Nackba - The Catastrophe of Loser's

"One of the characteristics of the Palestinian national movement has been the Palestinians' view of themselves as perpetual victims of others: Ottoman Turks, British officials, Zionists, Americans - and never to appreciate that they are, at least in large part, victims of their own mistakes and iniquities." -  Benny Morris

Life during the mandate before the 1948 war:

"There were no major tensions with the Jews and Arabs before 1948. We didn't feel frightened by them, yet. I was at an age that couldn't completely judge the situation, but I remember how my family spoke about [the Jews] and it didn't seem like there was any hatred." George Agha Janian.

"Life before 1948 was good, except for the British. All the problems are because of them.” All the support and supplies to the Zionists were possible because of the British." "Before 1948, the relationship with the Jews was decent. There was an uprising before I could remember, but nonetheless the relationship between Arabs and Jews was alright. It was the English who really played with us all." Mohammed Himmo.

The fundamental issue behind the “Nachba”, Arabic for “Catastrophe”, is the presentation of false narratives that stand in contrast to the findings of historical fact. Arab sources continuously refuse to admit their guilt for the refugee problem and their total embarrassment at their crushing defeat at the hands of the "Dhimmi" Jews.

Excuses For "Loss":

Khaireddine Abuljebain, 90, born in Jaffa, Palestine. Currently residing in Kuwait:

"Of course, the Zionist forces had superior weaponry because the British occupation forces went after Arabs who had weapons and did not touch the Zionists. If an Arab had a rifle with three bullets, he would have been condemned." "Unfortunately, we, the Palestinians, were not sufficiently armed.”

Regarding the lie of Jewish "Ethnic Cleansing" 

George Agha Janian, 77, born in Haifa, Palestine. Currently residing in Brummana, Lebanon:

"We all thought this would be temporary. We only realized that all hope was lost after the Arab armies went in to Palestine and were broken."

In an interview during the "Nacbah Day" ceremonies on May 15th, 2013 a Bedouin Arab refugee living in the Qalandiya UNWRA camp since 1948 is interviewed by the "Falestinian Authority" Television and states that the Jordanian army told the residents of the village of Bir Ma'im to flee since, according to him, "there was going to be a battles and we would be defeated." They told us; "Leave. In two hours we will liberate it and you can return!" "We left only with our clothes, we didn't take anything.because we were supposed to return after two hours Why carry anything?" "We're still waiting for those two hours this day!"

The Arabs, and their legions of duped lackeys, continue to fabricate and construe historical factual records to simply lie and make excuses for their defeat. What is truly amazing is that until today each Arab country that invaded the Mandated Territory has created abundant excuses for not absorbing the victims of their mistake, the "Palestinian" refugees. Instead they have allowed the countries of the world, through UNWRA, to foot the bill for their upkeep in the only refugee camps, on the planet, where the inhabitants of the camps are the grandchildren of the original refugees. No other refugee group in history has been given this special deal.

In the end result of the 1948 conflict it was quite obvious, that the Arab rulers of the Arab League countries totally underestimated the will power of the Jewish people of the fledgling State of Israel. The Arab rulers thought they were heading towards an easy victory that would quietly quell  post-World War II domestic unrest within Arab lands and - perhaps - gain themselves more territory. However when the reality of their error became known to them and that they were mistaken. They attempted to ignore the suffering that they had imposed upon their own brethren, the "Falestinian" refugees. Here are two examples:

 "As a journalist, I was immediately seen by other Egyptian journalists who wanted to know what was going on in Palestine. And then the Egyptian military imprisoned me. I did not know why. I was confused and surprised. I was freed with the help of friends in Egypt. In order to liberate the rest of my family, who were imprisoned as well, I had to sign off on paper work and pay bribes. And that is how we became refugees in Cairo." Khaireddine Abuljebain, 90, born in Jaffa;

Mohammed Himmo, 89, born in Jaffa. Currently residing near the UNWRA Sabra refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon:

"I remember my mother was very worried because my brother had gone the opposite direction towards Egypt. To find him, I hopped on a boat, named Serena, in Beirut and headed to Port Said, Egypt. Every person who was Egyptian was allowed to pass. Those who had Palestinian identification papers were immediately taken to prison. The blankets were filthy with insects. We paid extra for food and for the guards to get us new clothing. But sometimes they would simply just take the money and not give us anything back. I'm still waiting, you know, more than 65 years later, for those new clothes."I was in prison for about a month, and then [the Egyptians] took us for military training and finally to Palestine in order to fight [the Zionist forces].At that time, I simply didn't believe they cared about us or the liberation of Palestine. [The Egyptians] treated us horribly as if we were the enemy.Tomorrow, if they implement the right of return I would definitely return to Palestine. It is my country. Here in Lebanon, I am not allowed to do anything. Everything is restricted. How am I to live? But even if life in Lebanon is good, life in Jaffa was a thousand times better."

The 1948 War

In the first phase of the war, lasting from November 29, 1947, until April 1, 1948, the Palestinian Arabs took the offensive, with help from volunteers from neighboring countries. The Jews suffered severe casualties and passage along most of their major roadways was disrupted. The first large-scale assaults began on January 9, 1948, when approximately 1,000 Arabs attacked Jewish communities in northern Palestine. By February, the British said so many Arabs had infiltrated they lacked the forces to run them back.

"Me and my family began our resistance operations at around 1946, getting involved in skirmishes or tit-for-tat kidnappings. The British would grab a person from the Jewish forces and gave him to the Arabs, and vice verse, just to heat up the conflict." relates Mohammed Himmo. "We really felt that we couldn't do much against the Zionists because they were backed by the British. The British had great experience bombing neighborhoods prior to 1948. Oh, they bombed a lot of places."

The UN Palestine Commission, which was never permitted by the Arabs or British to go to Palestine to implement the resolution, blamed the Arabs for the violence.  The Commission reported to the Security Council on February 16, 1948, that “powerful Arab interests, both inside and outside Palestine, are defying the resolution of the General Assembly and are engaged in a deliberate effort to alter by force the settlement envisaged therein.” The Arabs were blunt in taking responsibility for the war. Jamal Husseini told the Security Council on April 16, 1948: "The representative of the Jewish Agency told us yesterday that they were not the attackers, that the Arabs had begun the fighting. We did not deny this. We told the whole world that we were going to fight."

According to the Arabs their defeat was because the Zionist forces were -" Vastly superior to Palestinian and Arab military capabilities".

