Standing in support of Israel, Jews, and believers in all the nations, in the name of Jesus (Yeshua). Sharing biblical truth, encouragement, news and prophecy.
On the grand day of 12/12/12, I sat with my laptop computer, updating my Love For His People blogspot. In reviewing the stats page, that only I can see, I noticed that in the overview numbers of posts since day one, three of the top five pages read were from my Ahava Love Letters archives. I was both pleased and thankful.
When I started writing these letters, in the fall of 2010 at the urging of the Lord, I wasn’t sure how many I would actually do. What began as one a week, slowed to one a month, and lately it has been one about every three months. But over this long, mostly quiet period since that beginning, it has been a time of reflection. A time like no other.
Having left my fulltime job as the director of a Christian/Jewish/Israeli non-profit ministry, here in the USA, after five years, it was my great determination to have a ministry supporting Israel. My faith in the Lord, and in His certain leading, also had me planning on having financial funds come in. That did happen, but certainly not at my anticipated, expected level.
With monies limited, and as head of our home, I cut expenditures as close to the bone as I could. It was a struggle paying the monthly mortgage, car payment, utilities, and more. You know, all the basic bills that just kept coming. And yet, two and a half years later, though our credit card bills are higher than they were then, we are current on all balances. The Lord had provided in ways I still ponder on.
Many days were spent praying for the Lord’s daily bread, direction and His full purposes. And I still do, as I am not quite yet sure what may always be the next step. And even in this season, while working a part time job at a business I would not have expected, through a temp job agency, this isn’t quite what I had in mind. But I will always remember that His ways are not our ways, and our times are always in His hands.
As I continue to consider His purposes for my current place in this life, I would expect that you also have had, or will have, those times in life where you wonder what He is up to. Not knowing what lies ahead, we will hope that the road each of us is on right now is the right one. I am trusting that it is for both you and me.
Ahava to my family of friends,
Steve Martin
Founder/President
Love For His People, Inc. truly appreciates your generous support. Please consider sending a monthly charitable gift of $5-$25 each month to help us bless Messianic Jews in Israel. You can send checks to the address below. Todah rabah! (Hebrew - Thank you very much.)
Love For His People, Inc. is a charitable, not-for-profit USA organization. Fed. ID#27-1633858.Tax deductible contributions receive a receipt for each donation.
Ahava Love Letter #46Date: Dec. 12 in the year of our Lord 2012 (12/12/12!)
The 2 Spies: Rabbi Pozner~ A Man of Vision: Today's story is of a Rabbi in 1930s Germany who was able to correctly read the times and warn the people ~ Jew and Gentile~ of what was coming.We are in the days, once again, where the signs are all around us. Are we discerning enough to read them~ and to know what to do. The 2 Spies prays that we are.
From Nazi Germany to Beit Shemesh: The Mansbach Hanukiyah, by David Lev
Each year before Hanukkah, the Mansbach family drops by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum to pick up the family Hanukiyah (Hanukkah Menorah) – an item rich with history, symbolism, and sentimental value. Because, family member Yehuda Mansbach told Israel National News in an interview, “This Hanukiyah is the only remaining memory of the congregation my Grandfather, Rabbi Dr. Akiva Baruch Pozner, led before escaping Germany.”
View from Rabbi Pozner's window.
The photo attached tells much of that history, says Mansbach, a resident of Beit Shemesh. “In this photo you see the Hanukiyah stationed at a window, with a Nazi flag across the street.” The photo was taken in 1931, says Mansbach, long before the Nazis came to power. But, as it happened, the house of Rabbi Posner, who led the community of Kiel in Germany, was right across the street from the local headquarters of the Nazi Party.
“It was on a Friday afternoon right before Shabbat that this photo was taken,” says Mansbach. “My grandmother realized that this was a historic photo, and she wrote on the back of the photo : ‘Their flag wishes to see the death of Judah, but Judah will always survive, and our light will outlast their flag.'”
As Rabbi of the Kiel community, Rabbi Pozner did everything he could to encourage Jews to escape Germany.
“Already in 1933, he was making many speeches, both to Jews and Germans. To the Germans he warned that the road they were embarking on was not good for Jews or Germans, and to the Jews he warned that something terrible was brewing, and they would do well to leave Germany.” Indeed, Mansbach says, many did leave, and by the time the Nazis came to power, some half of the congregation had already emigrated, mostly to the U.S. and the Land of Israel.
