Israel Takes a Stand Against Persecution of Middle East Christians-2

"Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled."  (Luke 21:24)

British House Majority Tries to Trump Peace Talks

"O God, the nations have invaded your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple, they have reduced Jerusalem to rubble. … We are objects of contempt to our neighbors, of scorn and derision to those around us."  (Psalm 79:1, 4)

The United Kingdom's House of Commons voted in favor of recognizing Palestine as a state alongside Israel.

The House of Commons 

In a vote that gave Hamas a virtual pass, 274 parliamentarians voted in support of a nonbinding motion to compel the government "to recognize the State of Palestine as a contribution to securing a negotiated two-state solution."  Twelve voted against the motion. Instead of advancing peace, however, the motion hinders it. “Premature international recognition sends a troubling message to the Palestinian leadership that they can evade the tough choices that both sides have to make, andactually undermines the chances to reach a real peace,” Israel's Foreign Minister stated in response.

Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki

Palestinians, however, welcomed the vote, and Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki urged London to transform the vote into official UK policy, calling on London to "immediately recognize the state of Palestine."  (Arutz Sheva) Senior Palestine Liberation Official Hanan Ashrawi issued a statement that said the vote “will enhance the European voices calling for the recognition of the State of Palestine and will create the right environment for the international community to grant the Palestinian people legal parity and rights.” In an interview with Israel Radio, British Ambassador to Israel Matthew Gould said, “Although this vote won’t affect government policy, I think it is right to be concerned about what it signifies in terms of the direction of public opinion."

Former Sderot Mayor David Buskila (left) in 2011 shows British

Ambassador to Israel Matthew Gould (right) a pile of Qassam rockets

that Gaza fired into Sderot, Israel.

While the symbolic vote does not change Britain's foreign policy, it disregards the steps required for the conflict-resolution process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) to succeed. "The route to Palestinian statehood runs through the negotiation room," the Israeli Embassy in London said after the vote. In a response to the vote, the British chapter of StandWithUs, a non-profit pro-Israel education and advocacy organization, stated that the atmosphere of the debate was marked with a disturbing tone and provocative remarks. "With MPs from across the political spectrum accusing Israel of encouraging racial hatred—or speaking of an all-powerful ‘Jewish lobby,' there is definitely something wrong in the way our elected representatives perceive the conflict," StandWithUs states. Paul Hirschson, a spokesperson for Israel's foreign ministry, said the government of Israel already supports a Palestinian state, "so there’s no big deal here on substance; the question is process."  (Time)

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said recognition of a Palestinian state must not be symbolic. He told France's lower house National Assembly, “From the moment that we say there must be two states (Israel and Palestine), there will be a need for recognition of the Palestinian state, that goes without saying.” “The only question is what are the procedures and how to be most effective.  What we want is not a symbolic issue but to be helpful to peace,” he continued. British Prime Minister David Cameron also dismissed Monday's symbolic vote by refusing to take part in it.  At present, Cameron's government stands against recognition of a Palestinian state but would change its position at any time if it would assist the peace process, according to officials.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed British Prime

Minister David Cameron to Israel earlier this year.

The British House vote comes three days after Sweden's newly elected Prime Minister Stefan Löfven broke Swedish law by acting alone to recognize an independent Palestinian state without approval from the country's Advisory Council on Foreign Affairs. Swedish Parliament member Annicka Engblom called Löfven’s action out of turn: “Our practice in Swedish foreign policy is [that for a state to be recognized, it] has to fill certain criteria such as full control over territory and functioning of the government, such as in Kosovo before we recognized Kosovo,” Engblom explained.

A Gaza child draped in a Fatah flag poses with a weapon.

In contrast to calls to reach a solution through negotiation, PA legislator Hanan Ashrawi said that "the recognition of Palestine is not contingent on the outcome of negotiations with Israel and certainly not something we will trade for." The PA does not seek a mutual peace agreement with Israel because its charter does not recognize the right of Israel to exist. "Fatah's Charter declares unambiguously: 'Our struggle will not cease unless the Zionist state is demolished, and Palestine is completely liberated,'" reminds International Law Professor Louis René Beres of Purdue University.  "Even now, the official PA map identifies Israel as a mere part of Palestine.  The official logo of PA Television still shows all of Israel as Occupied Palestine, with only the Palestinian capital in Jerusalem," Beres added.

With the map of the entire land of Israel covered by weaponry, the

Fatah logo reveals the party's ultimate goal of conquering all of Israel.

