World Turning Against Jerusalem in Fulfillment of Biblical Prophecy - BIN

Palestinian youth hurl stones at Israel Police forces (unseen) during clashes with Police after Friday prayers in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras Al Amoud on February 28, 2014, Jerusalem, Israel. (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

World Turning Against Jerusalem in Fulfillment of Biblical Prophecy

By Rivkah Lambert Adler October 20, 2015  BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

“And it shall come to pass on that day that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all peoples; all who bear it shall be gashed, and all the nations of the earth shall gather against it.” (Zechariah 12:3)

As seen through multiple recent events, the nations of the world are increasing their efforts to weaken or remove Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem. Is this a fulfillment of Zechariah 12:3’s prophecy that, at the End of Days, the nations of the earth will gather against Jerusalem?

In the 1920s, the Muslims began calling the Kotel (Western Wall) the Al-Buraq Wall and the Kotel Plaza the Buraq Plaza. According to Muslim tradition, Al-Buraq was a horse with wings that carried Muhammad back and forth between Mecca and Jerusalem.

Historically, the Kotel is a part of the outer, western retaining wall of the Second Holy Temple that was destroyed in the year 70 CE. It has been sacred to Jews and Christians for 2,000 years. The millenia-long holiness of the Kotel derives from its association with the Temple Mount, where the two previous Holy Temples stood.

Recently, the Palestinian Authority, sponsored by six Arab states, submitted a resolution to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seeking to claim the Kotel as a Muslim holy site, wresting the Kotel from the Jewish nation and claiming it as its own. In the proposal, the PA refers to Jerusalem as “the occupied capital of Palestine.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry vowed to fight the resolution, saying that it “is a clear endeavor to distort history, in order to erase the connection between the Jewish people and its holiest site, and to create a false reality.”

Riyad Mansour, the PA envoy to the UN, has also asked the UN Security Council to step in and assist Palestinian Arabs. Speaking to reporters after a Security Council meeting on Friday, October 16, painting Israel as the aggressors in the current wave of Islamic terrorism in Israel, Mansour said, “The situation warrants providing protection for our people in the occupied territory starting in the Old City of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa mosque.”  In this statement, Mansour clearly refers to the entire Old City of Jerusalem as “occupied territory”.

In response to Mansour’s claims that his people are being threatened by Israel, the French newspaper Le Figaro reported on Saturday that France is drafting a proposal to station international troops on the Temple Mount. Israel’s UN representative Danny Danon said that Israel will never agree to allow an international force to occupy the site of the two Biblical temples.

International involvement in the status of Jerusalem is also coming from the US and the EU. Current US engagement is evidenced by US Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to clarify the meaning of the “status quo” on the Temple Mount through a series of meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Jordan’s King Abdullah and PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

A view of the Western Wall. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

The European Union also has a hand in attempting to clarify the status of the Jewish and Muslim presence on the Temple Mount, as EU Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini is set to meet with Netanyahu in Berlin later this week about the issue.

Scholar, author and End Times expert Rabbi Pinchas Winston believes that there is a great spiritual significance of the tug-of-war over Jerusalem.

“If you look at a map of Europe, Asia, and Africa, it is amazing that tiny little Israel is like the hinge pin that holds them all together. It really looks like the center of the world, and Jerusalem is its center,” he told Breaking Israel News. “Kabbalistically [according to Judaism’s mystical tradition], Jerusalem is even the center of the Universe, because that is where the light of God descends to the world before being shared with the rest of mankind.

“This is why so many nations and religions cherish and demand the holy city, even if they are not conscious of this. As every parent knows, little is more ‘burdensome’ than when several children desperately want the same thing,” he explained.

“When it comes to Jerusalem, how much so is this true when the sides are even prepared to kill for it, ‘forcing’ the world to have to deal with the issue when they’d rather be focused elsewhere?”

Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/51684/in-violent-jerusalem-tug-of-war-biblical-prophecy-unfolding-before-our-eyes/#U4kqqw2e76VcyhVl.99

EU: Russian Syria Intervention a 'Game Changer'

EU: Russian Syria Intervention 

a 'Game Changer'

By Heather Sells

CBN News Reporter

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

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European Union nations and others are warning that Russia's military intervention in Syria could have dangerous consequences, with one top EU diplomat calling it a worrying "game changer."

EU foreign ministers are calling on Moscow to center its military action in Syria against ISIS and to avoid moderate opposition targets.

The Russian air campaign which began Sept. 30 has backed moves by Syrian troops against insurgents fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

EU ministers released a statement warning, "This military escalation risks prolonging the conflict, undermining a political process, aggravating the humanitarian situation and increasing radicalization."

The EU ministers also want Russia to coordinate its military action in Syria with the EU and the United States.

Moscow's intervention has infuriated Saudi Arabia, which believes that the Russian air strikes are targeting rebel groups opposed to Assad.

Also, China is warning that the United States and Russia must be careful to avoid the Syrian conflict developing into a full-blown proxy war.  In an editorial in its flagship People's Daily newspaper, it scolded both countries for having an outdated Cold War mindset.

