Christian pastor: The Church is hopelessly anti-Semitic

Christian pastor: The Church is hopelessly anti-Semitic

Friday, November 09, 2012 | Ryan Jones, Israel Today            

 

At an interfaith conference bringing together Jewish leaders and Protestant Christian pastors outside Jerusalem this week, several of the Christian representatives painted a very worrying picture about the future of relations between Israel and the mainstream Church.

While an estimated tens of millions of individual Christians around the world love and support the Jewish state, many of the mainline Protestant churches have been actively boycotting Israel, encouraging pro-Palestinian activism and demanding that Western governments stop sending aid to Jerusalem.

One of the main Christian representatives at the conference was Rev. Paul Wilkinson, associate minister at Hazel Grove Full Gospel Church in Stockport, England. Over the past few years, Wilkinson has studied up close the phenomenon of what he calls "Christian Palestinianism," a politicized movement that seeks to eliminate Christian support for Israel and transfer it to Palestinian nationalists.

Wilkinson said he is "completely pessimistic in terms of believing that I, we, are going to overturn 2,000 years of erroneous theology that has manifested itself in all kinds of diatribes and anti-Semitic factions" within the Church.

Wilkinson said that what stands behind Christian Palestinianism is classic Replacement Theology, which he called a "Goliath of theology in the church."

Rev. Andrew Love of the United Church of Canada agreed with Wilkinson that exaggerated humanitarian concern for the Palestinian Christians is being as the "rationalization for ultimately what I believe to be anti-Semitic ideas and anti-Semitic policies."

Wilkinson lamented that this hatred for Israel, which harks back to millennia of hatred for the Jews, is rooted "deep in the heart of the Protestant Church," and is unlikely to be uprooted.

The Times of Israel provided a full report of the event, as well as interviews with several of the speakers. Their article on the conference is worth a thorough read.

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23483/Default.aspx

8,500-year-old skeletons found in ancient well

By SHARON UDASIN

Jerusalem Post

 

11/08/2012

Skeletal remains of a young woman and older man discovered at the bottom of a Neolithic well in the Jezreel Valley.

Photo: Clara Amit / Israel Antiquities Authority

In a mortal mystery that cannot help but beckon the age-old tragedies of Antigone and Haimon, or Romeo and Juliet, the 8,500-year-old skeletal remains of a young woman and an older man have been discovered at the bottom of a Neolithic well in the Jezreel Valley.

Excavators discovered the well during a dig of the Israel Antiquities Authority at Enot Nisanit in the western Jezreel Valley, which occurred ahead of an enlargement of HaYogev Junction at Road 66 by the National Roads Company. Archeologists are estimating that the well was built approximately 8.500 years ago, and the young woman found at its bottom was around 19 years old, with a man "older than her," according to the Antiquities Authority.

Archeologists are now left to ponder how the man and woman ended up at the bottom of the well – musing about possibilities such as a tragic accident or even a vengeful murder.

“What is clear is that after these unknown individuals fell into the well it was no longer used for the simple reason that the well water was contaminated and was no longer potable," said Yotam Tepper, excavation director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The well was connected to an ancient farming settlement, built of stones and bedrock, and at one point residents had used it for their subsistence, Tepper explained. Two capstones to narrow the opening had been set on top of the well, which measures about 8 meters deep and 1.3 meters in diameter, he added.

Many artifacts found in the well, such as flint sickle blades for harvesting, arrow heads and stone implements, are sure indications that the people who quarried it were among the first farmers in the Jezreel Valley, according to Tepper. Other discoveries in the well shaft, like animal bones, charcoal and other organic items, will enable future studies about the domestication of plants and animals, as well as help determine the exact age of the well, he explained.

“The well that was exposed in the Jezreel Valley reflects the impressive quarrying ability of the site’s ancient inhabitants and the extensive knowledge they possessed regarding the local hydrology and geology which enabled them to quarry the limestone bedrock down to the level of the water table," Tepper said. "No doubt the quarrying of the well was a community effort that lasted a long time.”

Dr. Omri Barzilai, head of the Prehistory Branch of the Israel Antiquities Authority, stressed that wells from the Neolithic period are "unique finds in the archeology of Israel, and probably also in the prehistoric world in general."

To date, the two oldest wells in the world have been exposed in Cyprus, indicating the onset of the "domestication phenomenon," according to Barzilai.

