Yom Kippur War revelations underline gravity of Iran dilemma

Yom Kippur War revelations underline gravity of Iran dilemma facing Israel today

Testimonies from 1973 declassified on Thursday show decision-makers’ staggering incompetence and arrogance. Israelis can only hope lessons were truly learned

By Mitch GinsburgSeptember 21, 2012

Times of Israel

 

A wrecked Israeli tank during the early days of the Yom Kippur War (Photo credit: Wikimedia

 

The Yom Kippur War, in Israel, marked the end of the age of innocence.

 

Generals, previously untouchable, were stripped of their commands. The prime minister was ousted from office by popular demand. The tremors of the debacle eventually pried open the grip of the Labor-led left and, for the first time in the history of Zionism, ushered in an ideologically right-wing leadership.

 

Thursday’s revelations from previously classified testimony to the Agranat Commission, which investigated the war, fill in the already grim picture of October 1973 — of arrogance tinged with ineptitude at the very top, which produced, for some, a lack of faith in leaders that endures to this day.

 

The commander of the northern front, Yitzhak Hofi, testified to the Agranat Commission that despite the evidence of an enormous armored presence near the border, and despite explicit information passed on to him from the command’s chief intelligence officer, he was told, just days before the war, that the chance of war was low and that the reports were insignificant. When he called military intelligence headquarters, Hofi told the commission, none of the relevant officers was on duty. They were at home.

 

Only at six in the morning on Yom Kippur, October 6, was he told that war would break out and even then the stated time was six in the evening rather than the actual two in the afternoon.

 

Alfred Eini, an aide to Mossad chief Zvi Zamir, shocked commission members when he said that Zamir apparently “didn’t get” the urgency of a midnight cable from the Mossad’s man in Cairo. He told the five commission members – two former IDF chiefs of staff, two sitting Supreme Court justices and one state comptroller – that “never before” had the man asked for an urgent personal meeting with the head of the Mossad and that Zamir seemed drowsy, even though it was the Mossad that had been warning of imminent war for days.

 

Finally, the prime minister’s military attaché told the commission that the Mossad’s opinion of imminent all-out war on two fronts was never brought to him in an explicit manner; on account of inter-agency bureaucracy, it was buried in a sheath of material.

 

These are details that flesh out the picture of what Abraham Rabinovich, author of “The Yom Kippur War”, called “an existential earthquake” — a war that claimed 2,688 Israeli lives and served as “a standing reminder of the consequences of shallow thinking and arrogance.”

 

Rabinovich, in his superb reportage of the war, spread the blame around: from military intelligence head Eli Zeira to Prime Minister Golda Meir to southern front commander Shmuel “Gordish” Gonen – a tragic figure who was deemed unworthy of further command positions and exiled himself to central Africa.

 

Today, though, with Israel facing the looming challenge of a nuclear Iran, Israeli political and military leaders seem split: many of the military men look at 1973 and point to the failures of leadership; many of the politicians, certainly the defense minister, have their time clocks set on 1967, when the need for preemptive action trumped staunch American resistance.

 

Back in 1973, Israel’s current Defense Minister Ehud Barak returned from studies in the United States to command a tank battalion in the Yom Kippur War. He fought in the southern front and even helped rescue the trapped paratroopers in one of the deadliest and most senseless battles of the war, in what is known as the Chinese Farm.

 

When Barak looks at today’s reality, and especially at an Iran closing in on the bomb, he evidently focuses not on the appalling incompetence of 1973 but on the heroics of the late spring of 1967. Numerous recently retired security chiefs have made plain their opposition to preemptive action in Iran, and some of the current security chiefs are widely reported to share the view.

 

But Barak has repeatedly indicated that preemptive action now, however risky and complex, is far preferable to grappling with a nuclear Iran later on. Several months ago, according to Channel 10 reporter Alon Ben-David, he told the IDF General Staff that “with this kind of General Staff we never would have won in the Six-Day War.”

 

Meir Dagan, the former head of the Mossad, by contrast, has acknowledged that he views today’s challenges through the lens of the Yom Kippur War. He told Ilana Dayan in an unprecedented television interview in which he openly aired his disagreement with a sitting prime minister — terming a preemptive strike against Iran at this time a disaster — that he was speaking from his “formative experience” in 1973.

 

Dagan fought on the eastern side of the Suez Canal 39 years ago. He was part of a small commando team in Ariel Sharon’s division that hunted down Egyptian commandos on Israeli soil. The lack of coherence from the leadership, both before and during the war, sharply increased the number of Israeli dead. The leadership emitted “a sense of complete confidence,” Dagan said bitterly. “We will know everything. We know, there won’t be a war.”

 

His primary lesson of the war, Dagan said, was that just because “people were elected it does not render them utterly immune from making mistakes.”

 

Avigdor Kahalani, a decorated IDF veteran who commanded an armored battalion on the Golan Heights in the Yom Kippur War, repelling a far bigger Syrian force with a hastily assembled tank unit amid battlefield chaos, said Thursday that the chain of failure that so afflicted the Israeli leadership in 1973 simply “could not happen today.” Sufficient safeguards had long since been instituted, Kahalani said, to ensure that vital channels of communication worked effectively and that critical evidence could not be overlooked.

 

Israelis can only fervently hope that this is indeed the case, as the country’s leaders weigh fateful decisions on Iran — their mindsets shaped both by the preemptive successes of 1967, and the hubris and incompetence of 1973.

 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/yom-kippur-war-revelations-underline-the-gravity-of-the-iran-dilemma-facing-israels-leaders-today/

 

 

Rabbis Laud Romney: 'Stated Halakhah on Land of Israel'

Rabbis Laud Romney: 'Stated Halakhah on Land of Israel'

Pikuach Nefesh rabbis happy with Mitt Romney's "sober" view regarding conceding land to the Arabs.

 

 

By Gil Ronen, Israel National News

First Publish: 9/23/2012

Pikuach Nefesh, the Rabbinical Congress for Peace, has sent a congratulatory message to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, praising him for accurately stating the opinion of Jewish Halakhah regarding the Land of Israel.

The rabbis noted that during his visit to Israel, Romney received a Halakhic opinion signed by 350 rabbis, which states that any negotiations for Israeli retreat from land will not bring peace, but rather increase danger of bloodshed.

A week ago, a press release from Pikuach Nefesh noted, Romney made a statement at a private event that appeared to echo this opinion:



"Some might say, ‘Well, just let the Palestinians have the West Bank, and have security, and set up a separate nation for the Palestinians," Romney said. "And then come a couple of thorny questions. I don’t have a map here to look at the geography, but the border between Israel and the West Bank is obviously right there, right next to Tel Aviv, which is the financial capital, the industrial capital of Israel, the center of Israel… And of course the Iranians would want to do through the West Bank exactly what they did through Lebanon, what they did in Gaza, which is, the Iranians would want to bring missiles and armament into the West Bank and potentially threaten Israel."