Prior to the establishment of the State of Israel, the Jews could not legally purchase weaponry of any kind from registered arms manufacturers nor could they manufacture or store arms and munitions in the British Controlled Mandated area. What arms the Jews possessed were those smuggled in, principally from Czechoslovakia. In May 1948, the fledgling Israeli army, primarily the Hagannah, had no heavy machine guns, artillery, armored vehicles, anti-tank or anti-aircraft weapons, nor military aircraft or tanks. They had no support vehicles, no basic supplies whatsoever. Its air force consisted of nine obsolete planes. The “Hagannah” supposedly had around 60,000 trained fighters, but only 18,900 were fully mobilized, armed and prepared for war. Before the arrival of arms shipments from Czechoslovakia as part of Operation Balak, there was roughly one weapon for every three fighters, and even the Palmach could arm only two out of every three of its active members.

According to Collins and LaPierre, by April 1948, the Hagannah had managed to accumulate only about 20,000 rifles and Sten guns for the 35,000 soldiers who existed on paper. Following Israeli independence, the Israelis managed to built three Sherman tanks from scrap-heap material found in abandoned British ordnance depots. On June 29, 1948, the day before the last British troops left Haifa, two British soldiers sympathetic to the Israelis stole two Cromwell tanks from an arms depot in the Haifa port area, smashing them through the unguarded gates, and joined the IDF with the tanks. These two tanks would form the basis of the Israeli Armored Corps. The Jewish Underground government "The Yishuv" had managed to clandestinely amass arms, military equipment and other supplies abroad ready for transfer. The Hagannah readied twelve cargo ships throughout European ports to transfer this equipment, which would set sail as soon as the British blockade was lifted with the expiration of the Mandate.

In addition to this on December 5, 1947, the U.S. imposed an arms embargo on the region because the anti-Semites within the US State Department did not want to provide the Jews with the means to defend themselves. They saw the embargo as a means of obstructing partition and allowing the Arabs the ability to win. Undersecretary of State Robert Lovett gave the lame excuse that, “the Arabs might use arms of U.S. origin against Jews, or Jews might use them against Arabs.”  Consequently, on December 5, 1947, the U.S. imposed an arms embargo on the region.

On the other hand the members of the Arab League who were legal nations could legally, as financially based entities, openly purchase weaponry from arms manufacturers. Jordan’s Arab Legion was armed and trained by the British, and led by a British officer. Lieutenant-General Sir John Bagot Glubb,known as Glubb Pasha, led and trained Transjordan's Arab Legion between 1939 and 1956 as its commanding general.

During the Israeli War of Independence in1948, the Arab Legion was considered by many sources to have been the strongest Arab army involved in the war. Upon the final withdrawal of British forces from the Mandated Territories in May of 1948, Glubb Pasha led the Arab Legion across the River Jordan to conquer and occupy the West Bank and Jerusalem. Glubb remained in charge of the Arab Legion as they controlled the area of the Mandated Territory that had been slated to be given to the Arabs in the "Partition Plan". The area became known as the "West Bank", following the 1949 Rhodes Armistice agreement of March 1949. Glubb Pasha remained the commander of the Arab Legion until 1 March 1956, when King Hussein dismissed him.

The Egyptians and Iraqis were armed and purchased weapons from England. At the end of 1948, and beginning of 1949, British RAF planes flew with Egyptian squadrons over the Israel-Egypt border. The Syrians and the Lebanese were armed and purchased weapons from their ex-colonial masters the French.

The Arab league forces that were used to invade the Mandated Area of Palestine in 1948 included;

• Egypt: 10,000 initially, rising to 20,000 under the command of Maj. Gen. Ahmed Ali al-Mwawi. This force consisted of five infantry battalions, one armored battalion equipped with British Light Tank Mk VI and Matilda tanks, one battalion of sixteen 25-pounder guns, a battalion of eight 6-pounder guns and one medium-machine-gun battalion with supporting troops.
• Iraq: Initially the Iraqis committed around 3,000 men to the war effort, including four infantry brigades, one armored battalion and support personnel. These forces were to operate under Jordanian guidance.
• Syria: Syria had 12,000 soldiers at the beginning of the 1948 War, grouped into three infantry brigades and an armored force of approximately battalion size. The Syrian Air Force had fifty planes, the 10 newest of which were World War II–generation models.
• Transjordan: Jordan's Arab Legion was considered the most effective Arab force. Armed, trained and commanded by British officers, this 8,000–12,000 strong force was organized in four infantry/mechanized regiments supported by some 40 artillery pieces and 75 armored cars.
• Lebanon: a token force of 1,000 was committed to the invasion. It crossed into the northern Galilee and was repulsed by Israeli forces.
• Saudi Arabia: 800–1,200 (Under Egyptian command)
• Sudan sent six companies of regular troops to fight alongside the Egyptians.
• Yemen: 300
• The Arab Liberation Army: 3,500–6,000. was an army of volunteers from Arab countries led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji. Its ranks included mainly Syrians, Lebanese, Palestinians and a few hundreds of Iraqis, Transjordanians, Muslim Brothers from Egypt and Circassians. There were also a few Yugoslavians ex members of the SS division, German Ex-Nazis, Turks and British deserters.

Bosnian Muslims of the Waffen-SS

So to say that the joint armies of the Arab League Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq that invaded the Jewish state had in-superior military capabilities is nothing other than a weak excuse for their defeat and a blatant lie.Measured by firepower and military equipment at the outset of war the Arabs were by far superior to the Israelis. Simply check the data offered on the internet. What caused the war to turn in Israel's favor and their eventual defeat was lack of co-ordination and internal strife between the Arab governments.

"The advisors to President Shukri al-Qawatli and King Farouq, for example, were telling them that this will be a piece of cake for the Syrians and Egyptians [respectively]," Sami Moubayed, a Syrian political analyst and author.

Leaders of the Arab League claimed to be fighting for Palestine, when in actuality they were engaged in a war of interests in which the warring parties had different agendas and often with conflicting goals. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Muhammad Amin al-Husayni opposed both the 1947 UN Partition Plan and King Abdullah's designs to annex the Arab part of British Mandatory Palestine to Jordan, and, failing to gain command of the 'Arab rescue army' (jaysh al-inqadh al-'arabi) formed under the aegis of the Arab League, formed his own militia, al-jihad al-muqaddas.

The most notable rivalry was between the Jordanians, with their British-officered Arab Legion and King Abdullah's ambitions for a Greater Syria, and the Egyptians, with King Farouk's ambition to lead the Arab World, backed to some degree by the League of Arab States and by the former mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini.

The Arab rivals of Transjordan's King Abdullah spoke of a secret deal that was made between him and Golda Meyerson (Meir), where the Jews supposedly offered the king control over the “West Bank” and Eastern Jerusalem.

