Oscar Winner Susan Sarandon Praises Israeli Aid to Refugees - Yossi Aloni ISRAEL TODAY

Oscar Winner Susan Sarandon Praises Israeli Aid to Refugees

Sunday, May 29, 2016 |  Yossi Aloni  ISRAEL TODAY

Israeli humanitarian aid organization IsraAID this month hosted Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon at a compound housing thousands of families that have fled the Middle East to find safety in Europe.

At the camp for displaced persons, IsraAID is running a psychosocial program, providing support to homeless and orphaned minors and training German civil servants and volunteers who are working at one of dozens of camps across Germany.

During the visit, Sarandon praised the work of the Israeli volunteers, saying:

“I had already met the organization IsraAID in Lesbos and I was impressed with their ability and the professionalism of the team, and so I decided to again join their initiative in Germany.”

Sarandon previously met with IsraAID workers at a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, where the Israeli group is still active in providing medical aid and psychosocial treatment to those fleeing the Middle East.

After visiting and even taking part in the IsraAID efforts, Sarandon donated equipment to help IsraAID in its ongoing work in Germany.

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Why Is Obama Flooding Small Towns In The Most Conservative Parts Of America With Refugees? - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

Why Is Obama Flooding Small Towns In The Most Conservative Parts Of America With Refugees?

Posted: 31 Jan 2016  Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

Why are small towns in conservative states being specifically targeted for refugee resettlement?  Of course the Obama administration will never publicly admit that this is happening, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what is going on.  Just look at the uproar that refugee resettlement is now causing in small communities in Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and Kansas. 

The Obama administration has deemed large cities such as Washington D.C. to be “too expensive” for the refugees, and so large numbers of them are being dispersed throughout smaller communities all over the nation.  If you drop a few hundred refugees into a major city of several million people, it isn’t going to make much of a difference.  But if you drop a few hundred refugees into a small town that has only a few thousand people living there, you can start to fundamentally alter the character of the whole area.  Could it be possible that this is yet another way that Barack Obama is attempting to “fundamentally transform” America?

You would think that there would be more employment opportunities, cultural attractions and government services available for refugees in major metropolitan areas.  So it would seem natural to resettle them in those areas.  But instead, there seems to be a major push to resettle large numbers of them in small towns.

Needless to say, this is creating a huge uproar in many areas.  In fact, on Monday there is a major protest planned in Missoula, Montana.  The following comes from Leo Hohmann of WND…

Another big battle is brewing over Syrian “refugees” sweeping into small-town America.
Rural folks in Montana are pushing back against plans by urban elites to plant hundreds of Muslims from the Third World into Helena and Missoula. They plan a protest rally at 10 a.m. Monday in front of the county courthouse in Missoula. And if the pattern holds of similar rallies in Twin Falls, Idaho, and Fargo, North Dakota, a contingent of pro-refugee people will show up to counter protest.

Well funded pro-immigrant NGOs have been searching out local politicians that are willing to work with them to invite the Obama administration to resettle large numbers of Islamic refugees in their areas.  Unfortunately for residents of Missoula, politicians there seem quite willing to open the door…

Here in “Big Sky Country” local politicians in Missoula, working with pro-immigrant NGOs, are inviting the federal government to begin sending Syrians, comparing them to the Hmong refugees who fled Vietnam’s communists in the late 1970s. They have not been deterred by the fact that 98 percent of Syrian refugees are Sunni Muslims, the vast majority of whom FBI Director James Comey admits are impossible to vet for ties to terrorism.
Despite Comey’s warnings, the Missoula Board of County Commissioners sent a letter on Jan. 13 to the U.S. State Department requesting Syrian refuges. “We look forward to seeing approximately 100 refugees per year resettled in Missoula,” the letter states.
“Missoula is an ideal city for resettling refugees,” the letter continues. “Our community enjoys good schools, incredible natural beauty, and a low unemployment rate, among other factors.”

We have all seen the chaos that has erupted in Europe as massive waves of Islamic immigrants have been allowed in and resettled in large numbers in small communities.  Just a few weeks ago, I wrote about the epidemic of rape that is sweeping across formerly peaceful countries like Norway and Sweden.

And I am sure most of you have already read about the extremely alarming sexual crimes that Germany is dealing with now.  But many of us don’t seem to be connecting the dots.  What is happening over there could someday happen to our own wives and daughters.
Fortunately, there are some communities that are still willing to step up and take a stand against what the social engineers in Washington D.C. are trying to do.  One of those communities is Sandpoint, Idaho…

Sandpoint City Council members voted Wednesday night to withdraw a resolution supporting refugee resettlement, bringing an end to a heated, month-long controversy.
Cheers erupted from the audience when newly elected Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rognstad asked the council to withdraw the resolution from consideration. A measure meant to counter statements from Bonner County commissioners and Sheriff Darryl Wheeler opposing the resettlement of refugees, the resolution was intended to restate Sandpoint’s commitments to human rights, according to Rognstad.
“This resolution has only served to divide us and this community,” said Rognstad, as he requested the withdrawal. “That saddens me.”
Once again, anti-refugee activists turned out in force to oppose the resolution and, once again, the council meeting procedure was punctured by applause and shouts. When Rognstad called for order, the crowd responded with catcalls.

