November 2010 | www.israeltoday.co.il

No.

141

printed in Israel

Planned Palestinian City | Secrets of Ein Gedi | Evangelicals in Israel£

2.50

FREEDOM OF WORSHIP?No Jewish Prayers on the Temple Mount

Politics4 The People Are More Right-Wing than the Government6 Welcome to Rawabi 7 For God and Country

PEoPlE8 Star Couple at Tel Aviv Expo

ArAb PrEss9 Islam Will Conquer the World

PAlEstiniAns10 Why Do Arab Kids Throw Stones?

Focus on JErusAlEm11 Jerusalem Arabs Don’t Want to Live in ‘Palestine’

DiAsPorA12 Rothschild Makes ‘Aliyah’

WorD From JErusAlEm14 God’s Blueprint For Building

biblE stuDY15 Why Should We Bless Israel?

thE lAnD16 The Secrets of Ein Gedi

DEbAtE18 Did the Jews Steal the Land from the Arabs?

ProPhEcY19 The Seventh Church of Revelation

christiAns20 Christians Support the Settlements

mEssiAnic JEWs21 Joseph Bau - Jesus as Holocaust Survivor

JEWish AFFAirs22 Blow a Trumpet in Zion!

ArchAEologY23 Bronze Age Document

culturE24 Israeli Supermodel Is a Knockout

militArY27 Remembering a Heroine

nAturE28 Titanic Discoverer Probes Israeli Coast

EconomY29 Electricity from Traffic

in briEF30 Don’t Forget To Vote!31 World’s Oldest Jew Dies at 111

The Western world, or so-called Christian West, preaches the impor-tance of loving your enemy, even here in the troubled Middle East. It is much easier, however, to talk about love than

to practice it. The Christian ethic to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” is often expected of your neighbor but not neces-sarily yourself.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman may be Israel’s top diplomat, but the Russian-born former bouncer is not known for diplomacy. So when he hosted the foreign ministers of Spain and France in Jerusalem, the refined European diplomats were shocked when he told them to practice what they preach: “You should solve your own problems in Europe before you come to us with complaints,” he said. “Maybe then I will be open to accepting your suggestions.”

When I took my son Tomer to the emergency room after he broke his finger, I realized that the Christian teaching to love your enemies is being prac-ticed daily, but not necessarily by Christians. One can see in every Israeli hospital—in a region considered

a war zone by the Chris-tian West—Jewish doc-tors treating Arab patients, equally. On a national level, Israelis and Palestinians are enemies; but on a personal level, Jewish doctors treat Arab patients and Israeli Arab doctors treat Jewish patients.

In the waiting room, I was surrounded by non-Christians, both Arabs and Jews, one of whom told me: “What is the sense of these peace talks if we do not learn to love each other? Without love, life makes no sense.” The others nodded in agreement.

That reminded me of the famous words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 13: “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal… But now faith, hope and love abide these three. But the greatest of these is love.”

Shalom Haverim,

Publisher: nai – israel today | Founder of nai: Ludwig Schneider | Editor-in-Chief: Aviel Schneider | Co-Editor & Art Director: Michael Schneider | Senior Editor/Correspondent: Shlomo Mordechai | Editor: Barry Rosenfeld | Website/Staff Writer: Ryan Jones | Managing Editor/Director of Marketing: Lorraine Rubinow | Administrator: Daniel GoldsteinBiblical Commentary, Word from Jerusalem, Debate, Prophecy: Ludwig Schneider | Politics, Focus on Jerusalem, Arab Press: Aviel Schneider, Ryan Jones | Messianic Jews, The Land, Profile, In Brief: Michael Schneider, Tzvi Sadan | Military, Tourism, Nature, Archeology, Jewish Affairs: Netanel Doron | Christians, Diaspora, Culture, Economy: Judith Jeries | Islam: Victor Mordechai | Text Advisor: Dov Chaikin | Financial Director: Anat Schneider | Translator: Judith Jeries, Beverly Bayliss | Graphic Designer: Pavel Permyakov, Larisa Kaplan

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FAIR TREATMENTA Jewish doctor

treats an Arab patient

P o l i t i c s

“I am proud to serve in the Israeli army,” says Ziad

Hurani, 21, from the Arab village Aqabara near Safed in the Galilee. “Many people are surprised that I serve in the military, but I live in a country that has given me a lot.”

Ziad, who has been bestowed with the honor of Outstand-ing Soldier, is among a growing number of Israeli Arabs who join the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to serve alongside the Jewish ma-jority.

It’s a biblical concept. Wasn’t Uriah the Hittite also a proud sol-dier in the army of King David? The Hittites were enemies of Israel, but Uriah was a brave warrior who devotedly served the King on the battlefield (2 Samuel 11).

In the August-September edi-tion of israel today, we reported on our unique meeting with Is-raeli Arabs who were not averse to participating in the three years of military service that is mandatory for Jews. It was already dark when we drove with Nusseibah Khattib, 29, and Kaba’a Said, 37, into the Arab village of Arara back then.

There we met with Youssef Jaja, whose three sons serve in the IDF.

Six years ago, his son Said was killed in a bomb-ing at his base in the Gaza Strip. Youssef set up a memorial plaque in his courtyard, not only for his son but also for all the fallen Arab soldiers in the area.

“We live with each other and have to defend our country shoul-der to shoulder,” Jaja told israel today. “At first, villagers were suspicious. But a lot has changed today. More than 50 Arabs from this area join the Israeli army each year.”

During Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles), Ziad represented the Golani soldiers in the official suk-kah (hut) of outgoing Army Chief Gabi Ashkenazi. “I was honored,” he said.

Ziad recounts how he was asked by many of his Jewish com-rades why he would join a combat unit like Golani as a Muslim. “I en-joy every moment with the unit,” he says. “I have never encountered anything like racism on the part of the Jewish soldiers. On the con-trary, every time I am on holiday, I yearn for my comrades.”

Ziad’s fellow soldiers say they trust him blindly in every cir-cumstance and no matter what the operation. I myself can un-derstand this very well. I served alongside Arab soldiers time and again in the Security Zone in South Lebanon and along the Egyptian border during my regu-lar military service in the 1980s and later during 20 years of re-serve duty.

Ziad Hurani likes to spend the weekend at home in his village. A soldier is not allowed to tell ci-vilians much about his military service, but he helps his Muslim neighbors understand that the Is-raeli army is a necessity. And he tries to persuade Arab youth to join the IDF.

“I think it’s important that Arabs serve in the army,” he says. “Israel is our country too. That is why we should contribute to its de-fense.” Y By Aviel S chneider

A Muslim and an Israeli Soldier

November 2010 | 3

STANDING WITH ISRAEL: Ziad Hurani

MEMORIAL to fallen Arab soldiers

He is a Muslim from the Galilee and a soldier in the elite Golani Brigade

4 | November 2010 | www.israeltoday.co.il

P o l i t i c s

The government of Prime Minis-ter Benjamin Netanyahu is con-demned by the nations (goyim in

Hebrew) because of its policies toward the Palestinians. Everything seems to depend on one question: Will Israel continue to build in Judea and Samaria (the so-called “West Bank”) and East Jerusalem, or will it heed international demands to stop? From Washington to Brussels to the Arab League in Cairo, the view is that continued Israeli con-struction in the biblical Land of Israel will destroy the prospects for peace.

The international media often draw a distinction between the government and general public, as if the people are dissatisfied with their right-wing leadership. Of course, many Israe-lis disagree with Netanyahu and his nationalist Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. But the left-wing writers, intellectuals, politicians and journal-ists who are frequently interviewed in the media do not represent the major-ity. To find out where the people stand, israel today commissioned a survey with the Dialogue Institute in Tel Aviv; 538 Israeli citizens were questioned in Hebrew, Russian and Arabic.

‘I Say What the People Think’

Unlike the refined diplomacy of the US-educated Netanyahu, Lieberman is a former bouncer from Russia who shoots from the hip. So instead of the dreamy talk of “peace and security,” he has ruffled feathers with a dose of reality.

Lieberman told the UN that a solu-tion to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “could take a few decades,” in contrast to the stated goal of the US for an agree-ment in a year. Then he explained the comment on Israel Radio: “Anyone who says that within the next few years an agreement can be reached ending the conflict...simply doesn’t understand the situation and spreads illusions, ultimately leading to disappointments and an all-out confrontation here.”

Lieberman got a lot of bad press for the remarks both abroad and in the left-wing Israeli media. But according to the Dialogue survey, more than half of the Jewish population, 54 percent, approved of his remarks. Among Israeli Arabs, 38 per-cent consider peace in this generation as unrealistic. As Lieberman said in his own defense, “I say what the people think.”

This could be why the government is not making quick progress toward peace. While Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas may be the darling of the West because of his perceived “moderation,” Israeli Jews remain skep-tical. A whopping 70 percent, according to our poll, do not believe that Abbas wants peace. Only 22 percent believe that the Palestinian Authority is sincere about peace with Israel, compared to 52 percent among Israeli Arabs.

The People Expect War

This skepticism is due to long years of fruitless negotiations—and three wars in the last decade: the Second In-tifada (Palestinian uprising) from 2000 to 2004; the Second Lebanon War in 2006; and the Gaza War in 2009. There-fore, every second Israeli Jew, 49 per-cent, believes that there will be another war soon; 68 percent of Israeli Arabs are of the same opinion.

The next war, however, will likely be with Iran rather than with the Pal-estinians. The poll found that 48 per-cent of the public supports an Israeli pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities; 38 percent are opposed and 14 percent had no opinion.

Religious Jews take the most hawk-ish approach: 71 percent of ultra-Or-thodox Jews support an Israeli attack on Iran along with 63 percent of the National-Religious camp. Israeli Arabs take the most dovish approach: only 18 percent favor a pre-emptive strike.

Cyber Warfare and Queen Esther

Against that background, Israel is widely believed to be responsible for a cy-ber attack on the Iranian nuclear reactor at Bushehr. The New York Times reported that the word Myrtus was contained in the

The People Are More Right-Wing than the Government

‘EUROPE APPEASED HITLER’: Israeli FM Lieberman (center) tells French FM Kouchner (right) and Spanish FM Moratinos that Israel will not be the ‘Czechoslovakia of 2010’

www.israeltoday.co.il | October 2010 | 5

P o l i t i c s

code of the Stuxnet virus which attacked the facility. Myrtus is the Latin word for “myrtle,” which is hadas in Hebrew.

Hadassah is also the Hebrew version of Queen Esther's name (Esther 2:7), and that could help unravel the mystery. As then, as now: The biblical Esther un-covered a Persian conspiracy and was brought into the king’s court to prevent the annihilation of the Jewish people. Likewise, this “Cyber Esther” computer worm was smuggled into Bushehr to paralyze the Iranian uranium enrich-ment plant and ultimately thwart the plan to annihilate the Jewish state.