"Your words express a realistic approach that a Palestinian state would hurt the interests of the U.S. as it would Israel's," the rabbis wrote Romney this week. "This is a true, sober vision that finally removes the smokescreen from the false peace embodied by the idea of two states. These things were stated in the immortal Torah of Israel and unfortunately have been proven accurate over and over again in the last few decades."

The rabbis added a message referencing Yom Kippur – and possibly the upcoming U.S. elections: "In these days, when the Creator of the world sits in judgment of all the world's denizens, surely your important statement will assist you in being written and signed for much blessing and success in all that you do."

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/160232

 

 

 

Yom Kippur - starts sundown Sept. 13, 2013 (Jewish New Year 5774)

Yom Kippur - 2013 

(It's the Jewish Year 5774)

Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur, 

by Maurycy Gottlieb (1878)

(The following is from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, followed by a piece from Feasts of The Lord website, with a Messianic understanding.) Steve Martin, Editor

    

Yom Kippur
Official name	Hebrew: יוֹם כִּפּוּר or יום הכיפורים
Observed by	Jews
Type	Jewish
Significance	Soul-searching and repentance
Date	10th day of Tishrei
2012 date	sunset, September 25 – nightfall, September 26
2013 date	sunset, September 13 – nightfall, September 14
Observances	Fasting, prayer, abstaining from physical pleasures, refraining from work

Yom Kippur (Hebrew: יוֹם כִּפּוּר‎‎, IPA: [ˈjom kiˈpuʁ], or יום הכיפורים), also known as Day of Atonement, is the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue services. Yom Kippur completes the annual period known in Judaism as the High Holy Days or Yamim Nora'im ("Days of Awe").

Yom Kippur is the tenth day of the month of Tishrei. According to Jewish tradition, God inscribes each person's fate for the coming year into a book, the Book of Life, on Rosh Hashanah, and waits until Yom Kippur to "seal" the verdict. During the Days of Awe, a Jew tries to amend his or her behavior and seek forgiveness for wrongs done against God (bein adam leMakom) and against other human beings (bein adam lechavero). The evening and day of Yom Kippur are set aside for public and private petitions and confessions of guilt (Vidui). At the end of Yom Kippur, one considers oneself absolved by God.

The Yom Kippur prayer service includes several unique aspects. One is the actual number of prayer services. Unlike a regular day, which has three prayer services (Ma'ariv, the evening prayer; Shacharit, the morning prayer; and Mincha, the afternoon prayer), or a Shabbat or Yom Tov, which have four prayer services (Ma'ariv; Shacharit; Mussaf, the additional prayer; and Mincha), Yom Kippur has five prayer services (Ma'ariv; Shacharit; Musaf; Mincha; and Ne'ilah, the closing prayer). The prayer services also include private and public confessions of sins (Vidui) and a unique prayer dedicated to the special Yom Kippur avodah (service) of the Kohen Gadol in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

As one of the most culturally significant Jewish holidays, Yom Kippur is observed by many secular Jews who may not observe other holidays. Many secular Jews attend synagogue on Yom Kippur—for many secular Jews the High Holy Days are the only recurring times of the year in which they attend synagogue^[1]—causing synagogue attendance to soar.

(The following is from the website: http://feastsofthelord.com)

Messianic Understanding

G-d gave this ceremony of the casting of lots during Yom Kippur to teach us how He will judge the nations of the world prior to the Messianic age known as the Millennium. The nations of the world will be judged according to how they treated the Jewish people. Those nations who mistreated the Jews will be goat nations and they will go into the left hand. Those nations that stood beside the Jewish people will be sheep nations and will enter into the Messianic kingdom or the Millennium. Yeshua taught us about this in Matthew 25:31-46.

Yeshua during His first coming was a type of the goat marked La Adonai. Yeshua was a sin offering to us as G-d laid upon Him the sins of the whole world (Isaiah [Yeshayahu] 53:1-6; 1 Corinthians 15:3; Galatians 1:3-4; Hebrews 2:17; 1 John [Yochanan] 2:2; 4:10).

In the ceremony of the two goats, the two goats were considered as one offering. A crimson sash was tied around the horns of the goat marked azazel. At the appropriate time, the goat was led to a steep cliff in the wilderness and shoved off the cliff. In connection with this ceremony, an interesting tradition arose that is mentioned in the Mishnah. A portion of the crimson sash was attached to the door of the temple (Beit HaMikdash) before the goat was sent into the wilderness. The sash would turn from red to white as the goat met its end, signaling to the people that G-d had accepted their sacrifices and their sins were forgiven. This was based upon Isaiah (Yeshayahu) 1:18. As stated earlier, the Mishnah tells us that 40 years before the destruction of the temple (Beit HaMikdash), the sash stopped turning white. This, of course, was when Yeshua was slain on.


Yeshua is the High Priest (Cohen HaGadol) of G-d (Hebrews 3:1). In John (Yochanan) 20:17, Yeshua said, "Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father...." These were the same words that the priest spoke before he ascended the altar. Yeshua can be seen as Priest by looking at some other Scriptures. In Numbers (Bamidbar) 19:11, if you touched a dead body, you were unclean for seven days. After being unclean, purification took place on the eighth day. This is the meaning behind what happened in John (Yochanan) 20:24-27.

Rather than wearing his usual robe and colorful garments (described in Exodus [Shemot] 28 and Leviticus [Vayikra] 8:1-8), Aaron was commanded to wear special garments of linen (Leviticus [Vayikra] 16:4). Yeshua was seen wearing the same thing in Revelation 1:13-15. Daniel also saw this and described it in Daniel 10:5-6.

By slaying the animals at the altar and applying their blood to the altar, the garments of the high priest became very bloody and G-d instructed them to be washed (Leviticus [Vayikra] 6:27). However, on Yom Kippur G-d declared in Isaiah (Yeshayahu) 1:18, as it is written, "...though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow...." Spiritually speaking, a white garment represents purity and the absence of sin (Revelation 7:9,13-14; 19:8).

In Numbers (Bamidbar) 15:37-41, fringes (tzi-tzit) were put on the hem of the garments to remind the people of the Torah or G-d's Word. Consider the woman with the issue of blood (she was unclean) coming to Yeshua (the High Priest of G-d) to touch the hem of His garment and be healed (Matthew [Mattityahu] 9:20-22). The children of Israel were instructed by G-d to wear the garments Yeshua had on in Matthew 9:20-22. These garments were instructed by G-d in the Torah to be worn as just stated in Numbers (Bamidbar) 15:37-41. When the woman with the issue of blood touched the hem (tzi-tzit) of Yeshua's garment in Matthew 9:20-22, it was a picture given to us by G-d to communicate to us that she believed Yeshua's word by faith (emunah) and was made well because of her faith.

Yeshua's Second Coming and Yom Kippur

If you examine the Scriptures concerning the second coming of Yeshua back to earth, when He will set His foot upon the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4), you will find that it uses Yom Kippur terminology. Here are a few examples.