But other small communities in Idaho are not so fortunate.
Just consider what is happening in Twin Falls…

Beginning the next fiscal year (October 1), some 300 Muslim refugees, primarily from Syria, will arrive in Twin Falls, Idaho, the Twin Falls Times reports.
But this miniature exodus from the Middle East to the small southern Idaho town of 45,000 people is believed to be just the tip of the iceberg, according to WND, which indicates that many more refugees from Iraq, Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and likely Syria, are on their way. The conservative news site received reports that community leaders were told at a recent Boise State University conference held for “stakeholders” — including church groups and social service providers — that a couple thousand refugees are planned to a arrive statewide soon.

Look, I am all for assisting people that need our help.

In particular, I would love for our country to take in Christians from Iraq and Syria.  The things that ISIS has been doing to those that believe in Jesus Christ are almost too horrible to put into words, and yet Barack Obama has been almost totally silent on the matter.

Instead of taking in persecuted Christians, it has been estimated that well over 90 percent of the refugees from Syria are Sunni Muslims, and surveys have found that a significant percentage of them actually have a favorable view of ISIS.

In the mainstream media, we are told quite often that the number of refugees being brought in is 10,000 a year.  But that simply is not accurate.  In a previous article, I documented the fact that the White House has admitted that the number of refugees being resettled in this country has been increased to 100,000 per year.  The following is a message that was tweeted by the official White House Twitter account on September 28th…

I don’t see how there could be any confusion.  Barack Obama himself says that we are bringing in 100,000 refugees a year for the next two years.

Not all of these refugees are coming from Syria, but the vast majority of them are coming from countries where a radical version of Sunni Islam is practiced as a way of life.

When large numbers of refugees are injected into a small community, the character of that community can be fundamentally altered.  And at this point, it appears that there is a concentrated effort to funnel large numbers of these refugees into small towns in some of the most conservative states in the country.

If you are concerned about what is going on in places like Missoula, Sandpoint and Twin Falls, you might want to check on what your own local politicians are doing.

An insidious agenda is at work, and I have a feeling that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

The Jim Bakker Show - Word for 2016 (Day 3) - aired Jan. 4, 2016

Jim & Lori Bakker

The Jim Bakker Show - Word for 2016 (Day 3)

Aired Jan. 4, 2016

Watch here: Jim Bakker - Word for 2016 (Day 3)

Jim Bakker Show 2016 | Show# 2908 | Aired on January 4, 2016

Galatians, Hebrews, I Timothy, II Thessalonians, Luke, Matthew, Revelation

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Western Leaders Ignore “Apocalyptic Islam” At Their Peril. - Joel Rosenberg

