ZOA
Appalled that Vatican Tours Erase Israel –– Visiting
Sites in
Jerusalem
Labeled ‘Palestine’
Morton Klein, www.zoa.org.
The Zionist Organization of
America (ZOA) has criticized the Vatican for organizing and promoting tours of
Christian sites in Jerusalem, Israel’s capital city, as part of tours to ‘Palestine,’
erasing Israel from the picture. The ZOA regards this a sinister reiteration of
Catholic replacement theology, whereby Jews and Judaism are theologically
dismissed from history. Replacement theology served for centuries as the
warrant and inspiration for theologically-inspired hatred, as well as vicious
persecution of, and violence against, Jews.
A
report from Italian journalist Giulio Meotti, a
writer for the Italian daily, Il Foglio,
indicates that Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, a Vatican
office that organizes pilgrimages to Christian sites around the world, sponsors
a trip in “Palestine,” with iconic Christian sites in Israel’s capital city of
Jerusalem. This is in addition to the fact that, as Meotti
writes, “Catholic tourist maps and pilgrimage brochures omitted the name
‘Israel,’ using instead the sanitized expression ‘Holy Land,’ one of the
visible effects of the Catholic ‘replacement theology,’ which adopts a
de–Judaizing language. It [is also] no secret that Catholic pilgrims spend
virtually all their time visiting holy sites in Palestinian-run territory,
staying in Palestinian Arab hotels and listening to Palestinian Arab tour
guides. As a result, these pilgrims return filled with hatred towards Israel”
(Giulio Meotti, ‘Vatican buses
promote trips to Jerusalem, “Palestine,”’ Israel National News,
Nov 23, 2016).
ZOA
National President Morton A. Klein said, “The ZOA is deeply critical of the
Vatican’s organizing and promotion of tours to Israel, the biblical, historical
and legal homeland of the Jewish people, which erase and thus deny the Jewish
identity, indeed the very name, of the country, substituting ‘Palestine.’
“‘Palestine’
was never and is not now a sovereign state, much less one with legal responsibility
or effective control of many of the sites being visited on these tours.
Palestine is not even an Arab name but named by the Romans.
“With
its Nostra Aetate declaration in 1965, the
Catholic Church repudiated its historical position holding the Jewish people
responsible for the death of Jesus, renounced its traditional claim that Jews
had been rejected by God, condemned anti-Semitism, and called for ‘mutual
understanding and respect’ between Catholics and Jews. It is difficult to see
how this epoch-making new affirmation and policy is being in any way honored by
the Vatican with respect to the tours to Israel that it organizes and promotes.
“When
Pope John Paul II visited the Rome Synagogue in 1986 –– the first pontiff to
visit a synagogue –– he embraced Rabbi Elio Toaff and declared Jews the ‘elder
brothers’ of Christians. One does not treat an elder brother as non-existent
and revise one’s language to avoid referring to him, while exclusively seeking
the company of his hostile neighbors.
“We
urge the Vatican to cease organizing and promoting tours to Israel that do not
name the country, do not refer to its Jewish history and which shun
contacts with the country of its ‘elder brothers.’”
Post-Fire Rehabilitation in Israel
Could Take 30 Years: The rehabilitation of natural
reserve parks and infrastructures damaged by the rash of fires which were
finally brought under control and extinguished on 27 Nov. 2016, is likely to
continue for as much as 30 years, according to experts. While hundreds of
apartments have been rendered uninhabitable in the aftermath of the disasters,
particularly in Haifa, the damage is not restricted to humans. Indeed, natural
sites such as forest and natural parks have been battered and burned by the
merciless flames. The Jewish National Fund estimates that overall, 11,000
dunams (2,718 acres) of forests were incinerated by the fires by the time the
58 forest fire incidents had concluded. 7,500 dunams of the 11,000 were in the
Jerusalem Hills alone. Uri Naveh, head of the Nature
and Parks Authority Jerusalem district, said that the fear of other fires erupting
has not yet fully dissipated. “It is not yet over. While all the points which
had fallen prey to the unrelenting flames had been dealt with," Naveh said “we are in a situation where this kind of wind
can kindle a fire in areas not yet spotted and quickly renew the fires because
the wind situation is identical to that of the last few days.”
He added that Cafira nature park in
the Jerusalem Hills was one of the areas which was entirely decimated by the
fires. “This is one of the important nature reserves in the Judean Hills. There
are many animals there - deer, foxes, jackals and hyenas. The process of rehabilitating
the reserve could continue for years or even decades,” he predicted. Even the
pine trees which are still standing in the forests will not survive, Naveh explained. “They are essentially dead.” Naveh said that in the Jerusalem Hills the damage was
extensive and that while some of the foxes and hyenas and other animals managed
to flee the fires, others were not so lucky. Snakes and turtles for example,
did not survive. (Ynet)
JNN News, PO Box 7411, Jerusalem 91073, Israel
Editor's Note: Many of the fires were deliberately set by
Arabs. However, it should be noted that Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, and the USA all
sent men and equipment to battle the fire. Many Palestinians also helped to put
out the fires. RAC
Children
as young as pre-toddlers may be exposed to same-sex families as depicted in the popular
kids magazine Highlights. As our culture
continues to drift from God’s Word and promotes sinful lifestyles, we can only
expect to see more examples of children being indoctrinated to accept anti-biblical
same-sex “families” as normal.
A lesbian mom reportedly complained that
the magazine Hello, geared toward pre-toddlers, toddlers, and their
parents and published by Highlights, didn’t feature any same-sex “families.”
Apparently Highlights explained that they believe parents should decide
when to bring up the topic because it’s “still new, and parents are still learning
how to approach the subject with their children, even the very little ones.”
But after backlash from the LGBT community, Highlights committed to
including same-sex families in future publications.
Now,
because this magazine doesn’t claim to be a Christian publication, we can’t
expect them to hold to biblical morality or portray it in their magazine. The inclusion
of same-sex “families” in a children’s publication highlights the change that
is going on in our culture.
Same-sex relationships and “families” are increasingly
being celebrated and portrayed as normal and acceptable. This isn’t a surprise
since our culture has rejected God’s Word as the foundation for their thinking.
And without the foundation of God’s Word, man determines truth.
Iran Opens Amusement Park to Teach Kids to Fight Israel: The City of Games for
Revolutionary Children in Mashhad, Iran, is open free of charge to children
aged 8 through 13. In the park, the children wear military uniforms and
undertake activities simulating fighting the enemies of the Islamic Revolution.
At 12 stations, children can launch plastic missiles and fire plastic bullets
at targets such as Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, USA and Israeli flags, and
members of the Saudi royal family. At the final station, children are blindfolded
and asked to throw a ball at a puzzle of an Israeli flag and knock it down.