The first example is in Isaiah (Yeshayahu) 52:13-15. First, let us examine Isaiah 52:13-14 so we can identify that this is referring to Yeshua the Messiah. Then, we will look at Isaiah 52:15.

In Isaiah (Yeshayahu) 52:13-14 it is written:

Behold, My servant shall deal prudently [the servant refers to the Messiah], He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. [The New Covenant (Brit Hadashah) references to this include Acts 2:32-35; 5:30-31; and Philippians 2:9-11.] As many were astonied at thee; His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men (Isaiah [Yeshayahu] 52:13-14).

This description of Yeshua, the suffering Messiah, is drastically different than how Yeshua is portrayed in Hollywood.

This description depicts a lamb going to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7). Isaiah (Yeshayahu) 52:14 depicts a man so marred that He did not resemble a man. Furthermore, Isaiah (Yeshayahu) 50:6 says that His beard was ripped out. Psalm (Tehillim) 22:14,17 says His bones were out of joint and that He was naked before the peering eyes of men. They even bit him (Psalm 22:13).

The Romans used a whip with nine strands, and each strand had bone, glass, and sharp metal in it. The purpose of the whip was to strip away the flesh so the organs would hang out of the body. Psalm 22:16 says they also pierced His hands and feet. Psalm 22:18 says they gambled for His garments. Recognizing that Isaiah 52:13-14 is speaking about Yeshua during His first coming to earth, Isaiah 52:15 will speak about His second coming.

In Isaiah (Yeshayahu) 52:15 it is written:

"So shall He sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at Him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider."

The phrase, "So shall He sprinkle many nations" is a reference to the sprinkling of the blood on the mercy seat of G-d by the high priest during Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16:14). This is also referred to in Leviticus 1:5,11; 3:2,8,13; 4:6,17; 7:2.

The garments of the high priest were covered with blood after he had performed this task (Leviticus 6:27). After this, G-d accepted the sacrifice, and as the high priest hung out his garments, a miracle took place. His garments turned from bloodstained red to white.

G-d was saying in this that He had forgiven their sins and this forgiveness was shown by the garment (symbolic of man's life), being sprinkled upon by blood (the blood of Yeshua), Yeshua forgiving man's sins, and thus his garment turning white. Isaiah the prophet wrote, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isaiah 1:18).

Yeshua's garment went from being stained from His blood when He died upon the tree to being pure white today. White garments represent righteousness before G-d (Revelation 3:4-5; 7:9,13-14). Yeshua is described this way in Revelation 1:13-14. Yeshua is our High Priest (Hebrews 2:17; 3:1; 4:14; 9:11). Yeshua sprinkled His blood for us (1 Peter [Kefa] 1:2).

Moses (Moshe) led the children of Israel out of Egypt by keeping the Passover and sprinkling the blood as found in the Torah and referenced in Hebrews 11:24-28. In fact, G-d promised to sprinkle Israel when they returned to the land of Israel from the Diaspora. This can be seen in Ezekiel 36:24-27.

In Isaiah 52:15, when it says that Yeshua would sprinkle the nations, it refers to what the high priest did on Yom Kippur on the mercy seat of G-d so G-d would forgive the sins of the people. Yeshua came as a prophet in His first coming; now He is the High Priest and is coming back as a King. Isaiah 63:1-3 describes the second coming of Yeshua, and verse 3 talks about His garments being sprinkled with blood. Once again this describes Yeshua, the High Priest coming back to earth on Yom Kippur.

In Joel (Yoel) 2:15-16 it is written:

Blow the trumpet in Zion [the trumpet (shofar) spoken of here refers to the trumpet ushering in the Messianic Kingdom, the last trump that is blown on Rosh HaShanah] sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly [this speaks of the fast associated with Yom Kippur]: gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet (Joel [Yoel] 2:15-16).

Please refer back to the previous chapter on the wedding that takes place on Rosh HaShanah and the honeymoon. In this passage in Joel, we can see that the seven years of the tribulation, known as the birthpangs of the Messiah or Chevlai shel Mashiach, are over and the Messiah is coming back with His followers to go to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

In Joel 2:17 it is written:

Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar [once again, this speaks of an event that took place annually, the priest ministering in the Holy of Holies], and let them say, Spare Thy people, O Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? (Joel [Yoel] 2:17)

What is being communicated here by the phrase "spare Thy people"? For the answer we must turn to Zechariah 12 and 14:1-9. In these passages, we can see Yeshua coming back after the birthpangs of the Messiah (tribulation), and Jerusalem (Yerushalayim) about to be under siege. Yeshua saves Jerusalem (Yerushalayim). His feet are placed on the Mount of Olives. There is a great earthquake, and the Messianic Kingdom comes in full power. There is no nighttime anymore, and the L-rd will rule the whole earth. At this time, the gates of Heaven are closed. The last Yom Kippur ceremony is called neilah, the closing of the gates, and is the concluding ceremony to Yom Kippur. However, this is not the rehearsal (miqra), but the real thing. At this point, it is too late to make a decision to accept Yeshua the Messiah into your life.

Yeshua spoke of this same event in Matthew (Mattityahu) 24:27-31. In Matthew 24:31, the trumpet that is being blown is called by Yeshua the great trumpet. This is the trumpet that is blown on Yom Kippur known as the Shofar HaGadol. This trumpet will usher the return of Yeshua to rule as Messiah ben David during the Messianic age.

The themes of the fall feasts are numerous and are especially meaningful to the believer in Yeshua. The festivals and the entire Tanach (Old Testament) are fulfilled and speak about the Messiah (Psalm [Tehillim] 40:7; Luke 24:44-47). Understanding the fall festivals will enrich our lives and walk (halacha) as believers in the Messiah. The final fall festival, Sukkot, is no different. The festivals of the L-rd are fulfilled in Yeshua the Messiah while at the same time revealing tremendous insight on how to live for Yeshua on a daily basis. Baruch Ha Shem! Blessed be His Name!

http://feastsofthelord.com/ss/live/index.php?action=getpage&sid=204&pid=2192

Yom Kippur 100 Years Ago -- Or More

Yom Kippur 100 Years Ago -- Or More:
Photographic Treasures from the Library of Congress
from Jerusalem, New York and a French Battlefield

(Israel Daily Picture website)



Jews at the Kotel on Yom Kippur (circa 1904) See analysis of
the graffiti on the wall for dating this picture. The graffiti on
the Wall are memorial notices (not as one reader suggested
applied to the photo later).

 Soon Jews around the world will commemorate Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. For many Jews in the Land of Israel over the centuries the day meant praying at the Western Wall, the remnant of King Herod's retaining wall of the Temple complex destroyed in 70 AD.

Several readers commented on the intermingling of men and women in these historic pictures.

It was not by choice.

The Turkish and British rulers of Jerusalem imposed restrictions on the Jewish worshippers, prohibiting chairs, forbidding screens to divide the men and women, and even banning the blowing of the shofar at the end of the Yom Kippur service.

