ISRAEL BREAKING NEWS

NASA Insists Newly-Discovered 9th Planet Isn't Nibiru; Skeptics Disagree
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz October 18, 2017 , 12:30 pm
“What I see for them is not yet, What I behold will not be soon: A star rises from Yaakov, A scepter comes forth from Yisrael; It smashes the brow of Moab, The foundation of all children of Shet.” Numbers 24:17 (The Israel Bible)
An artist’s illustration of a possible ninth planet hovering at the edge of our solar system. Neptune’s orbit is shown as a bright ring around the Sun. (NASA/ESO/Tom Ruen/nagualdesign)
After years of denying and debunking, NASA scientists confirmed the existence of a ninth planet in a discovery that seems to conform to popular theories of an apocalyptic collision with a planet called Nibiru. Skeptics on both sides bring their arguments, while researchers continue to present more amazing discoveries of this yet-to be-seen addition to the solar system.
On October 4th, NASA published a press release stating that it had discovered unmistakable evidence of a ninth planet in the far extremes of space, orbiting the solar system. The planet is surmised to be ten times the mass of Earth, but it has yet to be seen since its elliptical orbit is estimated to be about 60 billion miles away from the sun.
The description of the new planet conformed so closely to the predictions of Nibiru, a large planetary object that many believe will collide with the earth, that the NASA press release contained a cosmic disclaimer.
“If a planet is there, it’s extremely distant and will stay that way (with no chance — in case you’re wondering – of ever colliding with Earth, or bringing ‘days of darkness’).”
MORE https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/96448/nasa-admits-existence-massive-planet-x-sparking-nibiru-apocalypse-controversy/?

Mass Arab Emigration to Jordan Would Solve Israel’s Palestinian Problem, Suggests Conference
By Eliana Rudee October 18, 2017 , 9:30 am
“On that day Hashem made a covenant with Avram, saying, ‘To your offspring I assign this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.’” Genesis 15:18 (The Israel Bible)
MK Yehudah Glick speaks at the Jordanian Option Conference in Jerusalem, October 17, 2017. (Eliana Rudee/Breaking Israel News)
“Everybody knows that Jordan is a Palestinian State,” said MK Yehudah Glick at the Jordanian Option Conference in Jerusalem on Tuesday. Nearly every other speaker at the conference agreed that the Jordan ‘option’ is a satisfactory solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
According to conference organizers, the ‘Jordan is Palestine’ solution “calls for Jordan to be the Arab state and Israel to the Jordan River, to be the state of the Jews.” To these ends, Israel would incentivize and encourage local Arabs to emigrate to Jordan.
Israel would support the development of a new Jordanian city to accommodate a million new residents, stimulating the Jordanian economy and creating jobs. An interim Jordanian government would offer citizenship and “right of return” to all Palestinians, putting an end to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestinian refugee problem.
“The concept of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria doesn’t exist anymore, and anyone who is genuine knows that. It is wrong, dangerous, and not possible,” said MK Glick, speaking at the conference hosted at the Menachem Begin Center. “Jordan as a Palestinian state is a serious potential because the majority of Jordanians are Palestinian,” he explained. “Before 1967, the Palestinians were Jordanian.”
MORE https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/96422/move-palestinians-jordan-free-israel-urges-conference-middle-east-peace/


“You Cannot Understand the Mid-East Conflict Without the Bible”
By Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman October 18, 2017 , 1:30 pm
“Do what is right and good in the sight of Hashem, that it may go well with you and that you may be able to possess the good land that Hashem your God promised on oath to your fathers.” Deuteronomy 6:18 (The Israel Bible)
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a “religious, spiritual and moral conflict,” said David Parsons, vice president and senior international spokesman for the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem (ICEJ), on Tuesday. “If you ignore that, then you ignore the heart of the problem.”
Parsons, who was addressing a group of Christian journalists during a panel discussion about media bias on Tuesday as part of the government’s Christian Media Summit in Jerusalem, said he believes faith still motivates and drives people in the region far more than the mainstream media understands.
“Most reporters completely ignore it,” Parsons said.
In the last decade, several media outlets have come under fire for their anti-religious attitudes and for hiring correspondents with little understanding of religious issues. Brexit and the victory of President Donald Trump highlighted the liberal, elite media’s struggle to understand “ordinary people.”
MORE https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/96450/cannot-understand-mid-east-conflict-without-bible/?

3,200-Year-Old Hieroglyphics Reveal Secrets of Fabled ‘Sea People’
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz October 17, 2017 , 12:30 pm
“No smith was to be found in all the land of Yisrael, for the Philistines were afraid that the Hebrews would make swords or spears.” I Samuel 13:19 (The Israel Bible)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Beyk%C3%B6y-Inscription-Luwian-Studies-640x400.jpg
The hieroglyphic frieze found in the village of Beyköy in Turkey. (Courtesy Dr. Eberhard Zangger)
A 3,200-year-old text that lay undeciphered for 140 years has finally been translated, revealing details of the military campaign of the fabled Sea People and the downfall of the Hittites. Most importantly, it gives definitive clues about the true identity of Israel’s archnemesis, the Philistines.
The remarkable story behind the story began in 1978 when villagers in the village of Beyköy discovered scattered pieces of a hieroglyphic inscription that, when assembled, was over 95 feet long. At the time, the inscriptions, Luwian hieroglyphics, were indecipherable, but French archaeologist Georges Perrot made detailed copies. But after local residents used the stones to build a mosque and Perrot’s copies disappeared, it seemed that the fabled inscription was gone forever.
Then in 2012, a six-inch-thick manuscript of Perrot’s work was discovered. Dr. Eberhard Zangger, the president of the Luwian Studies Foundation, teamed with Dr. Fred Woudhuizen, a scholar near Amsterdam, who is one of only two dozen people in the world able to decipher Luwian script.
“We believe the frieze to be the only contemporary account describing the fall of the Hittite Empire,” Dr. Zangger told Breaking Israel News. In the Bible, the Hittites are descended from Het, Noah’s grandson, who settled in the land of Canaan, named for Het’s father.
Canaan begot Tzidon, his first-born, and Heth. Genesis 10:15
More important to Bible scholars is what the new findings reveal about Israel’s Biblical arch-nemesis: the Philistines. Throughout the Bible, the Philistines controlled the coastal region down to Gaza. This is confirmed by Dr. Zangger’s finding, but with significant additional details.
Some historians theorized that the Philistines were not a specific nation but a conglomeration of marauding states, but the frieze’s description contradicts this theory. The inscription describes in detail the rise of a powerful kingdom called Mira, which launched a military campaign led by Prince Muksus from Troy, now in modern Turkey.
Mira was part of a confederation that comprised ‘the Sea People’, who led a naval expedition into Syria. The Sea People worked their way down the Mediterranean coast, eventually establishing a stronghold in Ashkelon.
In the Bible, the Philistines are described as conquering the coastal region. Some historians conjecture that the term Philistine refers to a confederation of nations. Dr. Zangger admits that his knowledge of the Bible is too limited to draw conclusions, but according to his findings, the Philistines, described in the frieze as Philistia, were clearly an entity unto themselves.
“The Luwian hieroglyphics state that Mira is part of the confederation, which make up the Sea People, and also describes Philistia as being part of the Sea People, all of whom came from Western Asia Minor,” Dr. Zangger explained. “They were not a unit unto themselves but they could form a unit if needed. There were 150 separate place names, and one of them was clearly Philistia.”
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/eberhard-zangger.jpg
Dr. Eberhard Zangger (Courtesy)
Dr. Zangger noted that like the other nations in the confederation, the Philistines came from Western Asia Minor.
Much of the manuscript has yet to be translated, so there may be more remarkable revelations in the future.
“This is one of the more special works of its kind in archaeology today,” Dr. Zangger said, noting that the original inscriptions, stone and bronze, may still come to light.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/96389/hieroglyphic-frieze-deciphered-3200-years-reveals-secrets-mysterious-sea-people/#IAJexKHzhlrD4wAi.99

Congress Resolutions Slam UNESCO’s Israel Hatred, Proudly Support Biblical Ties to Jerusalem
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz October 17, 2017 , 1:30 pm
“Behold, I will make Yerushalayim a bowl of reeling for the peoples all around. Yehuda shall be caught up in the siege upon Yerushalayim.” Zechariah 12:2 (The Israel Bible)
The Senate side of the U.S. Capitol. (Wikimedia Commons)
One day after the US pulled out of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) due to its anti-Israel bias, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Fla) doubled down with twin resolutions supporting the historic and Biblical Jewish connection to Jerusalem that UNESCO has tried to erase.
Last week, Rep. Gaetz presented a resolution to the Congress in support of Israel and Jerusalem. The resolution condemns UNESCO’s anti-Israel actions and calls on the US to prevent such resolutions in the future. Later in the week, Senator Cruz will present an identical resolution to the Senate.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL)
“I rise today to support our friend and ally Israel and to stand for the obvious proposition that Israel, the Jewish people, have an ancient connection to the city of Jerusalem,” Gaetz told the press after presenting Resolution 570 to the House.
“This connection has been forged through millennia shared faith and shared history, yet the UN is actually trying to rewrite history and condemn Jerusalem and call it an occupying power in Jerusalem and prevent scientists from excavating even though past findings have been significant.”
“They have been silent when Israel’s culture has been attacked including the desecration and burning of holy sites,” Gaetz continued, referring to the Tomb of Joseph, which has been burned and vandalized multiple times. “[The UN’s] cruelty and attempts to erase history and anti-Semitism cannot be tolerated any longer.”
Senator Cruz, who co-authored the resolution, is expected to present the sister motion, Resolution 291, to the Senate later this week. Cruz addressed the press alongside Gaetz.
“I am proud to have worked with Rep. Matt Gaetz on this bicameral resolution that formally rejects UNESCO’s shameful and absurd attempts to deliberately erase the history of Jerusalem, Israel’s eternal capital,” Cruz said on Friday. “This resolution reaffirms the profound historical connection of the Jewish people to Jerusalem that has existed for thousands of years, describes archeological excavations at the City of David that have revealed incontrovertible, physical evidence of the Jewish, as well as Christian ties to Jerusalem, and denounces efforts at UNESCO to delegitimize Israel and deny historical truth.”
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/96404/senate-house-resolutions-slam-unesco-support-jewish-jerusalem/#tg1Acwiqv1j2zfAy.99



Hamas-PA Unity Already on Shaky Ground as Abbas Mantains Gaza Sanctions
By JNS October 17, 2017 , 9:30 am
“He who loves transgression loves strife.” Proverbs 17:19 (The Israel Bible)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/mahmoud-abbas-tunisia.jpg
Mahmoud Abbas in Tunisia (Screenshot)
Despite a reconciliation deal signed last week between rival Palestinian factions, the Palestinian terror group Hamas slammed Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the Fatah party, for not yet lifting crippling sanctions on the Gaza Strip.
“The failure of [Palestinian] Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to respond affirmatively to the popular and national demands to cancel his arbitrary measures against our people in Gaza is unjustifiable and a clear denial of the demands of reconciliation,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum tweeted Monday. “He must bear responsibility for exacerbating the people’s suffering and crises.”
As part of the unity deal signed last week, the PA promised to lift sanctions imposed on the Hamas-ruled Gaza over the past year in exchange for the restoration of a PA-controlled government in Gaza by December 1.
In a statement, Fatah spokesman Osama Qawasmeh said sanctions would likely only be lifted once the PA allowed Gaza back in power.
“We agreed with Hamas in Cairo to enable the government to work. We need to make sure this is achieved,” Qawasmeh said, the Jerusalem Post reported. “The government will be going to Gaza this week to evaluate the situation. Thereafter, it will send a report to the President [Abbas], who will make the appropriate decision.”
There also remains several outstanding questions over the reconciliation deal, including the future of Hamas’s armed wing comprised of some 25,000 fighters.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/96371/hamas-pa-unity-already-shaky-ground-abbas-mantains-gaza-sanctions/#bPld8HDOy3cyVDam.99

‘Defenders of Jerusalem’ Plan Will Protect Holy City From UNESCO ‘Assault’: Minister
By Abra Forman October 17, 2017 , 11:30 am
“Pray for the well-being of Yerushalayim; May those who love you be at peace.” Psalms 122:6 (The Israel Bible)
Jerusalem. (Avraham Gracier/Wikipedia)
The Israeli government is launching a campaign to “defend Jerusalem in the international arena” in the wake of United Nations attacks, Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Minister Ze’ev Elkin told a gathering of Christian journalists on Monday.
Jerusalem is under “unprecedented assault,” Elkin said, referring to a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) resolution, passed on Israel’s Independence Day in May, which completely denies Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem.
“Today, Jerusalem is at the eye of a storm, under an unprecedented assault born from malice and ignorance that attempts to rewrite her history and erase her deep link to the millennia-old history of the Jewish people,” Elkin said at the Christian Media Summit.
Zeev Elkin (left) with PM Benjamin Netanyahu (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“This assault is directed not only at Jerusalem’s Jewish roots, but also at the fundamental beliefs of the Christian faith,” he continued, emphasizing Jerusalem’s importance to Christians and Bible believers.
Jerusalem, he pointed out, is “the birthplace of the Christian faith, in whose streets occurred the defining events of Christian history and consciousness, the Christian story. “Anyone who attempts to erase from history the Jerusalem of King David and King Solomon, of the greatest of the prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, the Jerusalem of Ezra and Nechemia, and of the Maccabees, and the Jerusalem of the last days of the Second Temple that served as a central arena for the greatest events the shaped Christian consciousness – that same rewriter of history denies the Bible in its entirety.”
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/96377/defenders-jerusalem-plan-will-protect-holy-city-unesco-assault-minister/#S8jDcLa7ufVEx8kg.99

Ancient Roman Theater Discovered Under Kotel Proves "Deep Connection of Jewish People to Jerusalem”
By Eliana Rudee October 16, 2017 , 12:30 pm
“Fair Tzion, the lovely and delicate, I will destroy,” Jeremiah 6:2 (The Israel Bible)
Remains of the newly unearthed Roman theater found beneath the Western Wall. (Eliana Rudee/Breaking Israel News)
In a surprising find by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), archaeologists have unearthed an ancient theater, the first ever found in Jerusalem, which proves Jewish heritage reaches back thousands of years. Dating back to the Roman period, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation and the Western Wall rabbi have deemed the finding to be affirmation of the eternal bond between the Jewish people to Jerusalem and the Western Wall, which predates the Roman structure.
Yohanna Bisroar of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation told Breaking Israel News that the Roman structure, which is found near the Western Wall, or Kotel, is “another testimony of the deep connection of the Jewish people to Jerusalem and to the Western Wall.”
“The Roman structure is found near the Western Wall. So when we see that the Western Wall was first here and then the Roman structure arrived, for us that’s the most exciting part,” she explained.
Similarly, the rabbi of the Western Wall, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, lauded the archeological findings that “allow our generation to actually touch the ancient history of our people and Jewish heritage and its deep connection to Jerusalem.” He continued, “I am certain that the deeper we dig, the earlier the periods we will reach, further anchoring the profound connection of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and to Jerusalem.”
In collaboration with The Western Wall Heritage Foundation, the IAA excavated the Roman theater-like structure under Wilson’s arch in the Western Wall Tunnels beneath the Kotel. The excavations have exposed a large, preserved portion of the Western Wall stone courses that has been hidden for 1,700 years.
According to site excavators Dr. Joe Uziel, Tehillah Lieberman, and Dr. Avi Solomon, from a research perspective, this is a “sensational” and “emotional” finding, as it confirms historical writings from the Second Temple period and after, such as the writings of Romano-Jewish scholar Flavius Josephus, which describe theater-like structures near the Temple Mount.

“The discovery was a real surprise. When we started excavating, our goal was to date Wilson’s Arch. We did not imagine that a window would open for us onto the mystery of Jerusalem’s lost theater.

“There is no doubt that the exposure of the courses of the Western Wall and the components of Wilson’s Arch are thrilling discoveries that contribute to our understanding of Jerusalem,” said the site excavators.

Eliav spoke of the “living historical mosaic of Jerusalem” that this discovery creates, saying, “There is no doubt as to the immeasurably rich scientific value of the discoveries in this area. The findings symbolize the guests from past empires that were here and have been here ever since and always.”
The excavated area measures eight meters deep, 15 meters wide, and contains the foundations of approximately 200 seats. Dating of pottery and coins in the area indicate that the theater is from the late Roman period in the second and the third centuries CE, when Jerusalem became the Roman colony of Aelia Capitolina.

The location of the excavations, Wilson’s Arch, is the only intact, observable edifice remaining from the Temple Mount compound of the Second Temple period. The arch was once part of an enormous bridge leading to the Temple Mount from the west and served as a passageway for people entering the Temple. Until now, the location of the Roman public buildings that were described in historical sources was unknown.

According to the excavation directors, a final analysis and carbon-14 dating of the structure conducted by the Weizmann Institute will be released in approximately six months. However, archaeologists hypothesize that the structure is an unfinished and unused odeon used for acoustic performances from the Roman colony of Aelia Capitolina. Alternatively, the structure may have been a bouleuterion, the building where the city council met.
Archaeologists note that the staircase found at the site was never completely hewn, indicating that the building was likely abandoned before it was used, perhaps because of the Bar Kokhba Revolt.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/96347/ancient-roman-theater-unearthed-western-wall-testimony-deep-connection-jewish-people-jerusalem/#tUiX14XaiCbbFADF.99


Hamas Agrees to Stop Terror Attacks in New Palestinian Unity Deal: Report
By Abra Forman October 15, 2017 , 9:30 am
“Hashem informed me, and I knew— Then You let me see their deeds.” Jeremiah 11:18 (The Israel Bible)
Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, May 2015. (Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib /Flash 90)
Palestinian terror group Hamas has agreed to stop carrying out violent terror attacks in Judea and Samaria as part of a unity deal between Hamas and Palestinian Authority (PA) ruling faction Fatah, according to the Arabic London-based paper Asharq Al-Awsat.
The reconciliation deal, signed by the PA and Fatah in Egypt on Thursday, stipulates that Hamas halt terror activity against Jews in the ‘West Bank’ so as to avoid sparking confrontations with Israel which could jeopardize diplomatic relations.
In exchange, Hamas will have an equal voice with the PA in making decisions related to Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations or declarations of war, Asharq Al-Awsat reported.
While PA President Mahmoud Abbas had previously vowed that no unity deal would be reached without a full disarming of Hamas’s military, no such agreement was included in the deal signed Thursday.
Hamas militants have planned and carried out dozens of terror attacks against Jews and Israelis in Judea and Samaria, while on occasion Palestinian Authority security forces have worked with Israeli authorities to uncover and thwart terror plots.
According to the terms of the agreement, the Palestinian Authority will take over governance of the Gaza enclave on December 1.
https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/96266/hamas-agrees-stop-terror-attacks-new-palestinian-unity-deal-report/?



