Twenty-four nations voted in favor of the motion, 26 abstained and only six voted against.
In a 24-6 vote, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on Thursday gave preliminary approval to a resolution that denies Jewish ties to its most holy religious sites: the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the vote stating: “The theater of the absurd continues at the UN.” Continue reading
One way the rise of Islamist authoritarianism in a country can be seen is by the rise in the number of mosques, religious schools and prisons — coupled with a sharp decline in the quality of education. Turkey is no exception. Continue reading
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. – Leviticus 25:10
Amidst the shofar blasts, this Rosh Hashana will include a mitzvah (Biblical commandment) that hasn’t been performed by the Jews in almost 2,000 years: counting the Jubilee. It is a simple mitzvah, reciting just a few lines, but performing this mitzvah is a declaration that the prophesied return of the Jews to Israel has been fulfilled, thereby establishing a basis for the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple. Continue reading
Shimon Peres marked his greatest achievement in a long, and impressive life, full of ups and downs, at the age of 33. If he was a copywriter, he could have summed it up proudly in one spot-on sentence, paraphrased from Herzl: In Sèvres, I established Dimona and ensured the future of the State of Israel. Continue reading
Shimon and Sonia Peres with their three children on November 15, 1958. (photo credit:AVRAHAM VERED / IDF AND DEFENSE MINISTRY ARCHIVES)
Shimon Peres, former president, former prime minister, former defense minister, former foreign minister, former minister of eight other ministries, the last surviving member of Israel’s founding fathers, and winner of the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize died Wednesday after suffering a stroke two weeks ago. He was 93 years old. Continue reading
Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? – Isaiah 66:1
Virtual reality depiction of the Holy Temple. (Video screenshot)
Last week, some visitors to the Western Wall (Kotel) in Jerusalem reported that they had seen the Second Temple reappear, and though the Messiah hasn’t yet arrived, the reports were indeed accurate. A new project from The Temple Mount Heritage Foundation and ArchTour is perhaps the closest you can get to experiencing the Temple, at least until it is really built. Continue reading
Planners say the capital must expand to the north, south and east, including an international airport, subways, and much more.
What will the Jerusalem metropolitan area look like in the year 2050? That’s what some Jerusalem lovers and supporters not only want to answer, but want to help shape – and that’s why they have been working hard on the comprehensive and well-researched plan they call Jerusalem5800. Continue reading
In a recent interfaith video, Pope Francis argued that all religions worship God, whether we call Him God, Buddha, Jesus Christ or Allah. He then suggested we should lay aside our theological differences and all celebrate our Deity together. To quote him: “In this crowd, in this range of religions, there is only one certainty that we have for all: we are all children of God.”
I couldn’t help thinking of Zerubbabel’s response to a similar invite to come together, this one by the enemies of Judah who’d offered to help rebuild the second temple. After they told him that “we like you, seek your God,” Zerubbabel replied: “You have nothing in common with us in building a temple to our God; but we ourselves will together build to the Lord God of Israel” (Ezra 4:1-3). Apparently, he didn’t consider them to be children of the same God Israel served.
But could the Pope be right? Does God not care much about what we call Him? Or how we worship? Is it enough just to acknowledge He exists and be sincere in our religious beliefs? Or is our God more particular about how He wants to be addressed and worshipped?
We don’t have to look far in the Bible to get the answer. There’s an account of God’s prophet, Elijah, confronting Israel and the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel. Elijah is obviously one who also does not embrace the big religious hug fest as proposed by Pope Francis. For we find him here challenging Israel to choose: “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If Yahweh is God follow Him; but if Baal, follow him” (1 Kings 18:21).
If Baal was indeed Israel’s God by another name, it shouldn’t matter, right? But clearly our God didn’t see it that way. Because after Israel voted to follow Him, He had Elijah slay all the priests of Baal!
It seems Israel never learned its lesson at Mt. Sinai where God instructed them on how to worship Him. For while Moses was off getting the instructions in writing, Israel decides to worship God Egyptian style. And they set up a golden calf. As a result, three thousand died that day. What were they thinking? Hadn’t God just told them: “You shall not make for yourselves an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them, for I, the LORD [Yahweh] your God, am a jealous God” (Ex. 20:4,5).
Still the people did not depart from their idolatry: “It was not Me that you offered victims and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, was it O House of Israel? You also took along the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of Rompha, the images which you made to worship” (Acts 7:42,43).
