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“…all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:3)
Jerusalem
In several places throughout Scripture, Israel is called to be a blessing to
the world.
Although it sometimes seems that Israel isn’t living up to that calling, this
tiny nation has contributed far above its weight in a number of areas,
including medicine and science.
It’s no exaggeration to say that many of the conveniences, luxuries and even
life-saving technologies that the world enjoys in 2012 are the result of
research and development from Israeli companies and institutions.
Recently, Israeli scientists at the Hadassah Medical Centre in Jerusalem added
yet another item to the list of their achievements when a vaccine that could
potentially lead to treatments for many forms of cancer was tested on humans
for the first time.
The vaccine led to a complete recovery from blood cancer for three of the
seven test subjects (all of whom volunteered) and significant improvement in
the condition of the others.
Much more testing will be needed before the vaccine becomes widely available,
but the promising results offer hope to the hundreds of thousands of people
diagnosed with cancer every year around the world.
Two Orthodox Jewish men gaze at the Western (Wailing) Wall, a remnant of
the ancient wall that surrounded the Jewish Temple’s courtyard.
Recently Discovered Archaeological Artifacts Prove Bible is True
Perhaps you’ve shared your faith with someone who believes that there isn’t
enough archaeological evidence to support the Bible.
In this modern era of science and technology, many people question the
Bible as a valid historical document, believing it to be a collection of
stories and fables.
King David, for instance, was identified by some scholars as a literary
invention of the Bible.
Then in 1993, archaeologists discovered a stone inscription that refers to the
“House of David,” the first reference to King David outside of the Bible.
As archaeological research continues to uncover finds in Israel, our
understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament is enhanced
as crucial information connected to key biblical characters, events, and
references comes to light.
Proponents of the “maximalist” approach to Biblical archaeology—a group of
scholars who think the Bible is a highly accurate and believable historical
document—received a boost recently when a team of archaeologists digging in
the Elah Valley (where David fought Goliath) discovered a rich variety of art,
pottery, metal tools, and objects used in worship, as well as three large rooms
that served as shrines for worshipping the God of Israel.
Excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Ella Valley in Israel (Photo: Hebrew
University of Jerusalem)
The architecture and finds correspond to the Biblical descriptions of worship
at the time of King David and predate the Solomon’s Temple by about 30
or 40 years.
For example, two small containers, one of clay and one of stone, date from the
10th Century B.C., which corresponds to the approximate time David reigned
over the united kingdom of Israel.
The site is well known to archaeologists because it contains a walled city
dating back 3,000 years, approximately corresponding to the time the events
described in the Book of Samuel occurred.
Yossi Garfinkel of the Hebrew University and Sa’ar Ganor of the Israel
Antiquities Authority, who are leading the current dig at Khirbet Qeiyafa,
explained to Ha’aretz that the walled city is proof of at least a regional
governmental structure at the time.
“This is the first time that archaeologists uncovered a fortified city in Judah
from the time of King David,” Professor Garfinkel said.
“Even in Jerusalem we do not have a clear fortified city from his period. Thus, various suggestions that completely deny the biblical tradition regarding
King David and argue that he was a mythological figure, or just a leader of a
small tribe, are now shown to be wrong.”
Hebrew University archaeologist Yosef Garfinkel with a stone shrine model
found at Khirbet Qeiyafa (Photo: Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
The clay container has an elaborate façade that includes two pillars, two
guardian lions and a main door. According to Garfinkel, the two pillars are
also elements described in the Bible’s account of Solomon’s Temple.
There are also other features of the artifacts which closely resemble sacred
objects described in the Bible, leading Garfinkel to conclude that the objects
offer significant new proof of the Bible’s historical veracity.
The Bible says in Hebrews 11:1; “Now faith is confidence in what we hope
for and assurance about what we do not see.”
However, in this skeptical, cynical world, where people are used to being lied
to and deceived, until someone has faith, evidence in the form of
3,000-year-old artifacts can help some people find their way to the truth.
Excavation of the shrine at Khirbet Qeiyafa: Since the artifacts discovered at
this site are related to monuments described in the Bible (1 Kings 6: 5, 31-33;
Ezekiel 41:6), they may help to clarify the meaning of some obscure technical
terms in Biblical text.
Voters in Greece have taken the astonishing step of electing 21
parliamentarians from an openly neo-Nazi political party that calls itself the
“Golden Dawn,” which campaigned on an anti-immigrant platform and the
slogan “so we can rid this land of filth.”
The leader of Golden Dawn, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, immediately drew
attention to himself by giving an interview on the Mega TV network on May
13th in which he denied the existence of the Nazi Holocaust death camps
of WWII.
“There were no ovens. This is a lie. I believe that it is a lie. There were
no gas chambers either,” he said.
Crematorium memorial at Auschwitz I
Michaloliakos statement “constitutes a distortion of history and a fierce
insult to the memory of the millions of Holocaust victims,” said government
spokesperson Pentelis Kapsis.