US Senate Passes Anti-Hezbollah Bill, Earning Jewish, Christian Praise
By Eliana Rudee October 15, 2017 , 11:30 am
“Happy is the man who has not followed the counsel of the wicked, or taken the path of sinners, or joined the company of the insolent.” Psalms 1:1 (The Israel Bible)
Pastor John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel (CUFI).
In the context of a golden age for Jewish-Christian relations and strong Christian support for Israel, Zionist Jews and Christians joined forces to praise the passing of a bill in the U.S. Senate that imposes sanctions on the terrorist group Hezbollah and its affiliates.
Hezbollah, a US-recognized state sponsor of terrorism in Lebanon, is an Iranian-backed proxy that has been stockpiling barrel bombs, ammunition, rockets, mortars and weapons on the southern Lebanese border with Israel. It has trained highly skilled fighters and amassed thousands of weapons directed at Israel’s civilian population, in anticipation of a third Lebanon-Israel war.
This month, the “Hizballah International Financing Prevention Amendments Act of 2017,” sponsored by Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), passed in the U.S. Senate with an amendment by unanimous consent.
Together, Christian and Jewish leaders reaffirmed the bipartisan commitment, surpassing religious difference, to confront Israel’s enemies.
Christians United for Israel (CUFI) founder and Chairman Pastor John Hagee said in a statement supporting the Act, “Hezbollah is a terrorist army. They’ve killed hundreds of Americans and Israelis and have allied themselves with the butchers in Damascus and the tyrants in Tehran. We must do everything we can to stop this evil organization and this legislation is a good step in the right direction.”US Senate Passes Anti-Hezbollah Bill, Earning Jewish, Christian Praise
MORE https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/96298/jewish-christian-leaders-unite-praise-us-senates-sanctions-hezbollah/?

Artificial Intelligence Revolutionizing How Israel Defends Itself
By JNS October 15, 2017 , 8:30 am
“Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy! Though I have fallen, I rise again; Though I sit in darkness, Hashem is my light.” Micah 7:8 (The Israel Bible)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Untitled-design-24.jpg
(Shutterstock)
By: Yaakov Lappin/JNS.org
Artificial Intelligence (AI), in pop culture and science fiction, suffers from an image of being a technology posing a threat to humanity. But in the real world, AI’s many benefits are just beginning to come to light, and it has sparked a quiet revolution inside one of the world’s most sophisticated militaries.
Today, AI is revolutionizing the ways in which Israel defends itself. AI systems are providing recommendations to military commanders, both on the battlefield and in command centers, in ways that no human adviser could.
AI is affecting every aspect of how the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operates, from monitoring enemies to the ways in which strategic decisions are made, Lt.-Col. Nurit Cohen Inger, a senior IDF officer overseeing the introduction of this cutting-edge technology, told JNS.org.
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/cyberspies.jpg
Illustration: Cyber Security IDF Unit. (IDF Spokesperson)
Inger, who heads the IDF’s Sigma Department, which is a part of the Lotem information technology and communications unit, views AI as a game changer for the military.
One significant boost AI provides the IDF is the ability to accurately predict what enemies will do, based on an analysis of what they’ve done and are currently doing, Inger said.
Technologies like machine learning and deep learning are gradually being introduced at all levels of IDF decision making, she said.
While many examples of these changes remain classified, Inger revealed how AI is already assisting the IDF in analyzing its vast quantity of video feeds, which are provided to the IDF by cameras fixated on potential hot spots.
“There are lots of algorithms for video analysis,” Inger said, adding that AI systems analyze real-time video feeds, and then assist the IDF in making decisions accordingly.
Eventually, Inger argued, this technology should replace human operators who staff control rooms watching surveillance video feeds for lengthy shifts around the clock.
“Many roles that exist now will disappear and new roles will appear because of this,” she said.
The same kind of technology is helping the IDF deal with the avalanche of audio and text-based intelligence they receive.
AI, Internet of Things and the IDF
In the civilian world, the Internet of Things (IOT), a network of internet-connected devices from cars to kitchen appliances to wearable devices, is taking root. In the IDF, soldiers and platforms are broadcasting vast amounts of data on their own activities to the military’s shared data network.
The IDF is using artificial intelligence to take stock of what its units are doing. This, Inger said, will enable officials to make significantly more effective battlefield decisions.
Important breakthroughs in computing have occurred in recent years, which have been accompanied by a data revolution, Inger said, where enormous quantities of information are sent and received.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/96251/artificial-intelligence-shaping-idf-ways-never-imagined/#iUzgXHfqfqHzu6x1.99



Zionist Taiwanese Pastor: Holocaust Proves Zechariah 13:8 True; God’s Will Is in Israel
By Eliana Rudee October 15, 2017 , 10:30 am
“So that they may know, from east to west, That there is none but Me. I am Hashem and there is none else.” Isaiah 45:6 (The Israel Bible)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/shutterstock_519093583-1.jpg
Jerusalem’s Western Wall (Kotel) with the Temple Mount in the background. (Shutterstock)
Pastor Alex Cho, chairman of the Taiwan Holocaust Peace Museum, has taken on the unique mission of showing fellow Taiwanese Christians how Biblical prophecy has been fulfilled throughout Jewish history and how it continues to be fulfilled in the modern State of Israel.
Pastor Cho, an enthusiastic Israel supporter, recently visited Israel for the 12th time. He has brought over 600 members of his congregation with him to fulfill this mission of educating the Taiwanese Christian communities about Israel, the Jewish people, and the Torah.
“In the beginning, I didn’t think it was my duty or responsibility to do this work,” Pastor Cho told Breaking Israel News. “But after I went to the Jerusalem and the Temple Mount and met the Jewish people, I felt this mission.”
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/96275/zionist-taiwanese-pastor-holocaust-proves-zechariah-138-true-gods-will-israel/#YRqmKPwFlYfUY8Gz.99

In this Round of Reconciliation Talks, Hamas is the Great Victor
By Caroline Glick October 8, 2017 , 10:00 am
Tuesday a delegation of 400 Fatah officials from Ramallah, led by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, arrived in Gaza to officially surrender to Hamas.

No, the ceremony isn’t being portrayed as a Fatah surrender to Hamas. But it is. It’s also an Egyptian surrender to Hamas.

How is this the case? Ten years ago this past June, after a very brief and deadly assault by Hamas terrorists against US-trained Fatah forces in Gaza, the Fatah forces cut and ran to Israel for protection. Fatah politicians also headed for the border and then scurried into Fatah-controlled (and Israeli protected) Ramallah. Ever since Hamas has served as the official authority on the ground in Gaza. Its personnel has been responsible for internal security and for Gaza’s borders with Egypt and Israel.

Despite their humiliating defeat and removal from Gaza, Fatah and its PA government in Ramallah continued to fund Hamas-controlled Gaza. They paid Gaza’s bills, including the salaries of all the PA security forces that were either no longer working or working double shifts or stay at home Fatah gunmen and up and coming Hamas terrorist forces.

The PA paid Hamas’s electricity bills to Israel and it paid Israeli hospitals which continued to serve Gaza. Internationally, the PA defended Hamas and its constant wars against Israel. The PA and Fatah, led by President-for-life Mahmoud Abbas, continued to use Israel’s defensive operations against Hamas as a means to ratchet up their political war against Israel. The latest victory in that war came last week with Interpol’s decision to permit the PA to join the organization despite its open support for and finance of terrorism.
Read more at https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/In-the-Palestinian-reconciliation-Hamas-is-the-true-victor-506674#Iwzq1teREwv3yJsL.99



Where Have All the Feminists Gone?
By Dr. Phyllis Chesler October 10, 2017 , 7:00 am
I came into my feminist destiny in 1967, both as an academic and as an activist. Our original feminist vision was radical and transformative. We believed in universal human rights. We envisioned multicultural diversity but we were not multicultural relativists. We called out misogyny when we saw it and did not exempt a rapist, a wife-beater, or a pedophile because he was poor (his victims were also usually poor), or was a man of color (his victims were often people of color), or had an abused childhood (so had his victims).
Like other American radical feminists, I was active in the civil rights and anti-war movements. Unlike other feminists, I had “once lived in a harem in Afghanistan.” This is the opening line of my book, An American Bride in Kabul. Quite unexpectedly, I lived in a polygamous household in very posh purdah—which meant I was not allowed out without a male escort. Quite surprisingly, my father-in-law had three wives and 21 children—facts my Westernized husband failed to mention during our long American college courtship.
When I was 20, I saw Afghan women stumbling around in burqas—sensory-deprivation isolation chambers, ambulatory body bags. These ghosts were forced to sit at the back of the bus. This was long before the Taliban arose. I remembered that sight even when I critiqued American sexism, racism, homophobia—and imperial overreach.
Read more at https://www.meforum.org/6951/againsr-faux-feminism#BGzlI38hEijkBOJe.99

Hundreds of Christians Bless Lulav, Etrog at ICEJ Feast of Tabernacles [PHOTOS]
By Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman October 13, 2017 , 8:30 am
“Take the product of hadar trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before Hashem.” Leviticus 23:40 (The Israel Bible)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/christian-lulav.jpg
Hundreds of Christians made a blessing over the lulav and etrog during Sukkot at the ICEJ Feast of Tabernacles event. (Israel365)
Several hundred Christian participants in the International Christian Embassy’s 2017 Feast of Tabernacles shook the lulav and etrog for the first time earlier this week.
The lulav, a date palm branch, combined with myrtle and willow branches and a etrog or citron fruit, is one of the key symbols of Sukkot. Jews are commandment to shake the lulav in Leviticus.
On the first day you shall take the product of hadar trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before Hashem your God seven days. Leviticus 23:40
Shortly before Sukkot, which ran from Oct. 4 to 11 in Israel, a prominent Israeli rabbi made a halachic (Jewish law) ruling that not only can Christians shake the lulav and etrog on Sukkot, but that they can do it with a blessing. He gave the ruling on condition of anonymity.
Jews are commanded to wave the lulav each day of the Sukkot holiday, except on Shabbat. Most people wave it in the morning, either before or during the morning prayer service.
Israel365 set up a booth at ICEJ at which participants could learn about the Jewish holiday, wave the lulav, and recite the blessing with a related meditation. Throngs of Christians stopped by to try it. Shakers included men and women of all ages from more than 50 countries.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/96190/hundreds-christians-bless-lulav-etrog-icej-feast-tabernacles-photos/#aGLq1bUYdYAjq6eu.99


In Memory of Holiday Pilgrimage, Ascending to the Temple Mount On Sukkot [PHOTOS]
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz October 13, 2017 , 12:21 pm
“Gad came to David the same day and said to him, “Go and set up a mizbayach to Hashem on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” II Samuel 24:18 (The Israel Bible)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/DSCF2357.jpg
Ascending the Temple Mount (Photo by Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz/Breaking Israel News)
A Sukkot visit to the Temple Mount, currently a mostly-empty site full of ancient stones, graphically illustrates how far away the Biblical reality is. Though the glory of the Temple is still in ruins, the glow of holiness is still evident.
On a desperately limited basis, Jews are permitted to walk quickly through the site, closely guarded by police and Waqf Muslim Authority guards, who ensure that the only prayers emanating from the site are uttered in Arabic. Despite 2,000 years of exile and the Muslim veneer, the site still glows with the Holy presence that, according to Jewish tradition, has never left the site since Solomon first established his Temple.
Jews who wish to visit their holiest site are only permitted to enter the Temple Mount via one gate and at set hours that are severely limited and prone to cancellation at any signs of Arab violence. Separated out from tourists, Jewish visitors are organized into groups. No religious articles, books, signs of Israeli nationalism or laptop computers are allowed. Visitors must present identification and background checks are conducted. Jews are scrupulously checked and must pass through a metal detector. In comparison, Arabs have access to the site via eleven gates and there are no security measures.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/96177/memory-holiday-pilgrimage-ascending-temple-mount-sukkot-photos/#T8MlGUusJVBJ96wx.99

47,000 Christian Pilgrims Infuse Jerusalem With Joy - and Economic Bounty - on Sukkot
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz October 10, 2017 , 11:30 am
“Three times a year—on the festival of Pesach, on the festival of Shavuot, and on the festival of Sukkot—all your males shall appear before Hashem your God in the place that He will choose. They shall not appear before Hashem empty-handed.” Deuteronomy 16:16 (The Israel Bible)
Thousands of Christian Evangelists show their love and support for Israel during the Parade of Nations during the Feast of Tabernacles on Sukkot. October 14, 2014. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Christian tourists are flooding Jerusalem during the holiday of Sukkot, bringing a blessing to the economy in a manner reminiscent of Jerusalem in the days of the Temple, when pilgrims filled the city’s markets. This faith-based tourism has its own special flavor, connecting Jews and Christians in unexpected ways.
In what is shaping up to be a record year for tourism, the Sukkot holiday was an especially blessed period. According to the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, 739,000 tourists visited Israel in the first quarter of the year, a 24 percent increase from the same period last year, giving an estimated $1.14 billion boost to the economy.
Thousands of Christians march annually in the Jerusalem March of Nations. (Courtesy ICEJ)
In addition to the holy sites and other tourist attractions that have always attracted people of all religions to Israel, the Sukkot holiday offers a special atmosphere created by the festive booths and many activities and events, both religious and secular. The Ministry of Tourism estimated that the week-long holiday attracted an astounding 47,000 Christians.
Undoubtedly the largest draw for Christians during Sukkot is the week-long Feast of Tabernacles hosted by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ). The event brings over 5,000 Christians from 85 nations to Jerusalem, and though their intention is to bless the nation of Abraham and to be blessed in return, hosting these well-minded pilgrims brings an economic blessing as well.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/96086/christians-tourists-bless-israel-bounty-sukkot-pilgrims-stream-jerusalem/#QY10WKhd42uo4Fw7.99


Minister: ‘Enough Being Politically Correct, Let’s Be Biblically Correct’
By Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman October 10, 2017 , 10:30 am
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“I will bless those who bless you.” Genesis 12:3 (The Israel Bible)
27 lawmakers from around the world came to Israel on Sukkot on a faith-based diplomacy tour with the Israel Allies Foundation (IAF). Here, MPs stand outside Rachel’s Tomb with IAF President Josh Reinstein (center-left). (Maayan Hoffman/Breaking Israel News
Faith-based diplomacy is leading the efforts against delegitimization of Israel, said Josh Reinstein, president of the Israel Allies Foundation (IAF) on Monday.
This week, IAF, together with the World Jewish Congress, the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem (ICEJ) and Bridges for Peace, brought 27 members of parliament (MPs) from 15 countries to Israel for the Jerusalem Chairman’s Conference to arm participants with the inspiration and clarity they need to defend the State of Israel in their home countries.
“We witness once again the rise of anti-Semitism around the world, which is often couched in political stances against Israel’s right to exist,” said Reinstein.
On Monday, the delegation signed a resolution forcefully rejecting all declarations seeking to deny Israel’s and Jerusalem’s Jewish origins, as well as any misrepresentation of the Jewish State of Israel as an occupier.
The resolution calls upon governments to adopt the US State Department’s and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism, and thereby recognize that anti-Israel and anti-Zionist expression can be used to convey anti-Jewish bigotry
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/96069/minister-enough-politically-correct-lets-biblically-correct/#y6E7VtpFVWvDxHWD.99


PHOTOS: Sukkot Parade of Nations Exuberant Show of Love for Jerusalem
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz October 11, 2017 , 11:30 am
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“Praise Hashem, all you nations; extol Him, all you peoples.” Psalms 117:1 (The Israel Bible)
The ICEJ Parade of Nations during the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, October 10, 2017. (Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz/Breaking Israel News)
The week-long International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) Feast of Tabernacles culminated on Tuesday with the Parade of Nations, in which thousands of Christians came from the farthest corners of the earth to display their love of the holy city of Jerusalem.
Israelis joined in, cheering on and marching alongside the exuberant visitors in a recreation of the joyous celebrations that filled the city in Temple times.
The festivities are Biblically-based but framed in a modern context. One celebrant from Mexico explained to Breaking Israel News that she felt obligated to leave her hurricane-ravaged country for one week to come to praise Jerusalem.
Israelis joined in, cheering on and marching alongside the exuberant visitors in a recreation of the joyous celebrations that filled the city in Temple times.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/96127/sukkot-parade-nations-exuberant-display-international-love-jerusalem-photos/#62r2p7oX5Ir4cYJo.99


Simchat Torah begins at sundown on Wednesday, October 11 and ends at sundown on Thursday, October 12. In honor of the holiday, BIN presents a special edition newsletter containing our best articles from the Festival of Sukkot (Feast of Booths/Tabernacles). There will be no emails on Thursday.
BIN wishes you a Chag sameach - a happy holiday!
50,000 Gather for Priestly Blessing on Sukkot as Jerusalem Becomes Heart of World Prayer [PHOTOS]
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz October 8, 2017 , 11:30 am
“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Sovereign Hashem, the God of Yisrael.” Exodus 34:23 (The Israel Bible)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/kotel-sukkot.jpg
Jewish worshipers cover themselves with prayer shawls as they pray in front of the Western Wall during the priestly blessing at the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, October 8, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Echoing the past glory of what used to occur in the Temple, approximately 50,000 people gathered at the Kotel (the Western Wall) on Sunday to receive the priestly blessing from hundreds of Kohanim (Jewish men of the priestly caste) during the festival holiday of Sukkot. Jews and non-Jews, religious and secular, people from all over the world, filled Jerusalem for the holiday that, in Temple times, was a universal celebration honoring the God of Abraham.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95963/50000-gather-priestly-blessing-sukkot-jerusalem-becomes-heart-world-prayer-photos/#GBZIemexPqpe2IjE.99

Trump Wants to “Give Peace a Shot” Before Moving Embassy to Jerusalem
By Abra Forman October 8, 2017 , 9:30 am
“Let me hear what Hashem, Hashem, will speak; He will promise well-being to His people, His faithful ones; may they not turn to folly.” Psalms 85:9 (The Israel Bible)
President Donald Trump speaks in Jerusalem during his visit to Israel in May 2017. (Kobi Richter/TPS)
President Donald Trump’s plan to delay moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem until his administration attempts an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal won’t help to make peace, MKs Yehudah Glick and Tzipi Hotovely told Breaking Israel News after the president revealed his vision in interview with Trinity Broadcast Network’s (TBN) Mike Huckabee on Saturday
MK Yehudah Glick, Likud. (Knesset)
“I don’t think that transferring the embassy to Jerusalem should happen after we achieve peace but as part of achieving peace. Any delay will not get us closer,” MK Glick told Breaking Israel News while touring Rachel’s Tomb with the Israel Allies Foundation (IAF).
“We all want peace. But real peace will be when the world recognizes Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the Jewish people. Trump said he would recognize this and we expect him to do it.”
MK Tzipi Hotovely agreed, arguing that a unified Jerusalem was the best way to encourage peace.
“If you really would like to give peace a chance, move the embassy to Jerusalem in order to make sure Jerusalem will never be divided and to make sure Jews and Arabs can live peacefully together,” she told Breaking Israel News on the IAF tour.
MK Tzipi Hotovely. (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“In the Middle East, where we live, the fact that terrorism is here is not because we gave up the idea of a peace process, but because they would like to remove Israel from the map of the Middle East.”
Trump’s campaign promise to open an embassy in Israel’s capital was a major appeal to Evangelical Christian voters, but the president has hesitated since taking office. He told the Christian media network that the decision over the move to Jerusalem would be made “in the not too distant future.”
“They say the toughest deal of all is peace between Israel and the Palestinians, so we’re going to work off that, and if that doesn’t work, which it’s possible that it won’t, to be totally honest,” he said. “I’m not making any predictions, but I want to give that a shot before I think about moving the embassy to Jerusalem.”
Maayan Hoffman contributed to this report.