According to an Iraqi-born British/Israeli historian Avi Shlaim,  who put forward critical interpretations of the history of Zionism and Israel. He claims that there were negotiations and understandings between the Jewish Agency and King Abdullah:

Abdullah was prepared to compromise the Arab claim to the whole of Palestine as long as he could acquire part of Palestine for himself. 'The internecine struggles of the Arabs,' reported Glubb, 'are more in the minds of Arab politicians than the struggle against the Jews. Azzam Pasha, the mufti and the Syrian government would sooner see the Jews get the whole of Palestine than that King Abdullah should benefit.' (p. 96)

Yoav Gelber wrote in his book "The Israeli-Arab War of 1948 : The Collusion That Never Was":

Shlaim’s conjecture of a deliberate and pre-meditated anti-Palestinian “collusion” does not stand up to a critical examination. The documentary evidence on the development of contacts between Israel and Jordan before, during and after the war unequivocally refutes Shlaim’s conclusions. If there was any collusion against the Palestinians in 1948, it was not concocted by Israel and Abdullah but rather, by Britain and Transjordan. The outcomes reveal that the British acquiescence to a Transjordanian takeover of Arab Palestine was merely a choice by default rather than a plot.

Furthermore the historical fact that severe fighting took place in Kfar Etzion (May 1948), Jerusalem and Latrun (May-July 1948) seems to disapprove Shlaim and the Arab detractors for the failure of the Arab Armies of the Arab League defeat the fledging Jewish army.

According to the Arab narrative;

“Israeli forces had already expelled the Palestinian inhabitants of 220 villages and conquered about 13 percent of Palestine, according to the "Zionists’ premeditated plan to ethnically cleanse the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine"

In actuality the Arab World made clear its intention of destroying the Jewish state.

"The Arabs have taken into their own hands, the Final Solution of the Jewish problem. The problem will be solved only in blood and fire. The Jews will be driven out." Jamal Al-Husayni as vice-chairman of the Arab Higher Committee [AHC]

“It does not matter how many [Jews] there are. We will sweep them into the sea.”  “It will be a war of annihilation. It will be a momentous massacre in history that will be talked about like the massacres of the Mongols or the Crusades.” Abd Al-Rahman Azzam Pasha, Secretary-General of the Arab League.

Fawzi al-Qawuqji, commander of the Arab Liberation Army (ALA), told the Al-Ahram newspaper on March 9, 1948 that the ALA was fighting for; “the defeat of the partition and the annihilation of the Zionists.”

On March 10, 1948 The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Muhammad Amin al-Husayni told the Jaffa daily "Al Sarih" that preventing partition was not enough, and that they “…would continue fighting until the Zionists were annihilated and the whole of Palestine became a purely Arab state.”

The virulent racist, expulsionist, and annihilationist sentiments expressed by Arabs in newspapers and on the radio together with the prospect of war. Induced tens of thousands of Arabs, including most of the Arab elite, to flee Palestine. The intensification of the fighting, as the expiration of the mandate approached, along with circulation of rumors of both actual and fictitious Jewish attacks on Arab villages, further accelerated the flow of refugees. Before the war itself had really begun, around 175.000 Arabs had already left Palestine. Before the deadline of the anticipated withdrawal of British Forces Arab gangs had begun attacking Jewish communities all over Palestine.

According to Arab sources nearly a "million" Palestinians would become refugees, and more than 400 cities, towns, and villages were destroyed. In truth the collapse of one village often led to the flight of near-by or surrounding villages.

“Often, the fall of villages harmed morale in neighboring towns (vide Khirbet Nasir ad Din and Arab Tiberias). Similarly, the fall of the towns—Tiberias, Haifa, Jaffa, Beisan, Safed—and the flight of their population generated panic in the surrounding hinterlands: after Haifa, came flight from Balad al Sheikh, and Hawassa; after Jaffa, Salama, Kheiriya and Yazur; after Safed, Dhahiriya Tahta, Sammu’I and Meirun. For decades the villagers had looked to the towns for leadership; now they followed them into exile.” ( Benny Morris -“The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, Revisited,” 2004, p. 591).

 On fleeing:

“By nightfall, as the whole family gathered, we had heated discussions about whether or not we wanted to stay in Jaffa. A lot of us did not want to leave, but it was a very difficult situation. The final decision was that some of us would leave. My mother, my fiancée, my cousins, and I decided to leave.” On April 26, 1948, we got on a truck and headed to Egypt. My father, and other family members, decided to leave by sea because there was heavy rain and the Israelis were blocking the roads. Why Egypt? Because it was the closest neighboring country and we already had some family there. We arrived in Gaza, desperate and afraid. Why desperate and afraid? Because there was a Zionist colony along the way that was shooting wildly at anyone fleeing.

We arrived in Gaza after a day's travel. We found thousands of refugees in Gaza, from many parts of the country, and who had escaped massive military attacks bythe Zionists.” Khaireddine Abuljebain.

 About The Arab League Armies:

"Let me be honest. The Arab armies called themselves the rescuers in 1948. That was a complete lie."

"They didn't let us do anything. In our area, there was an Iraqi and a Turkish commander who planned operations and we would implement them. When the Zionists attacked an area to occupy it, we begged those commanders to do something and they wouldn't move a finger." Mohammed Himmo

One of the stories ignored in the narrative of the “Nachba” is the "Ethnic Cleansing" of Jews from lands purchased long before and during the Mandate period in what is called today the “West Bank”. (Titled land which is now resettled by descendants of Jews who were expelled)

Apologists for the Arabs who scream to the world the fallacy of "Deir Yassin" consistently fail to mention that on May 4, 1948 an Arab Legion armored column attacked the Etzion bloc and about 40 of the defenders were killed and wounded in their repulse of the attack. That on May 12, 1948, BEFORE the British left, the 6th Battalion of the Jordanian Arab Legion and thousands of local militia surrounded the Bloc and attacked again. This time according to Colonel Abdullah el-Tal, commander of the Jordanian Arab Legion;

"Seeing the hopelessness of their situation, the 133 defenders (men and women) sought to surrender. Suddenly a mix of either militiamen and/or Legion soldiers arrived on the scene and began shouting “Deir Yassin!” they fired with Sten sub-machine guns and blanketed the prisoners with gunfire slaughtering all but four of the 133 prisoners."

In the battle of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, for example, the Jordanian Arab Legion had blanketed the Quarter with an indiscriminate barrage of more than 10,000 artillery and mortar shells, reducing it to rubble. With only 36 of the original 300 defenders remaining, starving and out of ammunition, they surrendered on May 28. The inhabitants of the Quarter were then expelled, all buildings and dwellings were razed, the Hurva synagogue and 33 other houses of worship were destroyed, and the venerated cemetery on the Mount of Olives was desecrated.

Colonel Abdullah el-Tal, commander of the Jordanian Arab Legion continued:

"…The operations of calculated destruction were set in motion…. I knew that the Jewish Quarter was densely populated with Jews who caused their fighters a good deal of interference and difficulty…. I embarked, therefore, on the shelling of the Quarter with mortars, creating harassment and destruction…. Only four days after our entry into Jerusalem the Jewish Quarter had become their graveyard. Death and destruction reigned over it….”