"Fatah's official insignia remains: Israel smothered by a grenade, bayoneted rifle, and submachine gun.  All PA school textbooks use a map of the Middle East in which Israel does not even exist, and has been replaced in its entirety by a state called Palestine," Beres adds. This primary goal of Fatah and Hamas to eliminate Israel coupled with unilateral moves to create a Palestinian state opposes the 1993 Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) agreement during the Oslo Peace Accords to negotiate a solution through territorial compromise.  During those accords, the PLO officially recognized Israel, and Israel officially recognized the PLO as a negotiating partner in the remaining issues leading to statehood. But like all attempted peace plans, terrorism trumped diplomacy when the Second Intifada erupted in September 2000 against Israel. "I will encamp at My Temple to guard it against marauding forces.  Never again will an oppressor overrun My people, for now I am keeping watch."  (Zechariah 9:8)

 

Jerusalem

Israel Takes a Stand Against Persecution of Middle East Christians-1

A view of Jerusalem and the portion of the Temple Mount platform on

which the First and Second Temples were located.  It is believed that the

Dome of the Rock is situated on the spot where the Holy of Holies stood.

  

Abbas and Hamas Call to Ban Jews from Temple Mount

"This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:  In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s Temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; … Many peoples will come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the Temple of the God of Jacob.'"  (Isaiah 2:1–3)

In its latest bout of warmongering against Israel, Hamas launched a rally in Gaza City on Friday shouting for the "defense" of the al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount, while Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas urged for a ban of Jews from the holy mountain. "This is our sacred place, al-Aqsa is ours, this Noble Sanctuary (the Temple Mount) is ours … they have no right to go there and desecrate it," said Abbas of the Jews, stating that Jews should be stopped from entering the Temple Mount "by any means."   

 

Palestinians burned the Israeli flag on Friday in response to incitement

by Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas against a Jewish presence on the

Temple Mount.

At a conference on last Friday in Ramallah, Abbas equated al-Aqsa with Jerusalem, asserting Palestinian claim over the city for his desired future state of Palestine."Jerusalem is the jewel in the crown and it is the eternal capital of the Palestinian state.  Without it, there will not be a state," he said.  "It is important for the Palestinians to be united in order to protect Jerusalem." On Saturday, Abbas called Jews visiting the Mount a "herd of cattle." In response, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that Abbas was trying to ignite a holy war. "Behind the suit and the pleasantries aimed at the international community, he is raising the level of incitement against Israel and the Jews and is calling for a religious war," Lieberman said. "Abbas has effectively joined the frontlines of extremist Islamist organizations, such as the Islamic State and the Nusra Front, who sanctify religious war," he said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

Abbas' comments came days after Jerusalem police forces encountered Arab youth on the Mount.  They had built barricades at the al-Aqsa mosque and slept overnight on the Mount, ready to attack police and Jewish visitors with stones, fireworks and Molotov cocktails the next day.  (YNet) Prior to admitting the day's first Jewish visitors for Sukkot, police cleared the barricade and locked the mosque, shielding themselves from a heavy rain of fireworks and rocks being launched over the barrier.   "This is organized thuggery, designed to turn the Temple Mount into the hottest battleground between Israel and the Arab world, and to undermine Israel's control of the holy city," writes David Weinberg of Israel HaYom. "Unfortunately, the Israel Police are under orders to avoid escalation almost at any cost; and as such, have become serial capitulators to the Muslim muggers and the many radical Islamic forces that are encouraging, funding and defending the brutes on the Mount," he writes. In expectation that Friday, the Muslim "day of rest," would be fraught with Muslim riots, Jerusalem District Police Chief Yossi Pariente issued a 50-and-above age limit for Muslim visitors on Thursday.

Tourists visit the Temple Mount where the First and Second Temples

were located in Jerusalem.  Currently, the Dome of the Rock occupies the

spot where the ancient Temples once stood.

Meanwhile, from Doha, Qatar, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal continued to incite Muslims in Israel to lay claim to the site. "We call on all our people inside the country to hurry up to al-Aqsa to defend it," he said on Thursday. The Palestinians are working toward demanding that the United Nations Security Council remove Israel's rights in the disputed territories of Judea, Samaria, Gaza and Jerusalem.  The goal is to "evict" Israel by November 2016—the same month the US elects its next president. The Agence France-Presse printed a draft of this resolution in early October, which requires the "full withdrawal of Israel, the occupying power, from all of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, as rapidly as possible and to be fully completed within a specified time frame, not to exceed November 2016." On last Friday, Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, said his government wants the 15-member UN Security Council to vote on the resolution before the end of the year. On Thursday, Palestinian officials said they already have seven confirmed "yes" votes of the nine they need. Failing success at the Security Council, Mansour said Palestinians would join additional treaties and conventions and the International Criminal Court (ICC) to "create legal facts on the ground that we exist as a state."

