Israel Rocked by Earthquakes

The Jordan Rift Valley in Israel is part of the Dead Sea Rift, a geological
boundary that separates the Arabian plate from the African plate deep under the
earth's surface.

Israel Rocked by Earthquakes

“Tell us, they said, when will this happen, and what will be 
the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age? ... 
There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  
All these are the beginning of birth pains.”  (Matthew 24:3, 7–8)

After a string of earthquakes hit Israel’s north,
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for 
heightened emergency preparedness, ordering the IDF 
Home Front to ensure that citizens understand 
procedures for coping with a major tremor. (Times of Israel)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met at the Knesset (Israel's
parliament) last week with officials to discuss preparedness in the event
of an earthquake.

Six tremors were felt as far north as Safed 
in the Galilee and as far south as the southern
port city of Eilat, which sits on the Gulf of Eilat,
also known as the Red Sea.

On two separate days, tremors of a magnitude of
3.6 on the Richter scale were felt in the north,
including two on the same day in Tiberias,
where the walls of older apartment buildings
cracked causing residents concern for their safety.

Quakes measuring 3.3 on the Richter scale were experienced in Eilat and further south in the Red Sea.  (Times of Israel)

Tiberias is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee
(also called the Kinneret).

One Tiberias Municipality employee, Madleine Sror, 47, said that
her computer moved and tea cup shook.

"My daughter, who works in a different part of the city, 
called in a panic,” Sror said.  “I heard her frightened coworkers
on the phone.  Four hours later, there was another earthquake—
we thought we were imagining it, but we felt the movement and
everyone started screaming, 'Did you feel it?  Did you feel it?'”

One of our Bibles For Israel team members was 
also in the thick of it.

“I was sitting at my desk in Tiberias hard at work, when
my chair began to move back and forth and my stereo
speakers began to rock, but not from playing music,” he said.

The general manager of the Geophysical Institute
of Israel, Dr. Uri Frieslander, said a bigger earthquake
would not necessarily follow the string of smaller ones.

“The sequence of earthquakes does not indicate
anything about the future.  We can’t rule out a
stronger earthquake, but it is certainly possible
that these small quakes will not lead to anything,”
he said.  (Israel HaYom)

Israel, however, sits on top of a fault line 
that stretches from northern Syria down to 
East Africa and combines several rifts running 
through the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea and
the Red Sea which meet up with the East African Rift.

This entire system is subject to seismic activity. 

The Jordan Valley along the Sea of Galilee.

"We are heading to an earthquake,” Amotz Agnon,
a geology professor at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University said (jn1tv).

“I cannot tell you when, I cannot tell you exactly where
will be the next one.  But since the Jordan Valley, 
the Dead Sea, the Arava Valley, this stretch of 200
kilometers hasn't seen a really big event in the last, 
say, almost thousand years may suggest that we are
closer to an event.  It definitely tells us that the level of
energy is high.  But we don't know yet when the next
catastrophe will come," he continued.

The Bible does predict a huge end-time earthquake
in Israel, as well:

“It will come about on that day when Gog comes 
against the land of Israel,” declares the Lord God, 
“that My fury will mount up in My anger.  In My 
zeal and in My blazing wrath, I declare that on 
that day there will surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israel.”  (Ezekiel 38:18–19)

Many of Israel’s buildings were not built 
with quakes in mind.

"A big chunk of Tel Aviv has buildings from the 50s,”
Agnon said, adding that they stand on pillars without
any support.  “You have all these parking lots under
buildings ... and they will collapse.  You don't need a
huge earthquake for this."

Tel Aviv architecture is characterized by a charming mix of
Oriental Eclectic, Bauhaus, Art Deco, classical, and modernist,
among other styles.

Although Israel invested a couple of years ago in
an earthquake alert system that will notify the public
of a quake ahead of time, it will not be operational until 2016.

The last major earthquake to hit Israel was in 1927. 
It measured 6.2 on the Richter scale, killing 500 and
injuring 700.

In 1837, a major quake left 5,000 dead.
Such quakes are known to hit the country 
on average every 80 years,
meaning that Israel may be due for another
serious event.  (Times of Israel)

The epicenter of the 1837 earthquake was just north of the
Sea of Galilee.

Israel is not the only country this month to
experience earthquakes.

The Philippines experienced its most deadly 
earthquake in 23 years, in which 222 were
reported dead, eight missing, and 797 injured.
Over 67,000 houses were damaged or destroyed.