“As the dawn of Friday, May 28, 1948, was about to break, the Jewish Quarter emerged convulsed in a black cloud – a cloud of death and agony…For the first time in 1,000 years not a single Jew remains in the Jewish Quarter. Not a single building remains intact. This makes the Jews’ return here impossible.” Colonel Abdullah el-Tal, commander of the Jordanian Arab Legion. 

Abba Eban speaking to the UN after the cease-fire of the Six Day War and the Liberation of the Old City in 1968 said:

"... a shocking picture was unfolded of the results of this policy of wanton vandalism, desecration and violation perpetrated during the period of Jordanian occupation from 1948 onwards. In the Jewish Quarter all but one of the thirty-five Jewish houses of worship that graced the Old City of Jerusalem were found to have been wantonly destroyed. The synagogues had been razed or pillaged and stripped and their interiors used as hen-houses and stables.
In the ancient historic Jewish graveyard on the Mount of Olives, tens of thousands of tombstones had been torn up, broken into pieces or used as flagstones, steps and building materials in Jordanian military installations and civilian constructions. Large areas of the cemetery had been leveled and converted into parking places and petrol-filling stations.”  

With the pan-Arab invasion on May 15, Arab armies looted and razed not only all of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City but the Jewish settlements: Beit Ha’Arava, Neve Ya’akov, ‘Atarot, Masada, Sha’ar Hagolan, Yad Mordechai, Nitzanum, and Kfar Darom.  All the Jewish inhabitants had either fled, or had been expelled when they fell into Arab hands.  Few make note that "If" the circumstances, had been different and the Arabs had won the (Jewish) population would have been slaughtered –since as seen in the Holocaust there is no where on this planet were Jews may flee to.

The Mabarra of Ma'alot

At the conclusion of the 1949 Rhodes Armistice agreement Israel was finally able to open her doors to all those displaced remnants of European Jewry who had no homes to return to. In addition to the European Jewish refugees, some 900,000 Jews in Arab lands experienced pogroms, loss livelihoods lands and ‎property, were evicted and made into "refugees" without UNWRA assistance and ‎resettled in Mabarrot aka “Development Towns”.

In stark contrast to Israel's reception and absorption of over a million Jewish refugees. The combined 22 Arab countries - with their far greater capacity for absorption - made no effort whatsoever of integrating the roughly 720.000 Palestinian Arab refugees. To the contrary, they have been left stateless with no rights as pawns in refugee camps until this moment. They serve the "Falestinian Leadership" as political tools in the ongoing fight against Israel. The Falestinians manipulate the sympathy of the world by picturing themselves as the ‘innocent’ victims. Yet in truth they were the aggressors – and dispossession was the price they paid for their aggression. Their hatred is focused by their leaders towards the Jews and Israel and not at their leaders who grow wealthy from the millions in Aid money poured into the Falestinian Authority coffers.

Had the Arabs simply accepted the 1947 UN Partition Resolution and, refrained from violence. They could have had a country of their own Those who stayed have gone on with their lives as loyal Israeli citizens. As stated openly in the Israeli Declaration of Independence:

 “We appeal - in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months - to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the up building of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.”

Israel emerged from the 1948 War with a 160,000-strong Arab minority (alongside 700,000 Jews) – a fact that tends to undermine the charge that there was a blanket policy of “ethnic cleansing” of Arabs.

Anti-Semitism

In the Arabic world the Arabic leadership has for generations used the Dimihi Jews as ‎excuses for all the woes in their failures as leaders. Since the advent of Zionism and the ‎failure of the Arab Nationalistic movement against the imperial powers Israel, since it’s ‎conception, has become "THE" major cause for hatred of Jews / anti-Semitism within the ‎Arab mind. This is graphically illustrated in the massive pro-"Falestinian" anti-Zionism ‎‎/Israel /Jews worldwide misinformation hatred campaign. The Liberal "Human Rights ‎Groups" of the "Western World"; which once saw little Israel as a gleaming spot of ‎humanity, now solely see the Arab slanderous vicious hatred point of view spread in the ‎Internet of the "Oppression" and "Occupation" and "Apartheid" Israel.‎

In Europe, the Ukraine and Russia anti-Semitism is, and has always existed it is inbred ‎with many of the Christians as part of the belief passed down that Jews were solely ‎responsible for the death of Jesus Christ. This is deeply believed with the Eastern ‎Orthodox Church. Over the past two decades the Moslem populations within Western ‎European from their high birthrate and with the increased immigration rate has ‎dramatically increased the sympathy for the "Falestinian" cause. The distraction of the ‎minds of the Western Europeans to the "Zionist" enemy Israel and anti-Semitism is a ‎ploy to distract the Europeans from the slow takeover of their societies from within by ‎Islam.‎

In the USA the white supremacist groups movement in the United States has become ‎more active in recent years due to the increased frustration over America's economic ‎woes and a racial backlash against Barack Obama's election as President in 2008. This ‎rise in supremacist violence was highlighted recently in the Kansas City shooting by ‎Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr.‎

According to a recent BJF Update -Birmingham Jewish Federation Newsletter "Mark ‎Pitcavage, director of investigative research at the Anti-Defamation League recently ‎stated Supremacists have gotten "much more agitated and angrier, and we... see an increase ‎in criminal activity, in violent hate crimes, acts of terrorism and plots coming out of the ‎white supremacist movement".‎

Behavioral patterns among hate groups in the USA, and Moslem Terrorist groups, are ‎notoriously difficult to track, as members tend to be secretive and deeply suspicious of ‎outsiders. The Internet makes it easier to spread hatred from individual to individual and ‎group to group. Most adherents to extremist cause out of fear of being discovered don't ‎affiliate with any group at all. The landscape has become even more complex as many ‎established white supremacist groups have collapsed into a myriad of splinter groups. ‎

Anti-Semitism has become increasingly central to the ideologies of hate groups over the ‎decades as they see Jews as the manipulators behind blacks, Hispanics and other ‎perceived enemies. This view of anti-Semitism was reflected in the Kansas City suspects ‎own thinking.  Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Montgomery, AL-based Southern ‎Poverty Law Center has said that these groups are "very much animated by anti-‎Semitism, “It’s essentially been Nazified in last 30 years. They no longer see blacks as ‎the ultimate enemy. Jews are now considered the ultimate enemy."‎

Aliyah, Ma'alot and My "Little Brother" David Sklar z"l

The Military Section of the cemetery in Meona

"A State is not handed to a people on a silver platter" Chaim Weizmann, first President of Israel

My family and I are the "adoptive (Representative) family" of a young American who was also a new "Oleh" to Maalot in 1976, and a "Fallen Soldier" David Sklar z"l.

