Brooking Institute's Involvement in Middle East Policy

Nadene Goldfoot                                Palestinian leadership                       

Hamas terrorist leader, Ismail Haniyah-in Gaza

Abbas of Fatah in Judea-Samaria

What's keeping Israel and the Arabs called Palestinians from a peaceful solution that would create peace with a 2 state solution?  Isn't that what the Palestinians want?  Their own state?  Daniel Kurtzer said, "The sad reality is that politics—not policy, per se—is what blocks progress toward a two-state solution."  Of course it would mean giving land away  that was first designated by G-d  to be the Jewish Homeland to a people with complete opposing ideals from Judaism, and again from the 1st United Nations in 1920 to be the Jewish Homeland.  Wouldn't this be worth it for the sake of peace?  

Do you remember what Israel did with Gaza?  Israelis left Gaza for the sake of peace and it immediately became the attack station against Israel.  Southern Israel has suffered ever since the horrors of having rockets, mortars and missiles land in their yards, and whole generations of children forced to accept  being attacked with part of their schooling taking place in bomb shelters.  Imagine the fright of trying to go about your daily tasks with the thought of a rocket attack that could overcome you within minutes or seconds.  
                                                                                

Mandated Palestine to be National Jewish Home-agreed upon by all the world's nations in 1920 after years of discussion and meetings.  Today's Israel is the sliver on the left, and the rest is what Jordan had stolen in 1948.   Abdullah, their king, came from Saudi Arabia-not a native of the land.  

Perhaps Kurtzer should look at our religion for the answer as well.  Our history is that G-d said that the Israelites led by Moses were to inhabit the land, and he gave directions as to where they were to live according to their ancestry.  Descendants of Judah were to live in the southern portion which in turn was called Judah, from where today's Jews came from. 

 Nothing was said that we had to live only on 20% of the land designated for them, or that the other 80% would contain people who want to wipe us all out.  So following our religion, a 2 state solution is not feasible.  Yet, Jordan has overcome all expectations and lives in most of the 80%, and so far, are peaceful.  They weren't when all the rest of the surrounding neighbors decided to attack in 1967 and cajoled Jordan into joining them.  That's when they lost ground which went back to Israel, the rightful owner of that tract of land.  

Along comes the Brookings Institute out of Washington D.C.  It's a think tank that is supposed to be apolitical, but of course, isn't.  Groups donate a lot of money to this #1 think tank of the USA.  Is it on the left or the right?  It depends on the money donated and from who.

Take Qatar, a small but powerful country in the Arab Middle East led by an Emir.  They are donators.  Brookings has satellite centers, and their Brookings Doha Center is right in Qartar's capital and focuses on thinking about Middle East issues.  The funding comes right from Qatar's government, which is not Democratic.  It's interesting that in turn, Qatar has pledged $21.6 million to Brookings ever since 2011.  The only other office satellite is in Las Vegas, Nevada and is receiving donations from gold mining and casinos.  A senior Israeli official said that this has definitely caused some parts of the Israeli government to look skeptically on the work of Brookings. The Doha Center has a Washington based project going on that studies the Islamic world.
                                                                         

         Martin Sean Indyk, born in London in 1951, is the Vice President and Director for Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution   in Washington, D.C.

"In a rare public speech , Indyk singled out Israel’s settlement activity in the occupied West Bank (Judea and Samaria)  as the key reason for the failure of the U.S. peace effort. The speech followed hard on the heels of a much-noticed article in Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, in which an unnamed U.S. official widely believed to be Indyk made essentially the same point.

Yet from the American point of view, Indyk, a 62-year-old, Jewish, British-born, Australian-raised naturalized American citizen, could hardly be seen as anti-Israel. In fact, his involvement in Washington with Israel-related issues began with the pro-Israel lobby in AIPAC. "
                                                                             

Qaradawi -His vile hate against Jews pollutes the Middle East with the help of the Emir of Qatar who gives his blessings to his tirades.  

Qatar does some bad things, all right.  The Emir of Qatar is best friends with the despot, Qaradawi who preaches from Qatar.  A former Egyptian who was thrown out of his home country, he has found solace and friendship in Qatar and preaches all over the Middle East on TV his own program which is to hate Israel and destroy it.  Even he himself has said that if he had a Jew in his hands, he would strangle him.  Such a religious man!  He preaches to kill Jews!  

