No. 141
Planned Palestinian City
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Secrets of Ein Gedi
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Evangelicals in Israel
FREEDOM OF WORSHIP?
ÂŁ 2.50
No Jewish Prayers on the Temple Mount
November 2010
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www.israeltoday.co.il
printed in Israel
Politics
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Shalom Haverim,
PEOPLE
Dear Friends,
Aviel Schneider and the israel today editorial staff
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Star Couple at Tel Aviv Expo
Arab Press
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Islam Will Conquer the World
Palestinians
10 Why Do Arab Kids Throw Stones? Focus on Jerusalem
11 Jerusalem Arabs Don’t Want to Live in ‘Palestine’ Diaspora
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Rothschild Makes ‘Aliyah’
Word From Jerusalem
14 God’s Blueprint For Building BIBLE STUDY
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15 Why Should We Bless Israel?
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The Land
16 The Secrets of Ein Gedi Debate
18 Did the Jews Steal the Land from the Arabs? Prophecy
19 The Seventh Church of Revelation Christians
20 Christians Support the Settlements Messianic Jews
21 Joseph Bau - Jesus as Holocaust Survivor COVER - HOLY GROUND: An Orthodox Jew on the Temple Mount
The Western world, or so-called Christian West, preaches the importance of loving your enemy, even here in the troubled Middle East. It is much easier, however, to talk about love than to practice it. The Christian ethic to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” is often expected of your neighbor but not necessarily yourself. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman may be Israel’s top diplomat, but the Russian-born former bouncer is not known for diplomacy. So when he hosted the foreign ministers of Spain and France in Jerusalem, the refined European diplomats were shocked when he told them to practice what they preach: “You should solve your own problems in Europe before you come to us with complaints,” he said. “Maybe then I will be open to accepting your suggestions.” When I took my son Tomer to the emergency room after he broke his finger, I realized that the Christian teaching to love your enemies is being practiced daily, but not necessarily by Christians. One can see in every Israeli hospital—in a region considered a war zone by the Christian West—Jewish doctors treating Arab patients, equally. On a national level, Israelis and Palestinians are enemies; but on a personal level, Jewish doctors treat FAIR TREATMENT Arab patients and Israeli A Jewish doctor treats an Arab patient Arab doctors treat Jewish patients. In the waiting room, I was surrounded by nonChristians, both Arabs and Jews, one of whom told me: “What is the sense of these peace talks if we do not learn to love each other? Without love, life makes no sense.” The others nodded in agreement. That reminded me of the famous words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 13: “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal… But now faith, hope and love abide these three. But the greatest of these is love.”
The People Are More Right-Wing than the Government Welcome to Rawabi For God and Country
Jewish Affairs
22 Blow a Trumpet in Zion! Archaeology
23 Bronze Age Document culture
24 Israeli Supermodel Is a Knockout
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MILITARY
27 Remembering a Heroine Nature
28 Titanic Discoverer Probes Israeli Coast Economy
29 Electricity from Traffic In Brief
30 Don’t Forget To Vote! 31 World’s Oldest Jew Dies at 111
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Publisher: nai – israel today | Founder of nai: Ludwig Schneider | Editor-in-Chief: Aviel Schneider | Co-Editor & Art Director: Michael Schneider | Senior Editor/Correspondent: Shlomo Mordechai | Editor: Barry Rosenfeld | Website/Staff Writer: Ryan Jones | Managing Editor/Director of Marketing: Lorraine Rubinow | Administrator: Daniel Goldstein Biblical Commentary, Word from Jerusalem, Debate, Prophecy: Ludwig Schneider | Politics, Focus on Jerusalem, Arab Press: Aviel Schneider, Ryan Jones | Messianic Jews, The Land, Profile, In Brief: Michael Schneider, Tzvi Sadan | Military, Tourism, Nature, Archeology, Jewish Affairs: Netanel Doron | Christians, Diaspora, Culture, Economy: Judith Jeries | Islam: Victor Mordechai | Text Advisor: Dov Chaikin | Financial Director: Anat Schneider | Translator: Judith Jeries, Beverly Bayliss | Graphic Designer: Pavel Permyakov, Larisa Kaplan Israel Today magazine – a monthly publication from Jerusalem | 1 Year Subscription: $43 US, IL / £30 UK / $49 US all other countries • 2 Years: $75 US / £53 UK / $86 US all other countries • 3 Years: $99 US / £70 UK / $115 US all other countries • IT Electronic Edition (1 Year): $25 US / £18 UK /$25 US all other countries | Contact information: Israel Today, 1 Shmuel HaNagid St. P.O. Box 7555 Jerusalem 91070, Israel | Tel: +972.2.622.6881 | Fax: +972.2.622.6882 | TOLL FREE ORDERING: 1.866.854.1684 (North America) | 00.800.60.70.70.60 (UK/Norway/) | www.israeltoday.co.il | www.jerusalemdepot.com (subscribe online)
Politics
A Muslim and an Israeli Soldier He is a Muslim from the Galilee and a soldier in the elite Golani Brigade
“I
am proud to serve in the Israeli army,” says Ziad Hurani, 21, from the Arab village Aqabara near Safed in the Galilee. “Many people are surprised that I serve in the military, but I live in a country that has given me a lot.” Ziad, who has been bestowed with the honor of Outstanding Soldier, is among a growing number of Israeli Arabs who join the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to serve alongside the Jewish majority. It’s a biblical concept. Wasn’t Uriah the Hittite also a proud soldier in the army of King David? The Hittites were enemies of Israel, but Uriah was a brave warrior who devotedly served the King on the battlefield (2 Samuel 11). In the August-September edition of israel today, we reported on our unique meeting with Israeli Arabs who were not averse to participating in the three years of military service that is mandatory for Jews. It was already dark when we drove with Nusseibah Khattib, 29, and Kaba’a Said, 37, into the Arab village of Arara back then. There we met with Youssef Jaja, whose three sons serve in the IDF.
STANDING WITH ISRAEL: Ziad Hurani
Six years ago, his son Said was killed in a bombing at his base in the Gaza Strip. Youssef set up a memorial plaque in his courtyard, not only for his son but also for all the fallen Arab soldiers in the area.
“We live with each other and have to defend our country shoulder to shoulder,” Jaja told israel today. “At first, villagers were suspicious. But a lot has changed today. More than 50 Arabs from this area join the Israeli army each year.” During Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles), Ziad represented the Golani soldiers in the official sukkah (hut) of outgoing Army Chief Gabi Ashkenazi. “I was honored,” he said. Ziad recounts how he was asked by many of his Jewish comrades why he would join a combat unit like Golani as a Muslim. “I enjoy every moment with the unit,” he says. “I have never encountered anything like racism on the part of the Jewish soldiers. On the contrary, every time I am on holiday, I yearn for my comrades.” Ziad’s fellow soldiers say they trust him blindly in every circumstance and no matter what the operation. I myself can understand this very well. I served alongside Arab soldiers time and again in the Security Zone in South Lebanon and along the Egyptian border during my regular military service in the 1980s and later during 20 years of reserve duty. Ziad Hurani likes to spend the weekend at home in his village. A soldier is not allowed to tell civilians much about his military service, but he helps his Muslim neighbors understand that the Israeli army is a necessity. And he tries to persuade Arab youth to join the IDF. “I think it’s important that Arabs serve in the army,” he says. “Israel is our country too. That is why we should contribute to its defense.” Y By Aviel S chneider
MEMORIAL to fallen Arab soldiers
November 2010 | 3
Politics
The People Are More Right-Wing than the Government This could be why the government is not making quick progress toward peace. While Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas may be the darling of the West because of his perceived “moderation,” Israeli Jews remain skeptical. A whopping 70 percent, according to our poll, do not believe that Abbas wants peace. Only 22 percent believe that the Palestinian Authority is sincere about peace with Israel, compared to 52 percent among Israeli Arabs.
The People Expect War ‘EUROPE APPEASED HITLER’: Israeli FM Lieberman (center) tells French FM Kouchner (right) and Spanish FM Moratinos that Israel will not be the ‘Czechoslovakia of 2010’
T
he government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is condemned by the nations (goyim in Hebrew) because of its policies toward the Palestinians. Everything seems to depend on one question: Will Israel continue to build in Judea and Samaria (the so-called “West Bank”) and East Jerusalem, or will it heed international demands to stop? From Washington to Brussels to the Arab League in Cairo, the view is that continued Israeli construction in the biblical Land of Israel will destroy the prospects for peace. The international media often draw a distinction between the government and general public, as if the people are dissatisfied with their right-wing leadership. Of course, many Israelis disagree with Netanyahu and his nationalist Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. But the left-wing writers, intellectuals, politicians and journalists who are frequently interviewed in the media do not represent the majority. To find out where the people stand, israel today commissioned a survey with the Dialogue Institute in Tel Aviv; 538 Israeli citizens were questioned in Hebrew, Russian and Arabic. 4 | November 2010 | www.israeltoday.co.il
‘I Say What the People Think’ Unlike the refined diplomacy of the US-educated Netanyahu, Lieberman is a former bouncer from Russia who shoots from the hip. So instead of the dreamy talk of “peace and security,” he has ruffled feathers with a dose of reality. Lieberman told the UN that a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “could take a few decades,” in contrast to the stated goal of the US for an agreement in a year. Then he explained the comment on Israel Radio: “Anyone who says that within the next few years an agreement can be reached ending the conflict...simply doesn’t understand the situation and spreads illusions, ultimately leading to disappointments and an all-out confrontation here.” Lieberman got a lot of bad press for the remarks both abroad and in the leftwing Israeli media. But according to the Dialogue survey, more than half of the Jewish population, 54 percent, approved of his remarks. Among Israeli Arabs, 38 percent consider peace in this generation as unrealistic. As Lieberman said in his own defense, “I say what the people think.”
This skepticism is due to long years of fruitless negotiations—and three wars in the last decade: the Second Intifada (Palestinian uprising) from 2000 to 2004; the Second Lebanon War in 2006; and the Gaza War in 2009. Therefore, every second Israeli Jew, 49 percent, believes that there will be another war soon; 68 percent of Israeli Arabs are of the same opinion. The next war, however, will likely be with Iran rather than with the Palestinians. The poll found that 48 percent of the public supports an Israeli pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities; 38 percent are opposed and 14 percent had no opinion. Religious Jews take the most hawkish approach: 71 percent of ultra-Orthodox Jews support an Israeli attack on Iran along with 63 percent of the National-Religious camp. Israeli Arabs take the most dovish approach: only 18 percent favor a pre-emptive strike.