Meanwhile, Russia continues to insist that ISIS poses a major threat which justifies its air campaign in Syria. Arrests in Moscow this week may prove that point.

Russian security officials say they thwarted a planned attack on the Moscow public transportation system. They believe that some of the suspects were trained by Islamic State jihadists.

On Tuesday, insurgents in Syria fired two shells at the Russian embassy in Damascus. The attack came as hundreds of Syrian government supporters rallied outside the embassy compound to thank Moscow for intervening in Syria.

Watch CBN report here: Putin and Russia

'European Jews Have Been Abandoned'

Sunday, March 01, 2015 |  Yossi Aloni  ISRAEL TODAY

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Amidst calls from Israeli leaders for Europe’s Jews to make aliyah en masse, and counter-calls from European leaders for their Jewish constituents to stay put, Israel’s Foreign Ministry says all arguments aside, the growing threat of Islamic terrorism in Europe is making a mass Jewish migration inevitable.

“It is time to tell the truth - the Jews of Europe have been abandoned. The security afforded Jews in most of those countries is a joke. And they [the Jews] aren’t even permitted to arm and protect themselves.”

That according to Foreign Ministry officials following a terrorist shooting outside a Copenhagen synagogue in which an unarmed volunteer Jewish guard, Dan Ozen, was killed.

Senior Israeli officials spoke of an almost criminal approach to Europe’s treatment of Jewish communities that want only to protect themselves.

“The Europeans refuse to recognize the fact that Islamic terrorism is anti-Semitic because they want to remain politically correct and not upset the Muslim community in Europe,” said one Foreign Ministry official. “Without a proper diagnosis, there can be no treatment.”

Another senior staffer at the Foreign Ministry added: “There are some European countries that are doing more, and there are some that are doing less. But all of them need to improve security. No nation is immune to terrorism, but what is happening today in many European nations is the result of being irresponsible. The writing is on the wall, and the Europeans need to wake up.”

In Israel, there is fear that the recent string of attacks is just the beginning. As far as Jerusalem is concerned, there is a clear and worrying pattern whereby the Islamists first attack European values such as freedom of speech (see the recent shooting at Charlie Hebdo), and immediately after take aim at the Jews.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman stated that these recent attacks “prove what we have been saying for years, that Israel and the Jews absorb these attacks first because we are the frontline in the war against terrorists that are ultimately targeting the entire free world.”

Lieberman insisted that Western nations “must not be satisfied with strong announcements and mass rallies against terror, but must shake loose of political correctness and launch an all-out war against Islamic terrorism and its roots.”

European Union officials have actually been attentive to the criticism coming out of Israel, and for the first time have invited Israeli officials to join a dialogue in Brussels next month regarding intelligence coordination in the fight against Islamic terrorism.

Israel initially requested this dialogue amidst concerns that European citizens who are today fighting for ISIS will soon return to Europe and attack Jewish and Israeli targets there.

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Europe Helps Palestinians Create 'Facts on the Ground'

Friday, February 06, 2015 |  Israel Today Staff

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Peace Process

The European Union has begun to engage in precisely the kind of activity against which it constantly cautions Israel: prejudging the outcome of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations by creating facts on the ground.

In recent weeks, the EU has erected several hundred illegal homes for Palestinians in the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria, the so-called “West Bank.” Most of the new accommodations are to be in the vicinity of the Jerusalem suburb of Ma’aleh Adumim, one of the largest Jewish settlements. And all the homes bear the logo of the EU (as seen pictured).

The Israeli government has thus far failed to publicly respond to this provocation, but Regavim, an NGO focused on legal issues related to land ownership in the territories, has shined a spotlight on the issue.

“It used to be restricted to diplomatic and financial support,” Regavim told journalists during a tour of the area. “But now it is about active cooperation with the Palestinian Authority. …This is part of their plan to unilaterally create a Palestinian state.”

Most of the newer EU houses were built in “Area C,” the part of the West Bank under full Israeli control, and given to the large Bedouin tribes dwelling there.

Regavim further noted that many of the houses were constructed on historically state-owned land, and in some cases on protected nature reserves.

At the end of 2014, the Knesset’s Defense Committee was presented figures showing that over the past year in Area C there were 550 cases of illegal Arab construction (some provided by the EU), compared to just 150 cases of illegal Jewish construction. Nevertheless, it was the Jewish cases alone that made international headlines.

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A Tale of Two Condemnations

Tuesday, November 11, 2014 |  Israel Today Staff

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Following Monday’s deadly terror stabbings, Western leaders engaged in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process were quick to issue statements of condemnation, though their substance was disparate, and very telling as to whom Jerusalem could truly count on to understand its security needs.

First up was new European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who expressed “concern” over the attacks, which she insisted was “further evidence” that the Palestinians now erupting in violence must be given their own state, lest the violence grow worse.

Starkly contrasting the European envoy, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird explicitly condemned not only Monday’s stabbings, but a string of deadly terror attacks over the past couple of weeks. He also laid the blame for the escalating violence not on the absence of a Palestinian state, but on Arab leaders who continue to incite against the Jews.

