ISRAEL BREAKING NEWS

Palestinians: The Diploma for Terror
by Bassam Tawil
April 3, 2017 at 5:00 am
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10143/palestinians-terror-awards

© 2017 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

https://unitedwithisrael.org/homework-ny-students-assigned-to-debate-exterminating-jews/?utm_source=pushengage&utm_medium=push_notification&utm_campaign=pushengage
A New York school administration defends student assignment to argue in favor of exterminating Jews.
A teacher from Oswego County, New York, in February gave an assignment asking students to argue in favor of exterminating Jews, generating uproar.

The teacher, Michael DeNobile, gave the assignment as part of the Oswego County CiTi/BOCES New Vision program, according to a report in the American Thinker.

According to local reporter Julie McMahon, the students were asked to “put themselves in a Nazi leaders’ shoes and argue for or against the ‘Final Solution’ to exterminate Jewish people.”

MaryEllen Elia, the New York education commissioner, defended the teacher’s actions on Thursday.

It seems that only two students, both non Jewish seniors, were disturbed by the assignment, Jordan April and Archer Shurtlif. April and Shurtliff brought their concerns to DeNobile, higher administrators, and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Their goal was “to make sure no other student would be asked to argue in favor of killing Jews again.”

They also unsuccessfully asked the New Vision program to retract the assignment. Following their complaints the entire class had the opportunity to choose their own project, but only three students took advantage of that, including April and Shurtliff.

Elia defended her support of the assignment, citing critical thinking as the supposed learning tool. “I think it’s certainly a question where you want students to think on both sides and analyze … which position a person is taking,” she stated.

Shurtliff, in a separate interview, stated “it’s settled opinion…You can’t say that Jews deserve to die. It should be a settled thing.”

McMahon reported the assignment notes the point is “not for you to be sympathetic to the Nazi point of view. … Ultimately, this is an exercise on expanding your point of view by going outside your comfort zone and training your brain to logistically [sic] find the evidence necessary to prove a point, even if it is existentially and philosophically against what you believe.”

‘Teaching Some Seriously Misguided Adults’
ADL education director Beth Martinez said the incident is “deeply troubling,” adding students should never be given an assignment “that even hints at their [sic] being ‘two sides’ to the ‘Final Solution’ / Holocaust.”

Martinez said she was notified by Roseann Bayne, the assistant superintendent for the CiTi program, that the assignment was still offered along with an alternative.

Martinez cited Common Core as a catalyst for pushing students to argue from a perspective from which they disagree. “This sounds benign at first glance – until you see an example like this, where a student is asked to justify mass murder as part of a learning experience. One can only hope such a thing would be outside most people’s “comfort zone” and remain there,” wrote Susan Harris for the AT.

“The fight is definitely not over for two 17-year-old girls who had the guts to take on a monumental task: teaching some seriously misguided adults that critical thinking does not mean abandoning all human decency at the schoolhouse door,” she concluded.

By: United with Israel

A Test for King Abdullah
By Caroline Glick
Ahlam Tamimi is a mass murdering monster. And today she is living the good life, as a “journalist,” inciting jihad in Jordan under the protection of the King Abdullah.
On August 9, 2001, in the service of Hamas, Tamimi led a suicide bomber to the Sbarro Pizzeria in central Jerusalem. It was summer vacation. The streets were filled with children and parents.
Sbarro was filled with children and their parents.
Tamimi had scouted out the location of the bombing ahead of time. She chose Sbarro because it was a popular destination for families with young kids.
Tamimi brought the bomber to the restaurant. His bomb, hidden in a guitar case, weighed 5-10 kilos. It was surrounded by nails to puncture the flesh and internal organs of the victims, maximizing their pain and bodily damage.
Fifteen people, including seven young children and a pregnant woman were killed in the blast.
Another 130 were wounded. Chana Nachenberg, today 47, was 31 at the time. She was torn apart by the blast, only to survive, hospitalized in a vegetative state ever since.
Read more at https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Our-World-A-test-for-King-Abdullah-485349#GKVTW5UwXF5cqZSz.99



What Do Jihadis Want? The Caliphate
By Daniel Pipes
The jihadis seek to establish a world dominated by Muslims, Islam, Shari’a and the caliphate.
What Do Jihadis Want? The Caliphate
By Daniel Pipes March 27, 2017 , 9:00 am
A question often asked is, “What do the jihadis [Mujahideen] want?” The answer is surprisingly obscure, as most of their attacks do not include clear demands.
The horrific attacks on Mumbai in November 2008 and on Paris in November 2015 were carried out by suicide squads, with gunmen carrying out mass shootings. Elsewhere, they have resorted to machine gun assaults, beheadings, bombings, hijackings etc. After the attackers have been neutralized by the security forces, an assessment is carried out of the damage they caused and detectives attempt to trace the identities of the perpetrators, to look into possible motives. Shadowy websites then make post-hoc unauthenticated claims, which still belie the question, “What do the jihadis want?”
Motives for Jihadi Attacks
Why do the motives go unexplained? Post the attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001, analysts are still speculating on the likely motives. In broad terms however, we can state that there are two general categories or motives for attacks.
The first is to change specific policies of the state which has been targeted. As an example, this could pertain to seeking withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq and Afghanistan or to get Riyadh to expel foreign troops from its soil. It could also be aimed at pressuring governments to end support for Israel or to pressure New Delhi to cede control over Kashmir.
Read more at https://www.meforum.org/6601/what-do-jihadis-want-the-caliphate#iW414HFhhEdeGI2v.99


Pray for Sanity
By Daniel Greenfield
Pray for London, Brussels and Paris. Then pray for Berlin, Nice and London again. And when you’re done, it might be your city’s turn to be on the wrong end of that hashtag.
Pray that on the way to work you don’t get run over, shot or stabbed by a man yelling “Allahu Akbar”.
Pray that your government doesn’t decide to open the borders to as many migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and any other terror state as can make their way over. Pray that the next government doesn’t do it either. And pray that if it does, they don’t move in near you.
Because they can’t run you over, if you don’t let them in. They can’t stab you while shouting, “Allahu Akbar” if they never get a visa. They can’t shove you into the water, if they get deported. They can’t blow you up if they can’t get in.
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/BIN-OpEd-Experts-300x2501.png

Pray that the local diplomats actually do some basic checks of the visa application for the next terrorist showing up at the local consulate. Pray that they do a better job than they did before September 11.
Pray that the next Muslim mass murderer comes in at just below the refugee quota. Pray that he doesn’t get in with the 50,000 cap for this year. Or the year after and year after that.

Pray that the local refugee non-profit doesn’t resettle him next door to you. Or the block over. Pray that the angry bearded man living across the street doesn’t decide that today would be a good day to cash in his chips for 72 virgins. Pray that he doesn’t decide that tomorrow. Or the day after.

Pray that he just keeps on collecting welfare without killing anyone. Especially you or anyone you know. Pray really hard.

Pray that when your government comes out with its traditional statement about how the terrorists can’t kill our diversity (though they can kill people of every race, gender, non-Islamic religion and sexual orientation) it comes packaged with some sort of immigration reduction and deportation plan.

Pray that the plan doesn’t get shut down by a judge and a coterie of human rights activists. Pray that the first time the future terrorist gets sent to prison for dealing drugs, he gets deported. Or at least the second or third times. Pray that when he goes off to Syria to visit ISIS, we don’t let him back in.

Pray that we have a government that kicks him out the first time he posts an Anwar Al-Awlaki video. Pray that your government finds some common sense when the terror attack is no longer just targeting random people, but targeting it.

Pray that common sense returns to politics. Pray for border security. Pray for mass deportations.
Pray for sanity.
Reprinted with author’s permission from Sultan Knish Blog
Read more at https://sultanknish.blogspot.co.il/2017/03/pray-for-sanity.html#LYBOxOcvt22j2QuR.99



A Slippery Slope in Iraq and Syria
By Shoshana Bryen
When did U.S. forces receive the mission of keeping historic enemies from killing each other?
The good news is various forces are attacking ISIS (the Islamic State) and its control of territory is weakening. But as it does, historical adversaries are converging on the battlefield and American troops are standing between them in ever-increasing numbers. What began as limited airstrikes has become an American ground presence. Changes begun in the previous administration continue in the current one.

This is not Vietnam. But as the numbers increase, it is worth noting that GIs are in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Afghanistan without the United States being at war with any of these countries or necessarily supporting any of their governments. But neither President Obama nor President Trump has talked to the American people about three essential things here: America’s allies, America’s adversaries, and American military and political goals.

Five thousand American troops are near Mosul, along with Kurds, Iraqi troops, Shiite Iraqi militias and up to 80,000 Iranian-sponsored Shiite militiamen under the control of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Gen. Soleimani, banned by the United Nations from international travel for his terrorism ties, is still moving.
With him come allies. One, Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, has called on Shiite troops to kill Americans. The Institute for the Study of War reported that another has been responsible for more than 6,000 attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq since 2006. Asa’ib Ahl Al-Haq (“Band of the Righteous”) considers Americans an occupying army and continues to fight them.
The war President Obama claimed to have ended in 2011 did not stop for these people. Now we are back in their space, working toward the same goal in Mosul, but with incompatible longer-term aims.
Read more at https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2017/03/22/slippery-slope-iraq-syria/#0FD2JC3Cl1IvoIBy.99



President Trump Wants a Peace Process Too
By Dr. Efraim Inbar
Will the US settle, after an undetermined period, for a “process” only, once it realizes there is no deal in the cards?
During the election campaign and after his inauguration, President Donald Trump said several times that he wants to close a deal between Israel and the Palestinians. The longer the list of failed U.S. attempts over the decades, the more alluring this challenge apparently becomes. The prospects for enduring acclaim in the event of success seem particularly enticing for narcissistic politicians.

In March 2017, only two months after the inauguration and before all the positions in the defense and foreign policy establishment had been filled, Jason Greenblatt, President Trump’s special representative for international negotiations, was sent to Jerusalem and Ramallah to test the waters. The mission signals unwarranted eagerness.

While the new American administration seems genuinely interested in getting results, its determination to pursue a comprehensive deal is not clear.
Will Trump emulate the “messianic” approach of former US Secretary of State John Kerry? Will the US settle, after an undetermined period, for a “process” only, once it realizes there is no deal in the cards? Will the US finally concur with the Israeli consensus that there is no peace partner in Ramallah and/or in Gaza?

In the absence of a Palestinian peace partner, there is some merit to engaging in a “process” that lowers tensions in the region and removes a sticky, if increasingly marginal, issue from the diplomatic table. This would allow the US to pursue its relationships with important states such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, with little background noise.
Read more at https://www.meforum.org/6604/president-trump-wants-a-peace-process-too#x6VrD3EHrVeXUodO.99

Bible, Not Google, Gives Jews Right to the Land: Secular Israeli Minister
Tzachi Hanegbi speaking at the Yesha Council event hosted by the 2017 AIPAC conference. (Facebook/Yisrael Medad)
The shift towards Biblical language among the heads of Israel’s government was visible this week at a Washington event held at the annual AIPAC conference, with one politician proclaiming that the land of Israel was given to the Jews “not by Google and Wikipedia, but by the Bible.”

The gathering, marking the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War and the bringing of Judea and Samaria under Israeli control, was hosted by the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea and Samaria (Yesha Council) and titled “Celebrate 50 Years of Rejuvenation in Judea and Samaria.”

It was held as part of the national conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the largest pro-Israel lobby. In attendance were four Israeli ministers, two consul generals, leaders from Judea and Samaria, and approximately 350 AIPAC participants.

The event began with a speech by Yishai Fleisher, the International Spokesman for the Jewish Community in Hebron, who suggested a new approach to coping with challenges to Israel’s right to exist.

“They say ‘you stole our land’,” Fleisher said to the crowd. “And we say ‘but we created the cell phone’”.

Fleisher urged Jews to unapologetically tell the world that Judea and Samaria belongs to Israel. He stated that the Israel intends to retain these areas, to develop them, settle them, and even annex them.

The settler leaders, who are often painted as extreme fringe right-wingers, were joined by mainstream and secular Israeli politicians who did not hesitate to point directly to the Bible for proof of Israel’s right to the land.

“Defense is important and security is important, but the most important thing is the moral claim of Israel,” said Minister of Communications Tzachi Hanegbi (Likud), who is not openly religious.

“We are committed to go forward with living in our ancient land, land that was given us not by Google and Wikipedia, but by the Bible; King David, King Saul, King David, King Solomon, Abraham . . . we are going to demand our right forever and ever.”

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), who is religiously observant, emphasized that Israel has the right to defend itself at all times, as it did in the Six Day War. This right is also Biblical, extending to the claim on the land conquered in that war.

“It was a just war,” Hotovely said. “It is a just defense. But the most important one, it was based on a just claim. A just claim of the Jewish people on [the Biblical areas of] Beit El, Shechem, Jerusalem and Hebron.”

Hotovely addressed the widely-held view that central Israel is legally Israel’s territory while Judea and Samaria are illegal, or ‘occupied territories’.

“Let me tell you something, if those places are not Jewish, who can tell me that [the modern cities of] Herzliya, Rehovot, Rishon Lezion and Tel Aviv are Jewish,” Hotovely said. “I always say that the occupation is a myth, because we never occupied other people’s land. [Judea and Samaria] is Jewish land. This should forever be a Jewish land under Israeli law.”

Hotovely expressed her hopes for what the new White House Administration would mean for Israel’s future.

“We need to get to a million settlers in Judea and Samaria – with a U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. We need to think of new ways of thinking that will include Judea and Samaria under Israeli sovereignty forever.”

As the former commander of the IDF Southern Command, Minister of Construction Yoav Galant (Kulanu) saw the matter in strategic terms.

“There is no way that Israel can exist [without the Jordan Valley and the mountains of Samaria],” he said, naming some of the largest communities over the Green Line. “Of course, it is difficult to have a strong Jerusalem without Givat Ze’ev, Ma’aleh Adumim and Gush Etzion and all these places.”

The change in the political atmosphere was noted by Oded Revivi, Mayor of Efrat and Yesha Council Chief Foreign Envoy. His organization hosted the event.

“This is the first time that the Yesha Council has harnessed the deep support for Judea and Samaria that exists within the robust pro-Israel community that AIPAC’s delegates exemplify,” Revivi noted. “it was a perfect representation of the motto of the 2017 AIPAC policy conference: ‘Many Voices, One Mission.’”
https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85831/bible-not-google-gives-jews-right-land-secular-israeli-minister/?utm_source=Breaking+Israel+News&utm_campaign=f5ccab2988-BIN_evening_3_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b6d3627f72-f5ccab2988-83546481&mc_cid=f5ccab2988&mc_eid=8dcaf513ae#qKoCZkSvj8oLoGZZ.97


Tsunami Hits Iran Week After Flooding Disaster Foreseen by Kabbalah Rabbi
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 30, 2017 , 12:30 pm
For He commanded, and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves thereof;” Psalms 107:25 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Tsunami.jpg
Tsunami (Photo by Shutterstock)
As if sent by the hand of God, a rare tsunami struck southern Iran a week and a half ago. Shockingly, a mystic Israeli rabbi, known for his accurate predictions, had announced such an event just one week earlier.

In what some may see as Divine Retribution against Israel’s enemy, a powerful ten-foot tall surge of water appeared out of the Persian Gulf, battering the city of Bandar in southern Iran. The wave killed two and injured dozens in the Bushehr Province. At least four people are still missing and the region suffered major property damage.

Though tsunamis are normally the result of offshore seismic activity, there was no such activity in the Persian Gulf at that time. Ghasem Ghaedi, Iran’s regional director general of Provincial Disaster Management, told media that a “rise in temperatures over the ocean [had] caused a tidal surge to sweep towards the shore.”

Though a tsunami, like most natural disasters, is impossible to anticipate, Rabbi Nir Ben Artzi, a mystic with a significant following in Israel, had predicted this very event one week before it happened.
Tsunami in Iran 2017
VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=po9PZ52oUs4

“The times will continue to be difficult and the judgements will continue to grow stronger: floods, volcanic eruptions, fires and heat, evil spirits, storms and earthquakes,” Rabbi Ben Artzi said in his weekly sermon on March 3.
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/rabbi-nir-ben-artzi.jpg
Rabbi Nir Ben Artzi (Photo: תאיר נרי בנשיאות הרב ניר בן ארצי שליטא” Official Facebook Page of Rabbi Nir Ben Artzi)
Skeptics may point to the generic and all encompassing nature of the rabbi’s prediction, but this does not detract from the accuracy of his words. His warning about floods can certainly be understood to include the tsunami that sent a wave of water pouring through the streets of Bandar.

Last week, revealing another aspect of Rabbi Ben Artzi’s prediction, Breaking Israel News reported on a series of eruptions at the Bogoslof Volcano in Alaska which sent clouds of abrasive ash 30,000 feet into the air, threatening a major aviation route.

Rabbi Ben Artzi has made similar predictions in the past that have come true in shocking detail. Last month, Breaking Israel News reported a prediction made by the rabbi that black magic would make a comeback in the world, focusing on world leaders like US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Less than two weeks later, opponents of President Trump calling themselves “witches” gathered outside Trump Tower in New York City in an attempt to curse the president and his supporters. The witches sent out a call on social media for others to join in, with detailed instructions on how to perform the black magic.
Rabbi Ben Artzi’s reference to tsunamis reflects Biblical prophecy, which frequently describe them as a method of Divine Retribution.

For thus saith the Lord GOD: When I shall make thee a desolate city like the cities that are not inhabited; when I shall bring up the deep upon thee and the great waters shall cover thee; Ezekiel 26:19

But with an overrunning flood He will make a full end of the place thereof and darkness shall pursue His enemies. Nahum 1:8

The motive for the divine judgement could be attributed to an ongoing naval confrontation on the water’s surface. Iranian fast attack boats have been confronting the US Navy in the international waters of the Straits of Hormuz, south of Iran.