Cyber Warfare and Queen Esther Against that background, Israel is widely believed to be responsible for a cyber attack on the Iranian nuclear reactor at Bushehr. The New York Times reported that the word Myrtus was contained in the
Politics
Dialogue-israel today Survey Portrait of the Israeli Public Secular Traditional National-Religious Ultra-Orthodox Russian Arab Not specified
29% 20% 12% 13% 15% 9% 2%
“Israel is ready to use any means necessary to eliminate threats to its existence, among them the Iranian nuclear program, whether through cyber warfare or other methods,” an adviser to Foreign Minister Lieberman told israel today. “Israel must be prepared for every eventuality, including a military strike, if other options fail.” The newly-appointed Army Chief of Staff Major General Yoav Galant, unlike current army chief Gabi Ashkenazi, supports an Israeli pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities as a last resort. Galant takes up the position in February 2011.
Israelis Do not Trust Obama It has become clear with the election of President Barack Obama that if Israel doesn’t stop Iran, no one will. According to the survey, only 18 percent of Israelis believe that Obama is committed to Israel’s security; 51 percent believe he puts the interests of Muslims above that of the Jews; and 33 percent are undecided. Many Jewish voters in the US have also lost confidence in the President. In the previous election, 78 percent of American Jews voted for Obama; but only 42 percent would vote for him today, according to a poll by the McLaughlin Group. Among those admitting that they made a mistake are American-Israeli billionaire Haim Saban, one of the biggest donors to the Democratic Party, and former New York Mayor Ed Koch. In our May 2010 issue, we reported on the diplomatic crisis between Je-
rusalem and Washington and how Israeli newspapers quoted political circles close to Netanyahu as saying that Obama was a “strategic catastrophe” for Israel. “Israel’s relations with the US have hit rock bottom,” wrote commentator Nachum Barnea in Israel’s biggest newspaper Yediot Ahronot. “Obama poses a danger to Israel.” That point of view may be too extreme for the majority here. According to the survey, 54 percent of Israeli Jews and 82 percent of Israeli Arabs do not see Obama as a danger to Israel; 38 percent of the Jewish population, however, does see him as a strategic threat.
Jews for Christians Finally, Israeli attitudes toward Christians are changing for the better despite the troubled history between Jews and the Church. Our poll found that 61 percent of Israeli Jews regard the visit of thousands of Christians from around the world for the Feast of Tabernacles (see page 20) as positive; only 22 percent saw it as negative. In a further breakdown, 71 percent of secular Jews see Christian support in a positive light, along with 70 percent of traditional Jews, 57 percent of the National-Religious camp and 41 percent of the ultra-Orthodox. The more religious the population, the more skeptical its attitude toward Christians. But despite the campaigns of antimissionary organizations, the majority of Israelis regard the Christian supporters of Israel as friends and partners. Y By Aviel S chneider
WELCOME! Israelis have a positive view of Evangelical Christians who attended the Feast of Tabernacles
Photo: ICEJ
code of the Stuxnet virus which attacked the facility. Myrtus is the Latin word for “myrtle,” which is hadas in Hebrew. Hadassah is also the Hebrew version of Queen Esther's name (Esther 2:7), and that could help unravel the mystery. As then, as now: The biblical Esther uncovered a Persian conspiracy and was brought into the king’s court to prevent the annihilation of the Jewish people. Likewise, this “Cyber Esther” computer worm was smuggled into Bushehr to paralyze the Iranian uranium enrichment plant and ultimately thwart the plan to annihilate the Jewish state. “It is no secret that Israel’s cyber defense is among the best in the world,” a computer expert at the Israeli hi-tech company Checkpoint told israel today. “But this also applies to cyber offense.” Other Israeli experts agree. “The Stuxnet computer worm is a damaging code which was already known to cyber defense analysts five months ago,” said Shai Blitzblau, director of the computer warfare laboratory Maglan. “The virus has penetrated the defense systems of thousands of computers worldwide, including in the US, India, France, Cuba, Pakistan and Russia. But it only made international headlines after the cyber attack on Bushehr.” Israel has not been hit by the virus, but officials in Jerusalem neither confirm nor deny involvement.
Political Affiliation Right-wing Right-wing to center Center Center to left-wing Left-wing Not specified
38% 10% 21% 7% 9% 16% www.israeltoday.co.il | October 2010 | 5
politics
STAKING A CLAIM Rawabi helps cement the Palestinian claim to the Land
Welcome to Rawabi T
here may be a construction freeze in Judea and Samaria, but it is only for the Jews. In the eyes of the international community, the biblical heartland, promised by God to the Jewish people, belongs to the Palestinian Arabs. So while there is an outcry over the construction—or planned construction— of every Jewish house, the world is silent about the current Palestinian building boom. Hundreds of homes and apartments are going up in Area A (under full Palestinian control), in Area B (under Israel security control) and in Area C (under full Israeli control). The most glaring example is the first “planned” Palestinian city—Rawabi—located about 20 miles (33 km.) north of Jerusalem. “Every apartment will have a very nice view,” said Palestinian real estate entrepreneur Bashar Masri, 50, who is heading the project with investors from Qatar. The first article of a glossy brochure promoting Rawabi is entitled, “Preserving the Best of Palestine.” The city will offer 5,000 jobs, many of them in an industrial park. Rawabi, which is Arabic for “hill,” will have schools, a hospital, mosques, a train station, parks and restaurants. The planners are striving for a modern, middle-class flair which is attractive to young people who care about the environment. 6 | November 2010 | www.israeltoday.co.il
A total of 40,000 apartments are planned, with 5,000 to be built in the first phase. The average cost of a threeroom apartment will be about $62,000, which is five times cheaper than in Israel. Monthly mortgage payments will range from $400 to $700. Despite the hype, many Palestinians are unhappy about the $800 million project. Some feel it will encroach on traditional, village life and be an eyesore on the landscape. Others believe it will raise real estate prices and add to the economic difficulties in the Palestinian territories. “We will earn much less money building these apartments than we would working in the Jewish settlements,” Rassan, a 43 year-old Palestinian from the nearby village of Atara, told israel today. He and many others are concerned by plans of the Palestinian Authority to bar construction workers from their jobs in the settlements. “No one in the world cries out against our hill, Rawabi; but your Har [hill] Homa in Jerusalem is the center of attention of the whole world,” said Haled Kassami, 33, of Nablus. “But you still manage to live there. With us, I am not sure that this project will succeed.” Jewish settlers and hawks in the Israeli government hope he is right. They
see Rawabi as a threat and want the project scrapped. The ball is in Israel’s court because an access road to the area depends on its approval. In a visit to Rawabi, Environment Minister Gilad Erdan of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party said he would try to block construction of the road until problems like sewage, garbage disposal and soil pollution are resolved. “We want to help the Palestinian economy,” he said, “but the building of a city should not interfere with the protection of the environment.” Palestinian officials and developers said the environmental issue is just an Israeli excuse to prevent the building of the city. The success or failure of the project has enormous implications, not so much for the future of the peace process as for the future of Zionism. The building of such a city would create a major fact on the ground and be another nail in the coffin of Jewish claims to the Land of Israel. It is a crucial test case for Netanyahu, who so far has only paid lip service to Palestinian statehood. If he allows Rawabi to go ahead, then he really does intend to establish a Palestinian state and relinquish Israel’s claims to half of the biblical homeland. At the very least, Israel should block the project as long as Jewish construction in the disputed territories is taboo. Y By Aviel S chnei der & Shl omo Mordechai
MODEL CITY: Israeli settlers and hawks want the project scrapped
politics
Loyalty Oath Sparks Controversy I
srael’s Cabinet approved a controversial loyalty oath that requires new citizens to pledge allegiance to a “Jewish and democratic” state. “There is no other democracy in the Middle East. There is no other Jewish state in the world,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The combination of these two exalted values...expresses...the essence of the State of Israel and whoever wants to join us must acknowledge this.” The bill, which must be passed by the Knesset (parliament) to become law, is largely symbolic because it only applies to new citizens. But Israeli Arabs, who make up 20 percent of the population and who tend to identify with their Palestinian brothers, describe the loyalty oath as racist. The Arabs say they should not have to pledge allegiance to a Jewish state that practices discrimination. The oath’s “purpose is to solidify the inferior status of Arabs by law,” said Arab Knesset member Ahmad Tibi. “Netanyahu and his government are limiting the sphere of democracy and deepening the prejudice against the Arab minority.” The loyalty oath is also linked to an Israeli demand in peace talks, that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a “Jewish” state. The Palestinians have refused on grounds that it harms the rights of Israeli Arabs and the socalled “right of return”—which calls for the return of millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to their former homes in Israel. Spiritually, it is a pathetic state of affairs if the Jewish people have to beg the Palestinian Muslims for recognition of their God-given claim to the biblical Land of Israel. This means that Israel is looking to man, not God. Politically, the loyalty oath underscores a predicament. First, Israeli Arabs, who enjoy all the benefits of
citizenship, are more loyal to the Palestinian cause than to the State of Israel. This creates the danger of a fifth column. Second, it shows the ultimate goal of the Palestinians: If they want to add millions of “refugees” to the 20 percent of the population which is already Arab, then their goal is to destroy Israel demographically and turn the Jewish state into a Palestinian state. So while Hamas and the Palestinian Authority may have different tactics, their aspirations are very much the same. Y By Shl omo Mordechai
CALLING THE SHOTS PM Netanyahu backed the loyalty oath, but it is the brainchild of FM Lieberman
THE WORD AND THE SWORD About one third of IDF officers are religious
For God and Country
T
he Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have always had a biblical element. Top IDF commanders, be they religious or secular, have never shied away from invoking biblical military heroes to inspire their troops. The IDF has been a bastion of neutrality in a nation increasingly torn by a religious-secular divide. Nevertheless, researchers at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies expressed surprise when the vast majority of Israelis said they didn’t mind that a growing number of IDF commanders are from the national-religious camp, which sees the State of Israel as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. The poll showed that 79 percent of Israelis are “not concerned at all” that 35 percent of IDF commanders holding a rank of captain or higher are religious. Just 20 years ago, only 2.5 percent were religious. While Orthodox Jews have proven to be excellent officers, the Begin-Sadat Center feared that they would be more prone to refuse government orders to uproot settlements in Judea and Samaria. That kind of politicization of military orders is reflected in Israel’s leftwing media, which berated the few commanders who refused orders to expel the Jews of Gaza in 2005 but are sympathetic toward soldiers who refuse to serve in the disputed territories. While that disturbs the media and dovish academics like those at the BeginSadat Center, the poll shows they are a vocal minority and that most Israelis have no problem with the army being led by people of faith whose motivation is rooted in the Bible. Y By Ryan Jones
www.israeltoday.co.il | November 2010 | 7
PEOPLE
Star Couple at Tel Aviv Expo
H
ollywood stars Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore visited Israel by invitation of telecommunications giant Bezek to promote Internet-based social networking. Kutcher is the third most popular member of Twitter, with close to 6 million followers. “A lot of times my wife and I sit across from each other and tweet,” said Kutcher at the Bezek Expo. “It’s a little bizarre. It’s the same reason you send roses to a woman at work. Sometimes people like to be adored in public.”
