JACK FROST CAME TO ISRAEL
God thunders marvelously with His voice;
He does great things which we cannot comprehend.
For He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth’; Likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength.
He does great things which we cannot comprehend.
For He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth’; Likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength.
Job 37: 5-6
Icicles dangle from a tree in Merom Golan (Eyal Zarin)
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4759568,00.html
In a week that left the eastern seaboard of the US buried under deep snow, and the UK and Europe fighting strong winds, rain and snow, we too here in subtropical Israel were not left out of winter's icy blast. Today thousands flocked to Israel's only skifield, on Mt Hermon, to enjoy the perfect skiing conditions but, for the second day running, congestion on the roads forced the gates to be closed only 3 hours after opening.
Here in Jerusalem this week there were many disappointed children (and adults too if we are honest), because the promised snow never arrived, apart from a few light dustings and flurries. It wasn't because it wasn't cold enough; it certainly was, with the thermometer not getting over 2 degrees C a couple of days, and going down to -4 one night, but the clouds kept going around us, which was all rather frustrating. This photo says it all - the word written on the window of a (very lightly) snow covered car Tuesday morning says 'achzavah' which in Hebrew means 'disappointment').
THE INTIFADA OF KNIVES continues...
Even the biting cold this week was not enough to keep the terrorists at home. On Monday, 23 year old, Shlomit Krigman, went to her local grocery store in Bet Horon, just off the Modi'in-Jerusalem highway number 443. In the parking lot, she and another woman were brutally stabbed by two Palestinian terrorists. The terrorists then tried to enter the store itself, but were held off by shoppers wielding shopping carts, until they finally gave up and fled the scene. A security guard shot and killed both terrorists. Shlomit succumbed to her wounds the following day. The other woman, aged 58, was moderately wounded. Three homemade bombs were also found in the area but fortunately they had failed to detonate.
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| http://images1.ynet.co.il/PicServer4/2016/01/26/6778377/Redmail4_big.jpg |
THE INTIFADA OF KNIVES continues...
Even the biting cold this week was not enough to keep the terrorists at home. On Monday, 23 year old, Shlomit Krigman, went to her local grocery store in Bet Horon, just off the Modi'in-Jerusalem highway number 443. In the parking lot, she and another woman were brutally stabbed by two Palestinian terrorists. The terrorists then tried to enter the store itself, but were held off by shoppers wielding shopping carts, until they finally gave up and fled the scene. A security guard shot and killed both terrorists. Shlomit succumbed to her wounds the following day. The other woman, aged 58, was moderately wounded. Three homemade bombs were also found in the area but fortunately they had failed to detonate.
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| Sholomit Krigman would have celebrated her 24th birthday next week http://www.timesofisrael.com/woman-24-dies-of-wounds-after-stabbing-in-settlement-market/ |
This cowardly and brutal attack on innocent women follows another which occurred about a week earlier, when a 15-year -old Palestinian boy attacked and killed a Jewish woman, Dafna Meir, at her home in Otniel, in the Gush Katif settlement block south of Hebron. The woman, Dafna Meir, was the mother of six, including two foster children. She was painting her front door when the boy attacked her. She struggled to prevent him attacking her children, and the screams of her eldest daughter, aged 17, apparently drove him off. He was later captured by police and admitted to the attack. He said he decided to murder a Jew after watching Palestinian TV where Israel was presented as a country that kills young Palestinians - a sad and dramatic demonstration of the dangers of the incitement of the Palestinian press.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4755421,00.htmlhttp://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4757144,00.html
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| Dafna Meir and her husband Natan http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4755421,00.html
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In stark contrast, Dafna's husband, Natan, speaking of the family's emotions, said "We have no anger .... "I am not angry at anyone. We do not curse Arabs. We are not people who hate. That's not how Dafna and I educated the kids. I spoke with the children yesterday and didn't hear a single bad thing. I talked to them about what we will do now. It's not simple."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4755421,00.html
As I am writing a report is coming in of yet another knifing attack, this time at the Damascus Gate into the Old City in Jerusalem. A 17 year old was lightly wounded in the attack and he said that his attackers were two Palestinians aged between 14 and 15 years old. This follows another attack on Wednesday when a 50 year old man was stabbed and seriously wounded in the neighborhood of Givat Zeev, in northern Jerusalem. And so it goes on....