A divine warning would be timely as tensions rise in the region and if heeded, could prevent current military posturing from erupting into an international war. In September, Trump made a campaign promise that any Iranian vessels that harassed the US Navy in the Gulf would be “shot out of the water”.

The president’s concern over the naval confrontations is based on political realities in the region. The Straits of Hormuz are a strategic waterway, with more than one-third of the world’s oil supply passing through them. The Iranian threat to take control over the straits could have dire consequences.

Details relating to the tsunami connect it to Iran’s sworn enemy: Israel. The tsunami struck the day before Purim, the holiday celebrating the Jewish victory over Persia, known today as Iran.

In addition, the city struck by the tsunami, Bandar, has a history of treating Jews harshly. It is now an entirely Muslim city, but until the Safavid Dynasty rose in the 16th century, it was populated exclusively by Jews, who were forcibly converted to Islam.
AUTHOR’S VIDEO COMMENTS:How a very small story got bigger and more complicated, and seeing the redemption happen in front of your eyes takes time.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85869/tsunami-hits-iran-week-flooding-disaster-foreseen-kabbalah-rabbi/#CQOVQ8cvdhxZ0wd4.99


Ambassador David Friedman Sworn Into Office - With a Small Jewish Twist [WATCH]
By Abra Forman March 30, 2017 , 11:30 am
“Thou shalt not take the name of Hashem thy God in vain; for Hashem will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.” Exodus 20:6 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/swearing-in.png
David Friedman is sworn in as US ambassador to Israel by VP Mike Pence, March 29, 2017. (Screenshot)
President Donald Trump’s nominee for US ambassador to Israel David Friedman was sworn into office on Wednesday, taking the solemn oath, administered by Vice President Mike Pence, with his hand on the Bible – and a small Jewish twist.

“Please raise your right hand and repeat after me,” Pence instructed. “I, David Friedman, do solemnly swear…”
VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkxKSvvnez0
However, Friedman’s repetition had a slight alteration.

“I, David Friedman, do solemnly affirm,” the bankruptcy lawyer said, pausing before making the change, “that I will support and defend the constitution of the United States.”
Friedman’s small but deliberate switch in the wording of the oath derives directly from the Bible. The seventh commandment instructs that God’s name may not be taken in vain.

Thou shalt not take the name of Hashem thy God in vain; for Hashem will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain. Exodus 20:6

In Judaism, taking an oath is a serious and binding act which requires a ceremony called hatarat nedarim, or annulment of vows, in front of three witnesses in order to void. Therefore, observant Jews studiously avoid making oaths. A common phrase used in everyday conversation, “bli neder” (“without vow”), is often tacked on to any kind of promise or guarantee to indicate that no oath has been made.
Indeed, many religious soldiers of the Israel Defense Force (IDF) choose not to say “ani nishba” – “I swear” – at their swearing-in ceremonies, preferring instead to say, “ani matzhir” – “I declare”.

David Friedman, a religious Jew, also wore a kippa at the ceremony, which at many points during his confirmation process seemed destined not to happen, as his appointment received fierce opposition from pro-Palestinian activists and liberal Jews, who perceive Friedman as being too right-wing.

Indeed, Friedman declared shortly after his nomination that unlike previous ambassadors who inhabited the official residence outside Tel Aviv, he would live in Jerusalem as an implicit US recognition of the city as Israel’s eternal capital
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85864/ambassador-david-friedman-sworn-accordance-jewish-custom-wont-swear-watch/#RCwI3GziXKKDsuqe.99


Jewish Trump Envoy Greenblatt Seeks Rabbinic Wisdom to Solve Peace in Middle East
Trump Envoy Greenblatt Seeks Rabbinic Wisdom to Solve Peace in the Middle East
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 30, 2017 , 1:30 pm
“When a man’s ways please Hashem, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.” Proverbs 16:7 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/C8HCKZJU0AAxd1c.jpg
Jason Greenblatt with Rabbi Gershon Edelstein (Ptoto via Twitter)
Jason Greenblatt may succeed in the seeming impossible task of jump-starting the clinically dead negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority because he has an ace up his sleeve: he has God on his side.

Greenblatt, appointed by President Donald Trump as the United States’ Special Representative for International Negotiations, has been charged with the daunting task of restarting negotiations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu briefly shook hands with PA President Mahmoud Abbas at the funeral of Shimon Peres last September, but the last time the two leaders met for negotiations was in 2010.

Greenblatt spent last week in Amman, Jordan but arrived in Jerusalem on Wednesday. He attended a conference of Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem celebrating the beginning of the Passover vacation. While there, Greenblatt, a religious Jew, met with one of Israel’s most esteemed rabbis: Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, head of the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, considered one of the leading institutions for the study of Torah.

Greenblatt spoke with the rabbi in Hebrew, asking his advice. “Tell me,” Greenblatt hasked the rabbi. “How can I gain the intelligence to fulfill this function?”

Rabbi Edelstein answered directly. “In heaven, a man who does good acts, or even wants to do good, the heavens will help him to do so. With heaven’s help,” the rabbi said
Greenblatt was so taken with the rabbi that he posted a photo of their meeting on his Twitter site.
The US Embassy released a statement about Greenblatt’s mission in the region.

“[Greenblatt] reaffirmed President Trump’s personal interest in achieving a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians and his belief that such a peace agreement is not only possible, but would reverberate positively throughout the region and the world.”

There has been much speculation in the media about the negotiations. Channel Two reported last week that President Trump requested the Prime Minister Netanyahu agree to limit Jewish building in Judea and Samaria in order to forward a peace agreement.
At a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu refuted that claim, stated that there has been no such request.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85898/trump-envoy-greenblatt-seeks-rabbinic-wisdom-solve-peace-middle-east/#JR0MmuFTPx1oLlxh.99

Trump Allows First Israeli Settlement in Over 20 Years: UN Sides With PA Outrage
“Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.33 They shall not dwell in thy land–lest they make thee sin against Me, for thou wilt serve their gods–for they will be a snare unto thee.”
(Exodus 23:32-33)
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 31, 2017 , 1:25 pm
“Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.33 They shall not dwell in thy land–lest they make thee sin against Me, for thou wilt serve their gods–for they will be a snare unto thee.” Exodus 23:32-33 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/bibi-trump-wh.jpg
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 White House has officially approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s exception for one new settlement for the Jews made homeless by the destruction of Amona. The United Nations, the PA, and anti-Israel NGO’s wasted no time in condemning the move.

The Israeli Cabinet unanimously approved on Thursday night the creation of a new settlement for the families displaced by the court-ordered destruction of Amona. This is the first new Jewish settlement the Israeli government has approved in Judea or Samaria since the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993.

Prime Minister Netanyahu promised a new settlement in December to the residents in return for them evacuating their homes in the Benjamin region peacefully. This came as the resolution to a 12 year court battle initiated by Peace Now, a foreign funded anti-Israel NGO based in Israel, which claimed that a small portion of the settlement was built on vacant Arab owned land. A previous attempt at partial evacuation in 2006 saw 10,000 police and IDF troops facing 4,000 protesters. The new settlement will be built nearby in the Shilo Valley.

A US official told the Jerusalem Post on Thursday, “We would note that the Israeli prime minister made a commitment to the Amona settlers prior to President Trump laying out his expectations, and has consistently indicated that he intended to move forward with this plan.”

“Going forward, and as we move into more detailed discussions regarding the possibilities for advancing Israeli-Palestinian peace, the Israeli government has made clear that Israel’s intent is to adopt a policy regarding settlement activity that takes President Trump’s concerns into consideration,” the US official added.
At the cabinet meeting, Netanyahu informed the cabinet that he intended to accommodate President Trump by not approving new settlements and by less expansion of existing settlements.

image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/guterres.jpg
New UN Secretary- General Antonio Guterres (U.S. Mission Photo by Eric Bridiers via Wikimedia)
The UN responded almost immediately. Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, expressed “disappointment and alarm” at the announcement.

“The Secretary General has consistently stressed that there is no Plan B for Israelis and Palestinians to live together in peace and security. He condemns all unilateral actions that, like the present one, threaten peace and undermine the two-state solution,” Dujarric said.

The two-state solution will require the destruction of communities, displacing approximately 420,000 Jews, roughly 42 times more than lived in Gush Katif when it was destroyed in 2005. This figure does not include 300,000 Jews living in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinian Authority has set as a precondition to negotiations. No Palestinians will be displaced by the plan, which Prime Minister Netanyahu described as ethnic cleansing.
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Secretary_Clinton_Poses_for_a_Photo_With_PLO_Executive_Committee_Member_Hanan_Ashrawi_4775227177.jpg
Hanan Ashrawi (left) posing with then-Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
Senior Palestinian legislator, Hanan Ashrawi, condemned the announcement of Trump’s support to the pres on Friday, saying it was a continuation of “systematic policies of settler colonialism, apartheid and ethnic cleansing, showing a total and blatant disregard for Palestinian human rights.”

“Israel is more committed to appeasing its illegal settler population than to abiding by the requirements for stability and a just peace,” Ashrawi said.

Peace Now, the NGO responsible for the destruction of Amona was unsympathetic to the residents being relocated to owner-less land, responding in words that closely echoed those of the Palestinian Authority.

“By giving in to settler pressure, Netanyahu is leading Israelis and Palestinians to a reality of one state and apartheid,” the NGO wrote on its website.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85919/trump-allows-first-israeli-settlement-20-years-un-sides-pa-immediately-outraged/#gKjjbscX1Kw4zhzT.99

Mar 29, 2017
Nicaragua
South America
Israel’s booming diplomatic ties are expanding to yet another country – Nicaragua.

Nicaragua is restoring diplomatic relations with Israel this week.

Nicaragua broke off relations with Israel in 2010 in protest of the Mavi Marmara flotilla incident, in which nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists were killed in clashes after they had attacked Israeli forces.

Unlike other Central American countries, such as Costa Rica and Guatemala, which enjoy close relations with Israel, Nicaragua is closely aligned with Iran and routinely votes against Israel in international forums.

Nicaragua confirmed the move on Tuesday.

“The two governments place great importance on the renewal of relations with the aim of promoting joint activity for the welfare of both peoples and to contribute to the fight for peace in the world,” Nicaragua’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement quoted by Reuters.

“Today, we’re blessed to have relations with over 160 countries and the number continues to grow,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a ceremony at the Presidential Residence in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

“Next week, an additional country will announce the establishment of relations with the state of Israel,” he said. “Last year, I visited five continents, not including Latin America, [but] including the leading powers of the world: the US, Russia, China and of course other countries—Britain, Australia, African countries, Muslim countries [such as] Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.”

“Israel is being sought after, it is a wanted country, first of all because of our cyber technology knowledge, both civilian and military,” Netanyahu told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee earlier this month.

By: JNS.org and United with Israel Staff
https://unitedwithisrael.org/nicaragua-restores-ties-with-israel/?utm_source=pushengage&utm_medium=push_notification&utm_campaign=pushengage

"Trump Can Go Down in History as First President to Recognize Jerusalem as Capital"
“Blessed be Hashem out of Tzion, who dwelleth at Yerushalayim. Hallelujah.” (Psalms 135:21)
By JNI Media March 29, 2017 , 9:30 am
“Blessed be Hashem out of Tzion, who dwelleth at Yerushalayim. Hallelujah.” Psalms 135:21 (The Israel Bible™)

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President Donald Trump. (Screenshot)
Habayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home) Chairman Naftali Bennett called on President Trump to right a “historic wrong” and move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

“Almost 70 years ago, President Truman made history by being the first president to recognize the State of Israel,” Bennett said, , adding, “Now, President Trump can go down in history as the first president to recognize Jerusalem as its capital.”

Bennett promised Israel is “more than capable of dealing with ramifications of such a move,” should the Arabs on either side of the green line make good on their threats and riot in the streets in response to the move.
“We want you to be the first nation on earth to move its embassy to Jerusalem,” Bennett said, reminding President Trump that “embassies are always in the capital, and our capital is Jerusalem, not Tel Aviv.”

Last January, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said regarding the embassy move: “We are the very beginning stages of even discussing this subject.” But the notes coming out of the Administration have become more restrained, until Vice President Mike Pence, on Sunday, assured the AIPAC conference that Trump was “seriously considering” moving the embassy.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85796/bennett-trump-move-embassy/#dTiPdLGH30cXtVMk.99

Rabbi Tuly Weisz Prays at UN Podium: World Leaders Should Recognize Truth of Bible
By Tsivya Fox March 28, 2017 , 9:30 am
“Thou art my covert and my shield; in Thy word do I hope. Depart from me, ye evildoers; that I may keep the commandments of my God.” Psalms 119:114 (The Israel Bible™)
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Rabbi Tuly Wesiz stands in the UN’s General Assembly hall. (Courtesy)
When the United Nations (UN), in October 2016, passed a contentious anti-Israel resolution denying the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount and Western Wall in Jerusalem, publisher of The Israel Bible and founder of Israel365 Rabbi Tuly Weisz decided to go full-steam-ahead and “Bombard Them With Bibles”.

“Anyone who can disconnect the Jewish nation from Jerusalem has not read the Bible,” he explained to Breaking Israel News.
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Rabbi Tuly Wesiz at the United Nations’ headquarters in New York. (Courtesy)
“Therefore, we felt that the The Israel Bible, which delineates the connection between the God, the people and the Land of Israel, must be accessible to the leaders of the nations.”

Rabbi Weisz visited United Nations headquarters in New York last week in order to personally deliver a copy of The Israel Bible. Upon his arrival, Rabbi Weisz met with his guide for the day, a UN employee, who told him an incredible fact.

After warmly greeting Rabbi Weisz, the guide explained that she was a Christian Zionist who proudly displays an Israeli flag propped up on her desk and a Jewish calendar hanging over her computer – and she’s not the only one at the UN who supports Israel.

“There are few places today that represent anti-Israel hostility and reject Biblical truth like the United Nations headquarters in midtown Manhattan,” noted Rabbi Weisz. “I therefore didn’t know what to expect when I arrived to deliver The Israel Bible to UN delegates as part of our campaign to ‘Bombard the UN with Bibles.’ Meeting my guide gave me hope.”
The guide told Rabbi Weisz that an overwhelming number of UN employees are vehemently anti-Israel, but she and a small group of others meet each week to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Tuly-with-Danon-UN.jpg
Rabbi Tuly Weisz (l) presents Ambassador Danny Danon with The Israel Bible. (Courtesy Tuly Weisz)
“I was shocked and touched to find out that deep in the halls of the UN are Christians like this woman who believe that God placed them there in order to serve as watchmen who are playing a unique role in defending the Jewish people,” said Rabbi Weisz.

While at the UN, Rabbi Weisz presented a copy of The Israel Bible to Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon. Just a few weeks earlier, Ambassador Danon had responded to the Security Council’s condemnation of Israel and denial of Jewish sovereignty by raising up a Bible in his hand and stating, “This book holds 3,000 years of Jewish history in Israel and no one can dictate or change that fact!”

Rabbi Weisz expressed his appreciation to Ambassador Danon for his courage in bringing Biblical truth to the attention of world leaders despite their hostile reception, just as the Jewish people have been doing for thousands of years.

Rabbi Weisz concluded his visit in the General Assembly Hall, where he proudly held high The Israel Bible at the very podium from which so much anti-Israel venom spews forth. “I offered a prayer that these so called world leaders would submit themselves to the one book that honors the God, the people and the Land of Israel, the Bible,” smiled Rabbi Weisz. “I pray that our efforts bring about the day when the leaders of the world gather, not to deny God, but to unite together and recognize the One, True God of Israel.”
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85733/rabbi-tuly-weisz-brings-biblical-truth-halls-united-nations/#89MG5PsWUeQZiav5.99

UN Ambassador Nikki Haley Star of AIPAC: “There’s a New Sheriff in Town”
“O God, keep not Thou silence; hold not Thy peace, and be not still, O God.” (Psalms 83:2)
By JNS March 28, 2017 , 8:30 am
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, describing herself as the “new sheriff in town,” said at the AIPAC Policy Conference that her approach to fighting anti-Israel elements at the world body is to “kick them every single time” they display their bias.
Haley has been widely praised in pro-Israel circles for her efforts to change the U.N.’s Israel discourse during the Trump administration’s nascent days. Most recently, the U.S. demanded that the U.N. withdraw a report accusing Israel of apartheid. Indeed, the report—authored by Richard Falk, a discredited former U.N. special rapporteur who has an extensive record of anti-Israel rhetoric—was removed by the U.N. Further, Rima Khalaf, the head of the U.N. agency that released the report, resigned from her post.
“I don’t know who the guy is, or what he’s about, but he’s got serious problems,” Haley said Monday regarding Falk.
“For anyone who said you can’t get anything done at the U.N., they need to know there’s a new sheriff in town,” she said.
Haley, the former governor of South Carolina—which under her leadership became the first U.S. state to pass legislation against the anti-Israel BDS movement—earned constant standing ovations throughout her speech. She was visibly touched by the warm reception, putting her hand on heart towards the end of her time on stage.
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The daughter of Indian parents, Haley noted some Israeli-Indian cultural similarities, including that the communities are both close-knit, family-oriented and passionate about philanthropy. “So that’s all the good things,” she quipped, before adding, “We’re aggressive, we’re stubborn and we don’t back down from a fight.”
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85726/un-ambassador-nikki-haley-theres-new-sheriff-town/#HUuwbal7iWbjTYuz.99



Lost Temple Treasures Found? Copper Scroll Deciphered After Baffling Archaeologists for Decades
Secret of Dead Sea Copper Scroll Unlocked, Revealing Location of Lost Temple Treasures
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 28, 2017 , 1:30 pm
“Within two full years will I bring back into this place all the vessels of Hashem‘S house, that Nevuchadnetzar king of Bavel took away from this place, and carried them to Bavel;” Jeremiah 28:3 (The Israel Bible™)
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Part of the mysterious Copper Scroll found at the Qumran caves (Wikimedia Commons)
A Noahide and former criminal investigator believes he has deciphered an enigmatic 2,000-year-old message known as the Dead Sea Copper Scroll, concluding that it is a treasure map leading to the hiding place of the lost Temple utensils. But while archaeological experts agree with his theory, the political complications of the region make it unlikely that the treasures will be revealed any time soon.