(MEMRI)
Large Delegation of African Agricultural Ministers Visit Israel,
Sign of Flowering Ties: In yet another sign of Israel’s blossoming ties with Africa, the
15-nation Economic Community of Western African States (ECOWAS) chose Israel as
the site for its first-ever seminar outside of Africa. The three-day
agricultural summit, attended by representatives from 13 West African states, began
Mon. 05 Dec. 2016 in Jerusalem. The seminar, “Enhancing Sustainable
Agricultural Productivity in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions,” includes the
agricultural ministers from seven states: Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia,
Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Togo. In addition senior officials also arrived from
Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal. ECOWAS
represents countries that have a combined population of some 320 million. The
seminar, which will introduce the African delegates to Israel agricultural
developments, is under the auspices of MASHAV – Israel’s Agency for
International Development Cooperation, and the Ministry of Agriculture.
Israel’s ties with ECOWAS received a significant boost late July when the
organization’s commissioner, Marcel Alain de Souza, visited Israel. Netanyahu
and de Souza signed a joint declaration of intent for greater cooperation
between Israel and the organization, and the two discussed deepening their
cooperation, particularly in the fields of agriculture, desertification, water,
education and health. (J.Post) “May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the
work of our hands for us- yes, establish the work of our hands.” Ps 90:17. Source for above items:
JNN News, PO Box 7411, Jerusalem 91073, Israel
Muslim IDF Soldier: I Love
Israel!
www.IsraelToday.co.il
(Great magazine! RAC)
A
growing number of young Arabs are volunteering to serve in Israel’s army. In so
doing, they are rejecting the stereotype of an oppressed minority foisted upon
them by the world media.
“The country helps us and I will have a
good future,” Sergeant Saleh Khalil, 20, told Reuters in a rare interview with
active combat soldiers.
Khalil belongs to that sector of Arab
Muslim society that believes it also has a responsibility to the state. “I
enlisted in order to contribute to the country, because I live in this country,”
he said. His comrade in arms, Sergeant Yusef Salutta, 20, took that sentiment a step further. He told reporters,
“Everyone should enlist, anybody who lives here should enlist.”
And for Salutta,
it was not just words. Reuters reported that the young Arab Muslim soldier
wears a silver Star of David around his neck.
The Statistics Around Mass
Incarceration Are Staggering:
u With just 4.4% of the world’s
population, the U.S. houses nearly 25% of the world’s prisoners--over 2.2
million individuals, more than any other nation in the world. We house 30% of
the world's population of incarcerated women.
u Over 2.7 million children
have at least one parent in prison.
u Nearly half of all state prisoners are nonviolent
offenders, and 16% are drug offenders.
It’s always interesting when Jimmy Carter raises his head from the depths of his presidency in exile, like a perennial groundhog. The main difference is that when groundhogs raise their head, it forecasts either more winter or an early spring. In Carter’s case, it’s always gloom and blame of Israel. As President Reagan famously quipped, “There you go again.”
It’s novel for Jimmy Carter to use the anniversary
of the UN Partition vote to be heard from most recently. He’s too smart to make
errors of the magnitude that he has in his NY Times Op Ed, so I must write it
off to his willfully misleading the reader. Let’s address some of his misrepresentations.
For starters, if on November 29, 1947 the Arabs (the only ones referred to as
“Palestinians” then were Jews) had accepted the UN Partition Plan, they’d have
a state today, side by side with Israel.
Carter disingenuously denies this, asserting
that “peace is in danger of abrogation” as if Israel is the sole cause for the
lack of peace. The fact is that if the Arabs laid down their weapons and
stopped their rhetoric and incitement against Israel, they’d have peace tomorrow. He
writes with arrogance as if only his voice is valid, but the truth is many
former presidents and world leaders have spoken the truth which Carter conveniently
ignores.
Take President Clinton, a fellow Democrat,
who also spent more than a little time on the Israel-Arab conflict. Clinton
blamed the Palestinians squarely for the failed negotiations during his
presidency. “I killed myself
to give the Palestinians a state. I had a deal they turned down that would have
given them all of Gaza… between 96 and 97% of the West Bank, compensating land
in Israel, you name it.” He blamed Yasser Arafat directly
for the failure of the 2000 Camp David Summit.
Continuing to rest his hat on a stack of
half-truths, non-truths, and innuendo, Carter chides Israel for the fact that
Palestinian Arabs are not Israeli citizens. Of course they aren’t. They want
their own state. Why should they be Israeli citizens? Many Palestinian Arabs
are not citizens of the actual states in which they live including Syria,
Lebanon and others. Why does Carter single out Israel, the Jewish state,
as being responsible to grant citizenship to non-Israeli Palestinian Arabs who
live in the Palestinian Authority? In fact, don’t all states have the right to
determine what if any non-citizens actually can become citizens?
He adds to this the outright lie that “most
(Palestinian Arabs) live under Israeli military rule.” That’s
absurd. Most, the vast majority, live under Palestinian Authority or Hamas
rule. These are simple facts he willfully misrepresents.
Carter inflates the number of Israeli residents
of Judea and Samaria, “the West Bank,” (or what he calls Palestine) by some
50%, from some 400,000 to 600,000. He must have his head back during his
presidency when inflation was at record highs. Either way, he’s deli-berately and maliciously wrong.
There are many narratives that make up the
conflict here, but willfully ignoring and misre-presenting
facts is below the belt. Carter has ingested the Pales-tinian
Kool Aid, and with it ascribes 100% blame of Israel, and a 100% pass for the
Palestinians. In the world, according to Carter, Israel can do no right,
and the Palestinians can do no wrong.
For instance, Carter not only ignores that
thousands of Israelis (and Americans) have been killed and maimed by Palestinian
Arab terror against Israel since he left office, but in his infamous book
accusing Israel of apartheid, he even suggests that such terror is
legitimate. Carter ignores the dozens of terror tunnels built, and
thousands of rockets fired by his friends in Hamas, excusing their behavior as
“boys will be boys,” disregarding the abject theft of resources that could be
used to build the state of Palestine for which he advocates, rather than
destroying Israel. Carter turns a blind eye to Hamas’ use of civilians as
human shields, the definition of a war crime if there ever were one.
Source: www.breakingisraelnews.com
Yael Eckstein, Daughter of Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, Both of Whom are Actively Involved in
Aliyah Said: “Christians are helping 1 out of 5 Jews making
Aliyah.”… “What we are seeing now is a truly historic situation where
Christians are in the forefront of bringing Jews home to Israel, without an
agenda or ulterior motives, simply so the Jews can fulfill their lifelong and
biblical dream of being connected to their people and their land,” Eckstein
said. “So much of our prayers and prophecies speak about this coming to be, but
so much of our history distanced us from this so it is difficult for us to see
now, when it is actually happening. “This is a confirmation to me that we are
in Messianic days,” Eckstein said. “Christians have the simple faith in the
Bible that so many Jews have lost.”
“Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,
for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.” Psalms 23:4 (The Israel Bible™)
IN
a remarkable World War II story that almost went untold, a devoutly Christian
US Army sergeant refused to turn over his Jewish soldiers to the Nazis, even
after a gun was placed to his head. Now, 30 years after his death, the Jewish
people are showing their appreciation for his bravery.
Roddie Edmonds was a humble man and didn’t
speak about his experiences in World War II, even when his children inquired.
When he passed away over 30 years ago, his widow gave his wartime diaries to
their son, Baptist Pastor Chris Edmonds, in Maryville, TN.