"It seems that ancient man tried to devise ways of protecting his drinking water from potential contamination by the animals he raised, and therefore he enclosed the water in places that were not accessible to them," Barzliai said.

Excavators previously exposed a well 1,000 years older than those in Cyprus at the Atlit Yam site in Israel, he explained.

Whether the man and women at the well's bottom were the victims of sparring families, a crime of love, or a simple accident, the well itself will be a valuable tool to examining an ancient civilization.

"The exposure of these wells makes an important contribution to the study of man’s culture and economy in a period when pottery vessels and metallic objects had still not yet been invented," Barzilai said.

http://www.jpost.com/Sci-Tech/Article.aspx?id=291031

Does Obama's Re-Election Spell Trouble for Israel?

By Chris Mitchell

CBN News Middle East Bureau Chief

Thursday, November 08, 2012

 

 

 

JERUSALEM, Israel -- While Americans wonder what President Obama's next term means for them, many Israelis are asking the same question: what impact his re-election will have on America's relationship with its closest Middle East ally?

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Obama and pledged to work together.

"The security relationship between the United States and Israel is rock solid, and I look forward to working with President Obama to further strengthen this relationship," Netanyahu told reporters on Wednesday.

Israeli pollster Mitchell Barak says Israel and its leaders -- who have their own election in January -- will adapt to Obama's victory.

"Israelis and whoever is prime minister -- and it looks like it's going to be Netanyahu -- is going to figure out a way to pragmatically work with Barak Obama knowing that he's in for four years and you just got to work together," Barak told CBN News.

But some Israelis are concerned about the next four years.  

"I think it's a catastrophe for the State of Israel because I don't think we have a friend, and I think in the next four years he's going to show his true colors," Israeli resident Barbara Diamond said.

"And I think what he said and did until now was for his re-election but he has it and he doesn't have to get re-elected so now he's going to be whoever he is," she said.

Others are optimistic.

"I think it's going to be different this time because he's understanding what's going on in the Middle East now better, and I hope he's going to improve his attitude toward Israel," another Israeli resident said.

Obama's re-election will likely affect the biggest issue in the Middle East: a possible Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. Some feel with Obama as president, Israel might have to go it alone.

"I just hope whatever decisions have to be made about Iran as far as Israel is concerned are made in Israel and not in Washington," Israeli resident Walter Saltzman said. "Certainly Israel should be ready to go it alone, preferring to work with the U.S., but if necessary Israel will go it alone."

Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Congress Yoram Ettinger says another four years of an Obama foreign policy, which avoids confrontation, pleases some Mideast players.

"Egypt is very happy with Obama's victory and you wonder what does that mean when the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational terror organization, is very happy with the re-election of President Obama," Ettinger told CBN News.

"I suspect Putin in Moscow, the Chinese and the Iranians are pretty satisfied with the results of the election," he said.

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2012/November/Does-Obamas-Re-Election-Spell-Trouble-for-Israel/

Israeli officials down, but not out over Obama win

Wednesday, November 07, 2012 |  Ryan Jones

Israel Today magazine  

 

 

Israeli government officials belonging to the ruling right-wing parties had a difficult time hiding their disappointment over Barack Obama's victory in the US presidential election, but remained determined to keep Israel-US ties tight and secure.

Deputy Knesset Speaker Danny Danon, a rising start in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party, offered his congratulations to Obama, but said it was important to remember the incumbent American president had not been good to Israel during his first term.

"It is my hope, and that of many Israelis, that the president resets his course relating to Israel and our region for the next four years," Danon said. "Rather than dictating ill-advised policies that endanger the well-being of America's only true ally in the Middle East, now is the time for President Obama to return to the wise and time-honored policy of 'zero daylight' between our respective nations."

Danon said it was long past time for Obama to visit Israel, something he conspicuously avoided during his first term.

Knesset Member Arieh Eldad of the National Union Party insisted Obama was "the most hostile president to Israel in recent decades" and cautioned that his reelection would not bode well for the Jewish state.
Netanyahu himself only thinly veiled his preference for challenger Mitt Romney to win the election in the months leading up to the poll.

But Netanyahu's former bureau chief, Uri Elitzur, wrote that the lack of chemistry between Netanyahu and Obama may not be a bad thing for Israel.

"It is not healthy for Israel to be in a situation in which the president of the United States is hugging our prime minister and pouring love on him," explained Elitzur. "When a big and small figure are good friends, the small one fulfills every request of the big one because it is unpleasant to refuse him."

