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In a move that is certain to draw international criticism, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved the construction of new housing units for Jewish settlements in the so-called "West Bank."
Some 3,800 homes will soon be built in disputed areas like the Jewish sectors of Hebron. The approval was granted subject to consultation with the US government.
An understanding between Netanyahu and President Trump whereby Israel seeks American approval for any new settlement construction is expected to bring an end to the routine condemnation that flowed from the Obama Administration.
As part of the understanding, the Americans will no longer differentiate between large settlement blocs and smaller, more isolated Jewish communities. For instance, the small Jewish neighborhood in the heart of Hebron is expected to gain approval for 30 new housing units, a major breakthrough for the Jewish residents of Judaism's second holiest city.
PHOTO: Construction site in Efrat (Gershon Elinson / Flash90)
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There is a foul smell coming from the biblical Kidron Valley.
It's so bad that King David and Jesus, who are said to have walked there thousands of years ago, would today need to take a detour to reach Jerusalem.
For decades now a quarter of Jerusalem's sewage has flowed openly in the Kidron valley, meandering down the city's foothills and through the Judean desert to the east. At its worst, the pollution leaks into the Dead Sea.
The stream runs back and forth between land under Israeli and Palestinian administration, making a fix hard to find. But finally it seems a solution has been reached.
Authorities on both sides have agreed to drain the valley of sewage. According to the plan, a pipeline will be constructed carrying the wastewater directly to new treatment facilities. Each side will fund and build the section that runs through its territory.
Until that happens, however, about 12 million cubic meters of sewage continue to flow through the valley each year.
"Of course it's damaging the environment and the ecological system," said Shony Goldberger, director of the Jerusalem district in Israel's Environmental Protection Ministry.
"It's dangerous and hazardous to the health of the people in many ways."
Added to Jerusalem's sewage along the stream's 30 km. (19 mile) descent through the occupied West Bank is effluent from Bethlehem and nearby Arab villages.
Plants grow anomalously in what should be a dry wadi, animals come to drink, and mounds of baby wipes flushed down thousands of toilets sporadically coagulate along the banks. Sewage seeps into the earth, risking contamination of ground water.
Towards the end of the journey it gathers in a makeshift collection pool and much is used to irrigate date trees, which have a high tolerance for pollutants. But every so often, gravity pulls the refuse towards the lowest spot on earth, the Dead Sea.
"It's like a brown stain," Goldberger said. "It stays disconnected from most of the salty water of the Dead Sea."
With Israeli-Palestinian peace talks at an impasse, projects that require even minor cross-border coordination seldom get done. Israel captured the West Bank in a 1967 war, but under interim peace deals the Palestinians exercise limited self-rule in part of the territory.
"After decades of not being able to solve the problem, for a thousand and one reasons, professional and political, we reached an agreement for building a pipeline in the valley," Major General Yoav Mordechai, the coordinator of the Israeli government's activities in the West Bank, told Reuters.
The Palestinian Water Authority said the agreement was reached out of an "interest to clean the area," but emphasized the two sides were working separately.
While they are both are optimistic, some skepticism remains, since similar plans in past never gained traction.
"We were talking about it, planning it, every time it took two, three, four years. You think you have it, and then the light at the end of the tunnel turns out to be a truck coming at you," said Goldberger.
"I hope this solution will reach the stage where it is built."
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Three Palestinians Killed, ‘Over 300 Wounded” in East Jerusalem, West Bank - Haaretz.com, July 21, 2017
Riots in the streets, and on the Temple Mount. Protests in Jordan against Israel, Hezbollah (Lebanon) moving military equipment towards their southern border preparing for the next war, and Hamas (Gaza) ramping up rhetoric with threats against Israel. The Old City has been closed, and only Muslim men over 50 and women are allowed to come for prayers, and metal detectors have been placed on the Temple Mount
Once again, a wave of anti-Semitic hatred crashes throughout the Land. We were in Israel during the war with Hezbollah in 2006, and then during the war with Hamas in 2012. Often, we arrive providing food right after the bombings and rockets fall, or at times, right before these things happen. We are going back again in a couple of days. Your donations have empowered us to provide food for 250 children for approximately 2 months as summer ends and autumn begins. We go to Israel 2 – 4 times each year, spending 2 weeks, up to 2 months at a time there. And, throughout the years your partnership has afforded us to provide over 140,000 meals for children, Holocaust survivors, and families – Thank you!
As hatred for the Jew grows in this fallen world, and as a growing number of churches embraces the dastardly teaching of Replacement Theology*, let us stand tall and be counted amongst those who love, support, and believe in the Abrahamic Covenant*.
Thank you for your prayers as we travel to the Holy Land once again, and bless God’s ancient people. We leave this weekend and will return in a few weeks.
May God, bless you in profound ways as you bless God’s ancient people through Israel Today Ministries!