David was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the 4th of June 1962 and at the age of 9 his family made Aliyah to Hertzliya. David and his family his older sister Deborah and his mother Chaya, who was divorced, arrived to Maalot a very short time before I had entered the IDF as a "Chayal Boded" in September of 1976. His mother Chaya Sklar z"l worked at that time as a secretary to Elaine Kopp -today Levitt, who had also recently arrived in Maalot in charge of a Jewish Agency Volunteer for Israel program.

David and his family lived in the "New Binyan HaMalit"(the only multi storied (8) building in Maalot with an elevator) near today's Shouk (Marketplace). David had only recently entered Yad Netan High School near Akko  and he was like a little brother to me.
David  was constantly coming over to spend time with me talking, listening to my album collection and playing American sports - softball, baseball and football. At that time the Anglo-Saxon community was very small and close and we did a lot of activities together.

David would relate to me his experiences and secrets in life as any younger brother would to an older one. Our friendship was close since he was badly treated and ignored as a child by his father and he was in need of an "older" brother to be there for him.

I had arrived in Israel as a volunteer for Kibbutz in the aftermath of the tragic Yom Kippur in September of 1974. I came here to experience my Jewish heritage up close and I came alone with no family here in Israel and I was very much alone. A stranger in a new land still not sufficient in Hebrew. 
I joined a Garin for a new Kibbutz in the Arava - the prairie north of Eilat-Garin Shikma of Kibbutz Ketura. My Garin went to do Hebrew Ulpan and Hacshira at Kibbutz Kfar Ruppin. Regretfully the Garin came apart and most of the members left Israel. During my time with the Garin I had changed my status to new "Oleh" - Immigrant.
When I left Kibbutz knowing I had a call-up for the army I had to find a place to live. The Jewish Agency offered me a singles apartment in Maalot and I went to see the area and because of the green pastoral setting of the Galilee and the local friends I made I decided to live here.
In those early years there were still very few telephones to call home by and the only means of communication was by the exchange of "aerograms" air mail letters which would take anywhere from 10 days to two weeks to arrive. So to have someone like David, his sister and mother, my fellow "Single Soldier" neighbor Kenny Sherman, my upstairs neighbor from England the painter Elana Black and her young daughter Sharon, Elaine Kopp and her two children Mike and Marla was very nice.

When my future wife Rena made Aliyah in March 1978 to Ma'alot (from Far Rockaway NY)  it was Chaya Sklar who told me about her and her arrival and she encouraged me to meet her. So when I came home on my first leave from "Mivtzah Litani" (Operation Litani) in March of 1978 I waited outside the old Aliyah Center on Ma'ale HaBenim Street at 11PM+ that night, since Rena was working as an RN at Nahariyah Hospital, for her arrival home. Since I was on a short leave and time was of importance and though the hour was now very late I went and knocked on her door and when she opened it I introduced myself and she replied; "Very nice my name is Rena and I am tired" and she than closed the door. That is how we met thanks to Chaya.

As time went by Rena and I married in January of 1979, as far as I know we are the only Americans to marry in Maalot. David was enthralled and was so happy. As time went on our "Anglo" community would meet and play sports at the park of the local symbol – a large tall water Tower, every Saturday. Local kids became participants and David was proud to be part of the "action".

In the spring of 1979 we moved to our new apartment on Karen Haysod, across the street from the original “Anglo Saxon couple” Beronica (An RN From St Louis Missouri) and Peter (An ex Egged Bus Corporation Driver born in Germany but raised in South Africa) Zilberstein and their three boys, Shai, Yoel and Gideon.

When our oldest son David was born David was ever so happy to be the proud "Uncle" he would spend hours with his "nephew". When David graduated High School in 1980 he was eager to join the IDF and to be "Kravi". Despite his handicaps, his small frame and eyesight he strove to be in the Tank Corp.

In the spring of 1982 Rena and I had made a decision to leave Israel so that I could complete my college degree so as to have a "better future". Our last meeting with David was very sad and with the threat of war that was in the air. As he sat on the couch with his "nephew" on his lap, I warned David to take care and asked him to promise me that in combat he would heed my lessons I taught him and to wear his body armor vest.

We separated saying "See you later" and not goodbye. We left for Birmingham Alabama my hometown to live and Rena got a job immediately at the Children's Hospital in the vast Birmingham Alabama Medical Center In June of that year I had just reentered studies at a junior college prior to returning to University, when the First War in Lebanon had broken out. As a Medic in Charge of a Mobile Hospital I quickly prepared to fly back but my commander told me NO stay and get your degree. According to the orders, "We are advancing only to the Litani." so the "war" will be over soon.

Near the end of June fighting intensified and I was torn between going and staying. The family did not want me to go and the pressure was on. I returned from my studies on the 5th of July 1982 to a message that my Dad had received by phone to call our neighbor. I thought that Daphne Even Zohar -our American born neighbor was calling to notify us of the installation of the phone that we had ordered three years before! (In the old days of Bezeq, the Israeli Telecommunications Company was a monopoly and they were king. You could wait years to have the privilege of having a phone installed)

When I returned the call later, due to the 8 hour time difference, Daphne informed me that David who had been gravely wounded in Beirut had died from his wounds in Rambam Hospital in Haifa.

As to how it happened I learned this standing over his grave prior to the ceremony on a very hot Yom HaZichron (Memorial Day) a few years ago. As I stood there beside the grave they came one by one and I

Yom HaZichron 2014

met his entire tank crew and his commander. The years had gone by and they were now in their 40’s with grown children. They came from all over Israel to stand there in silence out of respect for their comrade. As old soldiers do we talked and they told me what exactly had occurred and how David was wounded. What I learned that day was that prior to the beginning of the war the Commander of the Unit had wanted to transfer David to a non-combat role, due to his difficulties in his physical ability to do the heavy work demanded of a member of a tank crew. I asked his commanding officer that fateful what if question. "What if there had been a few more

days of tranquility?" He said that David would more than probably have been transferred. It just goes to show how fickle one's destiny can be and how fate had stepped in and the war had begun it stopped the process of the transfer and it had determined David's life.

They were in South Western Beirut stationed at a road block across from an IDF Field Hospital not far from the Shi’ite Quarter of Dahiya, and the “Falestinian” refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla. They had been under fire from the PLO mortars in the vicinity of the Borj Al Brajne earlier that hot sultry summer morning when one of his crew-mates who had been on duty as the “radio listener” asked David to change with him so he could relieve himself. David eagerly replied and climbed back onto the tank to be “in communication” –listening for orders on the company network. Due to the heavy humidity and heat David had not properly closed his Flak Vest. As his crew-mates and commander recalled there was the sudden renewal of mortar fire briefly and a shell which landed near the tank sent a large piece of shrapnel into David’s back to front. They immediately rushed David to the doctors and medics at the field hospital. An evacuation helicopter was called in and David was evacuated to Rambam Hospital where the doctors labored  some 24 hours to save him but the damage had been too great and he died at the age of 20 the 5th of July 1982.