Needless to say, there is skepticism among some supporters of Israel.  One such person is Haim Saban, who has reduced his support of Brookings Institute.  He has been a major funder of their research as he is an Israeli billionaire.  He removed his name from the official title just this year, but will continue funding a series of policy forums.  He of course has strong pro-Israel views but his opinions never influenced Brookings's research.  Brookings staff declined to say what proportion of overall funding for the Middle East Policy will come from Qatar now that Saban is scaling back.  
                                                                        

Notice the Jordan River which divides Israel today from Jordan.  

Perhaps G-d knew that there would be no peace unless one people ruled the Middle East, and he had chosen the Israelites.  For each country has been at odds and usually at each other's throats ever since there have been empires there.  One of the latest was Iran and Iraq.  Now It's ISIS slaughtering their own Muslim people along with Christians.  

Many Israelis have wanted and looked forward to a 2 state solution in order to have this peace they haven't known about since 1948 when they were pronounced Israel among all the other nations of the world.  The idea of having 2 states living side by side in peace and security, each enjoying sovereignty and political independence in part of the land that both claim as their exclusive national home has been a dream of theirs.  It's the religious Jews who have dared to live in their original Judah and Israel, called Samaria today to fullfill their religious obligation.  Many Israelis have opted, as the left has, of only residing in land west of the Jordan River. What the world doesn't realize is that the difference of land parcels  is sometimes only a mile or so apart.   Canada has more land between them from the USA than there is between Israel and Judea-Samaria because once it was all one piece.  

The Palestinians are dictated to by their personal religious beliefs that this was their land.  This is ignorance on their part of not knowing the history of the land, written in the Old Testament, which they do not read.  They read, or some of them do, the Koran in Arabic.  But the world sees them as the Middle Eastern example of the native Americans of North America, a people native to the land living in peace being invaded by WHITE MAN.  True, they were behind  the rest of the world in their culture-mainly in their education, but it isn't the same situation at all.  WHITE MAN had not been on North America before with a country and a government.  Native Americans truly were natives of that land. The Arabs had been held down by rulers only interested in filling their own pockets and living grandiosely in palaces and splendor surrounded by willing women in harems.   This wasn't meant to be according to the Bible, our religious source for our morality.

So now the USA is being guided by the thinkers of Brookings who takes money from a country at odds with the existence of Israel.  We have many countries in the world now being swayed towards Qatar's position on Israel with the events happening such as Syrian refugees entering all their countries as well as refugees from other parts of the Middle East.  G-d forbid that they should be deprived of the much needed oil to run their own economies, so they aren't about to turn them away.  
Besides that, one doesn't turn away people in need of food and shelter and clothing in our culture.  It's the humanitarian thing to do.  

We have a conundrum.  It must be recognized that such guideposts as Brookings, once thought to be on the right, has gone over to the left, and that even thinkers can be motivated by money to think on either side.  Our President is led to think the same ideas as coming from think tanks.  Supposedly the idea once was to put the intelligencia in there and come up with the wisest answers, sort of a replacement of King Solomon, who didn't need a think tank.  The idea is now found with fault.  One has to have safe-guards on even a think tank to save the thinkers and to help them to think wiser.  Oh, we do need help!  

Resource: http://fair.org/extra/brookings-the-establishments-think-tank/
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Brookings_Institution
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/at-fast-growing-brookings-donors-help-set-agenda/2014/10/30/a4ba4e8e-48ef-11e4-891d-713f052086a0_story.html
http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/markaz/posts/2016/01/29-two-state-solution-is-best-kurtzer (Daniel Kurtzer). 
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/features/1.590813
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2008/10/three-obama-advisors-who-promote-plo-as.html (Martin Indyk). 
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2015/06/ambassador-from-usa-against-ambassador.html (Martin Indyk)