The Copper Scroll, discovered in 1952 near Qumran on the shores of the Dead Sea, is an archaeological mystery. Though considered part of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls, the Copper Scroll differs in that it was found in situ – on location – and that unlike the other Dead Sea Scrolls, written on papyrus, the Copper Scroll, as its name suggests, was inscribed into a thin sheet of copper. The Hebrew used in the scroll also indicates it was written in a later period than the Dead Sea Scrolls.
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Dead Sea Scrolls (Facebook)
There is a great deal of controversy surrounding the Copper Scroll. While the other Dead Sea Scrolls contain religious and Biblical works, the Copper Scroll is simply a list of 64 locations and corresponding amounts of gold and silver.

The predominant opinion states that the gold and silver listed in the scroll was money accumulated from the Bar Kochba Revolt against the Romans after the destruction of the Second Temple. But the expert opinion has a glaring flaw: one of the locations is described as holding priestly vestments.

At first glance, Jim Barfield seems like the most unlikely person to unlock the mystery of the Temple vessels’ hiding place. He is not Jewish, does not speak Hebrew, and is not an archaeologist. But Barfield’s other qualifications enabled him to unravel a mystery that has baffled archaeologists for over fifty years.

In 2006, Barfield set out to discover the truth of the Copper scroll, following in the footsteps of Vendyl Jones, a Texas preacher turned Biblical archaeologist. Jones believed Qumran to be the hiding place for the Temple vessels and spent 30 years searching. Using the Copper Scroll as a guide, Jones discovered a small vial of Persimmon Oil used to anoint kings and high priests and a large quantity of what he believed was Temple incense. Barfield met with Jones, now deceased, and discussed the scroll, taking up the challenge.
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Jim Barfield (Courtesy)
Barfield’s motivation is far more than curiosity.

“Like Jones, I am a Noahide,” he explained to Breaking Israel News. “I want to return the Temple artifacts to the Jewish People. It’s time.”

Barfield approached the Copper Scroll as he would an investigation, searching for ruins that matched the ‘clues’ in the Copper Scroll and recording his findings in an investigative reports. Very quickly, he began to find results.

When a young man, Barfield piloted helicopters in the US Army. He used his map-reading skills to triangulate, using the references in the Copper Scroll to pinpoint locations around Qumran. In 2007, he went to Qumran and actually found those locations. In one case, the scroll described steps, 40 cubits long, heading east. Barfield did indeed find stairs conforming to the description. He also discovered the remains of a pool, precisely 40 cubits long, exactly where the scroll said it would be. But lacking government permission, he could go no further.
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In 2007, Barfield met with Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) director Shuka Dorfman. Dorfman was unreceptive at first, but as Barfield laid out his proofs, explaining the signposts described in the Copper Scroll, Dorfman became enthusiastic and arranged a meeting with veteran archaeologist Yuval Peleg.

Peleg was also skeptical at first, noting that he was intimately familiar with the site at Qumran. But after reviewing Barfield’s work, he too was overcome with curiosity. He agreed to dig some exploratory holes at the site with Barfield. Less than an hour after beginning shallow test pits, Peleg received a mysterious phone call. Without any explanation, Peleg shut down the dig.

image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/qumran-map.png
A map of the Qumran caves and possible locations of Temple treasures. (Courtesy Jim Barfield)
But the effort was not in vain. Barfield took away a small piece of what he thought was mortar from an unusual rock formation in the vicinity of where he believed the cave entrance to be. He reasoned that if the Temple’s greatest treasures were being hidden away for future generations, they would be carefully sealed up to withstand the test of time. Barfield sent the piece of unidentified stone to be tested. The laboratory confirmed that the sample was not natural stone but indeed man-made mortar.

This finding conforms precisely to a description in the Book of Second Maccabees, a second-century Greek text telling of the revolt against Antiochus. The book describes the prophet Jeremiah who, with the help of five men, hid the holy objects of the Temple to protect them from the conquering Babylonians, “sealing the cave carefully” and recording the locations on a copper tablet.

Jeremiah came and found a cave-dwelling, and he brought there the tent and the ark and the altar of incense; then he sealed up the entrance. 2 Maccabees 2:5

Barfield requested to scan the area using a massive metal detector that can detect metal up to 50 feet deep, but his request was denied. While the non-intrusive method of investigation would have laid to rest any doubts as to whether Barfield’s theory was correct, the IAA routinely refuses any requests to investigate the Qumran Area. Though frustrated, Barfield understands their position.

“The way things stand today, if we do find anything of value, whether it is monetary or spiritual, there will immediately be efforts to take it away from Israel,” Barfield explained. “Jordan will claim the land used to belong to them, the Palestinians will claim they were here before the Jews so the Temple vessels belong to them. And the world will believe them. And even Egypt will come along and claim it was gold and silver the Jews took out from the Exodus. By keeping it in the ground, the Israeli government is protecting it.”

For the time being, Barfield’s investigation is stalled, awaiting government permission. Building the Third Temple is an explosive political issue, and finding the actual Temple vessels would thrust that issue into the forefront. With the answer tantalizingly close, Barfield believes public opinion can tip the scales and help defuse the opposition.

As more and more people visit the Temple Mount and the nascent Sanhedrin holding Temple reenactments with reinstated Kohanim (priests), it seems that it is only a matter of time.

AUTHOR’S VIDEO COMMENTS: WHY DOES ISLAM REQUIRE HIDING THE TRUTH?

Watch VIDEO
Jim Barfield’s journey to reveal the mystery of the Copper Scroll
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm6li8iTmis
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85762/enigmatic-dead-sea-copper-scroll-reveals-true-locations-lost-temple-treasures/#hx0Otd1lPQ6U3gjs.99

Physicists Have Discovered a Portal Into a Dark Universe. Can it Reveal Hidden Mysteries of Creation?
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 27, 2017 , 12:30 pm
“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.” Isaiah 9:1 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/shutterstock_465432374-1.jpg
(Shutterstock)
Physicists have discovered a quantum portal into a separate, dark universe, bringing them closer to understanding the first moments of creation. One physicist and man of faith thinks this discovery could offer partial proof of God.

Quantum physicists have speculated that in the early days of the universe, visible particles were formed along with hidden, or dark particles, which, though completely unobservable, would have had to exist in order to make the universe expand at the known rate.

The dark particles are beyond the limits of scientific observation, but their effects on our universe are enormous, so great that physicists believe that roughly 68 percent of the universe is dark energy, with dark matter making up about 27 percent. The rest, everything observable with man-made instruments, adds up to less than five percent of the universe.

Quantum scientists theorized dark matter and dark energy exist in a parallel, though not symmetrical, universe. This separate dark universe is connected to ours via quantum portals.

Scientists at the Center for Theoretical Physics of the Universe believe they have discovered one of these portals via a newly discovered subatomic particle called a heavy quark. It is believed that heavy quarks have a “dark charge” which allows them to act as a bridge between the two universes, but as scientists are unable to observe dark particles or dark energy, no more is known about the parallel universe other than the fact of its existence.
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Science has long been seen as the enemy of religion, and quantum physics, delving into the secrets of creation, is on the forefront of this battle. Dr. Gerald Schroeder, a Torah scholar with a PHD in physics from MIT, disagrees, telling Breaking Israel News that he believes the discovery reveals the natural aspect of God.
“Quantum physics has discovered that we can create the universe from nothing, provided we have the forces of nature,” Professor Schroeder said, explaining that this understanding actually supports Biblical creation. “The laws of nature aren’t physical: they act on the physical. They predate the universe.”
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God. Psalms 90:2
“That is the Biblical definition of God,” Professor Schroeder explained. “Science has discovered Elohim, the natural aspect of God described in Genesis. The one crucial thing we need to add is that which created the universe is still active in the universe.”
In fact, the discovery is evidence that human senses are simply unable to access everything in the world – that some aspects of existence are simply unknowable, and thus divine, he concluded.
“Dark matter is proof that there are dimensions we interact with but we cannot sense. These forces, which are dark to science, are a part of the creative universe. This has brought science to a partial definition of God.”
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85689/physicists-discovered-portal-dark-universe-can-hidden-mysteries-creation/#tEdkk1FPjPsRcHOS.99



Was Christopher Columbus a Jew Led By Belief in Prophet Isaiah?
By Tsivya Fox March 27, 2017 , 9:30 am
“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” Isaiah 65:17 (The Israel Bible™)
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“The Return of Christopher Columbus”. Eugene Delacroix, 1839. (Wikimedia Commons)
The more historians research Christopher Columbus, the more they question the true origins of the great explorer credited for discovering America. In fact, there is growing speculation that Columbus was a Jew fleeing the Spanish Inquisition rather than an Italian hired by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to find riches in Asia.

“There is a lot of evidence that Christopher Columbus was a man of faith seeking to help his brethren escape certain death or conversion in Spain and even that he dreamed of rebuilding the third holy temple in Jerusalem,” noted Roni Segal, academic adviser for The Israel Institute of Biblical Studies, an online language academy, to Breaking Israel News.

“For starters, Georgetown University linguist Estelle Irizarry has analyzed hundreds of Columbus’s handwritten letters, diaries and documents. She found that Columbus’s primary language was Castilian Spanish, the ‘Yiddish’ of the day for Spanish Jews, otherwise known as Ladino.”
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Portrait of a Man, said to be Christopher Columbus, Sebastiano del Piombo, 1519. (Wikimedia Commons)
Ladino is a language spoken by Jewish people from Spanish countries. Its vocabulary is made up of words from Spanish, Turkish, Greek and Hebrew. When Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, their Spanish language went with them, binding them to their heritage and Spanish origins. Today, it is estimated that between 160,000 and 300,000 Sephardic Jews (Jews of Middle Eastern or Spanish origin) worldwide have some knowledge of Ladino.

Also striking is that at the top left-hand corner of all but one of 13 letters Columbus wrote to his son, he included the Hebrew letters beit-hay (ב”ה). “Even today, observant Jews put these Hebrew notes on their documents,” continued Segal. “It stands for b’ezrat Hashem (בעזרת השם), which means ‘with God’s help’. Columbus did not include these Hebrew letters when writing to outsiders and certainly omitted them from the letter he wrote to King Ferdinand.”

It has long been assumed that Columbus was an Italian explorer from Genoa who set sail for Asia in 1492 to supply the Spanish monarchs with gold and spices. However, the the new theory holds that Columbus’ actual name was Cristóbal Colón, the name signed on his letters.

It is believed that he was from Spain, the child of Domingo de Colon and Suzana de Fonterosa, Jews forced to convert to Christianity, referred to as Marranos, who were makers and sellers of nautical maps. Many Jews at the time feigned conversion to save their lives. They practiced Catholicism in public and Judaism in private.

Several Spanish scholars, including Jose Erugo, Celso Garcia de la Riega, Otero Sanchez and Nicholas Dias Perez, believe that Columbus was actually a Marrano seeking to escape persecution.
His famous voyage left Spain the day after Tisha B’Av (the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Av, or August 3, 1492). Historians believe that Columbus was scheduled to sail on Tisha B’Av but put it off in order not to leave on the tragic day in Jewish history when both the first and second Temples were destroyed. The auspicious date also coincided with the four-month deadline proposed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella for the Jews in Spain to either convert to Catholicism or be killed.

There are several other interesting factoids related to Columbus which highlight the strong possibility that the explorer was Jewish. In his last will and testament he asked that a tithe of one-tenth of his income go towards the poor and provide a dowry for needy brides. This is a common Jewish custom. Additionally, he left money to a Jew who lived in the Lisbon Jewish Quarter, something that would have been unheard of from a Catholic Spaniard.

Columbus also left money to other explorers with the belief that his successors would eventually liberate the Holy Land. Simon Weisenthal writes in his book “Sails of Hope” that Columbus’ voyage was motivated by a desire to find a safe haven for the Jews suffering from the Spanish Inquisition. Echoing this sentiment, Carol Delaney, a cultural anthropologist at Stanford University, believes that Columbus was a deeply religious man who sought riches in order to finance the return of Jerusalem to the Jewish people and the rebuilding of its holy Temple.

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The signature of Christopher Columbus. (Wikimedia Commons)
Perhaps even more telling, Columbus signed his last will and testament with a triangular signature of dots and letters similar to what is inscribed on gravestones in Spanish Jewish cemeteries. In fact, he ordered his heirs to use this symbol in perpetuity.
Though history claims that Columbus’ voyage was funded by Queen Isabella, in actuality it appears that Jewish Conversos (those who converted by force to Catholicism) and prominent Jews gave the explorer an interest-free loan. These investors included Louis de Santangel, Gabriel Sanchez and Rabbi Don Isaac Abrabanel, a known Jewish statesman. Indeed, Columbus’ initial letters discussing his journey were sent to Santangel and Sanchez, thanking them for their support and telling them what he had found.

“Irizarry also notes that Columbus occasionally included Hebrew in his writings and references the Jewish High Holidays in his journal during his first voyage,” continued Segal to Breaking Israel News. “Wiesenthal postulates that Columbus sailed west to reach the Indies because of his Biblical faith, including from the Book of Isaiah, which he repeatedly cited in his writings.
For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. Isaiah 65:17
Surely the isles shall wait for Me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, for the name of Hashem thy God, and for the Holy One of Yisrael, because He hath glorified thee. Isaiah 60:9

Given these facts, Columbus’ discovery of America, a country symbolized by religious tolerance and freedom, goes hand in hand with his Jewish heritage.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85655/christopher-columbus-jew-led-belief-prophet-isaiah/#81Ah31Z4vPtpcQiE.99

Israel Prepares to Annex Resource-Rich Ocean Territory Bordering Lebanon
By JNS March 26, 2017 , 10:30 am
“From the wilderness, and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border.” Joshua 1:4 (The Israel Bible™)
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The Rosh HaNikra grottoes, near Israel’s ocean border with Lebanon. (Flash90)
Israel is anticipated to annex a large area of contested maritime territory on its border with Lebanon.

Lebanon has long quarreled with Israel over its shared ocean border, and both counties are now laying claim to the same resource-rich 800 square kilometer (309 square mile) maritime area.

Israel is set to propose a new bill in the Knesset that seeks to define the maritime economic border with Lebanon. It would demarcate the disputed maritime territory as falling under Israeli sovereignty, mainly for the purpose of harvesting natural gas and oil.

Israel’s Ministry of Environmental Protection stated the proposed bill “has many positive aspects regarding the environment, as it promises certainty of the application of environmental laws in the area. However, the ministry is not satisfied with the current arrangement which does not clarify what agency will be the one overseeing the impact on the environment.”

The Knesset bill comes after Lebanon recently disrupted the status quo through advertising tenders to explore for natural resources in the disputed territory.

Prior Israeli initiatives to claim the large disputed ocean territory were halted, in part, due to mediation efforts led by the U.S. and the United Nations to resolve the disagreement between Lebanon and the Jewish state.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85609/israel-prepares-annex-resource-rich-ocean-territory-bordering-lebanon/#zr1bPZLHJ2ppDTVw.99


Convicted Terrorist Agrees to Leave US
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 26, 2017 , 1:09 am

“Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and offer unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye have not known?” Jeremiah 7:9 (The Israel Bible™)
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Rasmea Odeh is a convicted murderer who was responsible for the death of two Israelis in a terror bombing attack. (Video Screenshot)
Rasmeah Odeh, sentenced to life imprisonment in Israel for terror bombings and convicted of immigration fraud in the US, has agreed to plead guilty at her appeal next month and leave the United States. Odeh was one of the organizers of the nation-wide anti -Trump women’s strike held three weeks ago.

William Goodman, a member of her legal team, made a statement to the media on Thursday that Odeh agreed to plead guilty at her appeal on April 25 in exchange for no time in prison.

In addition to organizing the women’s strike, Odeh is slated to be a featured speaker at the national conference for Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) next week in Chicago. It is now unclear whether she Odeh will be able to attend.

Justice4Rasmea, an organization that has been supporting her cause, considered this a victory, since she will not serve any of the 18 months she was sentenced to in a US federal court. A statement posted to the website claimed she cannot get a fair trial in the United States federal court “under the regime of racist Attorney General Jeff Sessions.” The website called her an icon “of the movement for social justice in the US from the Movement for Black Lives in Ferguson, Chicago, and beyond, to the call for a global #WomenStrike on International Women’s Day”.
Odeh was arrested in Israel in 1970 for her participation in two terrorist bombings and for membership in the illegal organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Two Israelis were killed in one of the bombings. Her conviction was based on testimony by her co-conspirators, who implicated Odeh, claiming she had instigated and organized the bombing. In addition to the testimony, bomb-making materials identical to those used in the attacks were found in her bedroom.
One day after her arrest, Odeh confessed to the bombings. At the same time, she was also convicted of an attempted bombing of the British Consulate. Odeh was sentenced to life imprisonment, but was released as part of a prisoner exchange with the PFLP in 1980.

In 1995, Odeh entered the US. In 2004 she applied for citizenship, which was granted. In 2013, Odeh was arrested for immigration fraud, since she lied on her application by stating she had no criminal record. She also claimed her only country of residence had been Jordan. In her trial, Odeh claimed she suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of weeks of sexual torture by Israeli security forces, despite having confessed the day after her arrest.

