Standing in support of Israel, Jews, and believers in all the nations, in the name of Jesus (Yeshua). Sharing biblical truth, encouragement, news and prophecy.
IDF forces revealed a tunnel in the Eshkol region in Southern Israel along the border with Gaza Strip, a second Hamas-run tunnel that was recently excavated. May 5, 2016. (Israel Army Spokesperson)
IDF Breaks Ground on Massive, High-Tech Underground Gaza Wall
“And he took courage, and built up all the wall that was broken down, and raised it up to the towers, and another wall without, and strengthened Millo in the city of David, and made weapons and shields in abundance.” II Chronicles 32:5 (The Israel Bible™)
The IDF has begun construction on a massive, $600 million underground wall along the Israel-Gaza border intended to halt Hamas terror tunnels used to launch attacks and funnel weapons.
The wall, which will run the length of Israel’s 60-kilometer border with the Gaza Strip, will reach to a depth of several dozen meters, said IDF officials. The concrete barrier will also stretch above-ground.
The wall is the largest engineering project ever to be carried out by the IDF engineering corps, said General Gazi Eizenkot, IDF Chief of Staff.
Israel broke ground for the first portion of the new barrier along northern Gaza, near the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council, which comprises a cluster of Israeli communities living under the constant threat of infiltration from terrorists burrowing underneath the nearby border with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
High-tech detection systems and sensors incorporated into the thick concrete wall will represent an additional barrier to terrorists.
The IDF first proposed the wall in 2014, following Operation Protective Edge, a conflict with Hamas which saw terrorists entering Israel using a network of underground tunnels reaching from Gaza into Israel.
Over 30 tunnels were then discovered and destroyed. Since then, IDF forces have uncovered another two tunnels. Hamas has continued to dig new underground passages unabatedly.
Earlier in the year, residents in southern Israeli towns bordering Gaza began complaining of hearing the sounds of tunnels being dug underneath their homes, prompting a renewed call for IDF action. In February, Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed to construct a barrier in order to “defend ourselves against wild beasts.”
The Defense Ministry approved the budget for the project, which will total 2 billion NIS and take several years to complete, in July.
“And Hashem thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, that persecuted thee.” Deuteronomy 30:7 (The Israel Bible™)
The Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) has overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling on the American government to halt all aid to Israel if the building of “settlements” continues in Judea and Samaria. It also demands that Israel “end its occupation” and recognize a Palestinian state.
The resolution, which passed at an extremely wide margin of 751-162 at a triannual assembly in New Orleans, stated that the United States must end all financial and military aid to Israel if Israel does not “stop settlement building and the expansion of existing settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, end its occupation of Palestinian territory, and enable an independent Palestinian state.”
Maale Adumim, Israel’s largest “settlement.” (Photo: ChameleonsEye / Shutterstock.com)
The church also called on the American president to recognize the “State of Palestine” and refrain from “prevent[ing] the application of the State of Palestine for full membership in the United Nations.”
It passed a separate resolution giving a nod to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, calling for “a human rights-based investment screen for its social responsibility fund”, which essentially meant divestment from Israel and “positive investment in Palestine and other under-resourced areas where human rights abuses materially impact the well-being of all people.”
The ELCA claims about four million members in 10,000 congregations throughout the country.
The resolutions were sponsored by an anti-Israel group within the church called Isaiah 58, which said its goal was to “ensure the church is not profiting from human rights abuses, including Israel’s nearly half-century-old military occupation of Palestinian lands.”
Isaiah 58 released a press release praising the move and claiming that the Lutheran church “has long opposed Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise and supported nonviolent action in support of Palestinian rights.”
The statement also bragged of being in league with other anti-Israel churches, saying the ELCA was joining “the growing number of US churches that have endorsed economic acts of conscience in support of Palestinian freedom and human rights, including the United Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ, and others.”
In fact, though the United Methodist Church is indeed known for its Israel divestment, in May the church voted down four pro-BDS resolutions.
