Israel, Japan Agree to Cooperate on Defense, Technology


In May 2014, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in Japan for a week of bi-lateral talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and other officials, told Japanese lawmakers that both Israel and Japan face rogue nations with dangerous nuclear programs.

     “There is a common bond between us,” Netanyahu told members of the Israel Japan Parliamentary Friendship League. “We’re both democratic, progressive, technological societies.

     “You face North Korea, which is a rogue regime with nuclear weapons.  We face the possibility of Iran, which is a rogue regime that wants to have nuclear weapons.  They’re cooperating between them, and we should cooperate between us.”  (JPost) 

At a meeting Tuesday with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, Netanyahu said, "We are interested in peace and stability throughout the world.  We see a danger and a challenge posed by a rogue state [Iran] arming itself with nuclear weapons.”

     “I think yesterday's UN report is another example of how Iran continues to deceive the world and advance its nuclear program.  Clearly the Ayatollahs cannot be trusted and if the international community wants to avoid the specter of nuclear terrorism, they must assure that Iran, the foremost sponsor of terrorism on the planet, not have the capability to develop nuclear weapons.  This is our number one concern but I think it should be shared by everyone who is concerned by the proliferation of nuclear terrorism and nuclear weapons,” he said.

     The Prime Minister also discussed the possibility of a technological and economic partnership with Japan.

One in Four People "Deeply Infected" with Anti-Semitism

 "The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; He will remove His people's disgrace from all the earth."  (Isaiah 25:8)

In an unprecedented global survey, the Anti-Defamation League has found that more than one in four adults worldwide (1.09 billion people) hold deeply stereotypical and negative views toward Jews, with the top 16 countries having the greatest percentages of anti-Semitism found in the Middle East.

     Greece and Turkey tie for 17th with Eastern Europe and other Muslim-based nations ranking close behind. Judea-Samaria-Gaza, Iraq, and Yemen top the charts with index scores of 93%, 92%, and 88%, respectively. Palestinians aged 50 and older scored high at 98 percent, with their younger counterparts in the 18–49 range scoring 92 percent, the study concluded.

     “For the first time we have a real sense of how pervasive and persistent anti-Semitism is today around the world,” said Abraham H. Foxman, national director of ADL.  "We can now identify hotspots, as well as countries and regions of the world where hatred of Jews is essentially nonexistent.”  (Times of Israel) Foxman was rescued by a Polish Catholic woman during the Holocaust.

     According to the poll data, Protestant-majority nations are on the lower end of the spectrum when it comes to anti-Semitism. The scores reported only 9% of people surveyed in the United States are anti-Semitic, a drop from 29% in a 1964 ADL survey.  (Wall Street Journal) 

     Laos had the lowest percentage at 0.2%; then the Philippines, 3%; and Sweden 4%.

     First International Resources ran the poll for sponsor ADL, compiling "The ADL Global 100: An Index of Anti-Semitism" from the responses of 53,100 adults in 102 territories and countries.  (Haaretz)

“Life Without Parole” Bill to Block Release of Terrorists

"When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers."  (Proverbs 21:15)

 A landmark bill passed Israel's Knesset Committee for Legislation to issue non-negotiable life sentences for terrorist prisoners. "Most countries will not negotiate with murderers and kidnappers," said Jewish Home parliamentarian Ayelet Shaked who pitched the bill forward in December.  "Murderers and terrorists must know that they will not be released—this is a significant deterrent against terrorism."

     The bill—if passed would modify the 1964 Basic Law, which allows the standing president to pardon criminals. 

     These modifications would permit judges ruling over cases of high-crime to equip their sentences with wording that would lock out the possibility of future pardons.

     "Extreme cases will be denied the right to pardon, so that murderers cannot generally become a tool for future negotiations," Shaked said last December.  (Israel National News) 

Economics Minister Bennett has committed his party to move the bill through the three upcoming Knesset readings that are required to confirm it as law.  (St. Louis Jewish Light)

     "Killers should die in prison and not celebrate at home," Bennett said in a Facebook post.  "Today, the State of Israel is sending a new message on the war on terror and her moral obligation to the bereaved families."

US Congressmen Witness Temple Mount Bias

In May 2014, American legislators visiting Jerusalem saw firsthand the bias against Jews on the Temple Mount, the site on which the First and Second Temples once stood. The Temple Institute's director, Rabbi Chaim Richman, organized a visit for Congressmen Andrew P. Harris and Ron DeSantis with a group of Jewish worshipers to the Mount.

     The congressmen personally witnessed how "outwardly looking Jewish groups are singled out and accompanied by both Jordan Islamic Waqf guards and Israeli police officers that scrutinize their behavior for signs of prayer or non-Muslim worship," reported a Temple Institute statement. 

     "I'm actually surprised that access is so limited and especially, really, the discrimination against Jews above any other religion that visits the Temple Mount," said Harris on his Temple Mount visit May 14. "It surprises me as an American believing in religious freedom that that would exist."  (The Temple Institute) 

     For Jews to secure a visit to Judaism's holiest site is a trial, and when they do, they face a heavy-handed ban against prayer or worship enforced by hawk-eyed guards.

In an official statement, Richman said that the visiting legislators were joined by Jordan Islamic Waqf guards and Israeli police officers, who prevented non-Muslim prayer, and an Israeli intelligence officer that "filmed their every move for much of the visit."  (Algemeiner)

     To foster co-existence on the Mount, two Knesset members from opposite ends of the political spectrum—Likud MK Miri Regev and Labor MK Hilik Bar—plan to submit a bill that would allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount. 

     Muslims must understand that we also have a right to pray there.  I see in these holy sites the cradle of our existence,” Bar said.

     “The time has come once and for all to neutralize the explosive political issue of Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount,” Bar said.  “There is no reason that every time a rightwing MK ascends the mount to pray there will be a political drama with a third intifada threatened.  There needs to be a new order in which everyone respects the rights of the other side.”  (JPost)

     "There is no reason that Jews should not be allowed to pray in the holiest site in the world," Regev said.

 Source: Bibles For Israel,

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