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Now the LORD said to Abram,

"Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father's house to the land that I will show you.  Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you,
and I will make your name great, so that you will exemplify divine blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Genesis 12:1-3

 

 

 

Hizbullah Gears Up For War, Olmert Asks for UN Help

by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz and Pinchas Sanderson

 

(IsraelNN.com) Arab reports indicate that Hizbullah is preparing to arm its rockets with chemical warheads and to build extensive fortifications. Defense Minister Ehud Barak blames the Syrians, while Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asks the United Nations to do something.

 

"[UN Security Council] Resolution 1701 is being violated. Hizbullah continues to get stronger with the ongoing and intimate

assistance of the Syrians," according to Defense Minister Barak. Speaking at a meeting of the Labor party's Knesset representatives on Monday, Barak said, "The delicate balance that exists on the northern border should not be violated on the two-year anniversary of the Second Lebanon War. We should make an explicit statement: Resolution 1701 did not work, it is not working, and all indications are that it will not work in the future. It is a failure."

 

Adding further weight to Defense Minister Barak's declaration is an article in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyasa, which reported Monday that Hizbullah has acquired chemicals needed to make weapons such as nerve gas or mustard gas from North Korean suppliers. The Lebanese terrorist organization is allegedly preparing to arm its Katyusha rockets with such chemical warheads. Echoing Barak's claims, the Kuwaiti paper also stated that the assistance of Syria and Iran has been crucial in Hizbullah's efforts to acquire chemical weapons capabilities. The Al-Siyasa report was based on intelligence provided to the Kuwaiti paper by Syrian opposition figures in the United States.

 

Other Arab sources also indicate Hizbullah is entrenching itself for another attack on Israel. The organization is reportedly stockpiling "truckloads" of building materials, such as steel and concrete, in order to restore and expand the terrorists' network of fortifications in southern Lebanon.

 

Beirut-based Dalal Steel Industries, a leading manufacturer of steel-reinforced buildings, reported that it has provided Hizbullah with substantial bunker-building and other materials. The company told Arab media that it had been shipping Hizbullah orders southwards towards Israel's border. The underground bunkers used by Hizbullah, usually hidden by natural cover such as trees and foliage, were coined "nature reserves" by the IDF in the 2006 Second Lebanon War, and they proved difficult targets to find and destroy.

 

...continued at link above.

 

 

 

Dead Sea tablet suggests Jewish resurrection imagery pre-dates Jesus


Haaretz.com | July 7, 2007
By Ofri Ilani, Haaretz Correspondent

The premise that the Messiah died and was resurrected after three days is considered the foundation of the Christian faith, one which differentiates it from Judaism. Through the generations, this belief stood at the center of the debate between Christians and Jews. But now, a mysterious tablet from the time of the second temple has led researchers to believe that this premise of messianic resurrection is not unique to Christianity, but rather existed in Judaism years before Jesus was born.

The tablet, which has been dubbed "Gabriel's vision" because much of its text deals with a vision of the apocalypse transmitted by the angel Gabriel, was discovered eight years ago, but a large part of it is illegible and researchers have had difficulty interpreting its meaning.

Israel Knohl, a professor of Bible studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has offered a new interpretation of this text recently, which has sparked interest in the Christian realm. Knohl's interpretation could shed light on the history of Jesus and the way Christianity grew out of Judaism.

"Gabriel's vision," a previously unknown prophetic text written in the first century B.C.E., was written on a large gray limestone tablet. In the center of the text, which includes quotes from the Bible and prophetic verses, there is an image of the angel Gabriel. The tablet was not discovered in an organized archaeological excavation, therefore the location of its discovery is not clear. Some believe it was found in Jordan on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea.

The New York Times reported recently that the tablet was bought from a Jordanian antiquities dealer by an Israeli-Swiss collector who kept it in his Zurich home. When an Israeli scholar examined it closely a few years ago and wrote a paper on it last year, interest began to rise. There is now a spate of scholarly articles on the stone, with several due to be published in the coming months.

