funneling $12M to Hamas.

So no surprise, the latest phase of the eternal jihad of the hardcore jihadist Arabs and their worldwide propaganda machine that turns black white and white black to try to delegitimize poor lonely outnumbered surrounded Israel so they can exterminate it with the press silenced and announce Sharia for Allah was the Gaza War, AKA Operation Cast Lead and the Gaza Massacre, from Dec. 27, 2008 to Jan. 18, 2009, where after a wave of rocket attacks against innocent Israelis the Israeli Defense Forces said enough is enough and attacked with 4K-20K troops, against Hamas and its 20K-30K forces of faux freedom fighters. By the time a ceasefire was declared, 1.4K Palestinians were killed, vs. 13 Israeli soldiers and 10 Israeli civilians. South African Jewish ex-judge Richard Joseph Goldstone (1938-) then headed a U.N. Human Rights Council investigation resulting in the controversial Goldstone Report on Sept. 15, 2009, which concluded that both sides had committed violations of the laws of war, and that while Israel had provocation it overreacted with disproportionate force, targeting Palestinian civilians and infrastructure, even using some as human shields, love me to death or just love me alot. On Apr. 1, 2011 Goldstone recanted the report, partly blaming Israel for not cooperating with the Muslim-dominated Human Rights Council. Of course, in the meantime Saudi-financed anti-Israel propagandists went to town trying to paint Israel as the Fourth Reich and Palestinians as innocent sheep, except for them rockets up their pelts, oh cry me a river over you. Of course nothing the current Israeli govt. can do can take away its 3K-year-old historical right to Jerusalem and surrounding territory for all Jews, with or without holy books and even so-called Judaism, sorry, Israel is the David and Islam is the Goliath, not the other way around, and without a land they aren't much of a people, but then the world is so full of history ignoramuses they might actually put themselves through to the next round like in Britain's Got Talent. Speaking of attempts to delegitimize Israel, on Sept. 30, 2000 French TV ran a tape of the death by Israeli gunfire in Gaza of 12-y.-o. Palestinian boy Mohammed al-Dura (b. 1988) while cowering in his father's arms, becoming a cause celebre for Palestinians, until it was revealed as a hoax by Philippe Karsenty. Despite all the attacks on it, the truth about Israel, according to Robert Bernstein, founder of Human Rights Watch is distorted by the fact that it's so open compared with its authoritarian Muslim critics. "It was an open society, it had 80 human rights organizations. They had more newspaper reporters in Jerusalem than in any city in the world, except New York and London." As he put it in Nov. 2010, he became "convinced, more than ever, that Human Rights Watch attacks on Israel as the country tried to defend itself were badly distorting the issues because Human Rights Watch had little expertise about modern asymmetrical war... If there's one thing I've learned in 40 years of human rights work, it's that you must separate the people that you're talking about from their governments. When a totalitarian or authoritarian government are the rulers, the people, whatever they believe, are shut down and they're shut down hard. Only the views of the government rule while those with other views are imprisoned, tortured, exiled, anything to silence them. People, I believe, are the same everywhere, and that given a chance, good things can happen." Try to see it my way, do I have to keep talking until I can't go on?

On Jan. 20, 2009 Barack Hussein Obama II (1961-) became U.S. pres. #44, bringing a new approach of appeasing Islam and bowing to Saudi Arabian king Abdullah while issuing the soundbyte that he wants "Two states, living side by side in peace and security". On Mar. 31, 2009 Benjamin Netanyahu became PM of Israel again (until ?), and on June 14 he wasted no time in breaking with longstanding Likud policy in a speech to the Knesset, where he replied to Pres. Obama's call to Israel to help create a Palestinian state by publicly accepting a 2-state solution and agreeing to the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian Arab state, provided it recognizes the Jewish state of Israel. Of course, Arabs never wanted a 2-state solution because they don't want any Jewish state period, nor do they want yet another Arab state, but long for a seamless Ummah complete with caliph in a Middle East cleansed of the Jewish infection, where Muslims can point their butt cracks at their kaput capital of Jerusalem while praying to their evil idol in Mecca. Hence this speech only made the Arab world explode in rage, with aging Egyptian pres. Husni Mubarak (whose country had been at faux peace with the Jewish state for 30 years through the efforts of his assassinated predecessor while he fends off the resurging Muslim Brotherhood) saying that the proposal is "scuppering the possibilities for peace", and Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat warning that Netanyahu "will have to wait a thousand years before he finds one Palestinian who will go along with him." In other words, soon Egypt will be run by the Muslim Brotherhood, which will unite with the Palestinians, Turks, Syrians, Jordanians, and Iranians, and maybe even the Iraqis and Saudis to come in for the final kill once it senses the U.S. has grown into the Sick Man of America, may that never happen even under Obama. Let's say it does happen for argument. Then there will be another Jewish holocaust, the U.S. will collapse and probably fragment into warring republics, and a new Dark Ages will descend, with happy retro Muslims keeping humanity down for a thousand years until a new karma sets in, why oh why did we not stop it?

No surprise, today Jerusalem remains the #1 issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Israeli govt. has approved building plans in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City in order to expand the Jewish presence in East Jerusalem, pissing off the Obama administration, while prominent Islamic leaders make nutso claims that Jews have no historical connection to Jerusalem, alleging that the 2.5K-y.-o. Western Wall was constructed as part of a mosque, elevating history ignoramusness to new heights. Hardcore Palestinians continue to desire East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state, and the city's borders have been the subject of bilateral talks. A persistent strong longing for peace is symbolized by the Jerusalem Chords Bridge (2008), and the Jerusalem World Peace Monument (built by a Swiss-based group founded in 1999, and still in construction) on top of Mt. Ora 8 km. SW of Jerusalem overlooking Bethlehem (featuring farming tools made out of scrap weapons), facing the Old City wall near the former Israeli-Jordanian border and quoting from the book of Isaiah in Arabic and Hebrew.