The actions of anti-Israel churches have received strong pushback from other Christian groups and ministries in the US. The Southern Baptist Church passed a pro-Israel resolution in June which condemned BDS and stated strongly that the church “supports the right of Israel to exist as a sovereign state.”
Pastor John Hagee, the head of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), has called anti-Israel Christians “misguided.”
“Yes, our Christian values demand that we have compassion for those that suffer. But if you blame Palestinian suffering on Israel then you’re ignorant about this conflict,” he told Breaking Israel News in July.
Flying in the face of Arab condemnations of Israel for its creation of an “open-air prison” in Gaza, Hamas’s new propaganda video shows the enclave as a resort paradise, complete with beautiful beaches, smiling citizens, and a clean, modern infrastructure.
The new video, released ahead of upcoming Palestinian municipal elections in which Hamas and Fatah will compete for rule of the West Bank, is an attempt to show off Hamas’s achievements and success in its governance of the Gaza Strip. The camera pans from Gaza’s beaches to its hotels, malls and shops, over views of neat city blocks and beautiful parks, all against the background of an upbeat Arab-style tune.
A Gazan family holds a sign reading #Thank You Hamas. (Video Screenshot)
The 2-and-a-half minute video showcases athletes on manicured athletic fields, university students in caps and gowns, families on boat outings, children roller-blading, clean hospitals, large mosques, extravagant halls, a hopping nightlife, and many other markers of a prosperous and joyous place to live.
Smiling, happy Gazans are featured holding up signs with an Arabic hashtag reading, “Thank you Hamas.”
Despite the constant attention drawn to Gaza’s poverty and hardships by Palestinians and anti-Israel activists, there is no hint of scarcity, oppression, hunger, or want in the video.
There is, however, a disturbing and evocative image seemingly intended to remind Palestinians of Hamas’s triumphs over Israel. The video shows a statue of an iron fist atop what appears to be an IDF military vehicle. Clutched in the fist is a replica of the dog tags of Oron Shaul, an Israeli soldier who fell in Gaza during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge and whose body is now being held by Hamas.
A statue of an iron fist holding Oron Shaul’s dog tags in Gaza. (Video Screenshot)
If there was any doubt, the dog tags show Shaul’s army ID: 6092065.
It seems that while Hamas is eager to play the victim to the rest of the world, when it comes to appealing to Palestinian voters, the terror group is exercising a different muscle of its propaganda wing.
On the opposing side, Fatah is attempting to win votes by bragging about its own achievements. However, those don’t include any kind of improvement on quality of life for Palestinians under Fatah’s rule. Rather, the party of Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas is going in another direction, boasting about its success in killing 11,000 Israelis, participating in intifadas, and performing acts of terror.
It remains to be seen which campaign tactic will be best received.
An Arab Newsarticle published in May said that Israel’s economic blockade of Gaza was “sapping life out of the besieged Strip and if it continues experts believe it will turn it into an uninhabitable territory in a matter of few years.”
Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations, said that the closure of Gaza “suffocates its people, stifles its economy and impede reconstruction effort.”
According to Hamas, the “besieged” and “suffocating” Gaza Strip is doing just fine.
A senior Israeli official is on his way to Washington for what is expected to be the last round of negotiations over the latest military aid package from the US to Israel. The 10-year, $38 billion defense package, known as the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), will be the biggest American foreign aid package in the country’s history.
Brig. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Nagel, acting head of the National Security Council, was set to leave Israel on Sunday for a round of meetings with counterpart US National Security Adviser Susan Rice. According to senior administration officials, the deal will be completed by the end of Nagel’s visit.
Talks over the new defense deal, which could top $40 billion over the next decade, have been ongoing for months, with American lawmakers fighting over the size of the aid package in addition to diplomatic considerations between Israel and the US.