50,000 Gather for Priestly Blessing on Sukkot as Jerusalem Becomes Heart of World Prayer [PHOTOS]
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz October 8, 2017 , 11:30 am
“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Sovereign Hashem, the God of Yisrael.” Exodus 34:23 (The Israel Bible)
Jewish worshipers cover themselves with prayer shawls as they pray in front of the Western Wall during the priestly blessing at the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, October 8, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Echoing the past glory of what used to occur in the Temple, approximately 50,000 people gathered at the Kotel (the Western Wall) on Sunday to receive the priestly blessing from hundreds of Kohanim (Jewish men of the priestly caste) during the festival holiday of Sukkot. Jews and non-Jews, religious and secular, people from all over the world, filled Jerusalem for the holiday that, in Temple times, was a universal celebration honoring the God of Abraham.
The Western Wall’s thousands of visitors for the Priestly Blessing on Oct. 8 2017. (Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz/Breaking Israel News)
The Kotel Plaza had a distinctive holiday atmosphere as thousands of lulavs (palm fronds) waved in the air. Sukkot is a particularly aesthetic holiday in which Jews are commanded to dwell in gaily-decorated booths for seven days. The prayer service performed at the Kotel prior to the Priestly Blessing included hallel, celebratory verses in Psalms which are sung while waving the Four Species: a frond from a palm tree, myrtle leaves, willow leaves, and a citron (etrog in Hebrew).
Jewish worshipers at the Kotel hold the Four Species. (Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz/Breaking Israel News)
This event was a much larger enactment of the Kohanic blessings that are part of the regular prayers. In the presence of a quorum, the Kohanim are called to bless the congregation in a rite that has its roots in the Bible.
(Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz/Breaking Israel News)


Before giving the blessing, the Kohanim had their hands washed by Levites, men from the tribe of Levi, tasked with serving in the Temple. The Kohanim then moved to the front of the crowd and took up places adjacent to the ancient stones of the Kotel. They removed their shoes, since the priests served in the Temple barefoot, and covered themselves entirely in a tallit (prayer shawl).
Men hold the Four Species used on Sukkot as they pray at the Western Wall. (Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz/Breaking Israel News)
The blessing is performed by the priests holding their hands up with the fingers of both hands separated so as to make five spaces between them. The spaces are between the ring finger and middle finger of each hand, between the index finger and thumb of each hand, and the two thumbs touch each other at the knuckle.
Speak to Aharon and his sons: Thus shall you bless the people of Yisrael. Say to them:
Hashem bless you and protect you!
Hashem deal kindly and graciously with you!
Hashem bestow His favor upon you and grant you peace!
Numbers 6:23-26
A panoramic view of the Western Wall’s thousands of visitors for the Priestly Blessing. (Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz/Breaking Israel News)
Many VIPs came to be blessed as well. Both new chief rabbis, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau and Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, were present, as was Likud MK Rabbi Yehudah Glick. The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, a religious Jew, also attended.
MK Yehudah Glick at the Priestly Blessing. (Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz/Breaking Israel News)
Ambassador David Friedman attends the Priestly Blessing. (Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz/Breaking Israel News)
The event takes place twice a year, during chol hamoed (the intermediary days) of Sukkot and Passover. In Temple times, people of all faiths came from all over the world to celebrate Sukkot alongside the Jews. This is reflected in modern times as the city of Jerusalem fills up with tourists from around the world.
https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95963/50000-gather-priestly-blessing-sukkot-jerusalem-becomes-heart-world-prayer-photos/?utm_source=Breaking+Israel+News&utm_campaign=f133cbc287-BIN_morning_10_17


Netanyahu Leads Bible Study Group in Tradition of Jewish Leaders
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz October 6, 2017 , 10:49 am
“The fear of Hashem is the beginning of knowledge; but the foolish despise wisdom and discipline.” Proverbs 1:7 (The Israel Bible)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/F171003KGPO02.jpg
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the “Bible Study Club” held at the PM’s official Jerusalem residence on October 3, 2017. (Photo by Flash90)
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued a longstanding tradition when he hosted a Bible study group at his residence in Jerusalem. This tradition has deep roots in the first-family and has Biblical significance for leaders of Israel.
The Bible study group was a tradition begun by David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister. It was discontinued but Prime Minister Menachem Begin reinstated the practice in the late ’70’s. The practice was abandoned but Prime Minister Netanyahu restarted the study group to honor the passing of Shmuel Ben Artzi, Sara Netanyahu’s father who passed away in 2011. Ben Artzi was a noted writer, poet, and educator, as well as a scholar of the Bible.
The study session was attended by Bat-Galim Shaer, the mother of Gil-ad Shaer, who was abducted and murdered by Hamas terrorists along with two other teenage boys in the summer of 2014.
Upon the conclusion of the study session, Shaer gave Netanyahu and his wife a book she recently wrote about her son.
“There is no Jewish existence without the Bible; it doesn’t exist,” the prime minister said. “In my opinion, there is also no Jewish future without the Bible.”
Netanyahu Leads Bible Study Group in Tradition of Jewish Leaders
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz October 6, 2017 , 10:49 am
“The fear of Hashem is the beginning of knowledge; but the foolish despise wisdom and discipline.” Proverbs 1:7 (The Israel Bible)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/F171003KGPO02.jpg
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the “Bible Study Club” held at the PM’s official Jerusalem residence on October 3, 2017. (Photo by Flash90)
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued a longstanding tradition when he hosted a Bible study group at his residence in Jerusalem. This tradition has deep roots in the first-family and has Biblical significance for leaders of Israel.
The Bible study group was a tradition begun by David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister. It was discontinued but Prime Minister Menachem Begin reinstated the practice in the late ’70’s. The practice was abandoned but Prime Minister Netanyahu restarted the study group to honor the passing of Shmuel Ben Artzi, Sara Netanyahu’s father who passed away in 2011. Ben Artzi was a noted writer, poet, and educator, as well as a scholar of the Bible.
The study session was attended by Bat-Galim Shaer, the mother of Gil-ad Shaer, who was abducted and murdered by Hamas terrorists along with two other teenage boys in the summer of 2014.
Upon the conclusion of the study session, Shaer gave Netanyahu and his wife a book she recently wrote about her son.
“There is no Jewish existence without the Bible; it doesn’t exist,” the prime minister said. “In my opinion, there is also no Jewish future without the Bible.”
Bible study is a first-family tradition. Three of Sara Netanyahu’s siblings won both the National Bible Quiz and the International Bible Quiz. In 2010, Avner, the prime minister’s son, won first-place in the National Bible Quiz and went on to take third-place in the International Bible Contest.
The Netanyahu clan’s connection to the Bible is strongly reminiscent of the Biblical commandment for a king of Israel to write a personal Torah scroll. The Torah mandates that the bond between the ruler and the Bible be constant and unbreakable, similar to the manner embodied by the Netanyahu family.
And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear Hashem his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them, that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left; to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel. Deuteronomy 17:19-20
This Biblical mandate seemed to come alive two years ago, when Prime Minister Netanyahu took a break from his duties to compete in the International Bible Quiz in Jerusalem.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95924/netanyahu-leads-bible-study-group-tradition-jewish-leaders/#4qVu2bpB23VvBerk.99


Washington Sources Say President Will Reject Iran Nuclear Deal Next Week
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz October 6, 2017 , 2:09 am
“As for those peoples that warred against Yerushalayim, Hashem will smite them with this plague: Their flesh shall rot away while they stand on their feet; their eyes shall rot away in their sockets; and their tongues shall rot away in their mouths.” Zechariah 14:12 (The Israel Bible)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/iran-nuclear-flag.jpg
(Photo: United Against Nuclear Iran / Facebook)
Multiple sources in Washington D.C. have reported that President Donald Trump plans on decertifying the Iran nuclear deal next week.
On Wednesday, The Washington Free Beacon and The Washington Post reported that President Trump is expected to declare Iran in breach of the deal next week. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the deal that was brokered by former President Barack Obama with Iran first signed in 2015, has to be recertified by the president every ninety days and the next deadline is October 15. President Trump has recertified the deal twice since entering the Oval Office. If the Iran deal is decertified by the president, the decision is then moved to Congress which will have 60 days to decide the future of the deal, which might include reinstating sanctions that were removed under the agreement.
The president is scheduled to deliver a speech on October 12, but the White House has not confirmed that the speech will take place or what its subject matter will be. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said in a press conference on Thursday, “The president is going to make an announcement about the decision that he’s made on a comprehensive strategy that his team supports, and we’ll do that in the coming days.”
Opponents of the nuclear deal have claimed that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the nuclear watchdog tasked with verifying Iranian compliance, have been prevented from doing their job.
“The IAEA’s admission that they are unable to verify a fundamental provision under the nuclear deal—that the Iranians are not engaging in activities or using equipment to develop a nuclear explosive device—is highly alarming. In these circumstances, issuing a compliance certification would be a serious mistake,” Texas Senator Ted Cruz said to the press.
“If the Iranians are serious about a peaceful program, they need to prove it. Iran’s continued refusal to allow IAEA access to military sites—a clear requirement of the terms of the deal—renders the JCPOA utterly ineffective, and, even worse, a sham that only facilitates Iran’s acquiring nuclear weapons. This absence of any meaningful verification is yet another reason to vitiate this foolhardy agreement.”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said last month that he will not reopen the deal for negotiations.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95917/washington-sources-say-president-will-reject-iran-nuclear-deal-next-week/#1g7mCv65mybolQEv.99

Sukkot is a State of Mind
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo October 4, 2017 , 7:00 am
Traveling through a desert is journeying through a lonely place, completely forsaken. There is neither food nor water nor any other form of sustaining substance. There are only the unbearable sun and its heat. There is no grass, and there are no trees. The only signs of life are deadly snakes and scorpions. In a desert, death stares you in the face. It is a dangerous and outrageous place.
But a desert is also a magnificent locale, filled with grandeur and full of life. It is an area where many things can happen that are impossible in any other location.
First and foremost, it is a place of authenticity; and therefore a place of miracles.
Because the desert is an area of devastating silence, there is no distraction and no competition.
It is the desert’s thundering silence that allows a “still voice” within us to speak, and that cannot bear mediocrity. Instead, a desert seeks singular excellence, even when most men cannot recognize it as such. It protests against those who are appeased when they find something old in the new, even though it is clear that this old could not have given birth to this new.
The Egyptian French poet Edmond Jabès noted the connection between the Hebrew words “dabar” (word) and “midbar” (desert). This, he claims, goes to the core of what it means to be a Jew:
“With exemplary regularity the Jew chooses to set out for the desert, to go toward a renewed word that has become his origin… A wandering word is the word of God. It has for its echo the word of a wandering people. No oasis for it, no shadow, no peace. Only the immense, thirsty desert, only the book of this thirst…” (From the Book to the Book: An Edmond Jabès Reader [Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1991] pp. 166-7)
In the emptiness and silence of the desert, an authentic inner voice can be heard while sitting in the sukkah, a hut that existentially gives protection but in no way physically shields. Its roof leaks and its walls fall apart the moment a wind blows. It is a place with no excuses. But it can only be experienced by a people of the wilderness; a people who are not rooted in a substance of physical limitations and borders; a people who are not entirely fixed by an earthly point, even while living in a homeland. Their spirit reaches far beyond restrictive borders. They are particularistic so as to be universalistic. They are never satisfied with their spiritual condition and are therefore always on the road, looking for more, even when they live in their homeland, which is nothing more than a feeble sukkah.
They are a wandering people that can never permanently land because the runway is too narrow and they cannot fit into any final destination. They are a people who always experience unrest because they carry a spiritual secret that doesn’t fit anywhere and wanders in the existential state of an unlimited desert. An existential experience that unnerves because it’s rooted in the desert where it becomes deadly, if not properly handled.
But a desert is even more. It is an area where nothing can be tangibly achieved. In a desert, people cannot prove themselves, at least not in the conventional sense. It doesn’t offer jobs that people can fight over and compete for. It has no factories, offices, or department stores. There are no bosses to order people around and no fellow workers with whom to compete. It is ‘prestige deprived.’ In a desert, there is no kavod (honor) to be received. It doesn’t have cities, homes, or fences. If it had these, it would no longer be a desert. Human achievements would end its desert status and would undermine and destroy the grandeur of its might and beauty.
MORE https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95832/sukkot-state-mind-opinion/?


Refugees, Intersectionalists, and Jews
By Dr. Denis MacEoin October 4, 2017 , 8:00 am
According to a leaked German government report, up to 6.6 million migrants — both refugees and migrants seeking a better life — are currently waiting to cross to Europe from Africa.
The “mistake” the Israelis made seems to have been that, although driven out as refugees, they exercised their right to self-determination, returned to their homeland, and turned it into one of the most successful countries in the world. The Palestinians, who had an equal opportunity to achieve that, remain in poverty and disarray, with terrorism for 80 years as their only notable achievement. If they had agreed to work with the Jews instead of fighting them, who knows where they might be today?
To begin with, there actually are no Palestinian people, as used in the current sense of the term. The Oslo Accords accurately refer to Arabs, which is what they are — Arabs who left Israel in the war of 1947-8 in order not to be involved in a conflict in which other Arabs fought with Jews and Christians and who currently make up more than a million of the Arabs now living in Israel as citizens with equal rights. Refugees are back in the news. This summer, the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa is likely to rise significantly. According to the Daily Telegraph:
Read more at https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10705/refugees-intersectionalists-jews#IxPKcw8Ug8oMyTFr.99

In Growing Trend, Faith Entering Public Life as Legislators Show Rare Support
By Eliana Rudee October 3, 2017 , 9:30 am
“Go, inquire of Hashem on my behalf, and on behalf of the people, and on behalf of all Yehuda, concerning the words of this scroll that has been found.” II Kings 22:13 (The Israel Bible)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Untitled-design-23.jpg
Illustrative: A Bible and a US flag. (Shutterstock)
Religious movements and values are increasingly making their way into public life in the US as lawmakers introduce legislation to earmark federal funds for houses of worship and students bring their Bibles to school, signaling a new age in the interaction between ‘church’ and ‘state’ in America.
While the role of religion in public life has long been controversial among advocates for the separation of Church and State who consider these trends to be an encroachment on the U.S. constitution, recent months have seen a shift towards bringing the Bible, God, and houses of worship into the public arena. Both in politics and education, religious supporters are requesting legitimacy in public life, and legislators are listening.
Meanwhile, religious movements such as “Bring Your Bible to School Day,” which attracts hundreds of thousands of students across the nation each year, also aim to engage religion in public arenas. Surprisingly, the general shift towards accepting this trend has received widespread bipartisan support, backed by the U.S. Supreme Court, the President of the United States, Senate Republicans, and even several Democrats.
While these groups do not agree on much, when it comes to supporting houses of worship and enforcing freedom of religion, a rare consensus, perhaps signaling a new age in the interaction between religion and public life, is beginning.
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/harvey-1.jpg
Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston, Texas. (Army National Guard/Lt. Zachary West)
In the wake of the recent major natural disasters in Texas and Florida, on September 19th, Senate Republicans Ted Cruz (R-TX), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX), and James Lankford (R-OK) introduced the Federal Disaster Assistance Nonprofit Fairness Act, which would make houses of worship eligible for routine federal disaster aid. The proposed legislation seeks to permit religious institutions to receive federal relief, easing recovery efforts after natural disaster.
The bill has 18 cosponsors, 17 Republicans and Democratic Representative Grace Meng (D-NY), who argue that because houses of worship play an essential role in the daily lives of nationwide communities, they should receive public funding for rebuilding when disaster strikes. Often, they say, such religious institutions offer invaluable education, enrichment, and social activities that are essential for community building.
US President Donald Trump, who called for a day of prayer after Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston, chimed in on the conversation, tweeting in support of the bill.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95795/rare-consensus-legislators-join-forces-rebuild-houses-worship-federal-money/#gr7S10WBqeOoS3j8.99



Former FBI Agent Investigates: Who Betrayed Anne Frank?
By JNS October 4, 2017 , 8:30 am
“My ally in whom I trusted, even he who shares my bread, has been utterly false to me.” Psalms 41:10 (The Israel Bible)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/annefrank.jpg
Anne Frank. (Collectie Anne Frank Stichting Amsterdam via Wikimedia Commons.)
A retired FBI agent has launched an investigation into identifying those who may have betrayed the hiding place of Anne Frank and her family to the Gestapo secret police in 1944.
Former agent Vince Pankoke believes investigative techniques developed in the past decade, including the crunching of big data to uncover leads, will help his team of 19 forensic experts with research pertaining to Anne Frank, The Guardian reported.
The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam has welcomed the initiative, which is being filmed and chronicled online, as investigators—including historians, psychological profilers and former police detectives—work through the evidence.
Immediately after the war, Anne Frank’s father, Otto Frank, strongly suspected warehouse worker Wilhelm van Maaren of betraying the group’s hiding place. Two investigations by the Dutch police, however, did not find any evidence against Van Maaren.
“They weren’t really investigations,” said Pankoke. “I am working through the files and there are so many questions unanswered.”
Last December, the Anne Frank House museum published its own study suggesting the Franks may have been discovered by chance instead of being betrayed.
Pankoke, meanwhile, says his preparatory work—examining recently declassified documents shipped back to the U.S. after the war—has led to fresh insights.
According to The Guardian, the project leaders hope to unveil their findings Aug. 4, 2019, on the 75th anniversary of the Frank family’s arrest.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95861/former-fbi-agent-launches-investigation-anne-franks-capture/#Sm9lug82gtiDpR99.99



Feast of Tabernacles: Celebrating 37 Years of Christians’ Prophetic Gathering in Jerusalem [PHOTOS]
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz October 4, 2017 , 11:30 am
“May You hear in Your heavenly abode and grant whatever the foreigner appeals to You for. Thus all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and revere You, as does Your people Yisrael; and they will recognize that Your name is attached to this House that I have built.” II Chronicles 6:33 (The Israel Bible)
Roll Call of nations at the 2014 Feast of Tabernacles run by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ). (Courtesy ICEJ)
On Wednesday, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem will begin its 37th annual Feast of Tabernacles, a spectacular week of devotion and learning that will bring together over 6,000 pilgrims from nearly 100 nations. Based on the gathering of nations in Solomon’s Temple for the holiday of Sukkot, the 2017 Feast is expected to be the largest yet, bringing about the prophetic gathering of nations in Jerusalem.
The Feast was first established by ICEJ in 1980, and has grown yearly ever since, with more and more Christians and international figures attending each year.
MORE https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95879/feast-of-tabernacles-celebrating-37-years-of-christians-prophetic-gathering-in-jerusalem-photos/?utm_source=Breaking+Israel+News&utm_campaign=ca121cc0cf-BIN_morning_10_17



Frightening New Wave of Anti-Israel, Anti-Semitic Activity on Campuses Across US
By JNS October 4, 2017 , 10:30 am
“Because he is devoted to Me I will deliver him; I will keep him safe, for he knows My name.” Psalms 91:14 (The Israel Bible)
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A mock Israeli checkpoint set up during “Israeli Apartheid Week” in May 2010 on the University of California, Los Angeles campus. (Credit: AMCHA Initiative/JNS)
By: Rafael Medoff/JNS.org
Jewish college students returning after their summer break are encountering a wave of swastika daubings and anti-Israel activity on campuses across the country—and there are signs the hostility may intensify in the weeks ahead.
The latest incidents coincide with a new campaign by pro-Palestinian activists to portray Israel as a “white supremacist country,” linking the Jewish state to accusations about white supremacist activity in the U.S.
At Tufts University, near Boston, a “Disorientation Guide” prepared by militant students for incoming freshmen accused Israel of “white supremacy” and promoted “Israeli Apartheid Week,” which the Tufts branch of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) holds each spring.
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The cover page of the “Disorientation Guide” prepared for incoming freshmen at Tufts University.
The guide also charged that when Jewish groups at Tufts sponsored a talk by the parents of Trayvon Martin—the African-American teenager shot in Florida in 2012—they were “exploiting black voices for their own pro-Israel agenda.”
SJP activists at Columbia University were among the authors of the Columbia edition of the “Disorientation Guide.” The guide brands Israel “an apartheid state” and encourages incoming students to join their campaign, “Columbia University Apartheid Divest.”
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95871/frightening-new-wave-anti-israel-anti-semitic-activity-campuses-across-us/#LOKAueTM52V8tysi.99


In Exotic Biblical Feast, Strange and Rare Delicacies Recall Ancient Ties Between Man and Beast [PHOTOS]
By Eliana Rudee October 3, 2017 , 11:30 am
“Every creature that lives shall be yours to eat; as with the green grasses, I give you all these.” Genesis 9:3 (The Israel Bible)
Natan Slifkin (left) with Rabbi Marvin Hier (center) at the feast holding a snake from the Biblical Zoo. (Biblical Museum of Natural History)
On Monday, the Biblical Museum of Natural History in Beit Shemesh hosted a “Feast of Exotic Curiosities” to order to revive the Biblical relationship between animal and man of Biblical times, serving rare and strange delicacies which the Bible says are kosher, but which have been largely lost to Jewish cuisine.
In co-creating the dinner, Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin, founder and director of The Biblical Museum of Natural History, sought to promote “a living and breathing Judaism that is connected to daily life, that is relevant within the modern world, and that adds value and meaning for the individual and for the community.” It was his desire, he told Breaking Israel News, “to draw inspiration from the beauty and wonder of the natural world and the great doings of God.”