2010

On July 23, 2010 the Obama admin. U.S. State Dept. announced that the Palestinian Flag will be allowed to fly at the U.N. as its status is upgraded from bureau to general delegation. So unless it's stopped the Muslims are on schedule to sucker the world into strongarming Israel into accepting an Islamic Republic of Palestine with capital in East Jerusalem, with territory encircling Israel in the West Bank of the Jordan River, an extension of Muslim Jordan and Syria, and Gaza, an extension of Muslim Egypt, allowing Jerusalem to be built up into a horrendous militarized city of doom on the hairy butt crack of Armageddon, where the Muslims fall down to pray five times a day facing Mecca, with their butt cracks in West Jerusalem's face, with each street waiting to torture and murder the next street over like in Baghdad, I'm talking about Sunnis and Shites as well as Jews, and the ever-growing menace of the worldwide Islamic jihad staring the poor outnumbered surrounded Jews in the face like a giant butt crack, just waiting, just waiting for the time that their protector the United States of American Infidels weakens to go in for the final bloodbath, where the Jews' blood will run up to their Allah-Akhbar-shouting waists, after which maybe a remnant can flee from Tel Aviv to sanctuary somewhere in the world, perhaps some deserted federal land in the U.S., in Arizona or New Mexico, and set up a state within the state, if it can, as the Islamic jihad begins contracting even the mighty U.S., turning it into Safari Land for infidel-hunting junkets, see my 1998 novel Five Smooth Stones.

On Aug. 27, 2010 after Obama set up peace talks between Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu in the U.S. on Sept. 2 so he could try to save the Nov. elections, Mahmoud Al-Habbash gave a Fri. sermon with Abbas in the audience, with the soundbyte "Jerusalem can ignite a thousand and one wars", adding "Jerusalem is not just a city. Al-Aqsa is not just a mosque. Jerusalem is the key to peace... Unless Jerusalem will be Palestinian, as it was throughout history, the capital of the Palestinian state and the capital of the Palestinian people, the place which is the object of heartfelt longing and which all Muslims aspire to reach, unless Jerusalem is like that way, there is no peace. There is no peace without Jerusalem. There is no stability without Jerusalem."

Speaking of peace, no matter what Israel does the Quran-thumping Arabs will never let there be peace, no matter what they have to do to sabotage it, such as the misnamed Gaza Freedom Flotilla on May 31, 2010 (no comparison to the Jewish freedom flotillas of 1939-47), which was staged as part of a massive worldwide Arab-funded anti-Israel campaign magnified a "murky strip of coast, of no value whatsoever, the home of 1.5 million living in Palestianian refugee camps" ('Abdallah Al-Hadlaq of Kuwait) way out of proportion to far greater humanitarian crises in Darfur, Kyrgyzstan, and Sudan, all to make the world turn on Israel so it could become the scene of a second Jewish Holocaust to blanked-out press probably. While attempting to break the blockade, the Turkish jihadists aboard the flotilla who played the Western leftists aboard for suckers chanted about Khaybar and how fun it would be to kill Jews like their prophet did in 628. I'm the one who's exaggerating? Not at all. As Hamas deputy minister Abdallah Jarbu put it in Feb. 2010, Jews are "foreign bacteria" that should simply be "annihilated". While many Arabs can be called ignorant or brainwashed about history with Arab fiction starting with the Quran, even those who know better and had all the advantages aren't immune from it, particularly Lebanese-born Arab-Am. (Greek Orthodox) White House pioneer reporter Helen Thomas (1920-2013), who ruined her rep in one day in June 2010 with a comment on camera to Jewish rabbi David Nesendorf that the Jews should "get the Hell out of Palestine" and "go home" to Germany or Poland, where they can await the next Hitler standing on their heads. Clearly, the Jews are the focus of the most intense hatred in world history, and since they are diehards who will fight to the last man rather than leave their precious Israel, the world is in for harrowing times.

On Mar. 28, 2011 Israel finally passes the controversial Citizenship Act, allowing the govt. to revoke citizenship from those "harming Israel's sovereignty".

Right now not only the pesky Muslims have their hands in lobbying in Washington, D.C., but leftist Jews who seem to hate Israel are there too, particularly the cryptically anti-Israel J Street lobbying firm (founded 2008), which the Obama admin. supports, which was secretly funded by Hungarian-born Jewish billionaire George Soros (1930-) (known for working for the Nazi-run Jewish Council in 1944 before emigrating to the U.S. and getting rich, causing him to be accused of being willing to sell-out his fellow Jews for his own survival etc.) until they couldn't cover it up anymore in 2010, which the definitely pro-Israel American Israeli Action Coalition (AIAC), composed of expatriate American citizens in Israel (not to be confused with the American Jewish-run pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)) calls "a radical, far left, anti-Israel, American organization funded by Arab and radical sources", calling in Jan. 2010 for the ouster of Obama's anti-Semitism czar (2009-) Hannah Rosenthal (1951-) for dissing U.S. ambassador Michael Oren for criticizing it; of course he kept her (until Oct. 5, 2012).

