Israel in the News May/Jun 2005
Two sisters who had not seen each other since the start of World War II have been reunited through the Yad Vashem database. Hannah Katz, 78, and Klara Blire, 81, were separated in 1939…
Israel My Glory
Eye on the Middle East Mar/Apr 2005
Late last year a number of positive developments appeared to be taking place in the middle East. For starters, Egypt’s president Hosni mubarak freed an Israeli druze who had been convicted of spying for Israel…
When Forgetting Is Unforgivable
It is the choice of the educational system on both sides of the Atlantic. The West buries the grim realities of historical atrocities beneath a gloss of contemporary superficiality. Our obsession to pursue pleasure…
Myths/Facts: Israel & the Middle East Mar/Apr 2005
“Hamas as a political organization does not mean that every member is a militant and we do not do political vetting and exclude people from one persuasion against another.” Although Hansen makes specious distinctions between…
How We Got Easter Sunday
Christians originally observed the Jewish passover, which begins at sundown on the 14th day of Nisan. Thus they were called Quartodecimans, Latin for “fourteeners.”1 However, instead of feasting on lamb, they fasted until dawn…
Israel in the News Mar/Apr 2005
Israeli security figures show that Palestinians nearly doubled the number of Kassam rockets they fired from Gaza after the Israeli cabinet approved the disengagement plan. And their smuggling operations have netted them a Strella missile…
School’s Out for Aviel
Three-year-old Aviel Atash was excited as he boarded the bus with his mother headed for his first day in school. Aviel never made it. A short distance from where he and his mom boarded…
Strike Three! You’re Safe!
Turn a few Americans loose anywhere in the world and what do you get? Baseball! While most of the media in Iraq were chasing blood-and-guts stories in other parts of the country…
PLO Uses Violence to Suppress News
Suppressing news by threatening reporters with violence or death is one of the dirty little secrets of Middle east journalism.” so wrote Jeff Jacoby last year in The Boston (MA) Globe.
Myths/Facts : Israel & the Middle East Jan/Feb 2005
Israel is not a theocracy. However, it is governed by the rule of law as drafted by a democratically elected parliament. It is informed by Jewish values and adheres to many Jewish religious customs…
Israel in the News Jan/Feb 2005
As Palestinian mortar shells and rockets continued to pound the Jewish settlement of Gush Katif at the rate of over three per day, destroying homes and sending people to the hospital…
The Wahabi Invasion of America
In February of 2003 a University of South Florida professor and six others were charged with aiding Islamic Jihad, a global terrorist organization. In July a federal grand jury…
The MBB’s ‘Dirty Little Secret’
It was a meeting like the hundreds of others we have experienced over the course of twenty years. My brother Emir was gently debating another Arabic Christian…
Backlash
When the hierarchy of the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) declared that it wanted to send a “strong message” to the international community to convey…
Islam’s Bogus Peace
Islam, amazingly lauded as a religion of peace since September 11, 2001, is built on violence. Its founder, Muhammad, established this religion by plundering…
Eye on the Middle East Nov/Dec 2004
If oil is properly termed black gold, then one would suppose water could properly be termed liquid gold. Today the search is on for…
The Greatest Gift
Tis the season to fight your way through crowded malls, spend every dime you have, and max out your credit cards trying to buy gifts for those you love…
Israel in the News Nov/Dec 2004
“The Painful Truth: All the World Terrorists are Muslims!” So writes Abdulrahman al-Rashed, general manager of AI-Arabiya television, in his…
Where Do We Sign Up?
Colonel Teddy Roosevelt, later to become the twenty-sixth president of the United States, was certified as an American icon during the Spanish-American War of 1898. The Spanish presence in North America, especially in Cuba…
Daniel and Darius
Daniel in the lions’ den (Dan. 6) is probably one of the best-known accounts in the Bible. It’s the encouraging, satisfying triumph of faith, righteousness, and justice over wickedness and evil in high places.