"I couldn't make much out of it when I got it," said David Jeselsohn, the owner, who is himself an expert in antiquities. "I didn't realize how significant it was until I showed it to Ada Yardeni, who specializes in Hebrew writing, a few years ago. She was overwhelmed. 'You have got a Dead Sea Scroll on stone,' she told me."

...continued at Haaretz.com link above.

 

 

 

 

Holocaust-Era Rescuer Irena Sendler, 1910-2008
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz

(IsraelNN.com) Irena Sendler (Sendlerowa), a Polish woman who risked her life to save 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazi killing machine during World War II, passed away on Monday at a Warsaw hospital. She was 98 years old. Sendler is survived by her daughter and granddaughter.

Sendler was one of the first people honored by the Israeli Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem as one of the "Righteous Among the Nations" for her efforts to rescue Jews. However, she was not permitted by Poland's Communist regime to travel to Israel at the time of the honor, in 1965.

 

Sendler was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize at the behest of Polish President Lech Kaczynski. The Polish President expressed "great regret" and called Sendler "an exceptional person" who displayed uncommon bravery in her life.


In 2003, Irena Sendler received the Jan Karski Award for Valor and Courage. In 2007, the Polish Senate honored Sendler, as well. In a letter to the legislators last year, Sendler wrote, "Every child saved with my help and the help of all the wonderful secret messengers, who today are no longer living, is the justification of my existence on this earth, and not a title to glory."

Sendler, a Catholic, was in charge of the Children's Division of Zegota, an underground group in Nazi-occupied Poland dedicated to assisting Jews. She took part, as a member of Zegota and beforehand, in efforts to provide persecuted Jewish families with food, shelter and false documentation. However, Sendler is most well known for her key role, along with a network of 30 others, for having smuggled approximately 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and into Polish safe houses in 1942 and 1943.

Irena was eventually captured by the Nazis, tortured and sentenced to death. It was only thanks to a bribe offered to the executioner that Irena was able to escape death, and she then went into hiding herself for the remainder of the war.


Jews abroad love Israel, though fewer call it home

As immigration numbers drop in favor of emigration, Jews worldwide share their sentiments towards Israel. Some call it ‘homeland’ while others prefer comfort life abroad with occasional visit
Reuters

 

David Borowich was raised as a Zionist in America, and when he was a teenager and his neighbors made aliyah he knew he would soon follow.  Borowich went further than some olim by serving in the IDF as a tank gunner, and planned to raise his family there.  Yet he returned to the United States for graduate school and now, as a financial professional in the New York area, has stayed in America, though he visits Israel frequently.

 

As Israel turns 60, Jews from around the world view the homeland with a range of emotions, whether reverence and awe, or disillusionment and aloofness. And for the first time since its establishment in 1948, the country may be losing more emigrants than immigrants it receives, some experts say.

 

But Jews love Israel even if they decide not to live there, says Borowich, founder of Dor Chadash, a group that seeks to build ties between Israeli and American Jews.

 

"Jews around the world walk with their heads held up a little higher because there is a State of Israel," he said. “Whether Jews decide to live in Israel or not, there is an inextricable link between their Jewish identity and the fact that we have a Jewish homeland.”

 

Israel's Jewish population has grown from less than 800,000 at its founding on May 14, 1948, to roughly 5.5 million out of 7.3 million Israeli citizens today. There have been several waves of immigration from around the world. Nearly a million former Soviet Jews have migrated to Israel since 1989.

 

 

 

 

Lost Diary Tells of Teenage Holocaust Victim

By Wendy Griffith
CBN News Reporter
May 11, 2008

CBNNews.com - Many people worldwide know the story of Anne Frank -- and now the discovery of a long lost diary is causing a sensation about another teenage Holocaust victim.

Her story has been waiting to be told for more than 60 years.

Rutka's Story

Beautiful 14-year-old Rutka Laskier was forced to live with her family in the Jewish ghetto during the Nazi occupation of Poland.

For four months in 1943, she recorded her life - memories of typical teen-age life mixed with the unbelievable horrors of the Holocaust.

