The coastline of Tel Aviv
Prayer Alert for the next 72 days: Please pray for Hadas an Israeli woman, that she would have a visitation / encounter with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and be immersed in the Living Waters of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit).
Please pray Today for Hadas and others, scroll down to the bottom.
Shalom,
Obama to Israel: No Nuclear Deal Means More Hezbollah Rockets on Tel Aviv
"On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations." (Zechariah 12:3)
United States President Barack Obama said last week that blocking the Iranian nuclear deal would force a US attack on Iran and, consequently, rockets to fall on Tel Aviv.
He emphasized that Israel stands alone in her position on the Iran Deal.
"Because this is such a strong deal, every nation in the world that has commented publicly, with the exception of the Israeli government, has expressed support," Obama said at a speech at American University in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.
"The United Nations Security Council has unanimously supported it. The majority of arms-control and nonproliferation experts support it. Over 100 former ambassadors who served under Republican and Democratic presidents support it," he added. (TOI)
No mention was made of Middle East nations who have their own security concerns over the deal.
President Barak Obama (Whitehouse photo by Pete Souza)
The speech follows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Tuesday webcast to North American Jewish leaders.
Netanyahu told them that the Iran Deal is not a partisan concern.
"A huge majority of Israelis oppose the deal. So this is not a partisan issue in Israel. It shouldn't be a partisan issue in the United States either," the prime minister said.
During Netanyahu's webcast, sponsored by the Jewish Federations and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the prime minister rebuffed the notion that his own stance on Iran constituted a "personal attack" against Obama.
"This isn't about me. And it's not about President Obama. It's about the deal. I'm asking you to rise above partisan politics as we in Israel have risen above it," Netanyahu said.
In a low blow, however, Obama struck out at opponents of the Joint Comprehensive Agreement likening Iranian hardliners who yell "death to America" to those who oppose the deal, such as Congressional Republicans:
"It's those hardliners chanting 'Death to America' who have been most opposed to the deal. They're making common cause with the Republican caucus."
Alan Dershowitz, American lawyer, jurist, author,
and political commentator.
Professor of law at Harvard Law School Alan Dershowitz, who acknowledges he twice voted for Obama, writes that the president, "in his desperation to save his Iran deal, has taken to attacking its opponents in personal ways."
“More Democratic members of Congress, more liberal supporters of the President, more nuclear experts and more foreign policy gurus are expressing deep concern about, and sometimes strong opposition to, the deal that is currently before Congress," Dershowitz writes. (Gatestone Institute)
On Tuesday, Obama brought 20 American Jewish leaders to the White House to debunk arguments against the deal and to warn that rejection of it would force the US to strike Iran's nuclear facilities, with the consequences falling upon Israel.
In attendance, the chair of the National Jewish Democratic Council, Greg Rosenbaum, quoted Obama saying,
"The result of such a strike won't be [an American] war with Iran. … I can assure that Israel will bear the brunt of the asymmetrical response that Iran will have to a military strike on its nuclear facilities."
"They will fight this asymmetrically. That means more support for terrorism, more Hezbollah rockets falling on Tel Aviv," Rosenbaum quoted Obama as saying.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Netanyahu cautioned the opposite, however, warning that "this deal will bring war."
"Judge the deal on its substance and on its substance alone," Netanyahu said. "The more people know about the deal, the more they oppose it."
"Iran can keep the deal or Iran can cheat on the deal" and still develop a bomb, Netanyahu said, pointing out that Iran also has been building intercontinental ballistic missiles—to strike the US, not Israel. (TOI)
(Israel GPO graphic)
Tehran has been uncooperative, blocking UN inspectors from talking with scientists and military personnel about allegations of a secret nuclear-weapons program in Iran. (WSJ)
In fact, recent satellite photos also show heavy machinery, such as bulldozers, working at the Parchin site—a suspected nuclear-military zone left out of the Joint Agreement but linked to separate talks between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The machinery shows what Democratic Senator Chris Coons describes as "vigorous efforts by Iran to sanitize Parchin" prior to planned inspections by the IAEA.
"Their actions seem to be against the grain of the agreement," Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr told Bloomberg View on Tuesday, naming the cleanup of Parchin "a huge concern."