The Hanukiyah made it to Israel as well, and ended up in Yad Vashem. But each year they make sure to “borrow” if for their family Chanukah celebration. “My grandparents understood what was going to happen, and this Hanukiyah is a message to us – and to Jews in the Diaspora today – as well. It tells them to come to the Land of Israel now, before it's too late. No one knows what will be tomorrow.” (IsraelNationalNews.com) http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/140986
JERUSALEM, Israel -- On the same day Israelis began celebrating Hanukkah this year, Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal vowed to destroy the Jewish state. Meshaal told thousands of Palestinian Arabs celebrating the terror group's 25th anniversary that Israel will cease to exist.
It's a threat that's been heard for millennia. Yet, am Yisrael chai! (the people of Israel live)
On Saturday evening, Israelis and Jews around the world celebrated the first night of Hanukkah, the festival marking the victory of a small band of guerilla fighters who by sheer courage defeated the Syrian Greek forces under Antiochus IV.
On the Hebrew calendar, Hanukkah always begins on 25 Kislev. Like all Jewish holidays, it starts at sunset. This year that's from Saturday, December 8, through sunset on Sunday, December 16.
It's a festive holiday, enjoyed by children and adults alike, which has inspired Jews to strive for freedom against impossible odds for millennia -- right up to the present day.
It all started in 200 BCE when the Syrian Greeks conquered Israel and began imposing their Hellenistic lifestyle on the Hebrew nation. Life was tolerable under Antiochus III, but when his son, Antiochus IV, took over, he outlawed the Jewish Sabbath and ritual circumcision under penalty of death.
After his troops massacred thousands of Jews in Jerusalem, they defiled the Second Temple by dedicating it to Zeus and sacrificing pigs on the altar. The Jews were incensed. Within a few years, a Jewish priest named Mattathias rallied the people to revolt.
When Mattathias died, his son, Judah, took over. He was called Judah the Maccabee (the hammer), a fitting description for his small band of soldiers, who hammered away at the vastly outnumbered troops.
A year later, Judah's small army defeated the Syrian troops and set about cleansing and rededicating the Temple, which is why Hanukkah is also called the Feast of Dedication.
When they went to relight the Temple menorah, they found enough oil to last one day. Miraculously, the one-day supply lasted eight days until more could be prepared. That's why Hanukkah is also called the Festival of Lights.
To remember that miracle, Jews light candles on an eight-branched Hanukkah menorah every evening for eight days. There is a ninth candle called the shamash, or servant candle, used to light the others.
On the first night, one candle is lit and on each successive night, another is added until all eight are kindled on the last night.
Another tradition is to eat food fried in oil, such as potato pancakes or jelly doughnuts. Children also play a game with a four-sided top, called a dreidel (sevivyon in Hebrew).
In Jewish communities abroad, the Hebrew letters spell the acronym, "a great miracle happened there." In Israel, the fourth Hebrew letter is changed to read "a great miracle happened HERE!"
A traditional Hanukkah song called Ma'oz Tzur (Rock of Ages) describes Israel's enduring hope.
Rock of Ages, let our song praise Thy saving power! Thou amidst the raging foes wast our sheltering tower. Furious they assailed us, but Thine arm availed us. And thy Word broke their sword, when our own strength failed us!
Islamists such as Meshaal and Gaza-based Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh are just one more link in a long line of people who have threatened Israel's survival. They won't succeed because "The Lord will not abandon His people nor will He forsake His inheritance." (Psalm 94:14)
"For the Lord has chosen Zion. He has desired it for His habitation. This is my resting place, forever. Here I shall dwell. I will abundantly bless her provision. Her priests, I will clothe with salvation and her godly ones will sing aloud with joy. Her enemies I will clothe with shame but on them crowns shall shine." (Psalm 132:13-16, 18)
Egypt’s increasingly unstable Muslim Brotherhood regime, voted into power on an anti-US and anti-Israel platform, is about to receive 20 F-16 fighters jets despite calls to suspend arms sales to Cairo, Fox News reported Tuesday.
The jets were ordered by deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and the Muslim Brotherhood is about to take over the inheritance.
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, swept into power earlier this year on an Islamic campaign that promised reforms, has turned the Arab Spring revolution on its end by trying to usurp power. He has deployed armed soldiers and police to quell angry riots that have raised fears of a repeat of the violent suppression of anti-Mubarak protesters nearly two years ago.
Despite the instability, the United States is going ahead with the delivery of the F-16 jets, part of a two-year-old order for the planes.
The first four jets are to be delivered January 22, according to a source at the Texas air base where the planes are being tested. The date, by coincidence, is the same day that Israelis will vote for the next Knesset.