“It is no secret that Israel’s cyber de-fense is among the best in the world,” a computer expert at the Israeli hi-tech company Checkpoint told israel today. “But this also applies to cyber offense.”

Other Israeli experts agree. “The Stuxnet computer worm is

a damaging code which was already known to cyber defense analysts five months ago,” said Shai Blitzblau, direc-tor of the computer warfare laboratory Maglan. “The virus has penetrated the defense systems of thousands of com-puters worldwide, including in the US, India, France, Cuba, Pakistan and Rus-sia. But it only made international head-lines after the cyber attack on Bushehr.”

Israel has not been hit by the virus, but officials in Jerusalem neither con-firm nor deny involvement.

“Israel is ready to use any means necessary to eliminate threats to its existence, among them the Iranian nuclear program, whether through cyber warfare or other methods,” an adviser to Foreign Minister Lieberman told israel today. “Israel must be pre-pared for every eventuality, including a military strike, if other options fail.”

The newly-appointed Army Chief of Staff Major General Yoav Galant, unlike current army chief Gabi Ashkenazi, sup-ports an Israeli pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities as a last resort. Galant takes up the position in February 2011.

Israelis Do not Trust Obama

It has become clear with the elec-tion of President Barack Obama that if Israel doesn’t stop Iran, no one will. Ac-cording to the survey, only 18 percent of Israelis believe that Obama is com-mitted to Israel’s security; 51 percent believe he puts the interests of Muslims above that of the Jews; and 33 percent are undecided.

Many Jewish voters in the US have also lost confidence in the President. In the previous election, 78 percent of American Jews voted for Obama; but only 42 percent would vote for him today, according to a poll by the McLaughlin Group. Among those admitting that they made a mistake are American-Israeli billionaire Haim Saban, one of the biggest donors to the Democratic Party, and former New York Mayor Ed Koch.

In our May 2010 issue, we reported on the diplomatic crisis between Je-

rusalem and Washington and how Israeli newspapers quoted political circles close to Netanyahu as saying that Obama was a “strategic catastro-phe” for Israel. “Israel’s relations with the US have hit rock bottom,” wrote commentator Nachum Barnea in Isra-el’s biggest newspaper Yediot Ahronot. “Obama poses a danger to Israel.”

That point of view may be too ex-treme for the majority here. According to the survey, 54 percent of Israeli Jews and 82 percent of Israeli Arabs do not see Obama as a danger to Israel; 38 per-cent of the Jewish population, however, does see him as a strategic threat.

Jews for Christians Finally, Israeli attitudes toward

Christians are changing for the better despite the troubled history between Jews and the Church. Our poll found that 61 percent of Israeli Jews regard the visit of thousands of Christians from around the world for the Feast of Tabernacles (see page 20) as posi-tive; only 22 percent saw it as negative. In a further breakdown, 71 percent of secular Jews see Christian support in a positive light, along with 70 percent of traditional Jews, 57 percent of the National-Religious camp and 41 per-cent of the ultra-Orthodox.

The more religious the population, the more skeptical its attitude toward Chris-tians. But despite the campaigns of anti-missionary organizations, the majority of Israelis regard the Christian supporters of Israel as friends and partners. Y

By Aviel S chneider

Dialogue-israel today Survey

Portrait of the Israeli Public

Secular 29%Traditional 20%National-Religious 12%Ultra-Orthodox 13%Russian 15%Arab 9%Not specified 2%

Political Affiliation

Right-wing 38%Right-wing to center 10%Center 21%Center to left-wing 7%Left-wing 9%Not specified 16%

WELCOME! Israelis have a positive view of Evangelical Christians who attended the Feast of Tabernacles Ph

oto:

ICEJ

P o l i t i c s

Welcome to Rawabi

6 | November 2010 | www.israeltoday.co.il

T here may be a construction freeze in Judea and Samaria, but it is only for

the Jews. In the eyes of the international community, the biblical heartland, prom-ised by God to the Jewish people, belongs to the Palestinian Arabs.

So while there is an outcry over the construction—or planned construction—of every Jewish house, the world is silent about the current Palestinian building boom. Hundreds of homes and apart-ments are going up in Area A (under full Palestinian control), in Area B (under Is-rael security control) and in Area C (under full Israeli control).

The most glaring example is the first “planned” Palestinian city—Rawabi—lo-cated about 20 miles (33 km.) north of Jerusalem. “Every apartment will have a very nice view,” said Palestinian real es-tate entrepreneur Bashar Masri, 50, who is heading the project with investors from Qatar. The first article of a glossy brochure promoting Rawabi is entitled, “Preserving the Best of Palestine.”

The city will offer 5,000 jobs, many of them in an industrial park. Rawabi, which is Arabic for “hill,” will have schools, a hospital, mosques, a train station, parks and restaurants. The planners are striving for a modern, middle-class flair which is attractive to young people who care about the environment.

A total of 40,000 apartments are planned, with 5,000 to be built in the first phase. The average cost of a three-room apartment will be about $62,000, which is five times cheaper than in Is-rael. Monthly mortgage payments will range from $400 to $700.

Despite the hype, many Palestin-ians are unhappy about the $800 mil-lion project. Some feel it will encroach on traditional, village life and be an eyesore on the landscape. Others believe it will raise real estate prices and add to the economic difficulties in the Palestinian territories.

“We will earn much less money building these apartments than we would working in the Jewish settle-ments,” Rassan, a 43 year-old Palestin-ian from the nearby village of Atara, told israel today. He and many others are concerned by plans of the Palestinian Authority to bar construction workers from their jobs in the settlements.

“No one in the world cries out against our hill, Rawabi; but your Har [hill] Homa in Jerusalem is the center of attention of the whole world,” said Haled Kassami, 33, of Nablus. “But you still manage to live there. With us, I am not sure that this project will succeed.”

Jewish settlers and hawks in the Is-raeli government hope he is right. They

see Rawabi as a threat and want the project scrapped. The ball is in Israel’s court because an access road to the area depends on its approval.

In a visit to Rawabi, Environment Minister Gilad Erdan of Prime Minis-ter Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party said he would try to block construction of the road until problems like sewage, garbage disposal and soil pollution are resolved. “We want to help the Palestin-ian economy,” he said, “but the building of a city should not interfere with the protection of the environment.”

Palestinian officials and developers said the environmental issue is just an Israeli excuse to prevent the building of the city.

The success or failure of the project has enormous implications, not so much for the future of the peace process as for the future of Zionism. The building of such a city would create a major fact on the ground and be another nail in the cof-fin of Jewish claims to the Land of Israel.

It is a crucial test case for Netanyahu, who so far has only paid lip service to Pal-estinian statehood. If he allows Rawabi to go ahead, then he really does intend to es-tablish a Palestinian state and relinquish Israel’s claims to half of the biblical home-land. At the very least, Israel should block the project as long as Jewish construction in the disputed territories is taboo. Y

By Aviel S chneider & Shlomo Mordechai

STAKING A CLAIMRawabi helps cement the Palestinian claim to the Land

MODEL CITY: Israeli settlers and hawks want the project scrapped

P o l i t i c s

T he Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have always had a biblical element. Top

IDF commanders, be they religious or secular, have never shied away from in-voking biblical military heroes to inspire their troops. The IDF has been a bastion of neutrality in a nation increasingly torn by a religious-secular divide.

Nevertheless, researchers at the Be-gin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies ex-pressed surprise when the vast majority of Israelis said they didn’t mind that a growing number of IDF commanders are from the national-religious camp, which sees the State of Israel as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy.

The poll showed that 79 percent of Is-raelis are “not concerned at all” that 35 per-cent of IDF commanders holding a rank of captain or higher are religious. Just 20 years ago, only 2.5 percent were religious.

While Orthodox Jews have proven to be excellent officers, the Begin-Sadat Center feared that they would be more prone to refuse government orders to uproot settlements in Judea and Sa-maria. That kind of politicization of military orders is reflected in Israel’s left-wing media, which berated the few com-manders who refused orders to expel the Jews of Gaza in 2005 but are sympathetic toward soldiers who refuse to serve in the disputed territories.

While that disturbs the media and dovish academics like those at the Begin-Sadat Center, the poll shows they are a vo-cal minority and that most Israelis have no problem with the army being led by people of faith whose motivation is rooted in the Bible. Y By Ryan Jones

www.israeltoday.co.il | November 2010 | 7

Loyalty Oath Sparks Controversy

I srael’s Cabinet approved a controver-sial loyalty oath that requires new

citizens to pledge allegiance to a “Jew-ish and democratic” state.

“There is no other democracy in the Middle East. There is no other Jewish state in the world,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The combination of these two exalted values...expresses...the essence of the State of Israel and whoever wants to join us must acknowledge this.”

The bill, which must be passed by the Knesset (parliament) to become law, is largely symbolic because it only ap-plies to new citizens. But Israeli Arabs, who make up 20 percent of the popula-tion and who tend to identify with their Palestinian brothers, describe the loyalty oath as racist. The Ar-abs say they should not have to pledge allegiance to a Jewish state that practices discrimination.

The oath’s “purpose is to so-lidify the inferior status of Arabs by law,” said Arab Knesset member Ahmad Tibi. “Netanyahu and his gov-ernment are limiting the sphere of de-mocracy and deepening the prejudice against the Arab minority.”

The loyalty oath is also linked to an Israeli demand in peace talks, that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a “Jewish” state. The Palestinians have refused on grounds that it harms the rights of Israeli Arabs and the so-called “right of return”—which calls for the return of millions of Palestin-ian refugees and their descendants to their former homes in Israel.

Spiritually, it is a pathetic state of affairs if the Jewish people have to beg the Palestinian Muslims for recogni-tion of their God-given claim to the biblical Land of Israel. This means that Israel is looking to man, not God.

Politically, the loyalty oath un-derscores a predicament. First, Israeli Arabs, who enjoy all the benefits of

citizenship, are more loyal to the Pal-estinian cause than to the State of Is-rael. This creates the danger of a fifth column.

Second, it shows the ultimate goal of the Palestinians: If they want to add millions of “refugees” to the 20 per-cent of the population which is already Arab, then their goal is to destroy Is-rael demographically and turn the Jewish state into a Palestinian state. So while Hamas and the Palestinian Authority may have different tactics, their aspirations are very much the same. Y

By Shlomo Mordechai

For God and Country

CALLING THE SHOTS PM Netanyahu backed

the loyalty oath, but it is the brainchild

of FM Lieberman

THE WORD AND THE SWORDAbout one third of IDF officers are religious

8 | November 2010 | www.israeltoday.co.il

Compiled by Barry Rosenfeld

P E o P l E

H ollywood stars Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore visited Israel by

invitation of telecommunications giant Bezek to promote Internet-based social networking. Kutcher is the third most popular member of Twitter, with close to 6 million followers.

“A lot of times my wife and I sit across from each other and tweet,” said Kutcher at the Bezek Expo. “It’s a little bizarre. It’s the same reason you send roses to a woman at work. Sometimes people like to be adored in public.”