Kutcher, the 32-year-old former star of the TV sitcom That ‘70s Show, offered tips on how to use new forms of networking to market Israel. The couple, who are avid followers of Jewish mysticism, was also hosted by the Tel Aviv Kabbalah Center. They were married at the Kabbalah Center in Los Angeles in 2005, after being introduced to the teachings by their friend Madonna. Kutcher and Moore visited the Western Wall and then traveled to the Galilee with Rabbi Yehuda Berg, the director of the Tel Aviv Kabbalah Center. Y
TWITTERISM AND MYSTICISM Kutcher and Moore are caught by the paparazzi
‘Barney’ Attends Film Festival
THE OSBOURNES bring their act to Israel
Black Sabbath in the Holy Land
L
egendary British heavy metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne visited Israel for the first time with his wife and personal manager Sharon. Prior to his sold-out concert in Tel Aviv, Osbourne toured the holy places in Jerusalem, including the Western Wall and Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Then he visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. Osbourne, the former lead singer of Black Sabbath, came to Israel despite a wave of cancellations by other international artists in the wake of the flotilla affair last June. Osbourne told a Tel Aviv news conference that he tries to stay away from politics because “I wouldn't know what I was talking about.” Sharon added that “Britain has the IRA and no one cancels concerts there.” Asked why it took him so long to arrive, Osbourne said, “I don't know. I was drunk for years.” He said the country made a “great impression. We were very pleased to have the opportunity to come to Israel and visit the holy sites in the Old City.” Y 8 | November 2010 | www.israeltoday.co.il
American actor Paul Giamatti, 43, joined producer Robert Lantos to present their new film Barney's Version at the Haifa International Film Festival. It is the story of a bad-tempered Jewish TV producer and his father, played by Dustin Hoffman. Lantos said the film has a Jewish theme but is not particularly Jewish. In one scene, Giamatti explained, Barney visited his mother’s grave, and since it is a Jewish cemetery there was a question as to whether skull caps were called for. “Dustin and I didn’t think they would be wearing the kippahs,” said the actor. After conferring by phone with several rabbis, all of whom said that the skullcap was required at a Jewish cemetery, Lantos decided to leave it out with the option of adding it later using CGI (computer generated imagery). Y
BITTERSWEET COMEDY: Giamatti (right) and Lantos promote their flick
C ompiled by Barry Rosenfeld
Arab Press
All of Israel Is Palestine
D
espite the peace talks, government-controlled Palestinian Television continues to broadcast programs teaching young Arabs that Israel has no right to exist. Palestinian TV, which is under the direct control of the office of President Mahmoud Abbas, broadcast an educational documentary that presents Haifa, Ashkelon, Jaffa and the Sea of Galilee as Palestinian, even though they are ostensibly in undisputed territory in Israel proper. According to the documentary: “The West Bank and Gaza have another section in Palestine which is the Palestinian coast that spreads along the [Mediterranean] sea,
from...Ashkelon in the south up to Haifa [in the north]...Haifa is a well-known Palestinian port that enjoyed a high status among Arabs and Palestinians before it fell to the occupation [Israel] in 1948. [To the] east we reach a city with history and importance, the city of Tiberias, near a famous lake, the Sea of Galilee. Jaffa, an ancient coastal city, is the bride of the sea, and Palestine’s gateway to the world.” Such programming ensures that even if a peace agreement is reached, future generations of Palestinians will see Israeli concessions in Judea and Samaria as insufficient and will eventually demand the rest of the Land of Israel as well.
arab Political cartoons
‘Islam Will Conquer the World’
E
gypt’s Al-Nas TV featured a Friday sermon by Muslim cleric Salem Abu Al-Futuh, who confidently predicted that Islam will soon conquer the West, starting with Europe. “The West is bound to be destroyed,” said Al-Futuh. “Just like Allah destroyed the Byzantine and Persian empires, he will destroy the West at the hands of the Muslims. This is an unequivocal promise. These countries will convert to Islam. Islam will reach these countries.” The young preacher went on to explain how this conquest would unfold:
“Let’s examine the divine sequence: First, the Caliphate [rule by a monarch descended from the Prophet Mohammed] will return. Then, the Muslims will live in tremendous prosperity. The economy of the Muslims will be the strongest of all... Great conquests will ensue. We will conquer Italy and move into [the rest of] Europe. Islam will enter that entire region.” After the fall of Europe, America will be next. “Even America, both North and South America—We will enter all these countries, and people there will be joining Islam in droves.”
Peace or Armed Struggle?
A
nother example of the Palestinian Authority’s duplicitous approach to peace talks was a Palestinian TV broadcast of a music video that is growing in popularity. The clip shows Palestinian dancers in full military garb prancing about with rifles raised in the air. “My weapon has emerged...There is no force in the world that can remove the weapon from my hand,” the lyrics say. “He who offers his blood doesn’t care if his blood flows upon the ground.” C ompiled by Ryan Jones
www.israeltoday.co.il | November 2010 | 9
P A L E STI N I A N S
Why Do Arab Kids Throw Stones?
S
uicide bombings may be down (due primarily to more successful Israeli security measures), but a steep rise in the number of stoning attacks, particularly in East Jerusalem, has Israeli lawmakers asking why Arab children are so intent on assaulting their neighbors and putting their own lives at risk. During the first half of 2010, Jerusalem police arrested 76 people for stone throwing. Of them, 30 were between the ages of 12 and 18. In 17 of the cases, the violence was so severe that an indictment was served. The Knesset (parliament) Child Welfare Committee decided to address the issue in the aftermath of a near-lynch of a Jewish resident of Silwan (the biblical City of David), a predominately Arab neighborhood in disputed East Jerusalem. David Be’eri, the head of Silwan’s small Jewish community, was attacked by young Arab stone throwers as he drove through the neighborhood with his own young son. Foreign journalists photographed a frightened Be’eri hitting a stone thrower with his car as he tried frantically to speed away from a life-threatening situation. The dramatic video of a child being flipped in the air and tumbling onto the street topped Israeli and Arab TV broadcasts. Israel’s left-wing media and the international press accused Be’eri of using deadly force, but a security camera video revealed that he desperately swerved to miss another stone-throwing child. It was also later questioned how news cameramen just happened to be at the scene of the attack. Staging events to put Israel in a bad light is an old Palestinian propaganda tactic. “We don’t want to see any children injured, period,” Child Welfare Committee chairman Danny Danon of the ruling Likud party told the gathering of
VIOLENCE WITH IMPUNITY: Minors cannot be prosecuted
lawmakers. “But we also don’t want to see children involved in negative activities.” Danon presented a series of photographs showing an average Arab child from East Jerusalem walking to school in the morning. Along the way, he casually stops several times to pick up stones and hurl them at passing Israeli cars. Police representatives at the meeting said one of the main problems is that many of these stone throwers are minors under the age of 12, so they cannot be prosecuted. Instead, police must speak to the parents, who are often simply ambivalent. Meir Indor, the head of the Almagor Terror Victim’s Association, testified that he was attacked by stone-throwing Arab youth near the Mount of Olives. “Every time a child throws a stone, they should arrest the father,” he said. “This worked in Judea and Samaria and it could work here.” Arab lawmakers at the meeting were outraged, turning the aggressors into victims and the victim into the aggressor. “This meeting was organized because a kid was thrown into the air, and you guys are like a party of drunk people who have lost your heads!” shouted Knesset
IN HARM’S WAY: A stonethrower is hit by a car
member Ahmad Tibi, a former advisor to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. He described the Jews living in Silwan as a “company of fanatics,” implying that they deserve to be attacked. Fellow Arab lawmaker Taleb A-Sanaa insisted that the only issue at hand was “the settler’s rampage.” After being ejected from the meeting because of his raucous behavior, A-Sanaa told reporters, “Instead of protecting children whose rights are being trampled, discussions are being held about the rights of settlers who have nothing to do in Silwan and in the Palestinian territories.” It is little wonder that such violence is on the rise when the authority figures for these Arab youth, from their parents to elected officials, fervently defend their right to engage in stone-throwing attacks and then rebuke Israeli Jews for daring to respond. Anywhere else in the world, this is called child abuse. Y
SLINGSHOT: Kids take over the front lines
By Ryan Jones
Focus on Jerusalem
ISLAMIC STRONGHOLD Ironically, Muslims control the holiest place in Judaism
Cover Story
I
Freedom of Worship?
srael likes to boast that there has only been freedom of worship for Jews Christians and Muslims in Jerusalem when the city is under Israeli rule. But in fact, Muslims are the only ones who are allowed to pray at the holiest place in Judaism—the Temple Mount. Jews and Christians cannot worship there because the Islamic authorities who control the Mosque of Al Aksa compound do not allow it.
On a visit to the Temple Mount, settlement leader David Ha’ivri says his group was warned by an Israeli police officer: “Do not pray…Do not prostrate yourself. It is forbidden to take any action that the Muslims may see as a religious act.” This blatant violation of religious freedom is ignored by the international community, as are Israeli claims that it is evidence there will not be freedom of worship in a Palestinian state.
When Israel captured the Temple Mount in 1967, it passed the Protection of Holy Places Law. “The Holy Places shall be protected from…anything likely to violate the freedom of access of the members of the different religions to the places sacred to them,” reads the first clause. In a 1993 ruling, Israel’s Supreme Court stated that “the Temple Mount has been the holiest place [for Jews] for the past 3,000 years, ever since King Solomon erected the First Temple on Mt. Moriah [2 Chr. 3:1]...The primeval sanctity of the Temple Mount continues unabated to this day.” But settlement activist Yisrael Medad says this is a moot point because the “principle of sensitivity” has dictated all subsequent legal decisions. “The ‘principle of sensitivity’ dictates that because Muslims view the Temple Mount Courtyard as their exclusive domain and will engage in violent acts to counter any display of Jewishness, then it is in the interests of public order to prevent a Jew from exercising his legal rights,” he wrote. It is a twist of irony that in Israeliruled Jerusalem, Muslims enjoy freedom of worship at their holy places. Jews do not. Y By Ryan Jones
Jerusalem Arabs Don’t Want to Live in ‘Palestine’
T
here is no shortage of propaganda about how the Arab residents of Jerusalem are mistreated, second-class citizens who deserve to live in a Palestinian state. But a courageous article for the Hudson Institute by Khaled Abu Toameh, an Arab Muslim correspondent for The Jerusalem Post, set the record straight. “Those who think that Jerusalem can be split into two are living in an illusion,” Abu Toameh wrote. “Redividing Jerusalem will turn the lives of both Jews and Arabs into a nightmare… Every day, tens of thousands of Jews and Arabs commute between the two parts of the city freely. Redividing Jerusalem will result in the establishment of checkpoints and border crossings inside many parts of the city. Jews and Arabs will find themselves confined to their homes and neighborhoods, which will be surrounded by security barriers and checkpoints.” Abu Toameh says the voice of the 200,000 Arabs in Jerusalem must be heard: “This can be done through a referendum where the Arab residents would be asked if they would like to live in a divided city under the rule of the Palestinian Authority or Hamas. Most likely, a majority of the Arab residents would say that they prefer the status quo to the other options.”