In April of 1984 we returned to Maalot to a tragic situation. We found that Chaya had "freaked out" over her mourning of David's death and her "Ex" husbands attitude towards her. She could not be consoled her grief was too much. We were informed that she had driven David's sister Deborah into leaving Israel to New York and to cutoff all communication with anyone in Israel. Chaya’s grief and loneliness drove her to attempt suicide several times and than she found religion. She became an extremist in her hatred of Arabs and she lashed out at all her previous friends and when she died in Kiryat Arba she asked to be buried near David in the cemetery in Meona.

Once she died there was no one to represent yet alone mourn or remember David. Since there was "No Family" to officially represent David, I volunteered my family out of our love and respect for him.

Now on every Erev Yom HaZichron at the evening outdoor ceremony one of my children go up on the stage and light the candle for him. And I am always at the next days ceremony at the Soldiers section of the cemetery in Meona at his grave ever year on Yom HaZichron.

Now David is remembered and will be remembered. There is and will be someone to say Kaddish for him. May his memory be blessed -יהיה זכרו ברוך Ei Hiyeh Zichron Baruch.

In the Marble Garden- In Memory of my "little brother" ‎Corporal David Sklar
Written by Yakov Marks

On that day‏,‏
I always wanted to know
When "we" are standing‏,‏
For that minute of silence
as the siren is heard throughout the ‎‎land‎ ‎
Can they see us standing there‏?‏

In the closed eyes of the grieving ‎parents
A full length movie passes
From their birth up to that terrible ‎day‏.‏

For their comrades in arms
There is definitely a different movie
From the date of their first ‎acquaintance,‎
Until that tragic moment.‏

In almost all the "Marble Gardens" ‎across Israel.‎
It's something that is generally  ‎accepted ‎
That their resting place is the most ‎well groomed and hallowed.‎

The Exodus: Myth, Legend or Truth?‎

Is the story in the Bible of the Exodus a myth? More than probably yes. The actual question should be, “Is it based on a cumulative of several narratives?” The answer is yes more than probably. Remember the first five Books of the Bible are based on "Oral Tradition" since the earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE, in the form of primitive drawings.

Now let us examine the possible proofs of the myth that is the Passover narrative described in the Exodus.

The only contemporary Egyptian source which actually mentions Israel is the stele (pillar with inscription) of King Merneptah from the fifth year of his reign (1207 B.C.E.), recording among his many victories: "Carved off is Ashkelon, seized upon in Gezer…Israel is laid waste, his seed

no more."

 This inscription implies that an entity named Israel existed in Canaan at the time, yet it is difficult to determine precisely what it was. One thing, however, may be regarded as certain: if the Israelites indeed emerged out of Egypt, their migration took place before the end of the thirteenth century B.C.E.

In the Leiden Museum in Holland there is a papyrus that was written at the end of the Middle Kingdom, around 1650 B.C.E. that was found in Egypt. It is called, “The Admonitions of an Egyptian” written by an Egyptian known as Ipuwer. Scribes copied it in the 19th Dynasty, in the 1200s B.C.E. In his story Ipuwer recount plagues described in the Bible. (The biblical plagues befell the Egyptians at the time of Moses and the Exodus, which has been dated sometime between (1570 to 1290 B.C.E.) The disparity of the dates between the Ipuwer and the story of the Exodus is enough to convince many scholars that there is no relation exists between the two but the similarities of the plagues mentioned are striking.

One of the most contentious problems regarding the Exodus investigation is the fact that there is no archeological evidence for various places mentioned in the biblical travel itinerary of the Israelites as they fled Egypt for the Promised Land in Canaan. A number of biblical sites have been corroborated by Egyptian map sources done in the Late Bronze age, in Dynasties XVIII and XIX between 1560-1200 B.C.E while most date the Exodus in the range of 1400-1200 B.C.E.  Among the sites recorded are; Dibon (Numbers 13:45), a city where the Israelites' camped on their way to invade Canaan, and Hebron (Numbers 13:22), another city targeted for invasion, Iyyn and Abel (biblical Abel Shittim) both in Numbers 13: 45-50; Yom haMelach (Numbers 34:3); and Athar (Hebrew Atharim) (Numbers 21:1). This evidence is strong that these cities did indeed exist at the time of the Exodus since they are found on the temple walls of ancient Egyptian kings. Most importantly they are documented in the most important extra-biblical source Egypt.

Is the story of Joseph as a Hebrew advisor to Egyptian kings in the narrative of the Bible at the time of the Exodus true? A tomb dated to around 1353-1335 B.C.E.  in the Saqqara region of Egypt was originally discovered by the legendary archeologist Sir Flinders Petrie in the 1880s belonged to a man called Aper-el, the Egyptian version of a Hebrew name. This Aper-el (El-being the Hebrew reference to God indicating that this advisor was a Hebrew/Jew) was a vizier to the famous Amenhotep III (1370-1293 B.C.E., 18th Dynasty) and later to his son, the monotheistic king Akhenaten. In the book of Genesis, Joseph rose from captive to be second only to the Pharaoh, and he was empowered to save Egypt from starvation during a seven-year drought.

Was Aper-el/Aperia indeed a Hebrew advisor to the young king Akhenaten? If so, did Aper-el/Aperia influence Akhenaten's thinking toward monotheism? In any case, it would place a Hebrew advisor to the kings within the range of years claimed for the Exodus just as Joseph was to an Egyptian king hundreds of years earlier.

Next, there is a papyrus from the Egyptian Middle Kingdom, about 1740 B.C.E. possibly from Thebes, in the Brooklyn Museum which contains a list of slaves. On the list is a slave named Shifra and others with Semitic names. As the Exodus narrative goes in the Bible, a Hebrew woman with the same name, Shifra, was one of two midwives the Pharaoh commissioned to kill all the male Hebrew children at the time Moses was born (Exodus 1:15).  

As Jews our prayer book contains the phrases zecher l’ma’asei bereshit and zecher litziyat mitzrayim — “to commemorate the acts of Creation” and “to commemorate the Exodus from Egypt.” Just as the Shabbat Kiddush consists of two paragraphs. The first recounts Creation; the second, the Exodus. So why remember and commererate things that didn't happen?

Apparently God (or, if you prefer, whoever gave the Ten Commandments) thought the Exodus significant enough to open the Ten Commandments with reference to one event — the Exodus: “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the Land of Egypt.” Even one who doesn’t believe that God gave the Ten Commandments would have to explain why reference to something that never happened would so move the ancient Israelites. In addition, the two versions of the Ten Commandments — the one from God in Exodus and the one from Moses in Deuteronomy — differ with regard to the reason for Shabbat. The first version’s reason is the Creation (by keeping the Shabbat, we reaffirm weekly that God created the world); the second version’s reason is the Exodus (“You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt” — and only free people can have a day of rest each week).

