Olive Tree Ministries - prophetic signs, current issues, and the Messianic Jewish movement.

News Watch: Topical

PLEASE VISIT OUR NEW WEB SITE: www.olivetreeviews.org/index.php
--> Posted to Israel for February, 2009

Israel Against the World
--> Posted to Israel for January, 2009

Israel Against the World

By Efraim Karsh
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs | 1/19/2009

No sooner had Israel opted to stop Hamas' attacks on its civilian population, after years of self-imposed restraint, than it was confronted with a tidal wave of international indignation. With a unanimity that has become all too familiar when it comes to the world's pronouncements on Israel, politicians, the media, NGOs, and church leaders across the globe took their cue to denounce this legitimate act of self-defense by a sovereign democracy against one of the world's most extreme terror organizations, overtly committed to its destruction, which for years had been raining down thousands of rockets and mortar shells on civilian communities (not to mention the long string of suicide bombings).

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Huge Discovery of Natural Gas in Israel
--> Posted to Israel for January, 2009

Three massive gas reservoirs have been discovered 80 kilometers off the Haifa coast, at the Tamar prospect, Noble Energy Inc. announced on Sunday.

The Tamar-1 well, located in approximately 5,500 feet of water, was drilled to a total depth of 16,076 feet. The thickness and quality of the reservoirs found were greater than anticipated at the location.

Charles D. Davidson, Noble Energyâ€™s chairman, president and CEO, said in an announcement that his company was â€œextremely excited by the results. This is one of the most significant prospects that we have ever tested and appears to be the largest discovery in the companyâ€™s history.â€
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Follow King David's Advice on Gaza
--> Posted to Israel for January, 2009

IsraelNN.com) Rabbi Dr. Michael Ben-Ari, the number four man on the National Union's Knesset list, thinks the leaders of Israel should follow King David's advice from the Eighteenth Psalm regarding Gaza: "I will chase my enemies and catch up to them and I shall not return until I annihilate them."

"This should be the slogan of every leader and IDF commander," he said. "The enemy must know that whoever raises his hand against Israel, we will teach him a lesson and annihilate him as well as all his helpers and supporters, and only thus will we take out their will to fire missiles at us."
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Christian Zionists: The Real Terrorists
--> Posted to Israel for January, 2009

Christian Zionists: The Real Terrorists

By Mark D. Tooley
FrontPageMagazine.com | 12/15/2008

The National Council of Churches (NCC), which will never specifically criticize any radical Islamist movements no matter how murderous, has found itself concerned about Christian Zionists in America. In fact, according to the NCC, Christian Zionist support for Israel is the main stumbling block to tranquility in the Middle East. The threat posed by these Christian zealots is so worrisome that the NCC has just released a special brochure called â€œWhy We Should Be Concerned About Christian Zionismâ€ to warn its 35 member denominations.
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

The War Against the Jews
--> Posted to Israel for January, 2009

The War Against the Jews

By David Horowitz
FrontPageMagazine.com | 1/9/2009

The unspoken truth about the fighting in Gaza, which began on December 19, 2008, when Hamas rockets broke a voluntary truce, is that this is the frontline of a much larger war. This war began 30 years ago with the Islamic Revolution in Iran and is now global in scope. Its agenda is the extermination of the Jews and the destruction of the West.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

The Truth About Israel's "Stolen Land"--WND
--> Posted to Israel for January, 2009

The truth about Israel's 'stolen' land

Larry Elder asks: Who's the 'David' and who's the 'Goliath' in current conflict?

Posted: January 08, 2009

By Larry Elder

Much of the world buys the line â€“ peddled by the Palestinians and the Arab Muslim world and, indeed, many Western countries â€“ that paints Israel as the bad "Goliath" that "stole" the land from the "Palestinians."

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Have Israelis Finally Learned the Strategic Value of Territory?--Pipes
--> Posted to Israel for January, 2009

Have Israelis Finally Learned the Strategic Value of Territory?
by Daniel Pipes
Wed, 31 Dec 2008
updated Thu, 1 Jan 2009

http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2008/12/have-israelis-finally-learned-the-strategic.html

The land for peace concept is in jeopardy, write Aron Heller and Matti Friedman for the Associated Press:

Israeli hard-liners have warned for many years that any territory Israel vacates will be used to attack it. Now they can point to the Hamas missile that slammed into a bus stop in this port city Monday, killing a 39-year-old woman. It was fired from the Gaza Strip, which Israel gave up in 2005 and is now ruled by Hamas militants who reject the existence of the Jewish state. â€¦ Israelis who never thought they would be living under rocket fire prepared bomb shelters. Newspapers and TV stations displayed color-coded maps informing Israelis that they had 15, 30 or 45 seconds to reach cover after a warning siren goes off. In Ashdod malls, directions to the nearest shelters were posted.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

The Necessity of Israel--Krauthammer
--> Posted to Israel for January, 2009

Late Saturday, thousands of Gazans received Arabic-language cell-phone messages from the Israeli military, urging them to leave homes where militants might have stashed weapons. -- Associated Press, Dec. 27

WASHINGTON -- Some geopolitical conflicts are morally complicated. The Israel-Gaza war is not. It possesses a moral clarity not only rare but excruciating.

Israel is so scrupulous about civilian life that, risking the element of surprise, it contacts enemy noncombatants in advance to warn them of approaching danger.
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Israel Alone
--> Posted to Israel for December, 2008

Israel Alone

By P. David Hornik
FrontPageMagazine.com | 12/31/2008

Although Israelâ€™s initial, concerted, surprise air-strike on Saturday dealt Hamas a harsh blow, by Monday and Tuesday the terror organization was already recovering. After managing to fire only about 30 rockets and mortars at Israel on Sunday, the number was back up to 100 on Monday, and the barrage continued on Tuesday.

Mondayâ€™s shellings cost the lives of three Israelis: an Arab Israeli working at a construction site in the coastal city of Ashkelon, an Israeli Druze army officer at a kibbutz bordering Gaza, and an Israeli Jewish woman in Ashdod, a major port north of Ashkelon. Another 32 people were injured. Throughout the day Hamas fired Iranian rockets at targets farther east and north of Gaza than it had ever hit previously, including the town of Yavne on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Israel IS the Real Issue
--> Posted to Israel for October, 2008

Sensitize your spirit, reader, and you will recognize that the Israel question - and relations between America and the Jewish people - has repeatedly surfaced at this very late stage in the day because it is a major issue. I would say, THE major issue. Is the enemy tipping his hand?