NO Proselytiziing, Please, and I'll Tell You Why

Nadene Goldfoot                                                               

Moses with the Strongest Deal in the World
"You shall not recognize the gods of others in My Presence!"
Moses told all of Israel to hear the decrees of the deal.  
"Hashem, our G-d, sealed the deal (a covenant) but with us-we who are here, 
all of us alive, today.
Face to face did Hashem speak with you on the mountain, from amid the fire.  I was standing between Hashem and you at that time, to relate the word of Hashem to you-for you were afraid of the fire and you did not ascend the mountain--saying:
I am Hashem, your G-d, who has taken you out of the land of Egypt, 
from the house of slavery.  "
Remember that this happened in days when Greeks and Romans and Egyptians believed in many gods
and people that were part gods.  This was one of the first 5 commandments we were to learn.The Israelites were children of Abraham and children of others  and had learned that there was
only one G-d in the universe from Abraham, but had been slaves for 400 years of the Egyptians.  
Moses was an adopted Egyptian Prince from the line of Abraham and educated in the Egyptian royal academy.
He wrote the first 5 books of what non-Jews call the OLD TESTAMENT-we Jews call the Torah while on the 40 year trek from Egypt to Canaan, the Jewish Homeland.  

For over 2,000 years, people have been busy proselytizing Jews to follow their other religion, and Jews have remained adamant about not leaving their own religion.  This happened with Christian knights, the Crusaders  from Europe, taking Jerusalem from the Muslims.  The pressure never really stopped, but only got worse when Spain, which had become Catholic, turned against the Jewish population and said it was either conversion time or hit the highway, and if you stayed and continued to remain a Jew, it was the stake for you.  Many who were able to, left for Portugal and other places.  Now I see we have missionaries hitting Sderot on the border of Israel and Gaza who are proselytizing those Jews who have been enduring bombs from Gaza.
                                                                       

Egyptian soldiers drowning in the chase after the Israelites

Here's a message to proselytizers of Christians and of any Muslims who think that Jews are an easy target to convert.  We're not easy targets.  We've lasted in our beliefs for 2,000 years since so many of us had to leave our country in 70 CE , and we're not a stupid people. Moses was our leader and so we Israelites have followed his laws  from about 1311 BCE till today. That's 3,327 years.    Our ancestors who left Egypt as slaves signed an oath with Moses that they would not deviate from our beliefs, and that they would pass on the knowledge to their descendants. It was the deal of all time, a deal stronger than what Donald Trump would make with the Iranians, and we are keepers of our deal with G-d.   Moses had been told things by G-d and our ancestors took it very seriously.  When they didn't, they received punishment.  Moses was special.  He made a believer out of our long ago relatives.  He made it very clear that we were to believe that there was only ONE G-d, and we were to follow commandments that he handed down to Moses.

Jews have always been faced with people who said they were a prophet, and they wound up proving that they weren't.  So false prophets or false messiahs have been in our past history.  Moses warned us that this would happen.  He said, "If there should stand up in your midst a prophet or a dreamer of a dream, and he will produce to you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes about of which he spoke to you, saying, "LET US FOLLOW GODS OF OTHERS THAT YOU DID NOT KNOW AND WE SHALL WORSHIP THEM!," Do not hearken to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of a dream, for Hashem (the NAME)G-d, your G-d, is testing yu to know whether you love Hashem, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul.  Hashem, your G-d, shall you follow and Him shall you fear;  His commandments shall you observe and to His voice shall you hearken;  Him shall you serve and to Him shall you cleave.  Deuteronomy 13: 1-5).  He was talking about false prophets.  Even Christianity has hearkened to this and teaches it; no false prophets.  All 3 religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam accept Moses as a prophet.  Jews see it differently in that Jesus and Mohammad are regarded as false prophets. For Jews, the things that were to take place when the Messiah does come did not happen with Jesus; in fact they were persecuted more, and lost the Temple and their empire and were scattered like grain by the winds of war.  It's in these days that they have been found, harvested back and returning to Israel once again.
                                                                           

Jeremiah, As Michelangelo depicted him

Jews were also reminded of this teaching of Moses by Jeremiah, a later prophet of the 7th-to 6th century BCE. He started to prophecy in 625 BCE, and it was helpful that he belonged to a priestly family of Anathoth near Jerusalem.  His prophecy started with scolding the Jews for their idolatry, and after King Josiah of Judah's  reform in 621 BCE, warned it to keep the covenant then made with G-d.   This was after the Assyrians had attacked Israel in 722, 721 BCE when the best and strongest of the people of 10 of the 12 tribes were kidnapped and taken away.   He was angry about false prophets he was encountering and said that G-d spoke to him saying that, "These prophets prophesy falsehood in MY NAME!  I did not send them nor command them nor speak to them.  A false vision, divination, emptiness, and the deception of their heart are they prophesying to you.  128 years later the Babylonians attacked twice, once in 597 BCE and again in 586 with  Nebuchadnezzar leading his soldiers, they attacked and destroyed the land and took people away.  Jeremiah was a scolder, giving out gloomy news which caused bitter resentment.  It was in 605 BCE, when Nebuchadnezzar sat on his Babylonian throne that Jeremiah said that he would conquer Judah, and was arrested by King Jehoiakim who feared such news would have a bad effect on the people.
                                                                       