On the other hand, Elitzur pointed out, "when a big figure and small figure carry out negotiations in an atmosphere of distance and reservations, it is easier for the small figure to take a stand, defer proposals, make conditions and sometimes refuse."

Looking at the recent history of US-Israel relations as regards the peace process, for instance, Elitzur's analysis makes sense.

It was Bill Clinton, who had great chemistry with both Israeli leaders and the public, who hoisted the doomed "Oslo Accords" on the Jewish state, and it was George W. Bush, the Israel-supporting Evangelical Christian, who presided over Israel's ill-fated surrender of the Gaza Strip.

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23479/Default.aspx

Lost tribe’s immigration to resume after five years

1,700 members of Bnei Menashe community with possible Jewish roots already in the country; some 7,000-9,000 remain in India and Burma

By Gabe Fisher, Times of Israel

November 6, 2012

Newly arrived Bnei Menashe immigrants at Ben Gurion airport in 2006 (photo credit: Nati Shohat)

 

The government has quietly decided to approve, after a five-year hiatus, continued immigration of the Bnei Menashe, a tribal group based in north-eastern India and in Burma that claims descent from the lost tribe of Menashe.

 

On Tuesday, Army Radio reported that a flight of 274 new immigrants is scheduled to arrive within a few weeks.

About 1,700 members of the tribe already reside in the country, mostly in West Bank settlements, especially in Kiryat Arba. There are an estimated 7,000 to 9,000 Bnei Menashe remaining in India and Burma. In 2005, Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar ruled that the tribe had Jewish roots but members must still undergo a conversion process to be eligible to immigrate under the Law of Return.

In 2007, immigration was effectively halted by a change in government policy, which required issues of mass immigration and conversion to be approved by cabinet decision, instead of just the Interior Ministry.

MK Meir Sheetrit (Kadima), who was interior minister in 2007, and who opposes renewed immigration for the community, said Tuesday that it endangered the Jewish identity of the state.

“Apparently, there are those in government who think that if they come to Israel and convert to Judaism, maybe they will vote in future elections,” Sheetrit said in an interview to Army Radio.

MK Otniel Schneller, also of Kadima, argued that the issue is essentially one of family reunification for the community members already residing in the country. “We are a democratic country. A country that considers the importance of humanitarian gestures… they should receive a warm welcome.”

Shavei Israel, a NGO which effectively acts as a liaison between Israel and the Bnei Menashe, will be funding and managing the renewed immigration, according to Army Radio.

Israel last week renewed flights of Falash Mura immigrants from Ethiopia, seeking to bring over the last remnants of the Jewish community there.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/bnei-menashe-immigration-to-resume-after-five-years/

Israelis Favor Romney by a Wide Margin

By Tzippe Barrow

CBN News Internet Producer - Jerusalem

Sunday, November 04, 2012

 

                      Romney & Netanyahu

 

 

JERUSALEM, Israel -- A new poll released Thursday by The Times of Israel revealed that at least 45 percent of Israelis favor Republican candidate Mitt Romney over President Barack Obama.The poll, conducted by Smith Consulting for Israel Radio, showed that 29 percent support Obama.

Meanwhile, a survey by IVoteIsrael, a nonprofit that helps Israelis with dual citizenship vote by absentee ballot, revealed that 85 percent of Israeli-American voters cast their ballot for Romney, while 14.3 percent voted for Obama.

At a press conference Thursday, IVoteIsrael national director Elie Pieprz said some 80,000 American voters from 49 states voted absentee through the organization, which he called "an unprecedented increase in voter participation from the 20,000 or so who voted in 2008."

According to Pieprz, these voters could potentially impact the swing states of Florida and Ohio, with some 7,500 registered in Florida, 3,500 in Ohio and another 3,500 in Pennsylvania.

Nearly half the respondents of the IVoteIsrael survey identified themselves as national religious, while 22 percent described themselves as ultra-Orthodox.

"This is very consistent with what we are anticipating," Abraham Katsman with Republicans Abroad Israel, said, calling the percentage "slightly higher than we expected."

According to Katsman, the survey "probably reflects a stronger enthusiasm on the part of people who are voting either for Romney or against Obama."

But IVoteIsrael's many detractors in the media claim its connection to Jewish philanthropist Ron Lauder, a Republican who supports Romney, proves it's a partisan organization and therefore in violation of its 501(c)(4) status.