View this video, Echoes of a Shofar, to see the story of young men who defied British authorities between 1930 and 1947 and blew the shofar at the Kotel.



Another view of the Western Wall on Yom Kippur. Note the
various groups of worshippers: The Ashkenazic Hassidim wearing
the fur shtreimel hats in the foreground, the Sephardic Jews
wearing the fezzes in the center, and the women in the back
wearing white shawls. (circa 1904)

For the 19 years that Jordan administered the Old City, 1948-1967, no Jews were permitted to pray at the Kotel. 

The Library of Congress collection contains many pictures of Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall over the last 150 years.

After the 1967 war, the Western Wall plaza was enlarged and large areas of King Herod's wall have been exposed. Archaeologists have also uncovered major subterranean tunnels -- hundreds of meters long -- that are now open to visitors to Jerusalem.

Photos of Yom Kippur in New York 105 Years Ago

The Library of Congress Archives also contain historic photos of Jewish celebration of the High Holidays in New York. Some of them were posted here before Rosh Hashanna. Here are two more:

Original caption: Men and boys standing in
front of synagogue on Yom Kippur (Bain
News Service, circa 1907)



Worshippers in front of synagogue (Bain
News Service, 1907)

And a Picture of Jews in the Prussian Army Worshipping on Yom Kippur 140 Years Ago

We were a little surprised to find this picture of a lithograph in the Library of Congress archives. The caption reads, "Service on the Day of Atonement by the Israelite soldiers of the Army before Metz 1870." No other information is provided.

Kestenbaum & Company, an auctioneer in Judaica, describes the lithograph in their catalogue:

This lithograph depicts the Kol Nidre service performed on Yom Kippur 1870 for Jewish soldiers in the Prussian army stationed near Metz (Alsace region) during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.
The Germans had occupied Metz by August of 1870, however were unable to capture the town's formidable fortress, where the remaining French troops had sought refuge. During the siege, Yom Kippur was marked while hostilities still continued, as depicted in the lithograph.
 

Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut, a scholar and Reform Jewish leader who passed away at age 99 earlier this year, provided more facts about the picture. In fact, he called it a "fraud."

In Eight Decades: The Selected Writings of W. Gunther Plaut. In a chapter entitled "The Yom Kippur that Never Was, A Pious Pictoral Fraud" he wrote:

Of all the things in my grandfather's house, I remember most vividly a large print. It was entitled "Service on the Day of Atonement by the Israelite soldiers before Metz 1870." Later I was to learn that this print hung in many Jewish homes.... It was reproduced on postcards, on cloth, and on silk scarves. The basic theme was the same: in an open field before Metz, hundreds of Jewish soldiers were shown at prayer.

Rabbi Plaut cites a participant in the service who reported:

A considerable difficulty arose in relation to the place for the services. Open air services were deemed impossible for Tuesday night because of the darkness and were ruled out for Wednesday because of the obvious reasons [it was a battlefield].... My immediate neighbour was willing to grant me the use of his room so that the service took place in our two adjoining rooms.

Another participant in the unusual Yom Kippur service reported, according to Plaut:

Of the 71 Jewish soldiers in the Corps some 60 had appeared. Amongst them were several physicians, a few members of the military government, all of them joyously moved to celebrate Yom Kippur. The place of prayer consisted of two small rooms.

http://www.israeldailypicture.com/2012/09/yom-kippur-100-years-ago-or-more.html
 

 

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani Writes Moving Letter of “Gratitude” after Release

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani Writes Moving Letter of “Gratitude” after Release

 

Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani wrote the following letter to all those who supported him and his stand for Christ, “the cause that I defend,” following his release after nearly 3 years of illegal imprisonment in Iran for his faith.

Not to us, LORD, not to us, but to Your Name be glory, for Your faithfulness, for Your loyalty…. Psalm 115:1

Salaam! (Peace be upon you!)
I glorify and give grace to the Lord with all my heart. I am grateful for all the blessings that He gave me during my whole life. I am especially grateful for His goodness and divine protection that characterized the time of my detention.

I also want to express my gratitude towards those who, all around the world, have worked for my cause, or should I say the cause that I defend. I want to express my gratitude to all of those who have supported me, openly or in complete secrecy. You are all very dear to my heart. May the Lord bless you and give you His perfect and sovereign Grace.

Indeed I have been put to the test, the test of faith which is, according to the Scriptures “more precious than perishable gold.” But I have never felt loneliness, I was all the time aware of the fact that it wasn’t a solitary battle, for I have felt all the energy and support of those who obeyed their conscience and fought for the promotion of the justice and the rights of all human beings.

          Thanks to these efforts, I have now the enormous joy to be by my wonderful wife and my   hildren. I am grateful for these people through whom God has been working. All of this is very encouraging.

During that period, I had the opportunity to experience in a marvelous way the Scripture that says: “Indeed, as the sufferings of Christ abound for us, our encouragement abound through Christ.” He has comforted my family and has given them the means to face that difficult situation. In His Grace, He provided for their spiritual and material needs, taking away from me a heavy weight.

The Lord has wonderfully provided through the trial, allowing me to face the challenges that were in front of me. As the Scriptures says, “He will not allow us to be tested beyond our strength….”

Despite the fact that I have been found guilty of apostasy according to a certain reading of the Shar’ia, I am grateful that He gave the leaders of the country, the wisdom to break that judgment taking into account other facts of that same Shar’ia. It is obvious that the defenders of the Iranian right and the legal experts have made an important effort to enforce the law and the right. I want to thank those who have defended the right until the end.

I am happy to live in a time where we can take a critical and constructive look to the past. This has allowed the writing of universal texts aiming at the promotion of the rights of man. Today, we are debtors of these efforts provided by dear people who have worked for the respect of human dignity and have passed on to us these universal significant texts.

I am also debtor of those who have faithfully passed on the Word of God, that very Word who makes us heirs of God.

Before ending, I want to express a prayer for the establishment of an unending and universal peace, so that the will of the Father be done on earth as it is in heaven. Indeed, everything passes, but the Word of God, source of all peace, will last eternally.

May the grace and mercy of God be multiplied to you. Amen!

Youcef Nadarkhani
8 September 2012

Pastor Youcef’s letter (translated into English through Present Truth Ministries) was written the day he was released from an Iranian prison less than two weeks ago. Pastor Youcef had been convicted of apostasy (converting to Christianity) and sentenced to execution by hanging. He was imprisoned for 1062 days, just under 3 years, in violation of Iranian and international law that protects religious liberty.

Pastor Youcef’s story reached millions around the world, and the international outcry for his release greatly impacted his case. The ACLJ’s Tweet for Youcef campaign reached over 3.1 million Twitter accounts worldwide with news about his imprisonment. We will continue fighting for and raising awareness about the hundreds of thousands of people facing persecution for their faith around the world, including hundreds who have been arrested in Iran for their Christian faith.