Western Leaders Ignore “Apocalyptic Islam” At Their Peril. (Israel National News coverage of my recent speech in Jerusalem.) by joelcrosenberg Last week, the managing editor of Israel National News covered my address to the Jerusalem Leaders Summit, and interviewed me about the threat of Radical and Apocalyptic Islam. The resulting article was published on Sunday, following the horrific terror attacks in Paris by jihadists loyal to the Islamic State. To watch my 39 minute speech in full, please click here. WESTERN LEADERS IGNORE "APOCALYPTIC ISLAM" AT THEIR PERIL Best-selling author says failure to understand messianic ideologies driving ISIS and Iran dooms the West to be repeatedly blindsided. By Ari Soffer, Israel National News/Arutz Sheva, November 15, 2015 (Jerusalem, Israel) -- Despite years of warnings by intelligence agencies that radicalized Muslims would eventually emerge from the battlefields of Syria and Iraq to launch bloody attacks in the West, Europe has been blindsided by one of the most brutal terrorist atrocities in recent memory. The coordinated attacks by three teams of ISIS terrorists in Paris on Friday sent shockwaves far beyond France, with the massacre of at least 129 people reigniting the debate around immigration after it was revealed that at least two of the attackers entered Europe posing as "refugees." The attacks also fueled debate over how to end the Syrian civil war, as well as over ongoing efforts to defeat ISIS on the battlefields of Syria and Iraq, the latter of which has seen several successes over the past few weeks. But glaringly absent from the discussions are any serious attempts to understand the ideological motivations of the Muslim extremists, several of them French citizens, who carried out the worse terror attacks in France in a generation - including the first-ever suicide bombings on French soil. That, says best-selling author Joel Rosenberg, is the reason such acts of terror are bound to repeat themselves. Joel spoke to me prior to the attacks at the recent Jerusalem Leaders Policy Summit, and voiced concern that by failing to grapple with the apocalyptic ideology behind actors such as ISIS, Western states would never be able to decisively defeat them. A jovial, somewhat self-deprecating character, Rosenberg - who worked for Binyamin Netanyahu during his failed prime ministerial bid in 1999, as well as Natan Sharansky - describes himself as "a failed political consultant," but boasts a rather more successful career as writer, selling millions of novels highlighting the threat of radical Islam. Today he lives in Netanya in northern Israel with his family, having made aliyah from the US last August at the height of Operation Protective Edge (though a practicing Christian his father was Jewish, making him eligible for aliyah under the Right of Return). From there, he has continued his efforts to explain "the threats we mutually face as Israelis and Americans from radical Islam" - a threat he says he only fully appreciated after working with Netanyahu. "Misunderstanding the nature of the threat... of evil, is to risk being blindsided by it," he said, citing Peal Harbor and 9/11 as examples. "And we're going to be blindsided by a nuclear Iran, just like we're being blindsided by ISIS." "At the core of it, American leaders are refusing to deal with the theology and eschatology of our enemy," he said. "Not every Muslim is a terrorist, not every Muslim is a threat, not every Muslim is a problem - in fact the vast majority are not. "The question is, the ones who are - what do they want? What do they say they want? What motivates them?" The current US administration is particularly hesitant to label the threat as it is. "Obama refuses to even acknowledge radical Islam. Come on - really? At this stage in the 21st century you're not even ready to acknowledge the ideology that is motivating these folks? That's a problem." Days later, as the attacks in Paris unfolded, some criticized the US president for once again failing to mention radical Islam at all in his speech reacting to the massacre. But beyond the relatively wide umbrella of "radical Islam" Rosenberg warns of a far deadlier threat. "Radical Islam encompasses a wide range of groups... Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, the Taliban, Al Qaeda - all of these are serious threats," he noted. "But apocalyptic Islam is now the biggest threat. this is the Iranian leadership, this is ISIS." He argues that the hyper-messianic ideologies shared by both sides of the Shia-Sunni jihadist coin are unprecedented in the history of modern western civilization. "Apocalyptic Islam is motivated by the idea that the end of days has come, that the Mahdi [Muslim messiah - ed.] is coming at any moment to establish a global Islamic kingdom or Caliphate, and that the way to hasten his coming is to annihilate two countries: Israel the 'Little Satan,' and America the 'Big Satan,'" he explained, describing the messianic beliefs shared by both ISIS and the "Twelver Shia" sect which figures prominently among Iran's leadership. "But the western political class doesn't want to even deal with the theological ideas that are driving the radical Islamists - let alone to explain the end of times theologies of two 'nation states'," he continued, referring to Iran and ISIS's self-declared "Islamic State," which encompasses huge swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria. "Never in history have we had one, much less than two states, whose leaders are trying to force the end of the world," Rosenberg noted. While Jews and Christians also have their own beliefs in the "end of times" or the messianic age, the difference is that "we don't believe we have to commit a genocide to bring about the end of times." While some strategic and doctrinal differences do clearly exist between Iran and ISIS - who are themselves mortal enemies - Rosenberg emphasized that the fundamental threat was essentially the same. "Shia apocalypticism and Sunni apocalypticism are similar. Both believe the messiah is coming soon, that his kingdom is coming, they need to change their behavior to accelerate his coming... but the eschatology and strategies are different. "ISIS's strategy is to commit genocide today, because the goal is to build the caliphate, to force the hand of the messiah to come. "Iran is not trying to build a caliphate today. They're building the infrastructure to build nuclear weapons. Why? Because while ISIS wants to commit genocide today Iran wants to commit genocide tomorrow. The point is: don't launch until you're ready. Rather than kill thousands in one day, Iran wants to eventually kill millions." He disagreed with assessments shared by some experts that the Iranian regime, while extreme, ultimately functions as a rational actor, insisting their words, beliefs and actions only led to one conclusion. "When you look a the messages of annihilation they are saying... when you look at the infrastructure they're building and when you look at the eschatology, these roads converge. "They're not interested in negotiating something together with us - they're taking a gift," he said of the nuclear deal Tehran signed with world powers. "You're giving us two paths to a nuclear bomb: if we cheat, or if we don't cheat? OK we'll take it!" In the shorter term Iran might they use its nuclear capabilities for more limited political goals such as "blackmail or to give a cover for terror," he said. But in the long term its goals were just as bloodthirsty as ISIS. In facing down both threats, the West must recognize it is facing a zero-sum game. "For these guys killing is at the center of what they're doing. When you bear that in mind making concessions isn't just a mistake or misguided - it's insane." ___________________ Special Limited Offer: Pre-order a personally autographed copy of THE FIRST HOSTAGE today. Here are details. ——————————– To order The Third Target — now in paperback — please click here, or go to your favorite bookstore in your community. Follow on Twitter — @joelcrosenbergReceive every blog post automatically via the RSS feed. Invest in The Joshua Fund (www.joshuafund.net), our non-profit organization to educate and mobilize Christians to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus, care for the poor and needy with food and other humanitarian relief, and strengthen the Church in the epicenter. Read our latest Donor Report, and make a tax deductible, secure, on-line contribution. joelcrosenberg | November 17, 2015 at 4:21 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL:http://wp.me/piWZ7-3o7

Refugees: Sweden's Deadly Double Standard against Christians

By Gary Lane

CBN News Chief International Correspondent

October, 2015

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STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- While Europe has welcomed in thousands of Syrians, mostly Muslims, it's a different story for Pakistani Christians. In Sweden, many are being ordered to return home -- and some may face death.