Tell me, friend, when did Saruman the Wise abandon reason for madness? On May 27, 2010 the misnamed Gaza Freedom Flotilla of six cargo ships (three flying Turkish flags, incl. Mavi Marmara, carrying 400 Turks who are members of the Islamic terrorist Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) (Insani Yardim Vakfi), headed by Fehmi Bülent Yildirim (1966-), carrying 10 tons of humanitarian aid incl. bldg. materials and medical supplies sets sail from Cyprus for the Gaza Strip in a symbolic attempt by 680 Muslim and non-Muslim activists from 50 countries to break the 3-year Israeli blockade by refusing to stop at an Israel port for inspection and trucking of supplies by Israel into Gaza like is done every week with 10K tons of food and other supplies; Pres. Obama's associates Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn are closely associated with the Free Gaza Movement; Turkish activist Erdinc Tekir, who is wounded in the fighting is later found to have participated in an Islamic terrorist attack on a Russian ferry in the Black Sea in 1996; some activists chant Intifada songs, chant the Islamic battle cry "Khaibar, Khaibar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return", and praise martyrdom before departure; on May 31 (U.S. Memorial Day) (pre-dawn hours of June 1 in Israel) the Israeli military boards the flotilla 75 mi. from the coast, initially carrying only paintball guns, then meeting violent resistance, the Turkish jihadists taking four Israeli marines hostage before other armed commandos storm aboard, killing nine activists and wounding 53 (incl. 37 members of the IHH or other Turkish Islamic orgs.), all on the Mavi Marmara, while getting two Israeli commandos wounded while trying to board, then tows it to Ashdod, later releasing the activists accused of attacking Israeli troops after an internat. outcry; causing Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to express regret and cancel a planned trip to the White House, later uttering the soundbyte "The state of Israel faces an attack of international hypocrisy... it is our right and obligation to prevent arms from reaching Gaza. This was not a Love Boat, it was a Hate Boat"; Obama calls the raid "a tragic situation", adding "You've got a loss of life that was unnecessary", calling for an "effective investigation"; on May 31 10K march in Istanbul, Turkey to denounce Israel, along with other demonstrations in London, Athens, etc.; in London 800 protesters attempt to storm BBC Manchester; a women's rally near the Qalandiya Checkpoint between Rammalah and Jerusalem sees Am. journalist Emily Henochowicz loses an eye after being shot with a tear gas canister by Israeli border guards; Turkey threatens action against Israel, putting it on alert; meanwhile on May 31 the U.N. Security Council holds an emergency meeting to discuss the Israeli raid, while Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Liberman claims that the flotilla organizers wanted blood to be shed, saying "Everything proves that it was a group of terrorists who want to promote terror and cooperate with terror"; Arab-Israeli Knesset member Hanib Zoabi, who is aboard the Mavi Marmara calls the IDF operation "criminal"; on June 2 Israeli forces find 1M Euros on one of the ships, intended for use by Hamas, along with a weapons cache; on June 2 pro-Palestinian activists send another boat, the Irish-flagged Rachel Corrie to challenge the Israeli blockade, while Egypt opens a temporary crossing into Palestinian territory, causing thousands of Gazans to flock to it hoping to escape; on June 2 Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calls for Israel's PM and defense minister to face trial for the raid; on June 2 two rockets are fired from Gaza Strip by the Islamic Jihad, causing a retaliatory Israeli air strike that kills five; on June 2 after warning Israel not to cause an incident, the Obama admin. sides with the flotilla, and announces that it considers the Israeli blockade of Gaza to be "untenable"; Turkish-born Furkan Dogan (b. 1990) is found among the dead activists, with four bullets in his head and one in his chest, all at close range, causing the Israelis to backpeddle; on June 5 after Irish Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead McGuire says that the activsts are prepared to be arrested, the IDF intercept the Rachel Corrie 35 mi. W of Gaza and escort it to Ashdod without incident; this time the U.S. warns the flotilla not to cause an incident; on June 5 Arab foreign ministers meet in Cairo go discuss the flotillas, and decide to "break the Israeli siege imposed on Gaza", "in any legitimate way", incl. "resistance" (violence); on June 6 Iranian supreme assashollah Ali Khamenei offers the Iranian Rev. Guards to escort future cargo ships to break the blockade; on June 7 the Israeli Navy kills six Palestinian divers, claiming they are terrorists; meanwhle on June 7 Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi warns Israel of Allah's impending warath for having "killed God's prophets"; on June 9 48 trucks with the cargo of the Freedom Flotilla is still waiting at Kerem Shalom crossing after Hamas refuses to accept it, and on June 17 the U.N. agrees to oversee the transfer; on June 11 Turkish pres. Abdullah Gul says that Israel must apologize and compensate the Turkish victims or it might sever diplomatic relations; on June 14 Israel assembles a investigative commission, which on July 12 finds no wrongdoing; on June 15 the Internat. Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) alls Israel's Gaza Strip blockade "collective punishment" and a violation of the Geneva Conventions; on June 17 Syrian pres. Bashar al-Assadsays that the Israeli attack on the flotilla has increased the chances of war in the Middle East, and that the current Israeli admin. is a "pyromaniac" govt; on June 19 the Israeli cabinet bows to pressure and eases restrictions on Gaza Strip, reserving the right to inspect for military items; on June 20 Israel gives preliminary plans for razing Palestinian homes in E Jerusalem as a prelude to building Israeli homes, pissing off the Obama admin. again; on Jan. 23, 2011 the Turkel Commission finds that the blockade "was lawful and complied with the rules of international law, in view of the security circumstances and Israel's efforts to fulfill its humanitarian obligations."

No surprise, despite massive well-funded anti-Israel propaganda, in 2010 an internat. poll showed that 56% of Americans show sympathy to the Jewish state of Israel, compared to 58% of Indians, 52% of Russians and Mexicans, 50% of Chinese, 34% of Brits, 27% of French, and 23% of Spanish. Too bad, many Americans think of Israel as a strategic liability to the U.S. because they're Islam history ignoramuses and don't see the big picture that it's the canary in the mine for the U.S., because once Israel, our only real friend in the Middle East goes, the U.S. will be the next big target for bloody Islamic jihad and the establishment of Sharia in the American continent from pole to pole. Yes, it used to be cool to have a Scottish wedding. Speaking of Chinese, nobody questions their right to a national homeland in China, so why do so many question the right of the Jews to a national homeland in Israel, and call Israelis racist, bigoted, etc., even using the A word of apartheid? Where do they want the Jews to go, Arizona? The very name "Jewish problem" is loaded, because the only problem is that they should never have been kicked out of their home in the first place. Now after 2K years of horrible homelessness they got it back, albeit in a truncated form, and have every right to stay, and to decide what non-Jews aren't part of their national homeland, just like Chinese have a right to throw Euros out of China. As conservative pro-Israel Am. Jewish writer David Joel Horowitz (1939-) put it: "The 'Jewish problem' is just another name for the fact that Jews are the most universally hated and persecuted ethnic group in history. The Zionist founders believed that hatred of Jews was a direct consequence of their stateless condition. As long as Jews were aliens in every society they found themselves in, they would always be seen as interlopers, their loyalties would be suspect and persecution would follow." As to attempts to portray Israel as a bad guy, the 2010 U.N. Development Report ranked Israel 15th among 169 countries in terms of health (life expectancy), gross national income per capita, education, and freedom of its citizens. So go, Israel, and never give up your rightful homeland. On Sept. 22, 2005 JDL member Earl Krugel (b. 1943-) was sentenced in Los Angeles, Calf. to 20 years for a plot to bomb a mosque and a Lebanese-Am. congressman's office - see, I gave the Muslim side equal time? On Jan. 20, 2006 23-y.-o. Jewish cell phone salesman Ilan Halimi (b. 1982) was abducted in Bagneux, Paris by a gang of African Muslim immigrants called the Barbarians, after which he was held for ransom and tortured for 3 weeks before being found on Feb. 11, soon dying of his numerous wounds.

