ISRAEL BREAKING NEWS

IDF Chief Dismisses Jewish Teaching on Killing Enemies
By Ahuva Balofsky February 18, 2016 , 12:30 pm
“Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made He man.” 
Genesis 9:6 (The Israel Bible™)
Israel Defense Force (IDF) Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot appeared to reject Talmudic teachings on defense while answering questions during a high school recruitment visit in central Israel Wednesday morning, several Israeli media outlets reported. When asked a difficult question by a student, he dismissed the Rabbinic dictum “when someone comes to kill you – kill him first” as a “slogan” and implied it was imprudent advice.

The Bat Yam visit was intended to prepare the students for their upcoming army service, mandatory for all Israelis at 18. During a question and answer session, Israel National News reported, Eizenkot defended the IDF’s controversial open-fire orders, which severely restrict a soldier’s options when faced with a terrorist.

“The phenomenon of terror has accompanied Israeli society throughout the years, and there also were knifings years ago. It could be in Tel Aviv, in Otniel or Ariel. We see mutual influence between what happens in the Middle East with the Islamic State (ISIS) and what happens for us here [in Israel].

“The IDF doesn’t need to get swept up in clichéd statements like ‘Kill or be killed’ or ‘Whoever comes at you with scissors needs to be killed’,” he added.

image: http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/useful_banner_manager_banners/207-LIBI%20fight%20terror%20banner%202.jpg

Support the IDF's Fight Against Terror
Israel has come under sharp fire for what some in Europe and elsewhere have called “extrajudicial killings” of Palestinian terrorists in the field. However, the IDF’s actual policy on the matter is incredibly reserved. As of August, soldiers in Judea and Samaria have only been permitted to fire into the air, not even shooting the lower extremities of a terrorist, and the IDF has allegedly instructed all its soldiers to avoid killing terrorists whenever possible. These orders have significantly increased the risk to soldiers in apprehending terrorists and certainly run counter to Rabbinic wisdom and even Torah law.

Eizenkot explained to his audience, “I don’t want to see a soldier empty a magazine [to shoot] a young girl with scissors,” according to The Jerusalem Post.

“These days, you can find a knife in any kitchen and household. The aim of terrorism is to sow fear and horror amongst the public. Terrorism succeeds when it prevents citizens of living their normal routine.”

Eizenkot’s well-meaning concern for Israel’s image abroad has nonetheless raised the ire of at least one MK. Betzalel Smotrich of the Jewish Home party, which advocates for greater Torah influence on life and decision-making in Israel, responded to Eizenkot’s remarks Wednesday evening by asking Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon to call the Chief of Staff to a meeting.

“This is a flagrant and contemptuous statement. The Jewish principles and values are the foundation on which the State of Israel was built and upon which the IDF relies. The disregard for the sanctity of Israel and the values that accompanied our people for thousands of years is neither appropriate nor compatible with the values of the IDF and of the behavior expected of a senior officer,” wrote Smotrich. He also demanded that Eizenkot retract his statement.


Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/61722/idf-chief-dismisses-jewish-teaching-on-killing-enemies-idf/#Oc217x3WXM7dYru2.99

http://www.timesofisrael.com/benjamin-netanyahu-welcomes-third-grandchild/
Benjamin Netanyahu welcomes third grandchild
Noa Roth, prime minister’s 36-year-old daughter from his first marriage, gives birth to a baby girlBY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF February 17, 2016, 5:19 pm 4
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday announced the birth of his third grandchild, after his daughter Noa had a baby girl.

“Sara and I are happy that my love Noa had a girl, a sister to Shmuel and David and niece to Yair and Avner,” he wrote in Facebook post in Hebrew that garnered tens of thousands of likes and over a thousand comments.

“Mother and the daughter are doing well, and we are delighted at our growing family,” he added.

Noa Roth, 36, is the only child of Netanyahu and his first wife, Dr. Miriam Weizmann. Noa was born in 1978, shortly before her parents split.
Noa, now religious, is married to businessman Daniel Roth, and lives in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea She’arim in Jerusalem.

In 2009, Noa gave birth to Netanyahu’s first grandchild; she had a second son in 2011.

Yair and Avner are the children of Netanyahu’s third and current wife, born Sara Ben-Arzi, whom he married in 1991.

“And I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” 
Genesis 12:3 (The Israel Bible™)
content/uploads/2016/02/HANDS_OFF_GAZA_STOP_THE_BOMBING_FREE_PALESTINE_-_UK_NATIONAL_DEMONSTRATION.jpg

Rally calling for boycott of Israeli products. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Israel Hayom

New British government directives are aiming to prevent public bodies, universities, and student unions from boycotting Israeli products, The Independent reported Sunday. According to The Sunday Times, the move “follows mounting concern among Jewish leaders about anti-Semitism.”

British media quoted U.K. Cabinet Office Minister Matthew Hancock as saying such boycotts are divisive, potentially damaging to the U.K.’s relationship with Israel, and risk fueling anti-Semitism.

The new bill, already described as a “controversial crackdown,” seeks to prevent any public body from imposing a boycott on a World Trade Organization member, which Israel has been since 1995.

The regulation will essentially outlaw boycotting Israeli products—a threat often made against goods produced in Judea and Samaria—and allow the British government to take legal action against organizations that impose such boycotts.

Under the plan, all publicly funded institutions would be barred from excluding goods produced by their idea of “unethical companies,” such as companies involved in arms trading, fossil fuels, tobacco products, or companies based in Judea and Samaria.

Any public bodies that continue to pursue boycotts would face severe penalties, The Independent reported. Critics of the initiative said it constituted a “gross attack on democratic freedoms.”

Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/61506/uk-latest-nation-boycott-bds-judea-and-samaria/#Z3l7OTHZRjIBCRJF.99


Obama to Reluctantly Sign Anti-BDS Bill Recognizing Judea and Samaria
By Ahuva Balofsky February 15, 2016 , 9:30 am
“And Elijah came near unto all the people, and said: ‘How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.’ And the people answered him not a word.” (1 Kings 18:21)
A trade bill which passed a senate vote Thursday is set to be signed into law by US President Barack Obama, despite his objections to its pro-Israel portions. The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 came before Congress last summer as part of a package designed to strengthen rule enforcement and address currency manipulation.
The bill, however, contains a provision which would extend agreements with Israel into “Israeli-controlled territories”, a move lauded by pro-Israel lobby AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) but criticised by the White House, which said it “contravenes longstanding U.S. policy towards Israel and the occupied territories, including with regard to Israeli settlement activity.”
READ MORE
 http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/61409/obama-reluctantly-signs-bds-bill-recognizing-territories-as-part-of-israel-jerusalem/#gaCKyVFk0scRCwC8.99


Fierce Battle Erupts Over Next Supreme Court Judge Following Death of Justice Scalia
News of the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Saturday almost immediately sparked a massive debate in the political arena over the weighty question of whether or not President Barack Obama should attempt to fill the opening on the bench during his remaining time in office.
The death of the 79-year-old judge, who died in his sleep during a visit to Texas, was announced on Saturday by a family friend. The famously conservative justice was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1986 by then-president Ronald Reagan and served for nearly 30 years, during which he made a name for himself as a defender of the powers of the executive branch.
Having a hand in the makeup of the Supreme Court was an issue in the current race for the president even before Scalia’s death. The advanced ages of several current justices on the bench made it likely that one or more vacancies would be filled by the next president.
READ MORE
http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/61304/conservatives-fearful-obama-announces-intentions-replace-scalia-supreme-court-jerusalem/#gliQI4t3F8KhtYLU.99



Sources: IDF Preparing for Action on Hamas Tunnels Across Gaza Border
“For I will defend this city to save it, for Mine own sake, and for My servant David’s sake.”
(Isaiah 37:35)
Senior officers in the IDF southern command have been expressing their concerns in recent internal forums regarding the security situation around the Gaza border, arguing that it is as tense as it has been since the 2014 war, Walla reported Thursday. Except that today, unlike the days before the last war, an Israeli military initiative across the border is possible.
“The different units must prepare for the possibility that the political echelon would lose its patience or that the tunnels threat in Gaza would leave no more political room for restraint, and [the cabinet] would attempt to take care of the tunnels on the Palestinian side,” one senior officer said. He called on the units in the area to remain on high alert for the possibility of a go order, and to that end the IDF has been practicing reaching gathering areas, including dealing with scenarios of rocket barrages targeting IDF bases.
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http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/61284/sources-idf-preparing-action-hamas-tunnels-across-gaza-border/#coYk1sZufcfDDVqt.99


Rabbi: Cruz Backer Bickle’s Heart is in the Right Place, But His Interpretations of Messianic Prophecies Are Not
“Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is a time of trouble unto Jacob, but out of it shall he be saved.” 
Jeremiah 30:7 (The Israel Bible™)
On January 21, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz picked up a controversial endorsement from Mike Bickle, Director of the International House of Prayer, an organization that partners “with Messianic Jews for the salvation of the Jewish people.”
Rabbi Tovia Singer, who emphasized that he has spent his “entire life opposing evangelicals who try to convert Jews,” told Breaking Israel News that Mike Bickle is not an anti-Semite, but he doesn’t properly understand the verses he quotes when he speaks about Jews, Israel and the End of Days.
READ MORE
 http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/61407/rabbi-cruz-backer-bickles-heart-right-place-but-interpretations-messianic-prophecies-not-jewish-world/#X1MDUuuI6KUWOVzS.99


Netanyahu to Arab States: Admit You Have Ties to Israel
“He revealeth the deep and secret things; He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with Him.” 
Daniel 2:22 (The Israel Bible™)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Peace Conference in Washington DC. September 02, 2010. (Photo: Moshe Milner/GPO/FLASH90)
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for Arab nations with covert ties to Israel to acknowledge their relationships with the Jewish state.
Speaking to a group of Jewish leaders from the US, Netanyahu said that most moderate Arab countries – he declined to name any specifically – see Israel as an ally and not an enemy. They share common foes: Iran and ISIS, he said.
“Major Arab countries are changing their view of Israel,” he said. “They don’t see Israel anymore as their enemy, but they see Israel as their ally, especially in the battle against militant Islam with its two fountainheads.”
READ MORE
Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/61432/netanyahu-releases-mysterious-statement-encouraging-arab-states-publicize-israeli-ties-middle-east/#o0AIbPo4wT7OEuXY.99