Both Crete and Mexico also experienced 6.4-
magnitude quakes.

Yeshua (Jesus) prophesied in Matthew 24:3–8 
that there would be earthquakes in the last days.

In the Book of Revelation, in John’s vision of the
Apocalypse, earthquakes are connected with the 
opening of the Seven Seals:

“I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and 
there was a great earthquake and the sun 
became black as sackcloth made of hair, a
nd the whole moon became like blood.”  
(Revelation 6:12)

“Then the seventh angel poured out his 
bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came 
out of the temple from the throne saying, 
‘It is done.’  And there were flashes of 
lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; 
and there was a great earthquake, such as 
there had not been since man came upon 
the earth.”  (Revelation 16:17–18)

People cross the water using a makeshift foot bridge in the Philippines
after an earthquake struck on October 15, 2013.

Shunning BDS Pressure, 
Pop Sensation Rihanna 
Performs in Tel Aviv

“I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  (Genesis 12:3)

In spite of pressure from the Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions (BDS) movement not to perform in Israel,
over 50,000 fans of pop singer Rihanna enjoyed 
her music in an open-air concert at 
Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park.

Seats went for $100 apiece and up when
she appeared as a part of her “Diamonds” world tour.

The BDS movement regularly pressures artists,
universities, companies, and organizations of all
types to put economic pressure on Israel with
regard to the Palestinian question.  Although
many artists refuse to appear in Israel because
of such pressures, many others do, and
Rihanna is one of them.

Rihanna joins leading artists, such as 
Madonna, Alicia Keys and Lady Gaga, 
all of whom have also resisted BDS 
threats to perform in Israel.

Among those who have given in to online
BDS campaigns through social media and
threats of poor ticket sales at other locales
are the Pixies, Jon Bon Jovi and Elvis Costello.

Rihanna

Qatar Shows Unsportsmanlike 
Bias Against Israel at World Cup

The Qatar organizers of the 2013 World Cup have
been accused of violating International Swimming
Federation (FINA) standards with unsportsmanlike
discrimination against Israel that included the
removal of the Israeli flag outside the stadium
during the event.

The Israeli flag was also whited out by state 
TV in graphics used to broadcast the 
international swim meet.  (Israel HaYom)

Such discrimination is a violation of the FINA 
Code of Ethics that bars discrimination on 
the basis of gender, race, religion, or 
political affiliations. (Israel HaYom)

The results of the qualifying meets in which
Israel appeared were never reported in order
to hide the presence of the Israeli swimmers
at the event, according to Israel’s top
swimmer, Gal Nevo.

The 26-year-old swimmer said that every
effort was made to erase Israel’s presence
from the event.  In several of the races the
initials ISR were used instead of naming
Israel as the competing country. (Swim Vortex)

Amit Ivry

“I watched the broadcast on television of the
race in which Amit Ivry won a medal.  She swam
in lane 1, but the broadcast focused completely 
on the other half of the pool.  Of course, there 
weren’t any results [announced] and it was 
impossible to know whether she’d finished in 
third place,” Nevo said.

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stand with Israel

In response to complaints lodged with FINA,
the organization released the following statement:

“FINA gave a warning to the organisers of the two
FINA Swimming World Cup meets and reminded
them that the FINA rules must be equally applied
by all FINA National Federations.  Moreover,
FINA guarantees that all steps will be taken 
in the future for such acts not to occur again.”

This unsportsmanlike conduct, however, raises
concern that Israel will receive similar treatment
at the 2022 World Soccer Cup to be hosted by Qatar.

Gal Nevo

Netanyahu to Kerry: 
“Don’t Lift Sanctions”

On Monday, Dr. Olli Heinonen, a former deputy director
of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),
warned that Iran has passed the point of no 
return in its nuclear weapons program.

While Israel has repeatedly urged the dismantling
of Iran's nuclear capabilities, warning the world
about Iran's rogue nuclear program, Iran has
continued in the last year to install more
sophisticated centrifuges in its nuclear enrichment
 facilities.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
said Iran currently has the ability to enrich 
uranium from 3.5% to 90% within a few weeks.

“You have to have seen the ISIS report from
David Albright last week, which now says that
this breakout time can be one month," Heinonen
said.  "And I believe that if certain arrangements 
are made, it can even go down to two weeks.”  (JNS)

Dr. Olli Heinonen is a Senior Fellow at Harvard
University's Belfer Center for Science and
International Affairs.