“The Greek people have not forgotten that they mourned hundreds of thousands
of victims of Nazism, including tens of thousands of Greek Jews,” Kapsis said.
The leaders of Greece’s approximately 5,000 member Jewish community joined
in the condemnation of Michaloliakos’s statement.
During WWII, Greek Jews numbered around 78,000. Most of them lived in
the northern port city of Thessaloniki. That community was almost entirely
annihilated in the Holocaust.
“It is an insult to the historical memory, the memory of the six million Jews,
our brethren, amongst whom there were 70,000 Greek Jews, who perished in
the death camps of Auschwitz, Dachau [and] Treblinka,” the Jewish community
statement said.
Even a number of our Bibles For Israel Ministry staff members had parents,
grandparents and great parents, along with cousins, aunts and uncles, who
were put to death in the Nazi gas chambers, and then burned in the ovens,
which according to Greece’s political party Golden Dawn, didn’t even exist.
Never Again: A student stands to one side to ponder the atrocity of Auschwitz.
While deeply troubling of and by itself, the electoral success of Golden Dawn
is merely the most visible sign of a growing anti-Semitic trend in Europe.
Jew hatred (anti-Semitism) has plagued Europe since the time of the Roman
Empire. It may look like a “human” issue on the surface; however it is really
a spiritual issue, and at the root is Satan versus God and His plan for mankind.
God’s plan was to take Abraham, and make from him a people who would
worship Him in spirit and truth, write down the Word of God (the Bible), live
in the Land He chose for them (Israel), and from this Chosen People the
Messiah would come into the world; and bring all of the non-Jews into a
relationship with Himself and God The Creator.
So if the Jews are God’s Chosen People, why have they been hated
and persecuted?
We may never fully understand this; however, it’s also a fulfillment of Bible
prophecy, for it is written inJeremiah 16:16:
“But now I will send for many fishermen,” declares the Lord, “and they will
catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them
down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks.”
An old fishing vessel in Jaffa, which is believed to be one of the oldest port
cities in the world. In the Book of Jonah, Jaffa is mentioned as the port
from which Jonah set sail for Tarshish instead of going to Nineveh.
The time when God will send fishers to urge Jews to return to Israel seems
to be rapidly coming to a close, and He is beginning to send the hunters.
We know from Scripture that the Jews remaining in the “fleshpots of Egypt”
or Babylon or Greece or New York or wherever they are, will be coming back
to Zion one way or another, whether they like it or not.
When the Jewish people in the Diaspora fully return home to Israel, God will
fulfill His plan and purpose for Israel to become life from the dead for the whole world (Romans 11:15).
Like the vaccine you read about earlier, Israel is already making tremendous
contributions to the world.
As Israel has blessed the world both in advances like this vaccine, and giving the world
the Word of God and the Messiah, you can Bless Israel back today, by giving the opportunity to
know about Yeshua (Jesus), the promised Messiah of Israel.
Tonight Israelis begin to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem in modern times. On this date, according to the Jewish calendar, (the Gregorian calendar civil date is June 7) the Israel Defense Forces broke through the Jordanian offensive lines manning the 1948 ceasefire lines (not final armistice lines, not mutually agreed upon boundaries) dividing Jerusalem after the creation of Israel. The illegal Jordanian occupation of the eastern section of Jerusalem artificially split the city for 19 years until the 1967 Six Day War when the Muslim nations surrounding Israel plus other Muslim allies not on their border vowed to drive Israel into the sea. During their occupation, with few exceptions, the Jordanians refused to allow Jews to visit their holy and historic sites while destroying many of them, all in gross violation of numerous agreements.
Dodging sniper fire while racing through eastern Jerusalem towards the Old City in the final days of the 1967 war, the Israelis finally made it to the Western Wall, the last standing remnant the Holy Temple. “The Temple Mount is in our hands! I repeat, the Temple Mount is in our hands” the brigade commander triumphantly reported. And then the Chief Rabbi of the IDF blew the shofar (ram’s horn).
Built, destroyed, rebuilt and destroyed again over 2000 years ago, Jews continue(d) to vow to return, “Next year in Jerusalem!” And so they did, so they do.
Last week, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research held an extraordinary conference in New York, with 18 scholars presenting formal papers on “Jews and the Left,” addressing such issues as “present-day understandings of Jewish attraction to the Left in the 19th and 20th centuries,” whether today’s left is “in whole or in part anti-Semitic,” and the relationship between the left and Israel.
The response to these issues — coming from a group of scholars who were largely leftists or liberals themselves — was quite remarkable.
In his “Introductory Remarks,” Prof. Jack Jacobs of CUNY asserted that “the one-time ties between Jews and the left can best be explained by political, economic, and sociological conditions which existed in the 19th century, and which went out of existence in the twentieth” — that Jewish leftism was thus a creation of a time and place that no longer exists, not an enduring reflection of either Jewish religion or Jewish traits.