Christians Who Demonize Israel – Part II
By Dr. Denis MacEoin
Jesus, it would seem, was not a Jewish teacher but a Palestinian Arab who never set foot in Herod’s Temple because it did not exist, and there were never any Jews in the Holy Land.
It is commonly repeated by Palestinians that there were never any Jews in the Holy Land before the 19th century and that the first and second Jewish Temples never stood in Jerusalem. Not only do these claims fly in the face of over a century of archaeological work and the records of Greek, Roman and other historians in antiquity, they flatly contradict and annul the texts of both the Old and New Testaments. By their own rejection of Jewish rights in Israel, Christians unwittingly repudiate their own rights and history.
Christians in St Thomas Church did not once criticize or deplore the Palestinian glorification of violence, this delight at the murders of children, this dancing in the streets when innocent throats are cut.
Is it the Christian thing to demand that hospitals and doctors across the globe should refuse to use Israeli medicines or surgical devices or advanced medical equipment? Would Christians who work with bodies like Christian Aid call on countries damaged by natural and man-made calamities to ban Israeli aid teams?
Abandoning Israel will not soothe the hearts of the Palestinian people or make the Christians less vulnerable — as we are now seeing from the throat-slittings and mass displacements throughout the Middle East, done not by Jews but by Muslim fanatics.
(See also Part I: Christians Who Demonize Israel: Kairos)
READ MORE
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7399/christians-who-demonize-israel#mzFVxRQqaAKZ1ZKo.99

Christian Financial Advisers Gather to Share Biblical Investing Wisdom
By Tuly Weisz February 16, 2016 , 10:30 am
“So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine was sore upon them; and the land became Pharaoh’s.” 
Genesis 47:20 (The Israel Bible™)
This week, some 950 Christian financial professionals will be gathering in Florida for a unique conference to discuss the investment wisdom contained in the Bible. Kingdom Advisors, a nonprofit organization, is hosting the annual conference, which offers participants the opportunity “to connect with like-minded peers, receive world-class training and equipping, earn extensive continuing education credit, and be equipped for next steps in your faith/work integration journey.”
Among the notable speakers scheduled to appear this year is Rabbi Daniel Lapin, president of the American Alliance of Jews and Christians. “They are financial professionals who integrate their Biblical beliefs with their professional practices,” Lapin told Breaking Israel News, adding, “What could be more consistent with the Jewish approach?  Judaism teaches that the very first question we are destined to be asked from the Throne of Judgement is, ‘Did you conduct your business affairs with integrity?’  I feel privileged to be helping Kingdom Advisors conference attendees align their careers with their callings.”
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Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/61486/christian-financial-advisors-gather-to-share-biblical-investing-wisdom-biblical-zionism/#2rl1ZrImJF57F6HX.99


American UN Ambassador: UN Attempts to Delegitimize Israel
By Jonathan Benedek February 16, 2016 , 12:30 pm
“He that hideth hatred is of lying lips; and he that uttereth a slander is a fool.” 
Proverbs 10:18 (The Israel Bible™))
US Ambassador Samantha Power vigorously criticized the UN’s bias against Israel in her speech at the Israel Middle East Model UN Conference at the American International School in Even Yehuda.
“The UN can seem ineffective at best or a part of the problem at worst,” Ambassador Power told the students.
Ambassador Power elaborated upon the UN’s bias against Israel as a paradigmatic example of the UN falling short of its mandate.
“As you all know, the UN charter guarantees the equal rights of nations large and small,” noted Power.
“Yet, we have seen member states seek to use the UN Security Council, the General Assembly, and even the most arcane UN committees in ways that cross the line from legitimate criticisms of Israel’s policies to attempts to delegitimize the State of Israel itself,” continued Power.
The US Ambassador to the UN also pointed out that rogue regimes like North Korea do not receive anywhere near the amount of criticism received by Israel.
READ MORE
 http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/61519/us-ambassador-un-part-problem-jerusalem/#7cHDK2TcF5OJdO6Y.99

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/02/10/donald-trump-pledges-over-100000-to-israeli-emergency-rescue-service/#
Donald Trump Donates Over $100,000 to Israeli Emergency Rescue Service
Real estate tycoon Donald Trump has pledged to donate over $100,000 to Israeli emergency rescue service United Hatzalah, The Algemeiner has learned.

The gift, which will go towards the purchase of four ambucycles, costing $26,000 each, was inspired by his friend, billionaire Stewart Rahr.

Last month, Rahr arranged the donation of 50 ambucycles for the group through his own contribution and that of his friends.

“I just love the energy level of United Hatzalah,” Rahr said at a dedication ceremony in Jerusalem overlooking the Western Wall Plaza and Temple Mount. “I just love everyone sitting here who are part of this Mitzvah today. This is the type of organization I relate to, starting from the bottom just like I started.”

Rahr, a well known New York personality who calls himself “The King of Fun,” has known Trump for several years, The Media Line recently reported. Trump told the publication how Rahr once attended a charity dinner where the real estate tycoon was being honored and “just stood up and gave a million dollars.”

“That’s the way he is,” he said.

United Hatzalah is Israel’s first and largest all-volunteer emergency rapid response service. It has a fleet of over 250 ambucycles and uses cutting edge patented GPS based dispatch technology.

Trump has been a vocal supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. His daughter, who converted to Judaism, is married to real estate scion Jared Kushner.

Netanyahu Announces Plans forConstruction of Huge Security Fence to “Protect Ourselves Against Beasts”
By Abra Forman February 10, 2016 , 1:30 pm
“For he said unto Judah: ‘Let us build these cities, and make about them walls, and towers, gates, and bars; the land is yet before us, because we have sought the LORD our God; we have sought Him, and He hath given us rest on every side.’ So they built and prospered.” (2 Chronicles 14:6)
Israel must surround itself with a security fence on all of its borders in order to keep out the “beasts” in the neighborhood, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday. He announced the plans for constructing this barrier while touring a new security fence near Eilat which is being built along Israel’s border with Jordan.
“We are preparing a multi-year project to encircle Israel with a security fence, to defend ourselves in the Middle East as it is now, and as it is expected to be,” he said. “At the end, in the State of Israel, as I see it, there will be a fence that spans it all.”
“They will say to me, ‘This is what you want, to protect the mansion?’ And the answer is yes. ‘What, we will encircle the whole country with fences and barriers?’ The answer is yes,” Netanyahu asserted.
“In the neighborhood in which we live, we need to protect ourselves against beasts.”
Plans are also being drawn up to fill in gaps in the security fence in Judea and Samaria, Netanyahu added, though the details have yet to be worked out. While a large fence is planned for the highly-populated settlement blocs of Ma’ale Adumim, Ariel, and Gush Etzion, as of now, only a small section has been built.
Netanyahu tours the fence under construction every few months to monitor its progress. In recent years, Israel has built a barrier stretching for 242 kilometers (88 miles) along the Egyptian border. The barrier includes the fence, whose height is five meters, or about 16 feet, and a thin, sensitive strip used by IDF trackers to identify footprints. Another length of fence, stretching for 103 kilometers (64 miles), has gone up in the northern Golan Heights, and 500 kilometers (310 miles), of fence have been erected in Judea and Samaria.
Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/61020/netanyhau-must-surround-israel-fence-keep-beasts/#226GWvWfjJqga5AM.99


Israel Set to Become one of India’s Top Three Arms Suppliers
“And I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3)
In yet another sign of the burgeoning relationship between the two countries, a package of bilateral military deals being hammered out will position Israel as one of India’s top three weapons suppliers, The Jewish Press reported Tuesday. The total value of the package would be $3 billion.
Three of the deals are ready to face a final vote by India’s Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), scheduled to take place before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi makes his first official visit to Israel later this year. A source with the Indian Defense Ministry said, “It should be cleared by the CCS within a month or so.”
Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/60969/israel-set-to-become-one-of-indias-top-three-arms-suppliers-jerusalem/#cw1r3HQT40ctVhYq.99



The Next White House and Israel
By Jim Fletcher
We can predict fairly easily what the Democrat will do, if one is elected. It will be at least four more years of Obama’s anti-Semitic agenda. But what of the Republicans?
Many of us are “issues” voters. In fact, who isn’t? Leftists like to tag conservatives as “issues voters,” then they do the same thing by voting for immoral candidates who support abortion, etc.
But what kind of relationship will Israel have with the next president?
That’s one of my issues.
We can predict fairly easily what the Democrat will do, if one is elected. It will be at least four more years of Obama’s anti-Semitic agenda. The only Democrat currently running that has a chance of winning is Hillary Clinton, and the sleazy Clinton has a decades-long history of befriending the Palestinians. Part of her email scandal involves her exchanges with aids and advisors that show a clear hatred of the Jewish state. Just get a load of her exchanges about Israel with Sid Blumenthal.
Read more at http://www.raptureready.com/rap15.html#x0rd0kqaygKAYd6F.99


Torah Codes, Rabbinic Scholar Reveal Divine Message Hidden in Zika Virus
“The Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice; a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is He.” (Deuteronomy 32:4)
Aedes aegypti mosquito, one of the transmitters of the Zika virus. (Wikimedia Commons)
Is it possible to look into the Zika virus and see God’s Hand at work? Rabbinic scholar and popular lecturer Rabbi Mendel Kessin thinks so, but cautions, “Only God knows why He does what He does, so you can never speak with certainty.” 
There are two theories about possible spiritual messages hidden in the Zika virus. Before presenting them, it’s important to understand a few basic facts about the virus.
The Zika virus, carried by mosquitoes, has been active in Brazil for the past year. Babies born to women infected with the virus are at high risk for microcephaly, a serious birth defect. Babies born with microcephaly have misshapen or missing foreheads. Although there is a range of severity, the severest forms are accompanied by mental retardation and profound motor dysfunction.
Symptoms of microcephaly (the Zika virus) in babies. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Earlier this month, the World Health Organization declared the recent uptick in cases of microcephaly in Brazil (estimates range from 2,500-4,000 cases) to be a public health emergency. In December of 2015, The Guardian reported that Cláudio Maierovitch, an official at Brazil’s Ministry of Health, began advising women in Brazil to postpone getting pregnant indefinitely.
In his recent blog post Zika Virus: Is it Judgment?, Bob O’Dell, co-founder of Root-Source, made the case that the Zika virus “is part of God’s judgment.” He suggested that the spiritual message hidden in the Zika virus is God’s punishment for sexual immorality.
Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/61096/is-zika-divine-retribution-for-brazils-actions-against-israel-jewish-world/#HKXE74oZyZBWXXRh.99