In March 2015, Odeh was sentenced to 18 months in a federal prison, and ordered deported to Jordan after completing her sentence. She has been out on bail since her conviction.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85576/convicted-terrorist-agrees-leave-us/#R2G2G7K2CvRC73MH.99

Israel Prepares to Annex Resource-Rich Ocean Territory Bordering Lebanon
By JNS March 26, 2017 , 10:30 am
“From the wilderness, and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border.” Joshua 1:4 (The Israel Bible™)

image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/rosh-hanikra.jpg


The Rosh HaNikra grottoes, near Israel’s ocean border with Lebanon. (Flash90)
Israel is anticipated to annex a large area of contested maritime territory on its border with Lebanon.

Lebanon has long quarreled with Israel over its shared ocean border, and both counties are now laying claim to the same resource-rich 800 square kilometer (309 square mile) maritime area.

Israel is set to propose a new bill in the Knesset that seeks to define the maritime economic border with Lebanon. It would demarcate the disputed maritime territory as falling under Israeli sovereignty, mainly for the purpose of harvesting natural gas and oil.

Israel’s Ministry of Environmental Protection stated the proposed bill “has many positive aspects regarding the environment, as it promises certainty of the application of environmental laws in the area. However, the ministry is not satisfied with the current arrangement which does not clarify what agency will be the one overseeing the impact on the environment.”

The Knesset bill comes after Lebanon recently disrupted the status quo through advertising tenders to explore for natural resources in the disputed territory.

Prior Israeli initiatives to claim the large disputed ocean territory were halted, in part, due to mediation efforts led by the U.S. and the United Nations to resolve the disagreement between Lebanon and the Jewish state.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85609/israel-prepares-annex-resource-rich-ocean-territory-bordering-lebanon/#zr1bPZLHJ2ppDTVw.99

Wearing Kippa, David Friedman Sworn in as US Ambassador to Israel
By JNS March 26, 2017 , 7:30 am
“And wilt swear: ‘As Hashem liveth’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness; then shall the nations bless themselves by Him, and in Him shall they glory.'” Jeremiah 4:2 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/friedman.png
David Friedman’s confirmation hearings for position of US Ambassador to Israel. (Screenshot)
The U.S. Senate Thursday confirmed the nomination of David Friedman, President Donald Trump’s much-debated pick as ambassador to Israel, in a 52-46 vote that largely fell along party lines. Wearing a traditional kippa, Friedman was sworn in on Friday.

Friedman, 57, a bankruptcy lawyer who served as one of Trump’s advisers on Israel during last year’s election campaign, has been an outspoken supporter of Israel throughout his life—particularly regarding the settlement movement, which he believes is not an obstacle to peace. Friedman, who owns a home in Jerusalem, also strongly supports relocating the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and plans to live at his Jerusalem residence instead of the traditional ambassador’s residence in Herzliya.

Only two Democrats, Sens. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, crossed party lines to join Republicans in supporting Friedman.

Earlier this month, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee narrowly approved Friedman in a 12-9 vote that also fell largely along party lines, with most Democrats opposing his nomination over his lack of diplomatic experience as well as controversial statements he had made regarding liberal American Jewish groups.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85591/us-senate-confirms-trumps-ambassador-israel-david-friedman/#3BAX66czbU5A25AD.99

World Shrugs as Hizballah Prepares Massive Civilian Deaths
By Noah Beck March 23, 2017 , 7:00 am
Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah recently warned Israel that his Iran-backed terror group could attack targets producing mass Israeli casualties, including a huge ammonia storage tank in Haifa, and a nuclear reactor in Dimona.

Also last month, Tower Magazine reported that, since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, Iran provided Hizballah with a vast supply of “game-changing,” state-of-the art weapons, despite Israel’s occasional airstrikes against weapons convoys.

In a future conflict, Hizballah has the capacity to fire 1,500 rockets into Israel each day, overwhelming Israel’s missile defense systems. Should such a scenario materialize, Israel will be forced to respond with unprecedented firepower to defend its own civilians.

Hizballah’s advanced weapons and the systems needed to launch them reportedly are embedded across a staggering 10,000 locations in the heart of more than 200 civilian towns and villages. The Israeli military has openly warned about this Hizballah war crime and the grave threats it poses to both sides, but that alarm generated almost no attention from the global media, the United Nations, or other international institutions.

Like the terror group Hamas, Hizballah knows that civilian deaths at the hands of Israel are a strategic asset, because they produce diplomatic pressure to limit Israel’s military response. Hizballah reportedly went so far as offering reduced-price housing to Shiite families who allowed the terrorist group to store rocket launchers in their homes.
Read more at https://www.investigativeproject.org/5879/world-shrugs-as-hizballah-prepares-massive#soXLBZc5mfeSyFaC.99

UN Turns Starvation Into a Cash Cow
By Dr. Michael Laitman
Starving children bring in donations. Feeding them would dry up the flow of money and kill this cash cow.
Less than a week ago, Stephen O’Brien, the United Nations Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief stated, “More than 20 million people across four countries face starvation and famine. Without collective and coordinated global efforts, people will simply starve to death. Many more will suffer and die from disease.” Mr. O’Brien also said “$4.4bn was needed by July to avert disaster.”

Here is what I’d like to know: Mr. O’Brien has been in office for nearly two years now. What has he been doing all this time? What has the UN been doing? Starvation of twenty million people does not happen overnight. Why has the UN not sounded the alarm before? All of a sudden, the Internet and newsfeeds are inundated with harrowing images of emaciated children. Could the UN not tell the world about this when only five or ten million people were starving? Apparently, someone in that defunct institution calculated that it requires no less than twenty million starving people to redeem a ransom of $4.4 bn by July.

The billions of dollars the organization already receives could have cured the world’s hunger problems several times over. They could have shipped a few million of the 1.3 billion tons of excess food trashed each year and solved this crisis, but they have no interest in doing so. Starving children bring in donations. Feeding them would dry up the flow of money and kill this cash cow.

More than anything, Mr. O’Brien’s declaration is an admission that the UN is rotten to the core. The sole interests of the politicians and diplomats who serve in it are their paychecks and promoting their careers. For example, consider this piece of information coming from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). On its Frequently Asked Questions page, UNICEF USA refutes the “vicious” and unsubstantiated rumor that Caryl M. Stern, President and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, “earns more than $1 million.” In truth, the organization proclaims, Mrs. Stern “earns $521,820.” Indeed, a CEO who is a role model of austerity.


Read more at https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/UN-turns-starvation-into-a-cash-cow-484230#jSc6RbQVL3e7IIUG.99

Incredible Tale of Perilous Holocaust Escape 'Unearthed' in New Documentary
By JNS March 24, 2017 , 8:00 am
“My hand upon it! the evil man shall not be unpunished; but the seed of the righteous shall escape.” (Proverbs 11:21)
Nazi roundup of Jews in Budapest, Hungary, October 1944. (Photo: Faupel/ German Federal Archives)
By Deborah Fineblum/JNS.org
Ever since Michael Kagan, 60, was a boy growing up in the U.K., each detail of his father’s escape from a Nazi labor camp has ricocheted through his mind and heart. Now, in his new documentary “Tunnel of Hope,” the son is sharing his father’s story with the world.
It’s a story that Jack Kagan had fought to keep alive, recording not only the escape, but the murders of the vast majority of the Jews of Novogrudok—a city in Belarus—who were dead long before that fateful night.

“He was driven, determined to get it out there,” says Michael Kagan. Among his father’s projects was creating a museum at the escape site and marble monuments marking the slain Jews’ graves.
The risky escape plan was born of increasing desperation by the 240 Jews clinging to life in the Novogrudok labor camp. It was a ragtag group, the last survivors of some 11,000 Jews from the town and adjacent villages—their ranks decimated by two major slaughters in 1941 and 1942, along with starvation and illness.
Jack Kagan, who escaped the Nazi labor camp of Novogrudok. (Courtesy of Michael Kagan)
Jack Kagan was 13 when the tunnel escape plan was hatched in the summer of 1943. Having lost all 10 toes to frostbite, he was recovering from their amputation when he overheard the adults, led by Berel Yoselevich, formulate the plan. It would take three months of painstaking labor, with the prisoners covering for each other in the camp’s shoemaking and woodworking factories, to excavate the 2-by-2-foot tunnel destined to carry them to freedom in late September.
Among those who made it out that night, two-thirds survived the war, with most of them—including Jack Kagan—escaping to the forest and joining the famed Bielski partisans. Some nine months later, in June 1944, Kagan was among those liberated by the Soviets.
His son, Michael, who lives in Jerusalem, shared the idea for a film with family friend Murray Kushner—the uncle of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85524/incredible-tale-perilous-holocaust-escape-unearthed-new-documentary/#TsWoc6bLGM0Q3wRv.99

The Real Face of Jordan
By Caroline Glick
Every once in a while, the Jordanian people are given a chance to express how they really feel about Israel. It’s ugly.
Jordan is the country to Israel’s east with which Israel has had a formal peace for 23 years.

And its people hate Israel, and Jews, even more than the Iranians do.

Every once in a while, the Jordanian people are given a chance to express how they really feel about Israel. It’s ugly.

Twenty years ago, on March 13, 1997, 7th and 8th grade girls from the AMIT Fuerst junior high school for girls in Beit Shemesh packed box lunches and boarded a school bus that was to take them to the Jordan Valley for a class trip. The high point of the day was the scheduled visit to the so-called “Island of Peace.”

The area, adjacent to the Naharayim electricity station, encompasses lands Israel ceded to Jordan in the 1994 peace treaty and Jordan leased back to Israel for continued cultivation by the Jewish farmers from Ashdot Yaakov who had bought the lands and farmed them for decades.

Israel’s formal transfer of sovereignty – and Jordan’s recognition of Jewish land rights to the area – were emblematic of the notion that the peace treaty was more than a piece of paper. Here, officials boasted, at the Island of Peace, we saw on-theground proof that Jordan and Israel were now peaceful neighbors.

Just as Americans in California can spend a night at the bars in Tijuana and then sleep it off in their beds in San Diego, so, the thinking went, after three years of formal peace, Israeli schoolgirls could eat their box lunches in Jordan, at the Island of Peace, and be home in time for dinner in Beit Shemesh.
Read more at https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-real-face-of-Jordan-484720#23hBXaW52P7peYmU.99

Smoking Gun Proof’ Announced in Trump Wiretapping Saga
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 24, 2017 , 10:50 am
“Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples, a prince and commander to the peoples.” Isaiah 5:4 (The Israel Bible™)
Donald Trump (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Chairman Devin Nunes (Rep-Calif), stated that there is irrefutable proof that the Obama administration did eavesdrop on Trump personnel in the course of surveillance on foreign targets. Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee investigating the issue, promised that this proof will come to light within the next few days, laying to rest the harsh criticism of the president’s claim that his predecessor had wiretapped his conversations while campaigning.
The saga began three weeks ago when President Trump accused former President Barack Obama on Twitter of wiretapping his home phone during the last presidential campaign.
Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017

How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
Trump was criticized for what many thought was an absurd claim. But some of the fire was averted at a news conference on Wednesday, when Nunes claimed to have seen documents showing that members of Trump’s transition team were the subjects of “incidental surveillance”. This means that people on Trump’s team contacted foreign subjects who were the focus of legitimate and legal surveillance, and these conversations were recorded.
President Trump responded to Nunes’ statements by saying to the media that he felt feels “somewhat” vindicated.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85554/smoking-gun-proof-announced-trump-wiretapping-saga/#8Kz6uRMtlvyCygKG.99


5 Palestinians Attack Israeli Town with Firebombs, Followed by PA Claims of IDF Excessive Force
“Deliver me, O Hashem, from the evil man; preserve me from the violent man;3 Who devise evil things in their heart; every day do they stir up wars.”
(Pslams 140:2-3)
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 24, 2017 , 11:53 am
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/intifadaFINAL.jpg.jpg
Intifada
A Palestinian protester throws a molotov cocktail during clashes with Israeli soldiers in the Palestinian village of Al-Ram, near Ramallah.(Photo: Issam Rimawi/Flash90)
Five Palestinians attacked the town of Beit El with firebombs on Thursday night, causing damage but no injuries were reported. The IDF responded, killing one terrorist and injuring the other four.
The Palestinians drove up to the entrance to the Jewish town in the Benjamin region north of Jerusalem, and began their attack.
“Three suspects exited a vehicle adjacent to the community of Beit El,” the IDF said in a statement. ” In response to the threat Israeli forces in the area fired towards the suspects, and several hits were confirmed. The suspects then fled the scene.”
Ma’an News, a Palestinian news source, reported that the IDF opened fire while the Palestinians were still in their vehicle, implying the Israeli forces had overreacted and the Palestinians had no ill intent. Ma’an accused the IDF of having a “shoot-to-kill” policy, claiming that “Palestinians who did not constitute a threat at the time of their death…could have been subdued in a non-lethal manner”.

The IDF did not respond to these allegations, as the original statement included a photo of firebombs on the ground outside of the vehicle. An IDF spokesman did respond with a photo of one of the terrorists that had been posted to social media.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85557/5-palestinians-attack-israeli-town-firebombs-followed-pa-claims-idf-excessive-force/#Qec47l2ZhTHuQFXf.99


Israeli Teen Arrested for False Bomb Threats Around the World
“A false witness shall not be unpunished.”
(Proverbs 19:9)
y Ilana Messika March 24, 2017 , 7:30 am
“A false witness shall not be unpunished.” Proverbs 19:9 (The Israel Bible™)
Police outside a JCC that received a bomb threat.(Twitter)
The Lahav 433 Investigative Police Unit arrested on Thursday morning a 19-year-old resident of southern Israel on suspicions of extortion, threats to violence, and publication of false bomb threats against Jewish institutions around the world aimed at spreading fear and panic.
The investigation, which lasted for months, dealt with institutions in several countries receiving “threat calls” on alleged suspicions of explosive bombs in public places and civilian companies, causing panic and disruption of normal activity which resulted in significant economic damage and disturbances of public order.

The calls also led to urgent evacuation of civilians at a number of public sites and institutions throughout the world, and even the cessation of air operations by a specific airline which triggered an emergency landing.
The international covert operation, in cooperation with FBI representatives who arrived in Israel as well as other police organizations around the world, used internet and web technologies to research the concentration of events and analyze them at the National Cyber ​​Center of the Israel Police.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85520/israeli-teen-arrested-false-bomb-threats-around-world/#73SR2Slm4rmmjZGF.99

US vs. UN: Honest Policy Change, or Window Dressing?
By Ilana Messika March 24, 2017 , 7:00 am
“Behold thou art wiser than Daniel! there is no secret that they can hide from thee!” (Ezekiel 28:3)
Two months into the presidency of Donald Trump, conflicting signs overshadow US-Israel relations.
On one hand, Nikki Haley, US Ambassador to the United Nations, has called repeatedly on the world body to address the organization’s anti-Israel bias and “breathtaking double standards.” Earlier this week, the State Department instructed US representatives to boycott a UN Human Rights Council session on the progress of the implementation of Resolution 31/35, aimed at “ensuring accountability and justice for all violations of international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” and ferociously denounced a report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia accusing Israel of “apartheid.”
Secretary General António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres withdrew the report, prompting Commission Chairwoman Rima Khalaf, a Jordanian national, to resign. Guterres is Portuguese, but the move appeared to have been influenced by changing policy coming from Washington.
On the other hand, there are also indications that right-wing celebrations when Trump took office on 20 January were premature: The US embassy has not moved to Jerusalem, nor is there any indication that the State Department is making plans for that move any time soon.
Furthermore, there are clear and growing signs that Trump’s policy on Israeli settlement in Judea and Samaria is not radically different than President Obama’s. Before departing China on Wednesday, Prime Minister Netanyahu said that “significant progress” had been made with the Trump administration on the issue of the construction in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, but Thursday Israel Radio quoted an unnamed government official who said the administration would likely limit its approval for settlement building to existing settlement blocks.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85514/us-vs-un-honest-policy-change-window-dressing/#Ptpvs16STcIlrbVL.99


Incredible Tale of Perilous Holocaust Escape 'Unearthed' in New Documentary
By JNS March 24, 2017 , 8:00 am
“My hand upon it! the evil man shall not be unpunished; but the seed of the righteous shall escape.” (Proverbs 11:21)
Nazi roundup of Jews in Budapest, Hungary, October 1944. (Photo: Faupel/ German Federal Archives)
By Deborah Fineblum/JNS.org
Ever since Michael Kagan, 60, was a boy growing up in the U.K., each detail of his father’s escape from a Nazi labor camp has ricocheted through his mind and heart. Now, in his new documentary “Tunnel of Hope,” the son is sharing his father’s story with the world.
It’s a story that Jack Kagan had fought to keep alive, recording not only the escape, but the murders of the vast majority of the Jews of Novogrudok—a city in Belarus—who were dead long before that fateful night.