The uncertain relationship between Jewish leftism and Jewish religion was the theme of Michael Walzer’s keynote address, “The Strangeness of Jewish Leftism.” He listed the various ways in which Jewish leftism and Judaism are inconsistent and noted that Jewish leftism was a historical rejection of both Jewish tradition and traditional Jews. He quoted what he called the “profoundly accurate” observation by Polish poet Czesław Miłosz about many Jewish leftist intellectuals of the 1920s and 1930s:
From general ideas about the equality of men, they drew the conclusion that the past does not count. They were unwilling to take an interest in Yiddish literature or translations into Polish, because they saw it as provincial and inferior, left over from the ghetto, the very mention of which was a tactless blunder. If anyone mentioned the Jews in their presence, they took offense, at once reading racism into the remarks. They tried at all costs to forget who they were.
But one result of forgetting “who they were,” in order to become immediate universalists, was an inability to transmit that culture over generations, in the way traditional Jewish culture reproduces itself each year with its particular rituals and readings. Prof. Walzer called for a re-engagement by Jewish leftists with Jewish tradition, acknowledging the remarkable political achievement of Jewish politics in exile, sustaining a national existence for 2,000 years without sovereignty or territory. He seemed effectively to be proposing a sort of particular Jewish leftism, one he hoped that, unlike the Jewish leftism of the past, “might be strong enough to pass on to our grandchildren.”
But the problem is not only that Jewish leftists left the Jews, but that leftism itself has left them as well. Ron Radosh of the Hudson Institute and PJ Media made a fascinating presentation, entitled “When the American Jewish Left Loved Israel,” reviewing the critical support given to the re-creation of Israel by the Soviet Union, the Nation, and I.F. Stone — whom Radosh called second only to Leon Uris in creating a wave of support for a beleaguered people trying to return to their homeland while opposed by the “true colonial power” of the time (Britain). He closed by noting that such leftist support for Israel is long gone.
These days, the Nation is the source of vitriolic opposition to Israel, and a significant part of the left is not only anti-Israel, but anti-Semitic. Prof. Mitchell Cohen of CUNY, who co-edited Dissent for nearly two decades, said he has gotten indigestion from “what parts of the Left have swallowed without getting indigestion.” He said the left “has a Zionist problem,” and part of it has a Jewish problem as well, and he repeated British novelist Iain Pears’ observation that anti-Semitism is like alcoholism: “You can go for 25 years without a drink, but if things go bad and you find yourself with a vodka in your hand, you can’t get rid of it.”
University of Manchester Professor Emeritus Norman Geras presented a stunning paper, entitled “Alibi Anti-Semitism,” describing the anti-Semitic climate that now affects what he called a “substantial section” of the left, which uses Israel as its “convenient alibi” for views that cannot be regarded as merely critical of particular Israeli policies. His conclusion, which he described as painful for a leftist such as himself — but as “necessary” in light of what his paper described — was this:
It is a moral scandal that some few decades after the unmeasurable catastrophe that overtook the Jewish people in Europe, these anti-Semitic themes and ruses are once again respectable; respectable not just down there with the thugs but pervasively also within polite society, and within the perimeters of a self-flattering liberal and left opinion. It is a bleak lesson to all but those unwilling to see.
University of Chicago Professor Moishe Postone, another leftist scholar, offered “Thoughts on History, the Holocaust, and the Left,” extending some themes he has described elsewhere — that the Jews “have once again become the singular object of European indignation,” with some forms of fascistic Arab nationalism “coded as singularly progressive” in order to provide a form of anti-Semitism “that was ‘legitimate’ for the Left, and was called anti-Zionism.”
Was Jewish radicalism a break with Jewish tradition or a movement inspired by Jewish history? In a historical look at “Jews and Communism in the Soviet Union and Poland,” Brandeis Professor Antony Polonsky juxtaposed two remarks — one by the great Jewish historian Simon Dubnov, and the other from Vassili Grossman’s novel Forever Flowing. In a 1917 speech, Dubnov observed that:
[M]any demagogues came from among us, who joined the heroes of the street and the prophets of power grabbing. They use Russian pseudonyms because they are ashamed of their Jewish origin (Trotsky, Zinoview etc.), but maybe it is their Jewish name which is not genuine, because they have no roots to bind themselves to our people.
Grossman wrote about the “powerful flame of fanaticism” that captured one of his characters — a “sad, sly shopkeeper from the shetl” who had no reason to hate capitalism based on his own circumstances and who caught the flame, perhaps, from the “wisdom” of the Communist Manifesto, or the suffering of “the impoverished people right beside him” — or perhaps something else that extended further back:
Or was it that the smoldering coals were buried deep within his thousand-year inheritance, ready to burst into flame — to do battle with Caesar’s Roman soldiers, to confront the bonfires of the Spanish inquisition, to join in the starving frenzy of the Talmudists, to emerge in the shetl organization for self-defense during the pogroms? Was it the age-old chain of abuses, the anguish of the Babylonian captivity, the humiliations of the ghetto, or the misery of the Pale of Settlement that had produced and forged that unquenchable thirst that was scorching the soul of the Bolshevik Lev Mekler?