Kutcher, the 32-year-old former star of the TV sitcom That ‘70s Show, offered tips on how to use new forms of networking to market Israel.

The couple, who are avid followers of Jewish mysticism, was also hosted by the Tel Aviv Kabbalah Center. They were married at the Kabbalah Center in Los Angeles in 2005, after being introduced to the teachings by their friend Madon-na. Kutcher and Moore visited the West-ern Wall and then traveled to the Galilee with Rabbi Yehuda Berg, the director of the Tel Aviv Kabbalah Center. Y

‘Barney’ Attends Film Festival

American actor Paul Giamatti, 43, joined producer Robert Lantos to present their new film Barney's Version at the Haifa International Film Festival. It is the story of a bad-tempered Jewish TV producer and his father, played by Dustin Hoffman.

Lantos said the film has a Jewish theme but is not particularly Jewish. In one scene, Giamatti explained, Barney visited his mother’s grave, and since it is a Jewish cemetery there was a question as to whether skull caps were called for.

“Dustin and I didn’t think they would be wearing the kippahs,” said the actor. After conferring by phone with several rabbis, all of whom said that the skullcap was required at a Jewish cemetery, Lantos decided to leave it out with the option of adding it later using CGI (computer generated imagery). Y

Star Couple at Tel Aviv Expo

Black Sabbath in the Holy Land

L egendary British heavy metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne visited Israel for the first time with his wife and personal

manager Sharon. Prior to his sold-out concert in Tel Aviv, Osbourne toured the holy places in Jerusalem, including the Western Wall and Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Then he visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial.

Osbourne, the former lead singer of Black Sabbath, came to Israel despite a wave of cancellations by other international artists in the wake of the flotilla affair last June. Osbourne told a Tel Aviv news conference that he tries to stay away from politics because “I wouldn't know what I was talking about.” Sharon added that “Britain has the IRA and no one cancels concerts there.” Asked why it took him so long to arrive, Osbourne said, “I don't know. I was drunk for years.” He said the country made a “great impression. We were very pleased to have the opportunity to come to Israel and visit the holy sites in the Old City.” Y

TWITTERISM AND MYSTICISMKutcher and Moore are caught by the paparazzi

THE OSBOURNES bring their act to Israel

BITTERSWEET COMEDY: Giamatti (right) and Lantos promote their flick

A r A b P r E s s

Compiled by Ryan Jones

ARAB POLITICAL CARTOONS

www.israeltoday.co.il | November 2010 | 9

Egypt’s Al-Nas TV featured a Friday sermon by Muslim cleric Salem Abu

Al-Futuh, who confidently predicted that Islam will soon conquer the West, start-ing with Europe.

“The West is bound to be destroyed,” said Al-Futuh. “Just like Allah destroyed the Byzantine and Persian empires, he will destroy the West at the hands of the Muslims. This is an unequivocal prom-ise. These countries will convert to Islam. Islam will reach these countries.”

The young preacher went on to ex-plain how this conquest would unfold:

D espite the peace talks, govern-ment-controlled Palestinian Tele-

vision continues to broadcast programs teaching young Arabs that Israel has no right to exist. Palestinian TV, which is under the direct control of the office of President Mahmoud Abbas, broadcast an educational documentary that pres-ents Haifa, Ashkelon, Jaffa and the Sea of Galilee as Palestinian, even though they are ostensibly in undisputed territory in Israel proper.

According to the documentary: “The West Bank and Gaza have another section in Palestine which is the Palestinian coast that spreads along the [Mediterranean] sea,

All of Israel Is Palestinefrom...Ashkelon in the south up to Haifa [in the north]...Haifa is a well-known Pal-estinian port that enjoyed a high status among Arabs and Palestinians before it fell to the occupation [Israel] in 1948. [To the] east we reach a city with history and importance, the city of Tiberias, near a famous lake, the Sea of Galilee. Jaffa, an ancient coastal city, is the bride of the sea, and Palestine’s gateway to the world.”

Such programming ensures that even if a peace agreement is reached, future generations of Palestinians will see Israeli concessions in Judea and Samaria as in-sufficient and will eventually demand the rest of the Land of Israel as well.

Peace or Armed Struggle?

Another example of the Palestinian Authority’s duplicitous approach to

peace talks was a Palestinian TV broadcast of a music video that is growing in popu-larity. The clip shows Palestinian dancers in full military garb prancing about with rifles raised in the air.

“My weapon has emerged...There is no force in the world that can remove the weapon from my hand,” the lyrics say. “He who offers his blood doesn’t care if his blood flows upon the ground.”

‘Islam Will Conquer the World’“Let’s examine the divine sequence: First, the Caliphate [rule by a monarch de-scended from the Prophet Mohammed] will return. Then, the Muslims will live in tremendous prosperity. The economy of the Muslims will be the strongest of all...Great conquests will ensue. We will con-quer Italy and move into [the rest of] Eu-rope. Islam will enter that entire region.”

After the fall of Europe, America will be next. “Even America, both North and South America—We will enter all these countries, and people there will be joining Islam in droves.”

P A l E s t i N i A N s

S uicide bombings may be down (due primarily to more successful Israeli security measures), but a

steep rise in the number of stoning attacks, particularly in East Jerusalem, has Israeli lawmakers asking why Arab children are so intent on assaulting their neighbors and putting their own lives at risk.

During the first half of 2010, Jerusa-lem police arrested 76 people for stone throwing. Of them, 30 were between the ages of 12 and 18. In 17 of the cases, the violence was so severe that an indictment was served.

The Knesset (parliament) Child Wel-fare Committee decided to address the issue in the aftermath of a near-lynch of a Jewish resident of Silwan (the biblical City of David), a predominately Arab neighborhood in disputed East Jerusa-lem. David Be’eri, the head of Silwan’s small Jewish community, was attacked by young Arab stone throwers as he drove through the neighborhood with his own young son.

Foreign journalists photographed a frightened Be’eri hitting a stone thrower with his car as he tried frantically to speed away from a life-threatening situ-ation. The dramatic video of a child being flipped in the air and tum-bling onto the street topped Israeli and Arab TV broadcasts.

Israel’s left-wing media and the in-ternational press accused Be’eri of using deadly force, but a security camera video revealed that he desperately swerved to miss another stone-throwing child. It was also later questioned how news cameramen just happened to be at the scene of the attack. Staging events to put Israel in a bad light is an old Palestinian propaganda tactic.

“We don’t want to see any children injured, period,” Child Welfare Com-mittee chairman Danny Danon of the ruling Likud party told the gathering of

lawmakers. “But we also don’t want to see children involved in negative activities.”

Danon presented a series of photo-graphs showing an average Arab child from East Jerusalem walking to school in the morning. Along the way, he casually stops several times to pick up stones and hurl them at passing Israeli cars.

Police representatives at the meeting said one of the main problems is that many of these stone throwers are minors under the age of 12, so they cannot be prosecuted. Instead, police must speak to the parents, who are often simply am-bivalent.

Meir Indor, the head of the Almagor Terror Victim’s Association, testified that he was attacked by stone-throwing Arab youth near the Mount of Olives. “Every

time a child throws a stone, they should arrest the fa-

ther,” he said. “This worked in Judea and Samaria and it could

work here.”Arab lawmakers

at the meeting were out-raged, turning the ag-

gressors into victims and the victim into the

aggressor. “This meeting was

organized because a kid was thrown into the air, and you guys are like a party of drunk people who have lost your heads!” shouted Knesset

member Ahmad Tibi, a former advisor to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. He described the Jews living in Silwan as a “company of fanatics,” implying that they deserve to be attacked.

Fellow Arab lawmaker Taleb A-Sa-naa insisted that the only issue at hand was “the settler’s rampage.” After being ejected from the meeting because of his raucous behavior, A-Sanaa told report-ers, “Instead of protecting children whose rights are being trampled, discussions are being held about the rights of settlers who have nothing to do in Silwan and in the Palestinian territories.”

It is little wonder that such violence is on the rise when the authority figures for these Arab youth, from their parents to elected officials, fervently defend their right to engage in stone-throwing attacks and then rebuke Israeli Jews for daring to respond. Anywhere else in the world, this is called child abuse. Y

By Ryan Jones

Why Do Arab Kids Throw Stones?

SLINGSHOT: Kids take over the front lines

IN HARM’S WAY: A stonethrower is hit by a car

VIOLENCE WITH IMPUNITY: Minors cannot be prosecuted

F o c u s o N J E r u s A l E m

November 2010 | 11

I srael likes to boast that there has only been freedom of worship for Jews

Christians and Muslims in Jerusalem when the city is under Israeli rule. But in fact, Muslims are the only ones who are allowed to pray at the holiest place in Judaism—the Temple Mount. Jews and Christians cannot worship there because the Islamic authorities who con-trol the Mosque of Al Aksa compound do not allow it.

Jerusalem Arabs Don’t Want to Live in ‘Palestine’

T here is no shortage of propaganda about how the Arab residents of Jerusalem are mistreated, second-class citi-

zens who deserve to live in a Palestinian state. But a cou-rageous article for the Hudson Institute by Khaled Abu Toameh, an Arab Muslim correspondent for The Jerusalem Post, set the record straight.

“Those who think that Jerusalem can be split into two are living in an illusion,” Abu Toameh wrote. “Redividing Jerusalem will turn the lives of both Jews and Arabs into a nightmare…Every day, tens of thousands of Jews and Arabs commute be-tween the two parts of the city freely. Redividing Jerusalem will result in the establishment of checkpoints and border crossings inside many parts of the city. Jews and Arabs will find them-selves confined to their homes and neighborhoods, which will be surrounded by security barriers and checkpoints.”

Abu Toameh says the voice of the 200,000 Arabs in Jeru-salem must be heard: “This can be done through a referendum where the Arab residents would be asked if they would like to live in a divided city under the rule of the Palestinian Au-thority or Hamas. Most likely, a majority of the Arab residents would say that they prefer the status quo to the other options.”

On a visit to the Temple Mount, settle-ment leader David Ha’ivri says his group was warned by an Israeli police officer: “Do not pray…Do not prostrate yourself. It is forbidden to take any action that the Muslims may see as a religious act.”

This blatant violation of religious freedom is ignored by the international community, as are Israeli claims that it is evidence there will not be freedom of worship in a Palestinian state.

The reason is the many benefits Jerusalem Arabs have un-der Israeli rule, including health care, jobs, education and law and order. And unlike the world powers, they are not anxious to repeat the same mistakes.

“Redividing Jerusalem means bringing either the Palestin-ian Authority or Hamas into the city,” Abu Toameh says. “The Arab residents of Jerusalem have seen what happened in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the past 16 years and are not keen to live under a corrupt authority or a radical Islamist entity.” Y By Ryan Jones

Freedom of Worship?