Zechariah of 6th Century BCE, prophesied  positive things; about events of the day, foretold prosperity, ingathering  of exiles, liberation from foreign yoke, and expansion of Jerusalem.
  His visions and their interpretation he said were by an accompanying angel.
Encouraged people to rebuild the Temple.  

Zechariah, the Prophet,(born in first half of 6th century BCE) was a prophet living during the period of the return from the Babylonian Exile.   He reminded people that G-d would judge His people through false prophets. He was told by G-d,  "For behold, I am setting up a shepherd in the land:  he will not pay attention to the decimated ones;  he will not seek out the youth;  he will not heal the broken one;  and he will not nurture the weak one;  but he will eat the flesh of the healthy one and break their hooves."  Zechariah was referring the Edom (the Roman Empire), in whose lands the exiled Jews would settle and be maltreated.  Also, Herod, the notorious king placed on the Judean throne by the Romans, who reigned towards the end of the 2nd Temple period.  They were not to be believed or followed.

We almost had a Messiah.  It was a Jewish general, Shimeon ben Kosiba, known as Bar Kokhba (son of a star).   Rabbi Akiba, one of the greatest scholar in Jewish history, believed that Bar Kokhba was the mashiach.

Now we have 2 very similar words to learn. " Mashiach" is a Hebrew word.  The root of it as well spell it out is Mem-shin-chet, which means to paint, smear or annoint.   The word "Moshiah" comes from the root spelled out as Yod-Shin-ayin, which means to help or save.  They both use a shin "sh" which is the most common letter in Hebrew, and the mem "M" which they both start with.  M is a common prefix used to turn a verb into a noun like the verb tzavah (to command) become mitzvah (a commandment).  The word Mashiach is not related to Moshiah.  the logic of that is like saying that "RING" IS RELATED TO SURFING BECAUSE THEY BOTH END IN ING."  The English derivitave of Mashiah is Messiah, the annointed one, the ultimate deliverer and mashiah is used as an adjective referring to kings, who are people that had to be annointed in order to serve the post. which meant that they received Divine sanction and the unique inviolability of status.   Jews do not believe they need saving.  They save themselves by their own mitzvahs-good deeds.
                                                                 

Shimeon Ben Kosiba/ Bar Kokhba, died 135 CE
Charismatic, brilliant revolutionary leader, nephew of Rabbi Eleazar of Modiin
and known to be of Davidic descent.  He had to fight against Hadrian, Roman General.
Letters from him were found near the Dead Sea where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.
The revolt came because the Romans had turned Jerusalem into a Roman colony and the Romans
prohibited circumcision, major factors.  

The prerequisites of the Messiah is that he must be descendant of King David who would be able to break the alien yoke and establish a golden age.  Today with DNA testing, and this would be testing the male line I presume to be of J1 for King David's Y haplogroup, there are many Jewish men carrying this line.  Bar Kokhba almost fit the bill.  He fought the 3 year war from 132 to 135 CE  against the Roman empire and caught the 10th Legion by surprise and retook Jerusalem.  He again resumed sacrifices at the site of the burned Temple and made plans to rebuild it.  He established a provisional government and began to issue coins in his name.  Ultimately, the Romans were stronger and crushed his revolt and killed him, but that was the longest anyone had ever held out against the Romans.  After his death, his followers realized that he was not the talked about Mashiach.

The Jews are waiting for one of  the following to happen.  Some people believe that G-d has a specific date for the man, the mashiach, to appear.  Most feel that the conduct of mankind will decide the time of the mashiach's coming.  He is to come at a time when he is most needed or in a time when he is most deserved.  Perhaps one of these factors will happen to bring him about.
1. If Israel repented a single day
2. If Israel observed a single Shabbat properly
3. If Israel observed 2 Shabbats in a row properly
4. In a generation that is totally innocent or totally guilty
5. In a generation that loses hope
6. In a generation where children are totally disrespectful towards their parents and elders.