Prof. Polonsky ended his paper with a touching reference to the Polish-Jewish poet Stanislaw Wygodzki, who emigrated to Israel in 1968 and whose 1990 interview in a Polish paper was entitled “I Served an Evil Cause.” The poet said he nevertheless still believed in the ideals of “something that was once called Communism” — which he characterized as the rejection of “exploitation, oppression and subjugation.”
For one who heard the two days of presentations at YIVO, however, what was most striking was not the old ideals of the utopian left, or Michael Walzer’s eloquent call for a leftist engagement with Jewish tradition in the future, but the ugly picture of “actually existing” leftism now. Prof. Geras ended his paper with this:
We now know, as well, that should a new calamity ever befall the Jewish people, there will be, again, not only the direct architects and executants but also those who collaborate, who collude, who look away and find the words to go with doing so. Some of these, dismayingly, shamefully, will be of the left.
Rick Richman’s articles have appeared in American Thinker, COMMENTARY, The Jewish Press, the New York Sun, PJ Media, and elsewhere.
“No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case with integrity. They rely on
empty arguments and speak lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to
evil.” (Isaiah 59:4) Tel Aviv: This popular international tourist destination has the second largest
economy in the Middle East. And although Jerusalem is the capital of Israel,
it’s not internationally recognized as such, and consequently, some 82
countries have their embassies in Tel Aviv, including the United States and India.
Hundreds of prominent Muslim clerics in India, a predominantly Hindu
country, have recently issued demands for an end to economic and diplomatic
relations with Israel, according to the Indo-Asian News Service. Some even
called for an end to ties with the US.
Instead of ties with Israel, they called for India to improve its relations
with the Palestinians, Iran and Syria.
The thriving trade and military ties between Israel and India, which amount to
billions of dollars a year in military hardware, high tech equipment and
tourism, as well as intellectual and academic collaboration between Israeli and
Indian universities, has been an engine of prosperity and increasing security
for both countries.
Tens of thousands of Indians have seen their quality of life improve due to
imports of Israeli technology in agriculture, sanitation, energy, and
transportation, as well as other areas.
Israeli and Indian flags flew side-by-side in New Delhi, when Ariel Sharon
visited India in 2003. It was the first time an Israeli prime minister had
visited India, and nearly 100 Muslims were arrested in the resulting protests.
India’s relationship with the Palestinians, Iran and Syria has been somewhat
less advantageous for India, but the Muslim clerics that were cited in the
report did not appear to see it that way.
India’s large Muslim minority, which is the second-most practiced religion in
India, accounting for more than 13 percent of India’s population, has long
complained about discrimination from the Hindu majority, including official
discrimination by the Congress Party-led unity government.
Some of these complaints are no doubt legitimate, but for them to blame Israel
and the West for this is simply another example of the kind of absurd
demagoguery which is so common in the Muslim world.
Iranian soldier and missile
We need your help in bringing Hope to the Jewish people here in Israel.
Top of the US Priority List: Preparations for War with Iran
“Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me and will watch over
me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to
wear so that I return safely to my father’s house, then the Lord will be my
God.’” (Genesis 28: 20 – 21)
Despite recent nuclear talks that have seemed to lower the temperature on the
Iran crisis, the US military has placed preparations for a possible war with
Iran at the top of its priority list, according to recently surfaced information.
A Pentagon source in a New York Times report said that in a three-week
lightning campaign, Iran’s military power essentially could be destroyed by a
conventional air attack from US Navy aircraft carriers and air bases in allied
Arab countries.
Afterward, Washington would be in a much stronger position to demand
concessions on the nuclear issue and other troubling Iranian behavior.
President Obama with American troops
Although the official line coming out of Washington, London and Paris is that
Western powers would prefer to settle their disagreements with Iran
diplomatically, there is a growing consensus that this isn’t realistic.
Furthermore, there are increasingly strident voices calling for a military
strike to “finish” the problem; however, all diplomatic options must be
exhausted first, and meetings are taking place next week.
Even though almost everyone believes such diplomatic motions are inherently
pointless, they will make it easier for the Western powers to secure
international support for military strikes.
Iran itself might give the US and its allies in the region the excuse they need
to launch such strikes, by any of the following:
• Miscalculating and/or believing their own bellicose rhetoric;
• Closing the Strait of Hormuz;
• Attacking shipping in the Persian Gulf; and/or
• Provoking an attack from one of its Arab neighbors over the many
points of contention in the crowded Gulf.
Iran also has had a long simmering conflict with Azerbaijan—its secular Muslim
neighbor to the north, a country that has a strong relationship with Israel.
US, British and French military power in the Persian Gulf region has been
systematically reinforced in recent months, and now includes most of what
Pentagon planners believe would be necessary for a strike.