Two days ago I wrote to the American intercessor Dutch Sheets after reading his recent email appeal for prayer for the elections. An excerpt:

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

The Fall Feasts of Israel
--> Posted to Israel for October, 2008

The Fall Feasts of Israel

This Weekâ€™s Feature Article by Jack Kelley

(At sunset on Sept. 29, 2008 we began year 5769 on the Hebrew Calendar. As I often do with articles that commemorate annual events, I have updated this study on the Fall Feasts and added new information for your review.)

The fall is arguably the most important time of the year in Judaism. Three of Israelâ€™s holiest days are celebrated then, and all in the space of 15 days. They are Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, followed 10 days later by Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and 5 days after that the Feast of Tabernacles. On our calendar they usually fall (no pun intended) some time between mid September and early October due to the differences between the Jewish (lunar) calendar and the western (solar) one.
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Twisting the Facts on Israel
--> Posted to Israel for October, 2008

Twisting the Facts on Israel

By P. David Hornik
FrontPageMagazine.com | 10/1/2008

â€œAn evil wind of extremism, of hate, of maliciousness, of violence, of losing control, of lawbreaking, of contempt for the institutions of state, is passing though certain sections of the Israeli public,â€ Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Israeli cabinet Sunday in a statement that was reported in a widely circulated Associated Press article by Karin Laub. The article is a good example of how news about Israel gets distorted and how some boorish Israeli leaders, like Olmert, contribute to the phenomenon.

What touched off Olmertâ€™s comments was Thursdayâ€™s pipe bomb attack on 73-year-old political science professor Zeev Sternhell at his Jerusalem home. Sternhell was fortunately only lightly injured by an explosion that could have caused a much worse result.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Campus War on Israel
--> Posted to Israel for August, 2008

Campus War on Israel

By Joel Amitai
IsraCampus.org | 8/26/2008

â€œAs an Israeli-born Jew, that my family survived the Holocaust, itâ€™s an incredible pain, and very difficult for me,â€ proclaims Yael Korin in this video, â€œto keep watching Israel committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against the Palestinian people, and now the Lebanese people.â€

Yael Korin, an immunologist at the UCLA medical school, speaking here at a rally against the Second Lebanon War in Los Angeles on August 12, 2006, is introduced as a member of the far-Left Women in Black. Korinâ€™s Los Angeles branch of the organization describes itself here as supporting â€œthe right of Palestinian refugees to return [to Israel]â€â€”recognized by all Israeli governments, Right and Left, as a formula for Israelâ€™s destruction.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Occupied Israel: Setting the Record Straight
--> Posted to Israel for July, 2008

Occupied Israel

By David Solway
FrontPageMagazine.com | 7/30/2008

For too much truth, at first sight, neâ€™er attracts. - George Gordon, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto XIV

The Israeli governmentâ€™s present intention of holding on to a sliver of the West Bank within the perimeter of the security fence is an issue of serious import and is widely regarded as an illegal land grab. View Full Aritcle

« Back to Headlines

Why God Won't Allow Israel to Perish--Farah
--> Posted to Israel for July, 2008

Why God won't allow Israel to perish

Exclusive: Joseph Farah points to Jeremiah's words about regathering of Jews

Posted: July 29, 2008

By Joseph Farah

Israelis are feeling uneasy these days as their leaders continue to negotiate away the land their sons and fathers and brothers fought so courageously to defend from enemies in four major wars and several minor ones.

Jews around the world are wondering if their tiny state can possibly survive the onslaught of endless terrorism and continuing threats from neighboring states arming themselves with weapons of mass destruction.

Friends of Israel, especially evangelical Christians in the U.S., are perplexed by the insistence of their leaders that Israel should accommodate its sworn enemies â€“ states and terrorist organizations determined to finish the job Adolf Hitler started.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Jews Move Towards Their Temple
--> Posted to Israel for July, 2008

Another step on the long road towards the restoration of Temple Worship in Jerusalem was reportedly taken Monday with the opening of a new workshop in which robes will be manufactured for practicing priests.

According to a report in The Jerusalem Post Wednesday, a number of Kohanim, (Jews in the Cohen family line who trace their ancestry back to Aaron, the first High Priest) have already had measurements taken for the biblically-described vestments.

One of them is the well-known chief rabbi of Efrat Shlomo Riskin.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Temple Mount 100% Islamic--WND
--> Posted to Israel for June, 2008

Temple Mount '100% Islamic'

Warning: 'Any action that offends holy site will be answered by 1.5 billion Muslims'

By Aaron Klein

WorldNetDaily

JERUSALEM â€“ Jerusalem and the Temple Mount belong to the Muslims and any Israeli action that "offends" the Mount will be answered by 1.5 billion Muslims, declared the chief of staff for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

"Jerusalem is Muslim. The blessed Al Aqsa mosque and Harem Al Sharif (Temple Mount) is 100 percent Muslim. The Israelis are playing with fire when they threaten Al Aqsa with digging that is taking place," said Abbas' chief of staff Rafiq Al Husseini.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Israel's Economy Most Successful in World
--> Posted to Israel for May, 2008

ECB chief: Israel's economy most successful in the world

Market triumphs odds, marks 5.4% growth in first quarter. European Central Bank head 'amazed by Israeli market's performance,' says local market in best position to profit from globalization while avoiding pitfalls of credit crisis

The Israeli market noted a surprising 5.4% growth in the first quarter of 2008, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) reported Monday.

The growth, though lower than the one noted in 2007's third and forth quarters, exceeded expectations, especially when considering the various recession warnings heard around the world and in Israel since the beginning of the year.
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Dear Mr. President
--> Posted to Israel for May, 2008

JERUSALEM NEWSWIRE

Please allow me, as a - like you - professing Christian, as an American descendant, and as a distant relative (I believe we are cousins some eight times removed), to thank you for coming to congratulate the miraculous little land of Israel and its extra-ordinarily plucky people on the 60th anniversary of their national resurrection.

While other world leaders also visited last week, you - unlike them - did not come merely to attend a conference. With your lovely First Lady at your side you were here for nearly three days, sparing no expense and giving a great deal of your valuable time to assuring the Israelis that the special relationship between your country and theirs is as strong and as important as ever.
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Israel: Role Model for America--WND
--> Posted to Israel for May, 2008

The plucky Jewish state can teach the U.S. a thing or two about cultural and creedal survival. Israel has endured to celebrate its 60th birthday in so small part because it has rejected American-style immolation by immigration.