“Those leaders who regularly issue [statements of incitement] cannot plead ignorance when terrorist attacks like today’s occur,” said Baird. “On behalf of all Canadians, we stand with the people of Israel and offer our deepest sympathies to the families and friends of the victims.”

The response of the Obama Administration fell somewhere in between these two examples.

“We strongly condemn the stabbing today in the West Bank, and we deeply regret the loss of life,” said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki some hours before the soldier wounded in the Tel Aviv stabbing succumbed to his wounds.

“It is absolutely critical that parties take every possible measure to protect civilians and de-escalate tensions,” she added.

PHOTO: The knife used in Monday’s stabbing attack in Judea, in which a young Jewish woman was killed and two others were wounded.

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Europe: Divide Jerusalem; Netanyahu: Not a Chance

Sunday, November 09, 2014 |  Ryan Jones  ISRAEL TODAY

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The European Union’s new foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, visited the region over the weekend and insisted on the urgent need for a Palestinian state with the eastern half of Jerusalem as its capital.

“We need a Palestinian state - that is the ultimate goal and this is the position of all the European Union,” said Mogherini while in the Gaza Strip, adding later during her stop in Ramallah that “Jerusalem can be and should be the capital of two states.”

Mogherini said that establishing a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital is a “global” objective, and that Israel is obstructing this important and worthy goal by continuing to allow Jews to live in areas claimed by the Palestinian Arabs, in particular on the eastern side of Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by once again stating that “Jerusalem is our capital and as such is not a settlement.”

Speaking to reporters ahead of his own meeting with Mogherini, Netanyahu stressed that “the neighborhoods in which we are living…and we’ve been building, have been there for close to 50 years… Everybody knows that in any peace arrangement they will remain part of Israel.”

Indeed, the issue of Jerusalem remains perhaps the largest stumbling block to international efforts to conclude a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. A firm majority of Israeli Jews insist that after millennia of longing for a return to Jerusalem, the city must never again be divided, while Palestinian leaders say they won’t accept any peace deal that doesn’t give them control of half the city, including the Old City and Temple Mount.

PHOTO: Netanyahu and Mogherini face off in Jerusalem

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US Backs Israel in Quitting Peace Talks (LFHP Editor's Note: GOOD FOR THE USA! Finally!)

US Backs Israel in Quitting Peace Talks

Thursday, April 24, 2014 |  Ryan Jones  ISRAEL TODAY

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The Obama Administration on Wednesday signaled its support for Israel’s decision to cancel further peace talks with the Palestinian Authority after the latter concluded a unity agreement with the Hamas terrorist organization.

“It’s hard to see how Israel can be expected to sit down and negotiate with a group that denies its right to exist,” US State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki said in reference to Hamas.

Israel has long insisted that it cannot make genuine peace with a Palestinian government that includes Hamas.

In 2006, the Palestinian public responded to Israel’s position on the matter by overwhelmingly voting Hamas into power in national legislative elections. An internal power struggle with its rival Fatah kept Hamas from exercising its full authority. But Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas (Fatah) this week demonstrated that he had no problem reconciling with Hamas, even if doing so put peace with Israel further out of reach.

The deal forged between Abbas and his Hamas rivals calls for the formation of a unity government in the next five weeks, and could see the Palestinian leader visit the Gaza Strip for the first time since it was seized by Hamas in a bloody coup in 2007.

“I said this morning that Abbas needs to choose between peace with Israel and an agreement with Hamas, a murderous terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and which both the United States and the European Union define as a terrorist organization,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement released to the press.

“This evening, as talks are still ongoing about extending the negotiations, Abbas has chosen Hamas and not peace,” he continued. “Whoever chooses Hamas does not want peace.”

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Israel’s chief negotiator in talks with the Palestinians, agreed: “The reconciliation agreement that Mahmoud Abbas signed with Hamas is a bad step, which not only caused the cancelation of [negotiations], but cast a heavy shadow on the possibility to progress.”

Livni added that Israel “has a duty, even when we want peace, not to stop seeing reality with eyes wide open: Hamas combines religious Muslim extremist ideology with terrorism and doesn’t recognize our right to exist.”

Finance Minister Yair Lapid said both the Fatah-Hamas unity agreement and Abbas’ recent decision to violate agreements with Israel by unilaterally seeking recognition for “Palestine” called into question whether or not the Palestinians really want a state of their own, or rather, a state alongside Israel.

“Hamas is not a government, it is a Jihadist terror organization that has inscribed on its flag the killing of civilians — women, children, old people — just because they are Jewish,” Lapid reminded a gathering of the European Jewish Congress in Tel Aviv.

At an emergency cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Thursday, Netanyahu was reportedly urged to go beyond simply canceling a few negotiating sessions, and to impose real sanctions on the Palestinian Authority.

Palestinian leaders, meanwhile, maintained that unity with Hamas should not preclude a negotiated settlement with Israel. Abbas was quoted as saying that bringing Hamas into the PLO (the parent organization of the Palestinian Authority) would somehow bolster the chances of a lasting peace.

PHOTO: Hamas and Fatah negotiators shake hands in Gaza

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Love For His People Editor's Note: 

GOOD FOR THE USA! 

Finally! Supporting Israel again!!!

Steve Martin