Las Vegas Massacre Will Likely Cause Terror PTSD, Says Expert
By Tsivya Fox October 4, 2017 , 9:30 am
“His threat will terrify you, And His fear will seize you.” Job 13:11 (The Israel Bible)
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The scene of the horrific shooting attack in Las Vegas, October 2, 2017. (Screenshot)
Following the shooting massacre at an open-air country music concert in Las Vegas on Sunday which left 59 people murdered and 527 injured, David Rubin, terrorism expert and founder of Shiloh Israel Children’s Fund, which treats children in the Biblical heartland traumatized by terror, spoke with Breaking Israel News about what is needed to both prevent and heal from such a tragedy.
“There are various aspects to combating terror,” explained Rubin to Breaking Israel News. “On a national level, countries need to recognize that there is a jihadist Islamic evil ideology which creeps into the psyche of terrorists, even if they aren’t directly paid or led by radical Muslims. Governments cannot keep chasing individuals and calling them ‘lone wolf’ terrorists. Rather, they must recognize that their is a poisonous ideology which they must combat.”
The investigation into the motives of gunman, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, is continuing. President Trump, appearing before reporters at the White House soon after the mass shooting, called it “an act of pure evil“. ISIS has claimed responsibility, stating that Paddock was a recent convert to Islam, but the FBI has found no evidence of any ties to militant or radical organizations.
“In either case, the resultant PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) is about the same,” continued Rubin. “There is, perhaps, a subtle psychological difference between knowing that a terrorist is part of a radical ideological group, which might cause people greater trauma, than if the person is a crazed individual. However, in both situations, the psychological reverberations and suffering are enormous.”
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95864/las-vegas-massacre-will-likely-cause-terror-ptsd-says-expert/#ZLtSurGKDCR3vIJr.99


Abbas Refuses to Allow 'Hezbollah Model' With Hamas Militants in Gaza
By JNS October 4, 2017 , 7:30 am
https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95838/abbas-demands-hamas-dismantle-military-precondition-unity-government/?“Come now, stand surety for me! Who will give his hand on my behalf?” Job 17:3 (The Israel Bible)
Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas. (Golden Brown / Shutterstock.com)
Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday he would not allow the Gaza-ruling Palestinian terror group Hamas to keep its weapons and armed brigades if control of the coastal territory is transferred to the PA.
“All control needs to be in the hands of the PA,” Abbas told the Egyptian television station CBC, ahead of a meeting between senior PA officials and Hamas members.
“I am not prepared to accept a reality like that which Hezbollah dictated in Lebanon. The organizations in Gaza needs to relinquish their weapons. We want to be one state, with one governing body, with one law, and one military body,” he said.
Abbas also warned that if these conditions are not met, efforts to form a Palestinian unity government between the rival factions could be halted.
“If we catch a weapon on a Hamas member, we will imprison him, just as is done with Fatah members who do not hold an official security position,” said Abbas.
Senior Hamas member Mousa Abu Marzook recently said the issue of dismantling the terror group’s military is not up for negotiation.
Earlier Monday, PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah arrived in Gaza for the first time since 2014, as the PA and Hamas initiated the first steps in forming a unity government. Hamdallah’s visit was intended as the first symbolic move towards transferring custodianship of the coastal territory from Hamas to the PA.

UN Uses Intimidation Tactics on Companies Working in Judea and Samaria
By Eliana Rudee October 1, 2017 , 11:30 am
“Because he was a hireling, that I might be intimidated and act thus and commit a sin, and so provide them a scandal with which to reproach me.” Nehemiah 6:13 (The Israel Bible)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/coca-cola.jpg
Boxed Coca-Cola bottles lined up at the Coca Cola factory in Bnei Brak, Israel. (Yaakov Naumi/Flash90)
The United Nations has sent letters to 150 companies that operate in Judea, Samaria, and the Golan Heights, threatening to add them to the their “blacklist” of firms that enable or benefit from the growth of Israeli settlements. The blacklist relies on intimidation tactics, as the UN would not be able to enforce a boycott of the Israeli companies listed on their blacklist. However, the UN “stamp of approval” is already influencing international companies to avoid direct or indirect transactions with Israeli companies.
In March, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) voted in favor (32 nations in favor and 15 abstentions) of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Act of 2017, which entails creating a “blacklist” of companies, the full list of which will be published this December. The blacklist includes major American corporations like Airbnb, Caterpillar, Priceline.com, and TripAdvisor as well as Israeli companies such as Coca-Cola Israel, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, Bezeq, and Egged.
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/maxresdefault-1024x576.jpg
Prince Zeid bin Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein (YouTube)
Out of the 150 companies that received letters, half are Israeli, 30 American, and the rest include countries such as Germany, South Korea, and Norway.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein began sending the letters in early September. According to senior Israeli officials and Western diplomats, as reported by Haaretz, the letters requested responses from the companies detailing their business activities in Israeli settlements.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95694/un-sends-threatening-letter-150-companies-working-judea-samaria/#L3XEhICECTuRgp8t.99


Trump and Pence Send Yom Kippur Wishes to “Be Written in the Book of Life”
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz September 30, 2017 , 11:42 pm
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“When he is seated on his royal throne, he shall have a copy of this Teaching written for him on a scroll by the levitical Kohanim.” Deuteronomy 17:18 (The Israel Bible)

image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/trump-yk.png


President Trump tweeted Yom Kippur wishes to Jews around the world. (Twitter)
Many heartfelt Yom Kippur greetings came out from the White House, including the President, the Vice President, and the First-Daughter.

Trump tweeted a photo of himself praying at the Kotel (Western Wall) with the caption, “My thoughts are with all those observing Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year.”

My thoughts are with all those observing Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. pic.twitter.com/0LuZCZl29D

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 29, 2017

Vice President Pence tweeted, “On this holiest of Jewish days, may our Jewish friends be granted a Yom Kippur of atonement, forgiveness & inscription in the Book of Life.”

On this holiest of Jewish days, may our Jewish friends be granted a Yom Kippur of atonement, forgiveness & inscription in the Book of Life.

— Mike Pence (@mike_pence) October 11, 2016

Last week, Pence issued a statement for the Jewish New Year which reflected a deep understanding and appreciation for the Jewish holiday.

The most important word during this most important period of the Jewish year is “Teshuvah,” or Repentance. Teshuva tells us we can change. It tells us that what we have been until this moment need not limit what we can become from this moment. It says we can be better tomorrow than we were today, and that in the affairs of humankind, nothing is fixed. Of all the manifold gifts bestowed upon us by the Almighty, is there any gift greater than the power He gave us to change?

Today, it is not just the Jewish people who find themselves and their freedoms imperiled. It is all of us. Therefore let us all approach this Jewish New Year with unity, solidarity, and a renewed strength of purpose.

Ivanka Trump, the president’s Jewish daughter, tweeted, “Wishing everyone an easy and meaningful fast and may we all be inscribed in the Book of Life. G’mar Hatimah Tovah! (A good final sealing, the traditional greeting for YomKippur).”

Wishing everyone an easy and meaningful fast and may we all be inscribed in the Book of Life. G’mar Hatimah Tovah! #YomKippur

— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) September 29, 2017
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95662/trump-pence-send-yom-kippur-wishes-written-book-life/#YfY6JsuODxdFfmjI.99

Herzl Fulfilled Dream of Moses to Lead Jewish People Home: Netanyahu
By Eliana Rudee September 29, 2017 , 8:30 am
“Then Hashem said to Moshe, ‘Set out from here, you and the people that you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, saying, “To your offspring will I give it.’” Exodus 33:1 (The Israel Bible)

image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/herzl-moses-final.jpg


Moses and Theodor Herzl were both great leaders of the Jewish people. (Breaking Israel News/Wikimedia Commons)
At the 120th anniversary celebration of the First Zionist Congress on Wednesday evening on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Netanyahu proclaimed, “Herzl is the modern day Moses,” invoking the prophetic aspects of the State of Israel, namely, that the events in the Torah are a forecast of what will occur in the modern Jewish State.

Theodor Herzl, born in 1860 in the Austrian Empire (now Budapest, Hungary) was the founder of political Zionism, the movement to establish a Jewish homeland. Herzl was a journalist and playwright before being influenced into political activism by the Dreyfus affair, a notorious anti-Semitic incident in which a Jewish French army captain was falsely convicted of spying for Germany. He thus formed the World Zionist Organization and founded the First Zionist Congress in Basel, which led to the future formation of the Jewish State of Israel.

Franz Rosenzwag, a Jewish philosopher, saw Herzl as decisive proof of the historicity of the Biblical Moses. According to Dr. Shuki Friedman of the Israel Democracy Institute, whose areas of expertise include the relationship of religion and state and secular-religious relations, both men “established, ‘from the sand up’, a vision for the Jewish people and assembled them, from Egypt and the diaspora, into a community” – the Promised Land of Israel.

Herzl was not unaware of his similarities to Moses, and neither was Prime Minister Netanyahu the first to point out their connection. “Herzl followed and was aware of the prophetic ideas of Moses,” Dr. Friedman said, noting that Herzl had planned on writing a five-part Biblical drama about Moses.

Herzl evoked Moses in his own diary. Writing on June 2, 1895 in his diary he wrote, “It will be a long time before we arrive in the Promised Land. It took Moses 40 years.” When Herzl first met with him and outlined his vision, the Chief Rabbi of Vienna, Moritz Gudemann, told the Zionist visionary, “You remind me of Moses.”

Indeed, the connection between Moses, the legendary leader of the Israelites who received the Torah from Heaven, and Theodor Herzl, the modern founder of political Zionism and founder of the World Zionist Organization, is uncanny. While Moses heeded the divine call from God to lead the Jewish people into the Promised Land, Herzl’s belief that the Jewish people need a state in order to avoid anti-Semitism, express their culture freely, and practice religion without interference led to the establishment of the Jewish State and ingathering of exiles into the Promised Land.

Both leaders began their leadership journey as outsiders to the Jewish story. Although Moses belonged to a Jewish family, he grew up in the palace of Pharaoh. Similarly, although Herzl was raised in a Jewish family, he was a secular Jew without ties to the Jewish community. According to Jewish Virtual Library, Herzl “was educated in the spirit of the German-Jewish Enlightenment, and learned to appreciate secular culture.” His Jewish identity only developed in his 20s as a writer in Paris.

Although they were at first outsiders, both Moses and Herzl were driven by injustice they saw at the expense of the Jewish people. “Both Moses and Herzl became leaders after gaining an awareness of the suffering of the Jewish people,” Dr. Friedman told Breaking Israel News. While Moses was driven to impulsive action after seeing an Egyptian hitting a Jewish slave, the anti-Semitism Herzl witnessed in the Dreifus Affairs as well as the thought of Jews being unprotected without a national home led him to action. For both men, there was a “shaking experience that made them change their course of life,” and more importantly, the course of Jewish history.

While they both were driven by injustice, the inspiration from which they were called to action differed. “Moses was pushed and motivated by God in each and every step he made and only took responsibility to lead the Jewish people after this call,” Dr. Friedman told Breaking Israel News. But on the other hand, “Herzl had internal motivation to promote what were considered crazy ideas of the time – he dreamt against all odds and opposition of all kinds; he was more willing to lead and fulfill dreams than Moses was.”

Although they were unlikely leaders, each rose to positions of authority to guide their people into the Promised Land. But before doing so, each faced resistance from their own people out of fear that a change in their situation could be a change for the worse. Fellow Jews tried to kill Moses to stop him from leading the Jewish people into new circumstances that might be worse than what they thought would be a short-term enslavement in Egypt.

According to Dr. Friedman, during Herzl’s rise to leadership, he received a two-fold opposition. First, secular European Jews believed that national independence would risk the positive treatment they received in the countries that awarded them rights. Second, some Orthodox Jews rejected taking Jewish fate into their own hands by returning to the State of Israel before the arrival of the Messiah. In fact, the First Zionist Congress was supposed to be in Munich, Germany, a center of Jewish life, but because of Orthodox opposition, it was moved to Basel, Switzerland.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95623/herzl-modern-day-moses-proclaims-netanyahu-zionist-celebration/#Y1SEi9kK5Rm5Dvzz.99

Yom Kippur War: When the Nation Of Israel Was Judged and Nearly Failed
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz September 29, 2017 , 12:21 pm
“Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.” Psalms 139:12 (The Israel Bible)
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Yom Kippur War
A knocked out Israeli M60 tank amongst the debris of other armor after an Israeli counterattack in the Sinai during the Yom Kippur War. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
On Yom Kippur, October 6, 1973, while Jews around the world were praying for God to redeem their souls, the still young State of Israel went through a trial of fire which it came very close to losing. For the first three days of the Yom Kippur War, Israel’s fate hung in balance while overwhelming Arab forces advanced almost unopposed into the heart of the tiny country. Only the heroic acts of a few inidividuals saved the tiny State of Israel from total annihilation.
Exactly 44 years ago, a coalition led by Syria and Egypt and supported by the former Soviet Union, launched a surprise attack on Israel. The enemy attack focused on the Golan Heights and the Sinai, territories gained in the 1967 Six Day War that gave Israel a strategic buffer zone necessary for its survival. Israel, with 400,000 troops supported by 1,700 tanks and 440 combat aircraft faced a combined force of almost one million enemy soldiers supported by 3,600 tanks and 450 combat aircraft.
32,000 Egyptian troops crossed the Suez Canal in a massive but meticulously planned operation, advancing almost unopposed into the Sinai Peninsula. They quickly overwhelmed the Bar Lev Line, a series of fortifications that Israeli military experts had claimed was impenetrable.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95630/yom-kippur-war-nation-israel-judged-nearly-failed/#B1QoKul2qL4hYUsV.99

Massive Bird Die-Off in Bali Precursor to Messianic Volcanic Eruption as Prophesied in Ezekiel
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz September 27, 2017 , 11:30 am
“The fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the beasts of the field, all creeping things that move on the ground, and every human being on earth shall quake before Me. Mountains shall be overthrown, cliffs shall topple, and every wall shall crumble to the ground.” Ezekiel 38:20 (The Israel Bible)
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Illustrative: The eruption of the volcano Yasur on Tanna Island, Vanuatu. (Shutterstock)
As the island of Bali waits for a catastrophic volcanic eruption expected at any moment, residents discovered a chilling scene straight from the Book of Prophets: thousands of birds died overnight, inexplicably, falling to the ground en masse. One rabbi warned that this message is a last minute hint of man’s mission on earth, a mission that is mankind is clearly failing.
Bali has been on edge for almost a month as hundreds of tremors shake the volcanic Mount Agung, the most prominent feature on this Indonesian island in the Pacific. Seismologists have warned that a major eruption is imminent, leading officials to declare a state of emergency. More than 75,000 people have been evacuated from this island paradise. In a scene reminiscent of Mount Sinai, the archetypal fiery mountain, a 7-mile exclusion zone has been set up around the volcano, preventing people from approaching.
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Mount Agung, in Bali, Indonesia, is an active volcano. (Shutterstock)
Mount Agung hasn’t erupted for more than 50 years, but the last time it did, in 1963, almost 1,600 people were killed and hundreds more were injured.
In the midst of all the fear, another strange note of warning was heard. After a night of heavy rains, Amin Basri, a park gardener and Bali resident, was shocked to find thousands of dead sparrows covering the ground when he made his rounds through a park, usually full of singing birds, on Monday morning.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95530/prophesied-massive-bird-die-off-presages-volcanic-eruption-bali/#bEeLvpxEad0cC21y.99




Pope Accused of Material Heresy for First Time Since Middle Ages
By Eliana Rudee September 27, 2017 , 12:30 pm
“That shall be your fringe; look at it and recall all the commandments of Hashem and observe them, so that you do not follow your heart and eyes in your lustful urge.” Numbers 15:39 (The Israel Bible)

image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/pope-sad.jpg
Pope Francis. (Giulio Napolitano / Shutterstock.com)
In a move unprecedented since the Middle Ages, 62 clergy and lay scholars from around the world have issued a formal filial correction to Pope Francis accusing him of “propagating heresies” about “marriage, the moral life, and the reception of the sacraments.”

“Respectfully insisting” that the Pope condemns the heresies that he has directly and indirectly upheld, the letter suggests that the Catholic leader’s unorthodox views have “caused these heretical opinions to spread in the Catholic Church.” The Pope has yet to respond to the accusations.

According to the National Catholic Register, the 25-page Correctio filialis de haeresibus propagatis (A Filial Correction Concerning the Propagation of Heresies) was delivered to the pontiff at his Santa Marta residence on August 11. It accused him of propagating heresies, including allowing some divorced or remarried Catholics to receive communion.

Pope Francis is known for being more liberal than his predecessors, often embracing modernism, which is seen in Catholicism as the antithesis to definite truths, which are God-given, eternal, not to become “provisional and subject to revision.” In a trip to Lund, Sweden in 2016, the Pope came under Catholic condemnation when he visited the Lutheran Church of Sweden that is said to “accept contraception, abortion, homosexuality, and female clergy, all of which are strictly and unalterably forbidden in the Catholic Church.”

The same year, he made an official statement in Amoris laetitia (Pope Francis’ book, translated as The Joy of Love) calling for acceptance of non-traditional lifestyles and those who practice them, challenging the long-held Catholic condemnation of homosexuality. The Pope has even been compared to Protestant leader Martin Luther, to whom he has given “explicit and unprecedented praise” despite the fact that Luther’s attempts to reform the Church ended in a great schism.