The new deal, while boasting a bigger price tag than the previous MOU with an increase of about $4 billion, comes at a cost: it limits the amount of money Israel can spend domestically. By the end of the next ten years, Israel will be forced to spend virtually all of the aid in the US, which would hurt Israel’s own defense industry.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under pressure from the US, has said he would like to sign the deal with the current administration, rather than wait for the next US president in hopes of getting better terms.
“Thine are the heavens, Thine also the earth; the world and the fulness thereof, Thou hast founded them.” Psalms 89:12 (The Israel Bible™)
With the incredible return of fish to the shores of the ancient Dead Sea, more attention than ever is turning to the revealing of God’s miracles, presence and prophecies all over the globe. This year, which the Nascent Sanhedrin has declared a Jubilee year, has seen amazing evidence of the Bible coming to life.
Breaking Israel News took a look back at the top five Biblical phenomenon stories of the year proving that in these modern times, God is more visible than ever before to those who are willing to see Him.
Breaking Israel News broke this earth-shaking story about the fulfillment of Ezekiel 47:8-9, in which the prophet foresaw the returning of live fish and healing waters to the Dead Sea, an ultra-saline, inhospitable environment where no life can survive. Incredibly, a young woman from Jerusalem stumbled upon fresh-water ponds filled with fish along the shores of the Dead Sea and quickly saw their significance. Her video documenting the phenomenon has received over 12,000 views. Read here: Dead Sea Prophecy - Comes To Life
In May, unusual seismic and geological activity in America’s massive Yellowstone National Park raised concerns that the dormant volcano could be due for an enormous eruption, which would have devastating effects on the region. Kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Batzri explained that the rash of earthquakes throughout the globe and the increase of volcanic activity at Yellowstone and other locations fit exactly with Zechariah’s prediction for the End of Days, which states that two-thirds of the world will be destroyed by fire.
A satellite photo taken of the Nile River, released on April 1, 2016. (European Space Agency)
An incredible satellite image, released by the European Space Agency in April, amazed the world with a Biblical tableaux of the Nile River seemingly turned to blood. The photo showed the Egyptian Nile rendered in bright red, evoking the first plague that the Lord sent to the Egyptian pharaoh for refusing to free the Israelite slaves. The timing was considered extremely significant, as the photo was released only a week before the holiday of Passover, when Jews celebrate the Israelite exodus from Egypt and slavery.
Quick on the heels of the blood-red Nile story, another scene from the Bible came to life when a video from Afghanistan revealed the incredible mixing of fire and water in one mysterious geological phenomenon. The video showed water and fire pouring out together from the same opening in the earth in a display eerily similar to the fire and ice described in Exodus 9:24.
Seven major earthquakes hit both coasts of the Pacific and a number of smaller quakes struck around the world over a 96-hour period in April, leading seismologists to warn that the Earth may be in for some shaky days in the future. Rabbis and scientists alike predicted that Israel is overdue and could soon feel a major earthquake “at any time”; experts pointed to the End of Days prophecy in Psalms 104:32 which foretold tremblings of the earth before the final redemption.
“Pray for the peace of Yerushalayim; may they prosper that love thee.” (Psalm 122:6)
Pastor John Hagee (Photo: Wiki Commons)
On Monday, Christians United for Israel (CUFI), led by Pastor John Hagee, held its 11th annual Washington Summit in the nation’s capitol. The two-day event drew top speakers from the pro-Israel global community, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu via satellite, and boasted an attendance of over 5,000 people.
In an exclusive email interview with Breaking Israel News on the occasion, Pastor Hagee, the founder and national Chairman of CUFI and one of the Christian community’s strongest voices for Israel, shared his hopes and beliefs for the future of the pro-Israel Christian movement and offered his strongest arguments in favor of supporting the Jewish state.
He began by explaining that the need to stand with Israel is more urgent today than ever before, pragmatically as well as spiritually. “Israel’s enemies are our enemies. Israel’s fight is our fight,” Pastor Hagee declared, pointing to the current global spread of Islamic terrorism as evidence of this truth.