A few years ago, one of the pastor’s daughters
read through the diaries for a college project and was amazed at what she
found. Despite being taken prisoner of war shortly after arriving in Europe,
her grandfather was a hero. He had saved hundreds of Jewish soldiers, motivated
only by his Christian belief.
Edmonds was a Master Sergeant with the 422nd
Infantry Regiment in the US Army. On December 16, 1944, just a few months after
arriving in Europe, Edmonds found himself fighting in the disastrous Battle of
the Bulge. The last major German offensive campaign of World War II, it caught
the Allied Forces by surprise, resulting in 89,000 casualties. On December 19,
Edmonds and an estimated 23,000 other American soldiers were taken prisoner by
the Germans.
“We surrendered to avoid slaughter. We were
marched without food and water, except for the few sugar beets we found along
the road and puddles,” Edmonds wrote in his diary.
Taken to the Stalag
IXA POW camp near Ziegenhain, Germany, Edmonds was
the highest-ranking officer and responsible for the American prisoners of war
(POWs) in the camp. One evening in January, Major Siegmann,
the camp’s commandant, told Edmonds that he wanted the Jewish POWs to line up
outside the barracks the following morning. The commandant said that any Jewish
soldier who didn’t report would be shot on sight.
“They weren’t killing the Jewish soldiers
outright, but they were taking them to Berga,” explained
Pastor Edmonds to Breaking Israel News. “It was a labor camp, but they
really just worked them to death. The Nazi commandants had orders in all the
POW camps to eliminate all Jewish soldiers, up until the very end of the war.”
When they were first captured, many of the
Jewish prisoners were segregated and sent to Berga.
Of the 350 Jewish soldiers (from other POW camps) taken to Berga,
over 70 died from brutal labor and horrible conditions. The fatality rate in Berga was nearly 20 percent, the highest of any POW camp
where Americans were held.
When he was given the order, Sergeant Edmonds
made a decision. He told all of the soldiers, Christian and Jew alike, to report
outside the next morning. “What my dad did was amazing, but the real amazing
thing was that all 1,292 soldiers, went,” said Pastor Edmonds. “None of them
refused.”
The commandant was furious and held Edmonds
at gunpoint, ordering him to identify the Jews. Edmonds wouldn’t. “Once the major
pulled the gun and pressed it to my dad’s head, any one of those men could have
stopped him and told him who the Jews were,” said Edmonds. “But not one of them
did.”
Standing next to Edmonds, their lives on
the line, were two Jewish soldiers, Lester Tanner and Paul Stern. They told
Pastor Edmonds his father’s response. “‘All I am required is name rank and
serial number, and that is all you’ll get," Edmonds told the commandant.
“‘You’ll have to shoot all of us, and after the war, you will be tried for war
crimes.’” The major shouted back, “They cannot all be Jews.”
“We are all Jews,” Edmonds calmly replied.
His father’s faith was what inspired his heroic action, Pastor Edmonds
explained. “He was a strong Christian, even in the camp. He did this because
his faith required him to be his brother’s keeper, and to honor humanity.”
Pastor Edmonds has spoken with some of
these soldiers. “They all said it was a miracle they survived that camp,” he
said. “They credited it to my dad’s leadership and what he did.”
Roddie Edmonds’ act went unrecognized when
he was alive and Pastor Edmonds has been unsuccessful at having his father
posthumously awarded the US Medal of Honor for Bravery.
But the Jewish people have recognized his
courage... In 2015, Edmonds was the first US soldier to be recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem,
Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.
Pro-Koran Reform Rabbi Yoffie Says Torah Causes
Terrorism
Daniel Greenfield www.jewishpress.com
A
few years ago “Rabbi” Eric Yoffie, a Reform clergyman
spoke at an Islamic Society of
North America convention, an anti-Semitic Muslim Brotherhood
organization that supported Hamas, and denounced Dennis
Prager for criticizing the Koran...
Mr. Yoffie knows
what the real source of terrorism is. The Bible. And the Jews. Referring to the
Torah, the Jewish bible, Eric Yoffie wrote:
“The
reason for Jewish terror is Torah. It is not territories and occupation that
are to blame, although they are part of the picture. It is not racism or hatred
of Arabs that are at fault, although they play a role. The heart of the problem
is Torah, the sacred teachings of Judaism.”
Then
Eric Yoffie puts on his best pair of jackboots and
demands that Jewish religious schools be closed. “If a single yeshiva student is
implicated in terrorist activities, the yeshiva must be closed.”
Maybe Yoffie
would care to set up an organization for the purpose of closing Jewish schools
and synagogues he politically opposes. The Communists had a group like that
called the Yevsektsia. The left’s real endgame is
outlawing religion. They will, if needed, pretend to be Rabbis and even run
organizations they call synagogues, but their endgame is a war on religion.
Does Mr. Yoffie
propose closing any mosques whose member commits an act of terrorism? Somehow I
doubt it. The mosque and the Koran are sacred. The Bible, to bigots like
Eric Yoffie, is hateful. The left is showing its true
ugly face. It doesn’t just support Muslim terrorists. It hates Jews. (Editor's
Note: Yes, there are anti-Semitic
Jews.)
This proposal comes from the same cretin
who responded to Burn-a-Koran Day with shock and horror. “We can scarcely find
words to express our revulsion at the Dove World Outreach Center’s “Burn a
Koran Day,” scheduled for September 11. Only those whose minds have been
tainted by evil and acrimony would undertake to organize a sacrilegious event
such as this and to do so in the name of God and religious piety.”
They proposed burning the Koran. That’s terrible.
Now if they burned the Torah, Eric Yoffie would be
gleefully tossing armfuls of bibles into the flames while cackling with glee.
But Christians shouldn’t feel left out. Eric Yoffie hates Christians almost as much as he
hates Jews. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the
liberal Union for Reform Judaism, said “religious right” leaders believe
“unless you attend my church, accept my God and study my sacred text you cannot
be a moral person.”
“What could be more bigoted than to claim
that you have a monopoly on God?” he said during the movement’s national
assembly in Houston, which runs through Sunday.
Yoffie did not
mention evangelical Christians directly, using the term “religious right”
instead. In a separate interview, he said the phrase encompassed conservative
activists of all faiths, including within the Jewish community.
“We cannot forget that when Hitler came to
power in 1933, one of the first things that he did was ban gay organizations,” Yoffie said. “Yes, we can disagree about gay marriage. But
there is no excuse for hateful rhetoric that fuels the hellfires
of anti-gay bigotry.”
And if there’s one thing Eric Yoffie is an expert on, it’s hateful rhetoric. While Herr Yoffie might disagree with Hitler on banning gay groups,
both anti-Semites are on the same page when it comes to banning yeshivas.