The reason is the many benefits Jerusalem Arabs have under Israeli rule, including health care, jobs, education and law and order. And unlike the world powers, they are not anxious to repeat the same mistakes. “Redividing Jerusalem means bringing either the Palestinian Authority or Hamas into the city,” Abu Toameh says. “The Arab residents of Jerusalem have seen what happened in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the past 16 years and are not keen to live under a corrupt authority or a radical Islamist entity.” Y By Ryan Jones ‘ARAB RESIDENTS prefer the status quo’
November 2010 | 11
Diaspora
Rothschild Makes ‘Aliyah’
FROM THE ASHES of the Holocaust
Budapest Synagogue Reopened
H
ungary’s oldest synagogue was rededicated in the presence of Vice Premier Zsolt Semjén, Israel’s Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger and 1,500 members of the Hungarian Jewish community. “This is the best, most respectable answer to Nazism and antiSemitism, which once drove us out of here,” said Rabbi Metzger. “It is proof that the people of Israel live—Am Israel Chai!” The renovated Óbuda Synagogue in Budapest dates to 1820, when it replaced an earlier structure built in 1737. Since the 1960s, the building had served as a textile museum, but in recent years it had visibly decayed. More than 100,000 Jews live in Hungary today, most of them in and around Budapest. Some 600,000 Hungarian Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Y
rival at Ben-Gurion Airport, he politely refused the absorption package for new immigrants, which includes benefits such as duty free purchases on cars and appliances. He did, however, accept a dinner invitation from President Shimon Peres, a close family friend. The Rothschild family is a European dynasty of German-Jewish origin that established banks in the late 18th century. It began with Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the son of a money changer, who was born in 1744 in Frankfurt. After growing up in the city’s ghetto (called Judengasse or Jew Alley), he developed a financial empire by installing his five sons in different European cities to conduct business.
PHILANTHROPY FOR ZION: Rothschild used his wealth to purchase land in Israel
T
he State of Israel has an ongoing relationship with the famous Rothschild family, dating back to the 19th century when Baron Edmond de Rothschild helped establish the Jewish settlement of Rishon LeZion, 7 miles (12 km.) south-east of Tel Aviv. Over the years, the Jewish banker and philanthropist helped purchase large tracts of real estate in the Land of Israel. Now one of his descendants, Baron Édouard de Rothschild, has made aliyah (immigrated to Israel) from France. He lives here part of the year with his wife Arielle. Rothschild is the majority share holder of the liberal French daily Libération, the country’s third largest newspaper. An avid horse enthusiast, he competes both nationally and internationally in equestrian show jumping. Rothschild lives in the prestigious community of Kfar Shmaryahu near Tel Aviv and commutes to France to handle his business interests there. Upon ar-
EUROPEAN dynasty
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YOUNGER GENERATION Édouard de Rothschild immigrated to Israel from France at the age of 52
Édouard de Rothschild, 52, plans to compete in the equestrian competitions as a representative of Israel at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Y
H i dden T r ea s u r e s
Why Creation Begins with
Intercession for Israel
‘Now it will come about that in the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains.’ Isaiah 2:2
T
he Hebrew Bible begins with a scribal oddity which looks like this: ( בראשיתberesheet—“In the beginning”). Although Hebrew has no capital letters, the letter ( בbet), or b, here is bigger than all the other letters. In Jewish tradition, this is not a scribal error; it has significance and is therefore meticulously preserved. As one interpretation puts it: “The word beresheet hints at wisdom, as it says, resheet hokhma [‘The beginning of wisdom’ – Psalm 111:10].” Accordingly, the letter “b” signifies the wisdom from which everything begins. Wisdom is one of the 10 divine attributes—only nine of which the human mind can comprehend. The attribute no human being is even allowed to contemplate is called ayin (nothingness). This word begins with “aleph”—the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Therefore, the Bible could only begin with the second letter of the alphabet— rather than with the expected first letter, aleph. This explanation is based on Job 28:12, which in the English translation reads: “but where can wisdom be found?” But this fails to demonstrate the subtlety of the Hebrew: “Wisdom comes forth from ayin.” The fact that the Bible begins with the second letter of the alphabet indicates that the world was created by divine Wisdom—and a warning to human beings not to try to discover what existed before the creation of the world. This idea is reinforced by the shape of the Hebrew letter ב (bet): a square missing a side on its left. In other words, the letter is blocked on all sides except the left one. Since Hebrew is read from right to left, this means that whatever is on the right side of the bet of beresheet is sealed—unknown and inaccessible. Likewise, the opening on the left-hand side of the letter indicates that, from this point onwards, God begins to reveal Himself and his deeds to mankind. As a Midrash states: “Why was the world created with a bet? Just as a bet is closed at the sides but open in front, so you are not permitted to investigate what is…before and what is behind… You may speculate from the day that days were created, but you may not speculate on what was before that” (Beresheet Raba 1, 10). This shows that nothing is accidental in the Bible and that everything has meaning. As Jesus said: “Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:18). Y By Ts v i Sa dan
‘In the beginning…’
Stand in the Gap
*אבינו שבשמייםAvinu She’BaShamayim – We pray for the government (1 Timothy 2:2). Give Israeli leaders strength to withstand international pressure to hand over the Land of Israel to their Muslim enemies. Guide the peace talks and prevent Israel from falling into a trap. (Pages 4-7, 11)
*אבינו שבשמייםAvinu She’BaShamayim – Grant that the security forces will be able to prevent all violence and terror. May violators of law and order be punished. (Page 10)
*אבינו שבשמייםAvinu She’BaShamayim – Thwart all Palestinian projects to claim the Land by establishing facts on the ground, such as the planned city of Rawabi. Bring Jews back to Israel from all over the world and give a supernatural answer to the demographic threat Israel is facing from the exploding Arab population. (Pages 6, 7, 12, 22)
*אבינו שבשמייםAvinu She’BaShamayim – Enable Israel to regain its inheritance on the Temple Mount and may the Messiah come soon to reign there! Erode the power of the Muslim authorities and reveal Yeshua (Jesus) to both Jews and Arabs. (Cover; Page 11, 20, 21)
*אבינו שבשמייםAvinu She’BaShamayim – Continue to bring Bible-believing Christians to the Land to stand with Israel as intercessors. May the prayers of the faithful overcome the power of darkness that seeks to divide and drive Israel from the Land. (Pages 5, 20)
*אבינו שבשמייםAvinu She’BaShamayim – Bless the Israeli Arabs who are loyal to the Jewish state and give courage to those who are serving in the army. Remove Islamic radicalism from the Arab citizens of Israel. (Pages 3, 7)
*אבינו שבשמייםAvinu She’BaShamayim – As the winter season begins, we ask you to bring abundant and precious rain to a parched land. Fill the Sea of Galilee, Israel’s biggest reservoir which is dangerously below capacity, to the brim. Replenish the depleted Mountain and Coastal Aquifers. * Our Father in Heaven
w o r d f r o m je r u s a l e m
God’s Blueprint for Building By Ludwig Schneider
A
man sold his house at a high price. Yet for some reason he felt he had to renovate the building first, before handing it over to the new owner. So he repaired the roof and painted the walls. Proudly, he handed the house over to the buyer but was stunned when he had it demolished. The new owner was not interested in the house, only in the ground it was standing on, where he planned to build something new. Likewise, God does not want us to renovate our lives ourselves; He wants us just as we are because he has paid a high price for us (1 Corinthians 6:20). He wants to tear down the old man (house) and build a new creation on the original piece of land. God wants us to look up to Him, our hearts filled with faith, as He demolishes our old lives piece by piece. The old must be done away with to make all things new (2 Corinthians 5:17). It is difficult to break free from the familiar things that we have regarded as good and right our whole lives, things that make us feel comfortable and at home. Yet God wants to make something new out of our lives: “Therefore
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Yet we do not know what this new man is going to be like: “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). So we have no other choice but to wait patiently for God to work in our lives and not to interfere with what He is doing by taking matters into our own hands. We may mean well when we do things for God, but the question is whether we are acting according to His will. In the Bible, God has given us His blueprint, and He calls us to follow it closely even if we don’t understand many of the details. Then we will receive the “things which eye has not seen”—not a transitory lodging but rather a glorious dwelling place in eternity. There are believers who want to reach heaven their own way, who think they can replace God’s blueprint with their own plans. But grace is not a license to interpret God’s blueprint according to our own fancies or the latest trend. If we do that, we are building a house on the sand and not on the rock,
14 | November 2010 | www.israeltoday.co.il
and it will collapse as soon as we face a crisis (see Matthew 7:24-27). Satan wants to prevent us from keeping God’s instructions because he knows that our eternal welfare or woe depends on it. So he whispers to us—as he did to the first human couple—“Did God really say that?” His goal is to cause us to doubt; for the moment that we begin to question God’s word as law we are no longer keeping it. Then we should not be surprised when our lives—in spite of pious words and actions—are not going as well as God has promised. Yeshua (Jesus) has not abolished the law; instead his grace enables us to hold to His word as our blueprint. Y
Torah Portions November 2010
(from 24th Heshvan to 23rd Kislev 5771)
The Sabbath (Shabbat) Readings November 6th Shabbat Toldot – These are the Generations Genesis 25:19-28:9; Malachi 1:1-2:7 November 13th
Shabbat Va’Yetze – And [Jacob] Went Out Genesis 28:10-32:3; Hosea 12:13-14:10
November 20th
Shabbat Va’Yishlach – And [Jacob] Sent Genesis 32:4-36:43; Hosea 11:7-12:12
November 27th Shabbat Va’Yeshev – And [Jacob] Dwelt Genesis 37:1-40:23; Amos 2:6-3:8
BIBL E STU D Y
Why Should We Bless Israel?
