Zionists

[bassarovguest]

Hagana was originally a Jewish militant group during the 1920s-1940s in Palestine which sought to liberate Palestine from British colonial rule and defend Jewish settlements there ( due to immigration related to fascism in Europe among other things)

When Israel became a state in 1948, I believe Hagana became the Israeli Defense Forces

I think Zinn would know more on this.

[Raz Nili Ze'ev]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagana

((If no one minds, I am going to invent a history of what happened between the end of that article and the present in the RPG.))

Israel was a staunch ally of the United States througout their failed war on terror. Israel was forced to remain out of the actual fighting because of their position in the Middle East, but they provided some of the best training, weapons, and research to their ally, the United States, in return for protection from official military attacks. However, about a three hundred years into the war, things got uglier. The Palestinians had always commited various suicide bombings against the Israelis, but in 2327, a suicide bomber got his hands on an outdated nuclear weapon that was marked for disposal. The entire city of Tel Aviv was leveled. Israel had improved clean up capabilities, so the radioactivity wasn't a problem. However, the destruction of an entire city caused a fervor of violence against the Palestinians. Then, it surfaced that the bomber had recieved his weapon from Iran. Israel officially entered the war. Israel continued to produce top notch weapons, and it is even rumored that they had the prototype for an artificial, perfect soldier. However, the Islamic nations surrounding Israel descended upon the small country. Then, Saudi Arabia stopped sending oil to the United States. The United States suffered a huge economic slump. Thankfully, Israel had been developing alternative energy, due to the fact they are the only country in the Middle East with no oil. The damage was done though. The northern half of Israel was lost, including Jerusalem. Egypt was the only Middle Eastern country to remain out of the conflict. However, Egypt experienced an Islamic extremist revolution. With their new government, they took the southern half of Israel. What was left of the Israeli Defense Forces and the Mossad joined together to create Hagana again. Hagana became the major civilian militia group. The Jews in Israel suffered a great loss at the hands of the Islamic extremists that gained control of Israel. Some were able to gain access as refugees to various other parts of the world, but most were either killed, or forced into the Negev. Hagana managed to gain control of the the rebuilt city of Tel-Aviv. They have been holding a position there ever since. The United States offered economic support until the collapse in 2507. Then the Communist revolution took place. When Red Infinity was established, Hagana was labeled a terrorist organization. Hagana and Israel had always gained most of their funding from The United States, so they were temporarily destabilized. Faced with a new, greater threat, various Islamic groups turned their attention away from the Jews and towards Red Infinity, forming an uneasy truce. Hagana adjusted quicky, and is currently in no danger of going away. Tel-Aviv is still a Hagana controlled city. It is more like a military base than a city, it is completely self-sufficient, and is is so well fortified that Red Infinity hasn't been able to destroy it, despite the fact they have been trying for years. Not even dragon attacks were enough. It is surrounded by some sort of energy sheild that Red Infinity hasn't been able to duplicate. The Israelis are the source of most of the arms on the black market. They have been somewhat inactive for a while, but are always planning a way to regain the Jewish homeland. Jerusalem is the most dangerous place on Earth for any member of Hagana, even more dangerous than Moscow or Beijing.

I think if we ever get enough nationalists, a rebel UN sort of thing for helping relations between various nationalist factions would be neat.


Tel-Aviv follows the same laws Israel used for their military. All people 18 or over are required to join Hagana, unless they have a religious objection, or if they are deemed medically unfit. If either of the previous is the case, then the person in question is assigned to maitenance, food, electricity, the ionization plant, or one of the many jobs needed to support the city. Tel-Aviv is first and formost a military base, and it is run like one.

Here is some information about the elite strike force, the Palmach, that Raz belongs to.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmach


Here is some information about Krav Maga, an Israeli martial art.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krav_Maga
It is the only martial art that has specific forms that show a person how to deal with someone that has a machine gun.

There are six sections of Hagana.
1) General soldiers
2) Medical and research staff.
3) Support staff (cooks, farmers, factory workers, plumbers, etc.)
5) Palmach- the elite strike force. They do stuff like sabotage, assasinations, and other more delicate operations. Also, many members of the Palmach and Mossad have been augmented. None of the augmentations are genetic, and Hagana does not experiment with cloning, since these practices violate Jewish ethics.
6) The Mossad- spies and espionage (spies, hackers, etc.)

[Raz Nili Ze'ev]

Here is a glossary of Jewish terms. Sorry for double posting, but I don't know if there is enough room on my last one.



The things wrapped around the guy's head and arm are called tefillin. Here is some info on teffilin.
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/tefillin.html

The hat thing he has on is a kippah (or yamulke in yiddish). Here is some information on kippot.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kippah

The shawl think he has is called a tallit (or tallis in yiddish)
Here is some information about tallits.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallit


In more feminist sects of Judaism, woman can wear tefillin, kippas, and, tallits too.

A siddur is a prayer book.