Fox noted that Egypt already has 200 F-16 warplanes and quoted Malou Innocent, a foreign policy analyst at the Cato Institute, as saying that the timing of the deliveries is more than questionable, but not because of the Israeli elections.
“Should an overreaction [by Egypt] spiral into a broader conflict between Egypt and Israel, such a scenario would put U.S. officials in an embarrassing position of having supplied massive amounts of military hardware … to both belligerents,” he said.
“Given Washington's fiscal woes, American taxpayers should no longer be Egypt’s major arms supplier.”
Morsi has backed off his attempt to assume dictatorial powers, but he is trying to win approval of a new constitution that would place Islamic Sharia law in a more prominent place in Egypt.
"The Morsi-led Muslim Brotherhood government has not proven to be a partner for democracy as they had promised, given the recent attempted power grab," a senior Republican congressional aide told FoxNews.com.
Florida Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who chairs the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, recently said. “The Obama administration wants to simply throw money at an Egyptian government that the president cannot even clearly state is an ally of the United States.”
The order for the Lockheed-Martin planes is another win for the American military-industrial complex.
"This is a great day for Lockheed Martin and a testament to the enduring partnership and commitment we have made to the government of Egypt," said John Larson, vice president, Lockheed Martin F-16 programs.
Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Wesley Miller explained to Fox, "The U.S.-Egypt defense relationship has served as the cornerstone of our broader strategic partnership for over thirty years.
The delivery of the first set of F-16s in January 2013 reflects the U.S. commitment to supporting the Egyptian military's modernization efforts. Egyptian acquisition of F-16s will increase our militaries' interoperability, and enhance Egypt's capacity to contribute to regional mission sets."
President Barack Obama had distanced himself from the Muslim Brotherhood until it became clear that it was a driving force following the fall of Mubarak. In a radical shift of foreign policy, Obama’s advisors, some of whom support a more liberal policy towards Hamas, began making contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood and eventually established open contacts with the radical Islamic party.
It campaigned on a strongly anti-American and anti-Israeli platform, but the U.S. State Department has reasoned that Egypt will remain an ally.
State Department official Andrew J. Shapiro was cited as stating last month, “I know that the uncertainty over the Egyptian transition has prompted some in Congress to propose conditioning our security assistance to Egypt.
“The administration believes that putting conditions on our assistance to Egypt is the wrong approach, and Secretary Clinton has made this point strongly. Egypt is a pivotal country in the Middle East and a long-time partner of the United States.
“We have continued to rely on Egypt to support and advance U.S. interests in the region, including peace with Israel [and] confronting Iranian ambitions…”
IDF Soldiers Learn About Hanukkah By Seeing the Sights
Some 20,000 IDF soldiers are this week attending special tours of the country, based on the history and traditions of Hanukkah
By David Lev, Israel National News
First Publish: 12/9/2012
Hanukkah in the IDF
Some 20,000 IDF soldiers are this week attending special tours of the country, based on the history and traditions of Hanukkah. The “In the Footsteps of the Maccabees” program has exposed many soldiers to history and traditions of which they may have not been aware, while showing others the places where the important events from Jewish history actually took place.
Among the sites the soldiers visit are Beit Guvrin, Modi'in, Latrun, Jerusalem, and Gush Etzion. All these places were key sites in the wars between the Maccabees and their supporters against the Greek occupying forces and their Hellenist compatriots.
Participating in the tours are soldiers from all communal and religious backgrounds. The highlight of the program is a candle lighting event in the amphitheater at Latrun, where a large memorial to the IDF Tank Corps is located. Also participating are families who have lost soldiers in combat. Leading the candle lighting service is Chief IDF Cantor Ofir Sobol. Joining the soldiers on Tuesday will be President Shimon Peres and IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz.
Speaking at one of the events, IDF Chief Rabbi Rafi Peretz said that “the best part of these events is the feeling of unity that comes out of gathering everyone from many different locations – including towns, cities, and army bases. The hanukkiyah (Hanukkah menorah) is unique. It does not have one light, but 9, which shine brightly when they are all lit. There is a place for all the lights, and this is how the IDF sees things,” said Rabbi Peretz.
The Czech Republic was the only European country among the nine countries that voted against the resolution to recognize “Palestine” as a non-member observer state in the UN.
“My real purpose in coming here is to say on behalf of the people of Israel to you and your government and your countrymen and women, to say thank you,” Netanyahu told Necas in a joint press conference.
“Thank you for your country's opposition to the one-sided resolution at the United Nations; thank you for your friendship; thank you for your courage. I know that in voting against the one-sided resolution, the Czech Republic stood with the United States and Canada and a handful of other countries against the prevailing international current.