Pieprz rejected the allegations outright, saying IVoteIsrael is a service provider, not a clandestine advocacy group.

"The accusation that we're acting secretly [as Republicans] is problematic and disenfranchising people," Pieprz said, adding that IVoteIsrael is "only partisan for Israel," The Jerusalem Post reported.

Meanwhile, Hillel Schenker, acting chairman of Democrats Abroad Israel, told The Times of Israel the representative voter survey was "very slanted and extremely partial."

Schenker accused IVoteIsrael of setting up its polling stations in areas where "mainly Orthodox Jews" reside, such as the Gush Etzion settlement bloc and Jerusalem.

The Times added that "some of its [IVoteIsrael] key staffers have right-wing political backgrounds and the nonprofit behind the campaign has ties to right-leaning U.S.-Jewish billionaire Ronald Lauder."

Lauder, who also serves as president of the World Jewish Congress, has been criticized from both sides of the political spectrum, not the least for his support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his policies, including the controversial two-state solution.

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2012/November/Israelis-Favor-Romney-by-a-Wide-Margin/

Nazi leader’s sister hid Jews near Brussels

By JTA, Jerusalem Post

11/05/2012

Hanna Nadel recalls how she and 2 other Jews were saved during Holocaust by the sister of a Belgian Nazi leader.

Photo: Reuters

The sister of a Belgian Nazi leader hid three Jews in her home near Brussels during the Holocaust, according to one of the survivors.

Hanna Nadel, now 86, said she, her mother and her niece were rescued by M. Cornet, the sister of Leon Degrelle, who as leader of the Belgian Nazi Rexen movement was responsible for deporting Jews to their deaths during the German occupation of Belgium.

Nadel's account, related to the historian Jan Maes, appeared earlier this week in the Belgian-Jewish monthly Joods Actueel.

The three, having escaped deportation orders, wandered with their suitcases around the town of Sint-Genesius Rode, where they happened upon a help wanted sign on Cornet’s door. The mother rang the doorbell and Cornet, without asking many questions, hired the mother as cook and Nadel and her niece to work as chambermaids.

Cornet knew the three women were Jewish and promised them they would survive. Visitors associated with the Flemish Nazi movement would routinely dine at the house; the three Jewish women would hide in the basement. 

Nadel’s mother sometimes would cook gefilte fish, which the lady of the house advertised to her guests as “oriental fish," Nadel recalled.

Nadel immigrated to Israel after the war. Degrelle left for Spain, where he died of old age in 1994, escaping the death sentences that his Nazi associates received back home.

http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=290539

Jerusalem Mayor: Let My People Pray

Jerusalem Mayor: Let My People Pray

Jerusalem mayor calls to end discrimination, let Jews pray on the Temple Mount.

 

By Maayana Miskin, Israel National News

First Publish: 11/2/2012

The Temple Mount

 

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat has come out against the ongoing discrimination against Jews on the Temple Mount. Jews are prohibited to pray on the Mount, which is the holiest place in the world according to Judaism, and many have even been arrested for moving their lips at the site.

The matter is ultimately in the government’s hands, Barkat said, and not in the hands of Jerusalem leaders. His own opinion is “to let every person pray on the Temple Mount,” he said.

In August MK Aryeh Eldad (Ichud Leumi) proposed a daring solution to the current impasse: split access to the Temple Mount between Jews and Muslims. The approach would allow Jews to pray while avoiding the Temple Mount riots feared by police.

Barkat gave his opinion on the matter while visiting Netiv Meir, a yeshiva high school for religious-Zionist youth.

He also spoke to the young students about leadership, and shared his own life story, which included services in the IDF Paratroopers, years in the business world, and then time in the realm of politics and public service.

In addition, Barkat addressed the issue of selecting a chief rabbi for the city. He noted that he had promised deceased religious-Zionist leader Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu that he would work to get a religious-Zionist rabbi appointed.

However, he said, it appears that a Chief Rabbi will be chosen only after the next mayoral elections, potentially putting the matter outside his influence. “I worked to lay the groundwork for a Zionist rabbi to be chosen, and I hope that will continue,” he said.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/161641

 

 

 

The Balfour Declaration Was Issued 95 Years Ago

The Balfour Declaration Was Issued 95 Years Ago --
In 1925 Balfour Arrived to See the Jewish State in Formation
--Updated from last year's posting

Balfour's reception in Tel Aviv (April 1925)

The government of Great Britain issued the Balfour Declaration 95 years ago this week, on November 2, 1917.  The document in effect served as the birth certificate for a Jewish national home.

