Inside View May/Jun 2017
Does God fight for Israel? When Israel triumphs over multiple Arab armies attacking on multiple fronts, it certainly seems that God fights for Israel. Such was the case in 1967 when Israel won a humanly improbable…
ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT
End of the Two-State Solution
U.S. President Donald Trump recently announced he will not insist on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “I thought for a while the two-state looked like it may be the easier of the two. But honestly, if Bibi and if…
Ma’ale Adumim: It’s Not What You Think It Is
Before we arrived in the spring of 2000, I asked the 16 members of our Friends of Israel Youth Adventure team (now called ORIGINS) to describe what they thought a settlement would look like.
Six Days In June
When the 1967 Six-Day War erupted, the Jewish state had just celebrated 19 years of independence. Levi Eshkol, 71, was both prime minister and defense minister. Eshkol had replaced the legendary David Ben-Gurion in June 1963. Filling Ben-Gurion’s shoes…
Message in the Wall
Sounds of gunfire, soldiers singing “Jerusalem of Gold,” and the faint sound of a shofar were heard over the army wireless. It was June 7, 1967, and the Israel Defense Forces paratroopers had just liberated the Temple Mount and Western Wall.
Fifty Years Later
The Six-Day War begot the hackneyed catchphrase Israeli-occupied West Bank. Mindless talk of the “occupation” generally goes hand-in-hand with unvarnished ignorance or a willful disregard of the area’s strategic value.
Rehearsal for Armageddon
How important is Jerusalem to the Jewish people? Their souls have been intertwined with it for more than 3,000 years. Unfortunately, their heartache is not over. This article was written shortly after Six-Day War and ran in the…
It’s Not Over ‘Til It’s Over
A city’s significance is often measured by its commercial importance, the height of its skyscrapers, or the grandeur of its architecture. But Jerusalem is not like any other city. Jerusalem’s significance comes from the One who chose to dwell…
Israel in the News May/Jun 2017
If you’re a runner and love Israel, you may be interested in signing up for the third annual Bible Run on October 6, a reenactment of the first-ever recorded marathon—the trek of a Jewish man from the tribe of Benjamin who ran from…
Inside View Mar/Apr 2017
A friend of mine asked me, “Is there any way to make sense of the Middle East today?” There is so much turmoil. The entire region seems ablaze in conflict; and Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt are…
Apples of Gold Mar/Apr 2017
The Lord said in 1 Kings 21:19, “Have you murdered and also taken possession?” People are still killing and trying to take Israel’s land. The Arabs constantly seek to destroy us and demand that we compensate them for war…
UNESCO’s Propaganda War on Israel
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has approved a resolution that denies a Jewish connection to Jerusalem. Advanced by the Palestinian Authority (PA), with the help of Algeria, Egypt…
Israel in the News Jan/Feb 2017
Donald Trump will be the most pro-Israel president in the history of the United States, a Trump advisor told The Jerusalem Post. “The level of friendship between the U.S. and Israel is going to grow like never before…
Inside View Nov/Dec 2016
“This is the most important lesson you will learn today!” Rafi said as the Jeep came to a stop on a dirt road, about half a mile from the fence dividing Gaza from Israel. Rafi climbed out with a…
Israel in the News Nov/Dec 2016
World Vision, an American-based Christian charity, has shut down its Gaza office, laid off 120 Gaza employees, and canceled its projects in the region after Israel indicted its Gaza manager for allegedly funneling $7 million…
Eye on the Middle East Sep/Oct 2016
Representatives from 26 countries and international organizations met in Paris recently in an effort to relaunch stalled peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. But the initiative is doomed to fail…
Israel in the News Sep/Oct 2016
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu vowed that the recent terror attacks in Judea and Samaria will not drive Israelis from their homes. “We will strengthen this place,” he told the…
Eye on the Middle East Jul/Aug 2016
Israel has acquiesced to a plan to transfer sovereignty of two strategically important islands in the Red Sea from Egypt to Saudi Arabia as part of an informal, emerging alliance between…
Israel in the News Jul/Aug 2016
An online petition has been launched calling on UNESCO to reverse its recent “insulting” resolutions that deny any Jewish connection to the Temple Mount or Western Wall…
Eye on the Middle East May/Jun 2016
After nearly six years of discord, Turkey and Israel are working to repair bilateral relations. Reconciliation is said to be imminent. Analysts say Turkey is motivated by a desire to obtain access to Israeli natural gas in order to…
What America Needs
When Americans tune in to the presidential debates, most of them already know what they want to hear. They’re ready for a new hope and change. That’s why CNN’s Republican debate in December was the…
Eye on the Middle East Mar/Apr 2016
The Israel Defense Forces recently detained 90 Birzeit University (BZU) students, teachers, and employees for association with terrorism. BZU, near Ramallah, probably the most prestigious and liberal of the…
Israel in the News Mar/Apr 2016
More than 50 Orthodox rabbis worldwide have called for Jewish people to embrace Jesus as a Law-abiding Jew and to work with Christians for the betterment of society…
Telling the Truth
When knife-wielding Arabs went on a killing spree last fall in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and other parts of Israel, they butchered innocent Israelis…
Eye on the Middle East Jan/Feb 2016
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has revealed why he believes so many Israeli Jews are being stabbed, slashed, and shot by Arabs. It is due, he said…
Meet the Mideast Reporter
What to do about bias on Israel and the Middle East in the mainstream media? Watchdog organizations have been on the case for years. But now…
Eye on the Middle East Nov/Dec 2015