Ezekiel ( 6th century BCE Prophet-member of the priestly family of Zadok, may have served in the Temple before its destruction in 586 BCE.  He was exiled before that date to Tel Abib on the river Kebar in Babylonia where he prophecied over a period of about 22 years) said that before the time of the Mashiach, there shall be war and suffering. In Ezekiel  38:16, he said,  "and you advance against My people Israel like a cloud covering the earth.  It will be at the End of Days that I will bring you upon My land, in order that the nations may know Me, when I become sanctified through you before their eyes."  Many people feel we are now in the End of Days.  What with Iran coming into atomic powered weapons such as missiles shortly to be used against Israel, it is no wonder people feel this is happening.

Jews do not believe that the Messiah is any part of G-d or divine in any way, so that is not what we have been waiting and praying for.  Our only salvation comes from G-d, not an intermediary.  Jews do not concern ourselves with the Messiah's identity for he is to be a regular person and his appearance will not change our relationship with G-d.  Any idea that G-d would appear to us in the flesh is abhorant to us.  The idea is like  idolatry and we cannot follow such ideas.

It is not respectful  of anyone in our history from Abraham to Moses to any of the prophets or the 10 Commandments to try to proselytize us to another religion.  It shows disrespect and lack of understanding of what we believe and why.  We haven't proselytized anyone to ours, and the old adage that is found in Jewish teaching of the Golden Rule is to not do to others something you do not want done to you.

After 1985 when I returned from Israel after living there for 5 1/2 years, I heard about some proselytizers who had been in Israel on a kibbutz of Holocaust survivors who had lost their faith in G-d, people who were the most susceptible to these proselytizers, broken people.  They had gone through so much and had survived, to make it and heal again in Israel, and here were the vultures picking on their bones, trying to wean them away from why 6 million of their people had been brutally slaughtered.  They had the chutzpa to brag about it in an interview for a local newspaper.  You can't imagine how angry I was or what I did about it.  So here I am writing, please lay off, proselytizers.  Respect our religion.  You don't have to be Jewish, just respect us as we respect you and yours.  We're not harming you.  In fact, Israel has been doing a lot of mitzvahs in the field of science and has been helping people so much in the medical fields.

Resource:  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/124254#.Vw1dPNQrJkg  Missionary Activity in Sderot
http://www.gty.org/blog/B140210/beware-of-false-teachers
http://www.jewfaq.org/mashiach.htm

http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/monotheism/

http://www.shamash.org/lists/scj-faq/HTML/faq/17-03.html
Tanakh, (Bible) the Stone Edition  which includes prophets, writings, 

Jews of Israel Among the World's Religions and Countries

Nadene Goldfoot                                                        

Catholic Church, St. Peters in Missouri
First Christian religion 1st Century AD (CE) 

As of 2013, there were 7.125 billion people in the world.

China had 1.357 billion people.  .

The USA had 316.5 million people.

The UK had 64.1 million people. 

                                                                         

LDS-Latter Day Saints Mormon Temple, Bismark, North Dakota
Protestant Christian, started in 1820 in New York with Joseph Smith
a religion that has spread all over the world.  

Did you know that Christianity is the largest world religion with 2 billion people?  It's found in:
1. 49 Roman Catholic countries
2. 20 Protestant countries
3. 12 Eastern orthodox countries.
Total countries: 81
                                                                   

Mosque (Islamic Center) in Detroit, Michigan- began in 610 AD (CE)

  Islam is the 2nd largest in the world with 1.6 billion people.  It's found in:
56 Islamic countries.  As of 2011, I had found 48 Muslim majority countries.  Palestine would be the next one if it is created-which would be in land originally ancient Israel.  