In August 2011, US Ambassador Daniel B. Shapiro toured the Iron Dome
Battery in southern Israel. The Iron Dome System was first deployed several
months before, in March 2011. Since then, Israel’s Iron Dome systems are
said to have intercepted about 100 Katyusha and Kassam rockets that were
fired into the country from the Gaza Strip.
Missiles and Nuclear Bombs: An Existential Threat to Israel
“They spend the night naked; they have nothing to cover themselves in the
cold. They are drenched by mountain rains and hug the rocks for lack of
shelter.” (Job 24:7 –
Many experts have described the rocket threat every bit an existential threat
to Israel as the Iranian nuclear program.
According to Military Intelligence Chief Major General Aviv Kochavi, “about
200,000 missiles are aimed at Israel at any given time” (Haaretz).
And because of regional instability, that threat is increasing and
intensifying, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said.
Can you imagine being forced to live with such an ugly reality?
Imagine—200,000 missiles! Iron Dome: In 2005, the Obama administration
approved $205 million for the production and
deployment of Israel’s Iron Dome. This Thursday,
the US is expected to announce an additional $680
million in aid for the purchase of three to four more
batteries and interceptors.
The IDF and its vaunted ‘Iron Dome’ system can only do so much to protect
Israel from Iranian-sponsored terrorism.
If the enemies of the Jewish State ever made a full-court press and launched
simultaneous attacks with rockets, suicide bombers, conventional military
attacks and cyber-attacks, it would be impossible to counter them all at once.
It’s a cruel and pitiless world, more so in the Middle East than in most other places.
More than anything else, Israelis need hope.
The only true and lasting hope they have is to be found in their Messiah,
Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth.
The best way for them to learn about Him is by reading the Messianic Prophecy
Bible and reaching a firm conviction that Yeshua is their promised Messiah.
Gaza Strip rocket ranges into Israel
Israel’s Masorti Movement Votes to Ordain Gay Rabbis
Last week, US President Barak Obama made a stunning announcement that
he endorsed the legalization of homosexual marriage in the United States.
Beyond the implications in America, the championing of homosexual marriage
by the US President will be seen as an affirmation of the homosexual lifestyle
by many people all over the world, including in Israel.
Tel Aviv is already rated by some websites as one of the most homosexual-
friendly places on earth.
Even among “religious” Jewish circles, support is growing for homosexuality,
which is unambiguously forbidden in the Bible, both in the Old and New Covenant.
President Obama
Recently, Israel’s Masorti (Conservative) Movement voted to approve
the ordination of gay rabbis, following similar moves by the American
Conservative Movement and mainline Protestant Christian denominations
in several Western countries.
The measure to accept gay and lesbian rabbis passed with 18 votes in favor,
one abstention, and none against.
“I see it as a very important development in Jewish law,” Rabbi Mauricio
Balter, President of the Israeli Conservative Movement Rabbinical Assembly,
told Haaretz. “I always said we should admit gay and lesbians into
our ranks.”
“The decision to hold a vote was correct as can be seen by the fact that there
wasn’t a single dissenting vote,” he said.
Needless to say, there are dozens of dissenting votes throughout the Bible,
and from the Orthodox Jewish community in Israel.
However, Balter’s statement merely reiterates the fact that the Bible is all but
irrelevant for many Israelis and Jews worldwide.
Hopefully one day they will read The Messianic Prophecy Bible, and learn
about Yeshua, and discover their deliverance from sin.
Gay pride parade in Tel Aviv
With so much support for the homosexual lifestyle coming from such high
profile political, cultural and religious leaders, it’s no surprise that
ordinary Israelis who practice a homosexual lifestyle are increasingly
strident in their demands to be endorsed and encouraged (not just accepted).
The dozens of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) clubs, bars and
nightclubs in Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Eilat are complemented by a vibrant online
gay scene. As well, every day, thousands of gay Europeans land at Ben
Gurion Airport for the express purpose of meeting and partying with
Israeli homosexuals.
As appalling as these things are, they are merely symptomatic of a much
bigger problem: spiritual darkness resembling that of Sodom and Gomorrah
has descended upon the world, including Israel.
In these end times, so few take a stand for the Scriptures or give proper
guidance to those who depend on them.
The shepherds have failed the sheep. This has happened to some degree in
every generation, but today the problem seems to have taken a dramatic turn
for the worse.
The Messianic Prophecy Bible will help Jewish people in Israel and around the
world gain a clearer understanding of God’s will for their lives.
Don’t leave Israelis in the grip of darkness. The Messiah is
returning soon and everyone must be prepared.
You can sponsor a chapter of the Messianic Prophecy Bible today or support our Outreach.