The dates below come from Stan Goodenough’s
Jerusalem Watchman website, where they are tied prophetically “to the
restoration of the land of Israel to the Jewish people in preparation for the
coming of the Lord:” (“Coming
soon: A plethora of prophetic events,” S. Goodenough, 26 Apr. 2016, jerusalemwatchman.org)
We’ll
soon see how 2017 lines up with prophecy. God help us to heed the biblical
injunction to watch, pray and be clear-minded in these last days (Mark 13:33; Luke 21:36; 1 Thess. 5:6; 1
Pet. 4:7). The year 2017 is the:
u
500th anniversary of the Reformation (Oct. 31, 1517), which
made the Bible accessible to ordinary Christians, so that they could read for
themselves of God’s promised restoration of Israel.
u
100th anniversary of the Battle of Beersheba (Oct. 31, 1917),
which led to “the liberation of the land of Israel from the Turks” after 626
years of Islamic rule.
u
100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration (Oct. 31, 1917), same date as above),
supporting the restoration “of the Jewish national home in the Land of Israel.”
u
70th anniversary of the UN General Assembly Partition Resolution (Nov. 29, 1947),
paving the way for Israel’s restoration as a nation.
u
50th anniversary of the Six Day War (began June 5, 1967), in
which the Jews thwarted Arab efforts to destroy the diminished State of Israel.
This ended the 19 year occupation by Jordan and Syria of Judea and Samaria, and
the Golan. Jerusalem also was liberated and reunified (June 7, 1967), “marking
the first time in over 2000 years that Jews were sovereign in their own
capital.”
Watchmen from Jerusalem, Chuck Cohen,
www.ifi.org.il wfj@ifi.org.il
US Conservative Leader:
Bibi Has Strengthened Israel
Walter Russell Mead’s article, The Real
Middle East Story, in the foreign policy magazine, American Interest,
(Sept. 25),
showed that “Netanyahu’s leadership has made Israel stronger and a geopolitical
force to be reckoned with in the Middle East.”
He
continued, “The one thing harder for the American mind to process, other than
the fact that Pres. Obama has been a terrible foreign policy president, is that
Netanyahu is an extraordinarily successful Israeli PM. In Asia, in Africa, in
Latin America, Israel’s diplomacy is moving from strength to strength.” Most
Arab and ME leaders views Bibi as “smarter and stronger” than Obama and “as
American prestige across the ME has waned…Israel’s prestige – even among people
who hate it – has grown.”
Bibi
has been more successful in “building bridges to Sunni Muslims …and both Russia
and Iran take Netanyahu and his red lines much more seriously than they take
Obama’s expostulations and pious hopes.” The reason is that Bibi “understands
how the world works better than Obama. [He] believes that in the harsh
world of international politics, power wisely used matters more than good
intentions eloquently phrased. Obama sought to build bridges to Sunni Muslims
by making eloquent speeches…while ignoring the political realities that Sunni
states cared most about – like the rise of Iran and the Sunni cause in Syria…
“Israel’s
neighbors may not like Netanyahu but they believe they can count on him,” and
under his lead, “Israel has stronger, deeper relationships with India, China
and Japan” than at any other time. African nations are also pressing Israel for
relations “on a variety of economic and defense issues.”
Also,
Bibi “understands the impact of Obama’s policy on the ME better than Obama
does,” and has made major “international gains by exploiting gaps in Obama’s
understanding of the world.” All this does not eliminate Israel’s “problems and
challenges,” yet “Israel is in a stronger global position today than it was when
Netanyahu took office; nobody can say that with a straight face about the
nation that Pres. Obama leads.” (“Netanyahu
has made Israel stronger than ever,” Israel Hayom, 26
Sept. 2016) Watchmen
from Jerusalem, Chuck Cohen, www.ifi.org.il
Cairo
Cathedral Blast Leaves At Least 25 Dead:
A 12-kilogram TNT bomb caused the explosion at a Coptic church in Cairo on Sunday morning, 11 Dec. 2016. The blast left at
least 25 people dead and dozens injured. The explosion took place in the small
church of St. Peter and St. Paul attached to the St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox
Cathedral, said the Church's Rev. Paul Halim. The attack targeted one of the
most symbolic religious sites for Copts, an ethno-religious group centered in
Egypt. The Coptic Orthodox Church released a statement on its Facebook page,
saying in part: "As we are bereaved by this violence and terrorism that
attacks worshipers, we pray for these martyrs and for the wounded. The Egyptian
church stresses on persevering national unity that keeps all Egyptians on Egypt's
blessed land." President Abdel Fattah El Sisi condemned
the attack and declared a three-day period of national mourning. (CNN)
Adviser: Israel Has A Friend In Ghana’s
President-Elect:
An
Israeli adviser suggested this week that the victory of Ghana’s opposition
leader in the presidential elections last weekend could be cause for jubilation
in Jerusalem, as well as in Accra. “President-elect Nana [Akufo-Addo]
is a strong supporter of Israel and I think as president he will be a close
supporter of Israel for the Israeli government,” said Adi Timor, CEO of the
firm Timor Consulting and adviser to the president- elect. “They have a serious
friend in West Africa.” Timor added that Akufo-Addo’s
connection to Israel comes from “deep religious Christian conviction,” and that
she was struck by the numerous expressions of support for Israel she discovered
in remote corners of the country she traveled to as she worked on his election
campaign over the past year. She stumbled across “Welcome to Jerusalem” and “Welcome
to Israel” signs in villages and on trucks along the road; she even spotted a
group of people coming out of a church wearing T-shirts bearing the name of
Israel. In Ghana, it’s a huge advantage to be Israeli, she said, mentioning the
warm embrace she and her colleague received from Akufo-Addo’s
team and supporters. “They say, ‘When you come here, it’s like the messiah has
arrived,’” Timor added. (J.Post)
Vision for Israel, PO Box 7265
Jerusalem 9107301,
Israel
British PM Praises Israel’s “Thriving Democracy,”
Denounces Boycotts as “Unacceptable” - 13 Dec 2016 | British Prime
Minister Theresa May affirmed her government’s strong support for Israel and
opposition to efforts to economically attack the Jewish state. In a speech
before the Conservative Friends of Israel, May quoted the Balfour Declaration
issued nearly 100 years ago which pledged British support for a “national home
for the Jewish people” in what is now Israel. “It is one of the most important
letters in history,” May announced. “It demonstrates Britain’s vital role in
creating a homeland for the Jewish people. And it is an anniversary we will be
marking with pride.” Her comments come in the wake of threats by Palestinian
officials to sue Britain over the declaration.
Moving the US Embassy to
Jerusalem: I
heard Aaron David Miller on NPR. He is opposed to Donald Trump's pick of David
Friedman as US ambassador to Israel, as well as moving the US embassy from Tel
Aviv to West Jerusalem. I strongly disagree with Miller. The embassy would be
in West Jerusalem, which has been part of Israel since its founding in 1948.
West Jerusalem is clearly not so-called "occupied
territory." Giving in to Israel's enemies only encourages more demands.
Trump would be insane to go along with self-hating Jews like Aaron Miller and J
Street. Any nation (including the USA) that doesn't recognize West Jerusalem as
part of Israel and its capital deserves judgment from God. Could you
imagine nations not recognizing Washington DC as the US capital? It would
be insane! In this case, it is God Himself who chose Jerusalem. RAC
Trump Taps Israel Advisor as
Next Ambassador to Israel: President Donald Trump nominated attorney David Friedman
as USA ambassador to Israel, the transition team said in a statement on 15 Dec.
