Israel in the News May/Jun 2012
Legal activists gave Delta Airlines a recent lesson in geography—and law—after its frequent-flyer program website referred to Ben Gurion airport in Lod outside Tel Aviv as “Occupied Palestinian Territory…
ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT
From Bill Sutter’s Desk Mar/Apr 2012
The Friends of Israel is known for being a forward-looking ministry. Though not neglecting important lessons of the past and working to keep abreast of the impact of current events…
Eye on the Middle East Mar/Apr 2012
For nearly all of its 64 years, the State of Israel has faced constant threats to its survival as a democratic, Jewish nation. The courage, tenacity, ingenuity, and determination…
Israel in the News Mar/Apr 2012
A cyber war between Israel and its enemies is heating up, with both sides hacking into each other’s websites. Hackers recently brought down the El Al and Tel Aviv Stock…
Zvi Mar/Apr 2012
Living in Israel is like living on an active volcano. It has been this way ever since I came here more than 65 years ago. More than 150 million Arabs…
Israel in the News Jan/Feb 2012
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood held a “kill the Jews” rally in Cairo in November. Thousands attended, promising to “one day kill all the Jews” and wage war against Jerusalem’s “Judaization.” The rally…
Chasing Arafat’s Dream
During the fiasco over the Palestinian Authority’s all-out push at the UN in September for a unilaterally forged Palestinian state, the implausible morphed into the incomprehensible. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon eloquently illustrated…
Israel in the News Nov/Dec 2011
When Gaza-based terrorists opened up a fresh mortar attack on the Erez Crossing border terminal between Gaza and southern Israel recently, three Palestinian women and two infants were passing through.
Saying is Believing
Rhetoric is everything. Or at least it appears so nowadays. But what happens when rhetoric doesn’t match reality? See for yourself.
Israel’s Quest for Peace
The following is a brief excerpt from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before a joint session of the United States Congress on May 24, 2011: If history has taught the Jewish people…
Israel in the News Sep/Oct 2011
Israeli doctors recently saved the life of 7-month-old Odai al-Kafarna of the Gaza Strip by repairing a hole in his heart. His grandmother, who brought him to the Israeli hospital…
Zvi Sep/Oct 2011
Anyone who remembers our War for Independence in 1948 knows about Latrun. It is an area in Israel located on a hilltop on the road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem…
Eye on the Middle East Jul/Aug 2011
A different atmosphere has emerged in Egypt since President Hosni Mubarak’s departure. The Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and Iran are no longer viewed with disdain; and Hamas has an office in Cairo.
A Palestinian State: How to Lose and Still Come Out a Winner
It used to be that winners were winners and losers were losers, and to the victor went the spoils. Not today, particularly when it comes to Israel. See for yourself.
Israel in the News Jul/Aug 2011
In August it will be six years since 10,000 Jews were expelled from 21 beautiful communities in Gush Katif/Gaza and the Shomron (Samaria). Most still live in trailer towns like Nitzan…
From Bill Sutter’s Desk May/Jun 2011
Blatant attempts to defame Israel as illegitimate and deny the Jewish state its rightful place among the countries of the world have been painfully obvious to those of us who stand with…
Eye on the Middle East May/Jun 2011
There are 450 different theme parks, amusement parks, and water parks in the United States, according to the International Association of Amusement Parks. Disney, the largest and most recognized, has six…
Connecting the Dots
Nehemiah had his work cut out for him. God had promised to return the Jewish people to their land after their captivity in Babylon. And true to His Word, God brought Nehemiah…
Israel in the News May/Jun 2011
“What kind of monster butchers an infant?” American TV personality Glenn Beck asked his viewers recently, following the brutal massacre of five Israelis in the West Bank town of Itamar.
Eye on the Middle East Mar/Apr 2011
Students at Princeton University voted last fall on a referendum combining politics and cuisine. The issue raised by The Princeton Committee for Palestine wanted students to approve a boycott on hummus.
