Kadesh and Sinai, my current theory.

99% of everything in the post on Kadesh and Sinai I made last year I still stand by. You should read all of it before this. 

https://solascripturachristianliberty.blogspot.com/2025/02/kadesh-and-sinai-were-not-in-arabia-or.html

But in that post I had not settled on a final specific theory, and there is one key thing said there I have changed my mind on, again.

I have returned to thinking Kadesh-Barnea and Meribah-Kadesh are different locations.  

The primary reason for seeing them as the same is that Barnea in Numbers 34 seems to serve the same role in defining Israel's southern border as "the Waters of Strife at Kadesh" in Ezekiel 47-48.  But if both are south of the border then that can work fine. 

I suggested even back then that Numbers 13:26 perhaps never meant to use Kadesh as a proper place name.  And so Kadesh-Barnea in that case is only called Kadesh as if it's a place name in hindsight, after they've left it. 

And the fact is Numbers 20 does begin with language that only makes sense as saying they just arrived at this Kadesh, not that they are still in the place they had been since chapter 12 or 13.  And the wilderness they are in is Zin no longer Paran.

Naturally this means the Kadesh in Numbers 33 (where that name is only in verses 36-37) is Meribah-Kadesh.  And indeed Paran was back in Numbers 10-12 a wilderness they entered right after leaving Hazeroth.  Meaning it would in Numbers 33 start with Rithmah and perhaps extend all the way to Ebronah. And based on the 11 days journey clue maybe Kadehsbarnea could be identified with specifically Tahath in verse 26.

I mentioned in last's years post briefly considering Gabal Sin Bishar as Sinai/Horeb and agreeing with Ptolemy on the Wadi Feiran being Paran, I'm now going all in on that except I do think Paran as a wilderness extend beyond that River to refer to the entire Sinai south of a certain point..

As fun as the idea of Mainstream Sinai actually being Kadesh should be, I think the Mountain area from which the spies were sent to spy out the land perhaps makes most sense as Hashem el-Tarif.

I now believe Meribah-Kadesh is Ain Qedies and the Mt Hor where Aaron went to sleep is Har Karkom.   And from there they crossed into modern Jordan.  But I suppose a viable alternative in Har Karkoum as Meribah-Kadesh and then Mount Hor being the proposed site by Petra.

Nazi-CIA-Palestine Pipeline

When it comes to talking about what surviving German Nazis did after WW2, the most popular topic is Leftists talking about the Nazis who became CIA assets and operatives, Renhaird Gehlen, Klaus Barbie, Paul Dickopf and the scientists involved in Paper Clip.  

The second would be Zionists talking about the Nazis who went on serve at the disposal of Anti-Zionist Arab Nationalists, Walter Rauff and Alois Brunner in Syria, the countless who were employed by Nasser in Egypt like Johann von Leers, and many were helping the Arab Liberation Army during the Israel-Palestine War in 1947-49 but they don't have their own Wikipedia pages.

But the thing is these two stories are not as separate from each other as one’s binary assumptions about Cold War Era allegiances would assume. For starters many escaped capture at the end of the War via the exact same Ratlines. 

The section of the Wikipedia Page for Walter Rauff on his time in Syria is unclear about exactly where he stood in relation to the various Coups that happened in Syria. This article is more specific.

https://newlinesmag.com/essays/a-nazi-taught-interrogation-tactics-to-syrians-and-egyptians/

Walter Rauff worked for Husani al-Zarim specifically the entire time he was in Syria and according to a Sami Jumaa helped Zarim carry out the March 1949 Coup. That Coup was also backed by the CIA via Miles Copeland Jr, the December Coup is what resulted in him leaving Syria. So there is little doubt in my mind that Rauff was a CIA asset during his entire post War career, both in Syria and later in Chile working for the CIA backed Pinochet. The Syrian political party that benefited from the March Coup was the SSNP, Syrian Social Nationalist Party, the same Party that later opposed Israel during the Lebanon Civil War. 

Antisemitic Conspiracy Theorists, in addition to falling for the bad leaps in logic all Conspiracy Theorists fall for, are also in blind ignorance of the fact that the U.S. “Deep State” has never been Pro-Israel. Miles Copeland, Kemrit Roosevelt Jr and Archibald Roosevelt Jr were open about how strongly Anti-Zionist they were.  The Dulles Brothers had spoken on it less explicitly but their close associations with St John Philby and James Forrestal show how they were never friends to Israel either. And OSS operative James Burnham wrote Anti-Israel articles for National Review.

Returning to the topic at hand, the CIA via Kermit Roosevelt also backed the Coup that put Nasser in power in Egypt in 1952. Many of those Nazi’s who Nasser employed were recommended to him by Gehlen. Nasser was already known to be a Fascist, he was a Green Shirt back in the 30s. Both Kermit Roosevelt and Miles Copeland remained close associates of Nasser for years.  And John Foster Dulles was responsible for the Eisenhower Administration's decision to save Nasser from Israel during the Suez Crisis, one of America’s most shameful sins.

There's also reports that Alois Brunner had been part of for the Gehlen Organization at some point.

Paul Dickopf was a known CIA asset and a life long friend of Franocis Genoud, a Swiss Banker who supported the Nazis before and during WW2 and spent his post war life funding various Anti-Zionist Arab Nationalist causes.  Among them was George Habash’s Popular Front for The Liberation of Palestine which is nominally Marxist-Lennist but in my view is really a NazBol party.  

Dickopf'a CIA ties and Genoud’s influence in the Middle East helped him become head of Interpol in 1968 which he held till 1972. His Wikipedia page avoids this topic, but there are investigations that have shown him to have been involved in Munich in 1972.  Ali Hassna Salamah, the leader of Black September is also known to have been a CIA asset since 1970. 

Now a Conspiracy Theorist would conclude from these two things that Munich was a CIA op, which I have said cheekily in some tweets and youtube comments.  But my real view is that the CIA probably didn’t intentionally cause Munich but they are absolutely culpable. 

After 1967 America’s Foreign Policy in the Middle East became officially more Pro-Israel and less Neutral.  But behind the scenes I’m convinced this true Anti-Israel agenda never went away.