Despite Israel's protestations to the contrary, it is neither a multicultural state, nor a free-for-all pluralist pottage with open borders Ã la post-1965, Immigration Act America. Rather, Israel upholds the right to retain its religious and cultural distinctiveness and its Jewish majority. It therefore controls immigration and guards its borders
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Israeli Success Story--NRO
--> Posted to Israel for May, 2008

Israeli Success Story

By the Editors

Just 60 years ago, David Ben-Gurion declared that, after a lapse of two millennia, the state of Israel had resumed its existence. There was dancing in the streets of this revived state. At the time, the Nazi Holocaust had just dealt Jews what was virtually a death-blow, and survivors might have been expected never to recover. In a magnificent, perhaps desperate, assertion of human vitality, they instead came together to create their own state of Israel. Jews were at last in a position to take their future into their own hands. An ancient identity, complete with its long since unspoken language of Hebrew, acquired a modern expression. There is no other example in history of a national comeback like this.
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Thank You, Israel
--> Posted to Israel for May, 2008

Thank You Israel

By Dan Rabkin
FrontPageMagazine.com | 5/14/2008

As we mark Israelâ€™s 60th birthday today (May 14), people across the world can, once again, breathe a collective sigh of relief thanks to the Jewish State. Last September, a handful of Israeli fighter jets conducted a pre-dawn raid in which they destroyed what the Israelis claimed was a nuclear facility in the Deir ez-Zor region of Syria close to the Turkish border. Recently, CIA Director Michael Hayden confirmed that the facility, termed Al Kibar, was mere weeks away from being operational and could have, in the first year of operation, â€œproduced enough plutonium for one or two weapons."

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Bush: Face to Face with the Word of the Lord
--> Posted to Israel for May, 2008

Bush: Face-to-face with the Word of the Lord Posted on Tuesday 13 May 2008

Although he almost certainly does not fully realize the ramifications, US President George W. Bush, who is due to arrive in Jerusalem Wednesday morning on a three-day visit, is set to come face to face with the Word of the Lord concerning the restoration of Israel.

Bush has been scheduled a private viewing Thursday evening of a 2000-year-old scroll containing the entire book of Isaiah.

Virtually every one of Israelâ€™s ancient prophets foretold the dispersion (Diaspora) of the Jews, centuries before it happened in AD 70 and 135.
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Israel at 3,500+
--> Posted to Israel for May, 2008

The Jewish State's only hope and future

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Today is the 60th anniversary of a marriage that has lasted more than 3,500 years. This may sound like a paradox but this is the inescapable truth about the land of Israel and the Jews.

No marriage has been so long, so deep in its commitment and so overwhelming in its love as the one between the Jews and their homeland. But no marriage has been so painful nor so tragic, for the partners were forced apart by the Roman Empire nearly 2000 years ago.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Israel's Predicament at 60--Pipes-
--> Posted to Israel for May, 2008

Israel's Predicament at 60

By Daniel Pipes
FrontPageMagazine.com | 5/6/2008

Two religiously-identified new states emerged from the shards of the British empire in the aftermath of World War II. Israel, of course, was one; the other was Pakistan.

They make an interesting, if little-compared pair. Pakistan's experience with widespread poverty, near-constant internal turmoil, and external tensions, culminating in its current status as near-rogue state, suggests the perils that Israel avoided, with its stable, liberal political culture, dynamic economy, cutting-edge high-tech sector, lively culture, and impressive social cohesion.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Israel's Gift to the World
--> Posted to Israel for May, 2008

Israel's Gift to the World

By Alan M. Dershowitz
New York Post | 5/5/2008

As Israel celebrates its 60th birthday, the world should recognize the enormous gifts the Jewish state has given the world. Israel has exported more lifesaving medical technology to the far-flung corners of the earth than any nation of comparable size. It has done more to protect the environment, to promote literature, music, the arts and sciences, to spread agricultural advances and to fight terrorism within the rule of law.

Israel has created a legal system that is the envy of the world, with a Supreme Court that is open to all with few, if any, restrictions on its jurisdiction. As America's most liberal Supreme Court Justice William Brennan observed when he visited Israel in 1988:

"It may well be Israel, not the United States, that provides the best hope for building a jurisprudence that can protect civil liberties against the demands of national security.
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

The Two-State Non Solution
--> Posted to Israel for April, 2008

A Two-State Non-Solution

By Moshe Dann
FrontPageMagazine.com | 4/7/2008

In a bold critique of current Israeli policy, Gen (ret) Giora Eiland, former head of Israel's National Security Council, said that negotiations to achieve a Declaration of Principles based on the "two-state-solution" plan were unrealistic.

Eiland, one of Israel's top strategic and intelligence advisors, was responsible for implementing Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. Today, however, he readily admits that it was a mistake.
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

I Will Remember the Land
--> Posted to Israel for February, 2008

JERUSALEM NEWSWIRE

All mankind is out to rob the Jewish people of half of what they have of their ancestral homeland, and give it to the Arabs who already have 22 states of their own.

As 2008 began, George W. Bush came to Jerusalem to add his personal weight to the momentum he generated just over a month earlier at the â€˜International Conference for the Creation of Palestineâ€™ in Annapolis.

Speaking in Jerusalem, he repeated his full, personal commitment to helping bring this Arab state into being before another 12 months have passed.

The entire international community supports this land theft and is willing to gamble with Israelâ€™s existence by exacting this price from the universally-despised, yet peace seeking, Jewish leadership, instead of demanding payment for peace from the aggressive and antisemitic Arab regimes.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Did the Church Replace Israel?
--> Posted to Israel for January, 2008

DID THE CHURCH REPLACE ISRAEL?

1. The Nation of Israel will NEVER cease to exist!
Jeremiah 31:35-37; Matthew 24:34-35

2. God has NEVER forsaken Israel!
Isaiah 41:8-9, 17; 43:5-7; 45:25; 49:13-16; 54:6-8; Romans 11:1-2

3. The promise of a LAND is based on an everlasting covenant!
Genesis 15:18; 17:7-8; Psalm 105:8-11
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Israel Will Have to Stop Iran--John Bolton
--> Posted to Israel for January, 2008

'Israel will have to stop Iran'

JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST Jan. 22, 2008

"The questions come to Israel, whether it will use military force to stop Iran," former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton said Tuesday.

Speaking at the eighth Herzliya Conference, in a special session devoted to the Iranian nuclear race, Bolton said: "The United States used to have a policy on Iran and recently there was a new push to create a new policy [sic] but sadly, due to the direction American policy is going, it seems that for the next few years the United States will be a bystander to the process."