EU Attempts to Heal Schism With Israel Over Product Labeling
“When a man’s ways please the LORD, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.”
(Proverbs 16:7)
Israel is discreetly holding talks with the European Union (EU) in an effort to resolve a diplomatic crisis following the EU’s recent decision to remove “Made in Israel” labels from products originating beyond Israel’s 1967 lines.
The EU and Israel are jointly working on ways to restore relations so that negotiations can resume in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the Jerusalem Post reported, citing Israel Radio.
A delegation led by Helga Schmid—the EU’s deputy secretary general for the External Action Service and a senior adviser to EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini—last week secretly met with Israeli Foreign Ministry Director General Dore Gold, representatives of the Israeli National Security Council, and other officials in Israel, according to Haaretz.
“We told them that the decisions of the EU’s council of foreign ministers and the decision on the labeling of products [beyond the 1967 lines] were unilateral and in fact adopted the Palestinian narrative. That’s no way to conduct a respectful dialogue,” an unnamed Jerusalem official was quoted as saying.
Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/61102/eu-israel-reportedly-secret-talks-resolve-labeling-spat/#uA10pGITz2uT4fov.99

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/207680#.VrhaLBiLTct
Netanyahu urged to accept American offer for military aid
American officials tell Netanyahu he won't get a better military aid package from Obama's successor.
By Ben Ariel
First Publish: 2/8/2016, 6:16 AM
Netanyahu and Obama in the White HouseReuters
Talks between Israel and the United States on a new military aid package have become stuck as the two sides try to strong-arm one another, Haaretz revealed on Sunday.

The current American aid package to Israel is set to expire in 2017, and in November it was reported that Israel made an initial request for its annual defense aid to increase to as much as $5 billion.

Israel wants $5 billion per year in military aid for 10 years, for a total of $50 billion, congressional aides said at the time.

But on Sunday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting that if Israel's security needs would not be met, he would not sign a deal and would instead wait for the next president to take office in January 2017.

According to Haaretz, senior U.S. officials reacted angrily and warned that the budgetary situation would not improve, and that Israel would not get a better deal with the next president.

"Even as we grapple with a particularly challenging budget environment, this administration's commitment to Israel's security is such that we are prepared to sign an MOU [memorandum of understanding] with Israel that would constitute the largest single pledge of military assistance to any country in U.S. history," one official told the newspaper.

"Israel is of course free to wait for the next administration to finalize a new MOU should it not be satisfied with such a pledge, but we would caution that the U.S. budgetary environment is unlikely to improve in the next 1-2 years and Israel will certainly not find a president more committed to Israel's security than is President Obama," the official warned.

The official further stressed that talks are "taking place in the context of a challenging budgetary environment in the United States that has necessitated difficult tradeoffs amongst competing priorities including not just foreign assistance and defense but also domestic spending."

According to the official Israel currently receives over 50 percent of the total foreign military aid the U.S provides around the globe.

"Despite these [budgetary] limitations, based on extensive consultations with Israel on its threat environment and in-depth discussions within the U.S. government regarding Israel's defense needs, we are confident that a new [memorandum] could meet Israel’s top security requirements and preserve its qualitative military edge," he said.

In 2013, during his visit to Israel, President Barack Obama indicated that Israel and the United States were opening talks on extending the American military aid to the Jewish state beyond the end of the current agreement.

Netanyahu later put the brakes on aid talks with Washington in the run-up to the Iran deal that was reached in July, signaling his displeasure with the negotiations. Subsequently, Israeli officials indicated that Netanyahu was ready to move beyond his rejection of the Iran deal and re-launch talks with Washington on the aid package.

Since that time, according to the Haaretz report, there have been three rounds of talks on the aid before Netanyahu’s comments on Sunday.

The officials who spoke to the newspaper stressed that Israel's security is a top priority for the Obama administration and to the extent that it can reach a new security memorandum of understandings it will further exemplify President Obama's commitment to Israel's security

"From the $20.5 billion in Foreign Military Financing to the additional $3 billion in missile defense funding the United States has provided under his leadership, no other U.S. Administration in history has done more for Israel's security," the White House said.

According to the report, last Thursday, an American delegation led by Yael Lempert, the Special Assistant to the president and Senior Director for the Levant, Israel and Egypt at the National Security Council in the White House, who arrived in Israel to hold a third round of negotiations on the matter.

Over the past three days, the American team held discussions with a team of counterparts from the national security staff in the Prime Minister's Office and from the Defense Ministry, the Israel Defense Forces and the Foreign Ministry. The main topic of discussion in the talks was the size of the aid that the United States would provide Israel and the conditions on its use.

A senior Israeli official who participated in the cabinet meeting but asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the subject said the contacts with the American administration are continuing but "nothing has yet been finalized and it will take more time."

Another senior official who also participated in the cabinet meeting added that, despite the three rounds of negotiations, Obama's intervention will be necessary to achieve a breakthrough. "It's not a subject for staff, but rather for decisions by leaders," he said.

Next month, notes Haaretz, the contacts between Israel and the United States on the security memorandum of understanding are expected to be stepped up a notch. Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon is expected to visit Washington at the beginning of March to meet with his American counterpart, Ashton Carter. About two weeks later, Netanyahu will come to Washington to attend the conference of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. In all probability, he will also meet with Obama in an effort to achieve a breakthrough in the talks.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-said-worried-obama-may-go-against-israel-as-term-expires/
Netanyahu said worried Obama may go against Israel as term expiresTop minister dismisses Army Radio report, which comes hours after similar claims by Channel 2 were denied by the State DepartmentBY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF February 7, 2016, 12:15 pm 61
ime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is worried that the Obama administration will use its final weeks in office to back UN Security Council decisions and other measures detrimental to Israel, Army Radio reported on Sunday.

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Netanyahu has therefore been trying to persuade his ministerial colleagues to approve a series of measures to boost the West Bank economy and show Israel’s commitment to improving the Palestinians’ lives, but has been stymied by opposition in the security cabinet by ministers including Naftali Bennett, Ayelet Shaked and Ze’ev Elkin, the report said.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan of the prime minister’s Likud party told the radio station Sunday morning, however, that he did not believe the Obama administration would back or fail to veto UN resolutions supporting Palestinian statehood or similar measures to impose terms. “It’s inconceivable that President Obama has any such intention,” said Erdan, “given that he and his administration emphasize that the solution to the conflict requires direct negotiations and compromise between the two sides themselves.”

Erdan also said he would personally back measures to improve the quality of life for the Palestinians in the territories, and that he believed Netanyahu would be able to secure majority support in the security cabinet, of which he is a member, for such measures if and when needed.

Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan arrives at the weekly government meeting in Jerusalem, January 3, 2016. (Alex Kolomoisky/POOL)
Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan arrives at the weekly government meeting in Jerusalem, January 3, 2016. (Alex Kolomoisky/POOL)

The Army Radio report, which gave no named sources, said Netanyahu’s concern about possible Obama administration decisions was focused on the period between November 2016, when a new president is chosen, and January 2017, when that president takes office. Given the history of difficult relations between the two countries’ leaderships, this period would constitute a brief window when the Obama administration could advance its agenda without domestic repercussions, the report said.

The Army Radio report followed hard on the heels of a similar claim on Saturday night, broadcast on Channel 2, to the effect that US Secretary of State John Kerry would visit Israel within weeks, that he would seek to restart peace talks, and that if he failed, the Obama administration might try to impose some kind of accord in the final months of the Obama presidency — after a new US president has been elected, and before Obama steps down.

The US State Department later Saturday evening flatly dismissed most of the TV claims. Responding on Twitter to the Times of Israel’s coverage of the Channel 2 report, State Department spokesman John Kirby said the secretary had “no plans… to travel soon to Israel. Also no plan by him to restart talks.”

“Need both sides to reduce violence,” Kirby added in the tweet.
Kirby did not address the claims about unilateral moves Obama might make or back in the final weeks of his presidency.

The Channel 2 report appeared to be based, at least in part, on its interview earlier Saturday with opposition leader Isaac Herzog.

Herzog said the Obama administration “hasn’t given up on the [Israeli-Palestinian] process,” and that he believed Kerry “may come here soon” to try again to move things forward. Herzog, leader of the Zionist Union party, met with Kerry in Rome on Tuesday.

US State Department spokesman John Kirby delivering the department's daily press briefing, January 19, 2016. (screen capture/US State Department website)
US State Department spokesman John Kirby. (screen capture/US State Department website)

Herzog said many world leaders were discussing the deadlocked process and considering ideas, of which some “could be to Israel’s detriment.” Israel could face “decisions from all directions,” he said, noting that last week’s threat by France to recognize a Palestinian state if it fails in its planned new attempt to restart peace talks and reach an accord “didn’t come out of nowhere.”

US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) and Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog on February 3, 2016 (Courtesy)

If Israel didn’t take the initiative, Herzog said, “we’ll have an accord imposed upon us.” He noted that, in the final year of the Obama presidency, the president “can do what he wants.”

Herzog said he wasn’t sure the Americans had yet decided what they want to attempt. But “when you hear that world leaders want to take unilateral decisions,” he said, it underlined the imperative for Israel to “initiate moves that will boost its own security.”

God Rains Down Divine Retribution Upon Detractors of Israel and Today's Top Stories
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz February 5, 2016 , 8:00 am
“And if in spite of these things ye will not be corrected unto Me, but will walk contrary unto Me; then will I also walk contrary unto you; and I will smite you, even I, seven times for your sins.” (Leviticus 26:23-24)
(Photo: GraphicStock)
Margot Wallström, Sweden’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister, has earned a reputation for Israel-bashing. The first blatant anti-Israel offense came in 2014, when she became the first European Union foreign minister to recognize the state of Palestine.

After the horrifying terror attacks in Paris last November, she came out with a statement linking Islamic anger to the lack of a two-state solution. Even worse, after months of terror in which Palestinians were attacking Israelis in the streets on an almost daily basis,  she accused Israel in January of carrying out “extrajudicial executions”.