Jewish people gather for prayer at the Western (Wailing) Wall, which is

located in the Old City of Jerusalem at the foot of the western side of the

Temple Mount, also called Mount Moriah.

Mount Moriah was the place on which King Solomon erected God's first "permanent" dwelling place on Earth.  Later, it was expanded by King Herod before it was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70 under Emperor Titus. At present, the Mount houses the black-capped al-Aqsa mosque and the more prominent, golden Dome of the Rock, which Muslims claim is the site from which Muhammad rode to Heaven on a winged donkey. In 1967, Israel liberated the Mount, which had been under Jordanian rule since the war for Israel's independence ended in 1949. While Israel reclaimed legal sovereignty over the site, it granted administrative privileges to the Islamic Waqf. In January of this year, the Waqf ignored the overwhelming and undeniable historic evidence of the Jewish presence on the Temple Mount and printed a pamphlet claiming that there was no Jewish connection to the Mount and that King Solomon was a Muslim.

While non-Muslims can visit the Temple Mount,

they are forbidden to pray there.  Non-Muslims

gain access to the Mount via one gate, compared

to multiple gates for Muslim visitors.

Today is Simchat Torah and Jewish people are dancing in the streets here in Israel-2

Simchat Torah: The Beginning and Ending of the Parsha Cycle

"Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God.  They celebrated the festival [sukkot] for seven days, and on the eighth day, in accordance with the regulation, there was an assembly."  (Nehemiah 8:18)

The Jewish People have diligently preserved the Word of God for more than 3,000 years, and Simchat Torah gives jubilant expression to the Jewish People’s love of the Torah. Besides rejoicing, another central theme to this special day is the completion of the annual cycle of weekly Torah readings. The last portion of Deuteronomy 34 will be read. But as soon as we end the cycle, we begin anew, and a portion from the first chapter of Genesis is read immediately afterward.  This serves to remind us that our study of the Torah never ends.

While holding the sacred Torah scrolls in this Tel Aviv

synagogue on Simchat Torah, about 400 people sang

and danced for joy over the Torah.

Torah Points in the Right Direction

What is Torah?  This Hebrew word Torah is often translated in English Bibles asLaw; however, this is a rather poor translation. The word Torah comes from the roots yarah, which means to shoot, aim, or point to, and morah, meaning teacher. Therefore, the Torah is God’s instruction to His people.  These instructions teach us how to live on this earth and point us to eternal life through Yeshua (Jesus). So, why do we have a special day just to rejoice in the Torah of God?

An open Torah scroll on the bema, a platform podium from which the

Torah and the Prophets are read.

It’s because the Word of God is a tree of life for us, and if we would just take hold of it, we would see that all its paths are pleasant and will lead us to peace (Proverbs 3:17; see also Proverbs 16:7 and Psalm 119:165). The Torah contains all the wisdom and instruction we need to live healthy, happy, successful, prosperous lives. "Be strong and very courageous.  Be careful to obey all the instructions [Torah] Moses gave you.  Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left.  Then you will be successful in everything you do. "Study this Book of Instruction [Sefer haTorah] continually.  Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it.  Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do."  (Joshua 1:7–8)

Rejoicing over the Torah, God's instructions, on Simchat Torah.

   

The Books That Constitute Torah

The Torah, in its strictest sense, includes the five books of Moses: 

Genesis(Bereisheet), Exodus (Shemot), Leviticus (Vayikra), Numbers (Bamidbar), and Deuteronomy (Devarim). However, Yeshua and Paul both quoted from other books of the Bible, including the Psalms and the Prophets, and also called them Torah (law). For instance, in John 10:34, Yeshua quotes Psalm 82:6 referring to it as the Torah, saying: “Is it not written in your Law (Torah), ‘I said, You are gods’?”  (John 10:34) In 1 Corinthians 14:21, Paul references the prophetic book of Isaiah, calling it the Law: “In the Law [Torah] it is written: ‘With men of other tongues and other lips I will speak to this people.’”  (1 Corinthians 14:21; compare to Isaiah 28:11)

Dancing and singing with the Torah on Simchat Torah.

Another word for Torah often used by Jewish people is the Tanakh, which is a Hebrew name for all the books of the Jewish Scriptures. This word is actually an acronym for Torah (Five Books of Moses), Nevi’im(Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings: Psalms, Proverbs, etc).  The word Tanakhcomprises the first letters of each of these three words: T-N-K [Hebrew letters Tav, Nun, Kaf]. Orthodox Jews consider yet another compilation of writings as "Torah."  This is theTalmud (Mishnah and Gemara), which are rabbinical interpretations and commentaries of the written Torah. They believe both Scripture and commentary are the Torah because you cannot have the “written Torah” without the interpretation of the “oral Torah.” Sadly enough, most Orthodox Jews consider the oral law of greater weight and authority than the written Torah, and many spend the majority of their time in the study in these books.