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

The Theological Background of Christian Zionism
--> Posted to Israel for January, 2008

The Theological Background of Christian Zionism

Part I - Reflection
By: Mikael Knighton
Christians Standing with Israel

Synopsis

Over the centuries, Christian support of the state of Israel has been looked upon with a suspicious and vigilant eye. In fact, history will clearly show that the essence of pure evil, operating under the guise of â€œChristianityâ€, has facilitated a complete and justifiable collapse in Judeo-Christian relations. Only recently has the relationship between the Jewish people and Christians become fruitful, and the "mending" process, albeit positive, continues to evolve.
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Against All Odds
--> Posted to Israel for December, 2007

In 2008, Israel will celebrate the 60th Anniversary of its miraculous rebirth. That it has survived to reach this year must really stick in the craw of the devil and of all those who have sought to be useful to him in trying to bring about the destruction of the Jewish state.

Some people think Israel is spelled I-S-R-A-E-L and Jew is spelled J-E-W.

Theyâ€™d be wrong on both counts. Both â€œIsraelâ€ and â€œJewâ€ are spelled: M-I-R-A-C-L-E.

There is no getting away from it. That the Jews still exist as a nation; that Israel still exists as a state flies in the face of all probability.

They survive against all the odds.

Take the Jews:

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

US Intelligence, Iran, and the Israel Factor
--> Posted to Israel for December, 2007

US intelligence, Iran and the Israel factor

December 9th, 2007

Like many others, I was initially shocked when I read last week that US intelligence had determined with â€œmoderate confidenceâ€ that Iran abandoned its quest for nuclear weapons in 2003. Hadnâ€™t US intelligence determined just 11 months earlier with a far greater degree of confidence that Iran was determined, despite the potential consequences, to develop nuclear military power?

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Peace and Pieces
--> Posted to Israel for December, 2007

Peace and Pieces

By Joseph Puder
FrontPageMagazine.com | 12/10/2007

The high sounding statements about an Israeli-Palestinian peace at the Annapolis conference last week deserve some historical context. Moreover it requires a distinction between peace â€“ the reality Israel and the America seek â€“ and a piece of Israel, one which would ultimately lead to the Jewish Stateâ€™s dissolution â€“ a goal that the Arabs and Palestinians seek.

Despite having suffered huge losses in the surprise attacks staged by Egypt and Syria during the Yom Kippur War of October 1973, Israel emerged victorious. In the aftermath of the war, the Palestinian Liberation Organization came to the realization that Israel will not be defeated by military onslaughts.
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

America: On a Collision Course with Zechariah 12
--> Posted to Israel for December, 2007

"America: On a Collision Course with Zechariah 12"
by Mikael Knighton
Christians Standing with Israel

It has been stated, â€œIf you want to watch bible prophecy unfold in this day and age, watch the Middle East; watch Israelâ€. Although you may be hard-pressed to find a Christian who would disagree with such an assertion, the process of interpreting biblical propheciesâ€”whether they are fulfilled, unfulfilled, or unfoldingâ€”may, at times, be a little difficult when attempting to apply them to the events currently unfolding on the worldâ€™s stage.
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Israel's Right to the Land
--> Posted to Israel for November, 2007

Israelâ€™s Right to the Land

By Sean Gannon
FrontPageMagazine.com | 11/30/2007

The view that the Middle East peace process, the latest phase of which kicks off in Annapolis this week, is essentially a mechanism for the vindication of Palestinian rights over the West Bank and Gaza is widely held here in Western Europe, where an awareness of Israelâ€™s legitimate claims and entitlements has been a casualty of the predominantly left-wing mediaâ€™s embrace of the Palestinian cause. Whereas Arab prerogatives are exhaustively documented, the Jewish right to this land is almost entirely ignored. The anniversaries this month of three of the founding documents of the modern Middle East present an opportunity to redress the balance and reassert the Israeli case.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Why Israel?
--> Posted to Israel for October, 2007

Why Israel?

In Israel we find the greatest example of Godâ€™s unmerited favor ever revealed. God wants to be known, and through His dealings with Israel he has made Himself known to the nations!

By Don Boyd

After living in the Holy Land for nearly eight years, I was recently asked by a dear Christian brother, â€œWhy Israel?â€

What this particular friend had in mind was a question many Christians worldwide are exploring these days with greater determination:

â€œWhat importance, if any, does the modern State of Israel hold in relation to the the Church and life as a Christian?â€

Has God given up on Israel? Has He ceased to identify himself as the God of Israel today?

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Ahmadinejad's Strategy for Destroying Israel
--> Posted to Israel for October, 2007

Ahmadinejad's Strategy for Destroying Israel
by Shalom Freedman

The military options are being built.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is obsessed with one subject, the destruction of Israel. His strategy for doing so combines political and military elements. His aim is to delegitimize Israel in the eyes of the West and cut it off from US support.

On the political side, he is an insistent propagandist who has no problem ignoring fact and evidence to boldly lie and repeat false claims. He is an insistent propagandist.
with the origin of the modern State of Israel. View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

A Divided Jerusalem?
--> Posted to Israel for October, 2007

A Divided Jerusalem?

By P. David Hornik
FrontPageMagazine.com | 10/12/2007

Josephâ€™s Tomb in Nablus in the West Bank, a Jewish holy site where some believe the biblical Joseph is buried, was in the news early in the Second Intifada when a Palestinian mob ransacked it after an Israeli troop withdrawal. These days Josephâ€™s Tomb is doing even worse, having been turned by the Nablus Palestinians into a garbage dump.

Such treatment should not surprise anyone who knows the fate of the Old City of Jerusalem while it was under Jordanian rule from 1948 to 1967: Israelis were denied access to the Western Wall and the Mount of Olives, gravestones on the Mount of Olives were used to make latrines in Jordanian army camps, and 58 Jerusalem synagogues were ruined or destroyed.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Selling Out Israel on the Installment Plan--Cal Thomas
--> Posted to Israel for October, 2007

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Name one concession Israel has made in recent years that has been reciprocated by its sworn enemies. This is not a trick question. There are none.

That's why next month's announced "Middle East Summit" in Annapolis, Md., should be viewed as one more installment payment in the sellout of Israel and of American interests in the Middle East. While the United States continues to struggle to shore up democracy in Iraq, the Bush administration â€” like administrations before it â€” proceeds in undermining the likelihood that the region's first democracy will endure.
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

U.S. Moves Closer to Arabs, Further from Israel
--> Posted to Israel for August, 2007

The United States of America Tuesday put its official stamp on the Saudi Arabian plan that calls for Israel's surrender for all time of the land returned to Jewish rule in 1967.

According to a report in Haaretz, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrote her signature alongside those of Egypt, Jordan and six Persian Gulf states endorsing the 2002 plan as a foundation for Middle East peace.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

God's Land
--> Posted to Israel for July, 2007

ISRAEL INSIDER

The time has come when Israel's place in the Holy Land must be confirmed and accepted. It is time to face up to the real issue that lies at the root of Israel's existence, and initiate public discussion about it.