Her story survived thanks to a non-Jewish friend, entrusted with the diary months before Rutka, her baby brother and mother perished in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

After 60 years, that friend - now in her 80s - revealed her secret: she had kept Rutka's diary. The news was life-changing for Rutka's half-sister Dr. Zahava Scherz.

"I simply fell in love with her and also full of sorrow that I couldn't meet her," Zahava said.

Scherz was born after WWII to Rutka's father who narrowly survived the Holocaust and remarried. After learning of her half-sister's diary, she believed the world needed to know the story and helped publish - "Rutka's Notebook" - a voice from the Holocaust.

"She was an extraordinary girl. As you can see from the picture, she was beautiful. She knows that the Nazis are determined to kill the Jews and they are throwing them to gas chambers. She writes specifically that I would like to live but I don't think we Jews are going to make it," Scherz said.

An unnoticed prophecy about dividing of Israel

Joseph Farah -- World Net Daily -- Posted: May 07, 2008

 

There is a Bible story familiar to practically everyone that relates directly to efforts by the international community to divide Israel for the purpose of creating a Palestinian state.

It can be found in 1 Kings 3.

The young king Solomon dreams of a conversation with the Lord in which he asks for wisdom to judge God's people. God grants the desires of Solomon's heart as well as bestowing upon him a long life, great riches and honor.

Immediately after Solomon claims this promise with sacrifices, peace offerings and a feast to all his servants, he gets to judge the most famous case of his life.

Two harlots come before him – each claiming a baby as their own.

"And the one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house. And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house. And this woman's child died in the night; because she overlaid it. And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead: but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear.

"And the other woman said, Nay; but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And this said, No; but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake before the king.

"Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead: and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living. And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king. And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.

"Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.

"Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof.

"And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment."

That's the story everyone knows. But is there special meaning for today in these words? Could this story relate directly to the two-state solution being planned by the internationalist busybodies who seek to split Israel in half? Is it possible that this familiar old Bible story actually contains a prophecy yet to be fulfilled?

Assume for the moment that King Solomon in this story represents the King of all creation, the Lord of the universe. The first woman in the story represents the Jewish people. Her baby represents Israel. Let's further assume the second mother represents the Arabs.

Notice the second woman had her baby three days after the first woman. The Jewish state was first created 3,000 years ago. The Arabs are trying, 3,000 years later, to create an Arab Palestinian state where none has previously existed.

The Bible tells us in both the Old Testament and the New Testament that one day is like a thousand years to God. There is the reference in Psalms 90:4: "For a thousand years in Thy sight are like yesterday when it passes by." And there is the reference in 2 Peter 3:8: "But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

So, three days, or 3,000 years, ago the Jewish people gave birth to the nation of Israel. Today, three days, or 3,000 years, later, Palestinian Arabs who are mostly recent migrants to the land with no established history there and no prior national claim arrive and try to steal the baby.

It's also worth noting that a tactic used by the Arabs is to sacrifice their own children as suicide bombers in their effort to "liberate" the land.

Further, did they not, perhaps even unknowingly, kill their own baby when they rejected a state of their own with the 1947 partition plan?

Like the first mother, haven't the Jewish people expressed a willingness to give up half the land in a division plan just to keep their precious baby alive?

And haven't the Arabs, like the bitter second mother, agreed to the division plan – the splitting of the child in two, knowing it would result only in the death of the baby.

If my analogy is true, though, it's not going to happen. The baby will not be killed. Because like King Solomon, God Almighty has already decided the baby belongs to the Jews.

Court applies
Law of Return
to Messianic Jews because of father
The Jerusalem Post  -- April 22, 2008

Messianic Jews are entitled to Israeli citizenship according to the Law of Return if their father is Jewish, according to a precedent-setting ruling handed down last week by the High Court of Justice.

Fifteen years ago, the court rejected a petition by Messianic Jews who demanded to be recognized as Jews so as to automatically receive Israeli citizenship according to the Law of Return. In that landmark case, the court ruled that Messianic Jews had converted, and therefore were no longer Jewish.

Since then, the state has refused to grant all requests for citizenship according to the Law of Return by Messianic Jews.