British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour's declaration was in the form of a letter to a leader of the British Jewish community.  It stated: 

His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country. 

Balfour speaking at the founding of Hebrew University.
Behind him sit Chaim Weizmann and Chief
Rabbi Avraham Kook

The British Army had just captured Be’er Sheva (October 31) after months of trying to break through the Ottoman army’s Gaza-Be’er Sheva defense line. The British goal was to push north and capture Jerusalem by Christmas.  

In April 1925, Lord Balfour arrived in Palestine to lay the cornerstone for Hebrew University on Mt. Scopus.  He was received as a hero in Tel Aviv and Rishon LeZion. 

Balfour about to lay the Hebrew
University cornerstone

  

The three British giants of Palestine attending the 1925
opening of Hebrew University, from left to right: Lord Allenby 
(commander of British forces in Palestine 1917), 
Lord Balfour, and Sir Herbert Samuel, first British High
 Commissioner of the Mandate

Balfour visiting "Jewish Colony" 1925

Balfour welcomed by the Rishon LeZion Jewish
community and here



In the Arab community his visit was marked with black flags and a commercial strike.


Arab commercial strike
in reaction to Balfour's visit
(1925)








  


Black flags flying on Arab house
















Would the State of Israel have come into being without the Balfour Declaration in 1917?  Perhaps. The Jews' return to Zion was well under way -- well before the Holocaust. The building of an infrastructure for a state had begun.

But, the Balfour Declaration laid the legal and political foundation for the state's acceptance by the world community, as explained by writer Michael Freund in the Jerusalem Post:

When the League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations, approved the Mandate for Palestine in July 1922, it formally incorporated the Balfour Declaration. In the preamble, it stated that, "the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." The Mandate, which was approved by more than 50 member nations, also noted "the historical connections of the Jewish people with Palestine."

Unfortunately, some of the pictures presented here were already in stages of disintegration when they were digitalized by the Library of Congress. They are presented without cropping the damaged sections.

Israelis rooting for Romney

Israelis rooting for Romney days before US election

Thursday, November 01, 2012 |  Ryan Jones, Israel Today magazine 

 

Just days before American voters go to the polls to elect the next US president, Israelis have again voiced loud and clear that they would prefer to see the challenger, Mitt Romney, take up residence in the White House.

A survey conducted on behalf of Israel Radio found that 45 percent of Israelis would choose Romney for president, while only 29 percent would vote for the incumbent, Barack Obama.

The same poll again confirmed that Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to win Israel's upcoming election in January of next year, and many Israelis fear that mounting tensions between their leader and Obama would result in undue American pressure on the Jewish state.

Netanyahu himself has publicly voiced no preference, but the warm way he received Romney in Israel earlier this year and the chemistry between the two men was evidence enough that Netanyahu is hoping for a Romney win as much or more so than his countrymen.

Israel itself has been a major election topic between Romney and Obama, and has featured prominently in televised debates.

While Obama maintains that he has been good and fair to Israel, Romney accuses Obama of "throwing Israel under the bus" in his quest to appease the Muslim world.

Furthermore, Romney has cautioned that if Obama is re-elected, Iran will almost certainly attain nuclear weapons, and that is a message that resonates strongly with Israelis.

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23467/Default.aspx

Thousands of Texas Christians Rally in Support of Israel

Thousands of Texas Christians Rally in Support of Israel

Thousands of Christian Zionists gathered at a Texas megachurch on Sunday night to rally in support for Israel.

 

By Rachel Hirshfeld, Israel National News 

First Publish: 11/1/2012

PM Netanyahu speaks at CUFI event

 

Thousands of Christian Zionists gathered at a Texas megachurch on Sunday night to rally in support for Israel, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

Pastor John Hagee, noted television evangelist and founder of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), organized the event and reaffirmed the organization’s belief that the defense of Israel as a Jewish homeland and a strong U.S.-Israel bond provides the world with the greatest chance at peace and stability in the Middle East.

“The day America turns its back on Israel, that day God will turn his back on the United States of America,” Hagee told the audience.

With more than one million members, CUFI is America’s largest pro-Israel organization, according to its website.