So we see God will not identify with the names of other gods. Not then. Not now. To begin, God has only one proper name, which is Yahweh – or Jehovah. It is written as the Tetragrammaton YHWH, but translated as “LORD” (all caps) in our Bibles out of deference to Jewish belief the name is too holy to be written or spoken. When speaking of Him, Jews today usually call Him HaShem (The Name). Before His true name was revealed the Patriarchs called Him El Elyon or El Shaddai.
We can also address our God by His title, which is “Lord” (Heb. Adonai).Or as “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” which is the only family on earth to whom He has forever linked His name (Ex. 3:15). But the most intimate way to speak to Him is to call Him “Father” (Heb. Abba). That’s how Yeshua talked to Him, and no one knew Him more intimately than he.
But Satan is a deceptive marketer who doesn’t quit. He knows if we approach God any differently than how God has prescribed we’ll be serving him. “I say the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I don’t want you to become sharers in demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?” (1 Cor. 10:20- 22).
As a former Roman Catholic, for example, I was taught that, at the incantation of the priest, the bread and wine at Mass were transformed into the actual physical body and blood of Jesus. Jesus could then be offered over and over on their altars as a bloodless sacrifice. The Council of Trent declared this sacrifice to be “propitiatory,” that is able to “pardon even the gravest crimes and sins” (Twenty-Second Session, Chapter II). After I started to read the Bible I found Hebrews 10:10-14 totally refuted this false doctrine. How deceived I was to think that worshipping a piece of bread as God, as we were taught, was any less idolatrous than worshipping a golden calf.
We live in the Age of Grace right now. But one day this grace period will end and the wrath of God will begin. We don’t want to be found at that time hesitating between two opinions.
The most pressing threat to Israel is not Iran, but rather the increased polarization within Israeli society, former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo said in his first public appearance since leaving office in June.
“There is no outside existential threat to Israel, the only real existential threat is internal division,” Pardo said at an annual event to honor fallen Druse soldiers in the North.
“Internal division,” Pardo said, “can lead us to civil war – we are already on a path toward that. If a society crosses a certain line in its division and hatred, it is a real possibility to see a phenomenon like a civil war.”
Society at large bears responsibility to prevent these divisions, not just the leadership, he added.
In response to reporter’s questions, Pardo also addressed the Palestinian issue, saying that without a diplomatic solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “we will never be able to achieve normalization with our Arab neighbors.”
The comments on relations with the Palestinians came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly hailed improved diplomatic relations with moderate Arab countries in the region.
Pardo also took issue with the Defense Ministry’s statement earlier this month that compared the deal between the six world powers and Iran to curb Tehran’s nuclear program with the 1938 Munich agreement that allowed Nazi Germany to annex portions of Czechoslovakia.
“You can’t compare squash and grapes. What happened a century ago is different from what is occurring today,” Pardo said. “History does not repeat itself.”
“Excellence and Zionism,” with an emphasis on Bible study, is the root of an education “revolution” the government wants to bring about, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting held on Tuesday, two days before the start of the new school year.
“Our objective is to carry out an education revolution,” Netanyahu said. “This revolution will be based on two things: excellence and Zionism.”
Excellence, he said, to enable every child to realize their potential; and Zionism, based on the study of the Bible and Jewish heritage, to understand why the Jews are in Israel.
“First of all, the study of the Bible,” he said. “We must make a major effort – this is the basis for why we are here, why we have returned here, why we stay here.”
In addition, he said, it is important to teach about Jewish contributions to civilization, as well as general history and knowledge.
“Knowledge is a critical word,” he said. “We want to give it to every child in Israel, Jews and non-Jews as one, religious and secular. This is the basis of the new world, and the basis of Israel as a strong nation in the world.”
During the meeting, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman raised the issue of the Tel Aviv municipality’s reported decision to turn the Shevah-Mofet school in south Tel Aviv – which since the 1990s immigration wave has mainly served the children of Russian-speaking immigrants – into a school for the children of migrants living in the area.
When Liberman said that Netanyahu should get involved in the decision to turn the school – which he called a flagship for immigrant absorption – into a school for the “children of refugees,” he was corrected by ministers Miri Regev and Ofer Akunis, who yelled out “infiltrators, not refugees.”