Executive Summary
If the current rate of fire continues, by the end of 2008, over 4,500 rockets and mortar shells will have been fired by Palestinian terrorist organisations based in Gaza.
Since 2001 rocket and mortar shell fire has been directly responsible for the deaths of 24 Israelis and the wounding of 620. This statistic does not take into account the massive psychological cost borne by the 190,000 Israelis who live within striking range. With a population almost ten times that of Israel, the corresponding UK figures would be 240 killed and 6,200 wounded in a city the size of Newcastle.
The problem with rockets predates the Hamas coup in Gaza, the winning by Hamas of the PA elections and the 2005 disengagement from Gaza. Indeed Israel’s western Negev communities have endured 7 years of relentless rocket and mortar shell fire.
For comparative purposes, note that the July 7 2005 suicide bombers each detonated 5-7kg suicide bombs killing 52 civilians and wounding 700. The average rocket fired from Gaza contains 7-8kg of explosives.
Alsop matthew, what you do or do not is your own business an the Term Goyim is perfectly correct Hebrew for the term Gentile.
The word gentile is an anglicised version of the Latin word gentilis, meaning of or belonging to a clan or tribe. In the King James and various other versions of the Bible it is used to refer to non-Israelite tribes or nations, as an English translation of the Hebrew words goy / ??? and nochri / ????. It is also used to translate the New Testament Greek word ?????/ethnoi. Today, the primary meaning of gentile is ‘non-Jew’.
Latin etymology
Gentile derives from Latin gens (from which, together with forms of the cognate Greek word genos, also derive gene, general, genus and genesis). The original meaning of “clan” or “family” was extended in post-Augustan Latin to acquire the wider meaning of belonging to a distinct nation or ethnicity. Later still the word came to mean “foreign,” i.e. non-Roman. After the Christianization of the empire it could also be used of pagan or barbarian cultures.
[edit] In the Bible
In Saint Jerome’s Latin version of the Bible, the Vulgate, gentilis was used in this wider sense, along with gentes, to translate Greek and Hebrew words with similar meanings that referred to the non-Israelite peoples.
The most important of such Hebrew words was goyim (singular, goy), a term with the broad meaning of “peoples” or “nations” which was sometimes used to refer to Israelites, but most commonly as a generic label for other peoples. Strongs Concordance defines goy as “nation, people usually of non-Hebrew people, or of descendants of Abraham of Israel, or of a swarm of locusts or other animals (fig.) Goyim = ‘nations’. Strongs #1471[1]
In the KJV Gentile is only one of several words used to translate goy or goyim. It is translated as “nation” 374 times, “heathen” 143 times, “Gentiles” 30 times, and “people” 11 times. Some of these verses, such as Genesis 12:2 and Genesis 25:23 refer to Israelites or descendants of Abraham. Other verses, such as Isaiah 2:4 and Deuteronomy 11:23 are generic references to any nation. Typically the KJV restricts the use of Gentile as a translation when the text is specifically referring to non-Israelites. For example, the only use of the word in Genesis is in chapter 10, verse 5, referring to the peopling of the world by descendents of Japheth, “By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.”
In the New Testament, the word translates Greek terms for peoples in general, and is used specifically to indicate non-Jewish peoples, as in Jesus’s command to the apostles in Matthew chapter 10,
These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Here Gentiles becomes a synonym for pagan cultures of the period.
Altogether, the word is used 123 times in the King James Version of the Bible[4] and 168 times in the New Revised Standard Version
Modern usage
As in the King James Bible, from the 17th century onwards gentile was most commonly used to refer to non-Jews. This was in the context of European Christian societies with a Jewish minority. For this reason Gentile commonly meant persons brought up in the Christian faith, as opposed to the adherents of Judaism, and was not typically used to refer to non-Jews in non-Western cultures.
Main article Mormonism and Judaism.
In the terminology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (“LDS Church”; see also Mormon) the word Gentile takes on different meanings in different contexts, which may confuse some and alienate others. Members of the LDS church regard themselves as regathered Israelites, and so sometimes use the word “Gentile” to refer to non-members. In such usage Jews may be colloquially referred to as “Gentiles” because they are not members of the LDS Church. However, the traditional meaning is also to be found in the introduction to the Book of Mormon, in the statement that it is written to both “Jew” (literal descendants of the House of Israel) and “Gentile” (those not descended from the House of Israel or those of the tribe of Ephraim scattered among the “Gentiles” throughout the earth).