Shalom, Until He comes, we are Together Under His Wings,
Dr. Jeff
* Replacement Theology teaches that the Church is the “New Israel”, and that all the blessings and promises of the Abrahamic Covenant now belongs to the Church, and not to Israel.
* Abrahamic Covenant can be found in Genesis 12:1-3; 12:7; 13:14-17; 15:1-21; 17:1-21 and 22:15-18. It is a Covenant between God and Abraham where God promises to bless Abraham, and that through Abraham’s seed all the nations will be blessed, namely, because of Messiah. Also, God promised Abraham land for his descendants. God ratified the covenant with Abraham. God never changes His mind; therefore, the Abrahamic Covenant is eternal. It depends on God fulfilling His part, and not on Abraham’s part. It is between God and Abraham – not the Church.
Discover the Holy Land located at the center of the world! “Walk about Zion and go around her; Count her towers; Consider her ramparts; God through her palaces, that you may tell it to the next generation” (Psalm 48: 12, 13).
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A growing majority of Israelis no longer see the presence of Jews or the Israeli military in the so-called "West Bank" as an occupation.
Many do see it as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
That wasn't what the researchers behind a recent survey hoped to find.
Under the banner "Save Israel. Stop the Occupation," Tel Aviv University professors Dr. Nimrod Rosler and Daniel Bar-Tal set out to reveal what most Israelis think about the biblical heartlands of Judea and Samaria and the Jewish settlements there.
According to the survey, as reported by Israel National News, a mere 30 percent of Israelis today view this as "occupation."
That is down from 51 percent who said in 2004 that Israel was occupying the West Bank.
The drop in the number of Israelis who see the situation in Judea and Samaria as an occupation has corresponded to a drastic reduction in those who support the land-for-peace process leading to a "two state solution."
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Did it begin in 1967, when Israeli won Jerusalem or long before? And what are the roots?
Shalom!
For those who were watching closely when President Trump spoke in Israel, you may have noticed that he dated the Arab/Israeli conflict.
“We know, for instance, that both Israelis and Palestinians seek lives of hope for their children. And we know that peace is possible if we put aside the pain and disagreements of the past and commit together to finally resolving this crisis, which has dragged on for nearly half a century or more.”
What happened a half century, or 50 years, ago? Israel won the Six-Day War, taking control of the Old City of Jerusalem. By saying this, President Trump’s speechwriters were clearly saying that the source of the conflict is Israel’s occupation of the Old City of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza and not Arab intolerance of the Jewish nation.
This is straight out of the fictitious, Arab version of the conflict. The Saudis have been saying for years, “Go back to the 1967 borders and we will make peace.” But this was not the Saudi position before 1967, when she sought Israel’s destruction. Abbas told Trump during his visit to the once-Jewish city of Bethlehem:
“Our fundamental problem is with the occupation and settlements … The problem is not between us and Judaism. It’s between us and occupation.”
Let’s Check History
If that were true, then the Palestinian Liberation Organization would have been created in 1967, or after. Before 1967, Israel did not occupy the West Bank or Gaza. However, the PLO, the organization that Mahmoud Abbas leads, was created in 1964—three years before Israel won Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, Gaza and the entire Sinai Desert.
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JERUSALEM, Israel – A diplomatic spat appeared to erupt between U.S. and Israeli officials over President Trump's visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City just days before he's due in the region.
Many were astonished to learn that a U.S. official said the Western Wall isn't part of Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to accompany President Trump to the Western Wall when he visits next week. But apparently the request was denied and according to Israeli television, a U.S. official said the Western Wall "is not your territory, but part of the West Bank."
The controversy is over the Western Wall, or Kotel. For thousands of years, Jewish people from around the world have come to pray at the wall. It's the closest they have to praying at the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism.
In December, the Obama administration failed to veto a U.N. resolution that said Israel had "no validity" in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) in the eastern sector of Jerusalem. But Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has stood firm against anti-Israel sentiments at the U.N.
To make matters more conflicted, the new U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, arrived on Monday to take up his post. Friedman headed straight to the Western Wall to pray from the airport, calling it "the holiest place in the entire Jewish world."
One focal point of President Trump's visit next week is bound to be Jerusalem.
He's arriving as Israel prepares to celebrate Israel's victory and a reunited Jerusalem following the Six-Day War.
Israelis hope that Trump will honor his campaign promise either to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's united capital or announce a move of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
On Monday, Fox News foreign correspondent Connor Powell threw more fuel on the fire when he tweeted, "Everyone I've spoken to in DC that has been briefed on the Jerusalem Embassy move says Netanyahu told Trump not to move the embassy at this time."
The prime minister's office responded sharply, saying the Fox News claims are false.
Many Israelis expected the Trump visit would bolster Israel's position on Jerusalem and the peace talks. Now, some are anxious about what may happen next week.
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