When Israel captured the Temple Mount in 1967, it passed the Protection of Holy Places Law. “The Holy Places shall be protected from…anything likely to vio-late the freedom of access of the members of the different religions to the places sa-cred to them,” reads the first clause. In a 1993 ruling, Israel’s Supreme Court stated that “the Temple Mount has been the holi-est place [for Jews] for the past 3,000 years, ever since King Solomon erected the First Temple on Mt. Moriah [2 Chr. 3:1]...The primeval sanctity of the Temple Mount continues unabated to this day.”

But settlement activist Yisrael Me-dad says this is a moot point because the “principle of sensitivity” has dic-tated all subsequent legal decisions. “The ‘principle of sensitivity’ dictates that because Muslims view the Temple Mount Courtyard as their exclusive do-main and will engage in violent acts to counter any display of Jewishness, then it is in the interests of public order to prevent a Jew from exercising his legal rights,” he wrote.

It is a twist of irony that in Israeli-ruled Jerusalem, Muslims enjoy free-dom of worship at their holy places. Jews do not. Y By Ryan Jones

‘ARAB RESIDENTS prefer the status quo’

ISLAMIC STRONGHOLDIronically, Muslims control the holiest place in Judaism

Cover Story

rival at Ben-Gurion Airport, he po-litely refused the absorption package for new immigrants, which includes benefits such as duty free purchases on cars and appliances. He did, how-ever, accept a dinner invitation from President Shimon Peres, a close family friend.

The Rothschild family is a European dynasty of German-Jewish origin that es-tablished banks in the late 18th century. It began with Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the son of a money changer, who was born in 1744 in Frankfurt. After growing up in the city’s ghetto (called Judengasse or Jew Alley), he developed a financial empire by installing his five sons in different Euro-pean cities to conduct business.

Édouard de Roth-schild, 52, plans to compete in the eques-trian competitions as a representative of Israel at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Y

T he State of Israel has an ongo-ing relationship with the famous

Rothschild family, dating back to the 19th century when Baron Edmond de Rothschild helped establish the Jew-ish settlement of Rishon LeZion, 7 miles (12 km.) south-east of Tel Aviv. Over the years, the Jewish banker and philanthropist helped purchase large tracts of real estate in the Land of Israel.

Now one of his descendants, Baron Édouard de Rothschild, has made ali-yah (immigrated to Israel) from France. He lives here part of the year with his wife Arielle. Rothschild is the major-ity share holder of the liberal French daily Libération, the country’s third larg-est newspaper. An avid horse enthusiast, he competes both na-tionally and interna-tionally in equestrian show jumping.

Rothschild lives in the prestigious community of Kfar Shmaryahu near Tel Aviv and commutes to France to handle his business inter-ests there. Upon ar-

12 | November 2010 | www.israeltoday.co.il

D i A s P o r A

Budapest Synagogue Reopened

H ungary’s oldest synagogue was rededicated in the pres-

ence of Vice Premier Zsolt Semjén, Israel’s Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger and 1,500 members of the Hungar-ian Jewish community.

“This is the best, most respect-able answer to Nazism and anti-Semitism, which once drove us out of here,” said Rabbi Metzger. “It is proof that the people of Israel live—Am Israel Chai!”

The renovated Óbuda Syna-gogue in Budapest dates to 1820, when it replaced an earlier struc-ture built in 1737. Since the 1960s, the building had served as a textile museum, but in recent years it had visibly decayed.

More than 100,000 Jews live in Hungary today, most of them in and around Budapest. Some 600,000 Hungarian Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Y

Rothschild Makes ‘Aliyah’

PHILANTHROPY FOR ZION: Rothschild used his wealth to purchase land in Israel

YOUNGER GENERATION Édouard de Rothschild

immigrated to Israel from France at the age of 52

FROM THE ASHES of the Holocaust

EUROPEAN dynasty

H i D D E N t r E A s u r E s

T he Hebrew Bible begins with a scribal oddity which looks like this: בראשית (beresheet—“In the beginning”).

Although Hebrew has no capital letters, the letter ב (bet), or b, here is bigger than all the other letters. In Jewish tradition, this is not a scribal error; it has significance and is therefore meticulously preserved.

As one interpretation puts it: “The word beresheet hints at wisdom, as it says, resheet hokhma [‘The beginning of wisdom’ – Psalm 111:10].” Accordingly, the letter “b” signifies the wis-dom from which everything begins. Wisdom is one of the 10 divine attributes—only nine of which the human mind can comprehend. The attribute no human being is even allowed to contemplate is called ayin (nothingness). This word begins with “aleph”—the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Therefore, the Bible could only begin with the second letter of the alphabet—rather than with the expected first letter, aleph.

This explanation is based on Job 28:12, which in the English translation reads: “but where can wisdom be found?” But this fails to demonstrate the subtlety of the Hebrew: “Wisdom comes forth from ayin.” The fact that the Bible begins with the second letter of the alphabet indicates that the world was created by divine Wisdom—and a warning to human beings not to try to discover what existed before the creation of the world.

This idea is reinforced by the shape of the Hebrew letter ב (bet): a square missing a side on its left. In other words, the letter is blocked on all sides except the left one. Since Hebrew is read from right to left, this means that whatever is on the right side of the bet of beresheet is sealed—unknown and inaccessible. Likewise, the opening on the left-hand side of the letter indicates that, from this point onwards, God begins to reveal Himself and his deeds to mankind. As a Midrash states: “Why was the world created with a bet? Just as a bet is closed at the sides but open in front, so you are not permitted to investigate what is…before and what is behind…You may speculate from the day that days were created, but you may not speculate on what was before that” (Beresheet Raba 1, 10).

This shows that nothing is accidental in the Bible and that everything has meaning. As Jesus said: “Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:18). Y

By Tsvi Sadan

Why Creation Begins with ‘Now it will come about that in the last days, the

mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains.’ Isaiah 2:2

 שבשמיים – Avinu She’BaShamayim *אבינוWe pray for the government (1 Timothy 2:2). Give Israeli leaders strength to withstand international pressure to hand over the Land of Israel to their Muslim enemies. Guide the peace talks and prevent Israel from falling into a trap. (Pages 4-7, 11)

 שבשמיים – Avinu She’BaShamayim *אבינוGrant that the security forces will be able to prevent all violence and terror. May violators of law and order be pun-ished. (Page 10)

 שבשמיים – Avinu She’BaShamayim *אבינוThwart all Palestinian projects to claim the Land by es-tablishing facts on the ground, such as the planned city of Rawabi. Bring Jews back to Israel from all over the world and give a supernatural answer to the demographic threat Israel is facing from the exploding Arab popula-tion. (Pages 6, 7, 12, 22)

 שבשמיים – Avinu She’BaShamayim *אבינוEnable Israel to regain its inheritance on the Temple Mount and may the Messiah come soon to reign there! Erode the power of the Muslim authorities and reveal Yeshua (Jesus) to both Jews and Arabs. (Cover; Page 11, 20, 21)

 שבשמיים – Avinu She’BaShamayim *אבינוContinue to bring Bible-believing Christians to the Land to stand with Israel as intercessors. May the prayers of the faithful overcome the power of darkness that seeks to di-vide and drive Israel from the Land. (Pages 5, 20)

 שבשמיים – Avinu She’BaShamayim *אבינוBless the Israeli Arabs who are loyal to the Jewish state and give courage to those who are serving in the army. Remove Islamic radicalism from the Arab citizens of Is-rael. (Pages 3, 7)

 שבשמיים – Avinu She’BaShamayim *אבינוAs the winter season begins, we ask you to bring abun-dant and precious rain to a parched land. Fill the Sea of Galilee, Israel’s biggest reservoir which is dangerously be-low capacity, to the brim. Replenish the depleted Moun-tain and Coastal Aquifers.

Intercession for Israel

* Our Father in Heaven

Stand in the Gap

‘In the beginning…’

14 | November 2010 | www.israeltoday.co.il

The Sabbath (Shabbat) Readings

November 6th Shabbat Toldot – These are the Generations Genesis 25:19-28:9; Malachi 1:1-2:7

November 13th Shabbat Va’Yetze – And [Jacob] Went Out Genesis 28:10-32:3; Hosea 12:13-14:10

November 20th Shabbat Va’Yishlach – And [Jacob] Sent Genesis 32:4-36:43; Hosea 11:7-12:12

November 27th Shabbat Va’Yeshev – And [Jacob] Dwelt Genesis 37:1-40:23; Amos 2:6-3:8

November 2010(from 24th Heshvan to 23rd Kislev 5771)

w o r D F r o m J E r u s A l E m

GOD’S BLuepRInT fOR BuILDInG

A man sold his house at a high price. Yet for some reason he felt he had to renovate the building

first, before handing it over to the new owner. So he repaired the roof and painted the walls. Proudly, he handed the house over to the buyer but was stunned when he had it demolished. The new owner was not interested in the house, only in the ground it was standing on, where he planned to build something new.

Likewise, God does not want us to renovate our lives ourselves; He wants us just as we are because he has paid a high price for us (1 Corinthians 6:20). He wants to tear down the old man (house) and build a new creation on the original piece of land. God wants us to look up to Him, our hearts filled with faith, as He demolishes our old lives piece by piece. The old must be done away with to make all things new (2 Corinthians 5:17).

It is difficult to break free from the familiar things that we have regarded as good and right our whole lives, things that make us feel comfortable and at home. Yet God wants to make some-thing new out of our lives: “Therefore

B y L u d w i g S c h n e i d e r

if anyone is in Christ, he is a new crea-ture” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Yet we do not know what this new man is going to be like: “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). So we have no other choice but to wait pa-tiently for God to work in our lives and not to interfere with what He is doing by taking matters into our own hands.

We may mean well when we do things for God, but the question is whether we are acting according to His will. In the Bible, God has given us His blueprint, and He calls us to follow it closely even if we don’t understand many of the details. Then we will receive the “things which eye has not seen”—not a transitory lodging but rather a glorious dwelling place in eternity.

There are believers who want to reach heaven their own way, who think they can replace God’s blueprint with their own plans. But grace is not a li-cense to interpret God’s blueprint ac-cording to our own fancies or the latest trend. If we do that, we are building a house on the sand and not on the rock,

and it will collapse as soon as we face a crisis (see Matthew 7:24-27).

Satan wants to prevent us from keep-ing God’s instructions because he knows that our eternal welfare or woe depends on it. So he whispers to us—as he did to the first human couple—“Did God really say that?” His goal is to cause us to doubt; for the moment that we begin to question God’s word as law we are no longer keep-ing it. Then we should not be surprised when our lives—in spite of pious words and actions—are not going as well as God has promised. Yeshua (Jesus) has not abol-ished the law; instead his grace enables us to hold to His word as our blueprint. Y

Torah Portions

b i b l E s t u D Y

G od told Abram that “I will bless those who bless you” (Genesis 12:3). Later, when Abram be-

came the father of many nations, he was given the name Abraham. So one could assume that all the descendants of Abra-ham—Isaac and Ishmael, as well as the six sons of Keturah—are automatically recipients of the blessing.