Setting TIME Magazine Straight
In his latest article on Israel and the Palestinians, TIME magazine’s Karl Vick prejudges matters almost from the outset in his reference to “Israel’s 43 years of occupation of Palestinian territory.”
Israel in the News Mar/Apr 2011
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) flag now flies in Washington, DC. PLO officials hoisted their banner over their U.S. mission for the first time in January.
Said mission chief Maen Areikat…
The Magic of Mahmoud
Like a diminutive political time bomb, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stalked the halls of the United Nations in September. He took his vitriol to the podium of the General Assembly…
Assessing the Fear Factor
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, leader of the crusade to build a mosque near Ground Zero in New York City, trashed his “moderation” pose when he disregarded millions of concerned Americans…
The Jewishness of the Temple Mount
So prolific is Muslim propaganda that many Westerners today question the Temple’s historicity. So it’s time to review the evidence.
The Beginning of PA Denial
The Palestinian Authority’s (PA’s) political denial of the Jewish Temple’s existence first came to international attention at the Camp David II Summit in July 2000. In a final effort to resolve…
Muslim Backpedaling
Muslims today vociferously deny a Jewish Temple existed on the Temple Mount (Haram). However, their own literature affirms this fact and shows how they have changed their position to accomplish…
Why the Waqf Rules
When Israeli statesman Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in 2000, he was surrounded by 1,000 Israeli police. His visit, along with the announcement that the complex would…
Islam Rewrites the Bible
Millions of people today fail to grasp the differences between Jewish and Muslim claims to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. But the differences are enormous. Jewish claims are based on Scripture…
Israel in the News Jan/Feb 2011
The Western Wall belongs to Muslims and is an integral part of al-Aqsa mosque and Haram al-Sharif (Islamic term for the Temple Mount complex), according to an official paper published…
From Bill Sutter’s Desk Nov/Dec 2010
Before Benjamin Netanyahu began his current term as prime minister of Israel, he spoke about Iran at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. I’ll never forget hearing him declare with conviction…
Eye on the Middle East Nov/Dec 2010
Here in the United States, citizens are befuddled about the meaning of the word illegal. A dictionary informs us it means “not according to or authorized by law.” Which says to most…
Israel in the News Nov/Dec 2010
Journalist Mitchell Prothero said Hamas is confiscating humanitarian goods donated by the international community and forcing Gaza Arabs to pay for them. Prothero spoke to a commander of Islamic Jihad…
Zvi Nov/Dec 2010
We live in a special situation in Israel. Most of the world is against us, particularly the Muslim countries that surround us. I have lived in this part of Jerusalem…
From Bill Sutter’s Desk Sep/Oct 2010
Keeping your eye on the ball is not only good advice in baseball, it is also essential to clearly understand and properly respond to the conflict in the Middle East. Israel’s…
Eye on the Middle East Sep/Oct 2010
Remember the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush during a press conference in 2008 and spent nine months in a Baghdad prison for his trouble? Well…
Israel in the News Sep/Oct 2010
Bypassing Senate confirmation, U.S. President Barack Obama in July named a Medicare chief who supports socialized medicine and belongs to an anti-Israel physicians’ group. Dr. Donald Berwick contributes financially to Physicians…
Eye on the Middle East Jul/Aug 2010
A recent Arutz-7 headline read, “Ex-US Envoy Indyk: Bibi’s Refusal to Obama ‘Threatens Alliance.’” Martin Indyk apparently has left Israelis wondering just how much is actually at stake in Israel’s decision…
Who Writes the Last Chapter?
Just when some of the “leading lights” of the international diplomatic community thought progress might be brewing in the quest to tame the Iranian mullocracy through UN sanctions, the lid…
Getting the Gist of J Street
A new movement is afoot to strip Israel of its Jewish identity. And, remarkably, the people propelling it are Jewish.