Omar Mateen, the Muslim gunman who killed 49 in a gay bar in Orlando on June 12, 2016. (Facebook)
“If this wasn’t clear before, our shared enemies are making it crystal clear as they strike in Tel Aviv, Kiryat Arba, Brussels, Paris, Nice, San Bernardino and Orlando.”
Israel has long been at the forefront of the war against radical Islamic violence, he continued, making it a key ally in the war on terror.
“Radical Islam is more violent and aggressive than ever. This makes it more important than ever to support our front-line ally in the fight against radical Islam: Israel.”
Hagee admitted that the anti-Israel voices spreading through America are loud and strong. He attributed this to an appealing, oversimplified narrative which is easy to understand – unlike the actual situation in the Middle East.
“The biggest challenges [CUFI and Christian Zionists] face are the lies told by Israel’s detractors. Israel’s enemies advance simple, attractive myths. And the truth about Israel is often more difficult to convey than the myths,” he explained to Breaking Israel News.
“For example, the Jewish state’s enemies call Israel an apartheid state. Anyone who’s spent even an hour in Israel understands how outrageous this lie is. But with this one short sentence Israel is demonized.
“Explaining the reality – Israel’s diversity, Israel’s tolerance, Israel’s equal rights – takes more than one sentence.”
BDS protesters in Washington DC, August 2, 2014. (Ryan Rodrick Beiler / Shutterstock.com)
“If you value peace, equality and liberty, you should stand with Israel,” he said, describing why liberal students can and should identify with Israel. “One of the great assets Zionists have is that Israel exemplifies many of the ideals about which our young people are most passionate.
“Concerned with freedom of religion? Israel guards that freedom for every person regardless of their faith. Focused on freedom of the press? You’d be hard-pressed to find a country with a more vibrant and open media. Impressed by diversity? Israel is a celebration of ethnic and religious diversity. I could go on.”
While getting out the pro-Israel message is indeed fraught with challenges, the “vast majority” of America’s Christians stand with Israel, said Hagee, estimating that there are “tens of millions of Christian Zionists” in the US alone.
As for those Christians who support the BDS movement or other anti-Israel activities – a growing group which includes the Southern Baptist Convention and the Presbyterian Church USA – Hagee has a simple message.
“You are misguided,” he said. “Yes, our Christian values demand that we have compassion for those that suffer. But if you blame Palestinian suffering on Israel then you’re ignorant about this conflict.”
Hagee suggested that anti-Israel sentiment is an offshoot of adherence to Replacement Theology, which holds that Christians have succeeded the Jews as God’s chosen people, essentially nullifying the Hebrew Bible.
In other words, Christians who do not support Israel are defying the Bible – and embracing anti-Semitism.
“If you believe that God has replaced the Jewish people as his chosen people then you’re ignorant about God’s word,” he said. “Those who advance Replacement Theology are advancing an anti-Semitic theology.
“And make no mistake,” he added. “Anti-Semitism is sin.”
He praised the interfaith nature of his organization’s work, which he said is very different from the “cold dialogues in which people agree to disagree” that have marked most interfaith efforts until now.
CUFI emphasizes the commonalities, not the differences, explained Hagee. “What is great about CUFI is that we bring Christians and Jews together to focus on those things we passionately share: love of Israel and the Jewish people.”
A Christians United for Israel (CUFI) solidarity march in Jerusalem in 2010. In center is CUFI founder Pastor John Hagee. (Photo: CUFI)
Hagee acknowledged the initial reluctance felt by many in the Jewish community towards working with Christians. “We know that for centuries Jews were persecuted by those who carried the cross, and we know that many in the Jewish community are thus understandably wary of Christians bearing gifts,” he said.
“But we’ve shown that CUFI is a non-proselytizing organization, and that we are focused exclusively on being a friend to the Jewish people and the Jewish state.”