BDS IS ALIVE AND GROWING
Over the last weeks too we have seen more evidence of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement gathering strength against Israel.
On January 13th, the United Methodist Church became the latest Church organization to embrace BDS against Israel.
This week too 168 members of over 50 academic institutions in Italy signed a petition produced ‘in solidarity’ with the BDS movement, and which called for a boycott of Israeli universities because of their 'complicity' in helping to develop military weapons, and their "utter lack of any serious condemnation” of government policy. They singled out the Technion in Haifa which carries out research on a wide-range of technologies and weapons 'used to oppress and attack Palestinians'. They cited,as an example, the research being carried out at the Technion into tunnel-detecting technology “developed specifically to maintain Israel’s siege on the Gaza Strip.”http://www.timesofisrael.com/dozens-of-italian-academics-call-for-boycott-of-israeli-universities/
This would be laughable were it not so serious.
HAMAS TUNNELS INTO ISRAEL
On Wednesday this week heavy rains caused the collapse of a tunnel killing seven Hamas operatives, and leaving four others missing. Speaking at Friday prayers ahead of the funerals of the seven dead, Deputy Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, openly admitted that his organization is "digging east of Gaza and conducting rocket tests west of Gaza on a daily basis" , and went on to say "We are continuing on the path of jihad and towards the territories' liberation. The resistance is in a state of preparation, improvement and equipping of all its weapons in order to be ready for any conflict with Israel".
During the last confrontation with Hamas in Gaza, the 2014 Operation Protective Edge, the Israel Defense Forces uncovered and destroyed 32 tunnels that had been dug under the border fence from Gaza into Israeli territory. Since the 'ceasefire' roughly a third of those tunnels have been rebuilt (while thousands of Gazans shiver out the winter in makeshift shelters because of a 'lack of concrete and other building materials'!!!) Israeli residents in the border towns report hearing tunneling activity under their homes on a daily basis. If this was your home, wouldn't you support the development of technology designed to find these tunnels???
On January 13th, the United Methodist Church became the latest Church organization to embrace BDS against Israel.
The BDS movement grew out of the UN's 2001 Conference in Durban, South Africa, in which some 1500 NGOs crystallized a strategy of delegitimizing Israel accusing it of being an 'apartheid regime'. This decision explicitly called for the "complete and total isolation of Israel as an apartheid state" through the “imposition of mandatory and comprehensive sanctions and embargoes, the full cessation of all links (diplomatic, economic, social, aid, military cooperation and training) between all states and Israel.” http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/methodist_and_ngos_join_forces_for_bds_immoral_and_harmful_to_peace
According to NGO Monitor, an NGO called "Who Profits" leads these attacks. In 2014-2015, the donors supporting this group included Trocaire (a church group in Ireland), Fagforbundet (Norway, Labor Organization), the "Bread for the World" (a church group based in Germany), "Medico International (Germany), ICCO (a church group in Netherlands), and Nova (funded by the Spanish government).
It is very sad to see Christian churches and organizations being not only drawn into this movement but leading it. They are cynically being used by anti-Semitic jihadist forces to further their ends by destroying Israel. This is not a peace movement nor does it have the best interests of the Palestinians at heart. It poses as a humanitarian concern and plays on the sympathies of Christians and their concern for the poor and oppressed, but it is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Its real agenda is very different. The BDS is actually harming the Palestinians a great deal more than it is harming Israel. This is a time when Christians need to know God's heart and exercise great discernment. We need to see past the headlines and try to understand the truth. The truth is that it is all part of the spiritual war being waged against God and His plan to rebuild Israel in order to bring about the final redemption of the world. May we all be very careful about which side we find ourselves standing on in this war, and also realize that sitting on the fence is not an option either.