An Interview with Daniel Pipes
I think it is. There are three components to it. The first is demographic. Indigenous Europeans are not having enough children by about one-third. You need 2.1 children per woman…
Israel in the News Jul/Aug 2010
U.S. President Barack Obama has threatened to impose his own solution to the Middle East problem, which “the Israelis won’t appreciate,” if Israel and the Palestinians fail to settle the situation…
Eye on the Middle East May/Jun 2010
Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward (Ps. 127:3). This message from God’s Word is worlds away from the message of a Palestinian…
Malevolent Momentum
Michael Freund writes in The Jerusalem Post, “Something is stirring in the Middle East.” How right he is. And it isn’t good for Israel or the nation’s supporters. “The winds…
Israel in the News May/Jun 2010
Dr. Hagai Ben-Artzi, Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu’s brother-in-law, has called U.S. President Barack Obama an anti-Semite. Netanyahu immediately rejected the remarks. “The time has come to tell the truth,” Ben-Artzi…
Israel in the News Mar/Apr 2010
While the world marveled at the speed and efficiency with which Israel responded to January’s Haitian disaster, The New York Times found fault. The tiny Jewish state launched such a massive…
Israel in the News Jan/Feb 2010
Young female athletes from Israel’s fencing team swept top medals at a 28-nation European tournament in Austria in November, but when they received their medals, the organizers did not play…
Eye on Middle East Nov/Dec 2009
The Financial Times headline read, “US Attacks Israel Over West Bank Settlements.” Startling on the surface, the article merely confirmed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruffled some feathers when he announced…
The Ghettoization of Israel
Inferior status, limited opportunity, and heavy restrictions. These are characteristics of ghettos. And they seem eerily like what the world is trying to impose on the free and democratic nation of Israel.
Israel in the News Nov/Dec 2009
Virulent anti-Semitism thrives on a Dutch social media Website used by nearly half of the entire population of Holland, according to a recent report. And many of the online instigators…
How to Win a War Without Firing a Shot
There’s a sleeper in the two-states-living-side-by-side scenario now tantalizing the Mideast peace process. Israelis have offered a perfectly sensible five-point plan that takes into account their need for future security…
Once There Was a Wicked, Wicked Man
Yes, the villain Haman is still remembered year after year as Jewish children sing this little song. The lyrics help them learn the story from the biblical book of Esther as they celebrate…
Moshe Sharon Explains Middle Eastern Realities
Moshe Sharon, now retired professor of early Islamic history at Hebrew University, presented an analysis of some key Middle East issues at an annual conference of the Counter-Terrorism Institute in Herzliya…
Israel in the News Sep/Oct 2009
“Our goal has never been peace,” a Fatah official admitted on Palestinian Authority (PA) TV. “Peace is a means; the goal is Palestine,” meaning the conquest of Israel. “It has been said…
Israel in the News Jul/Aug 2009
Warnings abound that the Obama administration’s policies will leave Israel to face Iran and Hamas alone. The warnings are summed up in recent articles by the West’s two main pro-Israel…
HAMAS: The Haters of Israel
Where did this terrorist organization come from and what is its agenda? Here’s the information you won’t get on the evening news.
Israel in the News May/Jun 2009
A highly placed U.S. intelligence official said Washington intends to abandon Israel in favor of the Arabs in a policy “designed to end with [Israel’s] political annihilation as a nation.” “I have every…
Israel in the News Mar/Apr 2009
I’ve been in Gaza for a week. We’re in an armored reconnaissance unit, which means we are infantry that goes in front of the tanks….The army was very tight with us about security…
Eye on the Middle East Jan/Feb 2009
We often hear the famous words of the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan, trust and verify. They are repeated often in the heat of negotiations with world leaders who are less than scrupulous…
Israel in the News Jan/Feb 2009
A female Egyptian lawyer has recommended that Arab men sexually harass Jewish women to force Jews to leave Israel. Egypt, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, is perceived…
Eye on the Middle East Nov/Dec 2008
Reading the dictionary can be an exhilarating experience. Not that an overwhelming number of young people might find it so. Nevertheless, it is an exercise in personal enlightenment that is well worth the time.