The letter, dated July 16th, 2017, was signed by 62 Catholic leaders, including the superior general of the Society of St. Pius X Bishop Bernard Fellay, former president of the Vatican Bank Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, and German intellectual Martin Mosebach. This is the first filial correction addressed to a reigning Pontiff since Pope John XXII was reproved in 1333 for saying that those who died in grace do not see God face-to-face until the Last Judgment, where Catholic belief holds that those who die in the faith do indeed immediately meet with God.

The letter reads that it is with their “profound grief” but moved “by love for the Church and for the papacy, and by filial devotion toward yourself” that they must address “a correction to Your Holiness on account of the propagation of heresies affected by the apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia and by other words, deeds and omissions of Your Holiness.”

Those who signed stress that they are not accusing the Pope of the formal sin of heresy, which is a heretic opinion expressed willfully and deliberately, knowing of its contradiction of some revealed truth. Rather, they accuse him of ‘material’ heresy, in which an opinion unknowingly contradicts the teachings of the Church, leading Catholics into false doctrines.

This is the sixth major initiative since September 2015 in which clergy and lay scholars have condemned the Pope’s liberal teachings and controversial passages in Amoris laetitia that contain “a number of statements that can be understood in a sense that is contrary to Catholic faith and morals.” These previous initiatives garnering hundreds of thousands of signatures from individuals and associations from around the world, none of which have garnered a Papal response.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95538/pope-francis-accused-heresy-liberal-leanings/#PWIiK2wb0FvfdcQc.99

Outrage as Satanic Fashion Show Desecrates 1,000-Year-Old London Church
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz September 27, 2017 , 5:14 pm
“Like a gold ring in the snout of a pig Is a beautiful woman bereft of sense.” Proverbs 11:22 (The Israel Bible)
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A fashion show in London last week left many aghast as it transformed an ancient and venerated church into a Satanically inspired display, with transvestite models dressed as the devil. Though the designer and fashionistas claim it was all in the name of art with no ill-will intended, the church has expressed its deepest regret.

Turkish designer Dilara Findikoglu’s collection was displayed in St. Andrew Holborn church in Central London as part of the Spring/Summer 2018 London Fashion Week. But rather than reflect or honor the setting, a 1,000-year old church, the show became a tribute to Satanism.

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Apse of church (YouTube)
The apse of the church was decorated with a wild display of demonic imagery, including pentagrams, goatheads, inverted crosses, all-seeing eyes, and other occult symbols. The models, including at least one drag queen, were dressed as devils, with symbols used in devil worship and black magic designs drawn on their faces and bodies.

The designer is considered to be an up-and-coming star of the fashion world, with celebrities like Rihanna wearing
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Transvestite male at London fashion show in church (YouTube)
her latest styles. Findikoglu rejected criticism of her demonic display.

“The show I did has no religious, Illuminati, secret society meanings,” the 26-year-old told Dazed. “All the symbols I used were for positive purposes. I am a creative and I am not trying to offend anyone. I understand people can be sensitive, but I think all these hate emails and attacks I am getting from Christians show who really is wrong,” she said, adding, “If there is such a thing as right or wrong.”

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St Andrew Holborn Church, London (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
Though the designer claimed that the show was not satanically inspired, the Diocese of London released a statement expressing regret for their decision to allow the fashion show to take place in the church.

“We took this booking in good faith and were not aware of the content or design before the show took place,” the statement read. “This was obviously a mistake, and the content of this show does not reflect the Christian faith of the Church. We will be looking at our booking processes going forward to ensure this does not happen again.”

Despite her claims to the contrary, religion (and anti-religion) have played a significant role in Findikoglu’s design career and personal life. Raised in a religious Muslim family, she admits to being driven by a negative perception of religion.
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Dilara Findikoglu (Photo via Facebook)
When asked last year by i-D, a fashion site, what the inspiration was behind her collection, she stated that it was a desire to rebel against religion, equating organized religion with the worst form of terrorism facing the world today.
“It was about a new belief system that ignores the control imposed by religions and unifies people by its laws based on simple human acts,” she answered candidly. “This was a reaction to question fundamentalist constructs that is currently terrorizing the world.”
“I use a lot of religious iconography, or occult symbols, magic symbols,” she said, adding the disclaimer, “Even if I don’t believe in them.”
This aspect of her art comes from her childhood. Satanism was a hobby for the budding artist when she was growing up.
“I’m into parapsychology and all the occult and magic stuff, so when I was reading those books, [my parents] thought I was going to be a Satanist.”
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95555/satanic-fashion-show-london-church-draws-christian-fury/#7bkAj8TZxtOqBU8E.99


Israel Stung as "State of Palestine" Admitted Into Interpol
By JNI Media September 27, 2017 , 1:30 pm
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“Leave all to Hashem; trust in Him; He will do it.” Psalms 37:5 (The Israel Bible)
Interpol gathering in Beijing, China, September 2017. (Courtesy Interpol)
Despite heavy diplomatic pressure exerted in recent days by the Israel’s National Security Council, Foreign Ministry and Ministry for Strategic Affairs, the Palestinian Authority (PA) on Wednesday was officially accepted by the world policing organization Interpol, currently meeting in Beijing, China, Israel’s Channel 2 reported. 75 countries in the organization’s plenum voted for the proposal, while only 24 states opposed it.

The most serious meaning of the PA’s acceptance is that they will now be receiving sensitive information related to the war on terror. The PA will also be able to issue arrest warrants against IDF officers which would lead to their arrest abroad and extradition to the PA. For all intents and purposes, the status of the Palestinian Authority security force will be identical to that of the Israel Police.

The debate in the plenum was delayed by claims from several countries, including Israel, about irregularities in registering the results of the vote on the criteria for receiving new members into Interpol. Eventually the vote was held, and the PA won the needed majority and then some.

PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki celebrated the vote as a “victory” and vowed that the “State of Palestine” would continue to seek membership in world bodies.

“The State of Palestine will continue to struggle to raise the status and role of Palestine at the international level and defend the rights of our people in security and freedom by all diplomatic and legal means available and including joining the relevant international institutions,” he said.
Israel Stung as "State of Palestine" Admitted Into Interpol
By JNI Media September 27, 2017 , 1:30 pm
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“Leave all to Hashem; trust in Him; He will do it.” Psalms 37:5 (The Israel Bible)


Interpol gathering in Beijing, China, September 2017. (Courtesy Interpol)
Despite heavy diplomatic pressure exerted in recent days by the Israel’s National Security Council, Foreign Ministry and Ministry for Strategic Affairs, the Palestinian Authority (PA) on Wednesday was officially accepted by the world policing organization Interpol, currently meeting in Beijing, China, Israel’s Channel 2 reported. 75 countries in the organization’s plenum voted for the proposal, while only 24 states opposed it.

The most serious meaning of the PA’s acceptance is that they will now be receiving sensitive information related to the war on terror. The PA will also be able to issue arrest warrants against IDF officers which would lead to their arrest abroad and extradition to the PA. For all intents and purposes, the status of the Palestinian Authority security force will be identical to that of the Israel Police.

The debate in the plenum was delayed by claims from several countries, including Israel, about irregularities in registering the results of the vote on the criteria for receiving new members into Interpol. Eventually the vote was held, and the PA won the needed majority and then some.

PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki celebrated the vote as a “victory” and vowed that the “State of Palestine” would continue to seek membership in world bodies.

“The State of Palestine will continue to struggle to raise the status and role of Palestine at the international level and defend the rights of our people in security and freedom by all diplomatic and legal means available and including joining the relevant international institutions,” he said.

Human rights groups have argued against letting China host the annual gathering of the global police force, citing Beijing’s misuse of Interpol’s “red notice” arrest warrant system to arrest fugitive ex-officials and business people wanted for corruption, as well as political dissidents such as German-based activist Dolkun Isa.
https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95543/shock-israel-palestinian-authority-accepted-interpol/?


In End of Days, Everyone Will Speak Hebrew
By Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman September 28, 2017 , 7:30 am
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“Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words.” Genesis 11:1 (The Israel Bible)


(Breaking Israel News/Shutterstock)
In the End of Days, all the nations of the world will study Hebrew to call out the name of God together in His holy language, explained Rabbi Tuly Weisz, founder of the Yeshiva for the Nations.

Speaking to Breaking Israel News, Rabbi Weisz said that the prophet Zephaniah describes how all the nations of the world will have “purity of speech” in the End of Days:

For then I will make the peoples pure of speech, so that they all invoke Hashem by name and serve Him with one accord. Zephaniah 3:9

Rabbi Weisz said Jewish tradition has always maintained that the pure language that Zephaniah promises is the language of Hebrew.

Today, students of all backgrounds have a chance to learn Hebrew in a new Yeshiva for the Nations course, “Introduction to the Hebrew Alphabet and Hebrew Reading.” Yeshiva for the Nations is a Jewish school for religious studies, designed for non-Jews. Registrants dip into the deep wells of Jewish knowledge by engaging with Jewish texts through the eyes of Jewish rabbis and teachers.
Rabbi Weisz said the language of creation was Hebrew and that God spoke Hebrew to the first people, Adam and Eve. He believes the whole world spoke Hebrew until right after Noah’s flood, at which time the people of Babel joined forces to build an impressive tower with evil intentions: to display the achievements of man without acknowledging the Creator above.
Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for ourselves; else we shall be scattered all over the world. Genesis 11:4
The punishment for the people’s sin of rebellion and failure to acknowledge God as creator was to be scattered across the earth, their language diversified so they could no longer communicate as one, explained Rabbi Weisz.
However, despite their dispersion, the Jews worked to maintain some use of the Hebrew language. With the founding of the state of Israel in 1948 and the ingathering of the exiles, the Jewish people miraculously revived Hebrew and made it, once again, their national language.
“Hebrew is one of the most beautiful languages,” said Sharon Niv, who teaches the Yeshiva for the Nations Hebrew course. She said that while in English there are more words than in Hebrew, the Hebrew language has greater depth.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95549/end-days-everyone-will-speak-hebrew/#Zvv41WmwP6qbVxVR.99

World's Oldest Beehives, Found in Israel, Promise Biblically Sweet New Year [PHOTOS]
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz September 26, 2017 , 1:30 pm
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“My son, eat honey, for it is good; Let its sweet drops be on your palate.” Proverbs 24:13 (The Israel Bible)
Beeswax was found at the bottom of the ancient beehives excavated at Tel Rehov in the Jordan Valley, the oldest ever discovered. (Courtesy Amihai Mazar)
An Israeli archaeologist made a remarkable and rare discovery to ensure that all of Israel has a year as sweet as honey, while helping understand the Bible just a little bit better.
Hebrew University professor Amihai Mazar was exploring an archaeological dig at a site in the Jordan Valley called Tel Rehov when he found evidence of beekeeping 3,000 years ago, the oldest evidence of this industry ever discovered.
Amihai Mazor (center) at the Tel Rehov dig where the beehives were found. (Courtesy Amihai Mazar)
“Beekeeping is not described in the Bible and Israel is not especially suited for beekeeping, no more or less than any other place with flowers,” Professor Mazar said. “But even today, if you go out to the fields in that region, there are hives in the field.”
Biblical scholars believe that when the Bible mentions honey, it is usually referring to honey made from dates. Professor Mazar pointed to his discovery as evidence that the Bible could also be referring to honey from bees.
Ancient beehives. (Courtesy Amihai Mazar)
Just last week, Jews around the world dipped apples in honey in hopes of a blessedly sweet New Year. This find may indicate that the link between Jews and honey is more ancient than previously thought.
The archaeologists did not expect to find beehives while digging, but there was no other explanation for the discovery.
“We found a long row of clay cylinders, each one of them approximately two and a half feet long and about one foot in diameter,” Professor Mazar told Breaking Israel News. The clay pots, made of unbaked clay mixed with straw, were piled three high.
At least 180 hives were found. (Courtesy Amihai Mazar)
The researchers eventually concluded they had discovered the oldest beehives in the world. Sealed with removable lids at one end, the other end of the cylinder had a small hole for the bees to enter. The discovery was unprecedented, and no other ancient hives have been found in Israel.
“This is the only archaeological dig in Israel at which beehives have been found,” Dr. Mazar said. “It was also unusual since normally, beehives are kept outside of the city. We were surprised when we found the hives where they were – inside a large and thriving city.”
The settlement of Tel Rehov. (Courtesy Amihai Mazar)
Many archaeologists believe the site is where the Prophet Elisha lived at approximately the same time bees were buzzing around.
“Though it was not mentioned in the Bible, this was a very large and important city in the time of King Achav and Elijah the prophet,” Professor Mazar said. He estimated that at the time, the city was home to approximately 2,500 people.
Researchers believe there were at least 180 hives housing more than a million bees, with each hive producing about 11 pounds of honey each year.
The archaeologists also found remains of actual bees, identifying the breed as being native to Turkey.

“These are the most ancient bees ever found in the world,” Professor Mazar said. “They did not arrive in Israel by themselves, so there had to be thriving trade between Israel and Turkey at the time.”
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95483/worlds-oldest-beehives-farmed-israel-time-prophet-elisha-photos/#UMHAha4BvGdrOsQh.99



Israel’s Soldiers Doing God’s Work in Post-Quake Mexico
By Tsivya Fox September 26, 2017 , 11:33 am
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“Many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life.” Daniel 12:2 (The Israel Bible
IDF soldiers in Mexico locate and extract trapped survivors after a massive earthquake hit the country. (IDF Spokesperson)
Rather than celebrating the Jewish New Year with the nation of Israel last week, a 71-person delegation of Israeli soldiers flew to Mexico to provide urgently needed disaster relief after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake.
The IDF delegation, sent by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following a request for aid from the Mexican authorities, was made up of soldiers and reservists from three army teams: search and rescue, engineers, and medical personnel.
“Yahad-United for Israel’s Soldiers was fortunate to have a Yahad-Mexico branch,” said Brigadier General Yehiel Gozal, CEO of Yahad-United for Israel’s Soldiers, the only organization sanctioned by the Israeli government and Ministry of Defense to provide soldier welfare.
He told Breaking Israel News, “We immediately set into motion our teams to ensure that the soldiers have all they need to perform their duties safely and would have the food, housing and resources that they need, including for the High Holidays.”
IDF search and rescue teams have been going house to house searching for victims, both alive and dead. IDF engineers are tasked with checking the security of affected buildings and letting people know if they may return to their homes, offices and schools. IDF medical teams are on call should extra staff be required to treat the wounded and shell-shocked.
“The Israeli army is known for their outstanding and efficient pop-up field hospitals, which have given aid following natural disasters in Turkey, Nepal, Haiti, Japan, the Philippines and even Syrian refugees who make it to Israel’s border,” continued Gozal. “However, thus far, Mexico has not requested field hospitals, though part of Yahad’s budget ensures that medical and other supplies are well stocked and ready to go worldwide should the need arise.”
During natural disasters worldwide, Yahad has funded such items as incubators, especially since there tends to be an increase in births during crises, respirators, rescue gear for IDF teams, clothing, hygiene packages, food, housing, toys for children and more.
Thus far, the death toll from Mexico’s earthquake is at least 320. As finding survivors following an earthquake in building ruins declines sharply after three days, the IDF delegation received orders to fly out of Israel just before the Jewish New Year began.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95450/idf-soldiers-left-israel-family-high-holidays-save-lives-mexico/#WFctpMiZwrE5RRe8.99

In Defiance of US, Iran Tests Balistic Missile Capable of Striking Israel With Nukes
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz September 23, 2017 , 11:26 pm
“And I will visit upon the world their evil, and upon the wicked their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the tyrants.” Isaiah 13:11 (The Israel Bible)

Photo: Shutterstock.com
Iran’s provacative Friday test-firing of a new ballistic missile capable of striking Israel with nuclear warheads threatens the free world, Israeli Defense Ministor Avigdor Liberman said on Saturday.

“This Iranian missile launch is an act of provocation and defiance against the United States and its allies, as well as an attempt to test them,” Liberman said. He added that it was “also further proof of Iranian aspirations to become a world power that threatens not only the Middle East, but all the countries of the free world.”

Hours after displaying their newest intercontinental ballistic missile in a Tehran military parade on Friday, Iran test-fired the new Khorramshahr missile capable of carrying multiple warheads a distance of 1,250 miles. This puts Israel, Saudi Arabia, India, and much of Eastern Europe within striking distance of Iran.

The test violated Iran’s agreements with the UN as expressed in the UN resolution 2231 which forbids Iran from testing missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Iran has violated these agreements several times in the past resulting in U.S. economic sanctions against companies involved in the Iranian missile program. Iran denies its missile development breaches the resolution and says its missiles are for defensive purposes only and are not designed to carry nuclear weapons.

“We will promote our defensive and military power as much as we deem necessary,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said at the parade, according to Press TV. “We seek no one’s permission to defend our land. Whether you like it or not we are going to help Syria, Yemen, and Palestine, and we will strengthen our missiles.”

On October 15, U.S. President Donald Trump will have to decide if Iran is complying with the agreement put in place by former President Barack Obama called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action concerning the Iranian nuclear program. If he does not certify Iranian compliance, Congress will have 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions waived under the deal.

Trump told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday that Iran was building its missile capability and accused it of exporting violence to Yemen, Syria and other parts of the Middle East, saying it was a “rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed, and chaos.”

Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and the European Union also signed on the nuclear deal and their leaders have all announced publicly that they want the agreement with Iran to continue without sanctions. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN watchdog agency responsible for verifying compliance, has repeatedly confirmed Tehran is meeting its commitments.
On Sunday, Priime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a special meeting of his security cabinet to discuss Iran’s missile test.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95278/defiance-us-iran-tests-icbm-capable-striking-israel-nukes/#rdl2jF6TCx7v2wBk.99



Lebanese President Won’t Disarm Hezbollah; “It Only Fights Israel”
By Tazpit Press Service September 24, 2017 , 11:30 am
“The face of Hashem is set against evildoers, to erase their names from the earth.” Psalms 34:17 (The Israel Bible)


Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon. (Screenshot)
Lebanese President Michel Aoun will not demand that Hezbollah disarm itself, as was requested of other Lebanese militias, Aoun told the French newspaper Le Figaro.

Aoun claimed that Hezbollah does not get involved in internal Lebanese politics, but rather directs its efforts against Israel.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun (Wikimedia Commons)
“Hezbollah are not using their weapons in internal politics. They only ensure our resistance against the State of Israel, which continues to occupy part of our territory and which refuses to implement UN resolutions regarding the Palestinians’ right of return”

Aoun, a Maronite Christian, founded the Lebanese Free Patriotic Movement in 2005 and has been a political ally of Hezbollah since 2006. Following his 2016 election, he vowed to “liberate the rest of our land from the Israeli occupation.”

In Aoun’s view, Hezbollah’s presence in southern Lebanon is necessary to balance Israel’s heavy military presence in the region.

“You cannot disarm Hezbollah at the same time that Israel fails to respect UN Security Council resolutions. Israel should have the right to wage war whenever it wants at the same time that others are deprived of the right to have weapons to defend themselves? No, it’s not possible,” he said.

Interestingly, Lebanon has continually failed to respect its own UN body, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), by allowing Hezbollah to brazenly violate its terms and build up weapons stores.

Commenting on Hezbollah’s role in instigating the 2006 war with Israel, Aoun defended Hizbollah’s cross-border attack and abduction of three IDF soldiers and attributed the escalation to Israel’s “overreaction”.