But history has shown us time and again that what is right is not what is popular, and if there is a people in the world who can appreciate that, it's the people of your country. Seventy-four years ago, in 1938, in Munich, leading powers of the world forced this proud democracy to sacrifice its vital interests.
The international community applauded almost uniformly without exception. They hailed this as something that would bring peace, peace in our time they said. But rather than bring peace, those forced concessions from Czechoslovakia paved the way to the worst war in history.
“I know that your country has learned the lessons of history,” said Netanyahu. “So has my country, Israel. That is why Israel will not sacrifice its vital interests for the sake of obtaining the world's applause. Israel is committed to a genuine peace with our Palestinian neighbors – a genuine and durable peace.
For peace to endure, it must be a peace that we can defend. No other peace can survive in the Middle East. We remain committed, as you said, to a negotiated settlement between us and our Palestinian neighbors. That solution is a two-state solution for two peoples, a peace in which a demilitarized Palestinian state recognizes the one and only Jewish State of Israel.
“Unfortunately, on Thursday,” said Netanyahu, “the Palestinians asked the world to give them a state without providing Israel with peace and security in return.
“The UN resolution completely ignored Israel's security needs. It didn't require the Palestinians to recognize the Jewish state. It didn't even call on it to end the conflict with Israel. And this is why it was unacceptable to Israel, and that is why, too, it has been unacceptable to all responsible members of the international community.
“Our conflict with the Palestinians will be resolved only through direct negotiations that address the needs of both Israelis and Palestinians. It will not be resolved through one-sided resolutions of the UN that ignore Israel's vital needs and undermine the basic foundation for peace.”
“Mr. Prime Minister, I'm proud to be here in Prague. I told you just now in our Cabinet meeting that I saw, in my entry at the airport, a bust of Tomáš Masaryk, the great leader of this country, of this nation, and I believe that Tomáš Masaryk would have been very proud of the stand that your country took last week at the United Nations.
Thank you for standing up for the truth; thank you for standing up for decency; and thank you for standing up for peace. Thank you."
Jerusalem mayor blasts Obama over construction criticism
Thursday, December 06, 2012 | Ryan Jones, Israel Today
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat on Monday slammed the Obama Administration for once again pressuring Israel over where it can and cannot build in and around its own capital city.
"I don't know of any city in the world whose regulator is the US president," Barkat said during a conference in Herzliya on affordable housing.
Barkat was responding to American criticism over Israel's approval this week of long-standing plans to expand the Jerusalem suburb of Ma'aleh Adumim to the adjacent hill known as "E1".
Israel finally approved the plans as punitive action for the Palestinian Authority's unilateral effort to receive official recognition at the UN.
But Barkat said the planned construction has been and remains crucial to providing affordable housing in the capital, which is Israel's most densely populated city.
Successive American governments have condemned Israel's plans for E1, even though it is a barren hill completely controlled by Israel, because the Palestinians say Israeli construction there will negatively impact their plans to gain sovereignty over the eastern half of Jerusalem.
But like most other Israeli leaders, Barkat views these areas as disputed, not occupied, and therefore either everyone must be allowed to build there, or no one must be allowed to build there.
"When the world talks about a freeze in Jerusalem, I ask, a freeze on what? ...Should we stop construction for Arabs, Christians or Jews?" questioned Barkat.
Does the Obama Administration mean to say that "when an entrepreneur approaches me, I should, heaven forbid, ask him what religion he subscribes to so he can receive a permit to build in Jerusalem?" the mayor continued. "That would be horrendous and it negates even US law."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was adamant this week that his government would not back down on its decision regarding the new construction.
On Wednesday, Israel's Civil Administration Planning Council approved the E1 building plans. There will now be a 60-day waiting period during which the Israeli public can file objections to the plans, after which the District Planning Committee will provide final approval.
The Maccabees successfully rebelled against Antiochus IV Epiphanes. According to the Talmud, a late text, the Temple was purified and the wicks of the menorah miraculously burned for eight days, even though there was only enough sacred oil for one day's lighting.
Hanukkah (Hebrew: חֲנֻכָּה, Tiberian: Ḥănukkāh, usually spelled חנוכה, pronounced [χanuˈka] in Modern Hebrew; a transliteration also romanized as Chanukah, Chanukkah or Chanuka), also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE.
Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar.