On Sept. 23, 2010 Pres. Obama gave an address to the U.N., challenging delegates to support an Israeli-Palestinian peace and accept the Jewish state of Israel, saying "Israel's existence must not be a subject for debate. Israel is a sovereign state, and the historic homeland of the Jewish people. It should be clear to all that efforts to chip away at Israel's legitimacy will only be met by the unshakeable opposition of the United States." He also called for the Israeli building moratorium to be extended, and added that Israel "must understand that true security for the Jewish state requires an independent Palestine – one that allows the Palestinian people to live with dignity and opportunity." "If an agreement is not reached, Palestinians will never know the pride and dignity that comes with their own state. Israelis will never know the certainty and security that comes with sovereign and stable neighbors who are committed to co-existence. The hard realities of demography will take hold. More blood will be shed. This Holy Land will remain a symbol of our differences instead of our common humanity." Good point, that last one. Too bad, until Islam is kaput Obama's pipe dreams won't smoke.

On May 19, 2011 Pres. Obama gave his 2011 Speech on the Middle East, hailing the "extraordinary change" taking place, and calling for Israel to pull back to its pre-1967 borders without negotiations, reversing longstanding U.S. policy, becoming the first U.S. pres. to require it as a starting point for negotiations with Palestinians, with the soundbyte "We know that our own future is bound to this region by the forces of economics and security, by history, and by faith"; "A new generation has emerged, and their voices tell us that chance cannot be denied"; "The status quo is unsustainable. A lasting peace will involve two states for two peoples", adding "Symbolic actions to isolate Israel at the United Nations in September won't create an independent state", and that the "future of Jerusalem" remains to be worked out; he also calls for Syrian pres. Bashar Assad to "lead that transition [to democracy] or get out of the way"; he also pledged $1B in aid to the Muslim Brotherhood-infested Egyptian regime; the speech causes former Mass. gov. Mitt Romney to say that Obama "threw Israel under the bus"; Obama then met with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, who voiced his displeasure with the speech, calling Israel's pre-1967 borders "indefensible", and calling on him to reaffirm the U.S. commitments made to Israel in 2004, with the soundbyte: "Among other things, those commitments relate to Israel not having to withdraw to the 1967 lines which are both indefensible and which would leave major Israeli population centers in Judea and Samaria beyond those lines. Those commitments also ensure Israel's well-being as a Jewish state by making clear that Palestinian refugees will settle in a future Palestinian state rather than in Israel. Without a solution to the Palestinian refugee problem outside the borders of Israel, no territorial concession will bring peace."; "Equally, the Palestinians, and not just the United States, must recognize Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people, and any peace agreement with them must end all claims against Israel"; he also said that Israel needs a military presence along the Jordan River, and won't deal with the terrorist org. Hamas. If this wasn't like throwing Israel under the bus to appease the growing power of the Muslim world, wait awhile and he will top it.

In 2011 the Palestinian Authority tried to get the U.N. to unilaterally recognize a Muslim state of Palestine, and on Aug. 28, 2011 Mahmoud Abbas declared that this won't come at the expense of them recognizing a Jewish state of Israel, because the jihad is still on, and they want to exterminate it like always, that's one thing Palestinians are united on, as long as Islam continues to infect their minds like a virus. If only the children could be kept from imbibing the Quran and continuing the cycle.

On Nov. 14, 2012 after 100+ rockets were launched at it over a 24-hour period, an IED exploded near Israeli soldiers, and Gaza militants attacked an Israeli military jeep inside Israeli borders, Israel launched Operation Pillar of Defense against Hamas in the Gaza Strip (ends Nov. 21); on Nov. 15 Hamas leader Ahmed Jabari was killed by an Israeli missile strike; it ended on Nov. 21 after 140 Palestinians and five Israelis were killed; on Nov. 14 11-mo.-o. Omar Mishrawi, son of BBC reporter Jihad Mishrawi, plus a man and woman were killed and three injured in Al-Zaitoun, Gaza, which Hamas blamed on Israeli air strikes; in Mar. 2013 the U.N. Human Rights Council exonerated Israel, saying that it was really a Hamas rocket that fell short.

On Nov. 29, 2012 (Internat. Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People) U.N. Gen. Assembly Resolution 67/19 was adopted by 138-9-41 (Israel and the U.S. vote against), upgrading Palestine to non-member observer state status, elevating it to a status equal to the Holy See, and implicitly recognizing its sovereignty, giving it status to begin proceedings against Israel in the Internat. Criminal Court; former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert supports the measure.

On July 22, 2013 after Arnold Schwarzenegger talked Austrian chancellor Werner Faymann into it, the 28-member EU unanimously declared the military wing of Hezbollah a terrorist org.; 6 of the 28 refused to label all of Hezbollah as a terrorist org.

On Aug. 28, 2013 hundreds landed in Israel in the Final Ethiopian Aliyah, bringing to an end the decades-long effort of the Jewish Agency.