Join people of faith around the world this weekend celebrating Pastor Youcef’s release, praying for his and his family’s safety, and praying for all those facing persecution for their faith. Visit 48HoursforFreedom.org to learn how you can take action.


http://aclj.org/iran/pastor-youcef-nadarkhani-letter-gratitude-after-release

 

Israel's Right praises US Republican presidential candidate

Romney excites settlers by shunning 2-state solution

By GIL HOFFMAN, Jerusalem Post

09/20/2012

Israel's Right praises US Republican presidential candidate after he is filmed mocking Palestinian interest in peace; Peace Now: Romney, Netanyahu both backed by extremist coalition of evangelicals, Sheldon Adelson.

Photo: Jim Young / Reuters

US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney found himself in the heat of a decades-old political debate in Israel Wednesday after he was taped criticizing a proposed two-state solution and mocking the Palestinian interest in achieving peace with the Jewish state.

Romney’s comments at a Boca Raton fund-raiser about peace being “almost unthinkable to accomplish” were praised by the Israeli Right and residents of Judea and Samaria, and slammed by the Left.



“The Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace,” Romney said in a leaked video of the event. “I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway for political purposes, committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel, and these thorny issues, and I say there’s just no way.”

“And so what you do is you say you move things along the best way you can. You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that it’s going to remain an unsolved problem,” he continued.

 

Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria chairman Dani Dayan said Romney’s viewpoint had become more common in recent years among international figures, who have started admitting publicly and not just privately that they do not believe there will be a two-state solution and are seeking other alternatives.

“He described the reality that anyone with eyes can see,” Dayan said. “More and more people around the world realize it. After 20 years of the Oslo diplomatic process, anyone who thinks two states is still possible doesn’t know what he is talking about.”

While praising Romney, Dayan issued surprising optimism about the Middle East policies in a potential second term of US President Barack Obama.

“Romney understands the Middle East better than Obama, but I think the Obama of 2012 is not the Obama of 2008,” Dayan said.

“I think Obama also understands that a deal cannot be reached, even though he might wish it wasn’t true. So even though I appreciate that Romney is saying such things out loud, I am not panicking about an Obama victory.”

By contrast, Peace Now head Yariv Oppenheimer expressed confidence that if Romney would win, he would follow a long line of politicians whose campaign promises and rhetoric do not match their actions when they take office.

“Romney represents [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu and the Israeli Right, who are trying to remove the effort to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the international agenda,” Oppenheimer said.

“There is a clear connection between the Republicans and Netanyahu, who are backed by an extremist coalition of Christian evangelicals and [casino magnate] Sheldon Adelson.

“This has made the Republicans turn their back on the traditional American support for two states for two peoples, but candidates before elections and after elections are often not the same,” he said.
Asked about reports of Israeli leftists who fear a continued stalemate in the peace process if Obama is re-elected, Oppenheimer said they would still prefer Obama to Romney, despite the president’s mistakes in the diplomatic arena.

“Leftists who oppose Netanyahu can’t back Romney because of his strong connections to the prime minister,” Oppenheimer said. “With key universal non-diplomatic issues like abortion and same-sex marriage also decided in this race, the dichotomy between the Left’s views in Israel and the US is clear.”

http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=285616

 

The 7000 year plan of God

Light rail causes 41% increase in J’lem foot traffic

Light rail causes 41% increase in J’lem foot traffic

By MELANIE LIDMAN

09/19/2012, Jerusalem Post

Municipality survey: "Dramatic rise" seen following opening of rail line, 1 m. people expected to visit Old City during Succot.

Photo: Marc Israel Sellem

Just ahead of Jerusalem’s busiest period for visitors from Yom Kippur through Succot, the municipality has released a new survey pointing to a large increase in the amount of foot traffic in the major downtown areas.

According to the report, since the light rail began running, there has been an overall increase of 41 percent in the number of pedestrians, from 298,000 visitors in July 2011, the month before the rail started service, to 422,000 visitors in August 2012.

The survey was carried out by video cameras at 17 different points in the downtown area that counted the number of pedestrians from 7:00 am to midnight.

 

The largest increase was Nahalat Shiva near Zion Square, which saw an increase of 87% in the number of visitors, from 55,000 in July 2011 to 106,000 in August 2012.

The foot traffic in the Mahaneh Yehuda market increased by 38%, from 121,000 to 166,000, and the “triangle area” formed by King George Avenue, Jaffa Road and Ben-Yehuda Street increased by 34%, from 79,000 to 106,000.

“There is no Jerusalemite that doesn’t get excited to see that the city center is again bustling and active after it has been fading for many years,” said Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, in response to the survey.

Nadav Meroz, head of the Jerusalem Transportation Master Plan, highlighted the fact that the light rail is still relatively new and has not yet reached full capacity.

“There were those that were concerned that the train would hurt the number of visitors in the center of the city, but today we see that the phenomenon is reversed and this enormous investment is beginning to bear fruit,” he said.

Meroz added that in other European cities, especially in France and Germany, the introduction of the light rail led to a similar revival of the downtown area.

Downtown business owners agreed that the light rail had brought a dramatic increase in foot traffic.
“They don’t have to do a survey, you can see it with your eyes!” said Malekan Kumars, the owner of the Joy dress shop next to the Jaffa Central light rail stop. “Jaffa Road never looked this way, and in a good way,” he said.

Kumars added that the accessibility had certainly brought him more customers, including Arabs from east Jerusalem who now make up about 20% of his customer base, compared with practically no Arab customers before the rail. But the business owners aren’t the only ones benefiting from the increased traffic: since the train started, rent for stores along the road has increased about 20%, said Kumars, a senior member of the Jaffa Road Business Committee.

Avraham Levy, owner of a 35-year-old vegetable stall at the shuk who sits on the Mahaneh Yehuda Council, agreed that he also saw a much higher amount of foot traffic there. But he said that while the light rail has brought in more visitors, it made it harder for residents to do their daily shopping at the market.

“It’s tourism, they’re not coming to take bags of tomatoes and cucumbers,” he said. “So many people come and say ‘it’s beautiful,’ there are a lot of tourists, but economically for us it’s nothing.”
Levy reasoned that the coffee shops and gift shops that have sprung up in the market are better able to capture this demographic.

“For Jerusalem in general, [the light rail] is good, but the problem is how to bring it to the small businesses,” he said.

In order to accommodate the train, the main route to the shuk, Agrippas Street, was closed to private cars due to the increased number of buses - a move Levy said has severely impacted their customer base, since it has made parking near the shuk more difficult.

The light rail will be put to the test over the next few weeks, as more than 1 million visitors from Israel and abroad are expected to flood the Old City over Yom Kippur and Succot.

The Old City will be closed to private cars as it is the rest of the year. However, parts of Highway 1 and Hebron Road leading to the Old City will also be closed to private vehicles to deal with the increase in buses – though there will be extra shuttles from Teddy Stadium and Shmuel Hanavi Street. Additionally, the light rail will run at intervals of 5 to 8 minutes all day, not just during rush hour.

http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=285586

 

The 2 Spies: What Were You Doing Today?