“It’s a classic border incident which escalated due to an Israeli overreaction,” Aoun said. “You’ll say that Hezbollah violated territory that day – it’s possible. But these types of incidents happen very frequently. A few days ago, Israeli fighter jets broke the sound barrier above [Lebanese territory], violating our airspace and shattering glass everywhere.”

Responding to Aoun’s declaration of support for Hezbollah, Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennet told the Israel Broadcast Corporation (Kan) that in the event of a clash, Israel would not differentiate between Hezbollah and Lebanese actions.

“If Hezbollah opens fire on the Israeli Home Front, we will regard this as a declaration of war by the state of Lebanon. We’re no longer going to play this ‘needle in a haystack’ game,” Bennett said.
In July, when President Donald Trump met with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, the American leader said that Hezbollah was a “menace” to Lebanon and the region.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95315/lebanese-president-wont-disarm-hezbollah-fights-israel/#fbfpQBfB8fdoIPoR.99

Congress Fights Back Against UN’s Anti-Israel Blacklist With ‘Anti-Boycott Act’
By Eliana Rudee September 25, 2017 , 1:30 pm
“I will bless those who bless you And curse him that curses you; And all the families of the earth Shall bless themselves by you.” Genesis 12:3 (The Israel Bible)
Composite image: The Capitol building in Washington DC with the Israeli flag. (Breaking Israel News/Kevin McCoy/ Wiki Commons)
In response to United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) efforts to undermine Israel’s legitimacy through their Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Act of 2017, the U.S. Congress and Senate have introduced a bipartisan bill, the “Israel Anti-Boycott Act,” that would protect U.S. companies targeted by the international boycotts and punish those who comply with them.
Earlier this March, the UNHRC voted in favor (32 nations in favor and 15 abstentions) of the BDS Act of 2017, which entails creating a “blacklist” of companies enabling or benefitting from the growth of Israeli settlements. Blacklisted companies under the BDS Act of 2017, the full list of which will be published this December, include major American corporations like Coca-Cola, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Airbnb, and TripAdvisor.

The UN blacklist treads in the footsteps of the broader BDS movement, which was established in 2005 in an attempt to economically undermine Israel’s sovereignty. The stated goal of the BDS movement, according to its founders, is to “end international support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law.”
US Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL). (Flickr/Gage Skidmore)
In response to the UN’s blacklist, Representative Peter J. Roskam (R-IL) and Senators Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD) and Marco
Rubio (R-FL) introduced the Israel Anti-Boycott Act (H.R. 1697 and S.720). The US Act has seen overwhelming support, with 49 senators and 253 House members co-sponsoring it to date. The bill was initiated in the context of a strong U.S.-Israel alliance celebrating the U.S. government’s proud history of protecting the Jewish State from economic warfare.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95408/us-congress-slams-back-un-israel-blacklist-anti-boycott-bill/#y0ELyfQFvpaCR1wc.99


Jews Forbidden From Carrying Sukkot 'Four Species' on Temple Mount
By JNI Media September 25, 2017 , 9:30 am
“On the first day you shall take the product of hadar trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before Hashem your God seven days.” Leviticus 25:40 (The Israel Bible)
Israeli policeman confiscating Michael Puah’s lulav in 2014. (Screenshot)
Chief Superintendent Michael Frankenburg, the legal advisor of the Jerusalem District Police, has recently decreed that Jews carrying the “four species” would be banned from the Temple Mount during the holiday of Sukkot, Kipa reported.

The decree was announced in response to a request by a number of Jews who plan to ascend to the Temple Mount during the intermediate days of Sukkot – Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, Attorney Aviad Visoli, activist Michael Puah, Yochai Sarel and Maayan Magen.

In his response, Frankenborg wrote that he was authorized by Jerusalem Police District Commander, Yoram Halevi to announce that “in the framework of the rules of the Temple Mount, in accordance with the status quo in the area, ritual activity with overt external features, including the four species, is forbidden.”

“In view of the above, we are forced to respond to your demand in the negative,” the Police legal advisor concluded.

Michael Puah, chairman of B’Tsalmo, said in response: “It is regrettable that the legal advisor of the Jerusalem District justifies a discriminatory policy. His attempt to ignore the fact that this is a prohibition against worshiping Jews while Muslims are allowed the full freedom of worship will lead us to write a letter asking him to clarify the matter.”
Back in 2014, Puah was videotaped shaking his four species in the Temple Mount compound, when a Waqf agent alerted a policeman who told him to halt while he consulted his superiors. Puah then instructed his son to shake his lulav, and as a result was detained for questioning and released.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95360/jerusalem-police-bans-four-species-temple-mount-harm-status-quo/#lcElW7QOfzBBL8li.99

WATCH: Christian Zionist Leader Calls for Unequivocal Rejection of Replacement Theology, Missionizing Jews
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz September 25, 2017 , 4:00 pm
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“Our mouths shall be filled with laughter, our tongues, with songs of joy. Then shall they say among the nations, “Hashem has done great things for them!” Psalms 126:2 (The Israel Bible)
Tommy Waller, founder of Hayovel, has made a gruondbreaking statement about Christian-Jewish relations. (Screenshot)
In a watershed video released on Monday, Christian Zionist leader Tommy Waller made a groundbreaking proclamation calling for an unequivocal end to centuries of replacement theology and Christian missionizing.
The announcement, released on Monday just prior to the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses, is intended to catalyze the theological changes necessary to allow Christians and Jews to, as one prominent rabbi put it, be “partners in the Great Redemption”.
“Any agreement with replacement theology is disagreement with God, who identifies himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – the God of Israel,” Waller states firmly in the video, which is captioned in Hebrew.

HaYovel | Tommy Waller to Fellow Christians: "Stop Stealing Jewish Identity"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KWYs82ls4s

Replacement theology is a Christian doctrine which holds that Christians “replaced” Jews in the Biblical covenant with God. Waller’s declaration comes a month before Reformation Day, commemorating when Christian reformer Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95392/watch-christian-zionist-leader-calls-unequivocal-rejection-replacement-theology-missionizing-jews/#6iqlggpMgrr1lzBt.99


Germany Election Results Ushering in Far-Right Party “Great Warning Sign” for Jews
By Abra Forman September 25, 2017 , 11:30 am
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“When the righteous exult there is great glory, But when the wicked rise up men make themselves scarce.” Proverbs 28:12 (The Israel Bible)
Masked activists rally in support of AfD, May 23, 2014, in Berlin, Germany. (De Visu / Shutterstock.com)
Though Angela Merkel’s conservative party retained its control over German parliament in Sunday’s elections, the unprecedented success of the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) has raised major fears and anxieties among Jewish groups and Germans alike.
AfD, which campaigned on a nationalist platform many saw as anti-Semitic and xenophobic, became the third-largest party in the Bundestag, German parliament, winning 13 percent of the vote. Merkel’s party, in contrast, took only 33 percent of the vote, the lowest margin by which the German chancellor has won in four elections.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (360b / Shutterstock.com)
AfD’s success represent the first time since World War II that an openly nationalist party will join the government. It is a stunning victory for a party formed only four years ago.
Critics and protesters say the hard-right party is anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi, and racist, and that in light of Germany’s history, the victory is a tragedy for the country.
“They are like the Nazis under Hitler,” a German citizen who lived through the Holocaust told the BBC. “I was born in 1939. I’m a war child. I grew up in the ruins and now we get this again. They are criminals.”
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95382/germany-election-results-ushering-far-right-party-great-warning-sign-jews/#RhXU4OH0RJ2brkf0.99


Latest Iran Missiles Threaten Free World, Warns Israel Defense Minister
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz September 23, 2017 , 11:26 pm
“And I will visit upon the world their evil, and upon the wicked their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the tyrants.” Isaiah 13:11 (The Israel Bible)

image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/iran-america-usa-missile-war-flags.jpg

Photo: Shutterstock.com
Iran’s provacative Friday test-firing of a new ballistic missile capable of striking Israel with nuclear warheads threatens the free world, Israeli Defense Ministor Avigdor Liberman said on Saturday.

“This Iranian missile launch is an act of provocation and defiance against the United States and its allies, as well as an attempt to test them,” Liberman said. He added that it was “also further proof of Iranian aspirations to become a world power that threatens not only the Middle East, but all the countries of the free world.”

Hours after displaying their newest intercontinental ballistic missile in a Tehran military parade on Friday, Iran test-fired the new Khorramshahr missile capable of carrying multiple warheads a distance of 1,250 miles. This puts Israel, Saudi Arabia, India, and much of Eastern Europe within striking distance of Iran.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95278/defiance-us-iran-tests-icbm-capable-striking-israel-nukes/#P5j1G3Pc5a2iTJES.99

150 Years After Mark Twain’s Visit to Palestine, ‘Innocents Abroad’ Deemed Prophetic
By Eliana Rudee September 24, 2017 , 11:30 am
“This whole land shall be a desolate ruin. And those nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.” Jeremiah 25:11 (The Israel Bible)


When Mark Twain visited Palestine in 1867, the land was empty and desolate. (Old City of Jerusalem in the 19th century)
On his landmark visit to Israel 150 years ago, American literary giant Mark Twain witnessed what he did not then know was the start of the prophetic return of the Jewish people to the land. The renowned travel book that became the foundation for his success, Innocents Abroad, painted a picture of a holy land whose desolation would serve as the beginning point of prophecy brought to life.

In June of 1867, Mark Twain embarked on a journey to Europe and Ottoman Palestine, now Israel. Unimpressed, he described the Holy Land as “unpicturesque” and “unsightly”, even “desolate”. From September 24-25, 1867, Twain stayed at the Mediterranean Hotel, now called the Wittenberg House, in the “Old Jewish Quarter” (now the Muslim Quarter of the Old City). At the time, Jews in the Old City had just become a majority, but the margins were slim.

Since then, the Old City, Jerusalem, and Israel has begun a redemption process in which in addition to the land giving fruit, there is a revival of Jewish life, an ingathering of exiles, and Jewish sovereignty in the land. Indeed, Twain’s book, which was published 30 years before the first World Zionist Congress, has often been used to support the Zionist idea that Palestine was a “land without a people for a people without a land.”


“The Innocents Abroad”, 1869
According to Daniel Luria, the Executive Director of Ateret Cohanim, an organization that works to reestablish Jewish roots in the Old City of Jerusalem, when Twain visited, the Old City was a “backwater town for the Ottomans, not a glorious city like it is today.” But now, he told Breaking Israel News, “We are living in the realization of the prophecies that Twain witnessed. Only when the Jewish people returned to the land was it built up. Am Yisrael (the Jewish people) returned and finally we see the true unfolding of the redemption process.”

Twain’s descriptions in Innocents Abroad gave evidence to Jeremiah’s prophecy of destruction of the Holy Land, followed by an end to desolation. Jeremiah prophesied in 25:11 and in the Book of Lamentations that “This whole land shall be a desolate ruin.” Echoing the Biblical words, Twain wrote, “Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes…. desolate and unlovely.”

Of the Jezreel valley (in Israel’s lower Galilee region), Twain wrote, “Stirring scenes […] occur in the valley no more. There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent-not for thirty miles in either direction. There are two or three small clusters of Bedouin tents, but not a single permanent habitation. One may ride ten miles hereabouts and not see ten human beings.”

He described the Galilee as “the sort of solitude to make one dreary […] Come to Galilee for that […] these unpeopled deserts, these rusty mounds of barrenness, that never, never do shake the glare from their harsh outlines, and fade and faint into vague perspective; that melancholy ruin of Capernaum: this stupid village of Tiberias, slumbering under its six funereal palms […] We reached Tabor safely […] We never saw a human being on the whole route.”

“It’s an interesting reflection to see how far we’ve come, with the Hula Valley, Jerusalem, and the sites and seas he visited,” said Yoni Shapira, founder of Landmark Heritage Services and lecturer on the Holy Land in the 19th century through the eyes of Mark Twain. “Twain would not have recognized the land if he saw it today.”

Twain’s descendant, Tommy Waller, is a witness to the transformation that the Holy Land has seen since Twain’s visit 150 years ago, and has actually become part of its redemption. Twain was Waller’s great-great-grandmother’s nephew, and “It is interesting,” noted Waller to Breaking Israel News, “that a cousin of his would come here to Israel and say the opposite that he said 150 years ago. But they say there are no coincidences in Israel.”

Waller, the founder of an organization called HaYovel which brings Christian volunteers to work on the land and strengthen independent farmers in Israel, only understood the prophetic nature of his ancestor’s, and then his, time in Israel when he first began to harvest grapes in Israel. In Jeremiah 33:11, it is prophesied that the land would later flourish: “For I will restore the fortunes of the land as of old—said Hashem.”

Waller echoed this prophecy, saying, “Where he saw desolation, I’m seeing restoration. Where he saw rocks, I’m seeing vineyards.

“Our volunteers talk about how beautiful the land is. Not about desolation, but communities and farming land – the opposite of what it once was. It’s a prophetic place,” he said.

Waller argues that although Twain was “making fun of the land,” he essentially strengthened the prophetic truth of what would happen in the future as the Jewish people began to return. “He wasn’t trying to be an advocate of Israel, we was trying to write a good article. But as it turns out, he’s an Israel advocate whether he would like it or not,” said Waller.


An illustration of Jerusalem found in “Innocents Abroad”.
During his travels in Jerusalem, Twain purchased a Bible as a keepsake and inscribed it in English and Hebrew for his mother. The Bible, made of “Balsam-wood from the Jordan,” “oak from Abraham’s tree at Hebron,” and “olive-wood from the Mount of Olives”, was surprising for an adamantly secular writer who described the land so unemotionally, called religious passions “emotions of the nursery,” and questioned the link between “The Land” and “The Book.”

Shapira explained that the norm of the day was for Westerners to look at Jerusalem as an exotic place through orientalism and a Biblical lens. But Twain saw Jerusalem as it was, “A place of desolation, over population, disease, swamps, and animals,” looking past the romanticism that many artists and travelers portrayed.

Twain, who was a freemason, was cynical about organized religion and critiqued “American vandals abroad” who brought back merchandised items and called them part of reality, Shapira told Breaking Israel News. Nevertheless, Twain respected his mother’s devout Christian approach and knew that she would appreciate a Bible from Jerusalem with “Yerushalayim” – “Jerusalem” – written on it in Hebrew.

Rabbi Tuly Weisz of Breaking Israel News went so far as to suggest that Twain’s eventual fame in the American canon was a result of his unconscious role in the fulfillment of prophecy.

“He wasn’t the father of American literature until this visit, when he wrote the postscript to Jeremiah,” noted Rabbi Weisz. “As the last one to report on the destruction chronicled by Jeremiah, God used Mark Twain to be a prophet.” Rabbi Weisz believes the current flourishing of the Land of Israel is undoubtedly part of Jeremiah’s prophecy that the land will be restored.

Editor’s note: Tuly Weisz is the founder and publisher of Breaking Israel News



WATCH: IDF in Mexico for Earthquake Aid Blow Shofar on Rosh Hashana
By Tazpit Press Service September 24, 2017 , 7:30 am

“Fear not, for I am with you, Be not frightened, for I am your God; I strengthen you and I help you, I uphold you with My victorious right hand.” Isaiah 41:10 (The Israel Bible)


The IDF’s aid delegation to Mexico, moments before lifting off on September 20, 2017. (IDF Spokesperson)
By: Mara Vigevani
A 60-strong delegation from the IDF’s Home Front Command, together with two foreign ministry representatives, left for Mexico City on Wednesday afternoon shortly before the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) to provide emergency aid after an earthquake hit the country, killing at least 200 people.

They were met with applause by Mexican civilians as they walked through Mexico City.

For 3 days, the #IDFAidToMex delegation has been helping survey buildings & rescue trapped civilians from the rubble. Give them a

Mexico Hit By Second Devastating Earthquake as Puerto Rico Prepares for Category 5 Killer Hurricane
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz September 20, 2017 , 12:11 pm
https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95257/mexico-hit-second-devastating-earthquake-puerto-rico-prepares-category-5-killer-hurricane/?utm_source=Breaking+Israel+News&utm_campaign=2bab97ad37-BIN_morning_9_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b6d3627f72-2bab97ad37-83546481&mc_cid=2bab97ad37&mc_eid=8dcaf513ae#IqzJKZPKCC17SYr8.97
” I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe— I Hashem do all these things.” Isaiah 45:7 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Capture-6.jpg
Hurricane Maria looms off the coast of Puerto Rico (Photo via Twitter NASA SPoRT)
Nature is still raging as a second major earthquake shakes Mexico and yet another Category 5 hurricane is about to hit Puerto Rico. While Mexican rescue teams sift through the rubble and mourn the hundreds dead, residents of Puerto Rico have been told, “Evacuate or die.”

Less than two weeks after getting hit by a major earthquake, leaving 90 dead, the earth shook yet again in Mexico. At around 1PM local time on Tuesday, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit Mexico. The government has confirmed that at least 216 people are dead, but the death toll is expected to rise as rescue workers clear the rubble. The US Geological Survey predicted up to 1,000 fatalities will come from the earthquake, as well as an economic impact of between $1-10 billion.

Los simulacros ayudan a estar preparados para actuar en caso de sismo, incendio, etc. Nuestros voluntarios siempre estarán para ayudarte pic.twitter.com/CJZ4EKoFv5

— Cruz Roja Puebla,Pue (@CruzRojaPuebla) September 19, 2017

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said more than 20 children and two adults had died and 30 were missing after a school collapsed. 15 people were reportedly killed in Atzitzihuacan when a church on the slopes of a volcano – which appeared to have a small eruption following the earthquake – collapsed during a mass.

The epicenter of the latest quake was near Atencingo in Puebla state, about 75 miles from Mexico City. At least 40 buildings collapsed in Mexico City, the nation’s capital. About two million people in the capital were left without electricity and phone lines were down in many areas. Officials warned residents not to smoke on the streets as gas mains could have been ruptured.

Many world leaders responded to the Mexican disaster and U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted, “God bless the people of Mexico City. We are with you and will be there for you.”

God bless the people of Mexico City. We are with you and will be there for you.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 19, 2017

The quake hit just two hours after a nation-wide disaster drill. Each year on September 19, cities across Mexico stage emergency disaster simulations and evacuations. The drill falls on the anniversary of an 8.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Mexico City in 1985, killing nearly 10,000 people.

While Mexico struggles to recover, Puerto Rico braced for Hurricane Maria. Meteorologists say it is the first Category 5 hurricane to make landfall on the island in 80 years and may be the most powerful storm to ever hit the island. Maria could bring up to 2 feet of rain and a storm surge of up to 9 feet to Puerto Rico, sparking flooding and mudslides, CNN Meteorologist Allison Chinchar said.

Governor Ricardo Rosselló declared a state of emergency and urged people to evacuate.

“There’s still time … but people need to move fast,” Ricardo Rosselló told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in an interview on Tuesday, calling the storm the “worst hurricane in modern history in Puerto Rico.”

Héctor Pesquera, Puerto Rico’s commissioner of public safety, was even more grim.

“You have to evacuate — otherwise, you are going to die,” he said, according to Telemundo, NBC’s Spanish-language network. “I do not know how to make this any clearer.”

