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.
Israel in 2013 boasted $3 billion in cyber-related exports, more than all other nations in the world combined outside of the United States.
Israeli experts in the field told the annual Herzliya Conference earlier this month that the Jewish state’s cyber exports represent some 5 percent of the entire global market, and that the figure could easily reach 10 percent in the next five years.
Other figures of interest include the fact that 11 percent of all global cyber-related investments come to Israel, and that 14.5 percent of all cyber firms worldwide that received funding in 2013 were Israeli-owned.
Israel is clearly a cyber superpower, despite its minuscule size, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is determined to strengthen Israel further on that front.
In 2011, Netanyahu established the National Cyber Bureau, a government body that reports directly to him, and that has been doing much in recent years to bolster Israeli hi-tech companies.
“We established the National Cyber Bureau for the purpose of transforming the state of Israel into a cyber superpower,” Netanyahu saidfollowing a briefing earlier this year. “I see [NCB] also as a huge economic force multiplier. There is tremendous international interest in our abilities.”
Netanyahu later commented that “we always knew that we have a land flowing with milk and cyber.”
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WASHINGTON - Potential presidential candidates recently gathered in Washington, D.C., for the Faith and Freedom Coalition to talk about the country's future.
The annual event is an opportunity for politicians to make their case in front of a very important voting bloc in America: evangelical Christians.
One by one, they came to the stage, weaving a message of faith and freedom. Some of them were possible presidential candidates, like former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Others, like the new House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, came preaching a message of conservative unity, despite the disputes over the direction of the party between the Tea Party and establishment conservatives.
Backstage, in an exclusive interview with CBN News, McCarthy played up the harmony theme.
"First and foremost I want to make sure that we're united. But we want to change the country. We want to change the direction," he said.
"I want to restructure government itself, these agencies have become too large. They need to be streamlined. There is too much duplication in it as well. We want to unshackle what has held us back for so long," McCarthy added.
Division Over Iraq
McCarthy and GOP leadership in both the House and Senate will also have to confront a divide on what to do in Iraq.
Some lawmakers, like Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., say decisive military action needs to be taken. Other Republicans aren't so sure they want to get involved in this fight. Rubio feels that's a mistake.
"They're wrong," he said. "We're going to have to deal with ISIS."
"The choice for us is not whether or not we're going to have to deal with them. The choice is do we deal with them now while they are still kind of scattered or do we deal with them in 10 years or five years when they own a piece of land and they have their own country and they use it to plan and carry out attacks that kill Americans here and around the world," Rubio explained.
Rubio will surely play up his hawkish views if he runs for president.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is also considering a run for president. He came touting his pro-life credentials, complete with a video before his introduction. He's a bit on the defensive after he recently said how Republicans might need to agree to disagree on social issues.
"I don't want to change our party. We need to be the pro-life party, the pro-traditional marriage party. But can we accept people, some people who don't agree with those issues in the party?" Rand challenged.
"I think that if we are not so strident to push people away, maybe having some people in the party that don't all agree with us, maybe we'll have some chance to persuade them. And we'll be a bigger party," he concluded.
Clinton-Obama Administration?
One item all these speakers seemed to agree upon was that religious liberty is under attack, whether through Obamacare here at home or abroad, where Christians are being persecuted for their faith.
They also agrees that they don't want to see a Hillary Clinton presidency. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., said that would be a nightmare.
"She will be Barack Obama's 3rd and 4th term, fundamentally transforming the United States of America away from the principles that the founders bled and died to give us," Bachmann warned.
It is those founder's principles that the Faith and Freedom crowd are fighting for.
The goal for them now is to mobilize other voters of faith to make a difference at the ballot box. The polling shows that when evangelical Christians show up, they can make the difference.
The Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) continues its spiritual and social war against the people of Israel.
In my article "The Impossible People and PCUSA" (subscribe now to read it in the next Israel Today Magazine), I talk about this Church's new educational resource called "Zionism Unsettled: A Congregational Study Guide." This booklet should have created a loud Christian protest, particularly after the praise it received from White Supremacist leader David Duke.