On Dec. 7, 2013 U.S. secy. of state John Kerry gave a speech at the Saban Forum proposing that the U.S. police an independent Palestinian state while protecting it and Israel from each other. Duh, I think we already tried that in Iraq, did Kerry ever hear the quote about Islam having bloody borders, and when it comes to Israel, Muslims want one thing, and that is the total extermination of all Jews? When the U.S. gets a president who's not a closet Muslim, we can get real and use U.S. military power only as needed to help Israel, never any Muslims, hopefully helping broker a deal with the puppetmasters in Saudi Arabia to resettle all Muslim Arabs far away from the Jewish state of Israel and create a wide DMZ all around from the Nile to the Euphrates until the Great Muslim Apostasy arrives that will disintegrate the Muslim World, after which the ex-Muslims will be begging Israel for help in rejoining the human race, and they will cheerfully give it.

The so-called Palestinian-Israeli Peace Process is dead? On Apr. 23, 2014 Palestinian orgs. Hamas and Fatah signed the Palestinian Nat. Reconciliation Agreement, forming a nat. unity govt. within five weeks, causing Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to utter the soundbyte: "Whoever chooses Hamas does not want peace"; on Apr. 24 the Israeli govt. unanimously voted to impose economic sanctions on the Palestinian Authority, and suspended negotiations after 9 mo. of talks brokered by U.S. secy. of state John Kerry, causing chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat to utter the soundbyte: "The Palestinian leadership will look into all options"; too bad, Hamas won't give up its military wing; on Apr. 30 the hardcore Islamic Jihad predicted that the reconciliation will fail; on July 8 after Palestinian rocket attacks and the June 12 kidnapping-murder of three Israeli teenies by Hamas, the 2014 Israel-Gaza Conflict sees Israel launch Operation Protective Edge, with Israeli air strikes hitting 150 targets in Gaza, followed by 160 more on July 9, becoming the first large wartime use by Israel of drones; on July 8 Hamas attempts to infiltrate a terrorist team into Zikim; on July 9 (night) an Israeli air attack kills Islamic Jihad senior cmdr. Hafiz Hamad; meanwhile Israeli ground forces invade on July 17, killing 2.1K while destroying Gaza's terror tunnel system before withdrawing on Aug. 5, after which a cease-fire is announced on Aug. 26 after 4,564 rockets and mortars were fired into Israel, of which 735 where intercepted and shot down by Israel's Iron Dome, and 280 backfired and fell in Gaza, of which 224 struck residential areas, killing 13 Gazan civilians incl. 11 children; meanwhile moderate Israeli leftists found Smola (Heb. "leftward") movement to try to find a way to keep supporting the IDF; in Apr. 2015 Defense for Children Internat.-Palestine pub. a report accusing Israel of deliberately targeting and murdering Palestine children during the Gaza offensive, and on Sept. 24, 2015 the U.N. finds Israel guilty of war crimes; on Nov. 30, 2014 Hamas announced that the unity govt. with Fatah has collapsed. On June 17, 2015 Palestinian Authority pres. Mahmoud Abbas announces the dissolution of the unity govt. formed with Hamas last year.

Meanwhile the Vatican shows that the more it changes the more it stays the same. On June 26, 2014 the Vatican legally recognized the "state of Palestine" and signed a treaty with it, claiming this will stimulate peace with Israel and become a model to follow; the signers are Vatican foreign minister Paul Gallagher and Palestinian foreign minister Riad al-Malki.

On June 8, 2015 the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Pres. Obama and criticized Congress for "overstepping its bounds", rejecting an appeal from Menachem Binyamin Zivotofsky to have his passport list "Jerusalem, Israel" as his birthplace, causing Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh to issue the soundbyte: "The decision sends an obvious message that Israel is an occupying power of East al-Quds, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip"; Israeli immigration minister Ze'ev Elkin replies that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and "will remain that for eternity."

On Oct. 13, 2016 Muslim-dominated UNESCO votes 26-6-26 to approve a resolution by Mexico that restricts access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in a way that ignores Jewish ties to Jewish holy sites in Jerusalem incl. the Temple Mount and Western Wall, despite abundant historical evidence that Jerusalem was in Jewish hands for 1.6K years before the Muslims grabbed onto it; Italy abstains, but on Oct. 21 Italian PM Matteo Renzi utters the soundbyte that the resolution is "incomprehensible and unacceptable, instructing diplomats to vote against it next time"; on Oct. 27 UNESCO passes another resolution expressing "deep concern" that Israel is doing archeological excavations and building works in the Old City; in Oct. after the UNESCO resolutions are passed, the Israeli govt. produces a papyrus fragment dug up by the Israel Antiquities Authority, dated to the 7th cent. B.C., containing the earliest known Hebrew reference to Jerusalem outside the Bible - well shut my mouth?

On Dec. 23, 2016 (one hour before Sabbath on the U.S. East Coast) after Egypt withdrew it under pressure from Israel, and the backstabbing Obama admin. broke with tradition and abstained, giving the green light, the U.N. Security Council voted 14-0-1 (incl. New Zealand, Malaysia, Senegal, and Venezuela) to adopt U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334, demanding an end to Israeli settlements in E Jerusalem, affecting 500K, standing and applauding afterwards to rub it in, pissing-off Donald Trump, who tweets: "As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th"; on Dec. 24 Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu called it a "shameful ambush"; Am. Jewish leader Alan Dershowitz finally turns on Obama, calling him the worst president ever, with the soundbyte: "He called me into the Oval Office before the election and said to me, 'Alan, I want your support. And I have to tell you, I will always have Israel's back.' I didn't realize that what he meant was that he'd... stab them in the back"; U.S. Sen. (R-S.C.) (2003-) Lindsey Graham, chmn. of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations of the Senate Appropriations Committee uttered the soundbyte that Obama "has gone from naive and foolish to flat-out reckless", adding: "With friends like these, Israel doesn't need any enemies", threatening to defund the U.N.; the first time a U.S. pres. abstains on a U.N. anti-Israel resolution during his last month in office; on Jan. 16 Trump gave an interview to Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes, admitting that he ordered the abstention vote, with the soundbyte: "I don't think it caused a major rupture in relations between the United States and Israel. If you're saying that Prime Minister Netanyahu got fired up, he's been fired up repeatedly during the course of my presidency."