Eye on the Middle East Sep/Oct 2004
I am a former Moslem, born and raised in the Middle East. I am very disappointed and almost scared after watching your presentation about Islam. One of the reasons I fled to the United States
Targeting Hamas
The goal of Hamas is clear. As stated in the organization’s covenant, the Islamic Resistance Movement “strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine.” No negotiations or compromises are possible.
Israel in the News Sep/Oct 2004
An Israeli toddler being dropped off at nursery school by his mother was killed when a Palestinian Kassam rocket exploded in the heart of Sderot in the Negev. More than 20 others, including youngsters…
Israel’s Significance Is Insignificant
Geo-political Israel today is not to be understood as God’ s promise to Abraham and Joshua. IT IS NOT! …It is fair to say, the world owes them a homeland. But, and this is important…
Defining Differences
Premillennialism: The prefix pre means “before.” Premillennialism is the view that Christ will return to earth before the Millennium or Kingdom of God. He will establish a literal, political Kingdom of God on earth…
Eye on the Middle East Jul/Aug 2004
The family finished their evening meal and gathered in the living room to sing and enjoy a relaxing time exchanging pleasantries and stories. Later Esther put four of their young children to bed…
The Courage to Fight On
Yoni was two years old when Israel was created. He was born on March 13, 1946, less than a year after the most extreme and horrendous attempt—out of a long, almost unending line of attempts…
Israel in the News Jul/Aug 2004
ARUTZ-7—The United States has determined that Yasser Arafat approved the terrorist attack on a U.S. embassy convoy in which three Americans were killed in October 2003. Middle East Newsline reported in the name of U.S.
Eye on the Middle East May/Jun 2004
We have known for years that Islamist terrorist cells have been operating in the United States and North America. In 1994 investigative reporter Steven Emerson produced a one-hour documentary, Jihad in America, that aired…
The Cell Phones Wouldn’t Stop Ringing
A friend of mine who lives in Jerusalem was on his way to work on the morning of January 29. He was suffering the usual heavy morning traffic, three cars behind an Egged bus…
One Holiday, Two Birthdays
Thousands of Jewish people will make their traditional trek on foot to the Western Wall later in May to celebrate one of…
The Real Anne Frank
Had she lived, Anne Frank would be seventy-five years old this year. But in March 1945, three months before her sixteenth birthday, Anne became one of eighteen thousand prisoners who died in a single month in the Nazis’ Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany.
The Invasion by Gog and Magog
Son of man, set thy face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against…
The Foul Fruit of Apostasy
Many people profess to be Christians but reject the Bible as God’s Word; deny the deity of Christ; or repudiate the incarnation, virgin birth, resurrection…
Islam’s Suicide Solution
As if it were not already enormous, the gulf between Islam and Christianity grew even greater in January when Reem Rayashi, a 22-year-old Palestinian mother of two, blew herself up at the Erez Crossing…
From Terrorist to Zionist
Bethlehem-born Walid Shoebat detested Jews. Not that he had ever spoken to one. But he had been so well indoctrinated with…
Conversions Wont Hasten Christ’s Coming
True, Bible-believing Christians are commanded to make salvation through Jesus known to all (Mt. 28:19–20). Jesus Himself gave that mandate, called the Great Commission, after His resurrection and prior to His ascension into heaven.
Myths/Facts: Israel & the Middle East May/Jun 2004
Arab leaders have repeatedly made clear their animosity toward Jews and Judaism. For example, on November 23, 1937, Saudi Arabia’s King Ibn Saud told British Colonel H.R.P. Dickson: “Our hatred for the Jews dates from…
Israel in the News May/Jun 2004
Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposed the deal, saying it was too expensive. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, however, said that the importance of the deal surpasses merely the water issue and affects the strategic relationship with…
Only in Israel!