G
od told Abram that “I will bless those who bless you” (Genesis 12:3). Later, when Abram became the father of many nations, he was given the name Abraham. So one could assume that all the descendants of Abraham—Isaac and Ishmael, as well as the six sons of Keturah—are automatically recipients of the blessing. Although God did promise that He would bless Ishmael with many descendants, He established His eternal covenant solely with Abraham’s son Isaac and his descendants (Genesis 17:19-21). Isaac’s son was Jacob, who wrestled with God and thereafter was given the name Israel (Genesis 32:25-29). From that point on, the recipient of the blessing rooted in God’s covenant is called “Israel.” Even Balaam, who was to be paid in gold to curse Israel, was forced to bless it: “When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel…the Spirit of God came upon Him and he…said, ‘Blessed is everyone who blesses you’” (see Numbers 24:1-9). In the Hebrew baruch mevrachecha—“blessed is the one who blesses you”—we find the root nivrechu— “will obtain blessing,” which is to be understood reflexively. In other words, whoever blesses Israel will be blessed himself. In doing so, he triggers a reflex which releases blessing. The blessing which he receives does not depend on whether Israel rewards the favor bestowed on her with something good. The same formula applies to le’kalel: Whoever curses Israel curses himself reflexively. This concept can also be found in the Book of Zechariah: “He who touches you [Israel] touches the apple of his eye” (2:8). This does not refer to the apple of God’s eye, as it is often interpreted; instead the Hebrew word eino refers reflexively to the apple of one’s own eye, which is to say: Whoever touches Israel makes himself blind to God’s truth. When we bless Israel we ourselves are the primary beneficiaries, and only then Israel. Israel does not depend on our blessing because God’s covenant with
the nation is eternal: “I will never break My covenant with you” (Judges 2:1); “You are My servant, I have…not rejected you” (Isaiah 41:9); “If this fixed order [of the sun, moon and stars] departs from before Me…then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done” (Jeremiah 31:35-37). Israel has an eternal guarantee from God, but the nations do not. This means that every individual has to struggle, as Balaam did, to get to the point where he can bless Israel in order to be blessed himself. This principal also applies to the Church. Jews and Christians, like Adam and Eve, are “one flesh,” so any
Christian who fights against the Jewish people is fighting against his own flesh, or against himself. Paul warns about this in Romans 11: Anyone who is grafted in to the tree of promise (Israel) through his faith in the Messiah must beware that he does not get broken off and separated from the root because of arrogance toward those Jews who do not yet believe in Yeshua (Jesus). Arrogance is a curse which backfires and brings back a curse on the head of the proud. Conversely, whoever blesses Israel blesses himself because he triggers a spiritual mechanism through his actions. Y
By Ludwig S chneider THE ANGEL OF THE LORD appears to Balaam
www.israeltoday.co.il | November 2010 | 15
‘DAVID WENT UP FROM THERE and stayed in the strongholds of Ein Gedi’ (1 Samuel 23:29)
The Secrets of Ein Gedi E
in Gedi is an oasis on the western shore of the Dead Sea. “Ein” is Hebrew for spring and “Gedi” is a kid or young goat and refers to the ibexes (wild goats) that are so prevalent there. The area is known for its fresh water springs that flow down from the high cliffs of the Judean Desert, making it suitable for settlement and agriculture throughout history. It was here that in biblical times, David hid from King Saul (1 Samuel 24:1) and where in 1965, the mosaic floor of a synagogue was discovered by kibbutzniks plowing a field. The synagogue dates to the end of the 3rd century AD (Talmudic Period) and was renovated in the 4th century and again in the 5th century. It is believed to have served a wealthy Jewish community of about 800 people. The first eight lines of the mosaic inscription are in Hebrew and the rest is in Aramaic, the spoken language at the time. The Hebrew includes the signs of the zodiac; the Hebrew months of the year; the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the names of the three companions of Daniel—Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; the blessing, “Peace upon Israel”; and the thirteen fathers of the world according to 1 Chronicles 1:1-4: Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mehalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth. The mosaic suggests that the source of the community’s wealth was shemen afarsimon (persimmon oil). This oil was used in incense for the Temple worship and to anoint priests, prophets and kings. It was also made into perfume and exported. The precious liquid was apparently a secret recipe, which would explain a warning on the mosaic: “Whoever reveals the secret of the town to the Gentiles, both he and his family will be condemned by God.” The lush oasis was ideal for other products too, such as dates, grapes and herbs: “My beloved is to me a cluster of camphor blossoms in the vineyards of Ein Gedi” (Song of Songs 1:14). Y By Mi c ha e l S c h n eider
24 | November 2010
PIECES in a puzzle
DEBATE
Did the Jews Steal the Land from the Arabs?
I
t is said that during the 1930s, as well as when the State of Israel was established in 1948, the Jews drove the Arabs out of their land. The goal of these allegations is to make anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism socially and politically acceptable. Any factual counter-arguments are dismissed as being biased and are ignored by the media, so only the anti-Israel narrative remains in the public eye. So-called “peace activists” accept the claims of the Palestinians without checking them out, and then condemn Israel. A reliable account of the situation in Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel), which at that time was called Palestine, can be found in a 1937 report of the British Palestine Royal Commission which, as is well known, was not a friend of the Jews. The report says that the Hula Valley in the north of the country was infested with mosquitoes. The landowners were Syrians in Damascus, who leased out the marshes to Arab or Egyptian peasants (fellahs), who lived in primitive mud huts and inevitably fell sick with malaria. The first thing the Jewish National Fund did in 1934 was to purchase 51 square miles of this marshland for 900,000 Palestinian pounds ($4.5 million) and set up 20 Jewish settlements on it. These Jews battled malaria, yellow fever and the Middle Eastern sun to drain the swamps and reclaim the land. What the swamps were in the north, the desert, which had to be artificially irrigated, was in the south; and the center of the country was a stony, desolate wasteland. The Arab landlords, who lived abroad and owned large estates, did nothing to solve these problems. 18 | November 2010
The Turkish Ottoman Empire was in such a poor state after ruling over the Holy Land for 400 years (1517-1917), that wealthy Arab landowners from Syria, Egypt and Lebanon were able to kick out the fellahs and Bedouins and acquire enormous tracts of real estate. Then they made a huge profit by selling the land to Jews from Europe and America. According to Turkish government records, in 1915, 3,130,000 dunams of Palestinian land was owned by 144 Arab landowners; so on average, each family owned 22,000 dunams. From early times, the dunam was the only valid unit for measuring land area in Palestine. One dunam is 1,000 square meters and there are 4 dunams in an acre. The farmers who leased the properties were forced to pay onerous interest rates to the Arab landlords of up to 60 percent, and many tenants were left destitute, losing both house and home. Ultimately, the Arab landowners drove out their Muslim brothers so that they could sell the land for large amounts of money to the Jews. The Jewish National Fund set up blue and white (Israel’s national colors) collection boxes all over the world and received generous contributions from Jewish patrons, which were used to buy property in the Holy Land. Of the 429,887 dunams that the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association purchased from private owners, 293,545 RECLAIMING THE LAND: Spraying against malaria in 1940
JEWISH NATIONAL FUND collection box
dunams—almost 70 percent—was uncultivated land that Arab proprietors living abroad had sold to Jews. By 1935 the amount purchased by Jews increased to 579,492 dunams, and by 1948 almost 80 percent of the land available for sale had been bought up by the Jewish people. The rest of the land was ownerless desert, which was taken over by Israel after the establishment of the state. When the League of Nations handed the mandate over to Britain in 1922, it stipulated firmly in Article 6 that the “Palestine administration should work together with the Jewish Agency to encourage intensive settlement of the land by Jews, which should include the land owned by the state and the uncultivated or waste land, as long as this land is not needed for official purposes.” It is astonishing that nowadays nobody seems to be interested in the facts. While everyone has an opinion about this conflict, few take the trouble to check out how the Land of Israel legally became Jewish property. People prefer to embrace the stereotypical Palestinian lies which accuse the Jewish state of forcibly driving the Palestinians out of their homes, although this was mostly done by Arab landlords who cared nothing about “Palestine.” Today, the Arab world is trying to push the “crimes” of their ancestors, who effectively “sold out” Palestine 80 years ago, onto the Jews and the State of Israel. Y By Ludwig S chneider
P r o phe c y
The
When yellow mixes with blue we get One People Seventh green, a color which masks both of its
Church of Revelation
I
n Mark 13:22-23, Yeshua (Jesus) warns His disciples—and us as well—that in the end times Satan will even try to lead astray the chosen ones of God. However, He also says that He has told His disciples everything in advance so that they will not be led astray. Yeshua is confirming what the prophet Amos said, that “the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7). Both the Old and the New Testaments are full of references to what will happen in the future, prophecies that confirm and complement one another, so that believers will not go astray. One of the writings in the New Testament that deals with the end times is the Book of Revelation, which shows us by means of apocalyptic pictures what lies ahead. We do not have to start with the seven seals and trumpets—passages that are deeply esoteric—to understand what God intends to do. Rather, God speaks in a way that we can understand. Revelation 2 and 3 speak of the seven churches and their deeds. What is striking about these chapters—which can only be understood in retrospect— is that they represent periods of Church
history. The list starts with Ephesus, where the first Christians suffered greatly for their faith but then lost their first love. They became an institutionalized church, and consequently, no longer did the works that God had commanded them to do. We could now go through Church history represented by the seven churches, which stand for and describe the situation during each particular period. It starts with Ephesus, then Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia. But we will focus on the seventh and last church—Laodicea. Laodicea (Revelation 3:1422) describes the situation of the Church in the last days, which is emphasized by Jesus’ warning, “Behold, I stand at the door.” The translation of Laodicea is “people’s opinions” or “popular opinion,” which fits well with our era of democracy and referendums. In the spirit of this period, the people’s voice is the voice of God. This humanism is described by God as follows: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth” (Revelation 3:15-16). Those who are lukewarm are in limbo: They neither enjoy the things of the world nor the things of the kingdom.