Last week in Rome, Netanyahu met with
 US Secretary of State John Kerry, stressing
the importance of preventing Iran from attaining
nuclear weapons.

He also stressed the importance of sanctions 
against Iran, which have brought the 
country to talks with the world powers.
(Jerusalem Online)

The US Secretary of State expressed appreciation
for Iran’s new “diplomatic openness” while
emphasizing that Iran must not acquire a nuclear
bomb and must “prove that its nuclear program
is for peaceful proposes.”

Kerry said that diplomacy is the preferred approach,
and this Monday at a Ploughshares Fund Gala at the
US Institute of Peace, he said that it would be “the 
height of irresponsibility” to let “fear tactics and 
forces that suggest otherwise” block negotiations.  
(Times of Israel)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with 
US Secretary of State John Kerry in Rome last week.

Irish Journalist Tests Sweden’s 
Anti-Semitism by Wearing a Kippah

Irish journalist Patrick Reilly recently tested 
the waters of anti-Semitism in Sweden by 
publicly appearing to be Jewish for a few 
hours in the southern Swedish town of Malmö.

In response to complaints about anti-Semitism made
by the local Jewish community and Jewish tourists,
Reilly put on a kippah (head covering), an identifiable
symbol of Judaism, to see firsthand what those 
who are visibly Jewish experience.  (HaAretz)

One local Jewish resident, Shmuel Goldberg, one of
ew who dare to appear in public wearing the traditional
Jewish head covering, warned Reilly to be careful.

Goldberg knows only too well that the wearing the
kippah has resulted in verbal abuse and in one incident,
 he was almost physically attacked.

A Jewish man wears a kippah while praying at
the Western (Wailing) Wall in Jerusalem

Reilly made a point of avoiding areas of the city
known for racial discrimination and even violence,
areas tourists usually wouldn’t visit anyway.

“The idea was to go about my normal day 
and also visit places which a potential 
tourist may go to, albeit with one major
difference—the kippah clipped to the back
of my head.”  (The Local)

Approaching the market area of the city that
also houses the local bars that draw a night
crowd, he said he immediately sensed he was
being watched.

“It didn’t take long before I got the feeling 
that I was on display,” Reilly said.

Noting that he had walked down the same
street numerous times in the past without
drawing any notice, he felt as if he now had
“two heads” as he drew constant backward
stares.

 “As I passed a well-known bar, I spotted some
lunchtime coffee drinkers looking open mouthed
in my direction,” he said.

Malmo, Sweden

Reilly reported that giggles were mixed with the stares
 as if the appearance of the small white head 
covering was humorous and deserving of laughter.

The stares continued in the center of town, he said,
but were less menacing.

The Irish reporter said he had almost forgotten he
was wearing the kippah when a husky man walked
in his direction and mouthed to his friend “f***ing Jew.”

“It was a reminder that making your Jewish 
identity in Malmö obvious carries its own risk.  
Frankly, it was a relief to take it off,” he said.

Malmo Synagogue, the only synagogue in Malmo, was bombed in
July 2010.

Reilly, who has lived in Malmö for the last two years, 
said he has never felt threatened until he wore the 
kippah for a few hours.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre, which watches over
the interests of Jewish communities worldwide,
issued a travel advisory against visiting Malmö three
years ago due to a surge of anti-Semitism and hate crimes.

For instance, in 2010, Malmö’s only synagogue was
ombed.  Last year, a local Jewish community building,
which houses a kindergarten, meeting halls and apartments,
also was bombed.

We live in a world where it is increasingly difficult to be
identifiably Jewish.  Like Patrick Reilly, however, most
of us will never know just how difficult that can be until we
walk a mile in the shoes (or in this case, kippah) of the
Jewish People.

We all can, however, stand against anti-Semitism
wherever we see it and stand WITH the Jewish People
today and always.

Or Become an Israel Covenant Family Member—click now!

You can also designate your tithe for the Salvation 
of the Jewish People

"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 40:2)

Bibles For Israel | P.O. Box 8900 | Pueblo, CO 81008

Does the Shekinah - Divine Presence rest on the Western Wall?

Bibles For Israel

Messianic Bible news@biblesforisrael.com

Western Wall Plaza in the Old City of Jerusalem

"Look! There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.” (Song of Songs 2:9)



A Jewish man prays at the Western (Wailing) Wall with his tallit (prayer
shawl) over his head.