On Apr. 6, 2017 Russia recognized West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. On Dec. 6, 2017 after signing the semi-annual waiver of the 1995 U.S. Jerusalem Embassy Act on Dec. 4, despite dire warnings from Muslim and Euro leaders incl. the EU, U.K., Egypt, Abdullah II of Jordan, Saudi King Salman, who called it "a flagrant provocation of Muslims all over the world", Hamas, which threatened to "open the gates of Hell", and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, who calls it a "grave mistake", and warns "Jerusalem is our red line", Pres. Trump announced that the U.S. was recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and that he was ordering the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv to move there, keeping a campaign promise no matter how much flak results; wasting no time, on Dec. 6 Hamas issued a call for a Day of Rage on Dec. 8, which incl. protests in Indonesia and Malaysia. On Dec. 18 an Egyptian-sponsored U.N. Security Council draft resolution to require Pres. Trump to rescind his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital was vetoed by the U.S., with U.S. ambassador Nikki Haley calling it an insult that won't be forgotten; the vote is 14-1; on Dec. 20 Pres. Trump threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that vote in favor of the draft resolution submitted by Yemen and Turkey. On Dec. 20 after a speech by U.S. U.N. ambassador #29 (since Jan. 27) Nimrata "Nikki" Haley (nee Randhawa) (1973-) bemoaning the U.N.'s longtime hostility to Israel and threatening the it with defunding, saying that the U.S. will be "taking names" of nations that vote for it, the U.N. Gen. Assembly votes 128-9-35 (U.S., Israel, Guatemala, Honduras, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Togo vote against, 22 of 28 EU countries incl. U.K., France, and Germany vote for, five EU states, Australia, Canada, Colombia, and Mexico abstain, 21 delegations are absent) to adopt U.N. Gen. Assembly Resolution ES-10/L.22, titled "Status of Jerusalem", submitted by Yemen and Turkey, declaring "null and void" all actions intended to alter Jerusalem's character, status, or demographic composition, asking nations not to follow Pres. Trump and establish diplomatic missions in Jerusalem, claiming his decision risks igniting a religious war in the Middle East "that has no boundaries" (Palestinian foreign affairs minister Riad al-Malki), whining about the "negative tends" imperiling the Two-State Solution.

On Jan. 22, 2018 U.S. vice-pres. Mike Pence addressed the Israeli Knesset, On May 14 the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, Israel officially opens amid violent Palestinian protests at the Gaza border that kill 62 Palestinians, incl. three armed terrorists trying to plant a bomb near the border fence, after which on May 15 the Palestinians stage a big funeral to gain internat. sympathy, with Hamas claiming that "50 Hamas martyrs during the Million Man March of Return on May 14", causing Turkey to call for an emergency meeting of the OIC as Israel and Turkey expel each other's ambassadors; on May 15 U.S. U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley utters the soundbyte at the U.N. Security Council before walking out on the Palestinian rep: "Hamas has attacked the Kerem Shalom crossing, the biggest entry point in Gaza for fuel, food, and medical supplies. This is how determined they are to make the lives of the Palestinian people miserable. They light Molotov cocktails attached to kites on fire and attempt to fly them into Israel to cause as much destruction as possible. W hen asked yesterday why he put a swastika on his burning kite, the terrorist responded, 'The Jews go crazy when you mention Hitler.' This is what is endangering the people of Gaza. Make no mistake: Hamas is pleased with the results from yesterday. I ask my colleagues here in the Security Council, who among us would accept this type of activity on your border? No one would. No country in this chamber would act with more restraint than Israel has"; Israel is officially regathered for 70 years in fulfillment of the Biblical book of Daniel's 70 Weeks Prophecy?

2020

To close, let's see what Jehovah says about the future of Jerusalem. "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people. All that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the Earth be gathered together against it... And it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem." - Zechariah 12:2-3, 9 "When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations; then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen; but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. Neither will I hide my face any more from them; for I have poured out my spirit upon the House of Israel." - Ezekiel 39:27-29.

Too bad for the Muslims, Ezekiel 30:5 says: "Cush and Put, Lydia and all Arabia, Libya, and the people of the Covenant Land will fall by the sword along with Egypt." Ezekiel 32:22-23 says: "Assyria is there and all her company: his graves are about him: all of them slain, fallen by the sword: Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit, and her company is round about her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which caused terror in the land of the living." As for Iran and Afghanistan, Ezekiel 32:24 says: "There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, which caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit." Let's not forget the Turkic nations incl. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Ezekiel 32:26-27 says: "There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living. And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living." Did we miss someone? How about Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Ezekiel 32:29 says: "There is Edom, her kings, and all her princes, which with their might are laid by them that were slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with them that go down to the pit." Last but not least, Lebanon. Ezekiel 32:30 says: "There be the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Sidonians, which are gone down with the slain; with their terror they are ashamed of their might; and they lie uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword, and bear their shame with them that go down to the pit."

Here's a quote that isn't from the Bible: "If the Arabs were to lay down their weapons there would be peace. If the Israelis were to lay down their weapons there would be no Israel." Talk about delegitimizing Israel, it's far easier to deligitimize Palestine, such as the Mar. 11, 2011 murder of the Fogel Family by two Palestinians, after which polls showed that a third of all Palestinians supported them. Obviously, because of Islam the ever-armed Palestinians will never accept a 2-state solution because that would entail recognition of Israel, and will prefer to stay armed and live in refugee camps until they get what Allah wants. Yet even if they exterminated Israel, the 1-state solution of Palestine would soon be gobbled up by neighboring Muslim states, maybe culminating in a nuclear-armed caliphate that destroys half the world. The Muslim so-called holy sites in Jerusalem such as the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque are just con jobs, because they would likely soon get blown up in Muslim sectarian strife, like happens all the time now in Iraq and Pakistan. Face it, the only true solution is the 1-state solution of a permanent Jewish state of Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates, with a wide buffer zone from the rest of the madass Muslim world. The utter idiocy of Western leftists in pretending it's Israel's not Islam's fault would be funny if it weren't so tragic. Yah, them Jews is racists, imperialists, Nazis, U.S. puppets (or vice-versa), while them Muslims is angels and above examination except for signs of victimization. Duh, what if they were examined on the same terms, would the leftists want them exterminated? They do, get it, after they use this issue to weaken their real enemy the U.S., capitalism, and all that jazz. Jews are no more racist for wanting a homeland than Chinese are.