2016. Friedman served as Trump’s advisor on Israel affairs during the election
campaign. "Friedman has been a long-time friend and trusted advisor to me.
His strong relationships in Israel will form the foundation of his diplomatic
mission and be a tremendous asset to our country as we strengthen the ties with
our allies and strive for peace in the Middle East," said Trump. Friedman
responded by saying that he was “deeply honored and humbled” by the confidence
placed in him by President-elect Trump to represent the United States as its Ambassador
to Israel.
"I intend to work
tirelessly to strengthen the unbreakable bond between our two countries and
advance the cause of peace within the region, and look forward to doing this
from the USA embassy in Israel's eternal capital, Jerusalem," he added.
Friedman spoke out in favor of Israel numerous times during the campaign and
highlighted Trump’s pro-Israel stance. In May 2016 Friedman said in a media
interview that Trump believes “that Israel should continue to build settlements.
This is land that Israel has held for almost 50 years. The population of Judea
& Samaria is 400,000 people. You add in East Jerusalem you have almost a
million people. These people aren’t going anywhere and Israel’s not going to
make the same mistake that it made in connection with the evacuation of Gaza.”
Friedman said that as president, Trump could support Israel annexing parts of
Judea and Samaria. He also said that Trump would not force a peace agreement
with the Palestinian Authority on Israel, due to the fact that he “has great confidence
in the Israeli government and the Israeli people.” (Reuters/INN)
Poll: Majority of Pa Arabs Want
Trump To Ignore Peace Process: A majority (53% of Arabs in Gaza, Judea, & Samaria)
want President-elect Donald Trump to stay out of the peace process completely,
according to a new poll, conducted last week. Only 40% of respondents said that
they wanted Trump to play any role, big or small, in the peace process... The
poll, which was conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey
research, found support for the Two State Solution dropping among Palestinian
Arabs. 65% of respondents said that they no longer believed in the Two State
solution. 62% said that they support the abandonment of the Oslo Accords.
Support for alternative methods was shown to be growing. 74% of respondents
said that they favor an international solution to the conflict, and a majority,
53% said that they supported an armed Intifada. The poll was conducted among
1,270 Palestinian Arabs and had an error margin of 3%. (Arutz-7)
In terms of making absolutely no effort towards
peace, the blame can only be laid at the feet of the Palestinians and their
leaders: Ongoing hatred towards Israel and her people, unremitting terrorist attacks,
media and educational bias against the Jewish state, glorification of terrorists
as heroes, educating of their young to embrace jihadism towards Israel, and not
one single concession made towards the effort of peace at the negotiating
tables, while Israel made them all, is the true record of the so called, “peace
process.” JNN NEWS, PO
Box 7411
Jerusalem 91073,
ISRAEL
Israeli
Members of Knesset Hail
Incoming
'Bible-Believing' US
Ambassador www.IsraelToday.co.il
Many
Israeli politicians were excited by US President Donald Trump’s selection of
David Friedman as America’s next ambassador to the Jewish state. Some hailed
his reliance on the Bible in making policy decisions...
Friedman visited Israel a number of times
in recent months. Just after Trump’s victory, he told Israel Radio that
Jerusalem should consider annexing the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria.
Those positions have liberals in the US fuming over Friedman’s appointment and
what it means for the “land-for-peace” process.
But most Israelis already view the peace
process as dead, and so see new hope in both Trump and Friedman. “Friedman is
an enthusiastic supporter of the people of Israel in the Land of Israel
according to the Torah of Israel, and I wish him and us luck,” said Deputy
Defense Minister Eli Ben-Dahan (Jewish Home)...
“Look forward to working with Mr. Friedman,
the new US ambassador & great friend of Israel, in his rightful office in
our capital, Jerusalem,” said Yair Lapid, of the centrist Yesh Atid party...
by Gidon Ben-Zvi https://worldisraelnews.com
With all zeal of a convert, Barack Obama
in the waning days of his presidency has abandoned the Russian ‘reset’ policy
and reprised the Cold War rhetoric that he mocked back in 2009, when he said
that “great powers do not show strength by dominating or demonizing other
countries. The days when empires could treat other sovereign states as pieces
on a chess board are over.”
To date, there is precisely zero evidence
that Russian hacking
actually distorted the voting process of the US election. However, this has not
prevented Obama from stating that United States would retaliate for Russia’s
efforts to influence the presidential election.
In fact, Russia’s cyber-espionage and disinformation
activity has nothing to do with a nefarious plan to install Donald Trump as a
Putin puppet. Rather, the Russian president’s goal is much more grandiose: to
destabilize the western alliance and reassert his country as a great power. As
a result, intelligence agencies and high-level officials in Britain, France,
Germany, Sweden and elsewhere have all voiced concerns over the threat
of cyber sabotage by Russia.
How could such an intelligent, sophisticated
statesman as Barack Obama have missed Russia’s numerous attempts to influence
Western European elections? Occam’s
razor is a principle that suggests that the simplest explanation is
usually the correct one. Since it’s patently absurd to think that Obama
wasn’t aware of repeated Russian attempts to organize small minorities of angry
people with the goal of dividing fearful majorities in Western Europe, the
simplest yet most elegant answer is that he well understood Putin’s modus
operandi and even accepted, however reluctantly, that there is some value in supporting
groups that can influence the outcome of an overseas election.
§
The German authorities are dangerously underestimating
the threat of Islam... They have betrayed their own citizens.
§
Let no-one tell you that only the
perpetrators of these crimes are to blame. The politicians, who welcomed Islam
into their country, are guilty as well. And it is not just Frau Merkel in Germany,
it is the entire political elite in Western Europe.
§
Out of political-correctness, they have
deliberately turned a blind eye to Islam. They have refused to inform
themselves about its true nature. They refuse to acknowledge that is all in the
Koran: the permission to kill Jews and Christians (Surah 9:29), to terrorize
non-Muslims (8:12), to rape young girls (65:4), to enslave people for sex
(4:3), to lie about one's true goals (3:54), and the command to make war on the
infidels (9:123) and subjugate the entire world to Allah (9:33).
§
We will have to de-Islamize our societies....
But it all begins with politicians with the courage to face and speak the
truth.
§
More and more citizens are aware of
that. This is why a political revolution is brewing in Europe. Patriotic
parties are rapidly growing everywhere. They are Europe's only hope for a better
future.
The Apocrypha
The
Apocrypha is a selection of books which were published in the original 1611
King James Bible. These apocryphal books were positioned between the Old and
New Testament (it also contained maps and geneologies).
The Apocrypha was a part of the KJV for 274 years until being removed in
1885 A.D. A portion of these books were called deuterocanonical books by
some entities, such as the Catholic church.
Many claim the Apocrypha should never have
been included in the first place, raising doubt about its validity and believing
it was not God-inspired (for instance, a reference about magic seems inconsistent
with the rest of the Bible: Tobit chapter 6,
verses 5-8). Others believe it is valid and that it should never
have been removed - that it was considered part of the Bible for nearly 2,000
years before it was recently removed a little more than 100 years ago. Some say
it was removed because of not finding the books in the original Hebrew
manuscripts. Others claim it wasn't removed by the church, but by printers to
cut costs in distributing Bibles in the United States. Both sides tend to cite
the same verses that warn against adding or subtracting from the Bible: Revelation 22:18.