Although God did promise that He would bless Ishmael with many descen-dants, He established His eternal cov-enant solely with Abraham’s son Isaac and his descendants (Genesis 17:19-21). Isaac’s son was Jacob, who wrestled with God and thereafter was given the name Israel (Genesis 32:25-29). From that point on, the recipient of the blessing rooted in God’s covenant is called “Israel.”

Even Balaam, who was to be paid in gold to curse Israel, was forced to bless it: “When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel…the Spirit of God came upon Him and he…said, ‘Blessed is everyone who blesses you’” (see Numbers 24:1-9). In the Hebrew baruch mevra-checha—“blessed is the one who blesses you”—we find the root nivrechu— “will obtain blessing,” which is to be under-stood reflexively. In other words, who-ever blesses Israel will be blessed himself. In doing so, he triggers a reflex which releases blessing. The blessing which he receives does not depend on whether Is-rael rewards the favor bestowed on her with something good.

The same formula applies to le’kalel: Whoever curses Israel curses himself reflexively. This concept can also be found in the Book of Zechariah: “He who touches you [Israel] touches the apple of his eye” (2:8). This does not refer to the apple of God’s eye, as it is often interpreted; instead the Hebrew word eino refers reflexively to the apple of one’s own eye, which is to say: Who-ever touches Israel makes himself blind to God’s truth.

When we bless Israel we ourselves are the primary beneficiaries, and only then Israel. Israel does not depend on our blessing because God’s covenant with

the nation is eternal: “I will never break My covenant with you” (Judges 2:1); “You are My servant, I have…not rejected you” (Isaiah 41:9); “If this fixed order [of the sun, moon and stars] departs from be-fore Me…then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done” (Jeremiah 31:35-37).

Israel has an eternal guarantee from God, but the nations do not. This means that every individual has to struggle, as Balaam did, to get to the point where he can bless Israel in order to be blessed himself.

This principal also applies to the Church. Jews and Christians, like Adam and Eve, are “one flesh,” so any

Why Should We Bless Israel?

www.israeltoday.co.il | November 2010 | 15

Christian who fights against the Jewish people is fighting against his own flesh, or against himself.

Paul warns about this in Romans 11: Anyone who is grafted in to the tree of promise (Israel) through his faith in the Messiah must beware that he does not get broken off and separated from the root because of arrogance toward those Jews who do not yet believe in Ye-shua (Jesus). Arrogance is a curse which backfires and brings back a curse on the head of the proud. Conversely, whoever blesses Israel blesses himself because he triggers a spiritual mechanism through his actions. Y

By Ludwig S chneider

THE ANGEL OF THE LORD appears to Balaam

E in Gedi is an oasis on the western shore of the Dead Sea. “Ein” is Hebrew for spring and “Gedi” is a kid or young goat and refers to the ibexes (wild goats) that are so prevalent there. The area is

known for its fresh water springs that flow down from the high cliffs of the Judean Desert, making it suitable for settlement and agriculture throughout history.

It was here that in biblical times, David hid from King Saul (1 Samuel 24:1) and where in 1965, the mosaic floor of a synagogue was discovered by kibbutzniks plowing a field. The synagogue dates to the end of the 3rd century AD (Talmudic Period) and was renovated in the 4th century and again in the 5th century. It is believed to have served a wealthy Jewish community of about 800 people.

The first eight lines of the mosaic inscription are in Hebrew and the rest is in Aramaic, the spoken language at the time. The Hebrew includes the signs of the zodiac; the Hebrew months of the year; the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the names of the three companions of Daniel—Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; the blessing, “Peace upon Israel”; and the thirteen fathers of the world according to 1 Chronicles 1:1-4: Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mehalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth.

The mosaic suggests that the source of the community’s wealth was shemen afarsimon (persimmon oil). This oil was used in incense for the Temple worship and to anoint priests, prophets and kings. It was also made into perfume and ex-ported. The precious liquid was apparently a secret recipe, which would explain a warning on the mosaic: “Whoever

reveals the secret of the town to the Gentiles, both he and his family will be condemned by God.”

The lush oasis was ideal for other prod-ucts too, such as dates, grapes and herbs: “My

beloved is to me a cluster of camphor blossoms in the vineyards of Ein Gedi” (Song of Songs 1:14). Y

The Secrets of Ein Gedi

24 | November 2010

By Michael S chneider

‘DAVID WENT UP FROM THERE and stayed in the strongholds of Ein Gedi’ (1 Samuel 23:29)

PIECES in a puzzle

18 | November 2010

D E b A t E

I t is said that during the 1930s, as well as when the State of Is-rael was established in 1948,

the Jews drove the Arabs out of their land. The goal of these alle-gations is to make anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism socially and politically acceptable. Any factual counter-arguments are dismissed as being biased and are ignored by the media, so only the anti-Israel narrative remains in the public eye. So-called “peace activists” accept the claims of the Palestin-ians without checking them out, and then condemn Israel.

A reliable account of the situ-ation in Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel), which at that time was called Palestine, can be found in a 1937 report of the British Palestine Royal Commission which, as is well known, was not a friend of the Jews. The report says that the Hula Valley in the north of the country was in-fested with mosquitoes. The land-owners were Syrians in Damascus, who leased out the marshes to Arab or Egyptian peasants (fellahs), who lived in primitive mud huts and in-evitably fell sick with malaria.

The first thing the Jewish Na-tional Fund did in 1934 was to purchase 51 square miles of this marshland for 900,000 Palestinian pounds ($4.5 million) and set up 20 Jewish settlements on it. These Jews battled malaria, yellow fever and the Middle Eastern sun to drain the swamps and reclaim the land.

What the swamps were in the north, the desert, which had to be artificially irrigated, was in the south; and the center of the country was a stony, desolate wasteland. The Arab landlords, who lived abroad and owned large estates, did noth-ing to solve these problems.

The Turkish Ottoman Empire was in such a poor state after ruling over the Holy Land for 400 years (1517-1917), that wealthy Arab landowners from Syria, Egypt and Lebanon were able to kick out the fellahs and Bedouins and acquire enor-mous tracts of real estate. Then they made a huge profit by selling the land to Jews from Europe and America.

According to Turkish government records, in 1915, 3,130,000 dunams of Palestinian land was owned by 144 Arab landowners; so on average, each family owned 22,000 dunams. From early times, the dunam was the only valid unit for mea-suring land area in Palestine. One dunam is 1,000 square meters and there are 4 dunams in an acre.

The farmers who leased the properties were forced to pay onerous interest rates to the Arab landlords of up to 60 percent, and many tenants were left destitute, losing both house and home. Ultimately, the Arab landowners drove out their Muslim brothers so that they could sell the land for large amounts of money to the Jews.

The Jewish National Fund set up blue and white (Israel’s national colors) collection boxes all over the world and received generous contri-butions from Jewish patrons, which were used to buy property in the Holy Land. Of the 429,887 dunams that the Palestine Jewish Colonization As-sociation purchased from private owners, 293,545

By Ludwig S chneider

Did the Jews Steal the Land from the Arabs?

dunams—almost 70 percent—was uncultivated land that Arab propri-etors living abroad had sold to Jews.

By 1935 the amount purchased by Jews increased to 579,492 du-nams, and by 1948 almost 80 percent of the land available for sale had been bought up by the Jewish people. The rest of the land was ownerless desert, which was taken over by Israel after the establishment of the state.

When the League of Nations handed the mandate over to Britain in 1922, it stipulated firmly in Article 6 that the “Palestine administration should work together with the Jew-ish Agency to encourage intensive settlement of the land by Jews, which should include the land owned by the state and the uncultivated or waste land, as long as this land is not needed for official purposes.”

It is astonishing that nowadays nobody seems to be interested in the facts. While everyone has an opinion about this conflict, few take the trouble to check out how the Land of Israel legally became Jewish property. People prefer to embrace the stereotypical Pales-tinian lies which accuse the Jew-ish state of forcibly driving the Palestinians out of their homes, although this was mostly done by Arab landlords who cared noth-ing about “Palestine.” Today, the Arab world is trying to push the “crimes” of their ancestors, who effectively “sold out” Palestine 80 years ago, onto the Jews and the State of Israel. Y

RECLAIMING THE LAND: Spraying against malaria in 1940

JEWISH NATIONAL FUND collection box

November 2010 | 19

P r o P H E c Y

I n Mark 13:22-23, Yeshua (Jesus) warns His disciples—and us as well—that in the end times Satan

will even try to lead astray the chosen ones of God. However, He also says that He has told His disciples every-thing in advance so that they will not be led astray. Yeshua is confirming what the prophet Amos said, that “the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7).

Both the Old and the New Testa-ments are full of references to what will happen in the future, prophecies that confirm and complement one another, so that believers will not go astray. One of the writings in the New Testament that deals with the end times is the Book of Revelation, which shows us by means of apocalyptic pictures what lies ahead. We do not have to start with the seven seals and trumpets—passages that are deeply esoteric—to understand what God intends to do. Rather, God speaks in a way that we can understand.

Revelation 2 and 3 speak of the seven churches and their deeds. What is striking about these chapters—which can only be understood in retrospect—is that they represent periods of Church

One PeopleThe SevenThChurch of Revelation

history. The list starts with Ephesus, where the first Christians suffered greatly for their faith but then lost their first love. They became an insti-tutionalized church, and consequently, no longer did the works that God had commanded them to do.

We could now go through Church history represented by the seven churches, which stand for and describe the situation during each particular period. It starts with Ephesus, then Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia. But we will focus on the seventh and last church—Laodicea.

Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22) describes the situation of the Church in the last days, which is em-phasized by Jesus’ warning, “Behold, I stand at the door.”

The translation of Laodicea is “peo-ple’s opinions” or “popular opinion,” which fits well with our era of democra-cy and referendums. In the spirit of this period, the people’s voice is the voice of God. This humanism is described by God as follows: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth” (Revelation 3:15-16).

Those who are lukewarm are in lim-bo: They neither enjoy the things of the world nor the things of the kingdom.

When yellow mixes with blue we get green, a color which masks both of its elements. These people are no longer as God created them and doing what He called them to do. Therefore, God will spit them out of His mouth.

Under the influence of the spirit of popular opinion, everyone is given a say. Christians in the end times adopt contemporary, worldly strategies in order to “bring life into the Church.”