Today, because the Third Temple has not yet been rebuilt, the Western Wall is considered by many to be Judaism’s most sacred accessible site.

At all hours of the day and night, a steady stream of worshipers and tourists pour into this holy place that is located in the Old City of Jerusalem.

It is much more than a national site; it is a huge open-air synagogue where daily and Sabbath prayer services are held, as well as special events, such as Bar and Bat Mitzvahs.



In the same way men and women sit separately in an Orthodox Jewish
synagogue, the Western Wall Plaza is divided into two sides: one side is
for women, and one for men.


The Divine Presence

Many people report that they have profoundly experienced the presence of God at the Western Wall.

Zalman Shazar, who served as the president of Israel from 1963 to 1973, described a similar sensation when he came to the Wall during his first visit to the Land of Israel in 1911.

“You will go down through the narrow alleys of ancient Jerusalem and arrive at the Wall and stand there. Then you will not only see with your eyes but you will also feel with your entire being the single eternity in our past ... And when your feet enter the courtyard of the Wall, here you feel and experience the re-weaving of your soul into the eternal fabric of 2,000 years ...

Into the space at this remnant of the Wall the sighs from all the ends of the earth and all eras penetrate ... The Wall does not differentiate between lands and eras. The tears have all flowed from the hearts of one people, they have all come from one source and they will all pray to One.” (HaAretz)


Women pray at the Wall.

Help the Jewish People discover an intimate relationship with God through Yeshua

It is traditionally believed that the Divine Presence of God is on the Western Wall.

The Midrash (ancient Jewish commentary on Scripture) states in Bamidbar Rabbah 11:63 that “this is the Western Wall of the Temple, which is never destroyed for the Shekhinah is in the west.”

Although this is likely a reference to the Temple’s western wall, and not the Western (retaining) Wall, God’s Presence is nevertheless perceived to have remained here after the destruction of the Temple.

It is customary, therefore, for people—even high-profile dignitaries visiting Israel—to place prayers written on slips of paper between the eroded joints, cracks, and crevices of the ancient stones of the Wall.



Prayers stuffed between the stones of the Western Wall.

So many prayers are left here that they must be collected twice a year.

According to Jewish law, anything with the name of God on it must be treated with the same respect that a scroll of Torah or a book containing the name of God would receive.

Since these prayer slips cannot be thrown away, when they are collected, they are buried in the Jewish cemetery on the nearby Mount of Olives.



Lifting the Torah scroll at the Western Wall in Jerusalem


More Than Meets the Eye

Most of the Western Wall, which runs along the western portion of the Temple Mount, is concealed behind existing structures.

It actually stretches some 488 meters (1,600 feet).

Of the above-ground sections of the Wall, the most famous area is the Kotel Plaza, located in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.

Only 28 of its stone rows are above ground. Seventeen layers lay below the surface.

Because the plaza area in front of the Wall measures 57 meters (187 feet) long and 37.5 meters (123 feet) wide, thousands can gather here for prayer.

Every year, in fact, the Kotel Plaza is the number one tourist destination in Israel; millions from all over the world are drawn to this place to pray and recite from the Book of Psalms.

Large crowds visit on the Jewish holidays, when the destruction of the First and Second Temples are remembered, and mourners recite the Book of Lamentations while seated on the ground.



The Small Western Wall

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Another exposed section of the Western Wall is the HaKotel HaKatan (The Small Wall) in the Muslim Quarter.

Although only the two lowest levels of bricks belong to the Second Temple period, this eight meter (25 foot) section is also holy to the Jewish People because of its proximity to the spot where the Holy of Holies in the Second Temple was located.

In fact, it is actually closer to that spot than the Kotel Plaza.

It is not as crowded as the larger plaza section and unlike at the Kotel, men and women can pray here side by side.

Robinson’s Arch, which once supported a monumental staircase to the Temple Mount, is located close to the southwestern corner of the Mount. The people walking near the bottom middle of the photo help to provide a sense of the scale of these toppled stones.


Yet another above-ground section is in the southern part of the Western Wall.

In 1968, Benjamin Mazar began excavating this section, which lay under the heap of stone fragments left by the Romans.

These mammoth stones had been thrown down by the Roman soldiers from the Temple Mount when they destroyed the Temple, smashing many of the large slab paving stones and crushing buildings located near the wall.

Here on this ancient commercial thoroughfare, Jewish pilgrims coming to the Temple Mount once shopped.