The word 'apocrypha' means 'hidden.' Fragments of Dead Sea
Scrolls dating back to before 70 A.D. contained parts of the apocrypha books in
Hebrew, including Sirach and Tobit.
Keep this in mind when reading the Apocryphal
books: Martin Luther said, "Apocrypha--that is, books which are not
regarded as equal to the holy Scriptures, and yet are profitable and good to
read." (King James
Version Defended page
98.) Editor's Comment: Those who really respect the real
1611 KJV should resent the abolishment of the Apocrypha from the KJV, beginning
in 1885. The so-called 1611 KJV of today is actually the 4th
revision of the 1611 KJV that was completed in 1769. It was then revised again
(5th revision) in 1885 when the Apocrypha was deleted from the King
James Version. RAC
With US Taxpayer Funds
Obama’s transformation from
starry eyed idealist to cold blooded realist is glaringly apparent in his attempt
to toss Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu out of office. Unlike the
Russian hacker story, which is being fueled by circumstantial evidence, a US
Senate inquiry published in June, 2016 actually found that the US government
supported a group that had tried to unseat Netanyahu in the 2015 Israeli
elections, to the tune of nearly $350,000.
Vladimir Putin is undoubtedly an autocrat who talks like a
democrat. Yet Barack Obama’s soaring rhetoric is similarly contradicted by the
findings of this report, which harshly criticized the State Department for
having failed to prevent funds from being used, albeit legally and indirectly, to
influence an allied country’s internal political process.
How can one explain the Obama State Department’s support of
OneVoice, a group of young grassroots activists in Israel and the Palestinian
Territories that was openly and
actively anti-Likud and anti-Netanyahu?
Again, let Occam’s razor be our guide. There’s no tangible
evidence to suggest that the 44th President of the United States was
obsessed with weakening Israel and demonizing the Jewish state on the
international stage. No, the most probable explanation for funding a
politically active group in a politically sensitive environment, with taxpayer
dollars, against the leader of the US’s closest Middle East ally is that such
meddling in the internal affairs of friends and foes alike has worked like
gangbusters for Russia.
Barack Obama, ever the student of history, took a page from
Vladimir Putin’s chapter on realpolitik that is quickly turning Russia into an
indispensable nation. It turns out that while Obama never tires of signaling
his own personal virtue, underneath the radiant smile and winning personality
beats the heart of an astute, calculating political operator...
Editor's Note: This wasn't the first time that the USA
interfered in Israeli politics. Back in 1996, President Bill Clinton went to
Israel, ostensibly on a friendship tour, but in actuality to campaign for
Shimon Peres (and against Benjamin Netanyahu). However, Benjamin Netanyahu won
the election against Peres in 1996, and won despite Bill Clinton's efforts to unseat
him.
Then again in 2015, despite Obama's interference
in the Israeli election process, Prime Minister Netanyahu won re-election.
Considering President Obama's interference in the Israeli elections, it is a
bit hypocritical when Obama complains about Russian hacking in the US election
process. Curiously, Bibi Netanyahu
outlasted both Presidents Clinton and Obama in each of his two times as Prime
Minister of Israel. RAC
Resolution Against Israeli Settlement Passes
at UN Security Council: USA Abstains in the Voting:
The USA, on 23 Dec 2016, abstained from a contentious UN Security Council
resolution calling for an end to settlement construction while simultaneously
declaring them illegal. The resolution was put forth by Venezuela, New Zealand,
Malaysia and Senegal a day after Egypt withdrew under heavy pressure from
Israel and President-elect Donald Trump.
Earlier that day, an Israeli official
accused President Barack Obama of colluding with the Palestinians in a
"shameful move against Israel at the UN" after learning the White
House did not intend to veto a Security Council resolution condemning
settlement construction in Judea & Samaria and east Jerusalem the day
before. "President Obama and Secretary Kerry are behind this shameful move
against Israel at the UN," the official said. "The USA administration
secretly cooked up with the Palestinians an extreme anti-Israeli resolution
behind Israel's back which would be a tail wind for terror and boycotts and
effectively make the Western Wall occupied Palestinian
territory," he said calling it "an abandonment of Israel which breaks
decades of USA policy of protecting Israel at the UN."
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon criticized the decision, saying, "Neither the
Security Council nor UNESCO will rewrite history and to sever the link between
the people of Israel and the land of Israel. Efforts to attack Israel through
the United Nations will not help and will not further a solution. Palestinians
will not achieve anything if they do not stop the incitement and terrorism and
return to direct negotiations with Israel." Danon
addressed the American move saying, "Israel would expect her biggest
friend to act in accordance with long-standing policy and veto the unilateral
decision." Furthermore, Danon added that,
"No doubt the change of USA administration will bring a new era."
President-elect Donald Trump on Friday slammed the UN Security Council's vote
to condemn Israel for its settlements in Judea & Samaria, pledging that
"things will be different" after his inauguration next month. (INN/Newsmax)
Vision for Israel, PO Box 7265
Jerusalem 9107301, Israel
JNN Special Report: UN Votes to Declare Israel’s
Settlements, Including the Old City of Jerusalem, ‘Illegal’ – Obama’s Again
Betrays The Jewish State: This has been a sudden,
surprise turning of events for the Jewish state – one of major importance and impact!
Please take the time to read and be informed on this and related issues, which
VFI editors are compiling for you - breaking news regarding the future of
Israel among the nations. Intercessors pray vigilantly that the political betrayals
on the part of the UN, the Obama administration and the USA president himself
will be reversed in the new year.
USA ‘Has Abandoned Its Only Friend In The Middle East’: Israeli Energy Minister
Yuval Steinitz said the USA had abandoned Israel by abstaining and not vetoing
the latest UN resolution against Israel. “This is not a resolution against
settlements, it is an anti-Israel resolution, against the Jewish people and the
state of the Jews,” he said. “The United States tonight has
simply abandoned its only friend in the Middle East.” Meanwhile, Israel’s
Ambassador Danny Danon held up a Bible in the UN and
spoke of the holiday of Hanukkah, about to commence this calendar year on
Christmas Eve. He reminded his listeners that over two thousand years ago another
King had banished the Jewish people from the Temple in Jerusalem, and tried to
sever Jews from their religion and their heritage. And he continued: “But we
prevailed. The Jewish people fought back. We regained our independence and
relit the Menorah candles. We overcame those decrees during the time of the
Maccabees and we will overcome this evil decree today.” The perfidy of Barack
Obama will not be the last word. Meanwhile on 24 Dec. terrorist groups Hamas,
Islamic Jihad, welcomed the UN vote, saying it would lead to international sanctions
on Israel. (Fox/Washington Times/Israel National News) “Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I
will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.” Micah 7:8
Republicans Vow To Reverse Obama’s ‘Absolutely Shameful’
Israel Policies: Republican leadership
reacted with fury to the Obama administration's decision to abstain from a UN
Security Council vote condemning Israel's settlement enterprise on Friday 23
Dec. 2016, vowing to reverse his policy gains and punish the UN for repeatedly
targeting the Jewish state. House Speaker Paul Ryan called the vote an "absolutely
shameful" blow to peace. "Our unified Republican government will work
to reverse the damage done by this administration, and rebuild our alliance
with Israel," Ryan said. Lindsey Graham threatened to campaign for a
bipartisan consensus in Congress that would punish those who pushed for the
resolution with a cut in USA aid - as well as to the UN itself, which relies on
generous congressional appropriations. Already, Senators Marco Rubio of
Florida, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and James Lankford of Oklahoma signaled support
for Graham's initiative. "I anticipate this vote will create a backlash in
Congress against the United Nations," Graham said. "The organization
is increasingly viewed as anti-Semitic and seems to have lost all sense of proportionality.