                                            IDF on Golan Heights

The 2 Spies: What Were You Doing Today?: On Wednesday, while The 2 Spies went to work packing up our house, while the children went to school, and Mommies went grocery shopping.... ...

CNN to be cut from Israeli cable

CNN to be cut from Israeli cable

Thursday, September 20, 2012 | Ryan Jones, Israel Today

 

 

Israel and CNN has their differences during the opening years of the latest Palestinian terrorist uprising, when the global news network repeatedly broadcast openly biased reports. But CNN hung on and remained a staple of English-language news consumption in the Jewish state.

That is about to change. Israeli satellite cable company YES has announced that from December 31, 2012, it will no longer broadcast CNN due to the high licensing cost and low approval ratings among Israeli customers.

Israel's other cable company, HOT, already cut CNN last year over a similar contract pricing dispute.

As in the US and Europe, news networks like Fox News, Sky News and the BBC regularly score higher with Israeli viewers than does CNN. And that is despite the fact that Israelis have to pay extra for Fox as a "premium" channel, whereas CNN was offered with the basic cable packages.

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23396/Default.aspx?ref=newsletter-20120920

 

Latin America’s Jewish communities flourish, despite anti-Semitism and education challenges

Venezuela is the grim exception, in a region now home to an estimated 500,000 Jews

By Diego Melamed, Times of Israel

September 18, 2012

 

 

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — When the Sao Paulo Hebraica Sports Club and Community Center in Brazil opened the Aleph School earlier this month, it welcomed 450 students and had 120 more on the waiting list for next year.

Hebraica, which is similar to an American Jewish community center, has reached 24,000 members and has a $30 million budget. Meanwhile, Sao Paulo’s oldest synagogue, Temple Beth El, recently dedicated a new building, leaving the original one to become the Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo.

 

In Panama, the Jewish community has grown by 70 percent in the past 10 years. The 8,000-member community in that period has seen a rise from three to 10 b’nai mitzva a week.

 

In Argentina, the number of children in Jewish preschool programs has soared by nearly 1,000 — from 3,952 in 2005 to 4,914 in 2012.

 

Nearly wherever one looks, Jewish life is growing in Latin America, which is now home to an estimated 500,000 Jews. The growth comes as the region continues to transform economically as part of a social evolution following the end of military dictatorships that ruled many countries into the 1980s.

 

From 2000 to 2010, poverty in the region dropped from 44 percent to 32 percent of the population, according to the Economic Committee for Latin American and the Caribbean, or CEPAL. In large part it is because of the increase in jobs that has come from rising prices for the region’s commodities and natural resources, such as copper, oil, soybeans, meat, fruits and other agricultural products.

And more growth is on the horizon.

 

Latin America will contribute to global growth more than Europe in the next seven years, according to CEPAL, which released a study in August that said the 2013-2020 period “will be a low-growth cycle for industrialized economies while it will display dynamism in emerging economies.”

Despite the growth, challenges remain for many Jewish communities.

‘We have strong signals of a new flourishing situation, but we also will still have a variety of problems, like the poor knowledge about Judaism in our members and some type of hidden anti-Semitism in the general society’

“We have strong signals of a new flourishing situation, but we also will still have a variety of problems, like the poor knowledge about Judaism in our members and some type of hidden anti-Semitism in the general society,” said Alberto Milkewitz, director of the Isaraelite Federation of Sao Paulo.

 

But that hasn’t dimmed optimism among Jewish leaders.

 

Some 83 percent of approxiately 400 of the region’s Jewish leaders polled recently by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee believe that conditions in their countries are good enough to further develop Jewish life. Only 10 percent reported that living as a Jew is risky.

 

Brazilians self-reported the most positive feedback, Venezuelans the most negative. The poll’s full results will be released at the Nov. 12 JDC meeting of Latin American and Caribbean Jewish community leaders, which will convene in Quito, Ecuador.

 

Venezuela is the notable exception to the wave of positivity among Latin American Jewish communities. Political insecurity, economic challenges and state-sponsored anti-Semitism in the country have prompted significant Jewish emigration in recent years, with most expats moving to the United States, Israel, Spain, Colombia or Panama. Venezuela now has an estimated 9,000 Jews, down from about twice that number a decade ago, according to the JDC.

 

The race for president in Venezuela has seen the incumbent, Hugo Chavez — a close ally of Iran and acerbic critic of Israel — use state media to lob anti-Semitic broadsides against his rival, Henrique Capriles Radonski, a grandson of Holocaust survivors who identifies as Catholic. The election is scheduled for Oct. 7.

Chile is home to 15,000 Jews among a Palestinian Diaspora as large as 400,000

In Chile, home to 15,000 Jews among a Palestinian Diaspora as large as 400,000, Rabbi Chaim Koritznisky is much more positive.

 

“Four years ago I was invited to Santiago by five families to build a new synagogue community called Ruach Ami,” said Koritznisky, who heads a Reform congregation. “The founders felt that there was a void in the Jewish community for those searching for a Judaism that was egalitarian, inclusive, spiritual. We also offer a welcoming home for interfaith couples and families, gays and lesbians.”

A hundred families now belong to the temple and more than 500 people are expected to arrive for the coming High Holidays services.

 

Also in Santiago, the Dr. Chaim Weizmann Hebrew Institute has seen sustained growth. In 2005 there were 265 children aged 2 to 5 in the preschool. Today the number is at 373, according to Sergio Herskovitz, the school principal.

 

Similar stories in the region abound. In Panama City, a decade ago there were barely any children at weekly activities at Kol Shearith Israel synagogue. Now nearly 60 young people participate in weekly events and the total budget of the community has tripled.

 

The community has been strengthened in part by Jewish immigrants from Venezuela and even Argentina and Uruguay, says Gustavo Kraselnik, the rabbi of Kol Shearith Israel.

‘We are very optimistic about our future’

“We are very optimistic about our future,” he said.

 

Argentina, with 285,000 Jews, is home to the region’s largest Jewish community. The growth in preschool children there has been matched by a rise in Jewish high school and college students. In Buenos Aires alone the number has risen from 15,593 to 19,162 in the past seven years.

 

In the capital city, the economic recovery allowed real estate developments such as Nordelta, a gated community with artificial lakes, to erect a new Jewish center two years ago. Last Chanukah, about 150 people came out for a celebration.

 

“We started from zero,” Rabbi Diego Elman of Judaica Fundation, the Nordelta temple, told JTA. “This year we started a monthly Shabbat with an average of 60 people; most of them are children.”

‘This year we started a monthly Shabbat with an average of 60 people; most of them are children’

The growth also has brought the need for more Jewish teachers. In 2006, a new training center to prepare Jewish teachers was opened in Buenos Aires. It’s had 35 graduates.

 

“It’s a good start, but there is a scarcity of teachers in every main city of the region,” said Leticia Baran, the supervisor of Argentina’s Department of Jewish Education. “We’re starting to export Jewish teachers to other countries.”