Who does not know that the ancient prophets saw visions of the restoration of Israel? Are world leaders such as George Bush, Tony Blair, George Brown, Ehud Olmert and the pope, ignorant of what the prophets have spoken? Do the Arab leaders not know of it? Can these people be unaware of what was written over 2,000 years ago and is yet still in print? "Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock." (Jeremiah 31:10).
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

I Want My Country Back!
--> Posted to Israel for July, 2007

JERUSALEM POST

Day after day, I read the headlines and scratch my head in wonderment. How is it possible? How can it be that the once mighty State of Israel, which set the standard for combating international terror, has now become a shadow of its former self? View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Gaza: And Nobody Saw it Coming??!--Markell
--> Posted to Israel for June, 2007

GAZA: And Nobody Saw it Coming??!

By Jan Markell

www.olivetreeviews.org

The ghost of Yaser Arafat lives on as his successor, Mahmoud Abbas, is simply Arafat in a $1,000 suit. The stripes on a leopard don't change easily. In the Islamic world, they hardly ever do. But to Abbas' credit back in January 2006, while under extreme U.S. pressure to have "free Palestinian elections," Abbas earnestly sought to delay them sensing Hamas would come to power as they did. So the brutal reign of Hamas began, duly elected. The White House and State Department insisted on the elections, sure that the "curative powers of democracy" would solve many issues. Rice later stated, "Nobody saw it coming," meaning the win by Hamas.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Revising History on June 5, 1967
--> Posted to Israel for June, 2007

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Scientists believe history began 13.7 billion years ago. Proprietors of the newly opened Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., believe history began 6,000 years ago. Apologists for Arab terrorism and tyranny believe history began a short 40 years ago.
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Israel: Forty Years, Forty Facts
--> Posted to Israel for May, 2007

1. Mayor Uri Lupolianski has 12 children and 30 grandchildren.

2. Before the unification the area of Jerusalem was 38.1 sq.km

3. The word Jerusalem appears 7,910,000 times on Google in Hebrew.

4. The word Jerusalem appears 39,100,000 times on Google in English.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Israel: Where is the Spirit of 1967?
--> Posted to Israel for May, 2007

40 years after Jerusalem's liberation, when will Sderot be free?

By Noam Bedein May 16, 2007

Today, the 28th of Iyar, May 16, 2007 on the civil calendar, educational institutions in Israel are celebrating 40 years for the liberation of Jerusalem.

Not in Sderot. There is no school today in Sderot, because a Sderot school was hit by a Gaza rocket last night, among the 20 or so rockets that hit the region.

It is as if Sderot is not part of Israel.
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

The Media's War on Israel--April 24
--> Posted to Israel for April, 2007

When Israel retaliated against Hezbollah during last summerâ€™s war, it was forced to fight two battles: one against the Lebanon-based terrorist organization, and one against a hopelessly biased global media. The first serious study of the mediaâ€™s behavior throughout the conflict has confirmed this impression.

The study, released in February and titled â€œThe Israeli-Hezbollah War of 2006: The Media As A Weapon in Asymmetrical Conflict" (pdf.), was written not by a partisan watchdog organization that would be expected to arrive at these conclusions; rather, it was produced by a respected journalist, Marvin Kalb, a senior fellow at Harvardâ€™s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Worldwide Blitz Against Israel--Feb. 23
--> Posted to Israel for February, 2007

World-Wide Blitz against Israel

(IsraelNN.com) The United Nations, Russia, Arab states and the media have escalated an international broadside against Israel while touting the Hamas-Fatah coalition.

A report by the U.N. Human Rights Council has provided the background for the Arab position, backed by Russia, that the Western-led economic boycott of Hamas must be lifted in order to fight poverty in the Gaza area.

The council report was commissioned to John Dugard, who formerly campaigned against South Africa apartheid and who concluded that the racist policy is similar to that of Israel. He defined Jews as a "race" and charged that the Israeli army is guilty of terror worse than that of Arab terrorists. Dugard's draft is to be published next month in a full report by the U.N.
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Gaza Withdrawal Supporters Admit the Mistake
--> Posted to Israel for February, 2007

Former Mossad chief Meir Amit supported former prime minister Ariel Sharon's internationally-backed ethnic cleansing of all Jews from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

Now he insists that move was a grave mistake.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Why Europe Abandoned Israel
--> Posted to Israel for January, 2007

Why Europe Abandoned Israel
By Richard Baehr

Why is Israel viewed so differently in Europe than in the United States? To argue as the title of this article does, that Europe has abandoned Israel, is to suggest that it was once in its corner. And in fact, this is true.

Prior to the Six Day War in 1967, it was France which was Israel's primary military supplier, not the United States. In the War of Independence in 1948-49, it was arms smuggled from Czechoslovakia that enabled the Zionists to fight on. Most European nations, including some Soviet satellites, supported the partition resolution in the General Assembly in November 1947. European nations supported Israel at the UN through the late 1960s and in some cases well beyond then.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Evangelicals: We'll Fight for Israel
--> Posted to Israel for January, 2007

Millions of Evangelical Christians around the world support and constantly pray for the State of Israel , representatives at a meeting of the Knesset's Christian Allies Caucus said Wednesday.

Dozens of Evangelical pastors, parliament members, and leaders from an array of countries gathered at the Knesset in Jerusalem to proclaim their support for the country, during a meeting of the Caucus, which was also attended by Knesset Members from across the political spectrum. View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Israel: Miracle Still in the Making
--> Posted to Israel for December, 2006

Fifty-eight years ago, in an unprecedented event, the national home of the Jewish people was restored on the map of the Middle East.

Nearly 2000 years earlier, an enraged Roman Empire had directed its military might at erasing that rebellious country, killing two thirds of its people and driving the rest into captivity.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

When in Doubt, Blame Israel--Hanson
--> Posted to Israel for December, 2006

When in doubt, shout about Israel.

Perennially beleaguered Israel, for instance, was hit all summer long with rockets from Lebanon and Gaza, as the world watched and kept score in an absurd new game of proportionality: Israel was to be blamed because its hundreds of air strikes against combatants were lethal, while Hezbollah was to be excused for shooting off thousands of rockets aimed at civilians because of its relative incompetence.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Netanyahu: It's 1938 Again
--> Posted to Israel for November, 2006

Netanyahu: It's 1938 and Iran is Germany; Ahmadinejad is preparing another Holocaust

By Peter Hirschberg, Haaretz Correspondent

LOS ANGELES - Drawing a direct analogy between Iran and Nazi Germany, Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu asserted Monday that the Iranian nuclear program posed a threat not only to Israel, but to the entire western world. There was "still time," however, to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, he said.