Just when all of Israel was preparing for early elections on September 4th, Prime Minister Netanyahu pulled off a stunning political deal this week that some are interpreting as a prelude to war with Iran. That’s certainly what the Arab media is saying. Rather than dissolve the Israeli parliament (Knesset) as expected, Netanyahu persuaded his chief rival Shaul Mofaz, leader of the Kadima party, to join the government. Mofaz will become a Deputy Prime Minister. His entire party (with 28 seats in the Knesset) will join as well, and some will be given senior positions in the government. This will give Netanyahu a coalition comprising 94 of the 120 members of the Knesset, one of the largest national unity governments in modern Israeli history. Even political observers who can’t stand Netanyahu are calling the deal a “masterstroke.”
Mofaz was born and raised in Tehran, Iran. He learned to speak Farsi fluently before emigrating to Israel in 1957 and rising through the ranks of the Israeli Defense Forces. He served as Defense Minister under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Thus, Netanyahu now has another experienced military commander and strategist at his side, in addition to current Defense Minister Ehud Barak (another long-time political rival of Netanyahu), and current Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon, who used to be the chief of staff of the IDF. However, just a few weeks ago, Mofaz was calling Netanyahu a “liar,”vowing never to join the Netanyahu government, and attacking the Prime Minister’s approach towards Iran, saying Israel did not need to consider a preemptive strike against Iran for at least another two years.
Did Netanyahu convince Mofaz that the need to hit Iran sooner is actually more urgent that Mofaz thought, and if so, how? Or did Mofaz simply read the polls that showed early elections would decimate his “Kadima” political party and reduce their number of Knesset seats from 28 to 15 or less, and thus decide to join the government to forestall such early elections? Maybe both. Time will tell.
For now, let’s be clear: Netanyahu and his government are clearly and steadily preparing for a major war with Iran. That doesn’t mean it will happen this year, or next. The Russians could intervene. The Iranian government could fall. Other circumstances could change. The Lord could supernaturally intervene. But war could be coming, and coming soon. The Israelis are getting ready. Is the Church?
Put aside all the hue and cry – pro and con – over Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s surprise deal to form a unity government with the opposition Kadima party and to defer elections until late 2013. And then examine why it happened and what it portends.
Netanyahu was leading a center-right coalition for the last three years that remained remarkably stable — until fairly recently when it became apparent that something had to be done about the Tal Law, which exempts orthodox youth from military service. The exemption statute is due to expire in August and Israel’s Supreme Court has struck it down.
What to put in its place? Religious parties in Bibi’s coalition were girding for a fight against any mandatory conscription while other coalition partners were clamoring for equal national service — military or otherwise – without any exceptions. Netanyahu himself acknowledged the growing cracks within the government. At first, he aimed for advancing elections to early September of this year, but then reversed himself when Shaul Mofaz, the opposition Kadima leader, agreed to join Bibi’s coalition and give it rock-solid stability with more than 90 parliamentary seats out of 120.
Mofaz had vowed never to make such a move when he beat Tzipi Livni, Kadima’s former head, for the party’s leadership. But he also realized that the centrist Kadima party was shrinking at an alarming rate. Had the elections been held this year, polls indicated that Kadmina, with 28 current Knesset seats the largest parliamentary party, would drop to fourth place with only 12 or 13 seats.
By entering a unity government, Kadima got a lifeline to preserve its current 28 seats for more than a year — a breathing spell that allows Mofaz to do some rebuilding.
For Bibi, a unity government was a marriage made in political heaven. With Kadima aboard, he hugely expanded his maneuvering room to pursues a more centrist course in dealing with some form of national service for orthodox youths and for meeting popular demands to reverse a growing divide between well-off and poor Israelis. On the diplomatic front, Mofaz is due to take charge of dealing with the Palestinians, while Bibi navigates treacherous waters with Iran’s nuclear program and often shaky relations with the Obama administration. The prime minister now can meet these security/diplomatic challenges with both Mofaz, a former IDF chief of staff and former defense minister, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak at his side. A heavyweight team is now in charge.
Predictably, formation of a unity government literally in the middle of the night has prompted furious outcries by those left out in the cold – the Labor Party, which now will move into the prime opposition slot, and the far-left Meretz party.
But in Israel’s raucous media, Bibi already has been crowned “king of Israel.” No prime minister in recent memory has fielded such a potent coalaition. Netanyahu, however, knows that, while Israel now has the most stable government in modern times, there still will be challenges aplenty in coping with daunting domestic and foreign issues.
The prime minister may be reveling in his dramatic coup for more power. But he’s also sufficiently realistic to know that he’s no exception to the classic cautionary warning – uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.
Leo Rennert is a former White House correspondent and Washington bureau chief of McClatchy Newspapers
● Olmert Sells Out Israel And the Jewish People: The transformation of Ehud Olmert is complete and it is not very pretty. We still have memories of Ehud Olmert, then Mayor of Jerusalem, defending a uniting Jerusalem as he spoke at the One Jerusalem rally in 2000 surrounded by 400,000 Israelis. Sadly… (read more)
The Jerusalem Post, Israel’s right-of-center news outlet, held its first conference on Sunday, April 29, in New York City. As for the panelists, the animosity between the members of Israel’s former left-of-center government and the present members of Netanyahu’s right-of-center government was intense.