The festival is observed by the kindling of the lights of a unique candelabrum, the nine-branched Menorah or Hanukiah, one additional light on each night of the holiday, progressing to eight on the final night. The typical Menorah consists of eight branches with an additional raised branch. The extra light is called a shamash (Hebrew: שמש, "attendant")[1] and is given a distinct location, usually above or below the rest. The purpose of the shamash is to have a light available for use, as using the Hanukkah lights themselves is forbidden.[2]
Boy lighting Hanukkah candles
The name "Hanukkah" derives from the Hebrew verb "חנך", meaning "to dedicate". On Hanukkah, the Jews regained control of Jerusalem and rededicated the Temple.[3]
Many homiletical explanations have been given for the name:[4]
The name can be broken down into חנו כ"ה, "they rested on the twenty-fifth", referring to the fact that the Jews ceased fighting on the 25th day of Kislev, the day on which the holiday begins.[5]
חנוכה (Hanukkah) is also the Hebrew acronym for חנרות והלכה כבית הלל — "Eight candles, and the halakha is like the House of Hillel". This is a reference to the disagreement between two rabbinical schools of thought — the House of Hillel and the House of Shammai — on the proper order in which to light the Hanukkah flames. Shammai opined that eight candles should be lit on the first night, seven on the second night, and so on down to one on the last night. Hillel argued in favor of starting with one candle and lighting an additional one every night, up to eight on the eighth night. Jewish law adopted the position of Hilleldit]Historical sources
Maccabees, Mishna and Talmud
The story of Hanukkah, along with its laws and customs, is entirely missing from the Mishna apart from several passing references (Bikkurim 1:6, Rosh HaShanah 1:3, Taanit 2:10, Megillah 3:4 and 3:6, Moed Katan 3:9, and Bava Kama 6:6). Rav Nissim Gaon postulates in his Hakdamah Le'mafteach Hatalmud that information on the holiday was so commonplace that the Mishna felt no need to explain it. Reuvein Margolies[6] suggests that as the Mishnah was redacted after the Bar Kochba revolt, its editors were reluctant to include explicit discussion of a holiday celebrating another relatively recent revolt against a foreign ruler, for fear of antagonizing the Romans.
Hanukkah lamp unearthed near Jerusalem about 1900
The story of Hanukkah is preserved in the books of the First and Second Maccabees. These books are not part of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible); they are apocryphal books instead. The miracle of the one-day supply of oil miraculously lasting eight days is first described in the Talmud, written about 600 years after the events described in the books of Maccabees. [7]
The Gemara, in tractate Shabbat 21, focuses on Shabbat candles and moves to Hanukkah candles and says that after the forces of Antiochus IV had been driven from the Temple, the Maccabees discovered that almost all of the ritual olive oil had been profaned. They found only a single container that was still sealed by the High Priest, with enough oil to keep the menorah in the Temple lit for a single day. They used this, yet it burned for eight days (the time it took to have new oil pressed and made ready).[8]
The Talmud presents three options:
The law requires only one light each night per household,
A better practice is to light one light each night for each member of the household
The most preferred practice is to vary the number of lights each night.
Except in times of danger, the lights were to be placed outside one's door, on the opposite side of the Mezuza, or in the window closest to the street. Rashi, in a note to Shabbat 21b, says their purpose is to publicize the miracle.
Various menorot used for Hanukkah. 12th through 19th century, CE
The ancient Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus narrates in his book Jewish Antiquities XII, how the victorious Judas Maccabeus ordered lavish yearly eight-day festivities after rededicating the Temple in Jerusalem that had been profaned by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Josephus does not say the festival was called Hannukkah but rather the "Festival of Lights":
"Now Judas celebrated the festival of the restoration of the sacrifices of the temple for eight days, and omitted no sort of pleasures thereon; but he feasted them upon very rich and splendid sacrifices; and he honored God, and delighted them by hymns and psalms. Nay, they were so very glad at the revival of their customs, when, after a long time of intermission, they unexpectedly had regained the freedom of their worship, that they made it a law for their posterity, that they should keep a festival, on account of the restoration of their temple worship, for eight days. And from that time to this we celebrate this festival, and call it Lights. I suppose the reason was, because this liberty beyond our hopes appeared to us; and that thence was the name given to that festival. Judas also rebuilt the walls round about the city, and reared towers of great height against the incursions of enemies, and set guards therein. He also fortified the city Bethsura, that it might serve as a citadel against any distresses that might come from our enemies."[9]
Other ancient sources
The story of Hanukkah is alluded to in the book of 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees. The eight-day rededication of the temple is described in 1 Maccabees 4:36 et seq, though the name of the festival and the miracle of the lights do not appear here. A story similar in character, and obviously older in date, is the one alluded to in 2 Maccabees 1:18 et seq according to which the relighting of the altar fire by Nehemiah was due to a miracle which occurred on the 25th of Kislev, and which appears to be given as the reason for the selection of the same date for the rededication of the altar by Judah Maccabee.