Israel reacted through diplomatic channels, but a more powerful force stepped in. Three days after Wallström accused Israel of executing Palestinians, it was revealed that she had jumped to the head of an eight-year waiting list for apartments owned by a labor union. Stockholm is suffering from a serious shortage of housing and this was viewed by the Swedish public as an egregious misuse of her position. Anti-corruption prosecutors are investigating the case now to determine if it constitutes bribery, which carries a potential two-year prison term.

This type of instant karma is the rule and not the exception when it comes to politicians that treat Israel badly. One of the clearest examples of divine slap-down came on January 21, 1998, when US President Bill Clinton gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a decidedly cold reception at the White House, and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright refused to have lunch with Netanyahu. Things looked grim for Israel, but later that day, the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke out, ultimately resulting in Clinton’s impeachment.

President George H.W. Bush signed the Oslo Accords on October 30, 1991, setting the stage for the disastrous “Land for Peace” process. The very next day, a hurricane dubbed “The Perfect Storm” hit the east coast of the United States, destroying Bush’s house in Kennebunkport, Maine.

Occasionally, divine intervention can take an ironic turn. As president, Jimmy Carter was not nearly as involved with Israel as he has been since leaving office. In his book, Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, he blames Israel’s “colonization of Palestinian land” as being “the primary obstacle to a comprehensive peace agreement”.

Carter was a proponent of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) since it seemed to produce results and bear pressure on Israel to negotiate. He has also met with many leaders of Hamas and during the 2014 war in Gaza, called for Israel to negotiate with Hamas.

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One year later, he was diagnosed with cancer and melanomas were found in his brain and liver. After only a few months of treatment, the doctors  pronounced him cancer-free. Pembrolizumab, a drug developed in Israel, was a key element in his treatment. His adherence to boycotting Israeli products and innovations obviously had its limits.

Carter’s miracle cure may not have been solely attributed to Israeli science. His sins against the Jewish people may have been forgiven in December 2009, when Carter published an open letter apologizing for any words or deeds that may have upset the Jewish community. In the letter, he said he was offering an Al Het, a prayer of repentance, said on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.

Divine retribution is not restricted to non-Jews. Ariel Sharon had achieved almost legendary status in Israel. After a spectacular army career, he entered politics and, at the head of the Likud party, was elected prime minister in 2001. He endorsed the Roadmap for Peace and began plans to remove the Jewish population of Gush Katif from the Gaza Strip. The dismantling of the Jewish settlements was scheduled for August 15th, 2005, the day after Tisha b’Av, the anniversary of both Jewish Temples being destroyed.

In July, one month before the IDF dismantled Gush Katif and evicted almost 9,000 Jews from their homes, Rabbi Yosef Dayan, a member of the nascent Sanhedrin who can trace his lineage back to King David, led a group of ten rabbis in performing an obscure, ancient Kabbalistic ceremony, the Pulsa diNura, on Sharon. The Pulsa diNura invokes the angels of destruction to block heavenly forgiveness of the subject’s sins, causing all the curses named in the Bible to befall him and resulting in his death.  

Sharon’s health deteriorated, and by January, he suffered a hemorrhagic stroke, entering a vegetative state from which he never recovered. Rabbi Dayan also led rabbis in the Pulsa diNura against Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin a few months before he was assassinated. Rabin was shot and killed in 1995 by Yigal Amir, an extremist who  opposed Rabin’s peace initiative and particularly the signing of the Oslo Accords.

Rabbi Dayan told Breaking Israel News that none of these events were simple coincidence, but divine justice. “Today, there isn’t prophecy. God presents circumstances for us to try to understand him, to express our belief in him,” he explained. “These aren’t things that happen by chance or coincidence. This is not just true for politics, but it is also true for politics. Politicians are, after all, simple servants of God, no less or more than the rest of us.”

Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/60589/god-rains-down-divine-retribution-upon-detractors-israel-jewish-world/#BltV0WTFyB8EibUc.99

Netanyahu Files Complaint Against Arab MK’s Who Met With Terrorist’s Families
“In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.” (Proverbs 23:22)
Three Knesset Members (MK’s) from the Arab party Balad met with families of 11 terrorists on Tuesday. Haneen Zoabi, Jamal Zahalka, and Basel Ghattas referred to the terrorists, killed while attacking Israelis, as shaheed (martyrs).
On Wednesday, the families met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in his Ramallah office, just a few hours after a terror attack killed 19 year old Corporal Hadar Cohen and injured another soldier.
The Balad faction explained that “the MKs met with the families who asked to release their sons’ bodies for burial. The request has been forwarded to the Public Security Minister and he is dealing with it.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Speaker of the Knesset, Yuli Edelstein, filed a joint complaint to the Knesset Ethics Committee on Thursday, saying the actions constituted incitement and “encouragement to murder.”
Netanyahu was unequivocally harsh when explaining his motives for filing the complaint.
“Members of Knesset who go to comfort the families of terrorists who murdered Israelis do not deserve to be in the Israeli Knesset. I have asked the Speaker of the Knesset to examine what steps can be taken against them,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/60654/netanyahu-files-complaint-against-arab-mks-who-met-with-terrorists-families-jerusalem/#2aiflcS1OmjGEJra.99

http://www.jewsnews.co.il/2016/02/01/exposure-of-us-spying-on-israeli-drones-served-a-pressing-russian-interest/

Exposure of US spying on Israeli drones served a pressing Russian interest
FEB 01, 2016by ADMINin ISRAEL

The latest batch of “top secret” documents to be leaked to the web magazineThe Intercept by fugitive former NSA advisor Edward Snowden, showing that the US had spied on Israeli air force operations for more than 18 years, is as interesting for its timing as its revelations.

For three years, the magazine has published Snowdon leaks almost exclusively. This time, on Tuesday, Jan. 26, it released files exposing a joint operation by US and British intelligence agencies codenamed Anarchist. For almost two decades, Israeli air force operations, mainly by drones, were monitored and their transmission feeds intercepted from the British intelligence base in the Troodos Mountains in Cyprus, as well as the NSA base in Menwith Hill, north of Manchester, England,

The magazine story included some exaggerations, including a statement that “US and British spies had a virtual seat in the cockpit” of Israel’s drones. It was also suggested that Israel’s drones were armed with missiles, which is hardly a secret.
At some point, Israel acted to protect its drone fleet’s “downlinks” to headquarters, so that many of the feeds grabbed by the Troodos analysts were found to be encrypted or scrambled, showing up like the black-and-white snow on a TV screen.
On Friday, Jan. 29, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu called US Vice President Joe Biden and demanded an explanation of what Israel considers its senior ally’s perfidy.

Biden used  US collaboration with Britain to point a finger at the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) – an organization similar to Israel’s Military Intelligence Unit 8200.

It is no secret that Britain serves the American NSA as a willing and productive “subcontractor,” with no interest of its own, military or otherwise, in the contents of the videos Israeli drones or other feeds relayed to the “pit” in IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv. London. The Brits were simply performing the bidding of “big sister” for very good reasons:

As a senior member of the “Five Eyes” grouping of intelligence organizations along with Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the UK obediently carries out whatever intelligence mission it is entrusted by the US.

In return, London receives priceless American intelligence data on domestic and external threats to Britain, as well as generous funding for MI5, MI6 and the GCHQ and technologies. The Americans share exclusive confidential data with the UK and they cooperate in many fields of intelligence.
Israel’s indignation over hostile spying by America and Britain on its air force operations, which has in fact been known for years, detracted attention from the equally important question of why this Snowdon bombshell was dropped now.

After quitting the NSA and fleeing the US, Snowdon won political asylum in Russia. He lives in Moscow. It may be assumed that the files he lifted from the NSA were either handed over to the Kremlin and Russian intelligence, or at least, their release was subject to their control.

So how did the Snowdon files on Anchor serve Moscow’s agenda?

Two pressing interests stand out:

1. The Russian military effort in Syria currently focuses strongly on dislodging the rebel forces concentrated in a southern strip adjoining the Israeli border. Until now, the Israeli air force felt free to block its enemies’ intrusions into that strip and counted on its superior avionics and electronic warfare measures to outwit Russian interference.

The disclosure of Operational Anchor at this time was intended to show  Israel that its much vaunted technological superiority is a myth and highly vulnerable to US and British espionage.
It was therefore meant to be understood as Moscow’s Keep Out of Syria warning to the Israel air force.

2.  Another implied warning was directed to Riyadh, three days before the conference on a political solution for ending the Syrian war opened in Geneva on January 29, under the joint US-Russian aegis.

This conference depends for much of its success on Saudi-backed opposition rebel groups playing ball. But those groups have been encouraged by Riyadh to play hard to get.

Moscow used the Snowdon files to advise the Saudis not to fall into the error of counting on the Israeli Air Force being free to operate in Syria in support of their goals, just as they were wrong to expect Israel to bomb Iran’s nuclear program.
Israel was certainly not taken aback by the “exposure” of Operation Anchor, since its military and defense organizations have always been on alert for America to use its best technology and limitless funds to stay on their tail.

Although Israel’s failure to spot these alien intercepts in real time is certainly a matter of concern, an objective, factual

FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE CLICK LINK
http://www.debka.com/article/25199/

http://unitedwithisrael.org/un-chief-reveals-his-dangerous-anti-israel-obsession-in-ny-times-op-ed/

With his term as secretary-general coming to an end, Ban Ki-moon wrote an op-ed in the New York Times in which he attacks Israel, a clear indication that he has decided to focus solely on the Israeli-Palestinian problem – ignoring hundreds of other, worse, conflicts around the world. His obsession with Israel suggests he has lost any inhibitions in hiding his deep bias against, and hatred for, the Jewish State. 

As United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s term comes to an end, it appears he has decided to ruin the last shreds of the UN’s supposed impartiality and wage an open battle against Israel.

In an opinion piece published Sunday by The New York Times, Ban deflected Israeli criticism of his attacks on its policies, which he had called “unsustainable,” and stood by comments he made last week, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said encouraged Palestinian terrorism against Israel.

In the piece titled, “Don’t Shoot the Messenger, Israel,” Ban reiterated many of his earlier comments at the Security Council (UNSC) Tuesday, calling Israeli construction in Judea and Samaria and in Jerusalem “an affront to the Palestinian people,” adding that “it is human nature to resist occupation,” meaning the legitimate, legal and historic Israeli presence in these areas is “occupation.”

He also called for a freeze of construction in Judea and Samaria, home to 400,000 Israelis.