Hundreds of thousands of Muslim migrants have sought a better life in Europe. Pakistani Faisal Javaid became a Christian after he arrived in Sweden.

"I don't have any more belief in Islam," he told CBN News.

Javaid fell in love with Eka, a Christian woman from the country of Georgia who introduced him to Christ. He was baptized last April, but unlike many other migrants, Javaid soon faced rejection from his host country.

When Deportation Means Death

The word is out: If you are a Muslim and you're from Syria, you are welcome in Sweden -- there's an open border. But if you are a Christian and you are from Pakistan, you may as well pack your bags and go home.

The Swedish Migration Board issued a deportation order against Javaid and his family. Javaid would be sent back to Pakistan, and his wife and daughter to Eka's home country of Georgia. The couple is expecting another child in November.

Eka could barely talk about her plight, tearfully telling CBN News she wants her family to remain together in Sweden. Not only would deportation separate a family, but it would also endanger Javaid's life because Muslims now consider him to be an apostate.

"If we will be deported -- our family, relatives, friends, everyone -- they just think this is their responsibility to kill us," he explained. "We want just to save our life. I want to stay with my family."

Javaid's lawyer, Gabriel Donner, said, "They didn't care if he was a convert or not. And the practice here in Sweden has so far been that no Christians from Pakistan need any protection."

Donner sued the Swedish government, charging it had violated European Union rules that require protection for Muslims who convert to Christianity. He says the court agreed.

"The court said this can't be done and sent everything back to the migration board and said, 'You have to do your homework and do this properly this time,'" Donner said.

Eventually Javaid and his family may be allowed to stay in Sweden.

"As long as Faisal can prove that he is a true believer, he's safe," Donner explained.

Proof of Conversion

But how does Javaid prove his conversion is sincere, that he didn't just pose as a Christian to get asylum?

His pastor, Joel Backman of Elim Church, sent a letter to the migration board. He admits gauging faith is difficult.

"I mean, how do you determine my faith and how do I determine yours? So, we write what we can and that is the visible things: They come to church. They pray and they're part of our Bible studies. They're part of ministry as a whole," Backman told CBN News.

"I mean that is what we can say to the government and we can throw in assessment. I believe this is sincere," he said.

Before Elim, Javaid attended a house church in Eskiltuna led by Gabriel Blad. He said Swedish Migration Board officials have trouble distinguishing between relationship and religion. They'll often ask Christian converts technical questions.

"We have got very strange questions sometimes," Javaid recalled. "They will ask about liturgical collars and things like that. If you've been meeting in a simple home, discovering Jesus together, read the Bible and discovered Jesus."

"They [converts] don't know about church traditions, nothing," he explained. "They know about Jesus. They love Jesus."

In another case, one Pakistani's love for Jesus nearly cost him his life. Former teacher Herman Fernandez, who changed his name from a Pakistani one, taught Western ideas to students in northwest Pakistan.

That's when he started having difficulties with hardline Muslims.

"I got threats from two students whose parents were -- what do you call them? -- imams in the area," he recalled.

Fernandez said they were concerned he was teaching the children Western ideas. They told him that he was "a kaffir" who is "bringing kaffir thoughts" to their society.

In addition to being called a kaffir, someone who has rejected Islam, Fernandez was also accused of being an American spy because he assisted some Western organizations. He said he and two colleagues were kidnapped in September 2011.

'They Beheaded My Colleages'

Herman claims he witnessed their murder.

"On the second or third day they beheaded one of my colleagues...and they forced me to watch it. I'm trying to get over this," he said.

Fernandez said a second colleague was beheaded several days later. The murder was videotaped.

He said eventually one of his captors helped him escape. Afterwards, he fled to Sweden where the migration board denied his asylum request.

"They don't see that my life is in such a danger in Pakistan," he explained.

And what if he is deported back to Pakistan?

"They will get me either from the airport or, oh, that would be the last of me," he gasped.

Donner also represents Fernandez. He wants the Swedish government to do a better job of considering the plight of Pakistani Christians when deciding cases like Javaid's and Fernandez's.

"And give them the same benefit of the doubt that they are giving today to other refugees coming into Europe," Donner said.