Seventy percent of all the children living in the southern Israeli city of Sderot suffer from at least one symptom of post-traumatic stress, and 50 percent continue to relive…
Israel in the News Nov/Dec 2015
The European Union’s parliament recently voted in favor of a resolution to differentiate labels on products made in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem, and…
Eye on the Middle East Sep/Oct 2015
The UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry in June released its 183-page investigative report into the 2014 Gaza war, blaming both Israel and Hamas for possible violations of…
Psalm 124: Our Defender
Living in danger was nothing new to my late colleague Zvi Kalisher. He lived in Israel for nearly 70 years and witnessed countless dangers. He often described his situation as…
Israel in the News Sep/Oct 2015
Former U.S. State Department official David Makovsky has proposed that Israel increase the number of Gazans it admits each day to 100,000 from the current 5,000. Makovsky claims Israeli jobs would make the Arabs less hostile to Israel and…
Oasis of Coexistence
Every morning, Ahbed, a Palestinian Arab, drives into the Barkan Industrial Park opposite the Ariel Industrial Park to manage the warehouse of the Lipski plastics factory. It produces a host of…
Remembering Gush Katif: 10 Years Later
On Wednesday morning, August 17, 2005, some 10,000 Israeli soldiers fanned out across 21 Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip. Their mission, following the Israeli army’s order eight days earlier, was…
Gush Katif Under the Palestinians
Gaza’s Jewish settlements were situated on about 30 percent of the Gaza Strip’s land. Former World Bank Group President James Wolfensohn intended that once the last Israeli left…
Origins of the Pullout
The concept of Israel leaving the Gaza Strip and receiving nothing in return was first floated unofficially by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in an address to an academic conference…
Israel in the News Jul/Aug 2015
Reuven Rivlin was born on September 9, 1939, in Jerusalem. However, according to the Google search engine, Israel’s 10th president was born in “Palestine.” The Mayor of Ra’anana, Ze’ev Bielski, made…
Israel in the News May/Jun 2015
The world accuses Israel of being an apartheid state, but it was Arab-Christian Israeli Supreme Court Justice Salim Jubran who oversaw the recent elections in Israel.
Inside View Jan/Feb 2015
When high school graduates in the United States head off to college or work, Israeli graduates enter the military. Men are required to serve for three years and women for two. Men remain…
Eye on the Middle East Jan/Feb 2015
In baseball, it’s three strikes and you’re out. In Gaza, it’s three strikes and keep the money coming. In October, about 50 diplomats pledged $5.4 billion to rebuild Gaza. Strike one took place…
Jerusalem: City With a Soul
Near the road running from Jerusalem to Bethlehem is a field that has stood empty since the late 1980s. The United States designated it as the site for the U.S. Embassy. Since…
Jerusalem and the Muslims
Most people know Jerusalem is important to three major religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. What many may not know is that the city is referenced in the holy writings of Christians…
Promise Betrayed
In 1917, during World War I, the British captured Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks and governed it from December 1917 until May 1948 when, depleted and detested by Jews and…
Meet Hilda Goldberg
My father was assigned to be the American Express bureau chief in Palestine, and my parents arrived from England in 1929—just in time for the Arab riots. Mummy told me that in those days…
A City Divided
On June 30, 1967, the first Friday after the official reunification of Jerusalem, Muslim and Christian Arabs—whom Jordan had banned from the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque, and…
Israel’s Government Today
In May 1948, the Jewish people became sovereign in their land for the first time in more than 2,500 years. Spearheading the modern government was the venerable David Ben-Gurion, who…
Israel in the News Jan/Feb 2015
Suha Arafat, widow of the late terrorist and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, said recently, “We need to clearly express the recognition of Israel; no one can doubt…
Inside View Nov/Dec 2014
After Joseph’s brothers were reunited with him in Egypt, they began worrying he might seek revenge because they had sold him into slavery many years earlier. But Joseph…
Eye on the Middle East Nov/Dec 2014
Do a computer search for “ISIS” and “Christians” and prepare to gasp in horror. ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or simply Islamic State) is slaughtering Christians in the Middle East…
Israel in the News Nov/Dec 2014
Intel will spend $6 billion to upgrade its Kiryat Gat chip manufacturing plant in one of the biggest single investments ever by a foreign company in Israel. The deal is expected to…
Life at the Checkpoints
While Palestinian Christians complain obsessively about the so-called atrocities suffered at the checkpoints, Capt. Joshua Lazarus, a Messianic Jewish officer in charge of…
Top 5 Flaws of the Israel Apartheid Movement
This year campuses across America held their 10th annual Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). As the name suggests, the protest organizers aim to equate the government of Israel with…
Dr. Ateek’s Rose-Colored Glasses
Naim Ateek is not a large man. He is slender, around 5 feet 7 inches tall, with white hair and a self-effacing, gentle look about him. He is not loud or aggressive, and he would…
Pushing the Anti-Israel Agenda
The “empire” is dying, according to Phyllis Bennis. When Bennis says “empire,” she is not referring to the massive Roman Empire that once ruled Europe and the Middle East…
Israel in the News Sep/Oct 2014
Israel is a small country, with a population of 6.1 million Jews. The ratio of Americans to Jewish Israelis is a staggering 52 to 1. By press time, 43 Israeli officers and soldiers…
Israel in the News Jul/Aug 2014
An anti-Semitic cartoon published recently in Hamas’s official daily newspaper tries to scare away new immigrants to Israel and threaten everyone living there with genocide.