“Criticism of the United Nations — or attacks against me — comes with the territory,” he wrote, yet claiming that his “heartfelt concerns” about what he termed as “short-sighted or morally damaging policies” emanate from many sources, including Israel’s closest friends.

“It [Israel] cannot be sustainable to keep lashing out at every well-intentioned critic,” Ban wrote.

Ban claimed that he would always stand up for Israel’s right to exist, but added: “the time has come for Israelis, Palestinians and the international community to read the writing on the wall: The status quo is untenable. Keeping another people under indefinite occupation undermines the security and the future of both Israelis and Palestinians.”

Ban’s harsh piece was ostensibly sparked by Israel’s recent approval of 150 new homes in Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria.

In the opinion piece, Ban also pointed out that last month Israel declared 370 acres in the West Bank, “state land,” which he said “typically leads to exclusive settler use.”

He made no mention that a future Palestinian state would be for exclusive Palestinian use.

The UN under Ban’s leadership has become an exceedingly anti-Israel body, with a morbid focus on the Jewish State, while ignoring other crucial global issues.

Ban does not appear to have written a similar piece about any other conflict on any other country during his tenure as UN secretary general.

danny danon
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon. (World Likud)

Just last week, Israeli envoy to the UN Danny Danon cited the UNSC for its lack of response to Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis.

During the last four months, during which Israel has suffered from a wave of almost daily Palestinian terror attacks, the UNSC has adopted twelve resolutions against terrorism and condemned terrorist attacks in France, the Sinai, Lebanon, Mali, Tunisia, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Somalia, and Sudan.

Yet, “not once were the lives of Israelis murdered by terrorists recognized by this Council. No condemnation, no expression of solidarity, not even a statement of concern. The facts don’t lie. The Security Council has been hypocritical when it comes to Israel,” Danon charged.

Responding to the op-ed, Danon said the Ban was again expressing support and justifying Palestinian terrorism.

“There is no excuse for the murder of women at their homes in front of their children,” Danon stated, relating to the Palestinian murder of Dafna Meir in front of her children at the entrance to her home.

“The Palestinian incitement machine continues to generate terrorism, while the UN secretary general’s words generate legitimacy for terrorism, Danon charged.

Danon again underlined Ban’s choice to ignore the reality in Israel, and instead of lending it support in its war on terrorism, he chooses to support the knife-wielding Palestinians.

“The UN’s function is to fight terrorism, not encourage it,” said Danon.

By: AP and United with Israel Staff

Obama to Pay First Official Visit to US Mosque
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz January 30, 2016 , 11:15 pm
“As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation.” (Genesis 17:20)
(Photo: Pete Souza/ White House Official Photo).jpg

The White House announced on Saturday that US President Barack Obama will make his first official visit to a mosque on Wednesday. The visit is intended to promote religious tolerance and combat the anti-Islamic rhetoric that links the religion to terrorism. The president will visit the Islamic Society of Baltimore, one of the Mid-Atlantic region’s largest Muslim centers. The visit was confirmed by an announcement on their website.

White House spokesman Keith Maley said in an e-mail on Saturday that the president is making the visit “to celebrate the contributions Muslim Americans make to our nation and reaffirm the importance of religious freedom to our way of life.”

“The President believes that one of our nation’s greatest strengths is our rich diversity and the very idea that Americans of different faiths and backgrounds can thrive together – that we’re all part of the same American family. As the President has said, Muslim Americans are our friends, and neighbors; our co-workers, and sports heroes – and our men and women in uniform defending our country.”
President Obama has visited mosques outside of the United States when abroad on official visits. He toured the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta in 2010.
The Islamic Society of Baltimore has been the victim of threats in recent months, including one telephone bomb threat. The Washington Post reported it was the mosque of the family of Adnan Sayed, who was convicted for the murder of Hae Min Lee in 1999. The trial was the subject of the podcast Serial in 2014, which brought international attention to Syed’s trial.

Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/60152/obama-to-pay-first-official-visit-to-us-mosque-jerusalem/#vcubU9KRkZh6HdrW.99

Israel and the Russian Challenge
By Caroline Glick January 24, 2016 , 7:00 am
Israeli Air Force commanders are reportedly deeply worried about Russia’s military presence in Syria.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin deployed his forces to Syria last year, he claimed that the deployment would be brief. Russian forces were placed in Syria, Putin said, to protect Assad and would leave once he was able to defend himself.

Last week, when the terms of the deployment agreement concluded between Russia and Syria were made public, we discovered that those early claims were false. Under the terms of the deal, Russia can maintain permanent bases in Syria.

Israel’s Air Force is no match for Russia’s. The S-400 anti-aircraft system Russia is deploying to Syria covers half of Israeli territory. Russia’s deployment means that Israel has lost its regional air superiority.
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To be sure, Putin’s decision to set up permanent bases in Syria is not directed against Israel. He is interested in defending Russian interests in areas like oil and Syria where Israel is not an actor. This is the reason that Russia and Israel have been able to reach tactical agreements over Syria.

Among other things, the sides agreed to deconflict their aircraft flying over Syria.

But Israel’s ability to reach tactical understandings with Russia doesn’t mean Israel can trust that Russia’s operations in the area will not harm its national security in significant ways.

For instance, the reports that Russia is transferring arms to Hezbollah are deeply worrying. For the past five years, according to reports in foreign media, the Air Force has repeatedly bombed shipments of Iranian weapons destined for Hezbollah forces in Lebanon.

Israel is not in a position to contemplate bombing Russian military shipments to Lebanon. It is also not in a position to challenge a Russian decision to allow Hezbollah to use advanced weapons like Yakhont anti-ship missiles against naval ships either from Lebanon or Syria.

And there is no reason to believe that Russia won’t do so.

Russia has been acting in alliance with Hezbollah, Assad and Iran since the 1980s. Putin’s reported willingness to cooperate with Israel in various areas does not mean that Russia is no longer Iran’s partner in supplying Hezbollah and facilitating its operations.

The government and military have no options for dealing with Russia’s sudden emergence as a major power in our backyard. And there is nothing new in Israel’s helplessness.

We’ve never had an option for reining in Moscow.

But until Barack Obama came into office, Israel never had to worry about Russia.

For 65 years, the US forced Russia to curb its activities in the Middle East.

Until Barack Obama entered the White House, every US president from Franklin Roosevelt on believed it was a US economic and strategic interest of the first order to curb Russian power in the Middle East. The chief reason the US began its strategic alliance with Israel after the 1967 Six Day War was because by defeating Russian clients Egypt and Syria, Israel proved its value to the US’s Cold War strategy.

In the succeeding decades, Israel and the US had a division of labor. It was Israel’s job to defeat or deter Russian – or Soviet – clients in the Arab world. It was the US’s job to deter Russia – or the Soviet Union.

Now, in the final year of the Obama presidency, all that is gone. Obama is content to see Russia exert power and influence that none of his predecessors would have countenanced. And so, for the first time, Israel finds itself standing alone against Russia, with no clear means of protecting its vital national security interests.

Obama’s refusal to take any steps to curb Russia’s deployment and ambitions in the region is not surprising.

It not that he doesn’t understand that Russia’s rise means America’s fall. He undoubtedly has been warned of the implications of Russia’s return to region by the relevant government agencies and the military.

But none of that matters to him. The only thing that Obama cares about is his legacy. Obama cannot take action against Russia without discrediting his entire Middle East policy, and so destroying his own legacy.

OBAMA’S POLICY in the region is based on the assumption that the US is responsible for instability and war in the Middle East. As a consequence, Obama’s regional policy is one that requires the US to abandon those who benefited from US protection and partnership – first and foremost Israel and Saudi Arabia, and appeasing those who most oppose the US and its allies – first and foremost Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood.

With Iran’s capture of the US naval craft and its illegal detention of 10 US naval personnel last week, Iran demonstrated, once again, that it has not been appeased by Obama’s nuclear and financial concessions.

Iran continues to view the US as its primary enemy and it continues to view itself as at war against America.

It is beyond dispute that Iran committed a war crime in photographing the US military personnel in humiliating ways and forcing one sailor to film an apology to Iran. The language of the Geneva Conventions is cut and dry on the subject.

But rather than take action against Iran, by among other things, delaying the revocation of economic sanctions against Iran, the Obama administration defended Iran’s act of war against the US.

In a press briefing, State Department spokesman John Kirby argued that Iran did not commit a war crime when it detained and photographed the US sailors in humiliating ways because Iran is not at war with the US.

This is an idiotic statement meant to hide an indefensible position. Obviously, if Kirby is right and Iran is not at war with the US, then the act of detaining and photographing the sailors moves from a mere war crime, to an act of international piracy and hostage taking.

In other words, in detaining US sailors and photographing them, Iran either committed a war crime and an act of war, or it committed an even larger crime – and initiated a war with the US.

But Obama cannot acknowledge that this is the case, because if he does, he will be unable to defend his larger policy – which is equally indefensible.

Iran began broadcasting photographs of the sailors kneeing before their Iranian captors and a video apology in which a sailor issued a groveling apology and thanked Iran for its kindness and hospitality the day before Secretary of State John Kerry stood before the cameras in Vienna and announced that the US and its partners would remove economic sanctions against Iran as soon as the IAEA announced that Iran was abiding by the nuclear deal.

The IAEA then duly announced that Iran was in compliance and it could receive its $150 billion in frozen funds.

Iran crowed that the American sailors cried and otherwise acted like cowards when they were apprehended just hours before Obama went before the cameras and congratulated himself for his brilliantly smart diplomacy that has prevented war. Obama similarly chastised unnamed critics for criticizing his decision to bow and scrape before Iran as it committed acts of war against America.

Obama was undoubtedly relishing the moment as he declared diplomatic victory over his political opponents, but even if he was unhappy about Iran’s behavior he couldn’t have done anything about it.

Obama brags that he was able to reach a nuclear deal where all his predecessors failed. But this hides the main distinction between him and those who came before him.

None of Obama’s predecessors concluded a nuclear deal with Iran because unlike Obama, none of his predecessors were willing to abandon US interests – including the interest of preventing the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism from acquiring nuclear weapons – in order to get a deal. Obama cannot attack Iran’s aggression on the high seas without calling into question the wisdom of his nuclear diplomacy.

He cannot take action against Russia without calling into question his belief that US power in the Middle East is the chief cause of all the region’s problems.