A Prophetic Word for the Church: Why God Is Sending Refugees From Syria - SPIRTLED WOMAN

Australia has accepted Christians suffering from persecution in Syria. Here's what the world can learn from Syrian Christians. (Flickr | Freedom House)

A Prophetic Word for the Church: Why God Is Sending Refugees From Syria

 

9/16/2015 BEK CURTIS  charisma magazine

For the last few years corporate prophecy in Australia, and I suspect in nations across the world, has centered on revival. Many believe that a spiritual pregnancy is underway, and its delivery will be a great awakening of faith that culminates in miraculous manifestations. Surprisingly, given that I try to shy away from spiritual "hype," I agree.

I believe that revival is coming. I believe that revival in the church is overdue. The Western church (and isn't it ironic that how as one body we still divide ourselves into hemispheric categories, seeing our brothers and sisters as "us and them") has for too long been in a lax state, spending the little energy we do have fighting battles that I just don't believe are on the Father's heart.

So when I received this word from God yesterday, it resonated so strongly and looked so much like His ways that I knew I was to share it, no matter how it may be perceived or misinterpreted.

For surely God's ways are not our ways and are much higher than our own (Is. 55:9), so take this word, ponder it, weigh it and ask God what it could mean for you personally.

Our nation has seen the image of a tiny, lifeless Syrian child, faced down in the sand. This small child spoke to us. He made us uncomfortable. He made us sad. He shocked us out of our "statistic apathy" and forced us to realize that there are faces and names behind the tragedies happening abroad.

Our collective heart broke and we demanded that action be taken. Our nation's leaders heard our sorrow-fueled outrage and have agreed to allow a greater intake of Syrian asylum seekers, many of them Christian.

And with them they will bring the revival our nation has been seeking.

So often when we read the Bible, we look at the Israelites and internally admonish them for their ignorance, wondering why they couldn't see the Messiah right under their nose? They were looking for a strong and mighty king, but God gave them a baby in a stable. What is the picture of revival you are imagining for our nation?

My vision certainly wasn't one of a displaced people, carrying a handful of personal possessions and countless invisible burdens and traumas upon their weary backs.

These precious, hurting people, whose lives have been torn apart by war and violence, will need our love, our acceptance and our service to help them heal.

There is the very real risk of pride in this. It would be easy to puff ourselves up, even if on an unrealized level, congratulating ourselves for our nobility in opening our borders to those "less fortunate than ourselves."

However, if we could pocket that pride for just a moment, we will be begin to recognize that while these refugees will most certainly need our help as they adjust to a completely knew way of life, they are also well-equipped to help us!

These Christians possess a faith that has been refined in the crucible. Theirs is a faith that knows the true meaning of the word persecution. Actual, true persecution. Not the "persecution" we in the west cry, which is, in most cases just the verbal consequence, or social shunning, of our own self-righteous behaviors.

Theirs is a faith that transcends circumstance, theirs is a faith that in the face of tragedy has been able to echo Paul's words with sincerity,  "I have learned to be content ..." (Phil. 4:11).

Theirs is a faith that understands genuine sacrifice and authentic self-sacrificial community.

Theirs is faith that understands the church should equate to family.

Yes, I believe the miracles will come. Yes, I believe supernatural experience will flourish. But I believe it will happen only when we too begin to understand what true community and self-sacrifice really is. It can only happen when our character foundation is strong, and our hearts aligns with His.

Jesus was moved with compassion toward  people. It was out of this heart attitude that the miraculous flowed.

Comfortable is nice and comfortable is cozy, but comfortable doesn't stretch us, and comfortable doesn't lead to extraordinary.

How can we expect to see great moves of the Spirit when we can't even recognize where they should begin?

"For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in. I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me. Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? And when did we see You sick or in prison and come to You?' The King will answer, 'Truly I say to you, as you have done it for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you have done it for Me'" (Matt. 25:35-40).

If we will humble ourselves and keep our eyes open, our hearts soft and our minds teachable, we will receive a spiritual education that will birth an unstoppable revival.

It will be a revival birthed out of a conception of compassion and of unity.

It will be when we focus on the individual, when we learn to love each and every person as a face with a story, not just a gathering of statistics. We will then see the fulfillment of the revival prayers we have cried!

So many of us have prayed on weak knees with eyes full of tears: "Lord, send revival."

Note the wording: Send. Send revival.

And the Lord has replied: "I am. They're on their way. Ready your hearts."

God has not allowed this suffering simply so that we in the West may experience revival, this thinking is contrary to His nature. But I do believe that He is a master at working things together for the good of those who love Him (Rom. 8:28), even in the midst of horrific circumstance.

As with most fulfillment of prophecy, the outcome is reliant on the actions of the people, on the actions of you. What will you do?

Bek Curtis is an Australian-based blogger.

For a limited time, we are extending our celebration of the 40th anniversary of Charisma. As a special offer, you can get 40 issues of Charisma magazine for only $40!