"They [the inspectors] are certainly not going to see the site that existed. Whether that’s a site that can be determined what it did, only the technical experts can do that," Burr said.
United States Secretary of State John Kerry shakes hands with Iranian
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif after reaching the Nuclear Agreement.
Free access to this site would likely reveal that Iran has been developing nuclear capabilities for military use. Any cover-up just helps to prove Iran intends to not comply with open access requirements on the larger nuclear deal. It’s a trust issue.
Although scientists say that trace elements of enriched uranium in the soil cannot be completely removed by the October 15 inspection deadline, there is concern that IAEA might allow Iran to provide its own soil samples.
"The President would be well advised to stop attacking his critics and to start answering their hard questions with specific and credible answers," Dershowitz encouraged.
"Does the deal reflect a reversal in policy from President Obama's pre-reelection promise that 'My policy is not containment; my policy is to prevent them from getting a nuclear weapon'?" Dershowitz asks.
"How exactly will the inspections regime work?" and "What will President Obama do if Iran is caught cheating on this deal during his administration?" are among Dershowitz' other questions. (Gatestone Institute)
"I will keep a watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations. Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the Lord Almighty is their God.'" (Zechariah 12:4–5)
David Slaying Goliath, by Peter Paul Rubens
Archaeologists Find Enormous Gate of Gath, Goliath's Home City
"Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. The men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines as far as the valley, and to the gates of Ekron. And the slain Philistines lay along the way to Shaaraim, even to Gath and Ekron." (Samuel 17:51–52)
Archaeological work on the fortress city of Gath has revealed that it was a truly large city. This was the home of Goliath, who tried to intimidate the Israelite people—and no doubt the sheer size of the city itself was a daunting sight.
A Bar-Ilan University archaeology team tackling Tel Tzafit, the multi-layered dig site in the Judean foothills between Jerusalem and Ashkelon where the city of Gath once stood, has found the city's monumental main gate. (Times of Israel)
While digging trenches, they also found the top surface of the walls surrounding the city. According to dig-team leader Aren Maeir, the walls are so massive, it may take several seasons to uncover them.
“Many lines of megalithic stone are appearing, with nice corners, features and even mud bricks,” he said. (Daily Mail)
Aren Maeir
In addition to the city's wall, a Philistine temple near the city gate, and an iron production facility, the team found at the site ironwork and pottery that indicate the influence of Israelite styles.
"This mirrors the intense and multifaceted connections that existed between the Philistines and their neighbors," Maeir said.
Gath's strong presence, four times larger than the Jerusalem of ancient Israel,blocked the growth westward of the Israelite kingdom under David and Solomon, Maeir stated. (Bible Odyssey)
It was one of five ancient Philistine cities, the others being Ekron, Gaza, Ashdod and Ashkelon. Its huge fortifications show that "it's clearly the most important city of the 10th and ninth centuries."
When King Hazael of Aram Damascus destroyed Gath around 830 BC, the balance of power in the region shifted to allow other civilizations—including the Judean kingdom—to rise. (Haaretz)
Gath was a Philistine city thought to be the hometown of the warrior Goliath.
(Photo by Mboesch)
Iran-Israel Special Olympics Teams Forge Bonds
"Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness." (James 3:18)
Israel's 40-person delegation to the 2015 Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles (LA) returned to Israel Tuesday with 61 medals. As well, Israeli and Iranian delegates welcomed a friendly shift in relations between players.
Israel's Olympians carried home 25 gold, 18 silver, and 18 bronze medals for basketball, kayaking, long jump, tennis, bowling, swimming, track and the "athletics" category, which drew in the most awards of any category—12 medals, including one gold and six silver. (JPost)
Israel's wheelchair basketball team won the gold, beating out the Czech Republic and Austria, and securing their spot in the European Wheelchair Basketball Championships, which starts August 28 in the United Kingdom. (Ynet)
Reports on the Games describe a connection that formed between athletes from Iran and Israel, who took advantage of their proximity to bond over sports and, later, to talk over the political heat between their two countries.
The bonding came even before arriving in LA, with the teams, dressed in their team gear, meeting aboard the 12-hour transatlantic flight from Rome.