Israel’s military and political leaders are right to be concerned about the implications of Russia’s return to Syria. And it is far from clear that there is a way to credibly minimize the dangers. But, since we’re not going anywhere, we will have to make the best of a bad situation.

Whatever we do, we must reconcile ourselves to the fact that unless the next US president rejects Obama’s entire Middle East policy and shepherds the military and financial resources to abandon it, on Russia, Iran and beyond, Israel will have to fend for itself for the foreseeable future.

Reprinted with author’s permission from The Jerusalem Post
Read more at http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Our-World-Israel-and-the-Russian-challenge-441960#VE2ChCEJ86DPYPOf.99

At Least Three Wounded in Shooting Terror Attack North of Jerusalem [PHOTOS]
By Abra Forman January 31, 2016 , 12:00 pm
“He will cover thee with His pinions, and under His wings shalt thou take refuge; His truth is a shield and a buckler.” (Psalm 91:4)
Three Israelis were wounded in a shooting terror attack near Beit El on January 31, 2016. (Photo: @IsraelNewsFirst Twitter Feed)
At least three Israelis were wounded in a shooting attack outside of Beit El, north of Jerusalem, on Sunday morning, by an attacker who was identified as a police officer for the Palestinian Authority.

The three victims are listed in serious, moderate, and light condition, and all three have been evacuated to the hospital after receiving emergency treatment at the scene of the attack from Magen David Adom (MDA).

Early reports state that the terrorist drove up in a car, exited the vehicle and opened fire.  The assailant was shot and killed at the scene by IDF forces.

An MDA emergency paramedic on the scene reported that all three victims, men in their twenties, were conscious when the medical team arrived. The three were taken to Jerusalem hospitals. One victim was reported to be in serious condition, with a gunshot wound to the upper body; a second in moderate to serious condition, with a gunshot wound to a limb; and a third in light condition, also with a gunshot wound in a limb.

The shooting took place at a military checkpoint between Beit El, a Jewish community  located in the Binyamin Region of Samaria, and Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli security forces confirmed that the gunman was a Palestinian Authority police officer and the driver of Ramallah’s chief prosecutor. He was identified as Amjad Sakri Abu Amar, 34.

Sakri indicated his intentions in a Facebook post shared a few hours prior to the attack in which he wrote, “May allah have mercy on our martyrs, heal our wounds and break the chains of our imprisonment. Our ancestors who were martyred before us we will join you, inshallah.”

A day previous to the attack, an American-Israeli teenager was stabbed and lightly injured by two Palestinian youths close to the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City. The two assailants turned themselves in to Israeli police.
Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/60206/at-least-three-wounded-in-shooting-terror-attack-north-of-jerusalem-terror-watch/#O5fh5JASv7lKVQ9A.99

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach exploded on the Oxford Union in this epic speech
“Hamas is a genocidal organization that proudly touts its charter calling on the annihilation of Jews utterly unconnected to any conflict. It seeks the murder of all Jews, including those sitting in the Oxford Union chamber. It aids and abets honor killings of Palestinian women, shoots gay Palestinians in the head on false chargers of collaboration, machine-guns all Palestinian protesters who dare to defy its rule, violently punishes any form of criticism, engages in daily forms of deadly incitement against Jews, celebrates when Westerners, including in Britain, are blown up by bombs, ended any vestige of democratic rule once it was elected, and builds its military installations under hospitals and nurseries so that the infirm and the vulnerable can serve as human shields to its cowardly terrorists. Israel has tried since its creation to make peace with Arab states and has endangered its security with repeated territorial concessions that were met with nothing but terror attacks. Arabs in Israel live with greater freedoms and human rights than any Muslim country on earth. There is no excuse for terror. Jews even under the horrors of Hitler didn’t turn to blowing up German children. The justifications for terrorism that were being offered were an affront and an abomination to Islam which, just like Judaism, abides by the commandment not to murder.”
Published: January 28, 2016
CLICK HERE


 
Controversial Warning To American Jews: Time to Move to Israel
By Rivkah Lambert Adler January 28, 2016 , 10:30 am
“And I will be found of you, saith the LORD, and I will turn your captivity, and gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you back unto the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.” (Jeremiah 29:14)
Pro-Palestinian protesters from the US Pales­tin­ian Com­mu­nity Net­work in Chicago. (Photo: ADL Blog)
Lori Palatnik, a leader in the American Jewish community, has just released a video in which she calls for American Jews to move to Israel, in fulfillment of the Biblical prophecy about the ingathering of the exiles.  At the End of Days, Palatnik teaches, “Ultimately, the Jews are all going to move to Israel.”
(Photo: Video Screenshot) 
Lori Palatnik (Photo: Video Screenshot)
Palatnik is a Jewish educator, author and speaker. In March 2015, Hadassah, the prestigious Jewish women’s organization, named her among the “Most Outstanding Jewish American Women of Our Time.”
The 3-minute video, first published on January 23, 2016, opens with a reference to 9/11 and “the scary prophets that talked about what happens at the End of Days.” In an interview with Breaking Israel News, Palatnik confirmed that she was referring to the Books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Zechariah. More specifically, she spoke about the events of September 11, 2001 as a clear fulfillment of prophecy.
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 http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/60053/american-jewish-leader-urges-jews-get-out-america-aliyah/#QGlCuHxIg95giVYQ.99


 
Rouhani: "Zionist Lobby" is to Blame for Poor US-Iran Relations
“And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle. And the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt then in the land.” (Genesis 13:7)
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (Photo: TouTube Screenshot)
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has figured out who is at fault for his country’s troubled relationship with the US, and it is Israel. Speaking on Wednesday, Haaretz reported, Rouhani claimed that the US was influenced by the anti-Iran “Zionist lobby”, which was “very influential” in America.
Rouhani added that improving the US-Iran relationship is in America’s best interests, as without Iran, the US will never succeed in its efforts to stabilize the region.
Rouhani is in Europe, his first official visit to the continent. His itinerary includes Italy and France, where he is looking to improve the Islamic Republic’s image following last year’s nuclear accords and the recent lifting of sanctions.
During his remarks, he took a swipe at Saudi Arabia, Iran’s rival power in the Middle East. He ridiculed Saudi Arabia’s military efforts to suppress rebel Houthi forces in Yemen, saying they were a failure and source of frustration.
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 http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/60035/blame-game-tehran-says-cool-us-iran-relations-are-americas-fault-middle-east/#s7SI3sWJorLg2sMY.99



Obama: I Cannot Imagine a Greater Expression of Christianity Than to Say, “I, Too, Am a Jew”
By Abra Forman January 28, 2016 , 12:30 pm
“Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war should rise up against me, even then will I be confident.” (Psalm 27:3)
President Barack Obama addresses the Israeli Embassy at an International Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony on January 27, 2016. (Photo: YouTube Screenshot)
US President Barack Obama attended a ceremony at Washington’s Israeli Embassy on Wednesday night to celebrate the lives of four people honored by the State of Israel as Righteous Among the Nations on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The ceremony, which recognized the actions of individuals who saved Jews during the Holocaust, was the first of its kind to be held in the US, and the first therefore to be attended by a sitting US president.
In his remarks at the event, Obama stressed the close relationship between Israel and the US despite recent disharmony between the nations over the Iranian nuclear deal, which was strongly opposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Obama’s rhetoric attempted to express his respect for the Jewish people, both as a nation and as Christianity’s spiritual forebearers.
“We are all Jews,” he said, echoing the famous statement of Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds, an American officer who refused to betray the Jewish soldiers in his command when a Nazi officer demanded to know which of the over 1,000 American troops held in a German POW camp were Jews. Edmonds, whose actions saved over 200 Jewish lives, was one of those honored at Wednesday’s ceremony.
Obama added that the heroic words of the officer were an “instructive lesson” for Christians, saying, “I cannot imagine a greater expression of Christianity than to say, ‘I, too, am a Jew.’”
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 http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/60057/obama-on-internatl-holocaust-remembrance-day-we-are-all-jews-jewish-world/#8atJjRtgigUi2S9o.99


Israel and IDF Using New Cyber Technology to Fight Social Media Incitement Online
“For I will defend this city to save it, for Mine own sake, and for My servant David’s sake.” (Isaiah 37:35)
Israel is banking on cyber intelligence to fight a new enemy dubbed as the “lone terrorist” that parallels organized terror organizations’ war against Israel.
“The most dangerous country in the Middle East is the State of Facebook,” former IDF Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin told this week’s annual Cybertech conference, which focused on the Boycott Israel and BDS—acronym for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions—campaigns against Israel.
The term “lone terrorist” sounds innocent, but hundreds of Palestinian Authority and Israeli Arabs, exposed to social media incitement, have acted on their own to kill and wound dozens of Israelis in the past two years.
Initially dismissed as a minimal threat, it has become one of the most difficult enemies to defeat, because each terrorist acts individually, usually without a rap sheet and without the support, financial and otherwise, of a terror cell.
Cyber technology can help spot them, said Gilad Erdan, who heads both the Public Security and the Strategic Affairs ministries. Erdan told the conference that Israel has established a National Cyber Bureau, headed by Dr. Eviatar Matani.
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 http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/60070/israel-fighting-back-against-online-terrorists-idf/#jegDlF0J4kyvCCUT.99


Palestinians: Is Abbas Losing Control? By Khaled Abu ToamehAbbas has been facing increasing criticism in the past weeks from senior Fatah officials in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It seems that they have tired of his autocratic-style rule
If Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas loses control of his Fatah faction, who gets to comfort him? Could it be his erstwhile rivals in Hamas?
Abbas seems firm in his refusal to pave the way for the emergence of a new leadership in the West Bank. A split within Fatah in the West Bank seems the inevitable result. Gaza’s Fatah leaders are furious with Abbas. The deepening divisions among Fatah could drive Fatah cadres in the Gaza Strip into the open arms of Hamas.
“The talk about Fatah-Hamas reconciliation is nothing but a smokescreen to conceal the growing discontent with President Abbas’s autocratic rule.” — Palestinian official.
Fatah is Israel’s purported “peace partner” — the faction spearheading efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state. Decision-makers in the U.S. and Europe might wish to keep abreast of the solvency of Abbas’s Fatah faction when they consider the wisdom of the two-state solution.
If Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas loses control of his Fatah faction, who gets to comfort him? Could it be his erstwhile rivals in Hamas?
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http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7302/palestinians-abbas-control#OHjJ30GgfXoZHT2Q.99