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German Jews fear backlash from country’s welcome of refugees - The Times of Israel

German Jews fear backlash from country’s welcome of refugees

With the wave of migrants, Jewish communities are concerned that a massive influx of Arabs will make their own minority status even more minor

BY URIEL HEILMAN  September 25, 2015  THE TIMES OF ISRAEL



WRITERS

Uriel Heilman

BERLIN (JTA) — The migrants sit slumped together on the sidewalk outside the State Office for Health and Social Affairs here, resting on donated sleeping bags, clutching food handouts, smoking, sleeping, fiddling with their cellphones.

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They have come to this city by the tens of thousands, propelled by German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s pledge to welcome at least 800,000 asylum seekers into the country. Many are Syrians, but there also are migrants from Iraq, Pakistan, Albania, Afghanistan and other countries.

The Syrians have braved perilous journeys by inflatable raft through the waters between Turkey and Greece, marched for miles on sunbaked roads en route to Athens, circumvented Hungary’s harsh border controls and passed through Macedonia, Serbia and Austria to find their way onto trains bound for Germany.

“I had five years of civil war in Syria, but the journey here was more dangerous,” said Hadiya Suleiman, a 45-year-old mother of five from Deir ez-Zur in eastern Syria, where ISIS killed her 18-year-old son. “Here, I feel for the first time like a human being. We thank our mother, ‘Mama Merkel.’”

But many Jews are watching the wave of migrants flocking to Germany with some measure of alarm, concerned with what a massive influx of Arabs could mean for Germany’s Jews and the country’s relationship with Israel.

“This is not yet France, this is not yet London,” said one Israeli who has lived in Berlin for about 10 years and asked not to be identified. “Yet,” he added pointedly.

Thousands of migrants line up daily to register at Berlin’s State Office for Health and Social Affairs. (Uriel Heilman/JTA)

Outside the processing center at the health and welfare office in central Berlin, where thousands have come to register as refugees, the wait for documentation can take days, even weeks. In the meantime, the migrants have nowhere to go.

Every evening, a frenzy ensues when volunteers set up metal barricades to prepare for the arrival of buses that will take the lucky ones to shelters for the night. Those who can’t squeeze onto the buses must find a place to bed down on the street or in a nearby park. Police at the site keep watch — more with pity, it seems, than vigilance.

Monika Chmielewska-Pape, a Jewish lawyer originally from Poland, is among the volunteers helping the refugees. She collects clothing for them from friends and neighbors, drives the migrants to administrative appointments and tries to help them navigate Berlin.

‘The situation is very hard for refugees here. If we don’t help them, the people stay on the street’

“There are so many people here and the state is not able to help them,” Chmielewska-Pape told JTA last week. “The situation is very hard for refugees here. If we don’t help them, the people stay on the street.”

But Chmielewska-Pape said she is not typical of Germany’s Jews. Most, she said, are anxious about the migrants, fearful of the consequences of a massive influx of Arabs into Germany. Chmielewska-Pape said her own decision to help the migrants did not come easily, and she keeps her Jewish identity to herself — including from the left-wing Germans who volunteer alongside her and whom Chmielewska-Pape said are not sympathetic toward Israel or the Jews.

The irony of refugees fleeing through Europe to the relative safe haven of Germany is not lost on anyone here. Seventy-five years ago Jews were the refugees, trying to flee a genocidal German chancellor whose name became synonymous with evil. Few countries were willing to accept Jewish refugees; most were turned back and perished at the hands of Hitler’s Nazis.

Today, Germany occupies the opposite role, lauded as the most humanitarian and welcoming country in Europe. Both critics and supporters of Merkel’s refugee policy cite Germany’s past as a major motivating factor.

“Why is Germany more welcoming than other countries? Because of history,” said Berliner Stefan Hitziger. “It’s not only guilt, it’s a chance for Germany. It’s a chance for us to rebuild society anew, to have new inputs and new outputs.”

Some 1,500 refugees are being housed at a sports facility adjacent to the Olympic stadium where Germany hosted the 1936 Olympics. (Uriel Heilman/JTA)

But many Jews here believe that Germany’s atonement for its past is coming at Jewish expense. They’re worried that the influx of hundreds of thousands of Muslims will turn Germany into a place hostile to Jewish concerns and to Israel – and that along with the migrants there are terrorist infiltrators who will try to realize their dreams of jihad on German soil.

It’s not that Jews in Germany are unmoved by the plight of the downtrodden migrants — many Jews here are themselves migrants from the former Soviet Union — but sympathy takes a back seat to the harsh concerns of realpolitik.

“I have no problem contributing some money to help some people, but for the German government to accept a tide of refugees? No,” said a Jewish immigrant who lives in Potsdam, near Berlin. Like others interviewed for this story who criticized Merkel’s welcome of the refugees, he asked that he not be identified.

‘These Arabs have no possibility of integration. They can’t contribute to society. I prefer Balkan immigration’

“These Arabs have no possibility of integration,” he said. “They can’t contribute to society. I prefer Balkan immigration.”

For now, Germany’s Jews are keeping a low profile. They number some 200,000 in a country of 80 million. Their political influence is negligible.