So as a story, "Why do we Jews have it?" People don't make up stories like that, certainly not about themselves. So there must be some truth behind the story so that we can be proud of it. There's nothing like a good legend to lift a nation's confidence. That's why most peoples of the world claim to have powerful forebears, like great kings and mighty warriors. "So why do we Jews claim to have come from such lowly and ignoble origins. What purpose could that have served? Why would people invent an embarrassing legend about themselves? Yet we Jews proudly declare a most undignified beginning: we began as a slave nation. Every year we retell the Exodus saga, and say: "We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt." Even the escape from Egypt cannot be accredited to our own power: "G-d took us out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm." G-d had to "reach out" and save us. Such an un-heroic heritage!

So while those who proclaim to be the descendants of demi-gods are today subjects for archaeologists and historians. The children of Israel, descendants of simple slaves, are alive and thriving. The message of Passover to us as Jews is that there is no need to cover up our humble beginnings. The Jewish belief is that greatness is not a thing of our past; it is with us now and it will be with us in the future ahead of us.

So was the story of the Passover and of the Exodus a “Morality Play” as is with many of the stories of the Bible meant to teach the uneducated? More than probably yes. The story of the Exodus of the Jewish people was meant to inspire, not by glorying in an illustrious past, but rather by promising a brighter future. We the Hapiru –the ancient Hebrews were slaves, but we have a destiny to bring freedom to all the oppressed people of the world.

The Arab League

The Arab League - (Arabic: الجامعة العربية‎ al-Jāmiʻa al-ʻArabiyya) (formally, the League of Arab States (Arabic: جامعة الدول العربية‎ Jāmiʻat ad-Duwal al-ʻArabiyya))

Recently Secretary of State John Kerry had stated that he welcomed the "positive steps" in Israel's negotiations with the "Falestians" proposed by the "Arab League", that illustrious body which is hardly a model for peaceful settlement of disputes in the spirit of the United Nations. Evidently the Secretary of State skipped his history classes in University to demonstrate against his fellow Viet Nam veterans and had not learned this. 

Following the adoption of the Alexandria Protocol in 1944 by five Arab states: Egypt, Trans-Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, the Arab League was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945. It originally comprised five members  Yemen only joined as a member on 5 May 1945. 

Since the establishment of the Arab League in 1945, it has led the way for the outpouring of Arab hatred and displeasure at the hands of the Imperialistic Colonial powers for the establishment of a Jewish Homeland in “Arab Land”. The members of the Arab League have constantly voiced their anti-Zionist feelings since its creation.

Here are the major points:

December 1945 - The Arab League launched a boycott of 'Zionist goods'

June 1946 - The Arab League established the Higher Arab Committee a radical body that led and coordinated attempts to wipe Israel off the map.

December 1946 - The Arab League rejected the first proposed Palestine partition plans.

October 1947 - The Arab League reasserted the necessity for military preparations along Arab borders for "defending Palestine."

February 1948 - The Arab League approved "a plan for political, military, and economic measures to be taken in response to the Palestine crisis."

October 1948 - The Arab League rejected outright Resolution 181, the UN "Partition Plan" for Palestine.

May 15 1948 - The members of the Arab League; Egypt, Trans-Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and contingents from Saudi Arabia and Yemen were "compelled to intervene" to "restore law and order” invaded and occupied the Mandated Areas. This step is outlined in its "Declaration on the Invasion of Palestine."

"The injustice implied in this solution [affecting] the right of the people of Palestine to immediate independence ... declared the Arabs' rejection of [Resolution 181]" which the League said "would not be possible to carry it out by peaceful means, and that its forcible imposition would constitute a threat to peace and security in this area" and claimed that the "security and order in Palestine have become disrupted" due to the "aggressive intentions, and the imperialistic designs of the Zionists" and "the Governments of the Arab States, as members of the Arab League, a regional organization ... view the events taking place in Palestine as a threat to peace and security in the area as a whole. ... Therefore, as security in Palestine is a sacred trust in the hands of the Arab States, and in order to put an end to this state of affairs ... the Governments of the Arab States have found themselves compelled to intervene in Palestine."

July 15 1948 - UN Security Council Resolution 54 called on Arab aggression to stop. "The members of the Arab League have rejected successive appeals of the United Nations Mediator, and of the Security Council in its resolution 53 (1948) of 7 July 1948, for the prolongation of the truce in Palestine; and that there has consequently developed a renewal of hostilities in Palestine."

October 1949 - The Arab League declared that negotiation with Israel by any Arab state would be in violation of Article 18 of the Arab League.

April 1950 - The Arab League called for severance of relations with any Arab state which engaged in relations or contacts with Israel and prohibited Member states from negotiating unilateral peace with Israel.

March 1979 - The Arab League suspended Egypt's membership in the League (retroactively) from the date of its signing a peace treaty with Israel.

March 27-28, 2002 - At the height of Palestinian suicide attacks in Israel the Arab League adopted the "Beirut Declaration"

"We, the kings, presidents, and emirs of the Arab states meeting in the Council of the Arab League Summit in Beirut, capital of Lebanon ... have conducted a thorough assessment of the developments and challenges ... relating to the Arab region and, more specifically, to the occupied Palestinian territory. With great pride, we followed the Palestinian people's Intifada and valiant resistance. ... We address a greeting of pride and honor to the Palestinian people's steadfastness and valiant Intifada against the Israeli occupation and its destructive war machine. We greet with honor and pride the valiant martyrs of the Intifada."

Where is "Peace" mentioned?
At this same Beirut Summit on 28 March 2002, the Arab League adopted the Arab Peace Initiative, a Saudi-inspired peace plan for the Arab–Israeli conflict. The initiative offered full normalization of the relations with Israel. In return for this the Arab League demands that Israel:

• withdraw from all occupied territories, including the Golan Heights
• recognize Palestinian independence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
• provide a "just solution" for the Palestinian refugees.

No mention of their accepting Israel as the "Jewish State" and no mention of the Jewish refugees from Arab lands and their "Just Solution".

Nostradam‎us Michaelis de Nostredame

Who was this person Michaelis de Nostredame? Interest in Nostradamus has not died out through the ages was he real where his predictions actually made? His name reached many young people through the song of the Scottish balladeer Al Stewart that was released in 1973. So what is the meaning of the name "Nostradamus," the name chosen by ‎the famous astrologer? Could it have some special hidden meaning? Was he as a secret Jew? Had he been a descendant of the Israelite tribe of Issachar and a follower of the Zohar and Kabbalah taught to him by his grandfather Jean de St. Rémy?