 

International Jewish organizations are noticing the increased Jewish activities. Last November the ROI Community, which convenes creative Jewish social entrepreneurs, celebrated an Ibero-American gathering in Buenos Aires to “propel the Latin American Jewish spring” and to spotlight the region’s “dynamic Jewish social entrepreneurs.”

 

The same month, the Jewish Agency’s board of governors met in Argentina — the first time in 15 years that its summit was held outside of Israel. The following month, Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky announced a $1 million fund to strengthen the connection between young South American Jews to Israel and the global Jewish community. And last December, Bnai B’rith International held its International Policy Conference in Montevideo, Uruguay — the first time the international event was held in Latin America.

 

“This region has a vibrant reality and an incredible production of knowledge and Jewish life,” Shai Pinto, the vice president and COO of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, told JTA. “In our movement Latin America is the fastest growing region.”

 

Fabian Triskier, the JDC’s Latin America director, says, “Our conclusion is clear: The Jewish community of Latin America is moving forward.”

 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/latin-americas-jewish-communities-flourish-despite-anti-semitism-and-education-challenges/

 

 

Romney: No hope for Israeli-Palestinian peace right now

Romney: No hope for Israeli-Palestinian peace right now

Wednesday, September 19, 2012 | Ryan Jones

 

 

 

US presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently suggested that if he wins the current race for the White House, he will significantly alter the degree and manner of America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Likening the situation to the ongoing tug-of-war between China and Taiwan, Romney told a room of campaign donors in Boca Raton, Florida that the best America and the West can hope for at present is to contain the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The gathering took place behind closed doors on May 17, but an attendee filmed Romney's response to a question about the "Palestinian problem" and uploaded the footage to YouTube this week.

Romney said that when looking at the Middle East situation he is forced to consider that "the Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace, and that [therefore] the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish."

Romney suggested that those who argue for simply giving the Palestinian Arabs an independent state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are not looking at the bigger picture.

"The border between Israel and the West Bank is...right next to Tel Aviv, which is the financial capital, the industrial capital of Israel, the center of Israel," explained Romney. "[On the] other side of what would be this new Palestinian state would either be Syria at one point, or Jordan. And of course the Iranians would want to do through the West Bank exactly what they did through Lebanon, what they did near Gaza. Which is that the Iranians would want to bring missiles and armament into the West Bank and potentially threaten Israel."

Romney said the only way for Israel to feel secure in such a situation would be to police the new Palestinian state's borders and airspace, which obviously the Palestinians would not agree to.

"I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes [being] committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel, and [then] these thorny issues, and I say, 'There's just no way,'" continued Romney, noting that at present it is better to simply "hope for some degree of stability [while recognizing] that this is going to remain an unsolved problem."

"We live with [a similar situation] in China and Taiwan," concluded Romney. "We have a potentially volatile situation but we sort of live with it, and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it."

The Palestinian leadership was infuriated by Romney's remarks, calling them "absolutely unacceptable."

The Obama Administration also took a jab at Romney, with White House spokesman Jay Carney saying that the Republican's approach lacks "leadership," while failing to address the fact that, as Romney pointed out, the US has long sidestepped the China-Taiwan conflict.


http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23394/Default.aspx?ref=newsletter-20120919
 

Stakelbeck on Terror: A Conversation with Israeli Deputy Speaker Danny Danon

                         Israeli Deputy Speaker Danny Danon


Stakelbeck on Terror: A Conversation with Israeli Deputy Speaker Danny Danon

On this week's edition of the Stakelbeck on Terror show, I sit down with Danny Danon, Deputy Speaker of the Israeli Knesset, to discuss his new book, Israel: The Will to Prevail.

Watch as Deputy Speaker Danon addresses the threat of Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood, the status of Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem, and President Obama's hostile policies towards the Jewish State.

Video: http://blogs.cbn.com/stakelbeckonterror/archive/2012/09/18/stakelbeck-on-terror-a-conversation-with-israeli-deputy-speaker-danny.aspx

 

Video: Republican Mitt Romney lambastes 2-state solution

Video: Republican Mitt Romney lambastes 2-state solution

By YONI DAYAN

09/18/2012

US Republican presidential candidate filmed at fundraising dinner saying Palestinians "have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace," adding Iran would use nuclear capability to blackmail US.

Photo: Jason Reed / Reuters

US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney questioned the feasibility of the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, according to video footage published Tuesday by US magazine Mother Jones.

"I'm torn by two perspectives in this regard," Romney said at a $50,000-per-plate fundraising dinner on May 17. "One is the one which I've had for some time, which is that the Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace, and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish."

Romney then launched into a hypothetical scenario in which Israelis allow the Palestinians to establish a state in the West Bank but are then forced to contend with unsolvable security and border issues.

It is "maybe seven miles from Tel Aviv to what would be the West Bank," he said, repeating an oft-cited Israeli security concern alleging that an opposing Arab army in the West Bank could cut Israel in half horizontally in a matter of minutes. "And now how about the airport?" he asked.



Romney said that the Palestinians would demand full control over its own borders, and suggested they could open access to military armaments. "And of course the Iranians would want to do through the West Bank exactly what they did through Lebanon, what they did near Gaza. Which is that the Iranians would want to bring missiles and armament into the West Bank and potentially threaten Israel."

Concluding that the Palestinians remain "committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel," the US presidential candidate endorsed a strategy of maintaining the status quo. "You move things along the best way you can," he said. "You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that this is going to remain an unsolved problem."



Turning to Iran, Romney cautioned on the danger of allowing the Islamic Republic to obtain nuclear weapons capability. Using another hypothetical scenario, Romney imagined Iran giving Hezbollah "a little fissile material," ordering the proxy to take it to Chicago, and then blackmailing the US over foreign policy issues. "We really don't have any option but to keep Iran from having a nuclear weapon," he said.

Ahead of elections in November, US President Barack Obama has been repeatedly attacked by his Republican challenger for "throwing Israel under the bus," both vis-à-vis the Palestinians and Iran. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been actively pressing the US president to "set red lines," which Obama rejects, and which is threatening to become a wedge issue in US politics. Netanyahu recently took his position to the US airwaves, giving interview with CNN and NBC calling for a US guarantee against Iran.

http://www.jpost.com/USPresidentialrace/Article.aspx?id=285410

 

Mitt Romney on the Mideast Conflict

Video: What Really Happened 5773 Years Ago?

Video: What Really Happened 5773 Years Ago?

Rosh Hashannah often is mistakenly considered the birthday of the Creation of the world, which actually started six days earlier.

 

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

First Publish: 9/16/2012

The Rosh Hashannah New Year often is mistakenly considered the birth day of the Creation of the world, which actually started six days earlier.

Prayers over the two-day holiday, highlighted with the blowing of the shofar, state, “Today is the beginning of the world .”

The birthday actually is that of the creation of man, according to Jewish tradition, and G-d created the world on the 25th of the Hebrew month of Elul, six days before.