Another source is the Megillat Antiochus. This work (also known as "Megillat HaHasmonaim", "Megillat Hanukkah" or "Megillat Yevanit") is in both Aramaic and Hebrew; the Hebrew version is a literal translation from the Aramaic original. Recent scholarship dates it to somewhere between the 2nd and 5th Centuries, probably in the 2nd century,[10] with the Hebrew dating to the 7th century.[11] It was published for the first time in Mantua in 1557. Saadia Gaon, who translated it into Arabic in the 9th century, ascribed it to the Maccabees themselves, disputed by some, since it gives dates as so many years before the destruction of the second temple in 70 CE.[12] The Hebrew text with an English translation can be found in the Siddur of Philip Birnbaum.
The Christian Bible refers to Jesus being at the Jerusalem Temple during "the Feast of Dedication and it was winter" in John 10:22-23, the Greek term used is "the renewals" (Greek ta engkainia τὰ ἐγκαίνια).[13]Josephus refers to the festival as "lights."[14]
Congressman says Israel is America's only true friend
Wednesday, December 05, 2012 | Israel Today Staff
They say that a friend in need is a friend indeed. If that's the case, then US Congressman Ted Poe (Texas) considers Israel to be America's only true "friend indeed" in the world today.
At a recent House of Representatives session to remember the victims of Hurricane Sandy, Poe noted that of all the nations to which the US provides aid, Israel was the only one to turn around and return the favor in America's time of need.
"As waves crashed across the east coast...taxpayer dollars were still being funneled as foreign aid around the globe," said Poe. "While families watched...Sandy [wash] away their homes and livelihoods...over 158 countries were still busy cashing checks from America."
Poe continued: "Out of all the countries we give aid to, I understand Israel was the only country to send a lifeboat in the wind and rain and flood to help our victims in America. ...The Israel Flying Aid organization [provided] gas to hospitals and batteries, food, and generators to [the] victims."
The congressman pointed out that while American has done much to aid peoples around the world, "many of them hate us."
Poe concluded by suggesting that "the United States needs to re-evaluate giving foreign aid to nations that hate us," while ensuring that thanks "be given to our faithful ally Israel."
Israel Flying Aid is an independent Israeli humanitarian aid network that operates under the auspices of the government-run IsraAID organization.
The bulk of the funds needed to help the Hurricane Sandy victims were reportedly donated by Israelis living in America.
Israel digs in as international community goes on the offensive
Tuesday, December 04, 2012 | Ryan Jones, Israel Today
Israel on Monday responded to international condemnation over its earlier approval of more Jewish apartments in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria by announcing that an additional 1,600 housing units will now be constructed.
In addition to the 3,000 units approved on Sunday, Israel will now add another 1,600 apartments to the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, which was at the center of a previous major dispute between Israel and the US over Israel's right to build anywhere in its own capital.
The uncharacteristic hardening of Israel's position in the face of international pressure was sparked by last week's UN vote recognizing "Palestine" as a sovereign state outside the framework of a negotiated peace settlement.
Israel feels that the world's response to that stunt, which most agree was unhelpful in achieving peace, has been grossly hypocritical.
While the Palestinian motion at the UN was a clear violation of its signed agreements with the Jewish state, Israel's punitive approval of more Jewish housing in areas claimed by the Palestinians is not prohibited by those same documents.
Nevertheless, the world immediately backed off criticizing the Palestinian leadership, while accusing Israel of having dealt a "death blow" to all hopes of peace. (That despite the fact that the peace process had been conducted for over 10 years while the Jewish population in Judea and Samaria was growing.)
All major Western European countries summoned the Israeli ambassadors stationed there for rebuke, and Britain and France were reportedly considering sanctions of some sort against the Jewish state.
Though most of the negative response came from Europe, Israeli officials were convinced the Obama Administration was behind it.
"This is a masked threat orchestrated by Washington," a senior Israeli diplomat told Israel's Yediot Ahronot newspaper.
Following Sunday's decision to build new Jewish housing in response to the Palestinian statehood bid, Chicago Mayor and former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has launched a serious of vicious verbal attacks against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
First Emanuel called Netanyahu's behavior "unfathomable," then he accused the Israeli leader of repeatedly "betraying" Obama.