Western Wall Tunnel


The Western Wall Tunnel

While the full length of the Western Wall is not exposed above ground, there is a tunnel in which the original street level can be viewed.

Although this tunnel was excavated by Israel between 1970 and 1988, and opened in 1996 to the public, the excavations continue and long hidden secrets are still being revealed.

"The most important events in the history of the Jewish people happened right here," said California venture capitalist Isaac Applbaum, a board member of The Western Wall Heritage Foundation.

"I actually feel my ancestry, I feel my history, I feel my religion. My great-great-great-great grandfather worked here, toiled here, found his religion here. It's like coming home," he said. (Business Insider)



The Western Stone is currently the largest stone visible in the Western Wall Tunnel. At an estimated 570 tons, it is not only one of the heaviest objects ever lifted without machinery, it is also one of the largest known building blocks in the world.

The Western Wall Tunnel (Minheret HaKotel) runs the full length of the wall beneath residential buildings in the Old City of Jerusalem, allowing access to an additional 485 meters (1,591 ft) of the wall.

While the stones above ground are scarred with bullet holes and worn by weather, here the stones are practically perfect.

The finely cut stone blocks called “Herodian ashlars” have two inch margins that run around a flat raised boss. (These margins are visible in the above photo.)

In the tunnels are First and Second Temple era mikva'ot (ritual baths). There are also halls that are large enough to host events such as Bar Mitzvahs. Here you can also walk on a portion of a street where Yeshua may have walked with His talmudim (disciples).

Here is also the place that is traditionally considered to be closest to the actual location of the Holy of Holies. This section of the tunnel is open for Jewish worship.



Western Wall Tunnel: some believe that before the Jewish People began praying at the Kotel Plaza, they prayed inside Warren’s Gate, which is now sealed. For hundreds of years, Warren’s Gate was a synagogue called The Cave. (Temple Mount)


The Sacredness of the Western Wall

Although the Western Wall is important by virtue of its proximity to the place where the Holy of Holies was located on the Temple Mount, for many, it has become more important than the Mount itself.

Part of the reason for this may be the fact that the Muslim Waqf, which was given authority over the Mount by Israel, does not allow non-Muslim prayer on the Mount.

Furthermore, Jewish visits are frequently blocked by Waqf authorities, who are backed by Temple Mount police.

A survey in Israel found that about two-thirds of those questioned named the Western Wall as the most sacred place for the Jewish People, with only one-third identifying the Temple Mount as being most sacred. (YNet)

Almost half of those surveyed believe that the Muslim Waqf has sovereignty over the Temple Mount, and only about a fifth recognizes Israel's sovereignty.

Forty percent, however, are against the police barring Jewish access to the Temple Mount.



Israeli Temple Mount police

It seems inconceivable that the Western Wall, by virtue of its history as a place of prayer for the past 2,000 years and the current struggles concerning access to the Temple Mount, could actually be considered more sacred than the Temple Mount itself.

It is true that many Jews and Christians report that they have had visions or deeply experienced the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) at the Western Wall.

One Jewish teenager described to Bibles For Israel an experience that he had before he came to faith in Yeshua through the Messianic prophecies:

"This beautiful spiritual force circled around my body, I didn't know God, but I knew it was God, and I believe now that God's Presence is at the Temple Mount and the Kotel," he said.

Although the Temple Mount might be seen as a political liability today, and many are satisfied that the Divine Presence stills abides in the Western Wall, the fact is, the Lord has chosen the Temple Mount as the place for the Jewish People to seek Him.

"But you are to seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for His dwelling. To that place you must go." (Deuteronomy 12:5)



A Jewish man prays at the Western Wall.

Though it is true that we have access to the Divine Presence through Yeshua, it is also true that in the last days, the Third Temple will be built in Jerusalem.

"In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s Temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the Temple of the God of Jacob.'” (Isaiah 2:2–3)

The crowds that are drawn to the Western Wall in this generation perhaps foreshadow the time in the near future when the nations will come to the Temple to seek the Lord.

Today, the Divine Presence at the Wall is hidden from view. But the day is coming, and is not too far away, when the Divine Presence will appear with undeniable power and glory in the Third Temple.

"I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with His glory. ... The glory of the Lord entered the Temple through the gate facing east... and the glory of the Lord filled the Temple." (Ezekiel 43:1–5)



A young man reads the Bible in Jerusalem.

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