Israel in the News Nov/Dec 2008
The UN is poised to insist that Israel pay Lebanon $1 billion to compensate for damages to Lebanon during the 2006 war against Hezbollah. “Yes, you read that correctly,” wrote Michael Freund in a recent article…
Martyrs or Murderers? There is a Difference
Religion, religion, religion. We don’t like to speak of it in the West, but it perme- ates every facet of everyday life for Muslims. And it determines many things, as you’ll see when you read this article.
Israel in the News Sep/Oct 2008
Apparently Harvard graduate Barack Obama has trouble with the English language. Or he says one thing when he speaks to Jewish people and another when he speaks to CNN.
Israelis Prepare for the Worst
On April 1, sirens across the entire State of Israel sounded for a full 90 seconds, warning all citizens to head immediately for the shelters. This exercise was no April Fools’ Day trick.
Israel in the News Jul/Aug 2008
Below are excerpts from U.S. President George W. Bush’s speech to the Israeli Knesset in May to celebrate Israel’s 60th anniversary. Speaking of God’s promise to give the Jewish people the land…
They Cry in Silence May/Jun 2008
When the Archbishop of Canterbury recently suggested the inevitability of instituting some aspects of Muslim Sharia law in Britain, he caused a justifiable furor. His comments also raised hackles in Canada…
Israel’s Long and Hard War of Independence
Despite its military victories, Israel still does not enjoy peace. So the country’s anniversary celebration took a different turn this year—for a significant reason.
Security Fence
To protect itself from car bombs and suicide bombers, Israel is constructing a security barrier that runs roughly along the perimeters of the 1949 armistice lines. Unfortunately, huge chunks of the barrier…
Order of Battle
Maj.-Gen. Gadi Shamni, Ehud Olmert’s former military aide, was appointed head of Central Command in June 2007 by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi.
The Home Front
Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan is the recently appointed commander of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Home Front, replacing Yitzhak Gershon who stepped down following harsh criticism of his command’s performance during the Second Lebanon War in 2006.
Religion and the 60th Anniversary of the State of Israel
Israel, once so secular, is becoming more religious. Plans are afoot to build a third Temple, and several interesting events are confirming the truths of Bible prophecy.
Why We Want to Kill You
A terrorist mind-set is concerned with occupation. To them, everything is an imperialist or Zionist conspiracy. The reality is that the terrorist mind is occupied with half truths. Although many times the terrorist knows the truth…
Eleven Things Christians Should Know
“Bethlehem will become a town of churches devoid of Christians if you transfer the area to the Palestinian Authority,” predicted the late mayor of Bethlehem, Elias Freij, pleading—in 1993—not to transfer…
Religion and Politics: Who’s in the Game
An interesting contest seems to be heating up as the world paves a road to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The religious left has felt compelled to issue a series…
Israel in the News Mar/Apr 2008
January was one of the worst months for Kassam attacks in Sderot. Arutz-7 reported many straight days of more than 40 hits per day. Parents keep their children home from school…
Eye on the Middle East Jan/Feb 2008
A man identifying himself as a “missionary in Jerusalem” wrote a scathing response to an op-ed piece I wrote recently for The Jerusalem Post. The writer castigated me for my apparent lack of love…
Now They Call Me Infidel
Israel has been the object of constant terrorism—a barrage of 9/11s all through its history. As a percentage of their total population, Israel has lost far more lives to terror…
Israel in the News Jan/Feb 2008
ARUTZ-7—The Jewish state’s first Arab minister, Raleb Majadle, has declared that Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount is nonexistent and that he will always give his allegiance to Islam over Israel…
Zvi Jan/Feb 2008
Our Muslim neighbors are doing all they can to begin a new war. If they succeed, it will not be the first time. I have lived in Israel 60 years…
Eye on the Middle East Nov/Dec 2007
A recent report out of the Middle East could provide a formula for how not to run a war. Following the cease-fire that interrupted the battle between Hezbollah and Israeli forces in Lebanon…
Checking Up on the ‘Big Split’
We were recently taken by a headline that appeared in The Jewish Week. It read, “Evangelical Split Over Israel Batters Bush.” The crux of the article rested on the premise that evangelical…
A Christian View from the Temple Mount
Muslims now claim the Western Wall was a hitching post for Muhammad’s horse! Their claims are preposterous, but they will stop at nothing to rewrite history. And they have two main reasons for doing so.