“He was driven, determined to get it out there,” says Michael Kagan. Among his father’s projects was creating a museum at the escape site and marble monuments marking the slain Jews’ graves.
The risky escape plan was born of increasing desperation by the 240 Jews clinging to life in the Novogrudok labor camp. It was a ragtag group, the last survivors of some 11,000 Jews from the town and adjacent villages—their ranks decimated by two major slaughters in 1941 and 1942, along with starvation and illness.
Jack Kagan, who escaped the Nazi labor camp of Novogrudok. (Courtesy of Michael Kagan)
Jack Kagan was 13 when the tunnel escape plan was hatched in the summer of 1943. Having lost all 10 toes to frostbite, he was recovering from their amputation when he overheard the adults, led by Berel Yoselevich, formulate the plan. It would take three months of painstaking labor, with the prisoners covering for each other in the camp’s shoemaking and woodworking factories, to excavate the 2-by-2-foot tunnel destined to carry them to freedom in late September.
Among those who made it out that night, two-thirds survived the war, with most of them—including Jack Kagan—escaping to the forest and joining the famed Bielski partisans. Some nine months later, in June 1944, Kagan was among those liberated by the Soviets.
His son, Michael, who lives in Jerusalem, shared the idea for a film with family friend Murray Kushner—the uncle of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85524/incredible-tale-perilous-holocaust-escape-unearthed-new-documentary/#TsWoc6bLGM0Q3wRv.99

Sanhedrin Calls on Israel’s Greatest Enemy to Follow Tradition and Build Third Temple
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 23, 2017 , 11:30 am
“Thus saith Koresh king of Paras: All the kingdoms of the earth hath Hashem, the God of heaven, given me; and He hath charged me to build Him a house in Yerushalayim, which is in Yehuda.” Ezra 1:2 (The Israel Bible™)
(Breaking Israel News)
The nascent Sanhedrin has turned a dispute between the Israeli Prime Minister and the Iranian Foreign Minister into an opportunity to invite Israel’s greatest enemy to help build the Third Temple. This offer is not nearly as preposterous as some may think, and has an undeniable precedent the Iranian Minister is quite proud to admit.
The international spat began on Purim, two weeks ago, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended a reading of the Megillah (Book of Esther) at a synagogue near his home in Caesarea. While discussing the Biblical story with children in attendance, he assured them, “Today, too, they’re trying [to kill us] in Persia, and today they’re also not going to succeed!”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif heard of Netanyahu’s comments and took umbrage at his country being portrayed as the villain. Zarif responded to the Israeli PM via Twitter, accusing him of “fake history and falsifying the Torah”.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85484/sanhedrin-invites-iranian-minister-follow-ways-persian-kings-build-
temple/#ryFU12ggVTdgfuj5.99



Netanyahu Nixed Trump Envoy’s Demand of Settlement Freezes: Report
“...‘Make thy league with me, and, behold, my hand shall be with thee, to bring over all Israel unto thee.’”
(II Samuel 3:12)
By Abra Forman March 23, 2017 , 12:30 pm
“And Avner sent messengers to David straightway, saying: ‘Whose is the land?’ saying also: ‘Make thy league with me, and, behold, my hand shall be with thee, to bring over all Israel unto thee.’” II Samuel 3:12 (The Israel Bible™)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) meets with Jason Greenblatt, Donald Trump’s special representative for international negotiations at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, March 13, 2017. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)
The Trump administration has reportedly requested that Israel freeze all construction in isolated Judea and Samaria settlements, as well as put holds on building inside major settlement blocs, according to several Hebrew media reports that emerged on Wednesday.

The surprisingly restrictive terms were laid out by Jason Greenblatt, President Trump’s special negotiator, in his Jerusalem meetings with Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu last week, the reports said. Netanyahu refused the demands.
The proposal included giving Israel latitude to build new homes in Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, but allowed for only a limited number of housing units to be added inside the major settlement blocs, such as Gush Etzion or Maale Adumim, each year, and called for a total halt to any construction in isolated communities inside Judea and Samaria.

According to Channel 2, Netanyahu was “surprised” by the severity of the demands.
After Netanyahu and Greenblatt failed to resolve the issue during the latter’s Israel visit, which also included meetings with Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, Netanyahu sent officials to Washington in order to continue negotiations.
On Wednesday, during a state visit to China, Netanyahu said that “significant process” had been made in the discussions.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85500/trump-envoy-reportedly-demanded-settlement-freezes-netanyahu-meeting/#4OjC105fCLP9JoD9.99

Rabbi Advises: Invest in Israeli Real Estate, Prices Will Soar When Messiah Comes
“Very Soon”
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 23, 2017 , 1:30 pm
“The stone which the builders rejected is become the chief corner-stone.” Psalms 118:22 (The Israel Bible™)
(Breaking Israel News/Shutterstock)
The Israeli real estate market will explode upon the coming of the Messiah, so buyers should invest now, as the Messiah could arrive “literally at any moment”, advised a prominent rabbi recently.
“When the Messiah comes, the land will be enormously valuable, “ said Rabbi Yitzchak Zilbershtein, adding that in the Messianic period, common stones will gain wondrous qualities making them more precious than gold.
Rabbi Yitzchak Zilbershtein (Wikimedia Commons)
The suggestion came as a result of a question posed by a man who had inherited a parcel of vacant land in Israel and wanted a rabbinic legal ruling on what he should do with it, as the rocky plot was difficult to access for commercial or domestic use and, in its current state, was essentially useless.
Rabbi Zilbershtein, a well-respected religious scholar in Bnei Barak, responded that the inheritor should not sell the land. The rabbi quoted his brother-in-law, the esteemed Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, who has said that the Messiah is expected to arrive “literally at any moment”.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85516/real-estate-prices-will-soar-messiah-comes-buy-now-advises-rabbi/#RwX165uCJCQeHPzZ.99


Israeli Officials Condemn “Shocking” London Parliament Terror Attack
By JNS March 23, 2017 , 7:30 am
“When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee.” Isaiah 43:2 (The Israel Bible™)
The scene in London after Wednesday’s terror attack. (YouTube)
Israeli officials condemned Tuesday’s terror attack in London and sent their condolences to the British people, following a car-ramming and stabbing incident near the U.K.’s Parliament that killed at least four people and injured 20.
“Israel stands as one with the British people as we all work together to defeat the scourge of terrorism. We send our condolences and wish a speedy recovery to all those injured,” Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said.
Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely also expressed her “deep shock” at the terror attack in London, saying Israel expresses its “solidarity with the victims and with the people and government of Great Britain. Terror is terror wherever it occurs and we will fight it relentlessly.”
According to reports, the assailant drove a large vehicle over several pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, which leads to the parliament, killing at least three people and injuring several others. After crashing the vehicle, the attacker then approached the parliament building and fatally stabbed a police officer before being shot dead by police.
The attack led to a lockdown in the parliament and an evacuation of the immediate area. U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May was rushed into a vehicle and taken back to her office.
“This is the day we have planned for but we hoped would never happen,” said Mark Rowley, acting deputy commissioner and head of counter-terrorism at the London Metropolitan Police. “Sadly, it’s now a reality.”
London authorities are treating the attack as an act of terrorism and launched a large-scale investigation.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85471/israeli-officials-condemn-shocking-london-parliament-terror-attack/#xFgPUveABCXRxRtU.99

The Israeli heart and mind just transformed the lives of 1 million Africans forever
Vote for the Israel Video Contest!
Published: March 20, 2017
As a strong country today, Israel is transforming lives across rural African villages with innovations in water, solar and agriculture. Innovation: Africa, a non-profit organization founded in 2008, has installed Israeli innovations in over 130 villages reaching over one million people in 7 African ​countries.
WATCH VIDEO http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/the-israeli-heart-and-mind-just-transformed-the-lives-of-1-million-africans-forever/?omhide=true
Learn more here: www.innoafrica.org

7 Nations Flock to Israel’s “Battle Lab” for Massive IAF Air Drill
Israel Allies Worldwide Flock to Train in Massive IAF Air Defense Exercises
By JNI Media March 22, 2017 , 1:30 pm
“[A Psalm] of David. Blessed be Hashem my Rock, who traineth my hands for war, and my fingers for battle.” Psalms 144:1 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IAF-fighter-plane.jpg
IAF fighter plane. (Israeli Air Force)
Israel Air Force will host the air forces of seven countries this fall, in the largest and most complex air exercise in its history, Defense News reported Tuesday.
Close to 100 aircraft and hundreds of pilots and crews from the US, Greece, Poland, France, Germany, India and Italy will participate in Blue Flag, a biennial, two-week maneuver exercising planning, targeting and coordinated command and control in high-threat theaters.
The first Blue Flag took place in November 2013 at Ovda Air Force Base in Israel. The exercise, which included several foreign air forces, was aimed at expanding international cooperation. In 2015, the second Blue Flag included the air forces of the US, Greece and Poland.
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/useful_banner_manager_banners/504-BIN-Causematch-Watchman-600WIDE.jpg
IAF chief of international affairs Lt. Col. Richard Hecht told DN that “everybody wants to engage and cooperate with the IAF. It’s a privilege.”
Claiming bragging rights as the new humility, Hecht boasted that “people are seeing there’s a lot to learn from Israel. In our tiny airspace and in the environment around us, things are so intense. The Russians are here. … Many of the world’s air forces are passing through here on their way to operations in Syria and elsewhere in the region. So we provide a sort of battle lab in which forces can hone a spectrum of skills needed to combat growing threats.”
Hecht declined to reveal what is being planned for this year’s Blue Flag, but is safe to assume that the combined forces will conduct hundreds of sorties in Israel’s sky, practicing air-to-air battles, ground attacks on fixed- and moving targets, and maneuvering over surface-to-air batteries and shoulder-launched missiles.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85451/7-nations-flock-iafs-battle-lab-massive-air-drill/#ZY7SmVU6Ql9Zoi6j.99

BDS Founder Omar Barghouti Arrested forTax Fraud
By JNS March 22, 2017 , 8:30 am
“Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and that ladeth himself with many pledges!” Habakkuk 2:6 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/HANDS_OFF_GAZA_STOP_THE_BOMBING_FREE_PALESTINE_-_UK_NATIONAL_DEMONSTRATION.jpg
Rally calling for boycott of Israeli products. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Israeli authorities have arrested Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, for evading taxes on $700,000 of his income.
BDS movement founder Omar Barghouti (YouTube)
The Israeli business news outlet Globes reported that Barghouti “is suspected of evading taxes on some $700,000 that he earned between 2007 to 2017 while serving as the director of the Ramallah-based National Computing Resources, which markets and rents ATMs and other technology within the Palestinian Authority.”
The BDS founder, who lives in the Israeli city of Acre, had attempted to conceal his income from authorities by hiding money in a bank based in Ramallah. According to the charges lodged against him, Barghouti also allegedly hid income that he earned from book royalties and a global speaking tour in a U.S. bank account.
The Israel Police supported the charges against Barghouti with transaction records and credit cards discovered at the BDS founder’s residence.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85416/bds-founder-omar-barghouti-arrested-tax-fraud/#iOFxdfbEeHzuf7Ua.99



ICYMI: Bible Code Reveals ‘Storm Stella’ Warning to US Over Trump Envoy’s Meeting With Abbas
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 15, 2017 , 1:30 pm
“And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will cause to rain upon him and upon his bands and upon the many peoples that are with him an overflowing shower and great hailstones fire and brimstone.” Ezekiel 38:22 (The Israel Bible™)
(Breaking Israel News)
A noted Bible Codes expert has just discovered a clear message connecting the intense winter storm Stella with rumors that the American government will pressure Israel in negotiations with the Palestinians. The message appears in startling detail in the Book of Deuteronomy with an additional warning for the Jews.

In a new video released on Wednesday, Rabbi Matityahu Glazerson pointed out that the storm, which hit the northeastern coast of the United States with snow and flooding earlier this week, coincided with a meeting between Jason Greenblatt, US President Donald Trump’s special representative for international negotiations, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

There have been rumors in the media that the US envoy offered to freeze the building of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria in exchange for the Palestinians signing an agreement with Israel.

According to the Bible Code found by Rabbi Matityahu, the storm came specifically at this time to warn the United States against moves which would harm Israel.

Utilizing a special Torah codes computer program, the rabbi found the words “Sufat Stella” (Storm Stella, in Hebrew) in the Book of Deuteronomy. Along with the name of the storm, the code revealed the current Hebrew year, 5777, as well as the name of this month, Adar, proving that the storm was predicted to hit the United States at this specific point in history.

image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/useful_banner_manager_banners/497-BIN-Causematch-600WIDE.jpg

Rabbi Glazerson then found the Hebrew words for “punishment to the USA”. The words “God’s Messiah in the merit of repentance” also appeared in the same chapter using the same method. The word “threat” also appeared, while underneath, written explicitly and not in code, was “to God’s nation”. Under that verse were the words, “In order that they should learn to fear me and keep my commandments”.

After Hashem your God shall ye walk, and Him shall ye fear, and His commandments shall ye keep, and unto His voice shall ye hearken, and Him shall ye serve, and unto Him shall ye cleave. Deuteronomy 13:5

Rabbi Glazerson noted that moves to force Israel to accept concessions in negotiations with the Palestinians have been accompanied by natural disaster at least fourteen times in the past, including the destruction of President George Bush’s home by a hurricane after he asked Israel to relinquish land to the Palestinians in 1991 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which came two weeks after the destruction of Jewish communities in Gaza.

In addition to the clear warning to the United States, the rabbi notes that there is also a message to the Jews.

“God gave the land to Israel on the condition we keep his covenant, which includes the Torah commandments,” the rabbi said. “More and more, there are segments of Israel that are not keeping the commandments.”

“Even those who compare Trump to Cyrus, the non-Jewish king who helped the Jews return to Israel and build the Temple, have to remember that in the end, even Cyrus messed up,” the rabbi said. “As in the times of Cyrus, there is great potential for success, but when some Jews refuse to keep the mitzvot (Torah commandments) like the Sabbath, there is nothing to be done.”

AUTHOR’S VIDEO COMMENTS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVSs72I7Lzc&feature=youtu.be
Hurricanes and the Oslo Process
Eliyahu Berkowitz
Published on 15 Mar 2017

The video is on the first article, but you may want to check out the second as well:
https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85..
.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85112/bible-code-reveals-storm-stella-warning-us-envoys-meeting-abbas/#DI4TLzO6Qf7FG4gX.99


The Opposite of a Two-State Solution Is Not
One State
By Shoshana Bryen
There are presently three “states” west of the Jordan: Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Gaza.
The so-called “two-state solution,” to subdivide the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea between independent Israel and independent Palestine, fails the tests of logic and history. And it ignores the Kingdom of Jordan – whose participation is required for any stable, long-term arrangement.

There are presently three “states,” or at least three governments, west of the Jordan: Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA), and Gaza. Pro-Israel “two-staters” think Gaza and the West Bank territory should become one state with Israel as the other, assuming-for-no-reason that it is Hamas that will disappear. Hamas vociferously disagrees. Assuming-for-no-reason that a single PA-governed state does emerge in both places, Israel would be left divided north from south by a corridor across the country so Palestinians could access both parts of their state. Arab armies tried multiple times to sever Israel’s waist in pursuit of conquest — this would have Israel do it for them.

The Palestinians — at best — would have a split rump state squeezed between a hostile Israel and a more hostile Jordan. But the only thing Hamas and the PA appear to agree on is that the State of Israel is the one that has to do the disappearing. They believe the establishment of Israel in 1948 was a mistake by the international community that needs to be rectified. Hamas believes it should be through violence and bloodshed; the PA would negotiate Israel away through the “right of return.” A nasty Hamas-Fatah civil war in 2007 was never concluded, and the PA government rightly fears Hamas more than it does Israel — in fact, the IDF and Shabak (Israel’s internal security agency) are what keep the PA in power.

Okay, say the pro-Israel “two-staters,” then make the deal between Israel and a West Bank “Palestine” now and leave Gaza for some future time. In that case, Israel would be left with a vicious, bloody, anti-Semitic, Iranian-supported enclave on its coast, unreconciled either to Israel or “Palestine.”

This is in addition to the not-minor problem that the PA functions only as a failed state living on American, EU, and UN handouts. The January 2017 statement by countries convened in France, ostensibly to promote the “peace process,” noted that despite billions in aid and services over the past 23 years, the PA cannot deliver services, has no infrastructure or viable economy, and has no civil society. Unmentioned is the ongoing Palestinian civil war. To bestow independence on such an entity is to birth another South Sudan.

No one’s aspirations then, legitimate and peaceful or not, are met by a declaration of Palestinian independence. Currently there is a stalemate, but, in fact, there could be two routes to progress.

First, recognition that the “Palestinian-Israeli conflict” is the narrowest definition of the Arab-Israel conflict that began before Israel’s independence and never has completely been concluded. Peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan do help, but other Arab states that declared war on Israel in 1948 and 1967 (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Algeria, and Syria) have not accepted their obligations under UN Security Council Resolution 242. They are still required to provide Israel, “Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.”

Demonstrable Arab acceptance of 242 would allow the Gulf and North African States to enter into proper relations with Israel, and give Israel more flexibility in its negotiations with the Palestinians. It would also establish the principle of Israel’s permanence and legitimacy for the Palestinians.
Second, following Arab acceptance of Israel, Jordan could be brought into the process. The kingdom conquered (1949) and illegally annexed (1950) the West Bank and the Jordanian Parliament made West Bank Palestinians citizens. But annexation was unworkable in the long run because it ignored Jordanian history and demographics. The founding of the PLO in 1964 with the intention of “liberating Palestine” was aimed as much at Jordan, ruled by a minority Hashemite King, as it was Israel — and Jordan was thought to be easier. From 1967 – 1970, Palestinian terror groups grew in Jordan, establishing their own infrastructure at the expense of the king’s rule. Bloody Black September saw the king strike back, killing thousands and expelling thousands more in a war that continued through 1973. In 1985, Jordan and the PLO signed an agreement that King Hussein repudiated in 1986, at which point he intended to create a Jordanian-Palestinian-Israeli confederation that would allow a Jordan-Israel agreement and keep Israel involved in the security of the territory.

In July 1988, Hussein renounced his claim to the territory and its people under threat from the PLO. He stopped paying 20,000 West Bank civil servants and slyly called Yitzhak Rabin “Jordan’s defense minister for the West Bank,” offloading the problem.