elements. These people are no longer as God created them and doing what He called them to do. Therefore, God will spit them out of His mouth. Under the influence of the spirit of popular opinion, everyone is given a say. Christians in the end times adopt contemporary, worldly strategies in order to “bring life into the Church.” Today, many churches are in high spirits because they believe they have everything that a congregation needs, both spiritually and materially. Many megachurches flaunt their wealth on television. But like the stock market crash—this artificial spirituality will burst like an empty bubble. Therefore, God says, “You do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked” (Revelation 3:17). Many people don’t like to hear this kind of thing. But because Yeshua says this to the end-time Church—and we correspond to Laodicea—we must take heed of the word of God. Everyone who reads God’s word to Laodicea should get “eye salve” (3:18) in order to be able to see by the Holy Spirit. Then when the Lord comes—and He is already standing at the door—He can celebrate the feast with us; and we who overcome will be permitted to sit on the throne of God (3:21). It would behoove us to repent and return to the Lord as our first love—and pay attention to the signs of the times. . Y By Ludwig S chneider
LUKEWARM CHRISTIANS The ruins of the Church of Laodicea
November 2010 | 19
Ch r i s t i an s
30th Feast of Tabernacles
A
MARCHING ON: Evangelicals urge the settlers to stand on the biblical promises
Christians Support the Settlements H
undreds of Christians from a dozen nations joined 3,000 Israelis in the small Jewish settlement of Revava on the evening that Israel’s 10-month construction freeze ended to demonstrate support for the return of Jewish sovereignty over the Land. The Christians were in Israel for the annual International Christian Zionist Center (ICZC) Feast of Tabernacles celebration (not to be confused with the larger ICEJ Feast). “We as Gentiles tell you, be strong and of courage to possess the land,” ICZC director Jan Willem van der Hoeven told the Israelis. The Christians with their bright banners and national flags were swarmed by the Israeli and international media before mingling with the
Israelis, who seemed surprised, though grateful, to see these foreigners in such an isolated place. Many applauded loudly as the flags of various nations were marched in. Ayoub Kara, a Druze Arab and Knesset (parliament) member from the ruling Likud party, addressed the crowd: “I say to all the non-Jews who are here, I too am not a Jew, but in spirit I am most Jewish, I am most Zionist, and so are you! Good for you that you are here to support Israel.” Knesset member Danny Danon, a rising Likud star who organized the rally, also praised the Christians: “We salute you. We know that you love Israel unconditionally!” Y For more information: www.israelmybeloved.com
‘Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem’
fter 30 years, the annual Feast of Tabernacles celebration, sponsored by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, is an icon of Christian love and support for the Jewish state. To mark the anniversary, the ICEJ chose the theme, “Jerusalem: A Praise in the Earth,” harkening back to the founding principle of the ministry—to support Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel. That theme recalls the exodus of foreign embassies from Jerusalem in 1980, when Israel officially declared the city its eternal, united capital. The Feast of Tabernacles and the Embassy were born in response to that exodus. In a pre-recorded video address to the 4,000-plus Christians at the Feast, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that as the nations began to abandon Jerusalem, the Christians began to rise up. “At first you came by the dozens; then you came by the hundreds; now you come by the thousands. Year after year you come from over a hundred countries to march through the streets of Jerusalem; and in doing so, you remind the people of Israel that we are not alone,” said Netanyahu. “So on behalf of my country, and on behalf of my people, I say thank you. Thank you for your moral clarity. Thank you for your solidarity. Thank you for supporting the one and only Jewish State. Thank you.” As always, the Feast was a spectacle of world-class music, worship and production—a powerful expression of faith in God and His Word concerning Israel. Y www.icej.org
M
ore than 1,000 Christians attended the annual Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem on the Haas Promenade with a spectacular view of the Old City. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat thanked the Christians for their continued and unwavering support for Israel and a united capital. The Day of Prayer was started in 2002 by Eagles’ Wings Ministries and has, according to their website, “quickly become the largest Israel-focused prayer event in history.” This year, an estimated 300 million Christians from 300,000 churches in 175 nations took part in the event. Y www.daytopray.com C ompiled by Ryan Jones
20 | November 2010 | www.israeltoday.co.il
FROM MANY NATIONS to Jerusalem
M E SSI A N IC J E WS
Jesus in Modern Hebrew Culture
Messianic Jews Confront the Red Cross
Joseph Bau— Jesus as Holocaust Survivor
T
B y Ts v i S a d a n
T
o a large extent, the Holocaust has caused many Jews to turn away from any kind of discourse with the New Testament. The reason is clear: The calamity was conceived within a Christian culture that drew its deadly ideology from a long history of misinterpretation of the New Testament. Yet there are still some people who have not allowed this trauma to eclipse Jesus. One such person was the Polishborn Joseph Bau (1920-2002). Bau began his studies at the University of Plastic Arts in Krakow just prior to the German invasion of Poland during World War II. Later, his artistic talent would save his life in the concentration camps. The Nazis used his extraordinary drawing and calligraphy skills for their multifarious purposes, such as a detailed map of the Krakow Ghetto. Bau’s talent also turned him into a gifted counterfeit artist, whose forged documents enabled hundreds of Jews to escape the ghettos and death camps. In 1950, Bau and his wife immigrated to Israel, where he opened the first graphic studio in Israel. Bau was also one of the first Israeli artists to make homemade animated motion pictures, while his counterfeiting abilities were employed by Israel’s spy agency, the Mossad. Among his drawings is one entitled Joseph Bau Crucified on the Hooked Cross (swastika). In this black and white ink drawing, the fading image of Bau is seen hanging on a “hooked cross” dressed in striped prisoner’s clothing. Around him is a large barbed-wire halo. There is no majesty in his suffering, nor is there any sense of heroism. His face only ex-
‘CRUCIFIED on the Hooked Cross’
presses deep, profound disappointment. This sense of despair is explained in the alternative title Bau gave to the drawing: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me (Psalm 22:1). The connection to Jesus is obvious (Matthew 27:46). Bau was not the first to depict modern Jewish martyrs as Jesus-like figures. While Marc Chagall’s White Crucifixion (1938) is probably the most well known, others also saw in Jesus’ martyrdom a prototype of countless other Jews who died because of their refusal to betray their people. In Bau’s case, he repelled any attempt to use his talent to save himself at the expense of others. Years later, when asked why he did not escape the camp, he answered: “If I had escaped, who would have saved the others?” Bau was well aware of this “imitation of Christ” both in death and resurrection since—against all the odds––his experience of God’s abandonment was only temporary. Y
he Jerusalem Institute of Justice (JIJ), a Messianic human rights organization, brought hundreds of Christians and Jews from around Europe to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva to demand equal treatment for captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Shalit was captured by Hamas terrorists in a cross-border raid more than four years ago and is being held in the Gaza Strip. “The Red Cross continues to visit all [Palestinian] prisoners in Israeli prisons, making sure that they are treated with dignity and fairness, in conformity with international conventions,” JIJ founder Calev Myers told the crowd. “Meanwhile, Gilad Shalit is being prevented any contact with the outside world and being used as a bargaining chip to release from Israeli prisons hundreds of terrorists with blood on their hands.” Myers chided the Red Cross for maintaining “strong relations with Hamas, regardless of all of its blatant breaches of international conventions, while they have yet to even visit Gilad Shalit.” The Red Cross identifies itself as a Christian organization. In fact, Red Cross founder Henri Dunant was an active Christian Zionist who attended Theodor Herzl’s First Zionist Congress that advocated the return of the Jewish people to their national homeland in Israel. Myers charged that by abandoning Shalit, the Red Cross was abandoning the very Christian principles upon which it was founded. Y By Ryan Jones
www.israeltoday.co.il | November 2010 | 21
J e w i s h A ffa i r s
Jewish Astronaut Considers ‘Aliyah’
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ROCKET MEN: (from left to right) Matthew Bronfman, Garrett Reisman, Chaim Chesler and Daniel Hershkowitz
ewish American astronaut Garrett Reisman is considering aliyah (immigration) to Israel. He met with Israel’s Minister of Science and Technology Daniel Hershkowitz, who was in the US to encourage Israeli and American Jewish scientists to settle in the land. Reisman listed the availability of suitable employment as the main factor in making a final decision. The astronaut took his first space flight in 2008, when he spent three months in the international space station. At that time, he sent a congratulatory message from space to Israel in honor of its 60th anniversary. Reisman’s most recent space flight was on the shuttle Atlantis last May. He brought a small flag on board bearing the logo of the new Ilan Ramon Scholarship Fund, which sponsors Israeli students at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France. The fund was established in memory of Israel’s first astronaut Ilan Ramon, who was killed when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated in a ball of fire upon returning to the earth’s atmosphere in 2003. Following the tragedy, Reisman served as NASA’s liaison with the Ramon family. Y
World’s Biggest Mezuzah
Blow a Trumpet in Zion!
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SOUND OF THE SHOFAR: A rabbi inspects a ram’s horn
he world’s biggest mezuzah has been placed on a wall at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv. Senior Airport Authority and Transport Ministry officials attended the ceremony in which the 1-meter-long container with the holy parchment was hoisted into place. The scroll, which is kosher, was written over a three-year period by scribe Yitzhak Krichly. That’s a lot more than the usual two hours required for the average mezuzah scroll. Mezuzahs contain the Torah passage from Deuteronomy 6:4-9, which includes the Shema (Hear O Israel) and the commandment that you shall write these words “on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Y SACRED SCROLL A scribe spent three years penning the scriptures
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he shofar, or ram’s horn, is a popular Judaica item in Israel, and because of its biblical heritage, it is revered by Jews and Christians alike. The production of shofars increases around the High Holy Day season when they are blown in synagogues across the country: “On the Day of Atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land” (Leviticus 25:9). Shofars are available in many sizes and shapes and come from several animals, mostly commonly a ram. The long, curvy “Yemenite Shofars” are made from the horn of the Kudu, a type of African antelope.