In order to avoid confrontation and pejorative connotations, Latter-day Saints in the 21st century avoid using the term “Gentile” in everyday matters, preferring “non-member”. “Gentile” is usually reserved for discussions of scriptural passages.
[edit] Footnotes and References
1. ^ Searched [1] for goy.
2. ^ Genesis 10:5
3. ^ Matthew chapter 10
4. ^ Did a search for “Gentile” in KJV. Used BibleGateway.com. It returned 123 results of the word “Gentile”. Accessed 11-Feb-2007.
5. ^ Kohlenberger, John. The NRSV Concordance Unabridged. Grand Rapids, MI:Zondervan, 1991
We all had an email recently from Lorna Fitzsimmons about how many rockets have fallen on Sderot, and how to advocate in the event that Israel mounts an attack on Gaza. All a bit like teaching your granny how to suck eggs.
All BICOM is in the business of is not rocking the boat. It doesn’t have the remit to make representations to influential politicians in the UK on our behalf. I signed up to their mailing list and all I seem to get from them is old news. This rather begs the question – what is the point of BICOM?
Samuel Fistel, your language is insulting to the extreme, particularly the use of the word “goyim”. I am a “goy” to all intents and purposes and you run the huge risk of alienating those of us goyim who wish Israel well and want to help her. You seem angry and bitter and this is the Jewish face our detractors see. Why not tone it down a bit, realise Israel has friends from all religions and walks of life? If you don’t work with them you’ll lose their support and let’s face it, Israel needs all the friends she can get.
Gary- Probably not?
Samuel: You forgot the Jews both here and in the Diaspora. The Jews here who return taxes collected from them. Give them free electric,water,telephone services, medical aid and treat the worst of the chronically ill that they can’t properly care for. we release their terrorist men and women after serving less than half their sentences, and import their agriculture putting some of our own farmers in debt due to low competitive prices. They steal on average over 40 thousand cars, cattle horses, beehives,tractors, forklifts, supply a high percentaged of narcotics and other banned drugs to our youth, build without permits on every bit of open space they can tag, They pay little or no taxes, and our Govt. gives the weapons and ammunition as well as training. Diaspora jews at least those who still care support blindly the peace process and most couldn’t care if Israel lives or fall. More than 90% have never been to Israel and have no desire to do so. Most are ignorant of their traditional religion, history and culture.
The Jews have to be down and out before they rise to their potential as a united people with purpose and will. we are now I believe heading in that direction.
Teshuva, Don’t Leave the World Without It
Goyim spinning out of control:
1. The thousands of rockets raining down on Israel are bought and paid for by Europe and America, either directly as “aid” money given to the Philistinians, or indirectly as money paid to the Saudi head choppers and Iranian stone-age savages in return for a tank of gas for your eight liter all wheel drive SUV.
2. After the billions of dollars given the Philistinians, they have nothing to show for it: no roads, no colleges, no factories, no salaries for their officials or police, yet they never run out of bombs and bullets to supply their heroic martyrs, whose reward from Allah for killing a Jewish baby is eternity in paradise with 72 virgin-angels.
3. And yet, despite this, according to the goyim, Israel is the real devil (the little satan), and in an even stranger theological twist, Israel is the Philistine bully Goliath, and the muslim killers of Jewish babies are the plucky heroic Jewish future King David. This allows the goyim to find endless excuses and justifications for the muslim murderers, while threatening Israel with international war crimes every time Israel attempts to defend itself.
4. The children of the nazis have reorganized themselves as the European Union. They desire the destruction of Israel as fanatically as their fathers pursued the genocide of the European Jews. And since they are actually fanatics, who are just masquerading as liberal, enlightened, and rational, it is as futile to try to reason with them as it was with Hitler their father.
Debka has announced that the Gazans plan to storm the Israeli border on Monday. I am interested in hearing from military experts if Israel is prepared to show some toughness or if they will be so worried about public perceptions, peace processes and international condemnations (and overwhelming international support for Palestinian terrorism) that it will be a military disaster.