Cat 5 #Maria has sustained winds of 165 MPH and a staggeringly low pressure of
26.87″. The eye is forecast to cross #PuertoRico today. pic.twitter.com/r7ueZ7Vhk6

— NASA SPoRT (@NASA_SPoRT) September 20, 2017

Maria has already hit Dominica and killed at least one person in Guadeloupe. Puerto Rico was spared last Tuesday when Hurricane Irma swerved north. Irma killed at least 70 people as it raged through the Caribbean and the Southeastern United States earlier this month.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95257/mexico-hit-second-devastating-earthquake-puerto-rico-prepares-category-5-killer-hurricane/#FGkU1LYuC4KF2zt5.99

5777 Population Stats Prove Jewish People Flourishing in Land, Exiles Returning
By Eliana Rudee September 19, 2017 , 1:30 pm
“I will bestow My blessing upon you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sands on the seashore; and your descendants shall seize the gates of their foes.” Genesis 22:17 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/baby-israeli-flag-.jpg
On Monday, The Central Bureau of Statistics published data on the population of Israel just ahead of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, shining a light on the fulfillment of several Biblical prophesies anticipating the return and flourishing of the Jewish people in Israel.
Israel’s population stands at 8.743 million on the eve of Rosh Hashanah. Jews number over 6.5 million, representing 74.6 percent of Israel’s population, a slight decrease compared to last year. Arabs numbered over 1.8 million of the Israeli population, representing 20.9 percent of Israel’s population, a 3 percent increase over the past year.
The statistics showed a population increase similar to previous years of 1.8 percent and a steady maintenance of Israel’s high immigration and fertility rates, the latter ranking as the highest in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.
According to end-time scholar Rabbi Pinchas Winston, this decade’s rise in Israel’s Jewish birthrate is indicative of fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham of his prophesied descendents.
Bestow My blessing upon you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sands on the seashore; and your descendants shall seize the gates of their foes. Genesis 22:17
Israel’s high birth rates juxtapose with declining global fertility rates. The global birthrate in the 1950s was 3.6 while last year, the global birthrate was just 1.85, showing a sharp decrease. In contrast, Israel’s birth rate was 3.11, the highest fertility rate in Western developed economies of the OECD. The death rate was four times less the birth rate, with 43,000 deaths in the past year.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95224/5777-population-stats-prove-jewish-people-flourishing-land-exiles-returning/#L8Ems2AKgPQXguz2.99



Top 5 Revealed Biblical Prophecies Fulfilled in 5777
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz September 18, 2017 , 11:30 am
https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95110/top-5-revealed-biblical-prophecies-5777/?utm_source=Breaking+Israel+News&utm_campaign=5a0c85457b-BIN_morning_9_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b6d3627f72-5a0c85457b-83546481&mc_cid=5a0c85457b&mc_eid=8dcaf513ae#MRKkTs0WIE6vjJqF.97
“Every word of Hashem is pure, A shield to those who take refuge in Him.” Proverbs 30:5 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/top-5.jpg
(Breaking Israel News)
As Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, approaches this week, it is customary to look back and reflect on the previous year. Between Sunday and Wednesday, Breaking Israel News will present a series of Top Lists recalling some of the most significant Biblical and Israel stories of 5777. On Sunday, we look back on 5777’s biggest stories of redemption: the year’s top 10 articles demonstrating that the Messiah is on his way. On Monday, we will revisit the top 5 Biblical prophecies fulfilled in Israel and around the world this year. On Wednesday, the series will conclude with the year’s top 5 stories of how the Bible comes to life in spectacular images and events worldwide.

In 5777, Biblical and Jewish prophecies manifested before our eyes in real and unmistakeable news events. A Biblically-based retrospective reveals that the words of the Torah are as relevant today as they were at Sinai, reappearing in current events that speak in a prophetic fashion.

1. Fulfilling Ezekiel’s Prophecy, Jacob’s Biblical Sheep Arrive in the Promised Land
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Marley-and-Leah-with-signature-plate-5x7.jpg


Two of Jacob’s sheep. (Courtesy of Gil and Jenna Lewinsky)
In December, after a 2,000-year absence, the distinctively speckled and four-horned Jacob’s Sheep finally returned to the grazing lands of their original owners: the Biblical patriarchs, as the prophet Ezekiel foretold in 34:11 when he predicted that God’s flocks would be “gathered from the countries” and returned to Israel. An intrepid young couple overcame bureaucratic entanglements and obstacles to bring this flock of 119 sheep “on the wings of eagles” from Canada to Israel. Once again, the distinctive bleating of the sheep that accompanied Jacob when he left Laban is being heard in the hills of Israel.

2. Biblical Return of 70 Nations as Countries Gather in Paris to Condemn Israel
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/shutterstock_112616936-1.jpg


The Eiffel Tower in Paris. (Shutterstock)
International politics took on a Biblical appearance in January as precisely 70 nations gathered in Paris to initiate an anti-Israel decree. The roll-call of nations echoed the 70 grandsons of Noah who repopulated the entire world. Just as the nations gathered to call the Jews thieves in their own land, precisely as prophesied in an ancient Jewish source, thus will the nations be gathered to bring 70 oxen as sacrifices for Sukkot in the Third Temple.

3. New Star to Appear in Night Sky, Heralding Balaam’s Prophecy of Messiah
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/shutterstock_258477791-2.jpg


(Shutterstock)
Astronomers discovered a binary star system gone nova which will become visible as one of the brightest lights in the night sky in the year 2022. This astronomical event, the first of its kind in recorded history, was first predicted as accompanying the messiah by the non-Jewish prophet Balaam, who called it Jacob’s Star in the Book of Numbers. Scientists are gazing through their telescopes, eagerly awaiting a phenomenon the Bible says will precede a “sceptre that will rise out of Israel.”

4. Strange Phenomenon of Sharks Massing on Israel’s Coast Could Be Fulfillment of Ezekiel 38 [WATCH]
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/great-white-sharks-animal-water.jpg


(Shiyam ElkCloner/ Wiki Commons)
Dozens of sharks appeared off the coast of Israel in an unprecedented phenomenon scientists were hard-pressed to explain, but which the Prophet Ezekiel clearly anticipated in 38:20 when he foretold the mysterious appearance of wildlife in Israel. Despite declining global shark populations, especially in the Mediterranean, the sharks gathered near the shoreline, lingering long enough to make their presence known, before just as mysteriously disappearing.

5. New Red Sea-Dead Sea Pipeline Echoes Isaiah’s Prophecy of Water in Desert
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Untitled-design-7.jpg


The Dead Sea (Shutterstock)
An ambitious joint project creating a pipeline to carry water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea clearly fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy that Israel’s “arid lands” would turn “into springs of water”. The agreement, reached this summer between Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority, launches a massive project to build an unprecedented, 220-kilometer pipeline through the Middle Eastern deserts with the goal of irrigating some of the world’s driest regions – just as Isaiah prophesied.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95110/top-5-revealed-biblical-prophecies-5777/#vi9bQtyy3SOIUm4d.99

Iran: See a Pattern?
By Shoshana Bryen September 14, 2017 , 7:00 am
If you have not been paying attention, the last thing you heard was that Syria had used sarin gas attack on civilians in 2013. President Obama’s “red line” was washed pink in an agreement with Russia to remove the weapons and destroy them at sea. The U.N. Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) special coordinator Sigrid Kaang, in a remarkably precise statement, said 96% percent of Syria’s declared chemical weapons were destroyed. Not 95% or 87% or 43.5%, but 96% on the nose. Secretary of State Kerry said: “In record time, even amid a civil war, we removed and have now destroyed the most dangerous chemicals in the regime’s declared stockpiles.”
It was good PR, but as a solution to a deadly violation of international law, it was a huge, gaping failure. The word “declared” is the giveaway — Syria was allowed to tell inspectors what it had and where, and the inspectors were allowed only to touch those sites. If you think they cheated, you are right.
This week, the Israel Air Force destroyed a “research center” in Syria, one that “researched” chemical weapons. The attack came the morning after U.N. investigators said the Syrian government was responsible for a sarin gas attack in April 2017. Israel has conducted approximately 100 strikes inside Syria in the six years of civil war, not to change the course of battle or support one side over the other, but to eliminate weapons and facilities deemed unacceptable threats to Israel — including missile factories, a nuclear reactor and now a chemical weapons factory.
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/28-BIN-OpEd-Experts-300x2501-300x250.png
Here is the lesson. Focus on the real regional threats and push off peripheral issues.
Iran and its proxies Hezbollah and Hamas — oddly enough, Shiite Iran is Sunni Hamas’s biggest backer both militarily and financially. There are more than 100,000 rockets and missiles in southern Lebanon, controlled by Hezbollah and aimed at Israel.
Iran and its occupation of Syria, as the Russians seek to nail down their bases but prefer to exercise influence from Moscow without a large military presence in the country. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week that Israel’s interests in Syria “would be taken into account,” but with Russia hoping to leave and Iran planning to stay, Russia’s leverage is questionable.
Iran and its unconventional weapons – it was Iran that facilitated the Syrian chemical weapons program, and Iran and North Korea that built the nuclear facility in Syria that Israel destroyed in 2007.
Iran’s physical presence in the Sunni areas of Iraq in pursuit of a land-bridge from Iran to the Mediterranean Sea. Iran’s harassment of U.S. and other ships in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, encircling Saudi Arabia in the south and potentially cutting off Israel and Jordan’s access through the Bab el-Mandeb Straits to the Indian Ocean. The “Shiite Crescent” is a “Shiite Encirclement.”
See a pattern?
Those problems must be dealt with directly by countries able to take action — primarily the United States and Israel. President Trump’s March order to bomb Syria’s al Shayrat air base — from which a chemical attack was mounted against Syrian civilians — was an excellent example of the focus on the key threats. Use a facility to violate international law on chemical use and you will be punished. UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said: “When the United Nations consistently fails in its duty to act collectively, there are times in the life of states that we are compelled to take our own action.”
That was Israel’s playbook. Have the world’s greatest sponsor of terror build a facility to do “research” or build chemical weapons in violation of international law, and you will be punished.
Visitors to Israel Miss the Point
In this regional context, the Israel-Palestinian “peace process” is a peripheral issue. UN Chief Antonio Guterres missed the point on his recent visit to Israel. President Trump’s envoys, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt did as well.
Prime Minister Netanyahu and the IDF explained the Hezbollah buildup in Lebanon and the need for a stronger UNIFIL force there. Israel provided evidence of Iran’s buildup of both nuclear capability at home and conventional capability in Syria. Guterres visited Hamas terror tunnels in Gaza where Israel’s UN Ambassador explained what they cost and how life could be better for the Palestinians if Hamas spent Iran’s money on its people rather than weapons. Hamas told Guterres he was “unwelcomed.”
Mahmoud Abbas decided going to Turkey was better than a meeting with the UN Secretary General. Guterres’s hosts trapped him into an unscheduled (read “previously rejected”) meeting with families of terrorists in Israeli jails and then lied about what he said. The PA statement was so preposterous that the UN Secretariat announced that statements from the official Wafa Palestinian news agency were “fabricated.”
With all that information, Guterres’s recommendation was that Israel freezes “settlement construction”. “There is no Plan B on the two state solution,” he opined.
As for the Americans, Kushner and Greenblatt were greeted in the West Bank by angry Palestinian protesters and demands from Palestinian officials. According to the daily Israel Hayom:
“If the U.S. team doesn’t bring answers to our questions this time, we are going to look into our options because the status quo is not working for our interests,” Abbas aide Ahmad Majdalani said.
One “option” is to petition the International Criminal Court at The Hague to investigate Israel for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity since 1967. The American envoys asked the Palestinians to end their diplomatic offensive against Israel and to stop paying terrorist salaries. The Palestinians were noncommittal on the first and said no to the second. According to the New York Times:
“The best Mr. Trump’s senior adviser, Jared Kushner, and his special envoy, Jason D. Greenblatt, could manage was a two-line statement saying that the Palestinians had agreed not to bolt from the American-led process.”
Conclusion
Guterres, Kushner, and Greenblatt focused on the narrowest threat in the Middle East — the possibility that the Palestinians will continue to make low-level warfare against Israel. They ignored the role of Iran and its proxies, with their potential for regional conflagration that could include non-conventional weapons, restrict the flow of oil internationally, damage American allies Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel and Egypt, and change the balance of power in the region away from the United States and toward Iran for the next decade.
In effect, they performed the role of Nero with his fiddle.
In the worst case, Israel may find itself alone in focusing on the regional threats to its safety and security.
Reprinted with author’s permission from Jewish Policy Center
Read more at https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2017/09/12/iran-see-pattern/#hG8u5QqjkXffs7SB.99



In Growing Trend, Christians Taking On Biblical High Holidays of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz September 19, 2017 , 12:30 pm
“Speak to B’nei Yisrael and say to them: These are My fixed times, the fixed times of Hashem, which you shall proclaim as sacred occasions.” Leviticus 23:2 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/shofar-temple-mount-rosh-hashana-tallit-prayer-jerusalem.jpg
A man blows a shofar. The Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City can be seen in the background. (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The growing phenomenon of Christians observing the Biblical holidays is bringing Jews and Christians closer while helping to eliminate anti-Jewish replacement theology. This phenomenon is creating a new Bible-based aspect within Christianity, and for some Jews, revealing a previously hidden aspect of the holidays.
Wednesday evening begins an intense period including three major Jewish holidays, starting off with Rosh Hashana (the New Year), continuing with Yom Kippur (Day of Repentance) ten days later, and ending with Sukkot. Until recently, this was a uniquely and exclusively Jewish experience. Now, many Christians are finding spiritual meaning in experiencing the feasts and holidays they previously only read about.
The source for the holidays in Judaism is, of course, the Bible, and many Christians are drawn to the holidays for their Biblical origins. Harriett Shipman Casas grew up in South Carolina listening to her father talk about the High Holy Days and keeping the Sabbath. His family origins were from Jerusalem, which perhaps gave him a different perspective than the other members of their Baptist Church.
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/383694_117920771709434_1356700853_n.jpg
Harriett Shipman Casas (Photo via Facebook)
“He said that we should go to church on Saturday, not Sunday,” Shipman told Breaking Israel News. “He also said that we shouldn’t eat any pork or unclean food.”
As she grew older, she felt that something spiritual was lacking in the church. Shipman searched the Bible for answers.
“I read my Bible, taking each chapter apart, sentence by sentence. I kept praying and asking God to show me, and show me He did,” Shipman said, explaining that her search led her to an in-depth study of the Jewish calendar and the Sabbath. The answers she found in the Bible led her on a search for a church that shared this belief, which she eventually found.
“I found out, that they kept not only the Sabbath, but the Holy Days and dietary laws also,” Shipman said.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95202/christians-jews-stand-universal-king-rosh-hashana/#eOvCAy3rF3bRedje.99


Hurricane Irma’s Divine Warning Appeared in 16th Century Hebrew Teaching
By Tsivya Fox September 19, 2017 , 10:30 am
“But Hashem cast a mighty wind upon the sea, and such a great tempest came upon the sea that the ship was in danger of breaking up.” Jonah 1:3 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/irma-1.jpg
Weather map images of Hurricane Irma on September 5, 2017. (Twitter)
Following Hurricane Irma, the most powerful hurricane ever recorded over the Atlantic which stretched 650 miles from east to west, pummeled nine states, rampaged through the Caribbean and darkened and flooded millions of Florida homes and roads, many are recognizing this “natural disaster” as an act of God.
In fact, a Hebrew analysis of the writings of the holy 16th century mystic Rabbi Isaac Luria Ashkenazi, known as the Arizal, reveals that the scholar predicted Irma would come as a result of man turning away from God’s dictates.
The Arizal taught that there are four elements which were used to make up the creation of the world:

Fire – אש-aish

Air – רוח-ruach

Water – מים-mayim

Earth – אדמה-adama

“One way to learn the hidden secrets of the Bible and the Hebrew language is by taking the first letter of each word in a phrase or with regards to a particular concept and finding that it spells out something from which to reap deeper insights,” explained Roni Segal, academic adviser for The Israel Institute of Biblical Studies, a company which teaches Hebrew language and Biblical studies online, to Breaking Israel News.
“This is called ‘roshei teyvot–ראשי תיבות’ and is one of the accepted tools for Bible study. When taking the roshei teyvot of the four elements, as noted by the Arizal, they spell out ‘Irma’ – ארמה.”
The Arizal, along with several other respected rabbis, explained that when man turns his back on Biblical dictates and his behavior becomes corrupt, the elements which make up the earth follow suit. God communicates to man, through the elements, that he must change his ways and come back to Him.
Biblically, it is telling that Hurricane Irma struck in the Hebrew month of Elul-אלול along with Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Jose, Hurricane Katia, a disastrous earthquake in Mexico, and raging fires in California. Traditionally Elul, which began on August 23, is the last month of the Jewish calendar and is the most appropriate time to take an accounting of one’s actions of the past year and repent before Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, which falls this year on September 21.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95185/16th-century-scholar-warned-hurricane-irma-hebrew-riddle/#xEbI24DsdTwsQIgf.99

5777 Population Stats Prove Jewish People Flourishing in Land, Exiles Returning
By Eliana Rudee September 19, 2017 , 1:30 pm
“I will bestow My blessing upon you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sands on the seashore; and your descendants shall seize the gates of their foes.” Genesis 22:17 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/baby-israeli-flag-.jpg
On Monday, The Central Bureau of Statistics published data on the population of Israel just ahead of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, shining a light on the fulfillment of several Biblical prophesies anticipating the return and flourishing of the Jewish people in Israel.
Israel’s population stands at 8.743 million on the eve of Rosh Hashanah. Jews number over 6.5 million, representing 74.6 percent of Israel’s population, a slight decrease compared to last year. Arabs numbered over 1.8 million of the Israeli population, representing 20.9 percent of Israel’s population, a 3 percent increase over the past year.
The statistics showed a population increase similar to previous years of 1.8 percent and a steady maintenance of Israel’s high immigration and fertility rates, the latter ranking as the highest in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.
According to end-time scholar Rabbi Pinchas Winston, this decade’s rise in Israel’s Jewish birthrate is indicative of fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham of his prophesied descendents.
Bestow My blessing upon you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sands on the seashore; and your descendants shall seize the gates of their foes. Genesis 22:17
Israel’s high birth rates juxtapose with declining global fertility rates. The global birthrate in the 1950s was 3.6 while last year, the global birthrate was just 1.85, showing a sharp decrease. In contrast, Israel’s birth rate was 3.11, the highest fertility rate in Western developed economies of the OECD. The death rate was four times less the birth rate, with 43,000 deaths in the past year.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95224/5777-population-stats-prove-jewish-people-flourishing-land-exiles-returning/#L8Ems2AKgPQXguz2.99

Far-Flung World Jewry Adopts Unique Rosh Hashana Traditions, But Eternal Dream Remains
By Eliana Rudee September 18, 2017 , 1:30 pm
“And in that day, a great ram’s horn shall be sounded; and the strayed who are in the land of Assyria and the expelled who are in the land of Egypt shall come and worship Hashem on the holy mount, in Yerushalayim.” Isaiah 27:13 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/shofar-siddur-tallit.jpg
A prayer shawl, shofar (ram’s horn) and prayer book. (Shutterstock)
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins at sundown on Wednesday night and ends at sundown on Friday night. For Jewish families around the world, Rosh Hashanah is celebrated in synagogue and with family, friends, and food. Throughout the diverse and wide-flung Jewish world, different cultures have adopted different Rosh Hashanah traditions, some influenced by their country’s culture, such as in Ethiopia, where the shofar tradition is restricted to the kessim, the village elders, or in Cuba, where 10 grapes are eaten at midnight. But what binds the Jewish people together during Rosh Hashanah is the fundamental importance of passing on traditions through food, togetherness, and prayer, as well as a longing to celebrate the next Rosh Hashanah in a rebuilt Jerusalem.
France
The French Jewish community is the largest in Europe and the third largest in the world. But even with such a strong community in France, over 10 percent of the French Jewish community has immigrated to Israel, largely in the last decade. Longing for Jerusalem is a part of their identity, as is true around the globe.