"It's 1938 and Iran is Germany. And Iran is racing to arm itself with atomic bombs," Netanyahu told delegates to the annual United Jewish Communities General Assembly, repeating the line several times, like a chorus, during his address. "Believe him and stop him," the opposition leader said of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "This is what we must do. Everything else pales before this."

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Holding Israel to Impossible Standards---Nov. 10
--> Posted to Israel for November, 2006

In a column on August 19, 2005, about Israelâ€™s disengagement from Gaza, Charles Krauthammer asked: â€œWhat about the rockets? . . . For months, Palestinians have been firing rockets from Gaza into towns within Israel proper. The attacks are momentarily in suspension, but with the enhanced ability to smuggle in weapons from Egypt and with no Israeli patrols looking for them, the attacks will resume and get far worse.â€

So far so good. Krauthammer then asked:

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Compelling Reasons Why America Should Support Israel---Oct. 16
--> Posted to Israel for October, 2006

Compelling reasons why the United States should support Israel.

The question of whether Israel is or is not an asset to the United States is one we rarely bother to ask ourselves. Time and again, we see prominent Americans -- presidents of the United States at the forefront -- emphasizing their special relationship with Israel. In polls of American public opinion, Israel scores very high marks, while sympathy for the Palestinians, never very high, continues to drop. Why should we even ask ourselves whether Israel is an asset or a liability to the United States? Isn't the answer obvious?

Most supporters of Israel, when pressed to go a bit deeper, will give two prime rationales for why the United States should back Israel. One is a moral obligation to the Jewish people, grounded in the history of Jewish persecution and culminating in the Holocaust. Israel, so this thinking goes, is something the civilized world owes to the Jewish people, having inflicted an unprecedented genocide upon it. This is a potent rationale, but it is not clear why that would make Israel an asset to the United States. If supporting Israel is an obligation, then it could be described as a liability -- a burden to be borne. And of course, as time passes, that sense of obligation is bound to diminish.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

American Jews and Israel--Glick
--> Posted to Israel for October, 2006

A tiny minority of American Jews is playing a key role in souring ties between Jerusalem and Washington

By Caroline B. Glick

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's speech at the American Task Force for Palestine's inaugural dinner in Washington on Wednesday evening was but the latest sign that America's alliance with Israel is weakening.

Rice's statement that "there could be no greater legacy for America than to help to bring into being a Palestinian state," just about says it all. The secretary of state of a president who was once friendlier to Israel than any of his predecessors now claims that the establishment of a state for a people who have distinguished themselves as the most overtly pro-jihad, terrorist society in the world would be the greatest thing American could ever do.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

How Odd of God to Choose the Jews--Kristol
--> Posted to Israel for September, 2006

Anti-Judaism
By William Kristol
Weekly Standard | September 12, 2006

"How odd / Of God / To choose / The Jews." Thus the British journalist (and communist) William Norman Ewer, in the early part of the last century. The reply came from Cecil Browne: "But not so odd / As those who choose / A Jewish God / But spurn the Jews."

Browne's riposte may have won the poetic exchange. But Ewer's anti-Judaism prevailed in the next decades in Europe. Buried there after World War II, hatred of the Jews flourished for the rest of the 20th century in the Middle East. Is anti-Judaism now enjoying a broader revival? It would seem so.

University of Chicago political science professor John Mearsheimer came to Washington late last month along with his sidekick, Stephen Walt of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Speaking to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, they attacked the "Israel lobby" (of which they claim I am a part) for its pernicious deeds, and singled out several Jews who served or serve in the Bush administration. These Jews, they explained, have special "attachments" in the Middle East. Their attachment? Their religious belief--Judaism. Bigotry now has an academic cachet.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Demonizing Israel
--> Posted to Israel for September, 2006

For Amnesty International, "Israeli war crimes" are synonymous with "any military action whatsoever."

The two principal "human rights" organizations are in a race to the bottom to see which group can demonize Israel with the most absurd legal arguments and most blatant factual mis-statements. Until last week, Human Rights Watch enjoyed a prodigious lead, having "found" -- contrary to what every newspaper in the world had reported and what everyone saw with their own eyes on television -- "no cases in which Hizbullah deliberately used civilians as shields to protect them from retaliatory IDF attack."

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Why the World Hates the Jews--Medved---Aug. 10
--> Posted to Israel for August, 2006

Why the World Hates the Jews
By Michael Medved

Many of the bitter controversies in every corner of the globe inevitably raise the same ancient question: why does the world hate the Jews?

Whether itâ€™s the angry international reaction to Israelâ€™s efforts to defend itself in Lebanon, or Mel Gibsonâ€™s drunken rant in Malibu, the age-old specter of anti-Semitism refuses to disappear. With only 13 million Jews in the world â€“ less than one fourth of one percent of the earthâ€™s population â€“ why does this tiny group inspire such bitter, widespread and often violent animosity?

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

The Fence Hypocrisy--Markell
--> Posted to Israel for May, 2006

The Fence Hypocrisy
Commentary on the News
Jan Markell

Isn't it ironic? Both Israel and America are societies engaged in struggles over their futures due to evil-doers crossing borders. Both are acting in self-defense to stop invaders. Both countries are getting heat from various sources for trying to protect themselves. So both Israel and America are pursuing a security fence and Israel's will be completed this year. And the world, with many Americans chiming in, says "Mr. Prime Minister, tear down that wall."

Opponents of Israel's fence argue that the fence poses undue hardship to Palestinian Arabs by limiting their employment opportunities. As a result, Israel has altered its fence to be more accommodating to the Palestinians. Opponents of a fence along America's southern border insist it will also inflict undue hardship on Mexicans seeking employment.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

At War With Ourselves--Israelinsider
--> Posted to Israel for February, 2006

As elections for the next Israeli government loom closer, acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is holding firm to his pledge: not to cave in to settlers. Settlers? What about terrorists? What about Hamas? No, it is settlers who are the enemy now. An enemy out of necessity.

Our friend's daughter, 17-year old Leora, was in Amona this week for the horrifying events surrounding the destruction of nine permanent homes by Israeli police. She went on an organized bus with 40 girls from her school; a respected school that is in "Israel proper", to join the thousands of "settlers" protesting. Why did she go? She felt it was her responsibility. She is not a soldier, she does not carry a weapon, nor does she strap on bomb-belts in the hopes of (G-d forbid) killing those who would destroy the homes she seeks to protect. She merely had to go.
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Scapegoating Israel
--> Posted to Israel for November, 2005

The â€˜Muslim streetâ€™ and Western intellectuals share a passion for scapegoating Israel

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | It came as little surprise that when a gang of Islamist terrorists blew themselves up in three Jordanian hotels earlier this month, that many in the Arab and Muslim world were quick to blame Israel.