Turkey: Death to Free Speech By Burak Bekdil
A criminal indictment was filed against Sedat Ergin, editor-in-chief of the country’s most influential newspaper, Hurriyet. Prosecutors demanded up to five years in prison for Ergin, for allegedly insulting President Erdogan. The indictment claims that Hurriyet insulted the president by paraphrasing what the president had said.
“[T]his is a ‘democracy’ with a growingly diminishing freedom of speech. It is ‘democracy’ where the ‘voice of the nation,’ which practically is the voice of the political majority and its glorified leader, intimidates and silences dissenting voices.” — Mustafa Akyol, columnist, Hurriyet.
According to a report by the Turkish Journalists Association, 500 journalists were fired in Turkey in 2015, while 70 others were subjected to physical violence. Thirty journalists remain in prison, mostly on terrorism charges. Needless to say, the unfortunate journalists invariably are known to be critical of Erdogan.
Europe, cherishing its “transactional” relations with Turkey, prefers to look the other way and whistle. All the EU could say about the prosecution of academics was that it is “extremely worrying.” Brussels cannot see that Turkish affairs passed the threshold of “extremely worrying” a long time ago.
Defending his quest for an executive presidential system Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cited Hitler’s Germany as an effective form of government. Yes, he said, you can have the presidential system in a unitary state as in Hitler’s Germany. His office later claimed that the president’s “Hitler’s Germany” metaphor had been “distorted” by the media. Erdogan’s words on Hitler’s Germany may or may not have been distorted, but the way he rules Turkey reminds one powerfully of how Hitler ruled the Third Reich.
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 http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7290/turkey-free-speech#jF9FuyQTw1VzyQWc.99


 
The Arab War Against the Resurrection of the Dead
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz January 29, 2016 , 8:30 am
“Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fighteth in the day of battle. And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleft in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, so that there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.” (Zechariah 14:4-5)
A view of desecrated Jewish tomb stones that were burned and destroyed on the Mount of Olives cemetery in East Jerusalem on June 23, 2015. (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
While Israel battles a horrific wave of Arab terror that has literally caused blood to flow in the streets, a lesser-known side of their jihad is going unseen: the Arab war against Jewish graves. Though less brutal than murder, Arab desecration of Jewish graves is a part of the same war that will not only establish whose land it is, but will also determine the nature of the coming Messiah.
One of the main targets for Arab vandalism is the  Mount of Olives and the thousands of Jewish gravesites located there. Gravestones are destroyed and mourners are attacked on a daily basis, requiring special security details to accompany Jews who visit the site.
The Mount of Olives has messianic and religious significance in addition to being an ancient burial site. It is referred to in the book of Zechariah, when he prophesied that the mountain will play an essential part in the Messiah, splitting in two (14:4), with one half shifting south.
The Mount of Olives, adjacent to the Temple Mount, was an integral part of the Temple service. It was where the Para Adumah (red heifer), the major component needed for ritually purity, was burned. Any attack on the Jewish claim to the Temple Mount as part of their religious heritage would necessarily include an attack on the Mount of Olives.
As a site of Biblical significance, and because of its proximity to the Temple Mount, it has been used as a Jewish cemetery for over 3,000 years, and contains over 150,000 gravesites, including the tombs traditionally identified with the Biblical figures Zechariah, Absalom, Haggai, and Malachi.
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 http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/60081/arab-war-against-resurrection-dead-jewish-world/#T2MaTK36miuV6uJ3.99

 
In Rare UN Victory for Israel, Israeli NGO ZAKA Receives Coveted Official Status
By Tsivya Fox January 29, 2016 , 9:30 am
“I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing.” (Genesis 12:2)
Israel Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon together with Mati Goldstein head of the ZAKA International Unit and Zvi Gluck Director of Operations ZAKA Rescue and Recovery USA (Photo: ZAKA)
Following four years of struggle, this week Israel’s primary rescue and recovery volunteer organization, ZAKA, was unanimously granted international consultative and observer status by the UN Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).
This upgrade in status will allow ZAKA to actively participate in official UN meetings and conferences concerning how best to deal with mass casualty and emergency events worldwide, areas in which the organization is expert. ZAKA will also join in the development of international protocols for disaster relief.
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http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/60108/rare-un-victory-israel-israeli-ngo-zaka-receives-coveted-official-status-jerusalem/#AMWBmjUB7BusrTos.99

Downpour Sinks Another Terror Tunnel, Buries Gaza Diggers Alive
Israel welcomed the rain to feed its parched earth; but Gaza's watery sands buried tunnel diggers alive.
By: Hana Levi Julian
Published: January 27th, 2016
Civil workers evacuate people from a flooded area in southern Gaza.
Photo Credit: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash 90
While Israelis were welcoming the rain to feed the parched earth — even though it caused power outages and shut down operations throughout the country — Gaza’s water-logged sands became a muddy mass grave for cold, wet Hamas terror tunnel diggers.
Jews pray three times a day for rain to assure the Creator’s promise to give “rain for your land at the proper time, the early rain and the late rain.” Otherwise, God warns He “will close the heavens so that there will be no rain and the earth will not yield its produce…” (Deuteronomy 11:13-21)
It’s more than enough reason to pray, and pray they do. In return, Heaven sent a three-day howler this week that showered down everything with gale-force winds, from snow to sleet to hail to rain, from Metullah and the Golan Heights straight down south to the Negev, and Gaza.
Officials at Israel’s Water Authority were pleased to see that the water level in Lake Kinneret (Israel’s primary source of drinking water) rose three centimeters. Elsewhere around Israel green things began popping up as well.

But there was a holy disaster down south where the water-logged sands of Gaza sank under the weight of the downpour. A second terror tunnel being built in the area of Jabalya collapsed on the hapless diggers who were being forced to continue their labors despite the bad weather.
Numerous local sources confided in tweets on social media that the worsening weather had also caused flooding in nearly all the homes and caravans in the area.
Eight are reported dead so far, three others were dragged out, badly injured. Contact with the Hamas diggers was lost Tuesday night, according to Palestinian Authority media. Their bodies were dragged out from the mud and brought to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Walla! News reported.
But the official Gaza government is trying to keep the news of the deaths under wraps. Not even one new announcement of an al-Qassam “wedding” appears on the Hamas military wing’s Iz a-Din al-Qassam website — unlike the death of its lone digger on Saturday. On Sunday, Hamas proudly posted a notice about the death of Mohammed Ashour al-Naj’ar, 31, on the homepage of its military website. “Al Qassam Brigades wed Mukahid Mohammed al-Najjar, who ascended after the collapse of the tunnel for the resistance,” the group announced.
After Tuesday’s cave-in a spokesperson for the Gaza Ministry of Health entirely denied the deaths, saying no bodies were brought to the hospital after the collapse.

Likewise, a security source linked to Hamas told foreign journalists the eight diggers were still missing, according to a report published Wednesday in Lebanon’s Daily Star. “The resistance tunnel collapsed last night due to the weather and flooding,” the source said. “There were 11 resistance men inside. Three of them escaped in the first hour after the accident, but the security operation… continues to search for the eight others.”

It’s important for Hamas to keep its “fighters” building those tunnels. Iran has sent tens of millions of dollars to help rebuild its underground terror tunnel network. This way Hamas and its ally, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad can wage another proxy war against Israel on behalf of Tehran.

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/gaza-diggers-buried-alive-in-rain-drenched-terror-tunnel-collapse/2016/01/27/


http://unitedwithisrael.org/arab-terrorist-stabs-israeli-man-near-jerusalem-victim-moderately-wounded/
An Arab terrorist stabbed an Israeli man at a gas station outside the capital late Wednesday night. The victim was moderately wounded, and the assailant was caught.
A man in his 30s was stabbed at around 11 pm Wednesday night at a gas station in Givat Ze’ev, five kilometers northwest of Jerusalem.
The terrorist was caught and arrested.

The victim was treated by Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics on the spot and then evacuated to Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem in serious condition, but fully conscious. Shortly thereafter, his situation was described as moderate.

According to paramedic Dudi Gur, the victim suffered a number of stab wounds.

“When we arrived at the scene we saw a 36-year-old man lying on the ground at a gas station fully conscious, but who had sustained a number of stab wounds to his upper body,” Gur said. “We immediately put him in the ambulance and performed emergency treatment while we evacuated him to the hospital. We also provided first aid to stop the bleeding. His situation was moderate-to-serious.”

Several hours earlier, a stabbing attack was thwarted at the Qalandiya checkpoint, between Jerusalem and Ramallah, when a Palestinian terrorist was caught by security.

On Monday, Palestinian terrorists stabbed 24-year-old Shlomit Krigman to death and wounded another woman in Beit Horon in the Binyamin region.

A total of 29 victims have died and close to 300 wounded – at least 25 seriously – since the beginning of the current wave of Palestinian terror, which began mid-September.

By: Alexander J. Apfel/TPS and United with Israel Staff
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Jewish Aliens, and the Divine Plan
Jews in Space, Jewish Aliens, and the Divine Plan
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz January 26, 2016 , 9:30 am
“They fought from heaven, the stars in their courses fought against Sisera. The brook Kishon swept them away, that ancient brook, the brook Kishon. O my soul, tread them down with strength.Then did the horsehoofs stamp by reason of the prancings, the prancings of their mighty ones. ‘Curse ye Meroz’, said the angel of the LORD, ‘Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof, because they came not to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty.’” (Judges 5:20-23)
space sun star nature fire
Many would be surprised to discover that Israel has a space program. One possible reason for the low-key nature of the program could be the difficulties space travel poses for Jews.

For example, the International Space Station orbits the earth once every 92 minutes, meaning an observant Jew would be frantically immersed in prayer once every half hour. The Sabbath, which would occur once every 10 hours, would only last an hour and a half, making it difficult indeed to gulp down three kosher rehydrated meals, read the Torah portion, and still take a nap in the ten-minute long Shabbat afternoon.

Yom Kippur, every 22 days, would allow us to repent for smaller batches of sin, but lead us to the technical question of how to blow a shofar while wearing a spacesuit, and would it be kosher if blown in the silent vacuum of outer-space?

Earth-bound Torah scholars are remarkably adept at solving these problems, but the real questions are not about the technical aspects of space travel. The possible existence of extraterrestrials and their place in God’s creation was the subject of intense philosophical and religious discussion way before it was technically possible to meet them on their own turf.