The Torah is the Jewish holy scroll. The scroll itself cannot be touched by human hands, so a special pointer made fo a precious metal called a "yad" literally meaning hand in Hebrew, is used. Also, if The Torah is dropped, everyone present must fast for forty days (but can eat after sundown.) When the person holding the Torah is standing, or the ark that The Torah is kept in is opened, everyone stands. It takes approximately two years to make a Torah. All of the words are inscribed in a special caligraphy, on a special kind of parchment. When a Torah is no longer readable, it is either buried, or kept in a special vault. In traditional Judaism, The Torah is the word of God. The Pentateuch was the first translation of The Torah to another language, Greek. The Torah is only the first five books.

Kaballah is Jewish mysticism. Here is some info on that.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaballah

Talmud is a series of discussions between some of the most important Rabbis about Jewish law. All of the writing is inscribed as a conversation, making it a little hard to read.
Here is some more info on Talmud.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmud


Info on Midrashim
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midrash

Info on Tanach
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanakh

If anyone is curious, I read Toldot (Generations) for my Torah parsha (portion), and Malachi (My Messenger/ Angel. Messenger and angel are synonymous in Hebrew) for my Haftarah portion for my Bat Mitzvah.

Oh wait, I forgot that. This probably isn't going to come up but..
Bar Mitzvah- coming of age ceremony for a boy.
Bat Mitzvah- Coming of age ceremony for a girl.
B'nei Mitzvot- plural.

Interesting fact: Ezra means "My court/help is God." Court and help are synonymous in Hebrew.

The name Michael means "Who is like God?"

The name Samuel means "Name of God."

Ariel means Lion of God in Hebrew.

In Jewish tradition, the true name of God is lost. It is also traditionally seen as being very, very powerful. Check out some stuff about the kotel, King Solomon and his battles with the king of demons Ashmodai, and the Golem. God goes by many titles. Here is some information on that.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adonai

A yeshiva is parochial school.

Here is a little information on the Kibbutz movement. This article isn't very good, but oh well.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibbutz

Here is some additional information on the Zionist movement.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zionism

[Matsumura]

The name Dominick means "belonging to God"
The name Ivan means "God is good"

[Raz Nili Ze'ev]

Dominick is from Latin.

Ivan means "God's Gracious Gift" in Russian. It is also the Russian variant of the name John.

[Matsumura]

Ahhhh, ok. Gotcha. Got any others?

[Raz Nili Ze'ev]

There's a whole website that I can't find right now. I'll post it later.

[Matsumura]

ok, that's cool. I know a bunch of Latin ones, if you're ever curious.

[Matsumura]

Hey, there's also Emanuel, which is derived from Hebrew and means "God is with us"

((sorry for the double post))

[Nuru Askari]

My character is a nationalist from Eritrea. However, the nationalist movement was crushed entirely by Red Infinity.

Eritrea is a country in Eastern Africa bordering Ethiopia and the Red Sea.

It has a long history of conflict since it fought a 30 year war of independance against Ethiopia which only ended in 1991 when the government's forces were defeated by rebel forces. Eritrea became fully independant via a referendum in 1993 est. national sovereignty. However peace has been unstable there. Fighting broke out again in 1998 and lasted 2 years, ending only as the result of UN intervention. Since then, the UN has monitored the border zones.

The dominant religious groups there are Muslims and Christians.

The economy is mainly based upon subsistance farming.

Overall, my character is a primitivist, nationalist, and pro UN.

[Raz Nili Ze'ev]

Update on Hagana history: General Hebrew word "Rav Aluf") Pinchas Dagan was the most recent leader of Hagana. He was generally mild, and wasn't a particularly good organizer. He was excellent at making and keeping allies. His work helped keep the delicate peace between the Islamic rebel group and Hagana together. He was also very popular. His views were similar to the modern day Labor Party in Israel.

Dagan died in the attack on Tel-Aviv. His body wasn't found, but it is generally presumed he was incinerated.

Major General (Hebrew word "Aluf") Sharon Ben Yitzhak has replaced Dagan. She is known for being a very poor diplomat. She believes militantly that the Jews are the chosen people, and she feels the need to exert that by force. She has also insulted the Islamic rebels on several occasions. She has a small, but fanatical following. Her views are most similar to the modern day Likkud Party.

www.rankinsignia.info/browse.php?kontinent=&stat=Israel
Here's a link about Israeli military ranks.

Raz is a Segen (Lieutenant).

Update: Raz has been promoted to a major (rav-seren) (due to shortages for leadership positions, she has skipped the rank of captain. (seren))

The sixteen members members of the Palmach led a coup against Ben Yitzhak, after she attempted to kill them by ordering them to attack the machine god directly, and she was mismanaging funds. (Major, now technically General) David Simone was elected leader. Even though he did not have the highest rank, he was democratically elected. Usually, Hagana works by sucession of rank.

There are a handful of non-military Jewish communities that Hagana offers protection for. Capital City had the largest urban one, before Red Infinity took over after the FRA's collapse. Red Infinity hasn't moved against the community yet, but the danger is there.