As a New York Times correspondent who was, no doubt, sent out to the pavement of a Jordanian town in search of the mythical "Arab street," discovered, there was no shortage of locals willing to see Israel as somehow at the bottom of a horrific crime committed by Muslims in the name of their interpretation of Islam.

Like the seemingly imperishable canard that no Jews died in the Sept. 11 attacks because their brethren were the perpetrators, it didn't take long for the denizens of the "street" to reassure each other that it was the Jews who massacred a wedding party and other innocent Arabs.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

What is Replacement Theology?--ICE
--> Posted to Israel for October, 2005

Replacement theology "is the view that the church is the new or true Israel that has permanently replaced or superseded Israel as the people of God."[1] Another term, often found in academic circles, for replacement theology is supersessionism. Replacement theology has been the fuel that has energized Medieval anti-Semitism, Eastern European pogroms, the Holocaust and contemporary disdain for the modern state of Israel. Mike Vlach notes: "The acceptance or rejection of supersessionism may also influence how one views the modern state of Israel and events in the Middle East."[2] Wherever replacement theology has flourished, the Jews have had to run for cover.

Definition and Description

Preterist and covenant theologian, Kenneth Gentry defines replacement theology-to which he holds-as follows: "We believe that the international Church has superseded for all times national Israel as the institution for the administration of divine blessing to the world."[3] We dispensationalists believe that the church is the current instrument through which God is working in this age, but God has a future time in which He will restore national Israel "as the institution for the administration of divine blessing to the world." Gentry adds to his initial statement the following embellishment:

That is, we believe that in the unfolding of the plan of God in history, the Christian Church is the very fruition of the redemptive purpose of God. As such, the multi-racial, international Church of Jesus Christ supersedes racial, national Israel as the focus of the kingdom of God. Indeed, we believe that the Church becomes "the Israel of God" (Gal. 6:16), the "seed of Abraham" (Gal. 3:29), "the circumcision" (Phil. 3:3), the "temple of God" (Eph. 2:19-22), and so forth. We believe that Jew and Gentile are eternally merged into a "new man" in the Church of Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:12-18). What God hath joined together let no man put asunder![4]

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Unfashionable Facts About the Middle East
--> Posted to Israel for December, 2004

1. Nationhood and Jerusalem. Israel became a nation-state in 1312 B.C, 2,000 years before the rise of Islam, and was a nation before that.

2. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel.

3. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 B.C., the Jews have had dominion over the land for 1,000 years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years.

4. The Arabs conquered Palestine in 635 AD, stealing it from its legitimate Jewish rulers, who had evicted the Byzantines while being led by a woman general, one Hefzibah, who then restored Jewish sovereignty. Palestine was stolen from the Jews by the Arabs and not the other way around. Arab sovereignty over Palestine ended in 1071 when the area was conquered by Seljuk Turks. â€œPalestinianâ€ Arabs never held sovereignty over â€œPalestineâ€ and cannot even pronounce the name of their supposed â€œhomelandâ€. They cannot say â€œPalestineâ€.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Sacrificing Israel--Krauthammer
--> Posted to Israel for October, 2004

The centerpiece of John Kerry's foreign policy is to rebuild our alliances so the world will come to our aid, especially in Iraq. He repeats this endlessly because it is the only foreign policy idea he has to offer. The problem for Kerry is that he cannot explain just how he proposes to do this.

The mere appearance of a Europhilic fresh face is unlikely to so thrill the allies that French troops will start marching down the streets of Baghdad. Therefore, you can believe that Kerry is just being cynical in pledging to bring in the allies, knowing that he has no way of doing it. Or you can believe, as I do, that he means it.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Israelis Have Been Had
--> Posted to Israel for August, 2004

Israelis have been had... many times

Yesha Council head Bentzi Lieberman recently said that Israel was supposed to be submitting to the Americans up-to-date aerial maps specifying the precise construction boundaries of each and every Jewish community in Judea and Samaria. "What this means is that not only are we giving up Gaza," Lieberman warned, "but the entire future of the remainder of the settlements is in doubt. As usual, the Prime Minister is hiding certain parts of the agreement, and is in fact deceiving us - and the ministers are ignoring this. Contrary to the impression that he has safeguarded the future of the settlement blocs, they are actually in grave danger," he said, according to a report in Israel National News.

Notwithstanding, PM Sharon assured us that by retreating from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, Israel would ensure its ability to keep the settlement blocs. It now appears that we have been had. But it is not the first time.
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Glaring Double Standards For Israel--Farah
--> Posted to Israel for May, 2004

Glaring double-standards for Israel

Just about the same time the United Nations was condemning Israel for its anti-terrorism operations in the Gaza Strip, the United States found itself under international fire for bombing a wedding party and killing innocent Arabs in Iraq.

Israel is defending itself in Gaza - the source of hundreds of terrorist attacks on Israel and on Jewish civilians who live in territory.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Not Even One Settlement Should Be Removed
--> Posted to Israel for February, 2004

Not even one "settlement" must be removed

Regarding the issue of removing Jewish communities ("settlements") from so-called Arab territories, there is no legitimate reason whatsoever for removing even one. Moreover, there is every practical reason for leaving each and every one of them in place.

To begin with, the fundamental, underlying motivation for removing Jewish settlements is hopelessly flawed. Why must all Arab territories - disputed or otherwise - be Judenrein (Jew-free) as a pre-condition to any negotiated settlement? Isn't that racism? Doesn't that very premise promote apartheid, rather than serve to heal old wounds? Wouldn't the very same requirement then hold true for "Israel proper," in which over a million Arab Israelis live and work in relative peace?

Secondly, the willingness to dismantle existing settlements is and always has been considered a grave weakness in the eyes of the Arab world - a weakness that only encourages the enemy and strengthens their terror infrastructures, including the master terrorist himself, Abdul Rauf el-Codba el-Husseini, aka Yasser Arafat, and his henchmen in the PLO.
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Israel's Re-Birth Unprecedented In Human History
--> Posted to Israel for October, 2003

The re-birth of Israel is an unprecedented phenomenon in human history.

The yearning for the land of Israel never left the Jewish people.

We see it in Psalms that Jews constantly recited: "If I forget you, O Jerusalem ..." or "When the Lord brings about our return to Zion, we will be like dreamers..."