French Jews of North African descent follow a Rosh Hashanah seder (ritual, symbolic feast) in which various foods are presented on a plate, each to symbolize what Jews desire for the next year. It is traditional to recite a prayer over each food.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95155/rosh-hashanah-around-world-unique-traditions-shared-dream-jerusalem/#qesRvFqx6gTsglWI.99


Netanyahu-Trump Meeting in New York to Focus on Iran
By JNS September 18, 2017 , 7:30 am
“Who can believe what we have heard? Upon whom has the arm of Hashem– been revealed?” Isaiah 53:1 (The Israel Bible™)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump during a joint press conference at the White House in Washington, D.C., February 15, 2017. (Avi Ohayon/GPO)
The Iranian threat will reportedly be the primary focus of a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) this week in New York.
During their scheduled meeting Monday, Netanyahu will reportedly present Trump with Israel’s position on Iran, and also address the subject in a speech during a UNGA meeting Tuesday.
“Israel will not accept Iranian entrenchment on our northern border, which endangers not only us but also our Arab neighbors, and we are committed to acting against it,” Netanyahu said Friday night in New York.
In addition to discussing Iran’s military entrenchment in Syria, Netanyahu is also expected to express Israel’s opposition to the Iranian nuclear agreement brokered by the Obama administration and other world powers.
MORE https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95096/netanyahu-trump-meeting-new-york-focus-iran/?

Trump’s Rosh Hashanah Call With Jewish Leaders Raises Hopes for 5778
By Eliana Rudee September 17, 2017 , 12:30 pm
“Speak to B’nei Yisrael thus: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe complete rest, a sacred occasion commemorated with loud blasts.” Leviticus 23:24 (The Israel Bible™)


Photograph released by the White House of President Donald Trump on a call to US Jewish leaders for the New Year, September 15, 2017. (White House)
On Friday’s traditional pre-Rosh Hashanah conference call with American Jewish leaders, U.S. President Donald Trump recalled his track record on issues related to the American Jewish community and renewed his promises ahead of the Jewish New Year.

During the call, President Trump reiterated his support for the State of Israel. He expressed hope in seeking peace between Israelis and Palestinians and gratefulness to Holocaust survivors for telling stories that help confront evil, and ensured protection against Jewish communities that face security threats, slander, and hate.


Mark Zell (Twitter)
According to Marc Zell, chairman of Republicans Overseas Israel and Trump insider, the President will continue his proven pro-Israel track record and follow up on promises that he made during the election campaign, Zell told Breaking Israel News.

This Wednesday evening begins Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New year, and the first of 10 days of repentance, which concludes with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. During the month of Elul leading up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Jews are instructed to do a cheshbon hanefesh, an accounting of the soul, to prepare for the reckoning of our doings over the past year.

Trump’s own cheshbon hanefesh – an accounting of how he has measured up to his promises and what he hopes to do in the future for the Jewish people – was laid out in his phone call.
MORE https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95073/trumps-rosh-hashanah-call-jewish-leaders-raises-hopes-5778/?utm_source=Breaking+Israel+News&utm_campaign=ae81c4c712-BIN_evening_9_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b6d3627f72-ae81c4c712-83546481&mc_cid=ae81c4c712&mc_eid=8dcaf513ae#/

The State Department’s Strange Obsession
By Caroline Glick September 13, 2017 , 8:00 am

The law of Occam’s Razor, refined to common parlance, is that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one.

If we apply Occam’s Razor to recently reported positions of the US State Department, then we can conclude that the people making decisions at Foggy Bottom have “issues” with Jews and with Israel.

Last Friday, JTA reported that the State Department intends to abide by an agreement it reached in 2014 with the Iraqi government and return the Iraqi Jewish archives to Iraq next year.

The Iraqi Jewish archives were rescued in Baghdad by US forces in 2003 from a flooded basement of the Iraqi secret services headquarters. The tens of thousands of documents include everything from sacred texts from as early as the 16th century to Jewish school records.

The books and documents were looted from the Iraqi Jewish community by successive Iraqi regimes. They were restored by the National Archives in Washington, DC.

The Iraqi Jewish community was one of the oldest exilic Jewish communities.

It began with the Babylonian exile following the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem 2,600 years ago. Until the early 20th century, it was one of the most accomplished Jewish communities in the world. Some of the most important yeshivas in Jewish history were in present-day Iraq. The Babylonian Talmud was written in Iraq. The Jewish community in Iraq predated the current people of Iraq by nearly a thousand years.

It was a huge community. In 1948, Jews were the largest minority in Baghdad.

Jews comprised a third of the population of Basra. The status of the community was imperiled during World War II, when the pro-Nazi junta of generals that seized control of the government in 1940 instigated the Farhud, a weeklong pogrom. 900 Jews were murdered.

Thousands of Jewish homes, schools and businesses were burned to the ground.

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With Israel’s establishment, and later with the Baathist seizure of power in Iraq in the 1960s, the once great Jewish community was systematically destroyed.

Between 1948 and 1951, 130,000 Iraqi Jews, three quarters of the community, were forced to flee the country. Those who remained faced massive persecution, imprisonment, torture, execution and expulsion in the succeeding decades.

When US forces overthrew the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003, only a dozen or so remained in the country.

Today, there are none left.

As for the current Iraqi government that the State Department wishes to support by implementing its 2014 agreement, it is an Iranian satrapy. Its leadership and military receive operational orders from Iran.

The Iraqi Jewish archive was not created by the Iraqi government. It is comprised of property looted from persecuted and fleeing Jews. In light of this, it ought to be clear to the State Department that the Iraqi government’s claim to ownership is no stronger than the German government’s claim to ownership of looted Jewish property seized by the Nazis would be.

On the other hand, members of the former Jewish community and their descendants have an incontrovertible claim to them. And they have made this claim, repeatedly.

To no avail. As far as the State Department is concerned, they have no claim to sacred books and documents illegally seized from them.

When asked how the US could guarantee that the archive would be properly cared for in Iraq, all State Department spokesman Pablo Rodriguez said was, “When the IJA [Iraqi Jewish archive] is returned, the State Department will urge the Iraqi government to take the proper steps necessary to preserve the archive, and make it available to members of the public to enjoy.”

It is hard not to be taken aback by the callousness of Rodriguez’s statement.

Again, the “members of the public” who wish to “enjoy” the archive are not living in Iraq. They are not living in Iraq because they were forced to run for their lives – after surrendering their communal archives to their persecutors. And still today, as Jews, they will be unable to visit the archives in Iraq without risking their lives because today, at a minimum, the Iraqi regime kowtows to forces that openly seek the annihilation of the Jewish People.

And the State Department knows this.

Then there is the second story that came out this week, whose implications are no less dismal.

Friday, the Washington Free Beacon reported that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is leading an effort by State Department officials to convince President Donald Trump to force Israel to return $75 million in congressionally authorized supplementary aid.

On the face of it, the demand is part of a turf war that the State Department has long fought with Congress regarding the scope of Congress’s power to engage in foreign policy. In the final year of the Obama administration, Obama forced Israel to agree not to accept supplementary appropriations in defense aid from Congress beyond what was agreed upon in the memorandum of understanding he concluded. Obama’s position was rightly viewed as a means to undermine Israel’s relations with members of Congress.

But it was equally a means to undermine Congress’s ability to assert its constitutional power to appropriate funding.

As negotiations between Israel and the Obama administration progressed last year, Senator Lindsay Graham implored Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to accede to Obama’s demand.

But in the empty hope of averting a last-minute move by the Obama administration to enable an anti-Israel resolution to pass at the UN Security Council, and concerned that a Hillary Clinton administration would offer Israel less assistance than Obama had offered, Netanyahu signed the deal.

Graham reacted to the MOU’s conclusion by stating that it is unconstitutional and therefore Congress would disregard it.

After Trump was elected, his advisers assured Israel that they would not enforce the MOU’s restrictions on supplementary funding. And yet, now, the State Department is seeking to do just that.

While in many ways this is an internal American fight, the unmistakable fact is that the State Department always seems to fight its turf war with Congress over issues relating to Israel. Moreover, the fight always involves bearing down on some of the dumbest aspects of traditional US Middle East policy.

Over the past 20 years, the State Department has fought and won two major battles against Congress relating to Israel. First, the State Department has continuously blocked the 1996 Embassy Act that requires the State Department to move the US embassy to Jerusalem.

Second, the State Department fought and won a Supreme Court battle to block implementation of the law requiring it to permit US citizens born in Jerusalem to have Israel listed as their country of birth on their passports.

In both cases, the State Department’s actions reflected a longstanding policy of mollycoddling antisemitic Arab regimes and terrorist groups at Israel’s expense. No US interest has been advanced by these efforts. To the contrary, as Senator Tom Cotton argues in relation to the State Department’s current efforts to force Israel to return the $75m. supplemental appropriation for missile defense projects, the US harms itself by undermining its key ally in fighting the enemies it shares with Israel.

Moreover, the $75m. supplemental assistance for development of missile defense technologies is not a gift to Israel. As the current standoff between the US and North Korea makes clear, the US itself is in dire need of just the sort of anti-missile technologies that Israel is developing. Indeed, the US stands to lose if Israel cuts back its missile defense programs due to lack of funding.

So again, we return to Occam’s Razor.

The State Department’s determination to return the purloined Iraqi Jewish archive to the Iraqi government, like its efforts to convince Trump to demand that Israel return the supplemental aid, doesn’t appear to be guided by any underlying concern for US interests.

Why would Egypt or Saudi Arabia object to Israel developing new means to intercept Hamas, Hezbollah or Iranian missiles? So like its fights against congressional efforts to recognize Israel’s capital city, and indeed like the State Department’s insistence that the US has no option other than recertifying Iranian compliance with Obama’s nuclear deal with the ayatollahs despite overwhelming evidence of Iranian noncompliance, there is an undercurrent of obsessive vindictiveness to the State Department’s current efforts.

In issue after issue, the same officials engage in behavior that appears to reflect a compulsive habit of always demanding that the US adopt positions that weaken US-Israel ties and undermine Jewish rights in Israel, and throughout the Middle East.

Perhaps there is another explanation for this consistent pattern of behavior.

But the simplest explanation is that the State Department suffers from an unhealthy obsession with regard to Jewish rights and the Jewish state.

Reprinted with author’s permission from The Jerusalem Post
Read more at https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-State-Departments-strange-obsession-504808#7Cfx8bbCoabRYGlT.99

“Jewish People Are in Transition From Ingathering of Exiles to Redemption”
By Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman September 14, 2017 , 8:30 am
“Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” Genesis 12:1 (The Israel Bible™)
(Shutterstock)
The Jewish people are living in the second stage of redemption, the period of the ingathering of the exiles, believes Jewish historian Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf.
“Kibbutz galuyot (ingathering of exiles) is a stage in the life of the Jewish people and we are deeply immersed in that stage,” he told Breaking Israel News.
Speaking about his new Yeshiva for the Nations course, “The Role of the Land of Israel Throughout Jewish History,” Rabbi Apisdorf said, “The class focuses on how, in every stage of Jewish history, starting from the matriarchs and the patriarchs through contemporary times, the land of Israel has played a critical role, whether the Jewish people were living in the land or not. The course reviews each important stage of Jewish history and its connection to Israel.
“It is unfolding, in our midst and underway right now,” he said.
Many people think of history as what took place in the past, Rabbi Apisdorf explained. In contrast, the Jewish people look at history as active and unfolding, based on an ongoing relationship with God. For example, when God introduces Himself to the Jewish people and gives them the Torah, He references recent history – that He rescued the Jewish people from slavery in the land of Egypt.
I Hashem am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage. Exodus 20: 2.
MORE https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/94905/jewish-people-transition-ingathering-exiles-redemption/?

Locust ‘Plague’ of Biblical Proportions Strikes Across Globe [WATCH]
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz September 13, 2017 , 10:30 am
“Locusts invaded all the land of Egypt and settled within all the territory of Egypt in a thick mass; never before had there been so many, nor will there ever be so many again.” Exodus 10:14 (The Israel Bible™)
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Desert locusts feast on grass. (Shutterstock)
In addition to the recent hurricanes and earthquakes, at least one of the plagues of Egypt has returned as swarms of locusts descended en masse on two separate parts of the globe in recent weeks.

A plague of locusts attacked South Eastern Trinidad last week. “People are scared and are panicking because of the amount of locusts. I won’t say this is the first time we have seen locusts, but it is the first time seeing it in such a magnitude,” Chairman of the Mayaro/Rio Claro Regional Corporation Glenn Ram was quoted in the Trinidad Express as saying.

Ram said that the damage to crops has been limited by spraying, but the bugs are an incredible annoyance to residents, “getting into clothing, vehicles and anywhere else they can occupy.”
VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS-Jd8rkLDw
The residents of Trinidad are experiencing a taste of the eighth plague the Egyptians suffered when God was punishing them for enslaving the Jews.
For if you refuse to let My people go, tomorrow I will bring locusts on your territory.They shall cover the surface of the land, so that no one will be able to see the land. They shall devour the surviving remnant that was left to you after the hail; and they shall eat away all your trees that grow in the field.Moreover, they shall fill your palaces and the houses of all your courtiers and of all the Egyptians. Exodus 10:4-6
Trinidad was not the only location to be plagued by locusts recently. Huge swarms of locusts devastated farms throughout large areas of Southern Russia last month as well.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/94875/locust-plague-biblical-proportions-strikes-across-globe-watch/#j4BXFRh6Wtoxtwsq.99

New UN Report Accuses “Occupation” of Harming Palestinian Economy, Stealing From PA
By Abra Forman September 13, 2017 , 12:30 pm
“A false witness will not go unpunished; He who testifies falsely is doomed.” Proverbs 19:9 (The Israel Bible™)
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A view of Gaza City. (Wikimedia Commons)
A new report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) blames every significant failure of the Palestinian economy on “50 years of [Israeli] occupation… with no end in sight”.
“It is the longest occupation in recent history. For the Palestinian people, these have been five decades of de-development, suppressed human potential and denial of the right to development,” the report claims.
Brazen in its accusations and almost comical in its complete disregard of any geopolitical context or realities, the report blames Israel’s “occupation” for lack of a viable Palestinian agricultural industry, high unemployment, suffering in Gaza, and even falling donor support. It also accuses Israel of stealing money from the Palestinian Authority (PA).
According to UNCTAD, Israel has “hollowed out” the agricultural and industrial sectors of the “Occupied Palestinian Territories”. Only 1 in 5 hectares of cultivable land are utilized, and most arable land lacks irrigation, the report says. It also blames settlements for “annexing” West Bank land that could be used by Palestinians.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/94887/un-blames-50-years-occupation-failure-palestinian-economy/#oMuE5Os5DuTaX7SX.99

2,000-Year-Old Bones of Rebel Jews Murdered by Romans Finally Laid to Rest
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz September 15, 2017 , 9:30 am
“The death of His faithful ones is grievous in Hashem’s sight.” Psalms 116:14 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/ofra-bones.jpg
The 2,000-year-old bones discovered at Ofra. (Courtesy Yaakov Ehrlich)
A Christian archaeologist’s discovery of ancient bones in a cave in Samaria unravelled a 2,000-year-old murder mystery, and led to the local Jews performing a rare and powerful Torah commandment they believe will help bring the Third Temple. The moving story brought Jews and Christians together, emphasizing how the roots of both religions are inextricably intertwined in the Holy Land.

Dr. Scott Stripling, an archaeologist and provost of The Bible Seminary in Texas, was exploring a cave complex at Khirbet el-Maqatir near the city of Ofra in Samaria in 2013 when he discovered a jumble of bones. Dr. Stripling has been the co-director of the dig for 20 years on behalf the Associates for Biblical Research.

“I have no doubt that these people were murdered in the first revolt in 69 CE at the hands of the Romans,” Dr. Stripling told Breaking Israel News. “It was a 2,000-year-old mass-murder mystery that was solved, and we now can tell their story.”

“Many of the bones were disarticulated and jumbled, perhaps by animals, but we were able to determine that one of the women was arthritic and elderly, and one was a six-year-old child. Most of the skeletons belonged to young women.”

image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/scottstripling.jpg


Dr. Scott Stripling (Courtesy)
Dr. Stripling explained that in a last-ditch attempt to avoid being slaughtered by the Romans, the people of the town repurposed the olive press cave, broke through to a cistern, and dug a hiding system.

“We found the skeletons of six people in the olive press area, and fragments of bones from two people in the smaller hiding area,” Dr. Stripling said. “The last moments of their lives must have been terrifying.

“The men must have made their last stand in a massive tower above, since it has Roman arrowheads and nails from the Roman soldiers’ shoes were embedded in the stones,” he explained. “Apparently they were trying to hide their families in the caves below.”

Anthropologist Marina Faerman of Hebrew University determined that the bones were from seven women aged 6-60, and one male youth. Elisabetta Boaretto at the Weizmann Institute conducted carbon dating tests to date the bones to the first century BCE. This result was consistent with coins found at the site, identified by numismatist Dr. Yoav Farhi, and pottery deciphered by ceramic typologist Peretz Reuven.
Dr. Stripling intended to rebury the bones at the site where they were found. Frequently, human remains found at archaeological sites are stored away in universities without ceremony. Yaakov Ehrlich, a surveyor who has volunteered with Dr. Stripling for many years, approached him and requested that after the scientific tests and studies were complete, he be permitted to give the bones a proper burial.
Ehrlich’s request to bury the bones came from a powerful Torah imperative that transcends simply honoring the dead. Ehrlich was obligated to care for the bones found at the dig since they were from individuals who passed away and have no one else to take care of their burial. In Jewish law, this is referred to as meit miztvah, a Torah commandment so important that it supersedes most other commandments.concerning meit mitzvah, the bones should be buried where they are found.
But in this case, there was a complication. “The Arab villages in the area are building, and they are expanding in the direction of the caves,” Ehrlich explained. “Eventually, they will build on the site. If the bones are buried there, the Arabs will eventually build on top of them.”
Ehrlich emphasized that it was likely the people were very observant Jews. The olive press was surrounded by ritual baths, indicating that the community produced olive oil for use in the Temple.
“Jews who serviced the Temple deserve our greatest respect,” Ehrlich said. “Perhaps through honoring them, we will merit seeing the Third Temple just as they saw the Second Temple.”
He emphasized that the request did not disrupt the scientists and their study. In fact, their faith made them even more sympathetic, Ehrlich noted.
“The Evangelicals involved in the study were absolute professionals in their fields, but it was very touching how they also understood the urgency of the mitzvah to bury the dead,” he told Breaking Israel News.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/94970/2000-year-old-bones-rebel-jews-murdered-romans-finally-laid-rest/#hGSjOC8pzxLYAh1C.99