Today, many churches are in high spirits because they believe they have everything that a congregation needs, both spiritually and materially. Many megachurches flaunt their wealth on television. But like the stock market crash—this artificial spirituality will burst like an empty bubble. Therefore, God says, “You do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked” (Revelation 3:17). Many people don’t like to hear this kind of thing. But because Yeshua says this to the end-time Church—and we correspond to Laodicea—we must take heed of the word of God. Every-one who reads God’s word to Laodicea should get “eye salve” (3:18) in order to be able to see by the Holy Spirit. Then when the Lord comes—and He is already standing at the door—He can celebrate the feast with us; and we who overcome will be permitted to sit on the throne of God (3:21). It would behoove us to repent and return to the Lord as our first love—and pay attention to the signs of the times. . Y

By Ludwig S chneider

LUKEWARM CHRISTIANSThe ruins of the Church of Laodicea

c H r i s t i A N s

20 | November 2010 | www.israeltoday.co.il

30th Feast of Tabernacles

H undreds of Christians from a dozen nations joined 3,000 Is-

raelis in the small Jewish settlement of Revava on the evening that Israel’s 10-month construction freeze ended to demonstrate support for the return of Jewish sovereignty over the Land. The Christians were in Israel for the annual International Christian Zionist Center (ICZC) Feast of Tabernacles celebration (not to be confused with the larger ICEJ Feast).

“We as Gentiles tell you, be strong and of courage to possess the land,” ICZC director Jan Willem van der Ho-even told the Israelis.

The Christians with their bright banners and national flags were swarmed by the Israeli and interna-tional media before mingling with the

A fter 30 years, the annual Feast of Tabernacles celebration, sponsored

by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, is an icon of Christian love and support for the Jewish state. To mark the anniversary, the ICEJ chose the theme, “Jerusalem: A Praise in the Earth,” har-kening back to the founding principle of the ministry—to support Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel.

That theme recalls the exodus of foreign embassies from Jerusalem in 1980, when Israel officially declared the city its eternal, united capital. The Feast of Tabernacles and the Embassy were born in response to that exodus.

In a pre-recorded video address to the 4,000-plus Christians at the Feast, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that as the nations began to abandon Jeru-salem, the Christians began to rise up.

“At first you came by the dozens; then you came by the hundreds; now you come by the thousands. Year after year you come from over a hundred countries to march through the streets of Jerusalem; and in doing so, you re-mind the people of Israel that we are not alone,” said Netanyahu. “So on be-half of my country, and on behalf of my people, I say thank you. Thank you for your moral clarity. Thank you for your solidarity. Thank you for supporting the one and only Jewish State. Thank you.”

As always, the Feast was a spectacle of world-class music, worship and produc-tion—a powerful expression of faith in God and His Word concerning Israel. Ywww.icej.org

‘Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem’

M ore than 1,000 Christians attended the annual Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem on the Haas Promenade with a spectacular view of the Old

City. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat thanked the Christians for their continued and unwavering support for Israel and a united capital.

The Day of Prayer was started in 2002 by Eagles’ Wings Ministries and has, according to their website, “quickly become the largest Israel-focused prayer event in history.” This year, an estimated 300 million Christians from 300,000 churches in 175 nations took part in the event. Y www.daytopray.com

Compiled by Ryan Jones

Christians Support the Settlements

Israelis, who seemed surprised, though grateful, to see these foreigners in such an isolated place. Many applauded loudly as the flags of various nations were marched in.

Ayoub Kara, a Druze Arab and Knesset (parliament) member from the ruling Likud party, addressed the crowd: “I say to all the non-Jews who are here, I too am not a Jew, but in spirit I am most Jewish, I am most Zionist, and so are you! Good for you that you are here to support Israel.”

Knesset member Danny Danon, a rising Likud star who organized the rally, also praised the Christians: “We salute you. We know that you love Israel unconditionally!” Y

For more information: www.israelmybeloved.com

MARCHING ON: Evangelicals urge the settlers to stand on

the biblical promises

FROM MANY NATIONS to Jerusalem

Jesus in Modern Hebrew Culture

www.israeltoday.co.il | November 2010 | 21

B y Ts v i S a d a n

T o a large extent, the Holocaust has caused many Jews to turn away

from any kind of discourse with the New Testament. The reason is clear: The calamity was conceived within a Christian culture that drew its deadly ideology from a long history of misin-terpretation of the New Testament. Yet there are still some people who have not allowed this trauma to eclipse Jesus.

One such person was the Polish-born Joseph Bau (1920-2002). Bau began his studies at the University of Plastic Arts in Krakow just prior to the German invasion of Poland during World War II. Later, his artistic talent would save his life in the concentration camps. The Nazis used his extraordi-nary drawing and calligraphy skills for their multifarious purposes, such as a detailed map of the Krakow Ghetto. Bau’s talent also turned him into a gifted counterfeit artist, whose forged documents enabled hundreds of Jews to escape the ghettos and death camps.

In 1950, Bau and his wife immigrat-ed to Israel, where he opened the first graphic studio in Israel. Bau was also one of the first Israeli artists to make homemade animated motion pictures, while his counterfeiting abilities were employed by Israel’s spy agency, the Mossad.

Among his drawings is one entitled Joseph Bau Crucified on the Hooked Cross (swastika). In this black and white ink drawing, the fading image of Bau is seen hanging on a “hooked cross” dressed in striped prisoner’s clothing. Around him is a large barbed-wire halo. There is no majesty in his suffering, nor is there any sense of heroism. His face only ex-

Messianic Jews Confront the Red Cross

T he Jerusalem Institute of Justice (JIJ), a Messianic hu-

man rights organization, brought hundreds of Christians and Jews from around Europe to the Inter-national Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva to de-mand equal treatment for captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Shalit was captured by Hamas terrorists in a cross-border raid more than four years ago and is being held in the Gaza Strip.

“The Red Cross continues to visit all [Palestinian] prisoners in Israeli prisons, making sure that they are treated with dig-nity and fairness, in conformity with international conventions,” JIJ founder Calev Myers told the crowd. “Meanwhile, Gilad Shalit is being prevented any contact with the outside world and be-ing used as a bargaining chip to release from Israeli prisons hun-dreds of terrorists with blood on their hands.”

Myers chided the Red Cross for maintaining “strong relations with Hamas, regardless of all of its blatant breaches of international conventions, while they have yet to even visit Gilad Shalit.”

The Red Cross identifies it-self as a Christian organization. In fact, Red Cross founder Henri Dunant was an active Christian Zionist who attended Theodor Herzl’s First Zionist Congress that advocated the return of the Jewish people to their national homeland in Israel. Myers charged that by abandoning Shalit, the Red Cross was abandoning the very Chris-tian principles upon which it was founded. Y

By Ryan Jones

Joseph Bau—Jesus as Holocaust Survivor

presses deep, profound disappointment. This sense of despair is explained in the alternative title Bau gave to the drawing: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me (Psalm 22:1). The connection to Jesus is obvious (Matthew 27:46).

Bau was not the first to depict modern Jewish martyrs as Jesus-like figures. While Marc Chagall’s White Crucifixion (1938) is probably the most well known, others also saw in Jesus’ martyrdom a prototype of countless other Jews who died because of their refusal to betray their people.

In Bau’s case, he repelled any at-tempt to use his talent to save himself at the expense of others. Years later, when asked why he did not escape the camp, he answered: “If I had escaped, who would have saved the others?” Bau was well aware of this “imitation of Christ” both in death and resurrec-tion since—against all the odds––his experience of God’s abandonment was only temporary. Y

m E s s i A N i c J E w s

‘CRUCIFIED on the Hooked Cross’

J E w i s H A F F A i r s

T he shofar, or ram’s horn, is a popular Judaica item in Israel, and because of

its biblical heritage, it is revered by Jews and Christians alike. The production of shofars increases around the High Holy Day season when they are blown in syna-gogues across the country: “On the Day of Atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land” (Leviticus 25:9).

Shofars are available in many sizes and shapes and come from several ani-mals, mostly commonly a ram. The long, curvy “Yemenite Shofars” are made from the horn of the Kudu, a type of African antelope.

J ewish American astronaut Garrett Reisman is considering aliyah (immigration) to Israel. He met with Israel’s Minister of Science and

Technology Daniel Hershkowitz, who was in the US to encourage Israeli and American Jewish scientists to settle in the land.

Reisman listed the availability of suitable employment as the main fac-tor in making a final decision. The astronaut took his first space flight in 2008, when he spent three months in the international space station. At that time, he sent a congratulatory message from space to Israel in honor of its 60th anniversary.

Reisman’s most recent space flight was on the shuttle Atlantis last May. He brought a small flag on board bearing the logo of the new Ilan Ramon Scholarship Fund, which sponsors Israeli students at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France.

The fund was established in memory of Israel’s first astronaut Ilan Ramon, who was killed when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated in a ball of fire upon returning to the earth’s atmosphere in 2003. Following the tragedy, Reisman served as NASA’s liaison with the Ramon family. Y

Jewish Astronaut Considers ‘Aliyah’

World’s Biggest Mezuzah

T he world’s biggest mezuzah has been placed on a wall at Ben Gu-

rion Airport near Tel Aviv. Senior Air-port Authority and Transport Ministry officials attended the ceremony in which the 1-meter-long container with the holy parchment was hoisted into place.

The scroll, which is kosher, was writ-ten over a three-year period by scribe Yitzhak Krichly. That’s a lot more than

the usual two hours required for the average mezuzah scroll.

Mezuzahs contain the Torah passage from Deuteronomy 6:4-9, which includes the Shema (Hear O Israel) and the commandment that you shall write these words “on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Y

While the shofars are made in Is-rael, there are not enough rams or ku-dus here, so the raw horns are imported from countries in southern Africa where the animals are raised for meat produc-tion. There are strict rules of Jewish Law that make a shofar kosher, so many of the imported horns are thrown out. The ones that eventually make it to market cannot have any holes or cracks and cannot be artificially patched.

The raw horn must sit idle for a year, at which time the bone tis-sue has dried and can be discarded. Then it is sterilized to kill bacteria and through a careful heating pro-cess, it is crafted into a shofar and polished, some to a high gloss, oth-ers to a more rough and natural look. Then the shofar is tested for sound and if necessary, the mouthpiece is adjusted by widening the hole until it produces a loud, clear blast. Finally, the finished shofar must pass the inspection of a rabbi (see picture).

“Blow a trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; surely it is near” (Joel 2:1). Y

By Shlomo Mordechai

Blow a Trumpet in Zion!

ROCKET MEN: (from left to right) Matthew Bronfman, Garrett Reisman, Chaim Chesler and Daniel Hershkowitz

SOUND OF THE SHOFAR: A rabbi inspects a ram’s horn

SACRED SCROLLA scribe spent

three years penning the

scriptures

A r c H A E o l o G Y

Compiled by Netanel D oron

www.israeltoday.co.il | November 2010 | 23

Glittering Gold A rcheologists at Tel Kadesh near

the Lebanon border in northern Israel were ecstatic after they uncovered a gold coin weighing 28 grams (about one ounce).

“This is the heaviest and most valu-able ancient gold coin ever found in an excavation in Israel. It is an extraordinary discovery!” said excavation head Donald T. Ariel of the Israel Antiquities Author-ity. “The coin is very beautiful and in good condition. Normally antique gold coins weigh only about four to five grams.”