The day-long conference brought together a long list of impressive Israeli government and diplomatic officials and military officials and featured some of the newspaper’s best editors and journalists, along with Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz. JPost’s intentional mix of politically polarized opinions was obviously intended to balance the points of view in speeches and panel discussions and to make for energetic debates.
Instead, the audience of about 1,200 guests, who also represented polarized sides of American Jewish politics, were subject to opening remarks by former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that set an early tone for the whole conference…the airing of some of Israel’s internal political laundry before an American audience.
This was a huge distraction from the purpose of the conference: to have honest discussions on Israel-U.S. relations, the socio-economic issue of a new Jewish Diaspora, and the delegitimization of Israel by many in the global media.
“Securing Israel’s place in the new Middle East: What can be done?” was the first panel topic, but it was overshadowed by Olmert’s allegations that some ministers went about sabotaging his negotiations with PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
The hostility continued as this panel was questioned about Iran and what Israel should do to stop Iran’s nuclear ability to strike Israel. Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan and Gilad Erdan, today’s environmental protection minister, got into a war of words that was highlighted by Dagan calling Erdan “a liar.” Erdan, for his part, stated that “I prefer that heads of the Mossad and Shin Bet will not do damage to our efforts…and go out and say you should be doing this or that” — apparently as a response to both Dagan’s and former Shin Bet director Yuval Diskin’s recent public critiques of their administrations’ handling of the Iranian threat.
But it was JPost’s senior contributing editor, Caroline Glick, a Chicagoan who made aliyah in 1991, who addressed the topic of U.S.-Israeli relations head-on. After sitting appearing totally uninterested in the political barbs being traded on stage, she spoke boldly when called upon. She talked about the huge disconnect that she hears on the streets of Israel between the Israeli Jewish citizens and the American Jewish community as it relates to President Obama’s support for Israel. The majority of Jews in both countries are polarized in their trust in the Obama administration’s words and deeds, but from opposite opinions: American Jews overwhelmingly seem to believe in this administration, while Israeli Jews do not.
Ms. Glick stated that it seems that this credibility gap began in Cairo with the president’s speech to Arabs, followed by his demand for settlement freezes in the West Bank and his recently allowing Turkey to stop Israel from becoming part of NATO. This was then countered by Olmert, who pointed his finger at Glick the other “right-right-of-center” panelist, stating that “it is not in Israel’s best interest to criticize any American president.”
But one thing Glick and Olmert seemed to agree on is the fact that the world needs to be convinced that Iran’s nuclear program is not just a threat to Israel, but truly a threat to the global community. And it was noted that the Palestinian statehood issue is not really the heart of the problem in the Middle East, although the Arabs would like the world to believe that. It is a myth to think that all it would take for peace in the ME is for the Israeli/Palestinian problem to be resolved.
With this in mind, Israel must be the master of its own destiny and maintain a strong Israeli approach that keeps the military option on the table. However, the majority also agreed that an American-led international coalition would be a more persuasive line of attack that might convince Iran of standing down.
During the Q&A that followed the morning’s discussion, one question seemed to stand out and take the panel off-guard. A gentleman from the audience asked for a yes-or-no answer to the following question: “If Israel were to give the Palestinian Arabs all that they desire, including all of Jerusalem and other Israeli cities, historical and religious sites, removal of the settlements under dispute — hand Arabs the natural resources of the land; supply them with medical, technological, military, and nuclear capabilities; and the ‘right of return’ — would the Jewish people be able to live there in peace?”
Well, this moment reminded me of Caroline Glick’s recent commentary, titled “Elephant in the Room: Jewish Hatred.” The panel actually refused to answer the question and quickly dismissed the man in favor of the next person on line. Surely this question, as unrealistic as it may be, truly hits at the heart of the Israeli/Palestinian/Arab dispute –that the hatred of the Jewish People is so strong, so generational, so passionate, that there may never be enough that Jews of Israel can do to bring security and a right to live and prosper in the place they call their homeland.
The other two discussions that took place in the afternoon were also quite passionate; panelists spoke about the international Jewish community that is presently facing a new Diaspora as Jews try to escape growing global anti-Semitism/anti-Zionism. Also mentioned was the battle to counter the media’s public relations war to delegitimize Israel. But the tenor created by Olmert had been set, and it remained as a shadow over the conference.
It must be said that as a first-of-its-kind conference, the Jerusalem Post‘s event was successful in that it brought together so many illustrious leaders and other great voices in support of Israel who expressed their views on the most important issues facing Israel today. However, there was one important lesson to be learned from this conference — one not to be repeated if this is to become an annual event.