For example, in November 2002 a suicide bomber boarded an Israeli bus in Jerusalem that was so packed with Jewish schoolchildren no one noticed him. He waited until the bus was full, then exploded himself…
Pondering Life in the ‘New Jerusalem’
That’s the dream. But dreams rarely reflect reality. And nocturnal pleasantries inevitably vaporize when exposed to the harsh light of morning. Such will be the case when foreign interlopers, dreamers, and wishful thinkers impose..
Myths/Facts: Israel & the Middle East Mar/Apr 2004
In the case of Israel, the necessity for checkpoints has been created by the Palestinians. By pursuing a violent campaign of terror against Israel’s citizens, they have forced Israel to set up barriers to make…
Eye on the Middle East Mar/Apr 2004
Last December thousands of Palestinians flocked to the home of a family whose newborn son caused a sensation. Muslims are revering the boy as the “miracle baby” of Bethlehem. The designation was given because…
Suicide Bombers
As part of its promotion of suicide terrorism, the Palestinian Authority (P A) has repeatedly taught its population the Islamic tradition that the Shahid (martyr) who dies for Allah will receive numerous heavenly rewards…
Israel’s Peculiar Position
The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it…
Confronting a Legacy of Hatred
Hatred for Israel and the Jewish people in classrooms controlled by the Palestinian Authority is an ongoing problem. If and when a peace agreement is reached, how can a generation of Palestinian children and young…
Israel in the News Mar/Apr 2004
The growing alliance between Christians and Jews has prompted Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, to create a Christian Allies Caucus to maintain that relationship and support it. Said Knesset member Yuri Stern…
A New Kind of War in a New Kind of World
Talk to most people over sixty and you’re apt to detect an air of nostalgia in the conversation after a while. References to “the good old days” bore younger listeners to tears but are rewarded…
An Interview with David Bar-Illan
In 1998 David Bar-Illan was the policy and planning director for the administration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel. He also was a primary spokesman for the prime minister. Below are portions of an…
Eye on Middle East Jan/Feb 2004
Following the brutal suicide bombing that took twenty-one lives and wounded sixty others at the Maxim restaurant in Haifa on October 4, 2003, Israel went on the offensive. The terrorist group Islamic Jihad quickly claimed responsibility…
The Crescent and the Cradle
The main role of the Muslim mother is to raise children according to the wishes of her husband. With that said, she desires to rear children who will become good Muslims in hopes they will…
Getting the Picture
Paul Marshall’s deeply moving observation in his book Their Blood Cries Out (see adjacent article) helped inspire the Friends of Israel “Remember” pin that reminds us to pray for our Christian brethren who suffer…
Israel in the News Jan/Feb 2004
Forty-eight veteran Israel Air Force (IAF) pilots held captive in Syria or Egypt last year have petitioned Prime Minister Ariel Sharon not to free terrorist Mustafa Dirani, who tortured IAF navigator Ron Arad, still in…
Zvi Jan/Feb 2004
History has shown us that where there is no faith there is hate. So it was with Hitler when the Nazis in Germany sang, “Today Germany belongs to us. Tomorrow, the world.” Then came Saddam Hussein….
Five Big Words
When speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Tom DeLay, visited Israel recently, he said cryptically, “Israel’s fight is our fight.” Just five words to be sure, but words defining what the conflict in the Middle…
Road Map to Armageddon
The PLO holds every terrorist record on the books, and Arafat has violated every agreement he ever made with Israel. What kind of “peace” lies ahead?
Mahmoud Abbas: One More Victim of Terror
Is the Road Map just another “college try”? Israelis think so. They also think Arafat still holds all the power.