There is growing concern in Israel that Obama, via Emanuel, will attempt to influence Israel's upcoming election in order to oust Netanyahu from office. While that is a long-shot, the White House could succeed in making it nearly impossible for Netanyahu to form a stable coalition following the election.
Why did the Czechs, Palau and half-a-dozen others stand with Israel in the vote on ‘Palestine’?
Along with the US, Canada, Panama and the Czech Republic, four tiny Pacific island nations — with a combined population that’s less than that of Petah Tikva — spared Israel still greater ignominy last Thursday. Could it be that they simply like us?
PA President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the UN General Assembly on Thursday, November, 29 (photo credit: courtesy MFA)
The fact that the overwhelming majority of nations voted on Thursday in favor of a resolution granting the Palestinians nonmember observer state status at the United Nations General Assembly was widely and accurately seen as proof of Israel’s international isolation — on the issue, at least. Still, there were eight countries that voted with Israel in the 138-9 diplomatic drubbing (with 41 abstentions).
Who are these nations that dared to oppose China, France, Italy, Russia, Japan, Switzerland and 132 other nations? And why did they back the lost cause?
Washington and Ottawa are Israel’s staunchest supporters in the international arena, so the no votes from the US and Canada came as no surprise. But they were joined by Panama and the Czech Republic, as well as four countries most people would have difficulty finding on a map: the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru and Palau.
These four remote island nations, combined, have a population of about 205,000; that’s a bit less than the population of Petah Tikva. But in the UN General Assembly, every vote is equal, whether it belongs to China or to a 459-square-kilometer group of islands in the North Pacific Ocean, such as Palau.
The Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru and Palau have a long history of voting similarly to the US. In 2010, for example, Micronesia echoed Washington’s vote at the US 47 times and only contradicted it three times. Palau followed the US lead in 96.5% of all votes.
Some observers suggest that “checkbook diplomacy” is at work here, and that Israel or the US bought the tiny island states’ votes for cash.
The Marshall Islands and Micronesia are states “in free association” with the US and are set to receive $3.5 billion from Washington in the next 10 years, the International Business Times reported last week. “Palau is also in free association with the US, having received $18 million annually from the US until 2009.”
Checkbook diplomacy certainly exists — in 2008, Nauru received $10 million from Russia for voting in favor of the breakaway nation of Abkhazia — but Israeli officials denied it was at play during Thursday’s vote.
“We don’t have money to pour on the other states for their votes,” a diplomatic official told The Times of Israel on Sunday. Neither Jerusalem nor Washington put “a single cent or even half a cent on the table” in exchange for a pro-Israel vote, the official said.
It was actually the other side that bought pro-Palestine votes, this official claimed, hinting that “some Gulf states” paid for the support of “a few poor Pacific states and governments in Africa.”
Guatemala, meanwhile, gave Israel a “solemn promise” to vote against the Palestinian resolution, but ended up abstaining, the official said.
Panama is consistently pro-Israeli and pro-American, he added. The Central American nation of 3.5 million, which is slightly smaller than South Carolina, said it believed that Palestine had the right to be recognized as a state and regretted not being able to vote for the resolution.
“However,” the country’s foreign ministry said in a statement, Palestine “first needs to settle the differences with its neighbor, the State of Israel, which, like Palestine, is entitled to a life in peace and harmonious coexistence with Palestine and other states in the region.”
The electronic screen at the UN General Assembly showing the votes according to country (photo credit: screen capture UNGA livestream)
The Czech Republic’s vote delighted and surprised Israeli officials: It was the only European country to vote against the Palestinian statehood bid. “They have been consistently one of our best friends in the EU,” the official told The Times of Israel.
Berlin actually tried to pressure Prague to at least abstain in Thursday’s vote, to present a more-or-less unified European position. “But they don’t care what anyone else says; they’re ballsy,” the official said.
“We do not agree with any unilateral steps that may hamper or jeopardize the peace process leading to the two-state solution,” the Czech Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Prague voted against the resolution “because we are afraid that it might result in a further delay in the resumption of the negotiating process.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promptly called his Czech counterpart, Petr Necas, and thanked him for his country’s “courageous” stance. He promised to stop by in Prague on his way to a state visit to Germany this week to personally thank him for “standing up for the truth and for peace.”
“The history of Israel and the Czech Republic has taught us that one must cling to the truth, even if the majority is not with you,” Netanyahu told Necas. “Your vote must serve as an example for all those who support peace, which can be achieved only via direct negotiations without preconditions.”
Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman are also expected to call the leaders of the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru and Palau in the coming days to thank them personally for their support. Soon after Thursday’s vote, Netanyahu said that these nations deserve praise and that “history will judge them favorably.”