In the statements of the rabbis, such as this one by Rabbi Nachman of Breslav: "Wherever I go I'm always going to Israel."

We see it in Jewish poetry, such as that of Yehuda HaLevi: "My heart is in the East but I am in the most far West."

In holiday rituals: "Next year in Jerusalem."

And, of course, in countless blessings recited daily: "Have mercy, Lord our God, on Israel your people, on Jerusalem, your city, on Zion... Rebuild Jerusalem, your holy city, speedily in our days, and bring us there to rejoice in its rebuilding..."
View Full Article

« Back to Headlines

Survival Of The Jews: Proof God Is Still On The Throne--Kinsella
--> Posted to Israel for September, 2003

The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest

Vol: 24 Issue: 13 - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - Plain Text

Doing God 'Service'

At the heart of most anti-Israeli or anti-Zionist arguments is the
contention that the modern day Israeli is an imposter. The Zionists of
Israel, say both the Arabs and the Christian replacement theologians, are
not the Jews of the Bible.

The Biblical Jews are lost to history, they say, and the modern claimants
have no standing. The following is from a homily given by Fr. Louis
Campbell in the October, 2002 edition of the Daily Catholic.

"Officials at the Vatican are pretending that the modern state of Israel
can lay claim to the promises God made to Abraham, which would mean that
the Jews have a divine right to claim the whole territory between the Nile
and the Euphrates. John Paul II supports the false claims of Jewish
Zionism, thus contributing to the cause of war in the Middle East.

For if, as the Church has always taught, the Scriptures say that the
promises were fulfilled in Jesus Christ and His Church, how can it be said
at the same time that God promised Jerusalem to the Jews? To affirm one
interpretation is to deny the other. To support the false claims of the
Jewish Zionists is to deny the Church its inheritance and to scandalize
the little ones-faithful Catholics. '…You are a scandal to Me; for you do
not mind the things of God, but those of men' (Mt.16:23)."

To make this theological reason for opposing Israel work, it is necessary
to 'spiritualize' the Jews and thus delegitimize the current claimants to
the literal seed of Abraham. If God is done with the Jews, the thinking
goes, then there are no remaining Chosen People and the state of Israel is
populated by imposters claiming to be historical Jews.

The world denies Israel's claim to the land on a similar basis. Instead of
spiritualizing the Jews out of literal existence, the world denies the
basis for the argument by denying the legitimacy of Scripture.

Here's how the carnal reasoning works. Since the Bible is not true, the
Jews have no legitimate claim to a Jewish state, since there is no
independent evidence of a historical Abraham to receive the Promise or
Moses to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land.

Got all that? It's a little hard to explain it the way they do and sound
convincing. That's because it isn't true, so it takes real artist to make
believable.

The day following the Israeli cabinet decision to expel Yasser Arafat,
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said many calls 'of concern' came
in from governments across the world. "They're asking us to do nothing
against Yasser Arafat," he said.

Then he asked the sixty-four thousand dollar question; "Has the world
turned on its head?"

Assessment:

Indeed, it would appear that it has. The Jew is reviled the world over,
mostly for the crime of killing Christ. What is fascinating is that even
people who deny Christ will justify their antisemitism using the same
libel.

Why do I say it is a 'libel' -- a historical untruth? After all, when
Pilate washed his hands of responsibility for the execution of Jesus,
saying, "I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it,"
the Jewish mob chanted in reply, "His blood be on us, and on our
children." (Mathew 27:24-25)

Jesus was tried and convicted by the Jewish Supreme Court, the Sanhedrin,
in an illegal trial in which no fewer than 13 Jewish laws were broken.
Since the Jews, being an occupied province of Rome, were not sovereign,
their courts could not order an execution. Which is why they took it to
Pilate in the first place.

So, if the Jews themselves, following an illegal trial, had Jesus murdered
at the hands of an unwilling occupation authority who would have preferred
to have released Him, why is it a 'libel' to call Jews 'Christ-killers?'

Jesus told his disciples, "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay
down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I
lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to
take it again." (John 10:17-18)

No man could have TAKEN Jesus' life. Not Pilate, not the Jews, not Satan
or his legions. In the Temptation in the Wilderness, Satan quoted Psalms
91:11-12, which says, "For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to
keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest
thou dash thy foot against a stone." If Jesus alone had the power lay down
His life, and that no man could 'take' it, then the crime cannot be laid
to any human being's charge. Indeed, at the Cross, Jesus cried, "Father,
forgive them; for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34)

If Jesus pronounced their forgiveness at the Cross for participating in a
pre-ordained and necessary sacrifice in which Jesus VOLUNTARILY laid down
His life as a propitiation for all sin, how then, can the modern Jews be
responsible for the sins of their fathers? Especially when the One against
Whom they sinned had already forgiven them at the Cross for their
participation?

In John 16:1-2, Jesus tells His disciples(all Jews of Israel), "These
things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall
put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever
killeth you will think that he doeth God service."

What an incredible prophecy! Not only were the Jews put out of the
synagogues at some point in history in virtually every country they had
adopted, the persecution of the Jews was always for the specific crime of
being the 'killers of Christ'.

History is filled with stories of pogroms, confiscations, expulsions,
attempted genocide and persecutions against Jews, all in the Name of
Christ.

But the Jews not only survived with their ancient language, culture,
dietary and religious laws and religious traditions intact, they returned
to the Land of Promise, as the Bible said they would do in the last days.

To the world, the existence of Israel is a thorn in its collective side.
Because Israel is a thorn in the side of the god of this world. He has
thrown everything he could at the Jew for two thousand years, trying to
wipe him from the face of the earth and break God's prophetic promise of
Israel's national redemption in the last days.

The survival of the Jew, and the restoration of Israel to the land is
proof positive that God remains on the Throne, that His Word will NOT
return to Him void, and that all the chaos and terror of the world
notwithstanding, all continues to go according to His plan. And, that
these ARE the last days.

"But these things have I told you, that WHEN THE TIME SHALL COME, ye may
remember that I told you of them." (John 16:4)

« Back to Headlines

The World's Abysmal Treatment of Israel: Hal Lindsey
--> Posted to Israel for August, 2003

Sitting on the fence

The latest in a series of Israeli "impediments" to peace, according to the Palestinians, is the construction of a 360-mile, 25-foot-high fence designed to keep Palestinian terrorists out of Israel.

Previous Israeli "impediments" to peace included Israel's insistence that the Palestinian side do something to fulfill, in some small way, its own obligations.

For example, the roadmap called for an unconditional and permanent cessation of hostilities. What the Palestinians offered (and Israel was forced to accept) was a conditional cease-fire.

View Full Article

« Back to Headlines