Below is an English translation of the 2005 call of the Palestinian civil society (whoever they are) for BDS:
We, representatives of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace. These non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.
http://bdsmovement.net/call
We, representatives of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace. These non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.
http://bdsmovement.net/call
Please note my highlighting. The goal is NOT peace between Israel and the Palestinians, nor just better rights and living conditions for them, but very clearly the ultimate goal is the total destruction of the State of Israel.
This week too 168 members of over 50 academic institutions in Italy signed a petition produced ‘in solidarity’ with the BDS movement, and which called for a boycott of Israeli universities because of their 'complicity' in helping to develop military weapons, and their "utter lack of any serious condemnation” of government policy. They singled out the Technion in Haifa which carries out research on a wide-range of technologies and weapons 'used to oppress and attack Palestinians'. They cited,as an example, the research being carried out at the Technion into tunnel-detecting technology “developed specifically to maintain Israel’s siege on the Gaza Strip.”http://www.timesofisrael.com/dozens-of-italian-academics-call-for-boycott-of-israeli-universities/
This would be laughable were it not so serious.
HAMAS TUNNELS INTO ISRAEL
On Wednesday this week heavy rains caused the collapse of a tunnel killing seven Hamas operatives, and leaving four others missing. Speaking at Friday prayers ahead of the funerals of the seven dead, Deputy Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, openly admitted that his organization is "digging east of Gaza and conducting rocket tests west of Gaza on a daily basis" , and went on to say "We are continuing on the path of jihad and towards the territories' liberation. The resistance is in a state of preparation, improvement and equipping of all its weapons in order to be ready for any conflict with Israel".
During the last confrontation with Hamas in Gaza, the 2014 Operation Protective Edge, the Israel Defense Forces uncovered and destroyed 32 tunnels that had been dug under the border fence from Gaza into Israeli territory. Since the 'ceasefire' roughly a third of those tunnels have been rebuilt (while thousands of Gazans shiver out the winter in makeshift shelters because of a 'lack of concrete and other building materials'!!!) Israeli residents in the border towns report hearing tunneling activity under their homes on a daily basis. If this was your home, wouldn't you support the development of technology designed to find these tunnels???
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| Inside a Hamas tunnel (Photo: Reuters) Note all the concrete! http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4759457,00.html |
ANTI-CHRISTIAN VANDALISM
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| Anti-Christian grafitti found on the walls of the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem (Photo: Dormition Abbey) http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4755587,00.html |
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| Graffiti reads "Death to the heretical Christians the enemies of Israel" http://www.timesofisrael.com/jerusalem-church-defaced-with-anti-christian-graffiti/ |
Earlier this month, a 20 year old and another minor were charged with an earlier arson attack on the Dormition Abbey
in 2014, and setting fire to the Church of the Loaves and Fishes in the Galilee this past summer.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4755587,00.html
You might pass these acts of vandalism off as boyish pranks or mere hooliganism were it not that these boys belonged to the same Jewish terror organization that set fire to a Palestinian home in Duma in the West Bank, killing an 18 month old toddler and both of his parents. It is a sad and tragic thing that this phenomenon of extreme right wing Jewish terrorism exists at all. It is perhaps a result of the brutal and violent neighborhood in which we live, but it is not inevitable. Please join me in prayer that this movement will not spread but rather, the Jewish people will cling to their own high values of respect for human life and that we all will resist hatred and acts of revenge. Violence only breeds more violence, but love can overcome hatred. Jesus taught us not only to forgive and to pray for our enemies, but even to love them.
You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust
Matthew 5: 43-48
And on an entirely different note - just to finish up - a picture of an Israel which is a far cry from camels and deserts, or tanks and guns: a herd of wild deer foraging in the snow in the forests of the Golan this week.
Odem Forest in the Golan Heights this week (Photo: Avihu Shapira)