I will do everything in my power, working with the new administration and Congress,
to leave no doubt about where America stands when it comes to the peace process
and where we stand with the only democracy in the Middle East." (J.Post)
Editor's Note: Even many Democrats in Congress were appalled
by Obama's decision to betray Israel in the UN Security Council. This is al-most as bad as Obama's betrayal
of Israel with the Iran Nuclear Treaty. RAC
Source for above items: JNN NEWS,
PO Box 7411, Jerusalem 91073, Israel
Dutch Leader Tells Israel to ‘Ignore
UN And Continue Building’: Leading Dutch
politician Geert Wilders has criticized USA president Barack Obama for
not vetoing the Security Council resolution against Israel and advised Israel
to ignore the UN resolution. Wilders, the founder and leader of the Dutch
Freedom Party, who has dominated Dutch polls during the year of 2016, wrote on
his Facebook page: "Obama betrayed Israel. Thank God for Trump. My advice
to my Israeli friends: ignore the UN and keep building more and more
settlements." Wilders was voted politician of the year 2016 when 40,000
people participated in the annual public election held
by Dutch TV-show ‘EenVandaag’. He is known for his
sharp criticism of Islam and his outspoken support for Israel. Wilders lived in
Israel for two years during his youth, working on a moshav,
and has visited the country 40 times in the last 25 years. (Israel National
News) Vision for
Israel, PO Box 7265
Jerusalem 9107301,
Israel
Editor's
Comment: We are thrilled that the USA elected an
African-American president. We just wish that it was someone other than Barack
Obama. His policies toward Israel have been horrendous, especially the Iran
Nuclear Treaty, which paves the way for Iran to have nuclear weapons in less
than ten years if they don't cheat and far quicker if they do cheat. This latest
UN Security Council resolution is one more assault on the Jewish state.
President Obama's social policies have also been abhorrent, including same-sex
marriage with no protection for people of faith such as bakeries,
photographers, or bed-and-breakfast places run out of business for failing to
accommodate homosexual weddings. RAC
News from the Middle East Forum www.meforum.org
Islamists
in the United States increasingly rely on prominent non-Muslims to spread their
message and impose their views. In response, the Middle East Forum's Islamist
Watch presents A Journalist's
Manual: Field Guide to Useful Infidels, a 20-page report available
gratis online
or as a PDF download.
It identifies 15 prominent non-Muslims who facilitate or directly aid
Islamists, thereby helping the media and public understand the tactics used to
empower Islamists within American culture, and confronts them with their own
words. The enablers inhabit the fields of entertainment, journalism,
government, and academia. For example:
·
Actor Ben Affleck argues that criticizing Islamism is
"gross" and "racist."
·
Author Karen Armstrong thinks anti-Islamists are as bad as Nazis.
·
Obama's CIA director John Brennan purged mention of Islamism from training manuals.
·
Diplomat Martin Indyk, now of the Brookings
Institution, accepted a $14.8 million gift from the government of Qatar.
·
Southern Poverty Law Center chief Morris Dees insults anti-Islamists through misleading
reports.
"The Field Guide shines a light on
some of those Americans who help grow this repugnant ideology," said
Middle East Forum director Gregg Roman. "They don't stand up for religious
pluralism, freedom of speech, or equality under the law..." The Field
Guide will be distributed and promoted in a series of social media campaigns
and explanatory articles.
Former Ambassador: Obama Obsesses About Israel
While Syrians Die:
Former Israeli Ambassador to the USA Danny Alayon
accused the Obama Administration of obsessing over Israel while ignoring humanitarian
crises and massacres elsewhere in the region. Speaking to Fox News, Ayalon said: “Imagine that just a day before Christmas Eve
and Hanukkah, President Obama was busy not trying to help innocent Syrians who
are getting murdered in Aleppo, or dealing with the emergency humanitarian
crisis, but instead was working to undermine Israel. You’ve got a million
killed in Syria, a brutal, autocratic regime in Iran. You have Turkish President
Erdogan arresting justices, terror in Libya, the Russians invading Ukraine,
taking Crimea, and no resolutions against any of them. There’s one yardstick
for Israel - another for the rest of the world.” According to Ayalon, no president has ever turned away from Israel the
way President Obama has. Ayalon expressed hope that
President-elect Donald Trump will be able to mitigate the damage Obama has
caused once he takes office. (Fox)
Hamas: “Israel Has Become a Burden to the
World”: Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal
blames Israel for all the conflicts raging in the Middle East - including the
Syrian civil war. Hamas leadership praised the recent UN resolution which
declared Jewish settlement in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem illegal. At
a press conference in Turkey this week, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal
said that Israel has become a “burden” to the world... Mashaal
blamed Israel for all fighting in the Middle East - including the Sunni-Shiite
conflict manifested in the Syrian civil war and the fighting in Iraq and Yemen.
(INN)
Meanwhile,
Hamas and other terrorist organizations are working hard to
produce terrorists - grooming their own children to be jihad murderers -
building terrorist tunnels, impoverishing their own communities with hatred and
war…the Jewish state is otherwise occupied: Israel continues to aid the victims
of Syria’s civil war both by granting entry to those in need of urgent medical
care and by sending aid teams to refugee camps throughout Europe. Israel’s
medical ingenuity is constantly inventing ways to save lives and promote
healing. Israeli intelligence has played a key role in thwarting terrorist
attacks abroad. Israel is often the first to lead world nations in dispatching
aid to countries that are victims of national emergencies and the quickest on
the ground to give hands-on assistance. Israel leads in the battle against the
global water crisis by providing innovative solutions to over 150 nations where
water is far too scarce. Of course, this list is by no means comprehensive.
Despite Israel’s tiny size, minuscule population and lack of significant
natural resources, it routinely contributes disproportionately to the good of
the international community.
And then there are words such as Relativity, Quantum Mechanics,
Atomic Structure, chemotherapy, megahertz - concepts that changed the world.