An Orthodox Jewish man shows his love and joy of the Torah,

displaying it for all to see at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

Yeshua’s Teaching About the Law

God initially chose to reveal His Torah to the nation of Israel, and He gave them the mission to spread its light and teachings to every nation of the earth. While Yeshua (Jesus) fulfilled the Torah, God’s moral guidelines for mankind to live in righteousness, He also makes it clear that He did not come to abolish it. "Don’t misunderstand why I have come.  I did not come to abolish the Torah of Moses or the writings of the prophets.  No, I came to fulfill their purpose.  I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s Torah will disappear until its purpose is fulfilled. "So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven.  But anyone who obeys God’s Torah and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven."  (Matthew 5:17–19) Although Yeshua did not abolish the Law of Moses, He did fulfill its purpose, as well as the prophecies concerning His first coming.  (See Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 53; Micah 5:2; Daniel 9:25–26 and hundreds more.) Because of Yeshua, the light of the Word of God has spread across the globe. And yet, despite this, almost every Jewish person here in Israel (99%) still does not recognize Yeshua as the Messiah who fulfilled the writings of the Prophets.

Please stand us together with this Simchat Torah, as we bring Messiah Yeshua (Jesus), who is revealed in the prophecies of the Eternal Word of God, to the Lost Sheep of Israel.  You can make a difference that will last for Eternity.

Today is Simchat Torah and Jewish people are dancing in the streets in Israel-1

For generations, the Jewish People have been gathering at the Kotel

(Western Wall) to celebrate Simchat Torah with prayer and dancing.

Shall Rejoice today, on Simchat Torah!

At 8 a.m. this morning, the synagogues here in Israel were packed as we read the last pages of Devarim (Deuteronomy) and the beginning of Bereisheet (Genesis). The reading of the yearly Torah cycle had come to an end and a new one began.  Hallelujah! The services lasted about three hours, as the men and women relished the Book given to our people by God Himself through Moses—the most treasured Book in the world—the Torah (Five Books of Moses).

Parading the Torah outside of a synagogue on Simchat Torah in a suburb

of Tel Aviv, a tallit (prayer shawl) is held over the Sefer Torah.  Hundreds

of congregants danced and followed the procession.

In every synagogue throughout Israel this morning, the men joyfully danced around the bema (raised platform for reading the Torah), proudly and joyously holding the sacred Torah Scrolls. In our synagogue, there are 11 Torah scrolls, and as the silver crowns (ketarim) were removed from the Holy Parchment Scrolls, they glistened in the sunlight.  As the Rabbi and cantor sang from the Holy Word of God, the whole congregation gathered in one accord singing in Hebrew. All the men took turns reading from the Torah.  And the faces of the children, women, and men were beaming with smiles, rejoicing in the honor of the Holy Book that the One God of Israel entrusted to His Chosen People. 

The Torah scroll is raised for all to see at the

Western (Wailing) Wall in Jerusalem.

Today, here in Israel, it is still both Shmini Atzeret (Eighth Day of Assembly) andSimchat Torah (Joy of the Torah).  Elsewhere in the world, however, the wonderful holiday of Simchat Torah begins at sunset tonight at the conclusion of Shmini Atzeret (Eighth Day of Assembly), a Biblically mandated assembly celebrated the day after Sukkot ends:  “For seven days present food offerings to the LORD, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the LORD.  It is the closing special assembly; do no regular work.”  (Leviticus 23:36) Tonight at around 7:30 p.m., thousands of people will gather in each city and village square, throughout the Holy Land.  Hopefully, most of Israel's eight million people will be rejoicing in the Word of God. For the second time in 24 hours, they will dance around the Torah Scrolls, this time, throughout the night. “Oh, how I love Your Torah; It is my meditation all the day.  You through Your commandments, have made me wiser than my enemies…. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”  (Psalm 119:97–98, 105)

Israeli Jewish men celebrate Simchat Torah by dancing in circles

(hakafot) with the scrolls of the Torah at a synagogue in Sderot, Israel.

Simchat Torah is a joyous holiday when the Jewish People express their gratitude to God for giving us His great gift of the Torah. On Simchat Torah, ALL of the ornately decorated Torah scrolls are taken out of the Ark in which they are safeguarded, in contrast to Shabbat and regular holidays when only two are removed from the Ark. In the country where you live, the Jewish People will parade these precious Torah scrolls around their synagogues in circles called hakafot, accompanied by joyful singing and dancing. In many congregations, the celebrations are spilling out of the sanctuary into the street, where participants dance and sing while carrying the scrolls.

It is considered a mitzvah (good deed) to dance with the Torah and to rejoice