The West Bank is Judea and Samaria.  Judea was the southern part of Israel when it divided in 920 BCE after King Solomon died.  Samaria was the land in Israel of the city and surrounding land of their capital.  95-98% of the Palestinian population lives on 40% of the Judea-Samariaan land, leaving 60% almost unpopulated.  Nablus, the largest Palestinian city in Judea-Samaria is surrounded by undeveloped land.  Most Palestinians in Judea-Samaria live in built-up cities and towns  like Nablus and Tulkarm.  Ramallah, another Palestinian city, is the political and economic center of the Palestinian Authority.  
                                                           

Hindu Temple, New Delhi, India started between 500 BCE-300 CE

              
Hinduism is the 3rd largest world religion with 1 billion people.  It's found in 4 Hindu countries. 
                                                                                 

Buddhist Temple-statue or image  of Buddha in every temple 

Buddhism is the 4th largest world religion with 376 million people. It started in 6th century BCE
                                                                       

Neveh Shalom Synagogue in Portland, Oregon with 10 Commandments on building
Judaism started in about 2000 -1500 BCE

Judaism is the smallest and the oldest active world religion, with 14 million people and only 1 country- Israel.

 Between 5-6 million Jews make up 2% of the USA population, and 6 million make up Israel who also have 1.7 million Arabs living with them.  In 1948, there were 160,000 Palestinian Arabs who stayed inside Israel's small borders and because they stayed and did not leave, they became citizens of Israel.  Hebrew and Arabic are Israel's 2 official languages.

2 million other Jews are scattered throughout the world, such as France, Great Britain,  South Africa and others.  Jews make up 0.02% of the world population.

Israel is smaller than New Jersey, one of the USA's smallest states, which is 8,729 square miles.  Israel is only made up of 8,019 square miles.  Israel is so small that it can fit into the state of California 19 times.
                                                                     

Deborah, leader and Judge

Before Israel had kings, they had judges.  Deborah was one of them.  King Saul was Israel's first king in the 11th century BCE.  .  King David was the next king and was born about 1010 BCE and died in 970 BCE.  Jews came to the Promised land before they were even Jews.  It was with Abraham and Sarah who lived in the 2nd millennium BCE or about 1948 BCE..  They in turn had the son Isaac and he was the father of Jacob.  After traveling to Egypt during a famine, they stayed longer than expected and wound up as slaves for 400 years.  They returned to their homeland with Moses.  So they have been natives of Israel for over 3,000 years, and this is proven by archaeological and historical evidence as well as the biblical text.
                                                                   

One find of art work from the Byzantine Period of the 6th century CE was a mosaic showing King David playing the lyre.  This was found in the ancient synagogue in GAZA.  The Israel Museum reported about this.  David was said to be a gingy (red-headed).  This mosaic shows this.

There is reported to be 4,200 religions in the world today.  Some of them are: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Bahá'í Faith, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Slavic neopaganism, Celtic polytheism, Heathenism (German paganism), Semitic neopaganism, Wicca, Kemetism (Egyptian paganism), Hellenism, Italo-Roman neopaganism.

Resource:  Israel Pocket Facts produced by StandWithUs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Catholic_Church
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormonism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Buddhism
http://members.bib-arch.org/publication.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=37&Issue=1&ArticleID=15
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religions_and_spiritual_traditions
https://www.google.com/search?noj=1&q=how+many+people+in+the+world%3F&oq=how+many+people+in+the+world%3F&gs_l=serp.3..0l6.3671.9221.0.10191.29.15.0.13.13.0.286.1856.2j10j1.13.0....0...1c.1.64.serp..3.26.2011.Yy269M-HHB4

Where Religion and Politics Are Interwoven; What's the Difference?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                                

The goal of this 4,000 year old religion of Judaism has  been used  to control a population's behavior by laying down standards that improve their morality.  Yet we do not use any policing.  It's up to the individual.   We have the story of Abraham's nephew, Lot, who lived in Sodom, inhabited by people who had no morals at all. If they had a religion, it had nothing to do with their morals.   A mob outside his home  wanted to sodomize the strangers in Lot's house.

We also feel that all will be good when we die and trust in what G-d has in store for us if we have tried to follow the Torah and 10 Commandments.  The orthodox believe in the resurrection of the dead at the end of time.  Judaism places its emphasis on practical religion instead of dogma.  The essence of this religion is the Golden Rule, do not do to others what you do not want done to you.  We do not think about being saved by anyone or thing except by our own actions.  NO one can do that for us.  So when people accuse us of some horrid act that we would not want done to us, we cringe at the idea of people thinking we could do such things.  Leftist thinking has been led by Jews committed to saving the world from itself, and in doing good deeds (mitzvot).  This has happened so often that Jews themselves forget that they also have rights, only recently received-mainly since immigrating to the USA and in Israel.