Exotheology is a word that sends the etymological geek-meter spinning, and very few can claim to have even a passing knowledge of this esoteric field. Dr. David Weintraub, professor of astronomy at Vanderbilt University and the author of Religions and Extraterrestrial Life: How Will We Deal With It?, is uniquely qualified to answer questions on the subject. His book presents a staggering array of opinions, ranging from Aristotle’s premise that extraterrestrials cannot possibly exist, to the more recent Enrico Fermi, who, over 600 years later, came to the same conclusion.

Dr Weintraub reassured Breaking Israel News that Judaism is spiritually prepared for little green men.

“Judaism accepts the possibility of extraterrestrial life. At this level, Judaism is similar to most, but not all other major religions. A few other religions clearly demand and embrace the idea that extraterrestrial life exists.  Except for a few extreme kabbalistic interpretations of a few passages in the Talmud, Judaism does not go that far,” he said.

The professor states that Jewish theology may actually require a belief in extraterrestrials since “there are no limits on the power of the creator. Thus, for Jews to say that no life beyond the Earth could possibly exist would be unacceptable, as such an idea would appear to place shackles on God’s creative power…the universe belongs to God (or is God) and God can do what God wishes to do with the universe.”

There is even a reference, albeit vague, to extraterrestrials in the Bible. The book of Judges 5:20-23 mentions the ambiguous ‘Meroz’, whose inhabitants have free will, and can choose whether or not to heed the call of God.

In any case, Professor Weintraub feels that contact with extraterrestrials will not affect Judaism or other earthly religions in any significant manner.

“Maimonides never considered man that important in the larger universe, though all other medieval and most present-day Jewish thinkers have argued that God is primarily concerned with the affairs of humankind,” he said, referring to a renowned twelfth-century Jewish thinker.

This leads us to the uniquely Jewish scenario: If nine Jewish astronauts find themselves on a new planet just as one or more suns set, can they turn to the crowd of awestruck aliens surrounding them to complete the required quorum for the afternoon prayer? Weintraub feels it would not be proper to begin handing out prayer books. Even if the crowd of newly discovered aliens proves to have free will and are devout, worshipping the one true God, they will not be Jewish.

“Elsewhere in the universe, God might choose to guide others along a different path into a worshipful relationship with God, and if that relationship has a different label, mazel tov. So yes, the God of Judaism is universal, but no, Judaism is not. Judaism is for humans on Earth,” he said decisively.

Of course, in the infinite universe of conjecture, no one can say definitively that it would be impossible to discover a distant planet on which the inhabitants, tiny and more than a little green, eat only the local animals that have cloven hooves (albeit on all six legs) and chew their blue cud.

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Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/59816/jews-space-jewish-aliens-divine-plan-jewish-world/#RUM1mvfx4m0xuRJE.99

Paris Terrorists Give Chilling Message From Beyond the Grave in New ISIS Video
in New ISIS Video
By Abra Forman January 25, 2016 , 11:00 am
“The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow; to cast down the poor and needy, to slay such as are upright in the way.” (Psalms 37:14)
Paris attackers appear to give a posthumous message in ISIS’s latest video. (Screenshot)
The Islamic State has released a disturbing new propaganda video showing what appears to be footage of the ISIS terrorists who carried out the deadly November Paris attacks. The footage was apparently filmed prior to the massacre which killed 130, and features the nine terrorists when they were still in Syria and Iraq, “training” by executing and beheading enemies of ISIS.
The chilling 17-minute video states that ISIS plans to attack Britain and other European targets with “Paris-style attacks”.
The video, entitled “Kill Them Where You Find Them”, was released on Sunday by ISIS’s Al-Hayat Media Center, and features the characteristic high production values the world has come to expect from a terror group which has learned to use social media to its great advantage.
 READ MORE
 http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/59734/horrifying-new-isis-propaganda-video-shows-paris-killers-training-in-syria-before-attack-middle-east/#3SPm2KMOZ52BE9lC.99

Hatred of Israel Has Become a Religion
By Earl Cox
The terror which Israelis confront on a daily basis will soon be mirrored on American streets. The proverbial handwriting is on the wall. Those who shout “Death to Israel and Death to America” mean exactly what they say.
In his celebrated, but tardy, prime time television announcement, President Obama told the world that America is on the right side of history. Wrong, Mr. President. We are living in the wake of terror in America and fearful of more to come. The population is now living in a state of concern when going to a shopping mall, convention center or sports arena – any place where there is a large public gathering. Welcome to the world in which Israelis have been living for decades. The terror which Israelis confront on a daily basis will soon be mirrored on American streets. The proverbial handwriting is on the wall. Those who shout “Death to Israel and Death to America” mean exactly what they say.
This being the case we have to ask why, in the name of G-d, is America admitting a large group of people who are known to harbor anti-Semitic and anti-American attitudes and who vehemently oppose our Judeo-Christian values? When refugees or immigrants are admitted to a country, they are expected to assimilate into the culture of that country and not try to change it from within which is the Islamic agenda. Let it be clear, America embraces Judeo-Christian values. We embrace the G-d of Israel who is the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and we recognize and uphold Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.
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http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/59679/hatred-of-israel-has-become-a-religion-opinion/?utm_source=Breaking+Israel+News&utm_campaign=eef267cca6-BIN_evening_1_16&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b6d3627f72-eef267cca6-83546481#PAhoPfi1iHdEll3F.97


Obama Ignores Israel and Jews
By Sarah N. Stern
mir Hekmati, Saeed Abedini , Nosratollah Khosravi and Matthew Trevithick, one American — former FBI agent Robert Levinson — was left behind. It is not without irony that the one left behind is Jewish, as this is emblematic of President Barack Obama’s utter disregard for the Jewish state and its legitimate concerns for survival during the nuclear negotiations with Iran.
Last Sunday, the day after “Implementation Day,” the much anticipated day when world powers lifted economic sanctions on Iran, Obama said, “This is a good day, because once again, we’re seeing what is possible with strong American diplomacy. … I am happy to mark a milestone on several fronts. … Several Americans, unjustly detained by Iran, are finally coming home. In some cases, these Americans have faced years of continued detention. I have met with some of their families. I have seen their anguish, how they ache for their sons, their husbands. I gave these families my word, I made a vow, that we would do everything in our power to win the release their loved ones, and we have been tireless.”
Read more at http://emetonline.org/obama-ignores-israel-and-jews/#dcHLPI821Wb2DKul.99



 
Israel Behind the Lens: Photographer
Tami Ellison Conveys her Israel Story [PHOTOS]
SEE PHOTO'S 
 http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/59606/israel-behind-lens-photographer-tami-ellison-conveys-israel-story-photos-inspiration/#iIKrRLe22BrRdzgh.99
“I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Do not withhold; bring My sons from far, and My daughters from the ends of the earth.” (Isaiah 43:6)
Israel Behind the Lens is a special series highlighting some of Israel’s top photographers. Below, photographer Tami Ellison shares her most memorable photos captured in Israel in 2015 and the story behind them.

A tapestry of stories and history, wherever you are…discovery.

From the green hills of the Galilee with vineyards growing along the shores of the Kinnere
sea of Galilee - Kinneret tami ellison
To the sandswept Judean Hills
judean Hills tami ellison
to the towering skyscrapers in Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan
Ramat Gan tami ellison
Across the shell-filled sandy shoreline in Caesarea where the sky and sea meet on the blue horizon
Caesarea tami ellison
Here in Jerusalem rough hewn stones reflect a melange of golden hues
jerusalem Stone tami ellison
While the stones of Western Wall hold the dreams and wishes of generations past and present their hope-filled messages carried on high to the upper stones
Kotel - Upper Stones tami ellison
Beneath the city walls in Ir David, the city of David, a passageway, a water channel, history unearthed
Ir David Tunnel tami ellison
This is home – a wonderous place filled with juxtapositions and endless possibilities…young and old, black and white, religious and secular, Jews and Arabs together and at the end of the day we all just want to be living here in peace.
damascus gate tami ellison
Passover Kotel Plaza tami ellison
Sunset tami elliso
Seeing Israel from behind the lens is how Tami Rishona Ellison discovered photography.  As a scientist, Ellison had already developed a keen eye for detail and it was during a month long visit in 2012 that she used her pocket Nikon CoolPIX 3X camera to freeze-frame moments reflecting Israel’s vibrancy, textures, colors and light.
“After returning to the States, I found that a single image couldn’t convey the richness of my experiences.” What emerged was a story, a juxtaposition of multiple images thematically linked by her patent-pending photage process which creates a 3D like visual illusion in 2D space. Described as contemporary surrealism, these dynamic visual illusions create an emergent visual and visceral experience – a description aptly applied to Israel.
The confluence of people, places and spaces in unusual juxtapositions is a recurring theme in her work and life. Shortly before making Aliyah in the summer of 2014 she gave a gallery talk and made reference to a passage attributed to the wind from Perek Shira. Months later, she was commissioned to create an exhibit for Jerusalem’s Bloomfield Science Museum; the theme the wind. She has also exhbited her photography and photage works at Hebrew University, Mount Scopus campus library and at the Neve Eshkol Regional Center. Conflu3nce is also the name of her health technology company which integrates the photage process as part of a brain games strategy and brain training system for people with a wide range of cognitive issues.
“I’ve been fortunate to be able to combine my passions in science, math and art,” and which began quite simply while exploring Israel from behind the lens. To see more images from Tami, or to purchase, visit her website. Selected works are also available through Israel Framed. To contact Tami, email: or call +972-050 228 3877.

Palestinians: Western Media’s Ignorance and Bias
By Khaled Abu Toameh
Foreign journalists based in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have for years refused to report on the financial corruption and human rights violations that are rife under the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas regimes. Palestinian “suffering” and the “evil” of the Israeli “occupation” are the only admissible topics.
Another Ramallah-based colleague shared that a few years ago he received a request from a cub correspondent to help arrange an interview with Yasser Arafat. Except at that point, Arafat had been dead for several years. Fresh out of journalism school and unknowledgeable about the Middle East, the journalist was apparently considered by his editors a fine candidate for covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Western reporters would do well to remember that journalism in this region is not about being pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian. Rather, it is about being “pro” the truth, even when the truth runs straight up against what they would prefer to believe
READ MORE
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7271/palestinians-western-media#BMvOGfVDTDX4dP0S.99