“The Pacific Island nations actually surprised us last week,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told The Times of Israel on Sunday. “They usually side with us because of the very strong emotional ties we have, but this time round we thought only Micronesia was with us.”
The “no” votes were the more surprising given that even many of Israel’s allies voted for the proposal, arguing that the Palestinians deserve a state and that this upgrade could reenergize the peace process.
“It is no mystery that many world leaders and many nations feel very strongly about, and have very deep emotional bonds with, Israel and the Jewish people. That is not something so exceptional and sometimes it translates into actual votes at the UN,” Palmor said by way of explanation. “Voting at the UN General Assembly is always the result of complex and intricate sets of pressures and interests. Whoever takes a country’s vote at face value and thinks that a vote accurately reflects a country’s true opinion on the issue at hand doesn’t know much about international diplomacy.”
Benjamin Netanyahu (right) with Palau’s president Johnson Toribiong, November 24, 2011 (photo credit: Avi Ohayon/GPO/Flash90)
But the support of the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru and Palau did not come out of nowhere, said Michael Ronen, Israel’s non-resident ambassador to 13 Pacific Islands, including the Marshall Islands and Micronesia, adding that he spent a lot of time lobbying before Thursday’s vote.
“We weren’t surprised that these four countries voted against a Palestinian state,” Ronen told Yedioth Ahronoth. “We’ve been working there in an orderly and continuous fashion for 30 years. We don’t tell them that we’re sending them an Israeli doctor in exchange for their vote. Other countries discover the Pacific only when they need it. A nation suddenly needs votes at the UN and instantly embraces these countries, offering them assistance, only to forget about them afterwards. We don’t work like that.”
Israel doesn’t buy votes, but it does send aid to the Pacific. Medical and agricultural experts have traveled to the South Pacific from Israel, and in the 1990s an Israeli coach trained a Micronesian national team. In addition, the leaders of these tiny island nations receive royal welcomes whenever they come to Israel, which adds to the warm feelings they feel toward the Jewish state.
“Whenever somebody likes us, it feels strange to us, almost like it’s against the laws of nature. But I don’t agree with that,” Ronen opined. “Their knowledge of us is based on the Bible and on Christianity… They really value the Jewish people and the State of Israel, what we’ve achieved and what we represent.”
The photographic archives in
the New York Public Library is the surprising repository for hundreds of
historic photographs of Palestine. Some of the pictures date back to the 1850s
and 1860s.
We provide here a selection of some of the amazing
photographs. Future postings will focus on particular pictures and the
photographers.
Survey photo of the "Wailing Place of the
Jews" (1865). The photo was taken by Peter Bergheim who established a
photographic studio in the Christian Quarter of the Old City. The
Survey team had its own photographer, but, apparently, Bergheim
was subcontracted by the Survey team. (Source: New York Public
Library) See here for similar photos.
Many
of the photos were taken from the British Ordinance Survey of
Jerusalem of 1865 led by Captain Charles W. Wilson. He and Captain Charles
Warren led extensive archaeological excavations near the Temple Mount ("Wilson's
Arch" and "Warren's Shaft" are well-known to visitors to Jerusalem). Warren
would go on to become the head of London's police during the "Jack the Ripper"
murder spree.
We
thank staffers at the Library of Congress who steered us to the Survey
and officials at the New York Public Library who granted permission to publish
the photos.
The sealed Golden Gate, also
known as Shaar Harachamim (1865), is located on the
eastern wall of the Old City and closest to the site of the Jewish Temple
and the Dome of the Rock. The photo was taken by the Survey's official
photographer, James McDonald. (Source: New York Public Library) See here for similar
photos.
The 1865 Survey
contained measurements, maps and descriptions of the city of Jerusalem
which was almost all contained within the Old City walls. The explorers sank
shafts along the Old City walls, explored underground tunnels, cisterns and
caverns, and recorded their findings.
In 1871,Wilson and Warren published
The Recovery of Jerusalem, a Narrative of Exploration and
Discovery in the City and the Holy Land, a memoir of their experiences in
Jerusalem, including dealing with rapacious Ottoman officials, impassible roads,
and local workers.
Interestingly, the Wilson-Warren book did not include
photographs; it was illustrated with woodcuts such as this one possibly copied
from the Bergheim photo above. And note how similar the woodcut is to the one
illustrating William Seward's travelogue. Seward was Abraham Lincoln's
Secretary of State who visited the Holy Land in 1859 and 1871. Both books, both
published in 1871, describe Jewish prayer at the Western Wall as restricted to
Friday evening.