The 1994 Jordan-Israel peace treaty explicitly limits Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to west of the Jordan River — erasing without penalty Jordan’s 1948 aggression, 1950 illegal annexation, and 1988 abandonment of Palestinians who had been citizens for nearly 40 years. It is time to reconsider, for Jordan’s benefit as well as others.

The arrangement that might have the best chance of working for America’s two regional allies — Israel and Jordan — is King Hussein’s old confederation. The Palestinians would have to live with something less than independence (independence is not part of the Oslo Accords), but could have political and economic benefits they do not now possess. And if Gaza has to remain on the outside, West Bank Palestinians will have more security than they now have.

It is not time to push for a confederated solution – or any solution – and it is unlikely the Arab states will soon come forward and meet their obligations under Resolution 242. But broader thinking is more likely to produce results than the illusory “two state solution,” and in fact, leaves two states – Israel and Jordan – where two were intended to be.

Reprinted with author’s permission from Jewish Policy Center
Read more at https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2017/03/20/opposite-two-state-solution-not-one-state/#71rPDGYKsFVOaRP4.99

You Can Join the Court Case to Restore Glory of Jewish Prayer to Temple Mount
Jews Enter Legal Battle for 1960s-Esque Civil Rights on the Temple Mount
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 21, 2017 , 11:30 am
“Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers that write iniquity.” Isaiah 10:1 (The Israel Bible™)
A Jewish man looks out to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
In a court battle reminiscent of the American Civil Rights Movement of the ‘60’s, a case in the Israeli Supreme Court is intended to end discrimination against religious Jews on the Temple Mount. Anyone interested in bringing the Third Temple is invited to sign on as an official claimant.
The Friends of the Temple organization, headed by Yaakov Hayman, is bringing a court case against the chief of the Jerusalem police, Yoram HaLevy, and the Minister of Internal Security, Gilad Erdan, in which they claim that the rights of religious Jews as established by the Israeli High Court are being violated.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85369/join-legal-battle-jewish-rights-temple-mount/#cGdc1EJtJUPPLIID.99


Benjamin Netanyahu Touts Security, Economic Ties During Beijing Visit
By JNS March 21, 2017 , 8:30 am
“As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.” Psalms 103:12 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/bibi-china.jpg
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang. (Haim Zach/GPO)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu touted security and economic cooperation during his visit to Beijing Monday, which marked 25 years of diplomatic relations between the Jewish state and China.
“We are in a technological age, on the one hand, and I think Israel and China can discuss many ways for technological cooperation, which I think seize the future,” Netanyahu said during remarks with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang at Beijing’s Great Hall of People.
“And at the same time there’s a great deal of convulsion in the world, including in our part of the world, and I’d like to have the opportunity to exchange views with you to see how we can cooperate together for the advancement of security, peace and stability—and prosperity,” Netanyahu added.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85350/benjamin-netanyahu-touts-security-economic-ties-beijing-visit/#xLT52H4A8ap0AAsV.99



Seismic Rumblings, Blood-Red Sea, Radioactive Fish and Mysterious “Blob” Appear in North Pacific
Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Fukushima, and “The Blob”: Pacific Northwest Gearing Up for End of Days
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 22, 2017 , 12:30 pm
“Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Yisrael; so that the fishes of the sea and the fowls of the heaven and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep upon the ground and all the men that are upon the face of the earth shall shake at My presence.” Ezekiel 38:20 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/shutterstock_207309331-1.jpg
(Shutterstock)
A series of unusual and threatening phenomena including volcanoes, radioactive waste, and a mysterious marine anomaly called ‘the Blob’ have all appeared in the waters of the Pacific Northwest in the last month. Something is brewing in the cold coastal waters, and though scientists are struggling to understand, one rabbi sees right through it all.
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/bogo-300x192.jpg
The Bogoslof volcano in Alaska. (Wikimedia Commons)
Trouble bubbled up from the bowels of the earth last month as volcanic activity increased off the coast of Alaska. Bogoslof volcano, about 60 miles northwest of Dutch Harbor, erupted more than 37 times in the last three months, sending volcanic ash up to 30,000 feet. The eruptions are accompanied dramatically by violent lightning strikes.The volcano remains in a heightened state of unrest and could erupt again at any time.
In the Bible, volcanoes and seismic activity are connected with God’s anger, especially in the context of the End of Days.
Therefore I will make the heavens to tremble, and the earth shall be shaken out of her place, for the wrath of Hashem of hosts, and for the day of His fierce anger. Isaiah 13:13
The Bogoslof volcano is one of the 160 active volcanoes in that section of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the world’s most seismically active region. This section also includes Mount St. Helens, which erupted cataclysmically in 1980, in the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85439/volcanoes-radioactive-fish-blob-north-pacific-seismic-rumblings-gearing-end-days/#wyq8HX4Gqq5REpgK.99


Israel Preps for Evacuation of Quarter-Million Civilians
By Abra Forman March 22, 2017 , 11:30 am
“And Hashem, He it is that doth go before thee; He will be with thee, He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee; fear not, neither be dismayed.” Deuteronomy 31:8 (The Israel Bible™)
An Iron Dome Missile Defense battery set up near the Southern Israeli town of Ashdod fires an intercepting missile on the ninth day of Operation Protective Edge, July 16, 2014. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
Israel is drawing up plans for evacuating up to a quarter-million civilians from communities on its borders should full-scale war erupt with neighboring Islamic militant and terror groups, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

The mass evacuation, code-named “Safe Distance”, would be the largest in Israel’s history, and its implementation is a real possibility, say military authorities.

“In 2017, all of Israel is under threat,” Colonel Itzik Bar of the military’s Homefront Command told the AP.
He pointed specifically to recent incendiary rhetoric from the Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah, which lingers on Israel’s northern borders.
The evacuations would prevent expending resources to protect indefensible places “where we understand there is a great danger to civilians,” Bar said. Civilians in border towns would be replaced with military strength. “We want a meeting of army and Hezbollah forces and not civilians with Hezbollah forces,” the colonel explained.
IDF authorities are preparing for “very high amounts” of rocket fire from enemies on the borders, including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Should a multi-front conflict develop, up to 250,000 residents of Israel’s 8.5 million would be taken to temporary housing in hotels, schools and kibbutz guest houses.
The mass evacuation plan evolved as a result of 2014’s Operation Protective Edge, in which Hamas hammered Israeli towns daily with thousands of rockets launched from the Gaza border – in some southern areas located just kilometers from Jewish communities.

During the 50-day conflict, tens of thousands of residents fled to escape the constant missiles and found housing further north. Many Israeli families opened their homes to southerners needing shelter, but no official evacuation plan was put into action.
While Hamas’s arsenals were considerably depleted after the war, authorities say the terror group has now rebuilt its weapons caches to pre-Protective Edge levels and that it possesses many missiles which could reach Israel’s population centers, including Tel Aviv.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah is gaining valuable military experience from fighting alongside pro-Assad forces in war-torn Syria, Bar said.
But Israel is strengthening its own lines of defense. In early April, David’s Sling, the IDF’s newest and most advanced missile defense system, is set to become operational. The system will intercept medium-range missiles of the type possessed by Hezbollah and Iran.

Once in place, David’s Sling will join the Iron Dome, which protects Israel from short-range rockets, and Arrow, which takes down ballistic missiles. The three systems working together represent one of the world’s most advanced multi-tiered missile defense array.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85429/israel-preps-evacuation-quarter-million-civilians/#z7Ikl4rXQZpq14bV.99

Viral Video: Priest, Rabbi and Atheist Smoke Weed and Talk About God [WATCH]
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 21, 2017 , 1:30 pm
“And the earth brought forth grass, herb yielding seed after its kind, and tree bearing fruit, wherein is the seed thereof, after its kind; and God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:12 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/weed.png
From left, Rabbi Jim Mirel, Reverend Chris Schuller, and Carlos Diller in a viral video about marijuana. (Screenshot)
A new video, provocatively titled “A Rabbi, a Priest and an Atheist Smoke Weed Together”, has gone viral, garnering almost two million views and shares all over the net. This diverse mix of beliefs cooked with a liberal dose of marijuana produced a compelling interaction between three very stoned men.

The video was produced by Cut, a media company that explores unusual topics, frequently testing the boundaries of social acceptability. Cut brought together Rabbi Jim Mirel, a rabbi emeritus at a Reform synagogue in Washington; Reverend Chris Schuller, a former Episcopalian rector at a church in Florida; and Carlos Diller, a self-described conservative homosexual atheist.

Their religious backgrounds were indeed diverse. Schuller recently posted to Facebook that he decided to leave the Episcopal Church and planned to “minister outside of its boundaries.” Diller, though claiming to be an atheist, was raised in Baptist and Roman Catholic churches. His break with the church came when he came out as gay in his teen years.
A Rabbi, a Priest and an Atheist Smoke Weed Together
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFzy1l_WoAs
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85385/inside-story-viral-video-priest-rabbi-atheist-getting-stoned/#ROtVg4j7Uvebk9JY.99

Mazal Tov! Donald Trump Expecting Fourth Jewish Grandchild
By Abra Forman March 21, 2017 , 2:30 pm
“Lo, children are a heritage of Hashem; the fruit of the womb is a reward.” Psalms 127:3 (The Israel Bible™)

image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/eric-trump.png
Eric Trump and his wife, Lana. (Twitter)
President Donald Trump is expecting yet another Jewish grandchild, his fourth – but this one will not come from his famously Jewish daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, who already have three kids. Trump’s second-eldest son, Eric Trump, and his wife, Lara, who is Jewish, are expecting their first child, a boy, in September.

Eric made the announcement on Monday via Twitter, tweeting that he and his wife were excited to add a boy to “Team Trump.” “We are blessed!” he wrote.

.@LaraLeaTrump & I are excited to announce that we are adding a boy to #TeamTrump in September. It’s been an amazing year. We are blessed! pic.twitter.com/ENrhdxdziA

— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) March 20, 2017

The baby boy will be Trump’s ninth grandchild and his fourth Jewish grandchild, joining cousins Arabella, Joseph and Theodore Kushner at the Hanukkah menorah.

Jared Kushner officiated in 2014 when Eric became the second Trump offspring to take a Jewish spouse. Eric and Lana, a TV producer, married at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach. The ceremony took place under a crystal-embellished chuppah, the traditional canopy which decorates every Jewish wedding.

The president tweeted out his congratulations to the couple, as did Ivanka Trump, shortly after the announcement.

Congratulations Eric & Lara. Very proud and happy for the two of you! https://t.co/s0T3cTQc40

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 20, 2017

Congratulations @LaraLeaTrump & @EricTrump! We’re so excited for you both. You’ll be incredible parents & we cant wait to meet our nephew!

— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) March 20, 2017
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85390/mazal-tov-donald-trump-expecting-fourth-jewish-grandchild/#2mdzJ6bsAUyEZCQx.99

Furious, US Boycotts UN Cabal Bashing Israel Over 'Human Rights'
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 20, 2017 , 5:17 pm
“Lying lips are an abomination to Hashem; but they that deal truly are His delight.” Proverbs 12:22 (The Israel Bible™)
Knotted Gun Sculpture at the United Nations (Photo by Shutterstock)
On Monday, the United States State Department announced they will boycott an upcoming session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session slated to deal with violations by Israel, deepening the conflict over Israel between the Trump administration and the UN.

Mark Toner, the department’s spokesman, posted a statement on the department’s website, saying that not only will the US boycott the meeting, but it intends to vote against all five the council intends to pass this week.

The statement said that the US specifically objected to a particularly egregious example of the anti-Israel bias displayed in the UNHRC, known as Agenda Item Seven.

“The United States strongly and unequivocally opposes the existence of the UN Human Rights Council’s Agenda Item Seven: ‘Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories,” the announcement read.

The agenda item requires the council to discuss Israel’s human rights abuses against Palestinians at every session. There is no corresponding requirement pertaining to any other country.

“As an expression of our deeply-held conviction that this bias must be addressed in order for the Council to realize its legitimate purpose, the United States decided not to attend the Council’s Item Seven General Debate session,” the statement continued.

“It does not serve the interests of the Council to single out one country in an unbalanced matter. Later this week, the United States will vote against every resolution put forth under this agenda item and is encouraging other countries to do the same.”

This comes in marked contrast to the previous administration. In his final weeks in office, President Obama overturned a long time US policy by not vetoing UN Security Council Resolution 2334 condemning Israeli settlements.

The UNHRC was another forum in which President Obama reversed policy concerning Israel. Due to its anti-Israel stance, President George W. Bush initially refused to join the UNHRC, and boycotted it when it was established in 2006. In 2009, President Obama applied for membership, and under his administration, the US took a leading role in the council.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85340/fed-un-bodys-virulent-anti-israel-bias-us-boycotts-human-rights-council/#UfYY0OWOIkP9exVx.99

North Korea’s Nuclear Tests May Set Off Apocalyptic War of Angels, Warns Bible Codes
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 20, 2017 , 11:30 am
“Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” Genesis 32:28 (The Israel Bible™)
(Breaking Israel News)
A Torah codes expert discovered hints concerning North Korea’s recent threat to use nuclear weapons against America and revealed that the despotic regime is specifically designated as having a terrifying role in the end-of-days. Even more alarming are the codes describing the part that legions of angry angels, harsh messengers of God, may play in this scenario.

Last week, North Korea warned it would consider launching a preemptive nuclear strike against America in response to joint US-South Korean military exercises. Rabbi Matityahu Glazerson quickly released a video explaining how Torah codes, a system of interpreting the Bible by connecting letters through set intervals, reveals how the two countries are pitted against each other in a nuclear showdown.
Using a special computer program to help him find these codes, the rabbi found the words ‘Tsafon Korea’ (North Korea). The message became even clearer as the rabbi found the letters aleph, heh, resh, and bet arranged sequentially. These letters form the acronym for ‘Artzot Habrit’ (the United States in Hebrew).

Both of these codes were adjacent to the words ‘Shoah Atomit’ (atomic holocaust). On the same grid of Bible codes, the rabbi discovered the word ‘Gog’, which the he said hints at the possibility that North Korea is the nation that will bring the pre-Messianic war, prophesied to come “from the North”.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85311/torah-codes-hint-korean-nuclear-threat-stir-legions-angels-apocalyptic-war/#SU4cpwEcefS6f7j2.99

March in Latvia’s Capital Pays Tribute to Former SS
Only seven decades have passed since the Holocaust, and its perpetrators were honored in an annual street march.
Hundreds of people marched in Riga, the capital of Latvia, in honor of former Waffen SS members, who fought alongside Nazi Germany during World War II on Thursday.

The march was allowed by the Riga municipality despite protests. Several Latvian lawmakers were among the marchers.

The participants held Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian flags. Aging war veterans led the procession to Riga’s Freedom Monument, where they laid flowers and sang traditional songs.

The veterans’ march has been harshly criticized by a number of international organizations, including the European Jewish Congress, as well as by governments worldwide.
Many of the Latvian SS were directly involved in the extermination of Latvian Jewry during the Holocaust.

Every March 16, veterans observe Latvian Legion Day. On March 16, 1944, both divisions of the Latvian Legion fought alongside the Soviet Red Army for the first time. It was the only battle in World War II led solely by Latvian commanders.

In 2015, Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center called the march an attempt to hide the crimes of Nazi collaborators in Latvia.
Nearly 80,000 Jews, or 90 percent of Latvia’s prewar Jewish population, were killed between 1941 and 1942. Legionnaire supporters say that was before the Latvian Legion was created, but Zuroff said some of the legionnaires “had actively participated in the mass murder of Jews before joining the Waffen SS.”
By: United with Israel Staff


Only in Israel: 1,400-Year-Old Coin Cache Found in Highway Excavation
“Canst thou find out the deep things of God? Canst thou attain unto the purpose of the Almighty?”
(Job 11:7)
“Canst thou find out the deep things of God? Canst thou attain unto the purpose of the Almighty?” Job 11:7 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/b11.jpg
The cache of coins from the Byzantine period. (Yoli Shwartz, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority)
Israeli archaeologists announced the discovery of a 1,400-year-old cache of coins, discovered during excavations for the the widening of the Tel Aviv- Jerusalem highway.
The cache, constiting of nine bronze coins dating from the Byzantine Period (324-638 CE), were discovered alongside a large two-story structure and an adjacent winepress, also exposed during the excavations.
“The [coins were] found among a group of large stones that had collapsed alongside the building,” said Annette Landes-Nagar, director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/b6.jpg
The excavation area and the collapsed wall where the coin hoard was found. (Maxim Dinstein, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority)
The coins bear the images of three important Byzantine emperors, Justinian (483-565 AD), Maurice (539-602 CE), and Phocas (547-610 CE). They were struck at mints in Constantinople (Istanbul), Antioch, and Nicomedia, all located in modern-day Turkey.
The coins feature an image of the emperor wearing military garb and carrying crosses, while the reverse indicates the coin’s denomination and are inscribed with the letter M.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85287/byzantine-coin-cache-discovered-excavations-near-jerusalem/#X1WPimMphqbIAzfg.99

Trump Budget Cuts Won’t Hurt US Aid to Israel, State Department Says
“Though I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou quickenest me; Thou stretchest forth Thy hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and Thy right hand doth save me.” (Psalms 138:7)
By JNS March 19, 2017 , 8:30 am
“Though I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou quickenest me; Thou stretchest forth Thy hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and Thy right hand doth save me.” Psalms 138:7 (The Israel Bible™)

image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/donald-trump.jpg
Photo: Facebook
U.S. foreign aid to Israel will not be reduced under President Donald Trump’s proposed budget cuts, the State Department said Thursday.

“Our assistance to Israel is…guaranteed and that reflects obviously our strong commitment to one of our strongest partners and allies,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said, Reuters reported.