Eye on the Middle East Nov/Dec 2003
Israel has been under intense pressure by the United States, Europe, the Arab nations, and others to stop construction of a security fence in areas that have exported suicide bombers and assorted terrorists bent on…
Timeline of Modern Israel
From San Remo to Nazi Germany 1918 British General Edmund Allenby defeats the Ottoman Turks and occupies all of Palestine. 1919–23 Third wave of Jewish immigration arrives, mostly from Russia. 1920 Britain receives League of Nations mandate over Palestine at San…
Israel in the News Nov/Dec 2003
What is the Palestinian fascination with the Kassam rocket, an imprecise weapon containing 10 to 15 kilograms (22–33 pounds) of explosives with a range of six to eight kilometers (3.73 miles)? Caroline Glick of The…
Reliving the Thirties
The struggle over suppressing discrimination in Western societies is an ongoing problem that will grow with the ever-increasing influx of third-world minorities into more affluent nations. Additionally, judicial decisions that grant…
Eye on the Middle East Sep/Oct 2003
When Israel, in accordance with its agreement with the new Palestinian government, pulled Israel Defense Forces troops out of Bethlehem recently, many residents of the Jerusalem suburb of Gilo feared the worst. And they…
Israel in the News Sep/Oct 2003
Had she been Palestinian, the entire world would be up in arms. But she was Israeli, so no one even noticed when seven-year-old Noam Liebowitz was shot to death while riding in her family car…
Zvi Sep/Oct 2003
We are again approaching Yom Kippur, this most solemn of days, when people ask the Lord to forgive their sins. And what is more, they are so sure that when they come with their “sacrifices,” their sins…
Potholes in the Road Map
Just how difficult it will be to negotiate the much-ballyhooed “road map” to peace in the Middle East was summed up by Israel’s prime minister, Ariel Sharon, after the Israeli cabinet recently approved the plan…
Eye on the Middle East Jul/Aug 2003
A former U.S. ambassador to an obscure Third World nation recently contributed his opinion on TV as to why the spate of terror attacks in the wake of the war in Iraq. His remarks postulated…
Israel in the News Jul/Aug 2003
“I’m telling you frankly, the attitude of Islam is not to accept a foreign state in this area.” So said senior Hamas spokesman Mahmoud a-Zahar on the BBC. He later met with Palestinian Authority (PA)…
Duty, Honor, Country—Still Alive and Well
A quiet debate reportedly has arisen in the Bush administration over whether our victorious men and women in uniform should be awarded ticker tape, flag-waving parades down New York City’s 5th Avenue…
Eye On the Middle East May/Jun 2003
The Iraq encounter has clarified precisely where major nations stand on tyranny and the prestige and power of the United States and Israel. President George W. Bush made his assessment of the UN’s power…
Israel in the News May/Jun 2003
Palestinian Authority (PA) Arabs made no bones about whose side they were on during the recent war in Iraq as tens of thousands took to the streets waving flags and pictures of Saddam Hussein and calling…
Show Us the Map
During the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, President Ronald Reagan stood in front of the infamous Berlin Wall and issued a challenge. “Mr. Gorbachev,” he said, “Tear down this wall…
Eye on the Middle East Mar/Apr 2003
Recent polls taken in a broad range of countries have revealed that many nations view the United States with increasing distaste. This situation…
Israel in the News Mar/Apr 2003
ARUTZ-7-The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that Arab residents of Yesha have found a new way to take advantage of…
The Promise Continues
God never makes promises He doesn’t keep. And He will keep these.
Selling Islam in America
The one-year commemoration of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon spawned a huge irony. While Americans and masses of people the world over held solemn…
The War of Independence
When the British received their League of Nations mandate over the Holy Land at the San Remo Conference in 1920, they were told to implement the Balfour Declaration that called for “the establishment…
Who Are the ‘Refugees’?
The original Palestinian refugees were about 650,000 (a UN mediator at the time placed the figure at 472,000) Arabs who voluntarily abandoned their homes before the 1948 War of Independence. Arab leaders encouraged…
Who Took Whose Lands?
Although the British were instructed in 1920 to help the Jewish people resettle into land that had been designated for a Jewish national home, they did just the opposite. Instead of facilitating Jewish…
What Are the ‘Occupied Territories’?