It is recorded that Jaume's father, the Jewish apothecary Guy Gassonet, had converted to Catholicism around 1455 (?), taking the Christian name "Pierre" and the surname "Nostredame" comprised of two parts; the Latin word; Nostrum -which means in part ‎‎"a medicine whose ingredients are kept secret", and the French words N‎otre Dame or "Our Lady", a reference to Mary the "virgin mother ‎of Jesus".

This fact is interesting since many "New Christians" converted to ‎Catholicism during this bleak period of European history before the Spanish Inquisition in 1492. Many ‎of these Medieval European Jews continued to remain “secret Jews” or “Marranous." They were so secretive out of fear so as to prevent their discovery otherwise they would be tortured and burned to death at the stake for heresy. Nostradamus's family may have been one of those Jewish families that ‎‎feared the "Inquisitor" and hid their Judaism. The hint of this can be found in the story surrounding his maternal great-grandfather Jean de St. Rémy since there is a persistent tradition that he was educated by him. However he “suddenly” disappears from the historical records after 1504.

Michel de Nostredame was one of at least nine children of Reynière (or Renée) de Saint-Rémy and Jaume (or Jacques) de Nostredame a grain dealer and notary. Michel's known siblings included Delphine, Jean I (c. 1507–77), Pierre, Hector, Louis, Bertrand, Jean II (born 1522) and Antoine (born 1523).

‎

Nostradamus father had been a noted astrologer and apothecary - physician. So ‎when Nostradamus was a young boy his father taught him astronomy, ‎astrology and apothecary / medicine. The young Nostradamus was enrolled at the ‎school of Medicine at Montpellier. While still a student at the academy ‎Nostradamus became well known for his knowledge of astronomy. His ‎knowledge almost cost him his life when he advanced the theory that the ‎earth revolves around the sun. To many this was a "heretical" thought ‎because it went against the teachings of the church.

Nostradamus entered the University of Avignon at the age of 15 to study for his baccalaureate. After little more than a year he was forced to leave Avignon when the university closed its doors in the face of an outbreak of the plague. After leaving Avignon, Nostradamus traveled the countryside for eight years from 1521 researching herbal remedies. In 1529, after some years as an apothecary, he entered the University of Montpellier to study for a doctorate in medicine. He was expelled shortly afterwards by the university's procurator, Guillaume Rondelet, when it was discovered that he had been an apothecary, a "manual trade" expressly banned by the university statutes, and had been slandering doctors. The expulsion document still exists in the faculty library.

Because ‎of his knowledge he was hired by the French King Francis I, ‎of Angouleme, the House of Valois to be the personal physician to ‎his oldest son the Dauphin Henry (1519-1559) the heir to the ‎French throne.‎ During the years 1535-1545 an epidemic know as the ‎‎"Bubonic Plague" reappeared in Europe. As a physician, Nostradamus fame ‎grew with his cures the "rose pill" that supposedly protected against the plague and ‎his prescribed treatment for the "Bubonic Plague" were based on rules of cleanliness ‎and hygiene outlined in the Bible and by the writings of the Mosheh ben Maimon (משה בן מימון), called Moses Maimonides or RAMBAM Hebrew acronym for "Rabbeinu Mosheh Ben Maimon" – English translation: "Our Rabbi/Teacher Moses Son [of] Maimon". Yet despite all of ‎Nostradamus's medical knowledge his first wife Henriette d'Encausse and two daughters became infected ‎by the disease and died of the plague.

‎

After the death of his wife and daughters, around the year ‎‎1545, he became embittered and lonely. He took to traveling until ‎he decided to remarry in 1548. He isolated himself in a tower of ‎a castle that belonged to King Henry the second in Saint Lo near ‎a village in the south of France. Nostradamus turned to the study ‎of astrology and the "occult"(?). It is here that he has his ‎first visions of future events.‎

Nostradamus published his book of predictions "The Cent‎uries" in 1555. The book was called the centuries because it was ‎divided into ten parts, each of the 100 four line verses, stretching ‎from the date of publication (1555) to an indefinite time in ‎the future. Many first editions exist today, so there is no doubt ‎as to the authenticity of the text.

Many of Nostradamus's ‎"predictions” have come true and here are but a few examples:

‎"The blood of the just will be demanded of London, burnt through fire in the year three times twenty and six”‎

Indeed in the year 1666 the city of London suffered from a disastrous ‎fire known in English history as the great fire of London.‎"

"The English Parliament will put it's King to death."

Charles I King of England was beheaded by order of Parliament ‎and Cromwell on January 30, 1649.‎

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 ‎"An Emperor of France shall be born on an island near Italy, his rule will cost his Empire dear, Nay Pol Loron will be more of fire than blood"

Napoleon was born on the island of Corsica near Italy.‎

“Hister, the German of the Crooked Cross, The Captain of Greater Germaine, no law does this man observe. Bloody his rise and fall shall be.”

‎There is no doubt that  Nostradamus is alluding to Adolph Hitler.‎

"In the new lands of America, three brothers now shall come to power. Two men are born to rule, but all must die before their hour."

‎This is a reference to Joseph, John and  Robert Kennedy.‎

A great wall that divides a city at this time is cast aside.

Is this the Berlin wall November 1990‎?

‎

Nostradamus is a reputed seer whose published collection of prophecies have become famous worldwide. He is best known for his book "Les Propheties", the first edition of which appeared in 1555. Since the publication of this book, it has rarely been out of print since his death, Nostradamus quatrains have purportedly predicted many major world events and because of this he has a wide following. He is best known for his book "Les Propheties", the first edition of which appeared in 1555. Since the publication of this book, it has rarely been out of print since his death.

According to the famous English diarist Samuel Pepys, as early as 1667, long before the French Revolution. Pepys records in his celebrated diary s to his prophecies there is a legend that, before his death, Nostradamus made the townsfolk swear that his grave would never be disturbed; but when dug up at the French Revolution, 60 years later a brass plaque was found on his chest correctly stating the date and time when his grave would be opened and cursing the exhumers.

Nostradamus's tombstone, in the Collegiale St-Laurent, at Salon-de-Provence Bouches-du-Rhône, France. As noted on his crypt Nostrad‎amus- Micha Ben Elias or Michaelis de ‎Notredame was born in Saint Reims de ‎la Provence, France on 14th or 21st of December 1503 and died on the 2nd July 1566.‎

The headstone, written in Latin and composed by his wife, reads as follows: "Here lie the bones of the illustrious Michel Nostradamus, alone of all mortals judged worthy to record events of the entire world with his almost divine pen, under the influence of the stars. He lived 62 years, 6 months, and 17 days. He died at Salon in the year 1566. Let not prosperity disturb his rest. Anne Pons Gemelle wishes her husband true happiness."