The coin was minted in Alexandria by King Ptolemy V 2,200 years ago.

The face depicts Queen Arsinoë II Philadelphus, the wife of half-brother Ptolemy II. The meaning of the last name is “sibling” or “brotherly love.”

The reverse side depicts two overlap-ping cornucopias.

“This extraordinary coin was appar-ently not in popular or commercial use but had a symbolic function. The coin may have had a ceremonial function re-lated to a festival in honor of Queen Ar-sinoë, who was deified in her lifetime,” said Ariel. “The denomination is called a mnaieion, meaning a one-mina coin, and is equivalent to 100 silver drachms, or a mina of silver. This mnaieion from Tel Kedesh attests to the staying power of the cult, since the coin was minted a full 80 years after the Queen’s death.”

Three years ago a hoard of Alexan-drine Ptolemaic gold coins appeared on the world antiquities market. However, there were no coins of Ptolemy V, which reinforces the rarity of the Tel Kedesh find. Y

T he oldest handwritten document ever discovered in Jerusalem has

been found during excavations outside the Old City walls. Dating to the 14th century BC, it is written in Akkadian cuneiform text. The tiny fragment, which appears to have been part of a larger tablet, is only 2 cm. x 2.8 cm. (.7 x 1.1 inch) in surface area and 1 cm. (.4 inch) thick. It testifies to Jerusalem’s importance as a major city late in the Bronze Age, long before it was con-quered by King David.

The fragment is too small to piece together the full context. While the document contains simple words such as “you,” “you were,” “them,” “to do,” and “later,” the exceptional quality of the writing indi-cates that it was written by a highly-skilled pro-fessional, possibly from a royal household.

“What we can see is that the piece was writ-ten in very good script and the tablet was con-structed very well. This indicates that the person responsible for creating

Bronze Age Document the tablet was a first-class scribe,” says Hebrew University Professor Wayne Horowitz, a scholar of As-syriology, who deciphered the script. “In those days, you would expect to find a first-class scribe only in a large, important place.”

Speculating that it might have been a part of a message sent from a king of Jerusalem to a pharaoh in Egypt, Horowitz said that the frag-ment, which is made of clay, indi-cates that Jerusalem was one of the most significant cities of the area at the time.

The find was uncovered between the Old City’s southern wall and

the nearby City of David in an area called Ophel,

which represents a high, fortified hill. The Bible mentions such areas in both Jerusalem and Samaria, the

ancient capital of the Kingdom of Israel. The

Ophel digs are being car-ried out by Eilat Mazar of

the Hebrew University Insti-tute of Archeology. Y

THE FRAGMENT is from the 14th century BC

DECIPHERING THE PAST Eilat Mazar and Wayne Horowitz

THE COIN is 2,200 years old

c u l t u r E

24 | November 2010 | www.israeltoday.co.il

B eer is one of the world’s oldest bev-erages, dating back to the 6th mil-

lennium BC. In fact, a 3,000-year-old beer mug was excavated in Israel in the early 1960s. Archaeologists said the find at Tel Isdar (near Beersheba in the Negev Desert) indicated that beer drinking in Israel goes back to the days of King Saul and King David.

An Assyrian tablet from 2000 BC lists beer among the provisions in Noah’s Ark; and the Alulu Beer Receipt for the best brew from the Sumerian city of Ur in ancient Iraq dates to 2050 BC.

Israeli Supermodel Is a Knockout

E xchanging the catwalk for the tennis court, Israeli super-model Bar Refaeli competed in the Nike Tennis Primetime

Knockout Event at New York City’s Pier 54. The 25-year-old model teamed up with tennis sensation Rafael Nadal in a doubles match against NFL player Justin Tuck of the New York Giants and ten-nis star Victoria Azarenka. Tennis legend John McEnroe served as announcer for the match and Wimbledon champion Serena Williams was the line judge.

In preparation for the event, Refaeli honed her game back in Israel with her trainer, but she couldn’t match up to her fellow competitor, Russian tennis great Maria Sharapova—except in looks, of course, and fashion. Refaeli wore an 18 carat gold heart necklace by designer Jennifer Meyer.

Jerusalem Beer FestivalAdd to this the Israeli lager Maccabi,

named after the heroes of the Hanukkah story, and an annual beer festival in the Holy City doesn’t seem that out of place. Some 30,000 people attended the Jerusa-lem festival and consumed over 100,000 liters (about 26,000 gal-lons) of beer. There were more than 100 brands of draft from around the world, including exotic blends such as honey, caramel, straw-berry, chocolate and al-

mond. One of the bestsellers was a cherry mixture with sparkling rosé wine.

And for those who are not satisfied with drinking the beverage, you can even bathe in it, so to speak; a hand-made soap was on sale made from beer.

This was the sixth annual event with even more surprises promised for next year. L’Chaim! Y

TENNIS ANYONE? (from left to right) Rafael Nadal, Bar Refaeli, Victoria Azarenka and Justin Tuck

ON TAP: 100 different beers were on sale from around the world

BEER soap

LIFT the cup

b E H i N D t H E s c E N E s

Yossi’s behavior is suspicious. He’s spending all his time on the computer, just as a myste-

rious virus hits Iran’s nuclear facilities.

I’ll bet he’s working on send-ing even more vicious viruses to Arab states to spread chaos.

The Jews want to control the world in this way. It’s a cyber conspiracy!

T his may come as a surprise but Je-rusalem’s Old City, the focal point

of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is a model of coexistence. Israeli soldiers armed with assault rifles patrol the narrow, cobblestone streets among the Arab shoppers who don’t seem to no-tice them. Ultra-Orthodox Jews in side curls walk through the fragrant Arab shuk (open-air market) to the Western Wall. Israelis in the Jewish Quarter live alongside Arabs in the Muslim Quarter.

The city is awash with tourists and business is booming. And that’s some-thing that benefits Jews and Arabs alike. One business feeds another. In one alleyway, an Arab slices meat off a leg of lamb, chops it up with parsley and garlic, and puts it on the charcoal grill. This is known as kebab. Then he takes five skewers off the grill and puts them on a plate to be brought to merchants for a sumptuous lunch.

“How much is that?” I ask. “That’s 150 shekels [$42],” he grins.

A young Arab boy passes by car-rying a brass tray laden with glasses of mint tea and small cups of thick Turk-ish coffee laced with cardamom. The hummus joint is packed. The cook is mashing up the classic chickpea and sesame paste with what could be de-scribed as a giant mortar and pestle. It’s scooped into a small bowl, topped with exquisite olive oil and served.

Yep, prosperity makes everyone happy. “Don’t talk to me about poli-tics!” barks one Arab shopkeeper. “I just want to feed my family and live in peace. That’s what everyone wants.”

Then we are interrupted—“Shalom,” he says to a couple of Israeli shoppers in Hebrew. “Bruchim haba’im [Welcome].”

The shops have something for ev-eryone, most notably for Israelis and Jewish tourists. It is incongruous, yet humorous, to see Arabs selling meno-rahs, kippot (skull caps), and T-shirts with Israeli flags or slogans like, “I love Israel!”

Keep in mind that from Ramallah to Gaza City, any Palestinian selling such goods would probably be killed. But not in Jerusalem, where Jews and Arabs may not love each other, but where in day-to-day affairs they man-age to get along.

I point to an Israeli army T-shirt and hat. “I like those,” I say to the shop-keeper with tongue firmly in cheek, “do you?” He smiles and says, “Business is business.” Y

By Shlomo Mordechai

A Stroll in the Old City

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New Army Chief

M ajor General Yoav Galant has been approved to replace

Lieutenant General Gabi Ashke-nazi as the next army chief of staff. Galant, 51, is known for nerves of steel and courage in battle.

He joined the naval comman-dos in 1977 and then became a commander in the elite unit Shayetet 13. Taking a break from military service for two years, he worked as a lumberjack in Alas-ka. On his return to the IDF, he became second in command of a missile boat.

He was later promoted to brigadier general and appointed commander of the Gaza Division, a position he held until 1999. In 2005, he was appointed head of Southern Command, where he oversaw the Gaza War in Janu-ary of 2009.

The son of a Holocaust-sur-vivor father and a Syrian Jew-ish mother, Galant is considered more hawkish than Ashkenazi, especially on the issue of Iran. He takes up the new post in Feb-ruary. Y Compiled by Netanel D oron &

Barry Rosenfeld

m i l i t A r Y

November 2010 | 27

Remembering a Heroine

T he young Hungarian poet Hannah Senesh immigrated to what was then Palestine in 1939 and joined the Haganah,

the fledgling Jewish underground defense force. After enlisting in the British army, she parachuted into Yugoslavia in 1944 on a daring mission: to save the Jews of Hungary from deportation to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. She was captured, but even under torture, she refused to betray her fellow paratroop-ers. She was executed by the Nazis as a spy.

Israeli paratrooper Eleanor Weber, 19, was selected to participate in a memorial jump outside of Budapest in honor of Senesh’s heroic mission 66 years ago. She was accompanied by a group of Hungarian parachutists and several Israelis including Dar Nachum, 48, the son of a Hungarian Holocaust survivor.

“I have been allowed to step into Hannah’s shoes,” said Weber. “Hannah Senesh was a heroine of the Jewish people. It is an honor to have been chosen to keep the memory of her historic effort alive.” Y

C liona Campbell, 19, is a non-Jew-ish Irish woman whose affinity

for Israel prompted her to serve in the Israeli army for two months through the Sar El volunteer program. Camp-bell, a university student from Cork, is something of a prodigy: In 2008, she was a finalist in the Young Journalist of the Year competition and last year, she won an essay-writing competition.

When she got home, she wrote about her experiences in The Evening Echo, a local newspaper. “Ever since the age of nine,” she wrote, “I have been capti-vated by the Jewish people—a nation

which has endured hatred, persecution and genocide, and yet still retains an unyielding will to survive, unifying them in an unbreakable kinship.”

The article caused an uproar in Ire-land and beyond, leading to insults and hate mail, because Campbell defended the Gaza War.

“I had watched the injustice dur-ing [Operation] Cast Lead, where after eight years of incessant rockets, Israel cried enough and was villainized for the deaths caused by terrorists who used their own people as human shields…brandishing their dead shamelessly be-fore the media,” she wrote. “I couldn’t stand by another day and see the people I cherish being discredited before the world and wanted to show solidarity to the Jewish nation.”Y

Irish Student in the Army

FROM COMMANDO to general

66 YEARS ON: Senesh sought to save Jews from the Holocaust

TAKING THE HEATCampbell was vilified for standing with Israel

28 | October 2010

N A t u r E

T he famous discoverer of sunken ships such as the Titanic and Bismarck, Robert D. Ballard, has set his sights on the coastal waters off Israel. Diving to depths

of 1.7 km. (just over a mile), Ballard and the crew of his research submarine “Nau-tilus” are exploring the Eastern Mediterranean in search of undiscovered wonders of the undersea world, as well as lost chapters of human history.