Sunday’s “Night to Honor Israel”, which brought together rabbis, Christian ministers and Israeli representatives, marked the 31st year the event was held at San Antonio’s Cornerstone Church.
Some waved American and Israeli flags while listening to speeches, singing songs and reciting prayers.

There was also frequent cheering and clapping as the noted speakers rejecting candidates for U.S. office who have not held Israel's enemies-- most notably Iran-- accountable for seeking the destruction of the Jewish state.

The event raised nearly $3 million to support Jewish and Israeli charities.

“Such donations and commitment to seek favorable political leadership are reasons to hope,” said Meir Shlomo, consul general of Israel to the Southwest.

“We all know you have our back covered,” he said, prompting a prolonged standing ovation.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/161601

Wings of the Dove’ brings Ethiopia’s Jews to Israel

Wings of the Dove’ brings Ethiopia’s Jews to Israel

 

By AVI HOFFMAN , Jerusalem Post

10/30/2012

237 Jews land in Tel Aviv from Addis Ababa, part of an operation that will bring the last of Ethiopia's Jews to Israel.

Photo: Benjamin Rutland

 

ADDIS ABABA – “I have waited for this happy moment for eight years,” says Fasil Yehunye as he helps his family pack their meager belongings in their crowded one-room abode just prior to emigrating from Gondar, Ethiopia, to Israel.

Yehunye was one of 237 Jews who landed Monday morning in Tel Aviv on a special charter flight from Addis Ababa, part of an operation called “Wings of the Dove,” billed as finally bringing to Israel the very last remnant of the Jews in Ethiopia.

This was the largest single group of immigrants to land in Israel in the last two years, following a government decision in November 2010 to authorize the aliya of the almost 8,000 Jews left in the African country.

The Jewish Agency was tasked with carrying out the government’s decree and senior Jewish Agency official Asher Fentahun Seyum was sent in to do the job. Seyum went to work with energy and skill and in less than two years set up an operation that brought 6,000 Gondar Jews to Israel.

Seyum pledges to “close shop” when the remaining 1,800 left in Gondar are settled in Israel – within a year.

The vexed question of what to do with thousands of others who consider themselves Jews but were not on the government list, remains unanswered.

This reporter, who was brought to Gondar to meet some of the olim as they prepared to leave Ethiopia, was dismayed at their appalling living conditions.

Yehunye, 38; his wife, Femiz; and their five children were housed in a single room in a mud hut. Cooking was done outside on open wood fires and there was no evidence of sanitary facilities.

Their son Getaheh, 17, told me that the family had left their village eight years before and eked out a meager existence, helped by food handouts from the Jewish Agency, Keren Yedidut and other charities.

However, their educational and religious needs were supported by a school and community center set up by the Jewish Agency. The potential immigrants had to make their own accommodation arrangements, as there was no central housing facility.

The contrast between the demeanor and outward appearance of the immigrants in their Gondar hovels and on their arrival in Israel was striking. In Gondar, their clothing was poor and often torn; some went barefoot or else wore cheap plastic footwear. In readiness for their move to Israel, they dressed themselves in Shabbat finery and they seemed more cheerful, if a little apprehensive at the sounds and sights of modern Israel, compared to decrepit Gondar.

Moshe Bahta, director of the Ibim absorption center where the new immigrants will be housed for the next two years, noted that their homes were going to be much more comfortable than in Gondar, with several rooms for each family and health, educational and social facilities on hand.

Ibim is close to Sderot and well within the range of rockets and mortars from Gaza. However, Bahta said none of the immigrants were fazed when he explained the safety procedures to be followed when “Color Red” announcements and sirens warn of an impending rocket attack.

 

http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishFeatures/Article.aspx?id=289747

 

 

Rachel's Tomb -- 3,600 Years Ago

Rachel's Tomb --
We Present a Special Album of Pictures to Commemorate the Death of the Matriarch Rachel about 3,600 Years Ago

Expanded version of a November 2011 posting. Updated with newly found pictures.

At least 100,000 Jews -- mostly women -- are expected to visit Rachel's Tomb later this week. The burial site, located between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, has been venerated by Jews for centuries. 