When it comes to the international stage, like a conference in NYC, it is wise to keep internal politics away from the podium so as to present a strong, united Israel to the world. This admonition was best summed up by Professor Dershowitz in his morning presentation, “Come united,” and reiterated by Isi Leibler, former leader of the Australian Jewry and presently a JP columnist, when he chastised Olmert during his panel talk. ”A former prime minister of Israel took everything in the book to criticize the present government.”
Leibler’s advice that “There’s a lot we have to learn about a certain amount of restraint and dignity” is advice we here in America should also be taking as our internal politics has taken such an ugly turn between our “left” and “right,” staining the dignity of our country. We Americans are in grave need of civil discourse in our political arena. The verbal darts sent across the stage at the JPost’s conference served as a reminder of the damage a divisive nation does to itself.
Prophetic implications? Hard to say at this point. Vladimir Putin comes back to power as president (read: czar) of Russia on May 7 and coplay throw his weight in against an Israeli strike. We’re that to happen, that could suggest we are stmoving towards towards the “War of Gog and Magog” described in Ezekiel 38 and 39. We also need to keep in mind the coming fulfillment of the destruction of Damascus as foretold in Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49. Does that happen before or after the Magog war? The Scriptures do not say so I don’t know. But we need to be prayerful, proactive and prepared for these and other scenarios, especially given the growing alliance between Russia and Iran and the evil of the Assad regime. Leaders reap what they sow, and the leaders of these nations — tragically — are poised to reap a whirlwind.
Interesting developments in the epicenter this week:
Netanyahu and his Likud party move to call new elections, likely Sept 4th
Some key Israeli political analysts speculate Netanyahu wants to consolidate his political power and strengthen his coalition — polls show Likud poised to rise from 27 to possibly 31 seats — in order to launch a preemptive military strike on Iran in September or October, after the Israeli elections but before the American elections
An “October Surprise” could put President Obama in a difficult position, perhaps less able to criticize or block an Israeli move
At the same time, the Israelis continue to make obvious preparations for war
This week Israel took possession of a brand new German built submarine capable of launching nuclear missiles
This week Israel also mobilized six reserve army battalions and put more on notification that they could be called up into active duty soon
That said, it would be a mistake to rule out the possibility of an Israeli first strike sooner than September — both Netanyahu and Defense Minister Barak are stating that time to neutralize the Iran threat is running out and the time for action is drawing near
Opponents of war inside are growing more vocal — even a number of former high ranking Israeli generals andintelligence officialsgave spoken outrecently in sharp criticism of Netanyahu and Barak
Most european leftists just can’t help themselves when it comes to Jew hate. Therefore, it’s not surprising that Norwegian socialist Johan Galtung tried to link the tragic massacre of children last summer with the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.
He also recommended reading the debunked book “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
Professor Galtung, 82-years-old, is one of the founders of the discipline called “Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution,” as well as a founder of the international Peace Research Institute in Oslo. He is considered well-respected sociological researcher, has been awarded many prizes, and is the author of over a thousand articles and over a hundred books. Some of his work has also been translated into Hebrew.
Galtung’s repeated anti-Semitic remarks were exposed by the website of the Norwegian periodical, “Humanist.” (http://humanist.no) Some of the comments were made during a lecture at the University of Oslo last summer, and others were written by Galtung in response to an article critical of him that was published in the periodical.
Among other claims, Galtung stated that there is a possible link between Anders Behring Breivik, responsible for massacring dozens of children in Norway last summer, and Jewish and Israeli factions. The connection is supposedly based on the fact that the murderer has ties to the “Freemasons” organization, “which has Jewish origins,” according to Galtung. The supposed connection to Israel is through the Mossad – which Galtung believes might have given Breivik his orders.
In the same breath, Galtung mentioned a conspiracy theory, linking last summer’s massacre in Norway with the attack on the King David Hotel, carried out by the Etzel in 1946 – both attacks took place on July 22. He finished with this astonishing claim: “It will be interesting to read the [Norwegian] police report on Israel, during the trial.”
In an email exchange with Haaretz on Sunday, Galtung requested to clear up his claims. “When we know nothing about who is behind Breivik, including whether there is anybody at all, any hypothesis is legitimate; that is in the nature of research,” wrote Galtung.
This is a “social scientist?” A sixth grader using Google could discover in 30 seconds that “Protocols” is a forgery written by a member of the Russian secret police in the early 1900′s. And why would Mossad use this pathetic creature Breivik in any operation, much less a terrorist assassination of children?
The idea that “any hypothesis is legitimate” might be true, but connecting the massacre with Mossad is not a hypothesis in any sense of the word. It is a blood libel. And Galtung has shown himself to be as ignorant and uninformed as any other anti-Semtic leftist in Europe.
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lmert that set an early tone for the whole conference…the airing of some of Israel’s internal political laundry before an American audience.
admonition was best summed up by Professor Dershowitz in his morning presentation, “Come united,” and reiterated by Isi Leibler, former leader of the Australian Jewry and presently a JP columnist, when he chastised Olmert during his panel talk. ”A former prime minister of Israel took everything in the book to criticize the present government.”