Give More, Get War
Under threat of international isolation and more boycott and divestment scenarios, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said, “Enough.” His declaration of…
Israel in the News May/Jun 2014
The U.S. State Department is rejecting nearly one out of 10 Israelis who apply for tourist visas to the United States. “This is more than a threefold rise in visa rejections…
Eye on the Middle East Mar/Apr 2014
When members of the American Studies Association (ASA) voted to boycott Israeli academic institutions in December 2013, they probably had no idea their plan would…
Insult to Injury
Talk and turning up pressure on Israel have obviously replaced rational movement toward peace in the Middle East. The prevailing powers seem to prefer to reward…
Israel in the News Mar/Apr 2014
Israel hosted more than 3.54 million visitors from around the world in 2013, a new all-time high, according to the Israel Ministry of Tourism. Twenty percent came from…
Inside View Jan/Feb 2014
I often encourage people to advocate for Israel and speak up when others berate the Jewish state. Recently, a friend, Pastor Roger Truax, contacted me because of an anti-Israel article published…
Eye on the Middle East Jan/Feb 2014
“Iran poses absolutely no threat to the world or the region.” Or so Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani assured United Nations members in September 2013. His words may have impressed many…
Israel in the News Jan/Feb 2014
The New York Times has apologized for the picture it chose to go with an article it published in November about the brutal murder of 19-year-old Israel Defense Forces soldier…
Eye on the Middle East Nov/Dec 2013
It was merely a handshake. But it was no ordinary handshake. It was one of a kind, seen by millions around the world. It was proclaimed as the event that sealed the deal that would alter the…
It Is About Religion
The day held a unique significance for Egyptian President Anwar Sadat as he sat in a reviewing stand accompanied by a host of political, military, and visiting international dignitaries. It was…
Israel in the News Nov/Dec 2013
Recent excavations near the southern wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem have unearthed a literal treasure trove, again confirming an ancient Jewish presence in the city. Led by archaeologist…
Creating History
The craft has been around forever, but now lying has reached new heights. Even the most salacious prevaricators over past centuries did not take it on themselves to alter the history of…
Land Rights of the Patriarchs
For centuries people have argued over who has the legitimate claim to the land known today as Israel. The Arab-Israeli conflict has raged for decades, with both sides claiming exclusive rights…
The British Mandate
World War I (1914–1918) changed the map of the old Ottoman Empire in the Middle East. The region was split into two great sections. The northern half went to France (the French Mandate)…
The Arab Riots of the 1920s
A prevailing sentiment around the world seems to be that if Israel had never gained its independence, the Arabs would be happy; and there would be peace. But Arab terrorism started…
The Hadassah Hospital Massacre
In November 1947, the UN General Assembly passed a plan to partition what was left of British Mandate Palestine and establish separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem an international…
The Division and Desecration of Jerusalem
On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly approved Resolution 181, a plan to partition what was left of British Palestine into two states: one Arab, one Jewish. Seventy-seven percent…
Israel in the Book of Revelation
The struggle for the land of promise is merely the tip of a large iceberg. It is symptomatic of a far greater struggle between God and His enemy, Satan. The book of Revelation is apocalyptic…
Israel in the News Sep/Oct 2013
Now even Palestinians are fighting a recent European Union (EU) decision to boycott all Israeli businesses in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. A senior Palestinian Authority (PA) official who…
Eye on the Middle East Jul/Aug 2013
Moral equivalence is a tricky device often used by people who want to remove the focus from an obvious wrong and put it somewhere else. Commentary on the Arab-Israeli conflict…
Praise for Canada
Josh Reinstein, director of the Christian Allies Caucus of Israel’s Knesset, recently praised Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper as a “role model for world leaders.” He made the…
Israel in the News Jul/Aug 2013
Communications mavens have been saying for years that Israel needs to get its message to the world via an Israeli-type Al Jazeera. Various business people have dipped their toes in the water…
Eye on the Middle East May/Jun 2013
How often have you seen a household appliance create an international commotion? Apparently, when an Israeli company manufactures it, people…