I do not know if there were institutional Christian protests against PCUSA, but even if there were, the Presbyterians remained resolute in sticking to their defiled theology that denies not only the existence of Israel, but the existence of the people of Israel.
The 221st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church that was held from June 14-21, 2014 at the COBO Center in downtown Detroit, Michigan, generated a lot of Twitter posts that protested its resolution "to divest from three corporations – Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions."
Though this resolution clarifies that it does not constitute divestment from Israel itself, the justification for boycotting specifically these three corporations seemed to be a bit evasive.
The explanation that these specific corporations are supporting "non-peaceful pursuits" is hardly satisfying, and raises suspicion that, for example, Caterpillar is not being targeted because its bulldozers are moving earth in Syria, but because they are used by the IDF. Likewise, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard are targets not because they sell cellphones and printers to Iran, but because they have large operations in Israel.
The problematic element is, therefore, not what the PCUSA calls "non-peaceful pursuits." The problematic element is Israel.
That Israel itself is the target can be seen in another resolution, brought to my attention by the "Elder of Zion" blog. Though voted down, the suggestion and the reaction to it can teach us what's happening within the Presbytery's bowels.
The item under discussion, submitted by the Presbytery of Chicago, was "On Distinguishing Between Biblical Terms for Israel and Those Applied to the Modern Political State of Israel in Christian Liturgy." Though no resolution was reached, the General Assembly nevertheless recommended distinguishing between ancient Israel and the modern political State of Israel.
The General Assembly suggests that its new hymnal replace "the unfortunate heading: 'God's covenant with Israel'" with "God's Covenant with Ancient Israel," or even with "Our Covenant with the Oppressed."
It further instructs the Office of Theology and Worship of the Presbyterian Mission Agency as follow:
"Note that in using these texts that the biblical and liturgical 'land of Israel' is not the same as the State of Israel established in 1948, which is a contemporary nation state. The Bible contains differing descriptions of the parameters of Israel. Promises of land generally come with obligations to God for justice to be practiced with all inhabitants. Later in Scripture, the Gospel is to be preached to 'all nations'; in Jesus Christ all peoples are included in God's promise. Similarly, 'Zion' is frequently used in the Bible as a reference to the city of Jerusalem, but in Christian tradition this does not refer primarily to a specific geographical location or political entity but to 'the city of God' found throughout history and to the completion of God's purpose in the age to come."
Let no one be fooled. The motion to erase Israel from the Presbyterian vocabulary is a motion to erase Israel, and boycotting Caterpillar is one way to achieve this anti-Christ goal.
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In the Spirit I heard a sound I have never heard before. It's a sound from seeds that God had planted through us that have died inside the stony hearts of many people. There had been a long season when these seeds were not heard from. They were silenced by death.
But in spite of death these seeds were beginning to groan as though death itself could no longer keep them. Even seeds of dreams that had died were now making a noise. The very life of Christ within these seeds was overcoming death. It's as though these seeds were shouting...."Our season of death is over!"
If you would like to read more articles that I have written, they can be found on www.spiritfuel.me.
I am thinking about what it means to bless Israel - to bless the state Israel and the Jewish people. Here are a few of my thoughts.
One way is to help ONE Holocaust survivor who is starving and to give food or to buy a present for a Holocaust survivor.
To bless Israel can be to invite a lonely Messianic Jew for dinner or to have a cup of coffee together. It can be to give food also for the Messianic Jews who do not have much money for food. Jesus prayed in John 17:21 that love will be a testimony to the world in Body of Christ. He talks about love to each other in John 15:12, "This is My commandment that you love one another as I have loved you."
I do not think He means just in a church building. I believe the church is made up of Christians, with Jesus as the head. We all need each other in the Body. Friendship is not just in a building, but rather the "hand" needs the "foot" and so on. All with the same value. In Gal.3:28 is written that we are all one in Christ.
