Showing posts with label State of Israel. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

COMMENTARY: Is the State of Israel the Israel of God? - Brian Hennessy, ISRAEL TODAY

COMMENTARY: Is the State of Israel the Israel of God?

Wednesday, October 28, 2015 | Brian Hennessy ISRAEL TODAY

Topics:

Although many Christians see the modern state of Israel as a miraculous fulfillment of prophecy, most still do not. Even many Jews denounce the State as being too secular, believing no legitimate national restoration can take place until Messiah comes.

But if God’s hand is truly involved in the creation of Israel today, as most Jewish and non-Jewish Zionists believe, how reverently should it be treated?

I think it is safe to say that Israel has always been a work in progress. It began when God summoned one man from among the nations, Abraham, and promised him the land of Canaan and a myriad of descendants. This prophecy was fulfilled to a degree when the family grew into a mighty nation that dominated the region for a time. Though it eventually crashed and burned for its covenant transgressions, God’s ultimate calling upon Israel to be the light of the world remains. One day a holy nation of righteous descendants will arise to govern the planet as the Messianic Kingdom of God.

Obviously, the Jewish state is not there yet. But surely this nation that was restored from the dustbin of history is on a path to becoming the Israel of God, is it not? Christians in the grip of Replacement Theology would quickly say – absolutely not! That the term “Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16) is a New Testament term to be applied only to the Christian Church, and has nothing to do with being Jewish. Or with the land of Israel.

At the other end of the spectrum many Messianic Jews and Christians who do believe the State will evolve into the Israel of God, believe it is only about being Jewish. They say any entity called Israel is exclusively a Jewish province, and that all this nation needs now is for the rest of the Jewish Diaspora to come home so Yeshua can return and set up his kingdom.

I would suggest a third view is closer to the truth.

Surely the “Israel of God” is just another term for the righteous remnant of all Israel. And that we who are in Yeshua, both Jew and non-Jew, are that portion of Abraham’s seed chosen by God to inherit all the promises in Messiah with representatives from all twelve tribes. However, the Jewish State of Israel today is primarily drawn from only two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, the descendants of the House of Judah. We are still missing a representative remnant from the scattered ten tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel to join with Judah in Messiah. Didn’t Yeshua promise his apostles “you will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel?” (Matt. 19:28) Where are these missing descendants if not the reborn followers of Messiah who’ve been coming forth from the nations for the last 2000 years?

But how will this mostly secular State of Israel today, which includes a huge unsaved Arab population and a Christian minority, morph into the Israel of God as described in the Bible? It will take a mighty miracle, for sure! “Who has seen such a thing? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons” (Isa. 66:8)

Best advice is to hold on to your kippa! When God transforms today’s Israel into tomorrow’s Messianic kingdom, the world will never be the same again. Thank God!

Brian Hennessy is the author of Valley of the Steeples, available at:ketchpublishing/BrianHennessyBooks.htm

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Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Knesset Renews Ties to Worldwide Christian Lawmakers

Wednesday, July 29, 2015 | Israel Today Staff

Topics:

Christians

Israel’s Knesset last week renewed its Christian Allies Caucus, something that must be done after each election. The fact that the Knesset continues this trend is evidence that it views relations between Israel and the Christian world with increasing importance.

The event, chaired by Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, was attended by no fewer than 25 Knesset members from eight different factions, including three government ministers.

New caucus chairman MK Robert Ilatov (Israel Beiteinu) said he would work to further strengthen ties to the 32 sister caucuses in parliaments around the world in a broader effort to combat global boycotts of the Jewish state.

“There are many challenges that lie ahead, but I have no doubt that together, we will succeed in defending and blessing the State of Israel and the well-being of its people,” Ilatov told his fellow Israeli lawmakers and the numerous Christian leaders at the gathering.

Former Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren, who today serves as a Knesset member with the Kulanu Party, also addressed the gathering, noting that as a Christian nation “US-Israel relations go back to spiritual ties. …We are on a holy mission to ensure the Jewish state remains strong and beloved.”

Oren further pointed out that were Jesus to come today to Bethlehem (or any number of other places he ministered, like the Temple Mount) he’d be labeled a “Jewish settler.”

Caucus director Josh Reinstein summed up the event by stating that “Israel is now dependent on Christian support. We will be tested like we never have before.”

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Monday, February 2, 2015

Giuliani: Netanyahu Congress Visit a 'No-Brainer'

Giuliani: Netanyahu Congress Visit

a 'No-Brainer'

CBNNews.com

Monday, February 02, 2015

JERUSALEM, Israel -- Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani supports Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to address a joint session of Congress in March.

Giuliani arrived in Israel over the weekend to speak at a two-day business conference. He met with Netanyahu on Sunday.

The former mayor told the Jerusalem Post the upcoming congressional address has been blown way out of proportion. Netanyahu is obviously well qualified to speak on the Iranian threat, he said.

Giuliani called House Speaker John Boehner's invitation to Netanyahu "a no-brainer," saying he had little reason to believe President Barack Obama would care.