Jewish, not Arab. What about psychoanalysis, modern banking, Hollywood? Also,
Jewish, not Arab. Perhaps part of the problem with the lack of Arab invention
and discovery is that so much of the modern world's inventions, discoveries,
art, entertainment, psychology, philosophy, chemistry, economics, are, to use
their dirty words, “Jewish”, “Israeli.” In finality, despite what some
people-groups, global institutions, terrorist organizations, or their leaders
have to say, the God of Israel has declared and carried out His promise made
thousands of years ago to Abraham: "I will make you into a great nation, and
I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” Gen
12:2
Vision for Israel, PO Box 7265
Jerusalem 9107301,
Israel
UN Vote Tops
Wiesenthal List Of Top 10 Anti-Semitic, Anti-Israel Cases In 2016: The USA abstention from a recent vote
against Israeli settlements at the UN Security Council topped the Simon Wiesenthal
Center’s annual list released 27 Dec. 2016, of the 10 worst outbreaks of
Jew-hatred and anti-Israel incidents. The Jewish human rights organization
ranked the Obama administration’s move as the top case, charging that it erased
Jewish history.
“The
most stunning 2016 UN attack on Israel was facilitated by President Obama when
the US[A] abstained on a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel for
settlement construction. It reversed decades-long US[A] policy of vetoing such
diplomatic moves against the Jewish State.”
UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, along with former British
politician Baroness Jenny Tonge, ranked second.
France earned the third spot for “singling out Israel." The French
government became "the first member of the EU to implement the requirement
of labels on all Israeli goods produced beyond the Jewish state’s 1967
borders.” Fourth place included a list of BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions)
actions targeting Israel. Also included in spot four were the United Church of
Christ, which overwhelmingly voted to endorse BDS, as well Ryerson University
in Toronto, where the student union voted to endorse the BDS movement.
The
head of the far-right USA-based National Policy Institute, Richard Spencer,
garnered the fifth spot for being “America’s 21st century Nazi.” Palestinian
Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas
ranked sixth. Listed among Hamas’ many anti-Semitic acts is Hamas’ TV program
airing a play in which Palestinian children dressed in military fatigues and
armed with guns and knives “kill” those acting as Israelis.
The
explosion of anti-Semitic attacks in the Netherlands catapulted the country to
the seventh slot. At a high school “some of the graduates broke out in song
with the lyrics, ‘Together we’ll burn Jews, because Jews burn the best.’”
Swedish
Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom was ranked eighth
for worrying about terrorists and not their victims. The ninth slot covered
Anti-Semitism in the sports arena. Outbreaks of anti-Semitism were cited in the
USA the Netherlands, Croatia, Italy, the UK, and Poland. The last spot went to
Poland for its persecution of prominent historian Jan Tomasz Gross, who
documented Polish participation in the murder of Jews in wartime Poland. He is
in the crosshairs of Polish authorities who are considering charges that could
put him behind bars for three years for “harming the country’s reputation.” (J.Post)
Abbas ‘Euphoric’ Over Passage On Anti-Israel UN
Resolution: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas reacted with “near-euphoria” to the passage of UN Security Council
Resolution 2334, which declared all Jewish presence over the 1940 armistice
lines to be 'illegal.’ Abbas expressed hope that the resolution and the
upcoming Paris peace conference could be used to end all Jewish
"settlements" in Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem.
PA
Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said that the
resolution would aid BDS initiatives against Israel. “It will now be possible
to impose a boycott on the settlements, and even employ legal sanctions against
companies that work with them.” Al-Maliki said that the PA would use the UN resolution to bring
Israel to the International Criminal Court this coming year. (INN)
Vision for Israel, PO Box 7265
Jerusalem 9107301,
Israel
The So-Called
"Two-State" Solution
The so-called
"Two-State" Solution would divide the land of Israel between Jews and
Palestinian Arabs. It should be noted that the area called
"Palestine" originally included all of present-day Israel, the
so-called "West Bank," Jordan, and the Golan Heights. The area
east of the Jordan River was later renamed "Trans-Jordan." Eventually, "Trans-Jordan"
was given independence from Britain, and promptly renamed "Jordan."
Jordan constitutes 77% of what used to be called Palestine. The majority of the
inhabitants of Jordan happen to be Palestinian Arabs. So there is already
effectively a Palestinian state. Years ago, it used to be said, "Jordan is
Palestine," which is 100% true. Why does nobody say that today? Also, Gaza
is already effectively a Palestinian state, with its own terrorist gov't and
army. So there are already two Palestinian states.
The West Bank is Judea and Samaria, the biblical heartland. It would be foolish
to give up the biblical heritage promised to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob in order to produce a third Palestinian state, which
would be a terrorist entity in the heartland of Israel. Prior to the 1967
Six-Day War, this territory was used as a launching pad of terrorist violence
against Israel. If Israel were to give up Judea and Samaria to produce a third
Palestinian state, we would see much worse violence emanating from that area,
much as we see facing Israel from Gaza in the south, and Hezbollah in the
north. President Obama, John Kerry, and Samantha Power are all very wrong
in demanding that Israel turn over all of Judea, Samaria, and even eastern
Jerusalem (including the Western Wall, Temple Mount, and Jewish Quarter of
Jerusalem) to this dictatorship currently called the Palestinian Authority. RAC
Top Democratic Lawmakers
Mock Kerry’s ‘Settlements’ Speech
Even
Democrats disagree with the Obama administration’s policies on the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict, enraged by the betrayal of
Israel. Democratic lawmakers criticized Secretary
of State John Kerry’s
speech on December 28 deploring Israeli construction in Judea
and Samaria and defending the US abstention from
the anti-Israel UN Security Council resolution on Dec. 23.
Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer (D - NY)
said his former Senate colleague “seems to have forgotten the history of
settlements in Gaza,” referring to Israel’s withdrawal from the area in
2005 and evacuation of close to 9,000 Jewish residents of thriving agricultural
communities. The result was a Hamas takeover of the Strip, continuous
rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, and two full-scale wars.
“This is something that people of all
political stripes in Israel vividly remember,” Schumer stated. He also warned
that Kerry’s speech may have “emboldened extremists on both sides.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D - CA)
said she opposed the Obama administration’s decision to abstain at the
resolution, thus enabling the UNSC to condemn Israel.
House Minority Whip Steny
Hoyer (D – MD) criticized Kerry’s address and said the UNSC resolution “will
not bring peace closer. I urged the Administration to veto the recently passed
UN Security Council resolution regarding Israel and settlements. Unfortunately,
they failed to do so, and Israel’s enemies were strengthened,” he
stated.
Kerry’s outlining of the parameters of an
agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority “flies in the face of
the United States’ longstanding position that such a formulation should be
reached only through negotiations by the parties and not by the United States,
the United Nations, or any other third party,” Hoyer continued.
Kerry’s speech “inevitably disadvantaged Israel
in any negotiation. The United States must now take steps to signal
unequivocally to the entire world that we will continue to stand by our ally
Israel as it seeks to build a future of peace and safety as a Jewish state and
an equal member of the family of nations,” he said.
President Barack Obama’s move against
Israel ran in the face of the vast majority of US senators who signed a letter
addressed to him in September, demanding that he continue to ensure the
automatic American veto against any unilateral, anti-Israel actions by the
UNSC. This has been US policy for years, said the bipartisan group of
senators – 88 out of 100...
Editor's comment: Amazingly, Obama got
most of the Jewish vote in both 2008 and 2012.