One can say that G-d will protect us, the people who took the responsibility of all 10 Commandments, but G-d also helps those who help themselves, so we must use our brains and work very hard to stay alive in a hostile world; especially in our neighborhood.  We have the whole world judging our every move while they ignore the serious deadly acts of others.

   The morality of the people is part of the service and worship of G-d or the supernatural, a higher power.  It's a commitment or devotion to their religious faith or observance system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices.  Religion is a cause, a principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith.  A religion's morality should be an improvement of behavior designed to bring about peace; something good for the people as well as the planet.  Morality evolves with different groups of people.  Human sacrifice has been part of many religious people over the centuries.  Isaac, Abraham's son, was asked by G-d to sacrifice his son, Jacob, but was stopped and thus brought about human sacrifice to an end.  The Incas sacrificed people at a much later date.  Cannibalism has been found in Africa, less than 100 years ago.

USA 1933-1945 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt , where religion and politics are not to mix being the country is made up of many religions and standards.

                                                                           

King Solomon of Israel (961-920 BCE)  The government
must follow the laws of Judaism.

The goal of politics is the art or science of governing.  It is concerned with guiding or influencing governmental policy.  Those involved are concerned with winning and holding control over a government..  It includes the political actions and policies and business.  There is competition between competing interest groups or individuals for power and leadership in a government.  Political activities  are characterized by artful and often dishonest practices.  It includes the total complex of relations between men in society.  Saddam Hussein ruled with an iron hand.  So did the Romans.  Any infringement whatsoever and the Judeans were crucified, left hanging with rotting bodies as a lesson to the people to be subordinate.  .
                                                                           

Hammurabi, an Amorite, King of Babylon 1725-1686 BCE and the sun god, Shamash-god of justice.  Hammurabi is known for the set of laws called Hammurabi's Code, which constitute one of the earliest surviving codes of law in recorded history
Moses came along later in 1391-1271 BCE from tribe of Levi and received the 10 Commandments

Hammurabi stele

The Law Code of King Hammurabi found on a stele is quite similar to the 10 Commandments of Moses.  This stele was found in Shusan, capital of Persia (Iran).  "Shushan, which lies 200 miles east of Babylon, was the capital of ancient Elam (Susiana), and later the winter palace of the Persian kings. It was the scene of many biblical events in the time of Daniel, Nehemiah, Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus (Xerxes).  It's what the king used to govern.  Judaism made improvements on these laws, found to be somewhat similar. 

 "Both state that stealing would not be tolerated and was looked down upon. Murder was also looked down upon and adultery was a grave offense. These are where the likeness stops."  "Both the Ten Commandments and Hammurabi’s Code served as the bases for criminal justice system in the Hebrew and Babylonian people and set the base line for people to strive to be truthful and do no harm to one another.  "

It looks like many fail to even live up to the Hammurabi Code today let alone the Mosaic Law.  
                                                                             

Abraham of 2nd millennium BCE

As I wrote before, religion created the state of Israel in the beginning.  Judaism was depending on its population to be living in a particular area, which was  Canaan.  The Israelites were a group who had already become monotheistic through their originator and father, Abraham, who is also father of the Arabs through his first son,  Ishmael.  Before his revelations of a oneness of G-d, his people had been idol worshippers and his father, Terah,  was an idol maker.  Moses, a child of Israelites, had been brought up as an Egyptian Prince, but was tapped by G-d at age 80 to lead the Israelite slaves out of Egypt and into Canaan to be the future priests of the concepts he was to receive.
                                                                         

1917 French soldiers in Syria when Ottoman Empire and Germany lost the war against the West 

All throughout history, countries have been coveting others' land and have killed for it, 2 things listed on the 10 Commandments of what not to do.  So they have thought very little of these 10 Commandments brought by Moses for the world.  The list of  10 are even kept out of public places in the USA as something walking over other religion's rights.  They are not evidently seen as something for all.  Think what the world could have been like if everyone was able to follow all 10 laws.  The first 5 are about man's duties to G-d.  The second 5 are about man responsibilities to his fellow-man.
                                                                         

2015 and bloody ISIS slayers acting like Medieval killers cutting off heads The shock and awe of this group is that they actually attract like people and many join up with them from other countries.  Evidently there are a lot of meshugenas in the world who have no moral conduct.  