Israel acquired the “occupied,” or, more accurately, disputed territories during the 1967 Six-Day War. They are Judea/Samaria (West Bank) and the Gaza Strip. In 1981 Israel annexed the Golan Heights, also acquired…
The Yom Kippur War
Anwar Sadat replaced Nasser as Egypt’s president after Nasser’s death in 1970. Sadat believed he had to regain the Sinai taken by Israel in 1967. Israeli intelligence warned the government that war…
Israel and Egypt Make Peace
The Egyptian press is virulently anti-Semitic, and the Egyptian government does little to stop illegal arms-smuggling to the Palestinians. Nevertheless, the March 26, 1979, peace treaty between Israel and Egypt has created…
The Terrorists
When it comes to terrorists, it is sometimes difficult to tell the players without a program. Although the secular press of late has taken to calling them militiamen, freedom fighters, militants, and other such misleading…
Peace Treaty Between Israel and Jordan
Israel and Jordan have had good relations. Their treaty provided for an end to war and normalized relations. Israel and Jordan have had mutually successful joint ventures in commerce, trade, resources…
Arafat
Yasser Arafat is not a Palestinian. He was born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1929. His real name is Muhammad Abdel Rahman (first name) Abdel Raouf (father’s name) Arafat (grandfather’s name) Al Qudua…
Israeli-Palestinian Peace Accords
Israel has (1) recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the representative of the Palestinians; (2) allowed complete Palestinian autonomy in certain areas and civil autonomy in others; (3) allowed Palestinian…
The PA Strategies
How many ways are there to destroy Israel other than through outright war? The Palestinian Authority has at least two…
The Intifadas
The word intifada is Arabic for “shaking off.” It refers to two violent Palestinian-Arab uprisings in Gaza and Judea/Samaria (West Bank). The first occurred from December 1987 through September 1993; the second began…
The Key Resolutions
Israel will be 55 years old in May. The country was established under sanction of inter national law after the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 181 in 1947, dividing the remaining 23 percent…
Twenty Facts About Israel and the Middle East
The world’s attention has been focused on the Middle East. We are confronted daily with scenes of carnage and destruction. Can we understand such violence?
Status of Jewish Holy Sites
Under Jordanian occupation (May 28, 1948—June 7, 1967), all Jewish holy sites in East Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria were off-limits to Jews. In East Jerusalem, 58 synagogues were destroyed or desecrated. Jordan built…
Fact vs. Fiction
Fiction: All the Jewish people left the land in the first century A.D. Fact: Jewish people have lived in the land from the time of Joshua to today. In fact, there has never been a time…
When Was the Holy Land an Independent Arab State?
For years Yasser Arafat has referred to Israel as “our country, Palestine” and has talked about retaking the land, “restoring its freedom,” and restoring the State of Palestine with “holy Jerusalem” as its capital…
The Bible, Qur’an, and Hadith
The Qur’an, Islam’s holy book, contains 114 chapters, or surahs, that embody codes governing religious, civil, commercial, and military affairs. Since it was the first Arabic book of consequence, it has incalculable…
Irreconcilable Differences
In the early 1980s, three brothers— all serious, devout Muslims and the sons of a leader in the Islamic faith—surrendered their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. “We did not ‘switch religions…
Confused About Who the Bad Guys Are?
If you’re not confused, give America’s largest teachers’ union time to work on a few more lesson plans, and you can be sure that the next generation will be. As though it’s not enough…
Eye on the Middle East Nov/Dec 2002
Reading the news reports that flood the airways and Internet these days, one often tends to conclude that searching for good news is a vain pursuit. That certainly applies to what is taking place in
Israel in the News Nov/Dec 2002
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Web site has reported a new children’s outdoor game being played these days in the Palestinian Authority (PA) city of Ramallah. The name of the game was not reported…
Standing Tall in the Rose Garden
When George W. Bush strode into the White House rose garden in June, much of the world waited somewhat eagerly to hear what the U.S. chief executive would say. He said a mouthful. Some likened…
America’s Perplexing Diplomacy
Israel is America’s most faithful ally in the Middle East, if not in the world. Yet U.S. policy toward this tiny democracy often leaves us scratching our heads.