Duh, if the Jews are so bad to Muslim Arabs, why don't these squatters just clear out of the JEWISH HOMELAND OF ISRAEL and leave them alone? The tiny sliver of land now claimed by Israel is a drop in the bucket of the giant Arab territory surrounding it, funny how they just have to have that tiny sliver for their hovels. No, Allah orders them to fight like cannon fodder in his cause of taking back every square inch of land that was once his. Talk about funny, it's only Israel that's been eager for a Palestinian state, even if they have to give up the West Bank, why don't ask me, all right do, Israel is full of leftists too, but thanks to Islam they never have to actually worry about there being one as long as they're there. Talk about funny, Israel allows Arabs to be treated in their hospitals in exchange for recognizing Israel temporarily only, but afterwards their fellow Muslims treat them like merde and never forgive them. One obvious solution to the fake plight of the fake Muslim Palestinians is for them to move into Jordan (East Palestine) and dissolve the phony Hashemite monarchy, all based on phony Islam. By the way, did I mention the ultimate joke that all along Allah has long been dead, and the Muslims' cause is futile?

Speaking of Arabs and Israelis, did I mention that after years of anti-Semitic propaganda that Ashkenazi Jews aren't really descended from the ancient Jews of Israel were disproved by genetic studies, the collateral result that Palestinian Arabs are closely related to them too needs to be mentioned.

Speaking of tiny outnumbered surrounded Israel vs. the gigantic loser Arab world, data pub. in 2011 by the Central Bureau of Statistics on Sunday indicate that nearly 5,837,000 (75.3%) of the population of Little Engine That Yahood are Jewish.

Israel, the 100th largest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population, can make claim to the following:

Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world per capita, and the 2nd most (3.5K, mostly in hi-tech) behind the U.S. Israel spends 4.7% of its GDP on scientific research (1% of the total world expenditure), vs. 0.2% by Arab countries, and 0.5% by Asian Arab countries. Israel ranks #1 in per capita expenditure on scientific research, at $1272.80, vs. $1205.90 for the U.S. and $1153.30 for Japan; Arab countries spend $14.70 per capita. No wonder Israel has registered 16,805 patents, vs. 836 by Arab countries. The latter of course invest 99% of their energy and expenditures on mosques and praying in them to Allah to ensure that they're his loyal slaves who are ready to go fight the Yahud 24/7/365.

Israel is #2 in the world for venture capital funds, right behind the U.S.

Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East. The per capita income in 2000 was $17.5K, exceeding that of the U.K. Israel's $100B economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined.

Israel has the 3rd highest rate of entrepreneurship, and the highest rate among women and among people over 55 in the world.

All of this despite being engaged in regular wars with an implacable enemy that seeks its destruction for a dead idol, and an economy continuously under strain by having to spend more per capita on its own protection than any other county on Earth. Know what? ISRAEL IS HERE TO STAY. And Islam isn't.

Speaking of implacable enemy, Palestinian wingnut propagandists regularly accuse Israel of "ethnically cleansing" the Palestinians to make room for Jews. Too bad for them, demographic realities reveal the absurdity of this charge. The Palestinian pop. growth rate is 2.097%, among the highest in the world since Israel's founding. The Arab pop. in the West Bank and Gaza have grown from 947K in 1967 when Israel took control, to 4M today. One reason for this striking pop. growth is the dramatic improvement in living standards since Israel began administering these territories. In 1967 few Palestinians had access to clean water, but today 96% do. Since 1967 the average Palestinian lifespan has increased from 48 to 72.9 years for males, 77.1 years for females, not counting suicide bombers. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Palestinians enjoy better health than their fellow Arabs in Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Infant and maternal mortality rates as well as childhood disease levels are among the lowest in the Arab world. Literacy rates are the highest in the Arab world.

Oh yes, while the West was busy lapping up Saudi and other Arab oil, Israel also discovered 250B barrels of oil trapped in shale in the Shfela Basin, compared to Saudi Arab's reserves of 260B barrels, which has remained untapped for fear of offending the Muslims; imagine a new Muslim-free Middle East with a vast Jewish pop. of hundreds of millions and all that oil unleashed, maybe there is a God. If the U.S. ever gets a president who isn't a Saudi puppet, a top priority should be to give the Israeli shale oil industry a trillion dollar stimulus in return for a permanent discount on its oil, allowing the U.S. and entire non-Muslim world to eventually cut horrible Saudi Arabia out completely and let it regress to Lawrence of Arabia days.