I think when Messianic Jews are blessed in congregations this also blesses Israel. Relatives will notice if they are given food. It is a testimony to unsaved Jews.
To bless Israel is to comfort Jews in different ways.
It is written in Isaiah 40:1, "Comfort, comfort My people." It can mean to both comfort all people who are not saved, to comfort Christians ( both Messianic Jews and Gentiles) and to comfort the Jewish people.
To bless Israel and "comfort" My people - it is important to think about that many people suffer today. Many Jews suffer and we can comfort with words, show compassion and take time talking with people. Comfort is to know that somebody has time to listen, somebody has time in a world of much stress. Comfort can also be done by counseling people.
In the Body of Christ there needs today to be more fellowship and friendship. Now I believe it is a time of a restoration, as done in Acts.2:46; eating together and having fellowship as Jesus also had with the disciples in John 21, when they were eating breakfast at the sea.
Jesus wants to be a Friend, not just someone we work for. He and our heavenly Daddy has fellowship together, as it should be In the Body of Christ. We need to be more like a big family. As we become more like this, it will be a comfort for people, because care and love also heals.
To "comfort my people" I think is also to give the message about Jesus. He is the source of all comfort, as He is the Comforter.
We need to open our hearts and also to give comfort to the Jews who encounter much antisemitism today. We need to bless Israel - the Jewish people around the world and not just the state of Israel.
President Barack Obama (Official White House photo by Lawrence Jackson)
Dear Mr. President,
Can you please tell me which world you were referring to, when, just the other day, you declared to Tumblr users (I am assuming that Tumblr is not a drug) that the world "is less violent than it has ever been?"
I find it very confusing, because on the one hand you claim you learned about the IRS scandal and the Veteran's Affairs wait-list scandal from the media, and on the other hand, it appears you don't even pay attention to the world news.
Not only is the world not the safest it has ever been, it is the most dangerous it has ever been! And much of the downfall has taken place with your White House in deeper denial than the former Information Minister of Iraq—aka Bagdad Bob! (Remember him? "There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!" Well, you are starting to sound like him.) While you and Mr. Kerry claim, "Peace and safety!" the world is falling into chaos.
Cairo Speech
It was just over five years ago, a freshly inaugurated Barack Obama confidently marched into Egypt to give your "A New Beginning" speech to the Muslim world. You should have called it the "I'm Not Bush" speech, because we all know that was its real purpose. That day you boldly proposed "a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect."
How's that working?
Not even the fact you gave your very first post-inaugural interview to the Arab cable network, Al Arabia, (instead of NBC, ABC or CBS) won you any lasting good will in the Muslim world.
I don't believe the silly rumors that you are a secret Muslim. You are a humanist. And you were convinced that your human powers of charm and persuasion would cause the Arab world to lay down their weapons. Surely once they see that America is not all 'cowboys clinging to their guns and religion.' But you see Mr. President, it takes two to tango, and I don't think Muslims are allowed to dance.
Nobel Peace, yet No Peace
For all your rhetoric you were richly rewarded, as if you actually changed something on the ground—but your reward did not come from the Arab countries seeking peace and repudiating radicalism. Instead, the Nobel Peace Prize folks crowned you the Prince of Peace 2009, and gave you a million dollars. How does their press release from 2009 sound now?
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples ... Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics ... Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future.
My goodness, it's like they were declaring you Messiah! Sounds pretty funny now, right? If only Al-Qaeda had as much faith in you as the Norwegians.
Let's just take a look at what has happened in "Obama's World" since you were awarded for your "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy."
There was an attack by Al-Qaeda on 9/11/2012 on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that left an ambassador, a staffer and two Navy Seals dead—two Seals who were protecting U.S. diplomats, while they awaited help that never came. It was followed by, what many see, as a cover-up by your administration. You, Jay Carney and, who can forget, Sunday Morning Susan (Rice), emphatically and repeatedly declared—even after all the evidence was pointing to a coordinated terror attack—that it was merely a spontaneous uprising because of an anti-Islam YouTube video. (As if people getting so angry over a video that they kill American is so much better than terror.)