"And Rachel died, and was buried on the way to Efrat, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day."  Genesis 35:19-20 

 

"30 men ('3 minyans') from a Jerusalem old age home praying for
the well-being of friends and donors and other brethren from the
House of Israel in the Diaspora next to the gravestone of Mother
Rachel of blessed memory." (Stephanie Comfort -- Jewish
Postcard Collection)

Saturday, the 11th of Cheshvan in the Hebrew calendar, is traditionally observed as Rachel's yahrzeit -- anniversary of her death some 3,600 years ago.  Rachel's husband Jacob buried her on the side of the road, and according to the prophet Jeremiah, Rachel later wept as "her children" were exiled from the land of Israel.  Rachel is considered a special figure for prayers and entreaties.

In 1622 the Ottoman governor of Jerusalem permitted Jews to build walls and a dome over the grave.  [For historical background on Rachel's grave see Nadav Shragai.]


Rachel's Tomb (circa 1890-1900) (Credit: Library of Congress,
Detroit Publishing Co. photochrom color)





All photos are from the American Colony collection in the Library of Congress unless otherwise credited.

Visitors to Rachel's Tomb (circa 1910). Note the carriages in
the background and  Jewish pilgrims under the tree (see
enlargement below). (Oregon State University collection)

For several hundred years a local Bedouin tribe, the Ta'amra, and local Arabs demanded protection money from Jews going to Rachel's grave.  In the 18th and 19th century the Arabs built a cemetery around three sides of the shrine in the belief that the proximity of the deceased to the grave of a holy person -- even a Jew -- would bestow blessings on the deceased in the world to come.  Muslims even prepared bodies for burial at Rachel's grave.

In the 1830s, Jews received a firman [decree] from Ottoman authorities recognizing the Jewish character of the site and ordering a stop to the abuse of Jews there.  In 1841, Sir Moses Montefiore secured permission from the Ottoman authority to build an anteroom for Jewish worshippers.  During the 1929 Muslim attacks on the Jews of Palestine, the Muslim religious council, the Waqf, demanded the site.

Jewish pilgrim
in picture above

For 19 years of Jordanian rule on the West Bank (1948-1967), Rachel's Tomb was off limits to Jews.  After the 1967 war, Israel reclaimed control of the site.  In 1996 and during the Palestinian intifada in 2000-2001 Rachel's Tomb was the target of numerous attacks.  The Israeli army built walls to protect worshippers and their access to the site.

Rachel's Tomb 1895



Rachel's Tomb 1898

Rachel's tomb (circa late 19th century) by Adrien Bonfils,
son of pioneer photographer Félix Bonfils (Credit:
 George Eastman House collection)  See also here

Rachel's Tomb (1891) (credit: New
Boston Fine and Rare Books)

  

Students from Etz Chaim Yeshiva in Jerusalem praying inside
Rachel's Tomb (Circa early 20th Century)
(Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

   

Rachel's Tomb (1908) (Credit: Omaha
 Public Library)



Students from the Gymnasia visiting Rachel's Tomb. Presumably, the school is
the Gymnasia HaIvrit Herzliya, the first Hebrew high school in Palestine, founded
in 1905. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons, circa early 20th Century)

Aerial photograph of Rachel's Tomb (1931)

 British (Scot) soldiers stopping Arab in
weapons search, Rachel's Tomb 1936 



In October 2010, UNESCO declared that the holy site was also the Bilal bin Rabah mosque and objected to Israeli "unilateral actions" at the shrine.  Bilal bin Rabah was Mohammed's Ethiopian slave and muzzein who died and was buried in Damascus.  The claim that the site was a mosque was first made in 1996.

 

http://www.israeldailypicture.com/

 

 

Israel’s Battle Against Suicide Terror, and Why It’s Not Over Yet

Wednesday, October 24, 2012 |  Elizabeth Blade 

Israel Today magazine

 

 

 

A recent escalation in Palestinian terror has some officials worried, though it still pales in comparison to the days of daily suicide bombings during the second Intifada. But as Israeli and foreign experts told us, the mentality and drive to commit suicide bombings remains, and the phenomenon could resurface.

“Many terrorists confessed to me that [Israel's] security fence has been hindering their efforts,” world-renowned criminologist Dr. Anat Berko, author of the book “The Smarter Bomb: Women and Children as Suicide Bombers”, told Israel Today. "They [the Palestinians] still have a culture that encourages kids to become martyrs rather than doctors or lawyers."

Dr. Reuven Paz, a former head of the research department at the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), added: “One of the most interesting phenomena in Palestinian suicide bombings is that people were often recruited (or volunteered) just a couple of days before the operation,” busting the myth of intensive camp training and stressing that the society played a pivotal role in shaping the psyche of the future “martyrs”.