Speaking of Jews, Muslims, Christians, and the End of Days, did I mention the prophesy that the Jewish Bible, St. John's Revelation, and Quran all fixate on, namely, that of Gog and Magog, which is based on the Bible Book of Ezekiel, particularly chapter 38, verses 1-4: "The word of the Lord came to me: Son of Man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal; prophesy against him and say, This is what the Lord says: I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army - your horses, your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing their swords." Ezekiel Chapter 39 goes on to foretell how it comes out: "And thou, Son of Man, prophesy against Gog, and say: Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. And I will turn thee about and lead thee on, and will cause thee to come up from the uttermost parts of the north; and I will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel; and I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand. Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the peoples that are with thee; I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort and to the beasts of the field, to be devoured... Therefore thus saith the Lord: Now will I bring back the captivity of Jacob, and have compassion upon the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name." Somehow the evil nation of Magog led by Gog will lead a final battle against the poor beleaguered Jewish nation of Israel, which will face certain defeat until God intervenes by sending an army of angels led by his Man, which according to the Christians is you know who, and according to the Muslims is you know who, but maybe there will no angels and the armies of Gog and Magog will get confused and destroy themselves, that's the point with Bible think, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, Viva Las Vegas. The anti-Israel coalition will incl. Persia (Iran), Cush (Ethiopia), Phut or Put (Libya), and Gomer and Beit Togarmah (Turkey). If you can figure this key prophesy out, you can publish a bestseller and sell 50 million copies, beats welfare. Most Christians identify Magog with Russia because they must come from the tribe of Japheth and therefore must be the pot-smoking blood-drinking Scythians, who lived in Russia and Ukraine (of course you have to buy that all people today descend from Noah's three sons Ham, Shem and Japheth), but one dude thinks it's Georgia, and another thinks it's NATO, of course the U.S. must figure in somehow even though the Jewish Bible writers never heard of it. The Quran also talks about Gog and Magog in Sura 21 Al-Anbiya (The Prophets), verse 96, which also contains the soundbyte: "The day when we roll up heaven like a scroll, as we began the first creation, we shall reproduce it, a binding promise, we shall bring it about. And certainly we write in the book after the reminder that my righteous servants will inherit the Holy Land" (104-5). In other words, Jews, being infidels, can't. Strangely, orthodox Jews agree with orthodox Muslims on this point that only orthodox somethings can inherit the Holy Land, not the secular areligious and even atheist Zionists, Olive Garden, when you're here you're family. So maybe we should take all the hardcore ultraorthodox Jews and Muslims out to some plain, equip them with ancient weaponry, and let them fight to the finish, oh, that wouldn't settle anything with two omnipotent omniscient Gods involved, now make a wish and a first cut, who wants a piece? Oh yes, I almost forgot, ominscient. That pesky Jewish forgery called the Bible says that all Jews have God's blessing to possess the Holy Land, not just the righteous ones, to quote: "Understand then that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked (stubborn) people." (Deut. 9:6) - when I grow up I'm going to own my own restaurant and be a volunteer firefighter? Upgrade your low-fat mayo to real mayo, same taste, stylish new jar. Do you own a home, discount, are you online, double discount.

However, the Bible claims to see the final outcome of the war on Israel, and it doesn't show them gobbling up and ruling the Middle East, but sharing it: "In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the land: Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance" (Isaiah 19:24-25). I guess that means that Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and maybe Arabia will all be kaput, check back with me later after Armageddon if you can.

Don't accuse me of only presenting one side, I'm Da Historyscoper. Here's the other side, five minutes left in the fourth quarter. In 2003 Trinidadian Islamic scholar Imran Nazar Hosein (1942-) pub. the Muslim bestseller Jerusalem in the Quran (now free on the Internet), which lays out the final case for Islam vs. Judaism in the context of Gog vs. Magog and the End of Days, letting the big cat out of the bag that Islam was always about defeating the Jews and their perverted religion and false direction of worship, not peaceful coexistence, and that it's not just Palestinians but all Muslims who must join to exterminate them: "What are the implications for those Muslims who read this book to the very end? The first is that Jerusalem and the Holy Land should be dearest of all to their hearts - as dear as Mecca and Medina - and the struggle to liberate the Holy Land from the abomination of the secular Euro-Jewish State of Israel should be the dearest of all struggles of liberation for the Muslim. If Jews can leave the USA or Europe or Russia and join the Israeli Defense Force and participate in the armed oppression of the Muslim and Christian Palestinian people in the Holy Land, then a Muslim should also have the same freedom to leave wherever he resides in the world and join in the armed resistance of the oppressed in the Holy Land... It is, in fact, a minimum tangible expression of faith in today's world that Muslims should at least have the desire in their hearts to participate in that armed resistance (Jihad) in the Holy Land. Muslims should be warned, however, that as soon as they publicly declare their belief that the State of Israel will be destroyed by a Muslim army, and express the hope that they would be members of that army, they would eventually be intimidated and even arrested in order to silence them and make of them an example which would intimidate others."

Speaking of children imbibing the Quran endlessly and disintegrating the Muslim World, only I have a master plan, the Winslow Plan for Defeating Islam.

An article pub. in the Los Angeles Times in 1968 said it all:

The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem.

Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it. Turkey threw out a million Greeks and Algeria a million Frenchman. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese and no one says a word about refugees.

But in the case of Israel , the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single one. Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis.

Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious, it must sue for peace. Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world. Other nations, when they are defeated, survive and recover but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed.

Had Nasser triumphed last June [1967], he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews. No commitment to the Jews by any government, incl. our own, is worth the paper it is written on.

There is a cry of outrage all over the world when people die in Vietnam or when two Blacks are executed in Rhodesia .But, when Hitler slaughtered Jews no one demonstrated against him.

The Swedes, who were ready to break off diplomatic relations with America because of what we did in Vietnam, did not let out a peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews. They sent Hitler choice iron ore, and ball bearings, and serviced his troops in Norway .

The Jews are alone in the world.

If Israel survives, it will be solely because of Jewish efforts. And Jewish resources. Yet at this moment, Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally.We can rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us.

And one has only to imagine what would have happened last summer [1967] had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war, to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the West in general.

I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us.

Should Israel perish, the Holocaust will be upon us all.

Did I forget to mention the Jerusalem Syndrome, the setting-off of psychosis by visiting Big J?

The Song of the Bubblebath of Jerusalem, by TLW
July 24, 2010

I sing the song of the bubblebath
The serendipity bath
The odor-assuaging soapy bath
That puts my ass in my face
With fragrance laced.
What is the smell coming from the dell?
Is it Heaven or is it Hell?
The ultimate pleasure and disgrace
Of the human race.
Who's Jerusalem's face, and who's Jerusalem's ass, I ask,
Ya or Al?
Only Time will tell y'all.