Civil war has erupted in Syria, resulting in more than 150,000 deaths of innocent noncombatants, creating a refugee crisis of nearly 10,000,000 people. Even chemical weapons have been used to kill innocent children.
Egypt, the Middle East's largest country, went through a revolution that propelled the terror group, The Muslim Brotherhood, into power. While they systematically persecuted their own people, trampling their democratic freedoms, your administration stood by them because they were "democratically elected." When the military responded to the pleas of the people, your team stood with the Hamas-aligned Brotherhood.
Also in Egypt, we continue to see the systemic persecution of Christians by Islamic groups. Read this harrowing account of the murdering a young Christian woman by an angry horde of Muslims.
Meanwhile in Iran, human rights are denied to citizens, and Christians are persecuted. Iran continues to make advances in their efforts to build a nuclear bomb, while John Kerry makes deals with the devil and declares triumph.
Mass shootings in America are becoming a regular occurrence. I remember when a mass shooting was shocking. Now it is just news.
In Nigeria, nearly 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped and could be sold as child brides. (Yes, in the least violent time in world history, little girls are forced to marry older perverts.) The Nigerian terror group Boko Haram has continued to attack Christians in Nigeria, killing over 12,000 people.
Putin, thumbing his nose at you and the west, marched into Crimea and took sovereign Ukrainian territory by force. In a city where my family and I lived for a year, Odessa, 42 people were killed on May 4th. Putin's actions are reminiscent of the Cold War and many analysts (not in your White House, of course) are convinced he wants to return Russia to her former glory—by force.
And this week, even as you proclaimed with the tumblrites, with your head fully entrenched in sand, that the world was the safest it has ever been, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group known as The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, (ISIS) is taking over Iraq one city at time. This group is so violent, that even Al-Qaeda considers them radical! You were so eager to be the anti-Bush and get our troops out of Iraq, that you left the nation vulnerable. Whether for or against the Iraq war, one thing is now clear: it was for naught.
Reports of Iraqi policemen laying down their arms and deserting are a clear sign we had not finished the job. Today we see thousands of Iraqi soldiers have been executed by fellow Muslims. How in the world did your intelligence agencies not see this coming?
I could go on and talk about North Korea, Cuba, the three teens kidnapped by Hamas this week in Israel, and the spread of Islamic nationalism in Africa, but I know you are enjoying your vacation and don't want to bring you too close to the depressing reality, lest it affect your golf game.
My focus is on ministry. I write about faith. But every now and then, something happens in which I feel compelled to use this platform to speak out.
Your administration sought to befriend the Muslim world. It earned you a million bucks and a trophy, but resulted in zero change on the ground. In fact, the world is in its most perilous moment in history. Never has there been so many radicals on earth with weapons of this magnitude.Yes, quite the opposite of your utopian view.
With the handing over of five terrorists for a deserter at best, and a traitor at worst, (without any counsel from Congress or the intelligence community), you have set the stage for American travelers—innocent men, women and children—to be kidnapped and held for ransom by the most vicious, evil people on earth. Two weeks after you released these killers, an American (and two Israelis) have been kidnapped by Hamas. While they may have been wanting to kidnap Israelis for some time, I can imagine that there were encouraged by your reckless, autonomous behavior.
No, Mr. President. You are dead wrong. The world is not the least violent it has ever been—it is the most violent. It is powder keg ready to explode—and this is your foreign affairs legacy.
Ron Cantoris the director of Messiah's Mandate International in Israel, a Messianic ministry dedicated to taking the message of Jesus from Israel to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Cantor also travels internationally teaching on the Jewish roots of the New Testament. He serves on the pastoral team of Tiferet Yeshua, a Hebrew-speaking congregation in Tel Aviv. His newest book is Identity Theft. Follow him at @RonSCantor on Twitter.