Ballard, along with a team of experts from the University of Haifa, announced an important discovery: For the first time, an area of reefs with deep-sea corals has been found in the Mediterranean. The reefs stretch over several miles about 2,300 feet (700 meters) under the surface, some 20 miles (35 km) off the coast of Tel Aviv.

“It’s like finding a flourishing oasis in the middle of the desert,” said Israeli researcher Yitzhak Makovsky.

Through “telepresence,” a term coined by Ballard, satellite and high-speed networks create a “you are there” experience, in which people are able to watch his team’s deep-sea exploration live as it happens, via Facebook and Twitter. Viewers experience being aboard the ship, looking over the shoulders of the scientists and crew and listening to their conversations. Y

See www.nautiliuslive.org

Titanic Discoverer Probes Israeli Coast

Israel Finds Black Gold

C ommercially viable deposits of oil have been discovered in central Israel near the town of Rosh Ha’ayin, about 10 miles (17 km) northeast of Tel

Aviv. Givot Olam Oil Ltd notified the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange of the find in its “Meged Five” exploratory well, saying it can produce 470 barrels of oil a day.

But this could just be the tip of the iceberg. Givot Olam geologist Tuvia Luskin has estimated a find of at least a billion barrels of oil. He says that when the deposit is fully developed, it could provide about 3,285 barrels of crude oil per day. Government officials are talking about possible deposits that would greatly supplement Israel’s energy supply and reduce its dependence on foreign oil.

Many Christian Zionists have invested in Givot Olam, believing that God intends to bless Israel. Some believers expect Israel to discover black gold because of the prophecy to the biblical Tribe of Asher: “May he be favored by his brothers, and may he dip his foot in oil” (Deut. 33:24). Y

HIGH ADVENTUREThe team has made some interesting discoveries in the Mediterranean

GOOD INVESTMENT?Some Christian Zionists believe

Israel will be blessed with oil

SUNKEN treasure

E c o N o m Y / t E c H N o l o G Y

November 2010 | 29

N orway has sold its pension fund shares in two Israeli companies

because of their involvement in the construction of settlements in Judea and Samaria. The Norwegian government’s Ethics Council described the invest-ments as “a serious violation of human rights in a situation of war and conflict.”

The divestment from Africa Israel Investments and its subsidiary Danya Cebus Ltd. totaled $1.5 billion. The com-panies built Jewish homes in Jerusalem’s Har Homa neighborhood and in Ma’ale Adumim, Israel’s biggest settlement east of the capital.

A year ago, a Norwegian pension fund withdrew its investment in Israel’s larg-est non-governmental defense contrac-tor, Elbit Systems, because it is involved in the building of the security barrier. The fence was built to keep Palestinian suicide bombers out of Israel, but the fund regards it as a violation of international law. Y

Norway Divests from Israel

Electricity from Traffic

A n Israeli company has found a way to create electric-ity from the kinetic energy that accumulates under

highways, train tracks, sidewalks or even dance floors. In-nowattech specializes in the development of generators of piezoelectricity—the charge which accumulates in certain solid materials such as asphalt and ceramics and which is generated by pressure. The generators have no negative effect on the environment.

The company has also developed a highly-efficient sys-tem for storing the electricity which can be used locally or transported through an electrical grid. The generators can power railroad crossings, traffic lights and street signs with the electricity generated by passing traffic.

Innowattech is based in Ra’anana, near Tel Aviv, with research facilities at the Technion in Haifa. Y

A pple farmers in the Galilee and Golan Heights in northern Israel

lost much of this year’s crop because of a severe heat wave. With temperatures soaring to 113ºF (45ºC), nearly 10,000 dunams (2,500 acres) of apple orchards were destroyed.

“The apples were baked on the trees,” said Gabi Coneal, head of agriculture at Kibbutz Merom Golan. “The damage is nothing less than catastrophic.”

Coneal estimated that 70 percent of the crop was ruined, with most of the

Heat Wave Destroys Apple Cropdamage suffered by the region’s flag-ship product, the Top Red (or Starking) apple.

“This year, we had counted on a record harvest due to a relatively mild winter,” he said. “It’s a terrible blow.”

In the heat, the apple’s core ripens and rots, while the skin remains unripe.

“Because of the weather, the red apples didn’t get their color,” said Tal Wolf of Kirur Galil, an apple storage company in Galilee. “They look more like potatoes than apples.” Y

DOWN THE SIDEWALK and into the electricity grid

GENERATING POWER is good economics

ROTTEN APPLES Galilee farmers were hit hard

i N b r i E F

to thE rEscuE: A Chilean doctor, who is also an Israeli citizen, treated the 33 rescued miners in Chile. Dr. Juan Mellibovsky, head of the Copiapo Hospital der-matological department, was the first to examine the San José miners. After being underground at a depth of 2,300 feet (700 meters) for over 60 days, at tempera-tures reaching 86°F (30°C) with 90 percent humidity, skin problems are a major concern.

holY citY: Jerusalem has more synagogues than law offices and playgrounds combined. More than 12,000 Jewish houses of worship serve every branch of Judaism including Sephardic, Ashkenazi, modern and ultra-Orthodox, Chassidic, Conservative, Reform and even Messianic.

sPEED it uP: The speed limit on Israel’s major highways has been increased from 100 kph to 110 kph (62 mph to 68 mph). Limits on secondary roads are now 100 kph, up from 90 kph (56 mph). The decision was based on a study by law enforcement agencies which determined that the higher speed limit is safe. The higher speed applies to the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road and the Highway 6 toll road, while the secondary limit affects the Tel Aviv-Haifa costal road, among others. Is-raeli drivers have a bad reputation, but thanks to police

efforts and better roads, traffic accidents have gone down in recent years.

T I D B I T S

Ethiopian Immigration

M ost of the 100,000 Ethiopian Jews in Israel are olim (immi-

grants), and a survey shows that 89 percent feel at home here. The report was published by the Immigration Ministry to mark the 25th anniver-sary of Operation Moses, the covert airlift of 8,000 Ethiopian Jews (known as Black Jews or Falashas) from Sudan to Israel in 1984-1985. Y

I srael’s breathtaking Dead Sea, the lowest spot on earth, is still a candidate to be ranked among the New7Wonders of the world in 2011. There are 27 finalists, in-

cluding the Masurian Lake District (Poland), the Angel Falls (Venezuela), Mount Vesuvius (Italy), the Jeita Grotto (Lebanon), the Matterhorn/Cervino (Switzerland/Italy), the Maldive Islands and the Black Forest (Germany). Currently, the Dead Sea is in 14th place. The New7Wonders will be announced on 11.11.11. So please vote for Israel and the Holy Land! You can do so at www.votedeadsea.com. Y

Don’t Forget To Vote!

The Israeli government website, www.masbirim.gov.il, is now available in both Hebrew and Eng-

lish. It helps Israelis and their supporters abroad to be ambassadors for the nation, arming them with an-swers to anti-Israel propaganda and facts to counter myths. It also aims to show the positive side of Israel beyond politics.

Those who enter the site are presented with count-less Israeli accomplishments, such as drip irrigation invented by Simcha Blass. This groundbreaking technology dates back to 1955 when Blass introduced small, controlled amounts of water directly to the root system of seedlings. It is particularly effective in arid climates, such as Israel, where fields produce as much as 30 times the world average. It has also led to a significant reduction of hunger in many parts of the globe, especially Africa. Y

Be an Ambassador for Israel

THE DEAD SEA could be one of ‘Seven New Wonders of the World’

HOUSES of prayer

‘FROM BEYOND THE RIVERS of Ethiopia’

(Zeph 3:10)

WHAT A DRIPA revolution in irrigation

Israeli Author Wins Peace Prize

I sraeli author David Grossman has won the Peace Prize, awarded by the German Publishers and Booksellers Asso-

ciation, for his efforts to bring reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. “In his novels, essays and stories, Grossman has consistently sought to understand and describe not only his own position, but also the opinions of those who think differently,” the association said.

In the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Grossman’s son Uri was killed by a Hezbollah missile just days after his father joined in a demand for a cease-fire.

In his acceptance speech at St. Paul’s Church in Frank-furt, the 56-year-old author said, “I would like to tell you about Uri, but I cannot. But this I will say: Imagine a young man starting out in his life, with all his hopes, his zest for life, with the innocence, the humor, the desires of a young man. This is what he was like. And this is what thousands and thousands of other Israelis, Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians, Jordanians and Egyptians who lost their lives in this conflict, and con-tinue to lose their lives, were like.”

Grossman’s novels, stories, essays and children’s books have been translated into more than 30 languages. He pub-lished his first novel, The Smile of the Lamb, in 1983.

Grossman is associated with the far-left wing Peace Now movement, which opposes the settlements and seeks a Pales-tinian state on the 1967 borders. His most famous book is The Yellow Wind (1987), an indictment of the Israeli “occupation” based on a seven-week journey through the “West Bank.” Y

World’s Oldest Jew Dies at 111

Fannie Forman Bu-ten, believed to be the

world’s oldest Jew, died at the ripe old age of 111. Buten, who was born in 1889, immigrated to the US from Austria at the age of two and spent her final years in Philadelphia. She is survived by 12 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

Buten was the oldest Jew “whose age has been verified,” according to Robert Young of the Gerontology Research Group. At her death, she was also the oldest Penn-sylvanian and ranked 37th in the world.

My mother “always lied about her age…so this [media attention] probably wouldn’t please her,” said her daughter, Marjorie Steinberg.

Buten belonged to the Philadelphia congregations of Adat Yeshurun and Har Zion Temple. Among her accom-plishments: hitting a hole-in-one in her 70s! She became the oldest Jewish woman following the death of Rosa Rein in Swit-zerland in February at the age of 112. Y

i N b r i E F

Compiled by Michael Schneider

October 2010 | 31

‘Ark’ Sails to Turkey

While the remnants of Noah’s Ark are said to have been found on Mt. Ararat in Turkey, Israel decided to return the favor with an ark of its own, shipping a

gaggle of animals to Gaziantep Zoo in Anatolia. Three elephants, several zebras, a hip-popotamus and some lemurs were donated by Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo and the Safari Park in Ramat Gan outside of Tel Aviv.

The gesture is environmental and political: It is hoped that the elephants will help save the Asian pachyderms from extinction, while improving Israel-Turkish tensions that plummeted over the flotilla affair last June.

Keep on Truckin’?

Following a similar initiative in Je-rusalem, heavy trucks are now

banned from Tel Aviv roads on weekdays between 6 and 9 a.m. Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz says the measure is aimed at easing rush hour traffic and reducing pollution. The Truckers’ As-sociation and the Israel Road Transport Board are angry over the decision, saying it will delay deliveries and increase traf-fic jams during afternoon rush hour. Y

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