While the shofars are made in Israel, there are not enough rams or kudus here, so the raw horns are imported from countries in southern Africa where the animals are raised for meat production. There are strict rules of Jewish Law that make a shofar kosher, so many of the imported horns are thrown out. The ones that eventually make it to market cannot have any holes or cracks and cannot be artificially patched. The raw horn must sit idle for a year, at which time the bone tissue has dried and can be discarded. Then it is sterilized to kill bacteria and through a careful heating process, it is crafted into a shofar and polished, some to a high gloss, others to a more rough and natural look. Then the shofar is tested for sound and if necessary, the mouthpiece is adjusted by widening the hole until it produces a loud, clear blast. Finally, the finished shofar must pass the inspection of a rabbi (see picture). “Blow a trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; surely it is near” (Joel 2:1). Y By Shl omo Mordechai
A RC H a E OLO G Y
Bronze Age Document
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he oldest handwritten document ever discovered in Jerusalem has been found during excavations outside the Old City walls. Dating to the 14th century BC, it is written in Akkadian cuneiform text. The tiny fragment, which appears to have been part of a larger tablet, is only 2 cm. x 2.8 cm. (.7 x 1.1 inch) in surface area and 1 cm. (.4 inch) thick. It testifies to Jerusalem’s importance as a major city late in the Bronze Age, long before it was conquered by King David. The fragment is too small to piece together the full context. While the document contains simple words such as “you,” “you were,” “them,” “to do,” and “later,” the exceptional quality of the writing indicates that it was written by a highly-skilled professional, possibly from a royal household. “What we can see is that the piece was written in very good script and the tablet was constructed very well. This indicates that the person responsible for creating
the tablet was a first-class scribe,” says Hebrew University Professor Wayne Horowitz, a scholar of Assyriology, who deciphered the script. “In those days, you would expect to find a first-class scribe only in a large, important place.” Speculating that it might have been a part of a message sent from a king of Jerusalem to a pharaoh in Egypt, Horowitz said that the fragment, which is made of clay, indicates that Jerusalem was one of the most significant cities of the area at the time. The find was uncovered between the Old City’s southern wall and the nearby City of David in an area called Ophel, which represents a high, fortified hill. The Bible mentions such areas in both Jerusalem and Samaria, the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Israel. The Ophel digs are being carried out by Eilat Mazar of the Hebrew University Institute of Archeology. Y
THE FRAGMENT is from the 14th century BC
DECIPHERING THE PAST Eilat Mazar and Wayne Horowitz
THE COIN is 2,200 years old
Glittering Gold
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rcheologists at Tel Kadesh near the Lebanon border in northern Israel were ecstatic after they uncovered a gold coin weighing 28 grams (about one ounce). “This is the heaviest and most valuable ancient gold coin ever found in an excavation in Israel. It is an extraordinary discovery!” said excavation head Donald T. Ariel of the Israel Antiquities Authority. “The coin is very beautiful and in good condition. Normally antique gold coins weigh only about four to five grams.” The coin was minted in Alexandria by King Ptolemy V 2,200 years ago. The face depicts Queen Arsinoë II Philadelphus, the wife of half-brother Ptolemy II. The meaning of the last name is “sibling” or “brotherly love.” The reverse side depicts two overlapping cornucopias. “This extraordinary coin was apparently not in popular or commercial use but had a symbolic function. The coin may have had a ceremonial function related to a festival in honor of Queen Arsinoë, who was deified in her lifetime,” said Ariel. “The denomination is called a mnaieion, meaning a one-mina coin, and is equivalent to 100 silver drachms, or a mina of silver. This mnaieion from Tel Kedesh attests to the staying power of the cult, since the coin was minted a full 80 years after the Queen’s death.” Three years ago a hoard of Alexandrine Ptolemaic gold coins appeared on the world antiquities market. However, there were no coins of Ptolemy V, which reinforces the rarity of the Tel Kedesh find. Y C ompiled by Netanel D oron
www.israeltoday.co.il | November 2010 | 23
Culture
Israeli Supermodel Is a Knockout
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xchanging the catwalk for the tennis court, Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli competed in the Nike Tennis Primetime Knockout Event at New York City’s Pier 54. The 25-year-old model teamed up with tennis sensation Rafael Nadal in a doubles match against NFL player Justin Tuck of the New York Giants and tennis star Victoria Azarenka. Tennis legend John McEnroe served as announcer for the match and Wimbledon champion Serena Williams was the line judge. In preparation for the event, Refaeli honed her game back in Israel with her trainer, but she couldn’t match up to her fellow competitor, Russian tennis great Maria Sharapova—except in looks, of course, and fashion. Refaeli wore an 18 carat gold heart necklace by designer Jennifer Meyer.
Jerusalem Beer Festival
ON TAP: 100 different beers were on sale from around the world
Add to this the Israeli lager Maccabi, named after the heroes of the Hanukkah story, and an annual beer festival in the Holy City doesn’t seem that out of place. Some 30,000 people attended the Jerusalem festival and consumed over 100,000 liters (about 26,000 gallons) of beer. There were more than 100 brands of draft from around the world, including exotic blends such as honey, caramel, strawberry, chocolate and al-
TENNIS ANYONE? (from left to right) Rafael Nadal, Bar Refaeli, Victoria Azarenka and Justin Tuck
mond. One of the bestsellers was a cherry mixture with sparkling rosé wine. And for those who are not satisfied with drinking the beverage, you can even bathe in it, so to speak; a handmade soap was on sale made from beer. This was the sixth annual event with even more surprises promised for next year. L’Chaim! Y BEER soap
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eer is one of the world’s oldest beverages, dating back to the 6th millennium BC. In fact, a 3,000-year-old beer mug was excavated in Israel in the early 1960s. Archaeologists said the find at Tel Isdar (near Beersheba in the Negev Desert) indicated that beer drinking in Israel goes back to the days of King Saul and King David. An Assyrian tablet from 2000 BC lists beer among the provisions in Noah’s Ark; and the Alulu Beer Receipt for the best brew from the Sumerian city of Ur in ancient Iraq dates to 2050 BC. 24 | November 2010 | www.israeltoday.co.il
LIFT the cup
Beh i nd t he S c ene s
A Stroll in the Old City
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his may come as a surprise but Jerusalem’s Old City, the focal point of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is a model of coexistence. Israeli soldiers armed with assault rifles patrol the narrow, cobblestone streets among the Arab shoppers who don’t seem to notice them. Ultra-Orthodox Jews in side curls walk through the fragrant Arab shuk (open-air market) to the Western Wall. Israelis in the Jewish Quarter live alongside Arabs in the Muslim Quarter. The city is awash with tourists and business is booming. And that’s something that benefits Jews and Arabs alike. One business feeds another. In one alleyway, an Arab slices meat off a leg of lamb, chops it up with parsley and garlic, and puts it on the charcoal grill. This is known as kebab. Then he takes five skewers off the grill and puts them on a plate to be brought to merchants for a sumptuous lunch. “How much is that?” I ask. “That’s 150 shekels [$42],” he grins.
A young Arab boy passes by carrying a brass tray laden with glasses of mint tea and small cups of thick Turkish coffee laced with cardamom. The hummus joint is packed. The cook is mashing up the classic chickpea and sesame paste with what could be described as a giant mortar and pestle. It’s scooped into a small bowl, topped with exquisite olive oil and served. Yep, prosperity makes everyone happy. “Don’t talk to me about politics!” barks one Arab shopkeeper. “I just want to feed my family and live in peace. That’s what everyone wants.” Then we are interrupted—“Shalom,” he says to a couple of Israeli shoppers in Hebrew. “Bruchim haba’im [Welcome].” The shops have something for everyone, most notably for Israelis and Jewish tourists. It is incongruous, yet humorous, to see Arabs selling menorahs, kippot (skull caps), and T-shirts with Israeli flags or slogans like, “I love Israel!”
Yossi’s behavior is suspicious. He’s spending all his time on the computer, just as a mysterious virus hits Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The Jews want to control the world in this way. It’s a cyber conspiracy!
Keep in mind that from Ramallah to Gaza City, any Palestinian selling such goods would probably be killed. But not in Jerusalem, where Jews and Arabs may not love each other, but where in day-to-day affairs they manage to get along. I point to an Israeli army T-shirt and hat. “I like those,” I say to the shopkeeper with tongue firmly in cheek, “do you?” He smiles and says, “Business is business.” Y By Shl omo Mordechai
I’ll bet he’s working on sending even more vicious viruses to Arab states to spread chaos.
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MILIT A R Y
Remembering a Heroine
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FROM COMMANDO to general
New Army Chief
he young Hungarian poet Hannah Senesh immigrated to what was then Palestine in 1939 and joined the Haganah, the fledgling Jewish underground defense force. After enlisting in the British army, she parachuted into Yugoslavia in 1944 on a daring mission: to save the Jews of Hungary from deportation to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. She was captured, but even under torture, she refused to betray her fellow paratroopers. She was executed by the Nazis as a spy. Israeli paratrooper Eleanor Weber, 19, was selected to participate in a memorial jump outside of Budapest in honor of Senesh’s heroic mission 66 years ago. She was accompanied by a group of Hungarian parachutists and several Israelis including Dar Nachum, 48, the son of a Hungarian Holocaust survivor. “I have been allowed to step into Hannah’s shoes,” said Weber. “Hannah Senesh was a heroine of the Jewish people. It is an honor to have been chosen to keep the memory of her historic effort alive.” Y 66 YEARS ON: Senesh sought to save Jews from the Holocaust
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ajor General Yoav Galant has been approved to replace Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi as the next army chief of staff. Galant, 51, is known for nerves of steel and courage in battle. He joined the naval commandos in 1977 and then became a commander in the elite unit Shayetet 13. Taking a break from military service for two years, he worked as a lumberjack in Alaska. On his return to the IDF, he became second in command of a missile boat. He was later promoted to brigadier general and appointed commander of the Gaza Division, a position he held until 1999. In 2005, he was appointed head of Southern Command, where he oversaw the Gaza War in January of 2009. The son of a Holocaust-survivor father and a Syrian Jewish mother, Galant is considered more hawkish than Ashkenazi, especially on the issue of Iran. He takes up the new post in February. Y
Irish Student in the Army
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liona Campbell, 19, is a non-Jewish Irish woman whose affinity for Israel prompted her to serve in the Israeli army for two months through the Sar El volunteer program. Campbell, a university student from Cork, is something of a prodigy: In 2008, she was a finalist in the Young Journalist of the Year competition and last year, she won an essay-writing competition. When she got home, she wrote about her experiences in The Evening Echo, a local newspaper. “Ever since the age of nine,” she wrote, “I have been captivated by the Jewish people—a nation TAKING THE HEAT Campbell was vilified for standing with Israel
which has endured hatred, persecution and genocide, and yet still retains an unyielding will to survive, unifying them in an unbreakable kinship.” The article caused an uproar in Ireland and beyond, leading to insults and hate mail, because Campbell defended the Gaza War. “I had watched the injustice during [Operation] Cast Lead, where after eight years of incessant rockets, Israel cried enough and was villainized for the deaths caused by terrorists who used their own people as human shields… brandishing their dead shamelessly before the media,” she wrote. “I couldn’t stand by another day and see the people I cherish being discredited before the world and wanted to show solidarity to the Jewish nation.”Y C ompiled by Netanel D oron & Barry Rosenfeld
November 2010 | 27
N A TURe
Titanic Discoverer Probes Israeli Coast
HIGH ADVENTURE The team has made some interesting discoveries in the Mediterranean