In the end, there is no better reason to stand with Israel than the simple fact that “God is Israel’s ultimate protector,” Hagee told Breaking Israel News in closing. “As Christians we are blessed with the opportunity to stand with His Chosen People.”
The influential pastor ended on a somber note with a hint of warning.
“Israel will survive and thrive – the only question is whether or not Christians and Americans will be on the right side of history and God’s blessings.”
“For want of counsel purposes are frustrated; but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.” Proverbs 15:22 (The Israel Bible™)
Donald Trump. (Joseph Sohm / Shutterstock.com)
Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that his campaign is establishing an evangelical executive advisory board, composed of 25 faith leaders who will advise him on issues “important to evangelicals and other people of faith in America,” read the statement.
The announcement stressed that the advisors chosen were not asked to endorse Trump, but to meet his “desire to have access to the wise counsel of such leaders”.
“I have such tremendous respect and admiration for this group and I look forward to continuing to talk about the issues important to evangelicals, and all Americans, and the common sense solutions I will implement when I am President,” Trump said of the new board, which will convene on a “regular basis.”
The announcement was made on the same day that Trump appeared before hundreds of Christian conservatives in New York City in order to court the evangelical vote.
Later this month, the board will launch a larger Faith and Cultural Advisory Committee.
Michelle Bachmann
The list of board members includes many prominent evangelical names, including former congresswoman Michele Bachmann; Jerry Falwell Jr., president of the evangelical Liberty University; James Dobson, host of the popular radio program “Family Talk” and founder of Focus on the Family; and Ralph Reed, the founder of the influential lobbying group Faith and Freedom Coalition.
Jerry Falwell, Jr.
Not all of the figures are pro-Trump. Several, including Dobson and Richard Land, president of the Southern Evangelical Seminary, have spoken out publically in criticism of Trump, who, while very popular among white evangelicals, has also sparked a difficult dilemma among many Christians who question his commitment to Biblical values. Another board member, Kenneth Copeland, had previously proclaimed that former Trump opponent Ted Cruz was “called and anointed to be the next president of the United States”.
Thus far, Trump’s appeal to evangelicals has carried him to the nomination. His new advisory board is a clear attempt to extend that support towards clinching the presidency. With some prominent evangelicals switching sides to endorse Democratic rival Hillary Trump, the outcome remains murky.
Full list of board members:
Michele Bachmann – Former CongresswomanA.R. Bernard – Senior Pastor and CEO, Christian Cultural CenterMark Burns – Pastor, Harvest Praise and Worship CenterTim Clinton – President, American Association of Christian CounselorsKenneth and Gloria Copeland – Founders, Kenneth Copeland MinistriesJames Dobson – Author, Psychologist and Host, My Family TalkJerry Falwell, Jr. – President, Liberty UniversityRonnie Floyd – Senior Pastor, Cross ChurchJentezen Franklin – Senior Pastor, Free ChapelJack Graham – Senior Pastor, Prestonwood Baptist ChurchHarry Jackson – Senior Pastor, Hope Christian ChurchRobert Jeffress – Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church of DallasDavid Jeremiah – Senior Pastor, Shadow Mountain Community ChurchRichard Land – President, Southern Evangelical Seminar James MacDonald – Founder and Senior Pastor, Harvest Bible ChapelJohnnie Moore – Author, President of The KAIROS CompanyRobert Morris – Senior Pastor, Gateway ChurchTom Mullins – Senior Pastor, Christ FellowshipRalph Reed – Founder, Faith and Freedom CoalitionJames Robison – Founder, Life OUTREACH InternationalTony Suarez – Executive Vice President, National Hispanic Christian Leadership ConferenceJay Strack – President, Student Leadership UniversityPaula White – Senior Pastor, New Destiny Christian CenterTom Winters – Attorney, Winters and King, Inc.Sealy Yates – Attorney, Yates and Yates