Israel in the News Nov/Dec 2007
Intense rocket fire from Palestinian Gaza into Jewish Sderot has led Defense Minister Ehud Barak to declare a state of emergency in the western Negev communities, thereby transferring authority over local councils…
Kissing Freedom Goodbye
For years realists on Middle East affairs said a Palestinian state would become a platform for radical Islamist terror and that the most dangerous merchants of death would populate the ministate…
Israel in the News Sep/Oct 2007
Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel must learn from Hamas’s takeover of Gaza. “Every piece of land that we unilaterally evacuate becomes a place where rockets are deployed against us. We must ensure…
Eye on the Middle East Jul/Aug 2007
A tired old motto makes its appearance in every political campaign. It goes something like this: “Politics: the art of the possible.” However, in many cases the reality is more…
Israel in the News Jul/Aug 2007
Former Knesset member Azmi Bishara faces allegations that he sold intelligence information to Hezbollah for several hundred thousand dollars during Israel’s Second War in Lebanon last summer. He is also suspected of stealing millions…
Eye on the Middle East Mar/Apr 2007
Speaking in December 2006 at a Holocaust memorial ceremony in Berlin, Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said: We have learned and memorialized the lesson: the weak and defenseless are doomed. Doomed…
‘People Just Want Nice.’ Oh, Really?
When will we learn that some people don’t care about “nice” and that annihilating Israel is merely the warm-up to something far more nefarious?
Israel in the News Mar/Apr 2007
American rifles supplied to the Palestinian Authority (PA) may be used against Israel if PA President Mahmoud Abbas has his way. WorldNetDaily’s Aaron Klein reported that Abbas has called on Arab…
Is Israel an Apartheid State?
Even before the State of Israel was established, Jewish leaders consciously sought to avoid the situation that prevailed in South Africa. As David Ben-Gurion told Palestinian nationalist Musa Alami in 1934…
Israel in the News Jan/Feb 2007
In a move presented as an effort to counter the growing strength and influence of Hamas, the United States has been arming and training Fatah fighters, headed by Palestinian Authority…
Eye on the Middle East Nov/Dec 2006
The late Yasser Arafat and his Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) cronies made a big mistake years ago when they chose to line their own pockets with the loot garnered from the benevolent West, rather…
Questions That Beg for Answers
Here we go again. Just as they exploded with rage over 12 cartoons published in a Danish newspaper in September 2005, Muslims again are demonstrating that they will not extend freedom of the press…
Brigitte Gabriel Conclusion
When the Palestinians started fighting in Lebanon [in the 1970s], the war took on such savagery that it was inconceivable. They would massacre the Christian cities. City after city. A signature Palestinian way…
Israel in the News Nov/Dec 2006
The father of an Israeli soldier abducted and killed in 2000 says he has proof the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) filmed the kidnapping, sold the film to Hezbollah, and then denied…
Zvi Nov/Dec 2006
Living in Israel, we know what it means to fight for our lives. For 2,000 years my people dreamed of returning to Eretz Yisrael; and in the 1948 War of Independence, God answered our prayers…
Eye on the Middle East Sep/Oct 2006
Over a year ago, in a good-faith attempt at conciliation to Palestinian and international demands, Israel left the Gaza Strip. Eight thousand to 10,000 Israeli citizens were expelled from their homes…