Trump is proposing a 28-percent cut for American diplomacy and foreign aid for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. Currently, annual U.S. aid to Israel stands at $3.1 billion. Last September, the Obama administration and the Israeli government signed a Memorandum of Understanding to increase aid for Israel to $3.8 billion annually for the fiscal years from 2019-2028.

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The Trump administration’s budget cuts, however, might still affect the status of U.S. aid to Jordan and Egypt, the two Arab neighbors that have official peace treaties with Israel.

“With respect to other assistance levels, foreign military assistance levels, those are still being evaluated and decisions are going to be made going forward,” Toner said, noting that treaty obligations—such as the Jordanian and Egyptian pacts with Israel—would factor into the administration’s decision.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85237/trump-budget-cuts-wont-reduce-us-aid-to-israel-state-department-says/#rzX9rVl60jESRg0B.99


Benjamin Netanyahu Heads to China to Nurture Trade Ties With Far East
By Andrew Friedman March 19, 2017 , 10:30 am
“For the king had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Chiram; once every three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.” I Kings 10:22 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/bibi-speaks.jpg
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Ohad Zweigenberg/POO)
President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed for state visits to Asia as part of Israel’s ongoing nurturing of economic and political ties in the far east.

Netanyahu will arrive in China at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping to mark the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The Prime Minister will also meet with his Chinese counterpart, Li Keqiang.

The visit will stress the continued deepening of economic cooperation with second-largest economy in the world, with Netanyahu scheduled to meet the leaders of China’s largest corporations, each one with turnovers of tens of billions of dollars. The prime minister is also expected to sign a series of economic agreements to bolster import and export between the countries, industrial and research cooperation between Chinese and Israeli companies, aviation, education, bringing Chinese construction workers to Israel, science, health, environmental protection and a multi-year plan for a task force on strengthening bilateral economic ties.

Netanyahu will be accompanied by Environmental Protection Minister Zeev Elkin, Economy and Industry Minister Eli Cohen, Science, Technology and Space Minister Ofir Akunis, Health Minister Yaakov Litzman and Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel, in addition to dozens of Israeli businesspeople currently active in China and , as well as from companies interested in penetrating the Chinese market.

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At the same time, President Rivlin will visit Vietnam, also with a delegation of Israeli business leaders headed by President of Israel’s Manufacturers’ Association, Shraga Brosh, and a further delegation of heads of Israeli defense industry firms, led by Director General of the International Defense Cooperation Directorate of the Israel Ministry of Defense Brig. Gen. (res.) Michel Ben-Baruch.

“I am departing now on an important visit to Vietnam,” said President Rivlin, “this visit represents an expression of the growing friendship between our two countries… We see in Vietnam a county leading Asia, and we are following with appreciation their impressive economic growth. Security and economic cooperation between us will promote this prosperity and growth of both countries, and will contribute to the stability to each of our regions.”

The President continued, “I believe that cooperation between Israel and Vietnam can contribute to the advancement and improvement of the lives of many. Together we can promote food security, agricultural advancements, water technologies, education, health, hi-tech, and cyber. We hope that over the course of this visit we will be able to advance in a very significant way efforts toward the signing of a free trade agreement between Israel and Vietnam, and to the strengthening of the firm friendship between our peoples.”

President of Israel’s Manufacturers’ Association, Shraga Brosh, added, “I am grateful to President Rivlin for including this prestigious business delegation in his visit to Vietnam. I am sure that this visit will promote trade with Vietnam, open doors, and strengthen the economic ties between the countries.”
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85255/netanyahu-rivlin-head-asia-shore-economic-political-ties/#z65XlLEpAjWsIShu.99

Two Rockets Fired at Israel From Gaza:
IDF Responds
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 19, 2017 , 3:47 am
“For the LORD your God is He that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.” Deuteronomy 20:4)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/hamas-gaza-rocket-launch.jpg

North of the Gaza Strip Al-Quds Brigades of the Islamic Jihad movement, viewing the missiles, soilders being trained to launch rockets to Israeli cities. (Photo: Abed Khatib/Flash90)
Two rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza on the Sabbath, leading to an IDF response. One rocket landed in an open field near the city of Ashkelon, while the second reportedly landed inside Gaza.

The IDF responded with tank fire and air strikes targeting several Hamas targets in Gaza. No casualties were reported.
A rocket was also fired at Israel from Gaza last Thursday. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) responded to that incident by targeting two Hamas targets in Gaza. There have been seven rockets fired at Israel from the Sinai and Gaza in the last two months. Since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, terrorists have fired more than 11,000 rockets into Israel.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85228/two-rockets-fired-israel-gaza-idf-responds/#J6SVq75oETg0fjE6.99

Stop Calling it the ‘Old Testament’
By Michael Freund March 12, 2017 , 9:00 am
Recently, in an episode of the popular American television program Dateline NBC, veteran journalist Dennis Murphy repeated a stale anti-Jewish canard, one that despite its popularity is nonetheless as offensive as it is inappropriate.

“The rhetorical language you used in your email to your ex had a kind of biblical Old Testament ferocity to it,” Murphy said to an interviewee, referring to messages she had allegedly sent which included phrases such as, “I hope to God you are ready for the pain I will show you.” “Burn in the fiery pits of hell tonight as by God’s law,” read another.

Putting aside the fact that the word “hell” does not appear even once in the Hebrew Bible, Murphy’s impolite and ill-informed characterization of the Book of Books is something that should raise the ire of everyone who takes pride in our people’s heritage.

After all, it was the Tanach which bequeathed to the world values such as charity, brotherhood and forgiveness. And it was the Tanach which challenged man to live by the highest standards of morality and ethics, and which continues to inspire countless Jews and others to this very day.

Depicting the Hebrew Bible as “ferocious” or cruel is not only an act of iniquity toward the text itself, but a hurtful affront to those who cherish its teachings and seek to abide by its commands.

And to do so in the context of a prime-time television show watched by millions of viewers is to besmirch the Jewish people’s faith and legacy in a public and humiliating way.

Unfortunately, Murphy is not alone in his prejudice. Examples abound from entertainment to the political arena.

Just last month, an Irish member of the European Parliament named Luke Flanagan criticized Ireland’s Health Minister Simon Harris for his policy on medical marijuana by asserting that, “Our Minister for Health is like the God of the Old Testament – mean.”

What kind of trash talk is that? How dare Flanagan or Murphy or anyone else for that matter slander the God of Israel in such terms.

Would they speak of other faiths, ranging from Islam to Buddhism, in such a disparaging manner? An even deeper problem is the use of the term “Old Testament,” which suggests that the Hebrew Bible is outdated and archaic, like an old shoe or outmoded car that should be discarded.

Indeed, it is difficult to reconcile the obvious contradiction at work here: Western civilization often proudly invokes its “Judeo-Christian heritage,” and yet the very basis of that patrimony – the Hebrew Bible – is implicitly vilified and demeaned as if it were a relic of a bygone era, rather than the living text that it is.

This may sound like little more than an issue of semantics, but labels have power and they affect how people perceive things and the extent to which they value them.

For Jews, what many refer to as the Old Testament is in fact the Only Testament.

It is the basis of Judaism, the foundational document that defines our faith as well as our relationship with God and our fellow man.

As former British chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks once pointed out, “One of the most tragic moments in Western civilization came when Christians began distinguishing between what they called ‘the Old Testament God of vengeance’ as opposed to the ‘New Testament God of love.’ This is not a small error. One trembles to think how many Jews lost their lives because of it.”

Obviously, Christians have the right to believe what they wish about the relevance or applicability of what they refer to as the Old Testament.

But using that phrase in public discourse, or even in the course of casual conversation, is something that is hurtful to Jews, our beliefs and our tradition.

There are plenty of other terms, such as Hebrew Bible or Tanach, that can be utilized instead which don’t carry the same derogatory weight, and the use of which could help to improve mutual understanding and respect.

At a time of rising antisemitism across Europe and even North America, it is all the more essential that steps be taken to defend the integrity of Judaism and its sacred texts.

A good place to start would be to encourage the media and public figures to give the God of Israel and His Torah the respect that is their due.
Reprinted with author’s permission from The Jerusalem Post
Read more at https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Fundamentally-Freund-Stop-calling-it-the-Old-Testament-483640#39fDkTPTwkmEjJQJ.99


After ISIS
By Jonathan Spyer
On the surface, the wars in Syria and Iraq are continuing at full intensity. The fight between Iraqi government forces and the Islamic State in western Mosul is proving a slow, hard slog. This week, government forces captured the police directorate and the courts complex in the city, moving toward the denser warren of the old city. The jihadis are fighting for every inch of ground. Further west, the US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces succeeded in cutting the last road from the IS capital of Raqqa to its stronghold in Deir al-Zur.

In the fight between the Assad regime and the Sunni Arab rebellion against it, a rebel attempt at a counter-attack in the city of Deraa has led to renewed bloodshed. The regime is continuing its attacks on rebel-held Eastern Ghouta east of Damascus, despite a new Russian-brokered ceasefire.

But while the tactical contests are continuing, the general direction of events in both the war against IS and the fight between Assad and the rebels is now clear.

The Islamic State is on its way to ceasing to exist as an entity controlling significant territory. This process is set to continue many months. But IS, having lost tens of thousands of fighters and with the flow of new recruits drying up, facing enemies with complete control of the skies and vast superiority in numbers and equipment, has no means of reversing the trend.

In Assad’s war further west, meanwhile, the rebellion is in retreat and its eventual eclipse seems a near certainty. The regime, with its Iranian, Russian and Hizballah allies, is currently seeking to reduce and destroy isolated rebel held enclaves in the midst of regime-held territory in western Syria. Hence the attacks on eastern Ghouta, and on Wa’er in the Homs area. Once this is done, the pro-regime forces may well turn their attention to south west Syria, and eventually also to rebel-held Idleb province in the north.
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/BIN-OpEd-Experts-300x2501.png
The regime is also now engaging in the war against Islamic State. Government forces reached the Euphrates River this week, after sweeping through IS-held territory in the east Aleppo countryside.

As the direction of events becomes clear, so the possibility emerges of the Iran-led alliance achieving an overall victory in the Syria and Iraq wars.

Such a victory would on the face of it constitute an achievement for Assad. But the Syrian dictator’s own forces are entirely dependent for advances on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Hizballah, Iraqi Shia militia forces and paramilitary formations created by the Iranians to address the regime’s manpower shortages over the last five years. That is, the real power behind such a victory would be Iran-arranged forces on the ground. These, in turn, are only capable of moving forward in cooperation with Russian air power, as events in Aleppo and the north west have shown.

Such an outcome is still distant, and is by no means certain. But it is no longer an impossibility, and Israeli and US planners will be noting its feasibility, and seeking ways to prevent it or reduce its impact.

What would such a victory look like?

It would include the following elements: firstly, the Assad regime would succeed in terminating or severely reducing the remaining areas held by the Sunni Arab rebels and Islamists in the western part of the country. Secondly, following the destruction of IS-held areas in eastern Syria, regime forces supported by Russian air power would succeed in heading eastwards, challenging or co-opting Kurdish and remaining rebel forces in the area, and reaching the Syrian-Iraqi border.

Thirdly, following the reduction or destruction of IS in Ninawah Province, the Iraqi Shia militias organized in the framework of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) would remain under arms, becoming a permanent feature of the Iraqi political and military landscape.
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The Iraqi parliament in late November passed a law making the PMU a permanent part of the Iraqi security forces. The 100,000 fighters of the PMU do not consist solely of pro-Iranian elements. But the main militias and de facto command structures are in the hands of pro-Iranian forces. Most significantly, the Badr Corps of Hadi al-Ameri and the Ktaeb Hizballah group of Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis are directly linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

The militias are now located west of Mosul city, close to the town of Tel Afar. If regime forces push eastwards, they will link at the border with their comrades of the PMU, creating a massive contiguous area of de facto Iran-controlled territory all the way from deep inside Iraq across Syria and into Lebanon.

That is what victory for the Iran-allied side in the wars in Syria and Iraq would look like. How might it be prevented?

Advances for the Iranian side are only possible with the support of Russian air power. And Russian goals in Syria (Iraq is less significant for Moscow) do not necessarily dovetail with Teheran’s. Iran wants total victory, the reunification of Syria under Assad’s nominal control, and the emergence of the Iran-led Shia militias as the key power-holders in Iraq.

Moscow had and has far more limited goals. The Russians in Syria wanted to prevent Assad’s defeat, secure their naval assets on the Mediterranean and make themselves the main broker in the subsequent frozen or semi frozen conflict.

There is a large gap between these two agendas, and working on and widening it should be foremost in the minds of both western and Israeli policymakers.

The Russians need to understand that while their own perceived vital interests in Syria can be accomodated, the far more ambitious Iranian agenda in the area crosses western and Israeli red lines, and therefore will not be allowed to achieve its goals. Without the Russians, western and Israeli efforts to contain and turn back the Iranians can proceed apace.

This can be achieved through a combination of diplomatic efforts and facts on the ground. Regarding the former, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his visit to Russia will presumably be making clear to Russian President Vladimir Putin that Israel’s security red lines regarding Iranian and Hizballah creation of a new conflict line east of Quneitra Crossing, and regarding the need to prevent permanent Iranian bases in western Syria are serious, will be pursued, and can be achieved with no threat to Russian vital interests.

Regarding the latter, as of now the key force in Syria fighting Islamic State is the US-aligned SDF. The latest reports indicate that elements of the US 75th Ranger regiment, and of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit are deploying in eastern Syria, to support the fight against IS in this area.

Ownership by the US and its allies of eastern Syria in the post IS-period is the best way to prevent the possibility of the realization of Iran’s aims, while presenting Russia with a fait accompli. The indications are that the US Administration is thinking in these terms. If so, Iranian victory emerging from the ruins of Syria and Iraq can be prevented.

The post-IS landscape in Iraq and Syria is emerging. The contest for primacy within it is set to begin.

Reprinted with author’s permission from Jonathan Spyer
Read more at https://jonathanspyer.com/2017/03/11/after-isis/#rkOMTghdyGp2BzO1.99

After ISIS
Who will dominate the post-Islamic State landscape in Iraq and Syria?On the surface, the wars in Syria and Iraq are continuing at full intensity. The fight between Iraqi government forces and the Islamic State in western Mosul is proving a slow, hard slog. This week, government forces captured the police directorate and the courts complex in the city, moving toward the denser warren of the old city. The jihadis are fighting for every inch of ground. Further west, the US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces succeeded in cutting the last road from the IS capital of Raqqa to its stronghold in Deir al-Zur.

In the fight between the Assad regime and the Sunni Arab rebellion against it, a rebel attempt at a counter-attack in the city of Deraa has led to renewed bloodshed. The regime is continuing its attacks on rebel-held Eastern Ghouta east of Damascus, despite a new Russian-brokered ceasefire.

But while the tactical contests are continuing, the general direction of events in both the war against IS and the fight between Assad and the rebels is now clear.

The Islamic State is on its way to ceasing to exist as an entity controlling significant territory. This process is set to continue many months. But IS, having lost tens of thousands of fighters and with the flow of new recruits drying up, facing enemies with complete control of the skies and vast superiority in numbers and equipment, has no means of reversing the trend.

In Assad’s war further west, meanwhile, the rebellion is in retreat and its eventual eclipse seems a near certainty. The regime, with its Iranian, Russian and Hizballah allies, is currently seeking to reduce and destroy isolated rebel held enclaves in the midst of regime-held territory in western Syria. Hence the attacks on eastern Ghouta, and on Wa’er in the Homs area. Once this is done, the pro-regime forces may well turn their attention to south west Syria, and eventually also to rebel-held Idleb province in the north.

image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/BIN-OpEd-Experts-300x2501.png


The regime is also now engaging in the war against Islamic State. Government forces reached the Euphrates River this week, after sweeping through IS-held territory in the east Aleppo countryside.

As the direction of events becomes clear, so the possibility emerges of the Iran-led alliance achieving an overall victory in the Syria and Iraq wars.

Such a victory would on the face of it constitute an achievement for Assad. But the Syrian dictator’s own forces are entirely dependent for advances on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Hizballah, Iraqi Shia militia forces and paramilitary formations created by the Iranians to address the regime’s manpower shortages over the last five years. That is, the real power behind such a victory would be Iran-arranged forces on the ground. These, in turn, are only capable of moving forward in cooperation with Russian air power, as events in Aleppo and the north west have shown.

Such an outcome is still distant, and is by no means certain. But it is no longer an impossibility, and Israeli and US planners will be noting its feasibility, and seeking ways to prevent it or reduce its impact.

What would such a victory look like?

It would include the following elements: firstly, the Assad regime would succeed in terminating or severely reducing the remaining areas held by the Sunni Arab rebels and Islamists in the western part of the country. Secondly, following the destruction of IS-held areas in eastern Syria, regime forces supported by Russian air power would succeed in heading eastwards, challenging or co-opting Kurdish and remaining rebel forces in the area, and reaching the Syrian-Iraqi border.

Thirdly, following the reduction or destruction of IS in Ninawah Province, the Iraqi Shia militias organized in the framework of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) would remain under arms, becoming a permanent feature of the Iraqi political and military landscape.

image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/useful_banner_manager_banners/502-BIN-Causematch-SupportUs-600WIDE.jpg

The Iraqi parliament in late November passed a law making the PMU a permanent part of the Iraqi security forces. The 100,000 fighters of the PMU do not consist solely of pro-Iranian elements. But the main militias and de facto command structures are in the hands of pro-Iranian forces. Most significantly, the Badr Corps of Hadi al-Ameri and the Ktaeb Hizballah group of Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis are directly linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

The militias are now located west of Mosul city, close to the town of Tel Afar. If regime forces push eastwards, they will link at the border with their comrades of the PMU, creating a massive contiguous area of de facto Iran-controlled territory all the way from deep inside Iraq across Syria and into Lebanon.