The Romans Are Back
Travelers standing atop the fortress Masada in the Judean wilderness and looking a dizzying 1,000 feet down to the desert floor become instantly…
Israel in the News Mar/Apr 2013
A New York Times columnist has come under fire after retweeting a message calling the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the National Rifle Association (NRA)…
Zvi Mar/Apr 2013
I want to wish you all the best as we approach the great days of Passover. This is a holiday to remember how God delivered the Jewish people from their bitter bondage in Egypt. Today we are free, but many people would like to see us return to bondage and remove us from the land God gave to us as the descendants…
The WCC: No Friend to Israel
The World Council of Churches’ negative attitude toward Israel has been evident from the organization’s formal inception in 1948. Its website speaks of helping “displaced Palestinians”…
Molding the Next Generation of Anti-Semites
Incoming freshman Ariel Kaplan and his parents had no idea what they were walking into when they arrived on the campus of the University of California (UC), Berkeley….
Where to Find Good Information Online
With so much material floating in cyberspace, it’s sometimes difficult to know which websites are dependable and which are not. Here are some sites that provide solid…
Jesus the ‘Palestinian’
In some Christian circles, the theological justification for gaining freedom from Israeli “occupation” is Christian Palestinianism, a form of liberation theology that emphasizes…
Israel in the News Jan/Feb 2013
Many people in the world do not realize Israel supplies its enemies in the Gaza Strip with electricity. Not long into the Israeli government’s Operation Pillar of Defense…
Eye on the Middle East Nov/Dec 2012
In an attempt to comply with the U.S. State Department, an Israeli Knesset member has proposed legislation to let Christians and Jews pray on the Temple Mount. But the bill has ignited…
Selling the Big Lie
Explaining why she left her job, a reporter for a major organization in Washington, DC, said recently, “I feel like I am, as a reporter in the Capitol, lied to every…
Israel in the News Nov/Dec 2012
Moishe Oofnik, Israel’s version of Sesame Street’s Oscar the Grouch, is on the cover of a new 15-page pamphlet telling Israelis how to prepare for war. The leaflet, part of a public-awareness…
Eye on the Middle East Sep/Oct 2012
Have you ever heard the expression “the elephant in the room”? It was used first in a 1959 New York Times article about school finance that pointed out how ignoring…
Defining Our Obligation Toward Israel
The United States talks a lot about being Israel’s friend. But actions speak louder than words. And America’s actions are saying plenty, with little appearing pro-Israel.
Israel in the News Sep/Oct 2012
A new computer virus with Persian words in its programming code has infected sensitive computers across the Middle East, including Israel, and gathered information on critical national infrastructure, an Israeli security…
Israel in the News Jul/Aug 2012
Many Arab graduates from Hebrew University in Israel refused to sing Israel’s national anthem at recent graduation ceremonies. “This is not a single event,” said someone who attended, “but a symptom…
Eye on the Middle East May/Jun 2012
According to a poll taken in November 2011 by the European Commission—the executive body of the European Union—15 European countries believe Israel is the greatest threat to world peace. The Organisation…
Christian Zionism—The Real Story
The heat is up on the idea of a two-state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian dilemma. The current offensive touts a single state that eliminates Israel in favor of a Palestinian fiefdom…
An Incentive to Pray Fervently for Israel
Naftali Bennett, chief of staff to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from 2006 to 2008, said Israelis are “more concerned now than ever about Iran’s race to acquire a nuclear bomb.” To plead…
A Letter From Jerusalem: Survival Strategies for Ordinary Living
Ever been to an outdoor market or a museum in Jerusalem? Journalist Elliot Jager takes you on a stroll through the city to see what everyday life is like for people who live there.
The Questions No One Asks
As the Palestinian-Arabs and their friends continue to push for “Palestinian” statehood, the wrong questions are being asked while the pertinent questions every reporter, activist, and foreign minister should be asking…
The Arab Revolts and Israel
Most people know the face of the Middle East is changing. How did the change begin? Where is it heading? The answers are here.
Ending the Palestinian ‘Right of Return’
This year the Israeli Supreme Court upheld a law that prohibits Palestinians who marry Israelis from gaining automatic citizenship. Although it was a controversial decision in some circles, Israel has good…