“Why should the Jews talk publicly about it?” the Potsdam Jew said. “We’re not significant enough to make a difference in state policy.”

Jews aren’t the only ones with deep reservations, even resentment, toward the migrants. Many Germans share similar concerns about terrorist infiltrators and how Germany might be transformed by a massive influx of Arab and Muslim migrants. They, too, don’t want the problems of France, where unemployment, poverty and radicalism are problems among the country’s six million Muslims.

In a country where obsession with pure Germanic lineage still lingers, some Germans express their concerns more bluntly.

‘In 100 years there will be no more German people in Germany, only Arabians and maybe Chinese’

“In 100 years there will be no more German people in Germany, only Arabians and maybe Chinese,” said Otto, a Berlin taxi driver. “Berlin is full of immigrants from Poland, Russia and Turkey. The Poles have integrated well, the Russians so-so and the Turks hardly at all. The Arabs will be even worse.”

Josef Schuster, the president of Germany’s main Jewish body, the Central Council of Jews in Germany, has come out in favor of welcoming the migrants. In a September 10 Op-Ed in Die Welt, he shunned any Jewish association with neo-Nazis screaming “Foreigners out!” and evoked the Jews’ own history as refugees. But he also said that Germany must make sure the refugees respect Germany’s positions on Israel and the Holocaust, not alter them.

“It’s also important that those who at present can’t return to their home countries will become familiar with our Western values,” Schuster wrote. “In Germany, that means respect for the values enshrined in the Constitution and also an acceptance that support for Israel is part of the political DNA of this country. Moreover, society by and large agrees that the Holocaust must be remembered.”

Migrant children play at a temporary camp for asylum-seekers near the main railway station in Munich, southern Germany, on September 13, 2015. (Andreas Gebert/DPA/AFP)

History isn’t the only reason Merkel is welcoming the migrants. With negative population growth, Germany needs more people to help sustain its economy, the strongest in Europe. At its current birth rate of 1.38 children per woman, the lowest in the world, Germany’s population will shrink by some 20 percent over the next 45 years. An influx of immigrants could offset the shrinking workforce.

For historical and practical reasons, it is vital to make sure these migrants are integrated successfully into German society, said Nina Peretz, a lay leader at the progressive Conservative Fraenkelufer Synagogue in Berlin. Peretz is helping spearhead a project to distribute Jewish-donated goods to the migrants on November 22, Europe’s annual Mitzvah Day.

“You need to give these people a future in Germany because a large number are staying,” Peretz said. “If you don’t let them work and study, then you will have a problem. You have to integrate them and take the risk of what will happen. If you don’t help them, if you don’t talk to them, then the situation is uncontrollable.”

Faith Groups Stand in the Gap for Mideast Refugees

Faith Groups Stand in the Gap 

for Mideast Refugees

CBNNews.com

Friday, September 18, 2015

The massive wave of illegal migrants entering Europe is creating a humanitarian crisis. Thousands of families continue to flee from war and religious persecution in the Middle East.

Now Christian relief agencies are on the ground, doing what they can to help the refugees.

Samaritan's Purse is working with churches to distribute 2,000 backpacks in Macedonia. The packs are filled with hygiene items, blankets, towels, diapers, granola bars, and candy.

CBN News spoke with the ministry's Dr. Natalie McDermott, who said the outreach shows the refugees the love of Jesus Christ.

"Our goal with Sam's Purse is to be the hands and feet of Jesus; it's to meet people where they're at and bring them love in a practical way by meeting their needs," she explained. "So sharing love with them and sharing the Gospel with them when the opportunity arises."

"I think for them it's a reflection of who Jesus is when they see us meeting their needs and just loving them where they're at, regardless of who they are or where they're coming from, just loving them in the place where they are right now," she said.

CBN's Operation Blessing is also on the ground in Europe, providing refugees in Hungary with food and plastic tarps to help them stay warm.

It's a critical need as the cold and rainy winter season can cause widespread disease throughout the camps.

Watch video: Faith Groups Help Refugees

The Mideast Migrant Crisis Requires Mideast Solutions

Monday, September 07, 2015 |  Noah Beck  ISRAEL TODAY

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Topics:

Global

Political responses to crises are often tardy and embarrassingly fad-driven, as with the current global outcry over the image of a three-year-old Syrian boy washed up on the Turkish shore. He was hardly the first innocent victim of this century's most brutal war. Where has the world been for the last 54 months?

Indeed, the unfolding humanitarian crisis was an entirely foreseeable consequence of Obama's spineless Syria policy, and the Western European leaders who followed it. So, despite Obama's efforts to anesthetize the public, it is understandable if some collective shame for Western failures -- driven by tragic images that went viral -- has prompted Europe suddenly to announce that it will accept more refugees from the war-torn Middle East.

But how did the West become more responsible for the Mideast refugee crisis than the wealthiest Mideast states (whose funding of Islamist rebels helped to create that crisis)? According to news reports and think tanks, Arab Gulf donors have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Syria in recent years, including to ISIS and other groups.