That is what victory for the Iran-allied side in the wars in Syria and Iraq would look like. How might it be prevented?

Advances for the Iranian side are only possible with the support of Russian air power. And Russian goals in Syria (Iraq is less significant for Moscow) do not necessarily dovetail with Teheran’s. Iran wants total victory, the reunification of Syria under Assad’s nominal control, and the emergence of the Iran-led Shia militias as the key power-holders in Iraq.

Moscow had and has far more limited goals. The Russians in Syria wanted to prevent Assad’s defeat, secure their naval assets on the Mediterranean and make themselves the main broker in the subsequent frozen or semi frozen conflict.

There is a large gap between these two agendas, and working on and widening it should be foremost in the minds of both western and Israeli policymakers.

The Russians need to understand that while their own perceived vital interests in Syria can be accomodated, the far more ambitious Iranian agenda in the area crosses western and Israeli red lines, and therefore will not be allowed to achieve its goals. Without the Russians, western and Israeli efforts to contain and turn back the Iranians can proceed apace.

This can be achieved through a combination of diplomatic efforts and facts on the ground. Regarding the former, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his visit to Russia will presumably be making clear to Russian President Vladimir Putin that Israel’s security red lines regarding Iranian and Hizballah creation of a new conflict line east of Quneitra Crossing, and regarding the need to prevent permanent Iranian bases in western Syria are serious, will be pursued, and can be achieved with no threat to Russian vital interests.

Regarding the latter, as of now the key force in Syria fighting Islamic State is the US-aligned SDF. The latest reports indicate that elements of the US 75th Ranger regiment, and of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit are deploying in eastern Syria, to support the fight against IS in this area.

Ownership by the US and its allies of eastern Syria in the post IS-period is the best way to prevent the possibility of the realization of Iran’s aims, while presenting Russia with a fait accompli. The indications are that the US Administration is thinking in these terms. If so, Iranian victory emerging from the ruins of Syria and Iraq can be prevented.

The post-IS landscape in Iraq and Syria is emerging. The contest for primacy within it is set to begin.

Reprinted with author’s permission from Jonathan Spyer
Read more at https://jonathanspyer.com/2017/03/11/after-isis/#EyXpps42tmmpyHzJ.99

Syria Claims Shot Down IAF Jet Conducting Airstrike in Syria; Israel says ‘No’
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 17, 2017 , 10:38 am
“For the LORD your God is He that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.” Deuteronomy 20:4 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/IAF-f16.jpg
IAF warplane. (Photo: Wiki Commons)
The sound of sirens in the Jordan valley mixed with explosions Thursday night as the IAF conducted airstrikes in Syria. The Syrian army claimed it shot down one Israeli jet in the incident, and damaged another, but the IDF denied the claim.
The Syrian army released a statement saying that four Israeli jets conducted an airstrike, and they responded with anti-aircraft missiles. The Syrian army released a statement in the state news agency SANA.
“Our air defense engaged them and shot down one warplane over occupied territory, hit another one, and forced the rest to flee.”
In the statement, the IDF said that its aircraft targeted several targets in Syria. “Several antiaircraft missiles were launched from Syria following the mission and IDF Aerial Defense Systems intercepted one of the missiles. At no point was the safety of Israeli civilians or the IAF aircraft compromised.”
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85203/iaf-jets-evade-missiles-conducting-airstrike-syria/#DV2eGOtfg5LedJTq.99




Alabama Evangelicals Pledge To Protect Threatened Jewish Center
“Fear thou not, for I am with thee, be not dismayed, for I am thy God; I strengthen thee, yea, I help thee; yea, I uphold thee with My victorious right hand.”
(Isaiah 41:10)
Alabama Evangelicals Pledge To Protect Threatened Jewish Center
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 17, 2017 , 11:37 am
“Fear thou not, for I am with thee, be not dismayed, for I am thy God; I strengthen thee, yea, I help thee; yea, I uphold thee with My victorious right hand.” Isaiah 41:10 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Alabama-JCC.jpg
Representatives of the Levite JCC (Photo from the LJCC Facebook Page)
Several Evangelical ministries in Alabama have joined together in an effort to raise $100,000 to protect the Levite Jewish Community Center (JCC) in Birmingham. The money will go towards improving security at the JCC that has been the target of four bomb threats recently. Each bomb threat results in evacuating the building and a search of the building. Security upgrades are estimated to cost approximately $1 million.
The ministries involved so far include Scott Dawson Evangelistic Association, The Center for Executive Leadership, Young Business Leaders, Lifework Leadership, JH Ranch, Alliance Ministries, and the National Christian Foundation of Alabama. Several churches have pledged $5,000 to $10,000 towards the effort.
“We want to help in any way we can,” Scott Dawson, founder of Scott Dawson Evangelistic Association, told AL.com. “It just seems like the right thing to do. I think we can raise $100,000. I’m trying to get pastors to take up an offering to help them.”
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85207/alabama-evangelicals-pledge-protect-threatened-jewish-center/#54F537txBFPPEUrz.99


Alabama Evangelicals Pledge To Protect Threatened Jewish Center
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 17, 2017 , 11:37 am
“Fear thou not, for I am with thee, be not dismayed, for I am thy God; I strengthen thee, yea, I help thee; yea, I uphold thee with My victorious right hand.” Isaiah 41:10 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Alabama-JCC.jpg
Representatives of the Levite JCC (Photo from the LJCC Facebook Page)
Several Evangelical ministries in Alabama have joined together in an effort to raise $100,000 to protect the Levite Jewish Community Center (JCC) in Birmingham. The money will go towards improving security at the JCC that has been the target of four bomb threats recently. Each bomb threat results in evacuating the building and a search of the building. Security upgrades are estimated to cost approximately $1 million.
The ministries involved so far include Scott Dawson Evangelistic Association, The Center for Executive Leadership, Young Business Leaders, Lifework Leadership, JH Ranch, Alliance Ministries, and the National Christian Foundation of Alabama. Several churches have pledged $5,000 to $10,000 towards the effort.
“We want to help in any way we can,” Scott Dawson, founder of Scott Dawson Evangelistic Association, told AL.com. “It just seems like the right thing to do. I think we can raise $100,000. I’m trying to get pastors to take up an offering to help them.”
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85207/alabama-evangelicals-pledge-protect-threatened-jewish-center/#DAuMYsYjKtv2dXkD.99


Jordan's King Abdullah Tells Greenblatt Israel-PA Peace Would Stabilize Entire Region
“Great peace have they that love Thy law; and there is no stumbling for them.” (Psalms 119:165)
By JNI Media March 17, 2017 , 8:00 am
“Great peace have they that love Thy law; and there is no stumbling for them.” Psalms 119:165 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/King-Abdullah-meeting-with-US-President-Donald-Trump.jpg
Jordan’s King Abdullah meeting with US President Donald Trump (Courtesy of Royal Court)
Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Wednesday met with President Donald Trump’s Special International Negotiations Representative Jason D. Greenblatt, a Royal Court statement said, adding that “the King and Greenblatt reviewed efforts to resume the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.”
King Abdullah had met Trump last month in Washington. He was the first Arab leader to hold talks with the new US administration. Earlier that week, he discussed the fight against ISIS and the Syrian crisis with Vice President Mike Pence.
During the meeting with Greenblatt, at the Al Husseiniya Palace, the king stressed the US must end the stalemate in the PA-Israel peace process and revive negotiations leading to “a just and comprehensive solution to the conflict, based on the two-state formula.”
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/useful_banner_manager_banners/503-BIN-Causematch-ManKotel-600WIDE.jpg
King Abdullah asserted that reaching such a comprehensive peace deal, which must include establishing a Palestinian state, would reflect on efforts to achieve peace, security and stability in the entire Middle East.
Greenblatt, for his part, repeated the notion that peace between the PA Arabs and Israelis would have positive impacts on the region, and underlined the significant role Jordan would have in supporting the peace endeavors.
According to the US Embassy in Jordan, King Abdullah told Trump’s envoy that he would “do everything possible” to help end the Israel-PA conflict – on the basis of a two-state solution.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85189/king-abdullah-tells-greenblatt-israel-pa-peace-stabilize-entire-region/#WCkPsZP9gVgX58tk.99


Report: Hezbollah in Severe Financial Crisis
By JNI Media March 17, 2017 , 7:30 am
“My hand upon it! the evil man shall not be unpunished; but the seed of the righteous shall escape.” Proverbs 11:21 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/hezbollah-flag.jpg
Flag of Hezbollah. (Photo: Wiki Commons)
Billboards spread around the southern suburbs of Beirut calling for citizens to make financial donation to the Hezbollah “martyrs” are being interpreted by informed political circles in Lebanon as a sign that the terror group is experiencing a suffocating financial, the news website Lebanon Debate reported on Thursday.
The crisis is the result of the reduction in Iranian financial aid to the group, at the height of its ambitious involvement in numerous regional conflicts, from Syria to Iraq, Yemen, and Bahrain.
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The hardships of the increase in Hezbollah’s expenses and decrease in its Iranian aid are further enhanced by US and international sanctions which are being imposed on its ability to collect donations and use the world’s banking system. Hence its new campaign for aid from its wealthy patrons in Lebanon’s Shiite community, including businessmen, politicians and drug dealers.
In July 2014, The Daily Beast reported that Hezbollah owns marijuana plantations and produces hashish in the Bekaa Valley. The products are exported to Iraq, Jordan and Syria, where demand is the highest. The Lebanese government maintains a laissez-faire attitude towards illegal drug production.
According to Arab media reports, Hezbollah also owns Lebanese front companies dealing in counterfeit medicine.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85170/report-hezbollah-severe-financial-crisis/#y0J9u1Pji5fRRxmD.99



BDS Movement On Decline Worldwide
By JNS March 17, 2017 , 7:00 am
“And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; For I am with thee, saith Hashem, to deliver thee.” Jeremiah 1:19 (The Israel Bible™)
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Protesters gather to rally in support of the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. (Photo: Facebook)
By: Adam Abrams/JNS.org
Israel’s Knesset last week passed landmark legislation against the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, representing just one of several setbacks this month for BDS around the world.
The Israeli bill, which passed its third and final reading with a 46-28 vote, grants the interior minister authority to deny entry visas to non-Israeli citizens who actively support boycotts of the Jewish state.
Conveying the rationale for the anti-BDS measure, Member of Knesset David Amsalem (Likud), chairman of the Knesset Interior Committee, said that “if someone demeans me, I do not let them into my home.” Responding to critics of the legislation, Amsalem clarified that the new law is not intended to stifle free speech, but was implemented to combat anti-Semitism and enemies of the Jewish state. These opponents of Israel he said, “are not talking about boycotting only the settlements; they are talking about boycotting the state as a state, without any distinction. We are talking about anti-Semites here.”
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85154/bds-movement-suffers-setbacks-israel-around-world/#Ldi4ppLggLDlfkJL.99

Dome of the Rock Deliberately Placed Over Ancient Temple Site to Enforce Islamic ‘Replacement Theology’
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 16, 2017 , 12:30 pm
“Even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer; their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be acceptable upon Mine altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” Isaiah 56:7 (The Israel Bible™)

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The Dome of the Rock on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. (Alexandra Lande / Shutterstock.com)
The conflict over the Temple Mount is a clear manifestation of Islamic replacement theology, a noted archaeologist told the Knesset on Wednesday. It is the site’s holy status in Judaism that is the basis of Islam’s interest, and this phenomenon has been seen throughout history, with Islam appropriating major Christian sites as well.

Asaf Avraham, former director of the Jerusalem Walls National Park of the Parks Authority, addressed the newly formed Temple Mount Heritage Foundation headed by Rabbi Yehudah Glick (Likud) and Shulamit Mualem-Rafaeli (Jewish Home). Avraham explained that the Islamic connection to the gold-capped Dome of the Rock, and indeed the entire Temple Mount Compound, is based on the sanctity of the Jewish Temple that previously stood on the site.

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A model of the Second Holy Temple (Photo: Shutterstock.com)
Avraham based his claim on thousand-year-old Arabic writings he discovered in the Muslim village of Nuva, located next to Hebron. The writings refer to Sachrat Beit El Maqdis, which translates to ‘Rock of the Holy Temple’.
“This was one of the names of the Dome of the Rock in early Islam,” Avraham explained in an interview with Arutz Sheva. “This is of the evidence from early Muslim literature which defines the Dome of the Rock as Beit El Maqdis (Beit Hamikdash – ‘Temple’ in Hebrew)”.
Avraham’s claim stands in direct contradiction to UNESCO resolutions passed last summer which effectively erased any connection between Judaism and its holiest site.
“There is no doubt that the original source of the place’s holiness is the Temple,” said Avraham. “When Muslims arrived in the seventh century, and probably even before that, they absorbed the Jewish faith which then entered the Muslim faith. You see it in the Koran which is heavily laden with Biblical stories. “
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85155/temple-mount-conflict-proves-islamic-replacement-theology-seeks-usurp-religions/#Fh7es7vMdRltrqvX.99
A coalition of Arab countries accused Israel Wednesday of maintaining an apartheid regime to dominate Palestinians.

Operating under the guise of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission, 18 countries stretching from Morocco to Iraq concluded that “available evidence establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that Israel is guilty of policies and practices that constitute the crime of apartheid as legally defined in instruments of international law.”

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defines apartheid as a crime against humanity. Article II of the 1973 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid defines the offense as “[…] similar policies and practices of racial segregation and discrimination as practiced in southern Africa, shall apply to… inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them.”

The report accuses Israel of fostering “strategic fragmentation of the Palestinian people” in order to control them, and supposedly dividing Palestinians into four legal “domains”: “Palestinians” living as Israeli citizens but with a separate regime of civil law, Palestinians living in Jerusalem, who enjoy permanent resident status, Palestinians in Judea and Samaria who live under military law and the descendants of Arab Palestinians who left Israel during the 1948 War of Independence and currently reside outside territory under Israel’s control. The report also defines the Gaza Strip as “occupied territory,” despite the fact that the area has had no Israeli civilian or military presence since 2005.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85124/un-arab-world-accuses-israel-apartheid/#RxLorIQ3zFfoJk2d.99

UN Committee: Israel Forces 'Apartheid Regime' on Palestinians
“No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.” (Isaiah 54:17)

Christian Journalist’s Myth-Busting Report on the Truth in Israel Goes Viral [VIDEO]
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 16, 2017 , 1:30 pm
“Lying lips are an abomination to Hashem; but they that deal truly are His delight.” Proverbs 12:22 (The Israel Bible™)
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Faith Goldy tells the truth she has discovered in Israel. (Video screenshot)
A Christian journalist’s brutally honest report on her news team’s recent fact-finding mission to Israel went viral this week, busting myths about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and spreading the message that the situation in the Holy Land is very different from what most people think.
Four journalists from The Rebel, a Canadian right-wing political and social commentary site, arrived in Israel last week for an intense tour of the hotspots featured in media coverage, beginning with Jerusalem and moving to Sderot, a city on the southern border with Gaza under constant threat of shelling. On a windswept mountain overlooking Israel’s border with Syria, reporter Faith Goldy described how the journey had revealed the truth about the regional conflict between the Jews and the Palestinians.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85198/christian-journalists-myth-busting-report-truth-israel-goes-viral-video/#B8Dhz95cLzqDj7hV.99

Jordan Refuses to Extradite Palestinian Terrorist After Anomalous US Request
By JNS March 16, 2017 , 11:30 am
“And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed upon him with all diligence, whether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.” Ezra 7:26 (The Israel Bible™)
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The August 2001 Palestinian suicide bombing at the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem. (Flash90)
The Jordanian government has refused an anomalous U.S. request to extradite a Palestinian terrorist.
The Department of Justice’s extradition request for Ahlam Tamimi, who was behind a 2001 terror attack in Jerusalem that resulted in Israeli and American deaths, breaks with past U.S. policy on such terror-related cases. Prior to the Trump administration, legal cases against such terrorists constituted either criminal proceedings in Israeli courts or civil proceedings brought by family members in U.S. courts.
The request calls on Jordan to hand over Tamimi, a female Hamas terrorist who had previously been jailed by Israel for her connection to the Sbarro pizza restaurant terror attack in Jerusalem in August 2001, but was released by Israel as part of the controversial 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange. The 2001 bombing attack killed 15 people, including seven children and a pregnant woman, and wounded 130.
Tamimi proudly confessed to assisting Palestinian suicide bomber Izz al-Din Shuheil al-Masri carry out the attack for Hamas. She helped al-Masri choose his target and transported the terrorist to the crowded Jerusalem pizza restaurant, where he detonated a suicide belt containing up to 22 pounds of explosives, nails, screws and bolts.
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In its refusal of America’s request, Jordan’s government cited a domestic court ruling that forbids the extradition of Jordanian nationals under the Hashemite Kingdom’s constitution.
As a means of pressuring Jordan to extradite the terrorist, Tamimi has been added to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list for her role in the Sbarro massacre. Two of the victims killed in the attack were American citizens.
Tamimi is currently a TV host in Jordan, where she has interviewed fellow Hamas terrorists, and has bragged about her involvement in the murder of other Israelis and the Palestinian resistance against Israel.
Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center President Nitsana Darshan-Leitner—whose NGO is representing the family of Sbarro attack victim Chana Nachenberg, who remains in a coma from the bombing—welcomed the Justice Department’s move.
“We are glad that the U.S. Department of Justice has decided to move forward against this notorious mass murderer,” Darshan-Leitner said. “We have been requesting for a long time that this unrepentant Palestinian terrorist be rearrested, extradited and prosecuted by American law enforcement officials.”
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/85147/jordan-refuses-extradite-palestinian-terrorist-anomalous-us-request/#e8Jrk3UAbIZ18VDS.99