Two years ago, however, a number of new immigrants to Israel belonging to the Messianic Jewish community petitioned the High Court after the Interior Ministry refused to grant them new immigrant status and citizenship according to the Law of Return. 

Iran smuggling arms into
Gaza by sea 

The Jerusalem Post -- April 18, 2008

Iran has stepped up its efforts to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip by using floatable devices that it drops near the waters off the Gaza coast to be picked up by Palestinian fisherman, senior defense officials have told The Jerusalem Post.

According to defense officials, Iran is now sending rockets and other advanced weaponry to Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip by sea as well as via tunnels dug under the Philadelphi Corridor and connecting the Sinai peninsula with Rafah.

Officials said that the Navy is doing a fairly effective job in curbing the smuggling by sea, but that there are some shipments Israeli forces did not succeed in intercepting.


Selling Terror --
Madison Avenue Meets The Bekaa Valley
The Weekly Standard (Online) -- April 16, 2008

Hezbollah, the radical Shiite terrorist organization in Lebanon, is best known for attacking Israelis. But the organization also attempts to gain the support of Lebanese citizens with a sophisticated network of social services, political outreach, and financial aid. And recently, the militia has turned to advertising campaigns to bolster its image.

Hezbollah owns or controls at least two known advertising companies: Ressalat and Media-Publi Management. The U.S. Department of the Treasury should designate both as Specially Designated Global Terrorist entities (SDGTs) immediately as part of its ongoing campaign to cut off Hezbollah from the global financial system.

According to a recent article in the Lebanese al-Nahar, Ressalat is a "Hizbullah-funded organization that handles advertising and cultural events for the group." The company does not appear to have a web presence, but al-Nahar identified Mohamed Noureddine as Ressalat's creative director. One French report also identified Noureddine as the director of a think tank tied to Hezbollah's secretary general Hassan Nasrallah. His name can also be found alongside pro-Hezbollah videos on YouTube.

Hamas says Carter visit a boost to militants' legitimacy
Associated Press, 16 April 2008

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — Hamas officials said Wednesday that Jimmy Carter's meetings with leaders of the Palestinian militant group will boost its legitimacy despite criticism by Israel and the U.S. government of the former president's personal peace mission.

Carter arrived in Egypt from Israel and the Palestinian territories, where he raised Israeli anger Tuesday by embracing a Hamas official in the West Bank.

A delegation of senior Hamas officials from the Gaza Strip also came to Cairo, escorted by heavy security, and said Carter planned to meet with them Thursday.

A Carter spokesman refused to comment on Hamas' claim. After sitting down with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and speaking at the American University on Thursday, Carter is scheduled to meet in Damascus, Syria, on Friday with Hamas' top leader, Khaled Mashaal.

Hizbullah Planning Offensive on Israeli Territory
IHC News Analysis, 15 April 2008

According to the Iranian Fars News Agency, a senior Hizbullah official told the Syrian newspaper, al-Hakikah that part of the fighting in the next war will take place inside Israel.

"In the next war, we will run the battle for the first time since 1948 inside Palestine," said the official adding, "They will be more surprised than ever before, as they will see our fighters fighting them not only in Lebanon, as they did till now, but also inside their homes and settlements."

 
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Syria is supplying Lebanon's Hezbollah militia with rockets in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak charged on Tuesday.

"Resolution 1701 is not being applied.  The transfer of rockets from Syria to Lebanon is continuing and Hezbollah's military build-up is continuing," Barak's office quoted him as saying during a visit to an air force base.

"I think the Security Council has to act and see how the resolution is applied and enforced," the former army chief of staff and premier said.


Bolivia Raises hackles with ID
The Washington Times, April 10, 2008

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia --
The appearance of a Star of David on new national identity cards has alarmed opponents of President Evo Morales, who recall how the symbol was used to brand Jews in Nazi Germany.  Tiny six-pointed stars within a tight circle are printed on some, but not all, recently issued picture IDs in the Santa Cruz region.  The mark was present on three cards seen by the Washington Times.
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