G-d created light on the first day, a belief that scientists have confirmed as fact through the “Big Bang” theory, according to American-born Prof. Nathan Aviezer.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/160025

 

 

The Academic War on the Jews- Israel National News

Op-Ed: The Academic War on the Jews- Israel National News

Israeli research papers are sent back unread, and boycotting Israeli academics is routine. Will they also boycott the products of israeli research that save lives?

Giulio Meotti

The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book "A New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary. He is at work on a book about the Vatican and Israel.

Anti-Semitism no longer shocks people.

When legions of “Palestinian martyrs” started blowing themselves up in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Afula and Karnei Shomron, the British daily Guardian ran an editorial titled “Israel Has No Right to Exist”.

Now that Iran's nuclear facilities are close to manifacturomg a new Hiroshima's bomb, the Guardian just published an editorial promoting the academic boycott of Israel.

Not only the Ariel University Center in Samaria, but most of the Israeli academics. The Guardian slams “the complicity of Israeli academic institutions in an occupation where violations of international law and human rights are routine”.

A few weeks earlier, more than 250 European academics signed an open letter to EU research Commissioner Màire Geoghegan-Quinn calling for the exclusion of Israeli companies “that are complicit with Israeli violations of international law from EU funded research programs”. The letter was also signed by Gérard Toulouse, a member of the French Academy of Science, Malcolm Levitt, a member of the UK Royal Society, and renowned philosopher Slavjoj Zizek (50 academics signed the letter from Italy).

They want to exclude the Israeli Antiquities Authority as well because of its work of protection of the Jewish heritage in the Temple Mount area.

The Western universities are becoming one of the most important souirces of anti-Jewish sentiments. And the academic boycott is like an ecological disaster poisoning the entire Jewish body.

In Italy, professors of Ca' Foscari University in Venice signed a European petition which included the statement that “my conscience doesn't permit me to collaborate with official Israeli institutions, including universities".

The Association of University Teachers in Britain mounted an academic boycott of two universities in Israel: the University of Haifa and Bar Ilan University, which is being boycotted because of its support for the Judea and Samaria College in Ariel. However, the boycotts did not start there.

More than 200 professors from Sweden have signed on to a call for an academic boycott of Israeli institutions.

The guest lecturer at a recent UK conference, organised by the Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust, should have been Motti Crystal, an expert in negotiation theory. But under pressure from one of the participating unions, his invitation was withdrawn. The reason? Crystal is an Israeli. A Jew.

Recently, the University of Paris VIII closed its doors for two days to avoid a harder stance about a planned conference against the Jewish State.

Septuagenarian Israeli novelist and Holocaust survivor, Esther Orner, has been banned from the University of Provence, while Hizbullah officials were admitted to speak at the Sorbonne University.
In the Netherlands, Rotterdam’s Erasmus University hosted events in which Israel was equated with South Africa’s apartheid.

Graduate students at Carleton University overwhelmingly voted for the university’s pension fund to divest from four companies that are "complicit in the occupation of Palestine". Britain’s largest trade union for academics voted to support the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel and severed ties with the Histadrut.

Over 700 US-based academics have endorsed the boycott of Israel, including evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers. The American boycott was started in 2009 by 13 professors in California and now the movement claims activities on more than 40 US campuses. They are campaigning to divest from Caterpillar and Motorola and they reject any collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions.

Last autumn, Israeli professor Ronen Cohen, whose “sin” is that of teaching at Ariel, was expelled from a German academic conference in Berlin (he was later reinstated after a storm of protest). Elsewhere, Spain’s Housing Ministry disqualified Ariel University from participating in the international competition on solar power because of its address.

The boycott is meant to isolate the Jews and put pressure on them.

David Hirsch, a sociology lecturer at Goldsmiths College, University of London, wrote that the boycott would create an atmosphere in the U.K. where Jewish academics would be asked if they supported the “colonialist and racist” policies of the Israeli government.

A prominent figure in Belgium’s Jewish community, Jacques Brotchi, recently resigned from the board of University of Brussels after denouncing grave anti-Semitic incidents within the campus.
An Israeli student at the University of Turin, Amit Peer, confessed to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that “the Jews here are hiding their own identity because they risk becoming a target”.
Israeli attaché Shai Cohen was prevented from speaking at Pisa University after a violent attack by students, who called him “butcher”. The Israeli ambassador, Ehud Gol, fled Florence University after a similar “protest”.

It's not a new phenomenon in Europe.

In June 1969, left-wing students attacked Asher Ben Nathan, Israel’s first ambassador to Germany. He was shouted down at Frankfurt University by members of the German leftist student group SDS and Israelis from the leftist Matzpen group.

Several months ago, Israeli writer Moshe Sakal was booted from an academic conference in Marseilles at the request of Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish.

We don't count the number of Western academics who not only boycott the Israelis, but who also support Palestinian terrorism.

Ted Honderich, a Canadian-born philosophy professor at University College London, gave a lecture at the University of Toronto in which he said the Palestinians had a moral right to engage in terror: “To claim a moral right on behalf of the Palestinians to their terrorism is to say that they are right to engage in it, that it is permissible if not obligatory.”

The English Department of Harvard University invited Tom Paulin, a poet and academic from Hertford College at Oxford, to lecture at the university. In an interview with the Egyptian paper Al-Ahram, Paulin was quoted as calling the Israeli settlers “ Nazis and racists” for whom he felt “nothing but hatred” and who should be “shot dead". The department initially canceled Paulin’s invitation but then overturned the cancellation.

If the city of Frankfurt decided to grant an award and € 50.000 to a US academic who has called for a boycott of the Jewish state, Judith Butler, the academic war against the Jews comes also from the Israeli professors themselves. A few days ago Arutz Sheva published an email exchange between some of Israel's leading academic figures on how to boycott Ariel University.

The goals of the current anti-Semitism in the Western faculties are inhibiting Israeli scholars from obtaining grants, persuading academic institutions to sever relations with Israeli universities, convincing academics not to visit Israel, not inviting Israelis to international conferences, preventing the publication of articles from Israeli scholars, refusing to review work of Israeli scholars, denying recommendations to students who wish to study in Israel, expelling Jewish organizations from campus and not publishing in Israeli papers.

Two examples.

Richard Seaford of Exeter University refused to review a book for the Israeli journal Scripta Classica Israelica.

Alice Walker, author of “The Color Purple,” just refused to authorize a Hebrew translation of her prize-winning book, saying that “Israel is guilty of apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people, both inside Israel and also in the Occupied Territories".

Unfortunately, there are no serious studies on the impact of the boycott on the Israeli academia. The only one is by Paul Zinger, former head of the Israeli Science Foundation. He declared that in one year twenty-five research papers which were sent out for review came back to Israel from scholars who refuse to look at them.

"Veritas vos liberabit", chant the scholastics, meaninglessly. "The truth will set you free". In its paranoid version, it's a declaration of war against the Jewish people.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/12188