"We were sitting next to each other," said Israeli delegation head Reuven Astrachan. "So what do you for twelve hours? You talk. You talk to your neighbor." (The Good Life)
"What our athletes could teach the world leaders about respect, dignity, courage, pride and yes, peace," said Vicki Oren, the mother of open-water swimmer Mati Oren, 32.
The torch-carrying of the opening ceremony gave a nod to the Iran-Israel bond as well, with an Iranian athlete chosen to carry the Special Olympics torch and hand it off to Israeli basketball player Eliyahu Somer.
The Games' organizing committee hoped the hand-off would "send a powerful message," and with it, Somer finished the final leg of the ceremony.
Special Olympic medals
Polls: Gaza Infighting Reduces Hope for Palestinian State
"The Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords." (Judges 7:22)
Continued infighting in Gaza is working to extinguish the hope for an independent Palestinian state.
Khaled Abu Toameh, a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and an Arab Muslim whose articles have been published in The Wall Street Journal and U.S. News & World Report, wrote Monday that "the Palestinian dream of establishing an independent state is being destroyed by none other than the Palestinians themselves." (Gatestone Institute)
The Hamas-Fatah power struggle in Gaza, as well as a growing insurgence from Al-Qaeda and Islamic State jihadis would place an independent Gaza state on "the list of Arab countries that are currently witnessing civil wars and bloodbaths," he wrote.
Though all jihadis apparently want to destroy Israel, certain jihadis also want to destroy other jihadis.
A spokesman for the Islamic State declared its goals in Gaza, "By Allah's will, we will uproot the state of the Jews and you [Hamas] and others will vanish as the Gaza Strip will be ruled by sharia, whether you like it or not."
Instead of taking responsibility for the problems, however, Hamas leaders like Ismail al-Ashqar seek to make Israel the scapegoat by blaming Israel, "the occupier," for the violence. Of course, Israel by no means occupies Gaza, having abandoned all settlements in 2005.
Hamas soldiers (Source: IDFblog)
Meanwhile, a poll by the Harry Truman Research Institute with the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research has found a large decline in support for the so-called two-state solution—and the assumption on both sides of an existential threat at the hand of the other.
The joint poll showed two-state support dropped from 62% in 2014 to 51% among Israelis and from 54% to 51% among PA Arabs. (Albawaba)
Of Israelis polled, 43% think the aim of the Palestinian Authority is to destroy or subdue Israel's Jewish population, while 56% of PA Arabs polled believe that Israel wants to claim all land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea as its own and expel all Palestinians in the process.
The Harry Truman joint poll notes that only half of Israelis and PA Arabs support two states side by side—a peace-plan hypothesis brokered most recently by US Secretary of State John Kerry.
This plan has largely encouraged pre-1967 borders—indefensible for Israel—and would require surrendering Israel's God-given land inheritance, which is an invitation for Divine judgment:
"I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will put them on trial for what they did to My inheritance, My people Israel, because they scattered My people among the nations and divided up My land." (Joel 3:2)
The Armistice lines (Green Line or
the so-called 1967 borders) drawn
in the armistice between the armies
of Israel and the armies of the Arab
nations that attacked Israel in 1948.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion also took a poll July 11–24, 2015 and found that 37.7% of PA Arabs polled support the two-state plan, with another 19.6% supporting one state for both peoples. (PNN)
According to a Washington Institute poll, whose results were published on July 23, 2015, establishing a Palestinian state is top priority for only 23.9% of Gazans and 13.6% of Arabs in Judea-Samaria (“West Bank”). It is second-highest priority for 21.2% of Gazans and 17.3% of Judea-Samaria residents.
The poll reveals that "making enough money to live comfortably" is the top priority for 43.5% of Arabs in Judea-Samaria, with another 33.9% saying that a good family life is most important. The top-priority categories were switched for Gazans, with 33.7% prioritizing a good family life and 30.8% prioritizing a comfortable income. (Maan)
The Washington Institute poll provides a picture of integration, showing that two-thirds of Arab permanent residents in Judea-Samaria want Israel to open up opportunities for working in Israel, and 55% want to see Israeli companies provide more jobs in Judea-Samaria. (Christian Century)
Sadly, the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement seeks to eliminate Israeli companies operating in Judea-Samaria, thus reducing employment opportunities for local Palestinians.