"The prime minister has addressed Congress before," Giuliani told Israel's Channel 1. "Right now Congress is holding hearings on Iran so this would be the perfect time to ask him to speak."

The former New York City mayor says 70-75 percent of Americans support Netanyahu and an even higher percentage support the State of Israel.

Responding to Minority House Leader Nancy Pelosi's warning that Democrats may boycott the speech, Giuliani said he didn't think "they will make that mistake."

"It would be a terrible mistake…to insult the prime minister by not being there for his speech," he said. "I don't think they will make that mistake."

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Majority of Germans Fed Up With Holocaust Remembrance - ISRAEL TODAY

Majority of Germans Fed Up With Holocaust Remembrance

Wednesday, January 28, 2015 | Israel Today Staff

Topics:

Anti-Semitism

Tuesday marked the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz by the Soviet Red Army. The anniversary has become the International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorating the organized extermination of the Jewish people by the Nazi regime.

However, according to a representative survey conducted by the Bertelsmann Foundation, an overwhelming 81 percent of Germans have grown weary of dedicating so much time and effort to Holocaust remembrance, and want to instead focus on present-day problems.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier disagreed. “It remains the duty of parents to inform their children that there can never be a line drawn under [our history],” he told Germany’s Bild newspaper.

“We can consider ourselves lucky that after the atrocities of the Third Reich, after 70 million dead in the Second World War and 6 million murdered Jews, that we can be accepted back into the international community, even today,” the foreign minister continued.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed similar sentiments at a ceremony at Auschwitz, calling the former death camp a symbol that “concerns us all, today and tomorrow and not only on anniversaries. …We must not forget. We owe that to the many millions of victims.”

Unfortunately, it would seem a majority of Germans simply don’t see eye-to-eye with their leaders on this issue, and much of that has to do with the modern State of Israel.

According to the survey, more than a third of Germans believe that Israel’s policies in dealing with Palestinian terrorism is comparable to what the Nazis did to the Jews. Only 36 percent of Germans said they hold a positive view of Israel.

PHOTO: A young Israeli visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.

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Thursday, April 24, 2014

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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Peace Process

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

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Israel's History - a Picture a Day

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta)

Press Release 1 Millionth Visitor Arrives Next Week on Israel Daily Picture

Posted: 25 Oct 2013 03:06 AM PDT

The Western Wall, 1859

For Immediate Release

Jerusalem -- Israel Daily Picture (IDP), an online album of antique photographs of the Holy Land, will reach a historic milestone this week when its millionth visitor arrives on the site,www.israeldailypicture.com.

Austrian troops, Turkey's allies, marching into Jerusalem, World War I

IDP was first launched in 2011 and has now published more than 350 historic essays containing more than 1,000 antique pictures taken between the 1850s and 1946. We present samples of the photos on this page.

The pictures were digitalized and posted to websites in recent years by the U.S. Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Emory University, Harvard, the University of Dundee Medical Archives, and others. In recent months, private individuals have also shared with IDP their private albums and family collections.

Jews fleeing Arab pogrom in Jerusalem's Old City, 1929

"There's an important, almost secret, message in many of these antique photographs," reveals IDP's founder and publisher, Lenny Ben-David. "The pictures show Jewish life in the Holy Land throughout the last 160 years -- since the invention of photography -- well before the founding of Zionism and the establishment of the State of Israel. Jews were always in Eretz Yisrael even after the fall of the Jewish Temple in 70 CE, and here is visual proof."

Jewish children in Ben-Shemen (circa 1920)

"Most of the photos were taken by the American Colony photographers who began their work in the late 19th century. Among their goals was to seek out and photograph Jews in Jerusalem and in the countryside," Ben-David explained. "The return of Jews to Palestine was seen by the Christian photographers in messianic terms. A recent exhibition and book by today's American Colony Hotel proprietors, however, virtually ignored the Jewish presence in historic Palestine."

British commander Allenby meeting Chief Rabbi in the
Old City after the Turkish surrender of Jerusalem 1917

The IDP exhibits photos of key events in the Middle East -- World War I and its clashes in Gaza, Be'er Sheva, Rishon LeZion, Jerusalem, and the Dead Sea; the establishment of Jewish communities in the Galilee; the arrival of the German Emperor in 1898; the role of the Jewish Legion in 1917; the development of industries and infrastructures by the Jewish population; Jewish holidays; Jewish children of the Old and New Yishuv; Jewish life in Jerusalem's Old City, and many more. The photographers also chronicled the lives and shrines of Arab and Christians.

[For further information see The Zionist Message Hidden within Antique Pictures of the Holy Land, by Lenny Ben-David, Published in the Jewish Political Studies Review]

IDP pictures are all published with permission of the collection owners.

To subscribe, enter your email (free) on the website www.israeldailypictures.com. Voluntary contributions are welcome via PayPal.

For journalists only: Publisher Lenny Ben-David is available for interviews at (US) 202.241.5241 (Israel) 972.542.168155 (Not Sabbath)

Twitter: @lennybendavid Facebook https://www.facebook.com/lenny.bendavid

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Wednesday, October 28, 2015