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he famous discoverer of sunken ships such as the Titanic and Bismarck, Robert D. Ballard, has set his sights on the coastal waters off Israel. Diving to depths of 1.7 km. (just over a mile), Ballard and the crew of his research submarine “Nautilus” are exploring the Eastern Mediterranean in search of undiscovered wonders of the undersea world, as well as lost chapters of human history. Ballard, along with a team of experts from the University of Haifa, announced an important discovery: For the first time, an area of reefs with deep-sea corals has been found in the Mediterranean. The reefs stretch over several miles about 2,300 feet (700 meters) under the surface, some 20 miles (35 km) off the coast of Tel Aviv. “It’s like finding a flourishing oasis in the middle of the desert,” said Israeli researcher Yitzhak Makovsky. Through “telepresence,” a term coined by Ballard, satellite and high-speed networks create a “you are there” experience, in which people are able to watch his team’s deep-sea exploration live as it happens, via Facebook and Twitter. Viewers experience being aboard the ship, looking over the shoulders of the scientists and crew and listening to their conversations. Y See www.nautiliuslive.org
GOOD INVESTMENT? Some Christian Zionists believe Israel will be blessed with oil
SUNKEN treasure
Israel Finds Black Gold
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ommercially viable deposits of oil have been discovered in central Israel near the town of Rosh Ha’ayin, about 10 miles (17 km) northeast of Tel Aviv. Givot Olam Oil Ltd notified the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange of the find in its “Meged Five” exploratory well, saying it can produce 470 barrels of oil a day. But this could just be the tip of the iceberg. Givot Olam geologist Tuvia Luskin has estimated a find of at least a billion barrels of oil. He says that when the deposit is fully developed, it could provide about 3,285 barrels of crude oil per day. Government officials are talking about possible deposits that would greatly supplement Israel’s energy supply and reduce its dependence on foreign oil. Many Christian Zionists have invested in Givot Olam, believing that God intends to bless Israel. Some believers expect Israel to discover black gold because of the prophecy to the biblical Tribe of Asher: “May he be favored by his brothers, and may he dip his foot in oil” (Deut. 33:24). Y 28 | October 2010
E c o n o m y / Te c hn o l o gy
DOWN THE SIDEWALK and into the electricity grid
Electricity from Traffic
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n Israeli company has found a way to create electricity from the kinetic energy that accumulates under highways, train tracks, sidewalks or even dance floors. Innowattech specializes in the development of generators of piezoelectricity—the charge which accumulates in certain solid materials such as asphalt and ceramics and which is generated by pressure. The generators have no negative effect on the environment. The company has also developed a highly-efficient system for storing the electricity which can be used locally or transported through an electrical grid. The generators can power railroad crossings, traffic lights and street signs with the electricity generated by passing traffic. Innowattech is based in Ra’anana, near Tel Aviv, with research facilities at the Technion in Haifa. Y
Heat Wave Destroys Apple Crop
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pple farmers in the Galilee and Golan Heights in northern Israel lost much of this year’s crop because of a severe heat wave. With temperatures soaring to 113ºF (45ºC), nearly 10,000 dunams (2,500 acres) of apple orchards were destroyed. “The apples were baked on the trees,” said Gabi Coneal, head of agriculture at Kibbutz Merom Golan. “The damage is nothing less than catastrophic.” Coneal estimated that 70 percent of the crop was ruined, with most of the ROTTEN APPLES Galilee farmers were hit hard
damage suffered by the region’s flagship product, the Top Red (or Starking) apple. “This year, we had counted on a record harvest due to a relatively mild winter,” he said. “It’s a terrible blow.” In the heat, the apple’s core ripens and rots, while the skin remains unripe. “Because of the weather, the red apples didn’t get their color,” said Tal Wolf of Kirur Galil, an apple storage company in Galilee. “They look more like potatoes than apples.” Y
GENERATING POWER is good economics
Norway Divests from Israel
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orway has sold its pension fund shares in two Israeli companies because of their involvement in the construction of settlements in Judea and Samaria. The Norwegian government’s Ethics Council described the investments as “a serious violation of human rights in a situation of war and conflict.” The divestment from Africa Israel Investments and its subsidiary Danya Cebus Ltd. totaled $1.5 billion. The companies built Jewish homes in Jerusalem’s Har Homa neighborhood and in Ma’ale Adumim, Israel’s biggest settlement east of the capital. A year ago, a Norwegian pension fund withdrew its investment in Israel’s largest non-governmental defense contractor, Elbit Systems, because it is involved in the building of the security barrier. The fence was built to keep Palestinian suicide bombers out of Israel, but the fund regards it as a violation of international law. Y November 2010 | 29
In B r i ef
tid bits TO THE RESCUE: A Chilean doctor, who is also an Israeli citizen, treated the 33 rescued miners in Chile. Dr. Juan Mellibovsky, head of the Copiapo Hospital dermatological department, was the first to examine the San José miners. After being underground at a depth of 2,300 feet (700 meters) for over 60 days, at temperatures reaching 86°F (30°C) with 90 percent humidity, skin problems are a major concern. HOLY CITY: Jerusalem has more synagogues than law offices and playgrounds combined. More than 12,000 Jewish houses of worship serve every branch of Judaism including Sephardic, Ashkenazi, modern and ultra-Orthodox, Chassidic, Conservative, Reform and even Messianic.
THE DEAD SEA could be one of ‘Seven New Wonders of the World’
Don’t Forget To Vote!
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srael’s breathtaking Dead Sea, the lowest spot on earth, is still a candidate to be ranked among the New7Wonders of the world in 2011. There are 27 finalists, including the Masurian Lake District (Poland), the Angel Falls (Venezuela), Mount Vesuvius (Italy), the Jeita Grotto (Lebanon), the Matterhorn/Cervino (Switzerland/ Italy), the Maldive Islands and the Black Forest (Germany). Currently, the Dead Sea is in 14th place. The New7Wonders will be announced on 11.11.11. So please vote for Israel and the Holy Land! You can do so at www.votedeadsea.com. Y
Be an Ambassador for Israel
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HOUSES of prayer
SPEED IT UP: The speed limit on Israel’s major highways has been increased from 100 kph to 110 kph (62 mph to 68 mph). Limits on secondary roads are now 100 kph, up from 90 kph (56 mph). The decision was based on a study by law enforcement agencies which determined that the higher speed limit is safe. The higher speed applies to the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road and the Highway 6 toll road, while the secondary limit affects the Tel Aviv-Haifa costal road, among others. Israeli drivers have a bad reputation, but thanks to police efforts and better roads, traffic accidents have gone down in recent years.
he Israeli government website, www.masbirim. gov.il, is now available in both Hebrew and English. It helps Israelis and their supporters abroad to be ambassadors for the nation, arming them with answers to anti-Israel propaganda and facts to counter myths. It also aims to show the positive side of Israel beyond politics. Those who enter the site are presented with countless Israeli accomplishments, such as drip irrigation invented by Simcha Blass. This groundbreaking technology dates back to 1955 when Blass introduced small, controlled amounts of water directly to the root system of seedlings. It is particularly effective in arid climates, such as Israel, where fields produce as much as 30 times the world average. It has also led to a significant reduction of hunger in many parts of the globe, especially Africa. Y
WHAT A DRIP A revolution in irrigation
Ethiopian Immigration
M ‘FROM BEYOND THE RIVERS of Ethiopia’ (Zeph 3:10)
ost of the 100,000 Ethiopian Jews in Israel are olim (immigrants), and a survey shows that 89 percent feel at home here. The report was published by the Immigration Ministry to mark the 25th anniversary of Operation Moses, the covert airlift of 8,000 Ethiopian Jews (known as Black Jews or Falashas) from Sudan to Israel in 1984-1985. Y
In B r i ef
Israeli Author Wins Peace Prize
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sraeli author David Grossman has won the Peace Prize, awarded by the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, for his efforts to bring reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. “In his novels, essays and stories, Grossman has consistently sought to understand and describe not only his own position, but also the opinions of those who think differently,” the association said. In the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Grossman’s son Uri was killed by a Hezbollah missile just days after his DISAPPOINTED dove father joined in a demand for a cease-fire. In his acceptance speech at St. Paul’s Church in Frankfurt, the 56-year-old author said, “I would like to tell you about Uri, but I cannot. But this I will say: Imagine a young man starting out in his life, with all his hopes, his zest for life, with the innocence, the humor, the desires of a young man. This is what he was like. And this is what thousands and thousands of other Israelis, Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians, Jordanians and Egyptians who lost their lives in this conflict, and continue to lose their lives, were like.” Grossman’s novels, stories, essays and children’s books have been translated into more than 30 languages. He published his first novel, The Smile of the Lamb, in 1983. Grossman is associated with the far-left wing Peace Now movement, which opposes the settlements and seeks a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. His most famous book is The Yellow Wind (1987), an indictment of the Israeli “occupation” FALLEN son based on a seven-week journey through the “West Bank.” Y
‘Ark’ Sails to Turkey
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hile the remnants of Noah’s Ark are said to have been found on Mt. Ararat in Turkey, Israel decided to return the favor with an ark of its own, shipping a gaggle of animals to Gaziantep Zoo in Anatolia. Three elephants, several zebras, a hippopotamus and some lemurs were donated by Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo and the Safari Park in Ramat Gan outside of Tel Aviv. The gesture is environmental and political: It is hoped that the elephants will help save the Asian pachyderms from extinction, while improving Israel-Turkish tensions that plummeted over the flotilla affair last June. ANSWER TO THE NETANYAHU RIDDLE from the October edition of israel today, page 30: 141-11=130
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World’s Oldest Jew Dies at 111
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annie Forman Buten, believed to be the world’s oldest Jew, died at the ripe old age of 111. Buten, who was born in 1889, immigrated to the US from Austria at the age of two and spent her final years in Philadelphia. She is survived by 12 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. Buten was the oldest Jew “whose age has been verified,” according to Robert Young of the Gerontology Research Group. At her death, she was also the oldest Pennsylvanian and ranked 37th in the world. My mother “always lied about her age…so this [media attention] probably wouldn’t please her,” said her daughter, Marjorie Steinberg. Buten belonged to the Philadelphia congregations of Adat Yeshurun and Har Zion Temple. Among her accomplishments: hitting a hole-in-one in her 70s! She became the oldest Jewish woman following the death of Rosa Rein in Switzerland in February at the age of 112. Y
Keep on Truckin’?
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ollowing a similar initiative in Jerusalem, heavy trucks are now banned from Tel Aviv roads on weekdays between 6 and 9 a.m. Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz says the measure is aimed at easing rush hour traffic and reducing pollution. The Truckers’ Association and the Israel Road Transport Board are angry over the decision, saying it will delay deliveries and increase traffic jams during afternoon rush hour. Y C ompiled by Michael S chneider
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October 2010 | 31
Let us go to the house of the Lord. Our feet are standing in the gates, O Jerusalem (Psalm 122:1, 2)
GIVE A HANUKKAH GIFT to an Israeli Soldier!
Hanukkah is a great holiday time in which to show your love and support to Israel’s soldiers.
israel today wants to partner with its subscribers in blessing young Israelis who daily risk their lives to protect the nation of Israel and its people. During the month of December 2010, Israel Today will personally deliver your Hanukkah Gift to Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, including the many soldiers faithfully serving in Israel’s most remote IDF Army bases (located in the North and South of Israel).
Hanukkah Gift contains: Certificate for 1 FREE Burger Ranch Meal Certificate 2 FREE Movie Tickets 1 pair well padded Army socks
PRICE: $45 CODE: KO1014 Purchase a Gift Bag today at our online store
www.jerusalemdepot.com
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