Unfortunately, that society is still encouraging "martyrdom" among its younger generations.

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23451/Default.aspx

Egyptian president prays for Jews' demise

Tuesday, October 23, 2012 |  Ryan Jones 

Israel Today magazine 

 

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi

While the mainstream media over the past week provided extensive coverage of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's cordial diplomatic letter to his Israeli counterpart, an incident that demonstrated where the Egyptian leader's heart truly lies regarding the Jews received much less attention.

It must first be noted that Morsi's letter to Israeli President Shimon Peres, in which he called the Israeli a "great friend," was simply in keeping with diplomatic protocol, though even that was too much for many Egyptians.

Members of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood were incensed by the gracious language used in asking the Israeli president to accept Egypt's new ambassador.

But if there were any questions over whether Morsi was turning his back on the Brotherhood's traditional hatred of Israel and the Jews, those were quickly put to rest by video footage taken at a Cairo mosque last weekend showing Morsi piously agreeing with the preacher's prayers for Allah to "destroy the Jews."

"Oh Allah, absolve us of our sins, strengthen us, and grant us victory over the infidels," prayed cleric Futouh Abd Al-Nabi. "Oh Allah, destroy the Jews and their supporters. Oh Allah, disperse them, rend them asunder. Oh Allah, demonstrate Your might and greatness upon them."

During the prayer, Morsi was shown kneeling, eyes closed, hands raised, mouthing the word "amen" to each of the cleric's requests.

One can only imagine the international reaction to an Israeli leader saying "amen" in agreement with a rabbi's prayers for God to visit destruction upon the Arabs.

Watch the video:

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23448/Default.aspx

World's oldest survivor of Auschwitz death camp dies at the age of 108

World's oldest survivor of Auschwitz death camp dies at the age of 108

Associated Press

WARSAW, Poland –  The oldest known survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp — a teacher who gave lessons in defiance of his native Poland's Nazi occupiers — has died at the age of 108, an official said Monday.

Antoni Dobrowolski died Sunday in the northwestern Polish town of Debno, according to Jaroslaw Mensfelt, a spokesman at the Auschwitz-Birkenau state museum.

After invading Poland in 1939, sparking World War II, the Germans banned anything beyond four years of elementary education in a bid to crush Polish culture and the country's intelligentsia. The Germans considered the Poles inferior beings, and the education policy was part of a plan to use Poles as a "slave race."

An underground effort by Poles to continue to teach children immediately emerged, with those caught punished by being sent to concentration camps or prisons. Dobrowolski was among the Poles engaged in the underground effort, and he was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Auschwitz in June 1942.
"Auschwitz was worse than Dante's hell," he recalled in a video made when he was 103.

Dobrowolski, who was born Oct. 8, 1904 in Wolborz, Poland, was later moved to the concentration camps of Gross-Rosen and Sachsenhausen, according to the Auschwitz memorial museum in southern Poland.

After the war, he moved to Debno, where he worked as a Polish-language teacher and as principal at an elementary school and later at a high school for many years.

He will be buried in Debno on Wednesday.

At least 1.1 million people were killed by the Germans at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. Most of the victims were Jews, but many non-Jewish Poles, Roma and others were also killed there.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/10/22/world-oldest-survivor-auschwitz-death-camp-dies-at-age-108/#ixzz2A2yfxxXc

Netanyahu to Europe: Jerusalem is ours!

Netanyahu to Europe: Jerusalem is ours!

Sunday, October 21, 2012 | Ryan Jones

Israel Today magazine

 

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rebuffed European criticism over the construction of new housing units in a Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem, insisting that the Holy City belongs to the Jews.

Last week, Israel's Interior Ministry approved the construction of 800 new apartments in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. Gilo is home to tens of thousands of Israeli Jews, and new construction there is by no means out of the ordinary.

But Britain, France and the European Union immediately took advantage of the opportunity to again express their displeasure with Jewish sovereignty over the entirety of Jerusalem, calling those few new apartments an "obstacle to peace."

Netanyahu said the world can call it whatever it wants, but his government will not "impose any restrictions on construction in Jerusalem."

The Israeli leader added that Jerusalem "is our capital" and the Jewish nation has a connection to Jerusalem that is as "ancient and powerful" as the connections Europeans have to their respective capitals.

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23444/Default.aspx

Yaakov Shwekey - Cry No More, ירושלים Jerusalem