Nevertheless, integration seems to be on the rise, with some Palestinian Arabs choosing to move "into predominantly Jewish neighborhoods and even settlements." (Reuters)
The Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies also reported that Palestinian Arab applications for Israeli citizenship number between 800 and 1,000 per year—up from 114 in 2003. (Ynet)
The multicultural streets of Jerusalem
NUT Pulls Extremist UK Teaching Pack for Review
"Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it." (Proverbs 22:6)
A learning resource pack in England that encourages children as young as three to adopt an anti-Semitic, pro-Palestinian agenda has been temporarily pulled out of the classrooms.
As part of a larger Beyond the Wall program, the five-part resource was developed by the Edukid charity and the National Union of Teachers (NUT), which serves as the union base for 325,000 teachers—the largest trade union in the UK.
The purpose of the project is to cover themes of "occupation, freedom and resistance" through the established principles of the UN Human Rights of the Child.
Critics find the project extremely troubling.
Director Sam Westrop of the counter-extremism think-tank Stand for Peace stated that the "NUT's political propaganda and misrepresentation serves the extremist agenda."
A school sign in England.
One part of the resource pack entitled “My Name is Saleh” relates the story of a Palestinian child named Saleh, 10, who got injured by Israeli settlers as he played in the snow. He was also questioned by police for throwing a snowball and later released, and an Israeli watchtower looks over settlers throwing objects at his home. (The Guardian)
As well, instead of referring to "Israelis" in the accompanying video, they are called "Jews."
This is not the reason that the pack was pulled, however. It was withdrawn by NUT for further investigation after a picture surfaced on Facebook of a Palestinian boy holding a gun, who was featured in the pack. (The Guardian)
Now that the material has gone public, Tom Wilson from The Henry Jackson Society warned that the project has the capacity to "[incite] tensions between faith communities in the U.K."
“When dealing with a subject as complex as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is so important to avoid giving young people a distorted or one-sided account,"Wilson stated. “It is a particularly shameless example of political activism masquerading as a legitimate form of education.”
The British Jewry Board of Deputies added that "the literature presents a one-sided and partisan view of the political situation." They have asked to meet with NUT to discuss their concerns.
The NUT, who approved last year to "boycott the goods of companies who profit from illegal settlements, the Occupation and the construction of the Wall,” said in a statement:
"The NUT remains confident in the materials, but we are always prepared to consider any concerns about publications we have any involvement with," adding, "Legitimate support of the United Nations’ definition of the rights of the child are something that we will of course uphold." (JC)
An Israeli first-grade student eagerly waits for his first lesson on the
first day of school.
While the learning pack promises the exploration of "identity, community, culture, faith, values citizenship and conflict," it is one-sided, having no profiles of Jewish-Israeli children. It also ignores security threats to Israel when describing measures taken for national security. (Breitbart)
Edukid Chief Executive Chris Turner claimed, however, "We're trying to be as neutral as possible, and don't want to take sides. We're trying to break down stereotypes." (Jewish News)
The Department of Education has left the decision to use the materials in the hands of the teachers, telling The Jewish Chronicle, “The law is crystal clear: all political discussions in school should be unbiased and balanced. Teachers should only use teaching materials which are suitable for their children and we trust them to decide which resources to use in their lessons.”
Kevin Courtney, deputy general secretary of the NUT, told the Guardian, “We don’t intend to junk this project at all, but we are willing to listen to concerns about balance. That balance is not necessarily uncontroversial either but we are keen to engage with it. We are not backing away from this issue.”
"Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly." (James 3:1)
Israel's enemies hate Israel and the Jewish People with an irrational, baseless hatred.
Although they seek to infect the entire world with that hatred, you can make a difference by helping us spread God's love to Israel and the nations.
"Comfort, comfort My people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins." (Isaiah 40:1–2)
Prayer Alert for the next 72 days: Please pray for Hadas, that she would have a visitation / encounter with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and be immersed in the Living Waters of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit).
We believe that Hadas will be a future spiritual leader, including leading Hebrew worship here in Israel, instrumental in bringing thousands into a relationship with Adonai.
Please pray for these others here in Israel who need the same holy encounter with the Messiah as Hadas: Jacky, Miriam, Haya, Talia, Shmuel & Anav.
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