ISIS is doing it again, coveting Syria and Iraq and the rest of the Middle East.  They want the Levant and then plan on more.  They are acting out their religious beliefs as Salafists are the extreme group of Islamists.

 What is Putin acting out of besides coveting more land of Ukraine and Crimea and taking it?  His religion and politics come from atheism which disavows the existence of any higher power to govern our lives. Atheism is the disbelief in the existence of a deity.  It's ungodliness.  They will not even believe in one unseen G-d as we do.  For them there is no higher power.  Things just happen, evidently. They do not question how the universe got here, or rely strictly on scientific interpretation, which leaves some holes in their theory, like the power behind it all that got it started.  They do not need a code or set of laws to know what is right and what is wrong.  For them they go by their instincts.  We hope most people would know instinctively what is right and what is wrong, but then ask the police why they have so many in jails and prisons?  Evidently there are those who either don't know or don't care. A little guidance helps. Children need to be taught.    
                                                                                   

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, -head of government- puppet of Ayatollah who rules the realm. 

Neda Agha Soltan, Iranian student killed in Arab Spring Demonstration, a girl just watching.  

Ayatollah Khamenei b: July 16, 1939, Supreme Religious leader of Iran-Head of State

"The 1979 Constitution designated the Supreme Leader of Iran as the head of state and the President and Prime Minister as the heads of government. The post of Prime Minister was abolished in 1989."

The Shi'ite religion of the Ayatollah threatens Israel verbally with extinction.  Now their government has finagled methods of which to get their hands on atomic power and threaten that in a few years, Israel will be no more.  They call themselves a people of religion.  What kind of religion is this whose chief motivation in the world it to destroy Israel?  Coveting, killing are but 2 of the 10 commandments they break in this. 
                                                                           
 In the beginning of the Arab Spring a movement heading towards democratic power, the Iranian government mowed down anyone acting out in the crowd and punished them quickly.  It was like being doused with cold water.  It ended.  They rule with a strong and deadly hand. They do not worry about political correctness in the way Americans do. 

                                                                       

1. Many states are Islamic states.  Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Somalia-which is threatening Kenya and Mauritania belong to this group. Palestine, if and when created, will be one.  They have stated that no Jews will be able to live in their state.  

2. Islam is the state religion of Bangladesh, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Malaysia, Tunisia, Tajikistan, Libya, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Comoros, Qatar, Brunei and Maldives. 

3. Announcing NO religion is Indonesia, Sudan, Syria, Sierra Leone, Lebanon and  Albania.  These are states who are Muslim majority in population. This means the government does not get involved in the religion of the people.

4. Some states are secular such as:  Nigeria, Turkey, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Niger, Burkina, Mali,  Senegal, Guinea, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Chad, Kosovo, The Gambia, Djibouti, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.  All these are of Muslim majority states as well.  Secular means: indifference, or rejection or exclusion of religion and religious consideration.  These governments are saying they do not mix in with religion or use religion in their governmental decisions. Turkey has become more religious with their present president.  A lot depends on what beliefs the leaders have as to how much seeps into the governmental decisions.  

The USA is a secular state.  There  is Separation of church and state.  

The state religion of Israel is Judaism. It is the ONLY Jewish state in the world.   When Israel was more secular under the last king, King Solomon, and was more involved with other states and such, it divided when Solomon died so that they could follow their own way of governing and the southern part became Judah.  Being a small state to begin with compared to empires, they became vulnerable to the attacking Assyrians and then later the Babylonians.  Today, Jews have become  almost extinct through the Holocaust, down to only 14 million people worldwide-6 million only in Israel, a very tiny country.  The religion, in order to survive, is again thriving in their  Jewish state run with Jewish values and must remain this way.  Don't worry.  Judaism may be 4,000 years old, but it updates constantly and keeps up with the times.  It is not a medieval religion.  

                                                                      

 It cannot become  another Lebanon where Christians who were the government were overpowered by their Muslim majority population. Today, Israel is 75-80% Jewish and 20-25 % Muslim.  

Resource:  Webster's 7th New Collegiate Dictionary.
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2015/10/khazarians-karaites-tatars-and-jews-of.html
https://www.gci.org/bible/torah/steal10
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Hammurabi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_Iran
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_state
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Muslim-majority_countries
http://notsoscholarly.notsogeeky.info/compare-and-contrasting-hammurabis-code-and-ten-commandments/