Even if Gulf states weren't at all responsible for aggravating the Syrian refugee crisis by strengthening ISIS, their wealth, proximity, and cultural/religious affinities with the refugees should still make these countries far more responsible than Europe is for their welfare. The vast majority of refugees are Muslim Arabs. They therefore share a common language, religion, culture and ethnicity with the wealthy Gulf countries that have shunned them for reasons of national security (as if the West didn't have such concerns). Any dialect or denominational differences Mideast refugees may have with Gulf states are nothing compared to the cultural, linguistic, ethnic, and religious differences between most Middle East refugees and the European countries they hope to enter.

Even more absurd, Gulf countries are bringing in foreign laborers to build up their vast, oil-rich territories. Putting aside their horrific exploitation of those workers (which is a scandal all of its own, even if campus protests, international boycotts, and UN resolutions never mention it), why aren't they instead accepting Mideast refugees who would happily accept the work that imported labor is now doing? Similarly, why have no Gulf countries granted Palestinian refugees citizenship if they so readily advocate for them at the U.N. out of some purported concern for their welfare? The cynical hypocrisy is staggering.

By contrast, tiny Israel absorbed nearly a million Jews from the Middle East and North Africa who were similarly made homeless when, in the 1940s and 1950s, their survival meant fleeing the Muslim-majority states where they had lived for millennia. Israel has also accepted plenty of non-Jewish refugees, from the Vietnamese boatpeople in the late 1970s to African refugees and migrants in recent years. Israel has provided humanitarian medical assistance to countless Syrians and now Israel's deputy minister of regional affairs Israel (an Arab Druze), has joined the leader of the political opposition in urging Israel to accept Syrian refugees, despite the demographic and strategic risks of doing so.

Yet Europe now tries to hurt Israel's economy by stigmatizing goods from the West Bank, with no similar economic campaigns against any of the Gulf countries, whose human rights records are exponentially worse on every issue (freedom of speech, women's rights, religious freedom, minority rights, gay rights, treatment of guest workers, helping refugees, etc.). 

Such double standards will undoubtedly worsen as Europe becomes increasingly Muslim -- a trend that will only intensify with the current refugee crisis. But appeasement hasn't kept Europe safe from Islamist attacks, as evidenced by the 2004 Madrid bombings, the 2005 London attacks, the 2014 Belgium attack, and this year's attacks in Paris (to name just a few).

Europe clearly failed to integrate Muslim immigrants into its societies, which only reinforces doubts about the wisdom of bringing in more such immigrants.

More importantly, the EU's sudden, politically correct acceptance of refugees addresses the symptoms rather than the root cause: the rise of ISIS -- an evil cancer that metastasizes with each day that the world dithers. The longer ISIS survives, the more people are killed, tortured, and enslaved, the more Syria’s minorities are persecuted under an extreme Sunni Islamic rule, and the more refugees desperately try to flee wherever they can.

Defeating ISIS will have to happen eventually anyway, because ISIS threatens everything that civilized life offers, so the sooner that painful task is accomplished, the sooner the related problems (like the migrant crisis) will be solved.

ISIS took territory from Syria and Iraq that is roughly the size of Indiana (according to this New York Times article last July about ISIS's destruction of Mideast Christianity), so there is plenty of land to resettle refugees, once ISIS is defeated.

Notwithstanding the generous island-purchase-offer by an Egyptian billionaire, the best long-term home for these refugees is not some remote Greek island (which only consolidates ISIS's victory). Rather, the refugees should be able to live in security and dignity in the same region from which they fled, which means defeating ISIS and converting the ISIS-liberated territories into mini states that will serve as safe havens for moderate Sunnis and the various minorities at risk, including Christians, Kurds, Druze, Yazidis, and Alawites (who will become the most targeted after Syria's Alawite-led regime falls).

The Kurds -- who have fought ISIS with more courage and determination than any other party -- have more than proven themselves worthy of a state.

The fact that Christians were once 20% of the Middle East and are now safest in the only non-Muslim country in the entire region (Israel), reinforces the need to create a Mideast Christian State. Such a state could exist around Mosul and/or other parts of Iraq/Syria where Christianity has historically existed (Assyria, Antioch, etc.).

The Druze -- an ancient religion that has often also suffered persecution -- could be given a state in southwest Syria.

There could be yet another, non-religious state that welcomes any other minorities (like the Yazidis) and moderate Sunni Muslims.

Until ISIS is replaced with stable and sane states, the Gulf countries should welcome all Mideast refugees. 

To address the Middle East refugee crisis intelligently, the EU should help to defeat ISIS, convert liberated territories into states for the region's persecuted minorities, and pressure Gulf states to absorb all refugees in the interim.

Noah Beck is the author of The Last Israelis, an apocalyptic novel about Iranian nukes and other geopolitical issues in the Middle East.

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