Archaeologists Find
Royal Seal of King Hezekiah
"'Go back and tell Hezekiah, the
ruler of my people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says:
I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. … I will add
fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the
hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for
the sake of my servant David."'" (2 Kings 20:5–6) The
royal seal of Hezekiah, the Judean king whom God healed from a deadly disease,
has been discovered in the ancient royal quarter of Jerusalem. This is a
first-of-its-kind discovery related to any Israel or Judean king reveals not
only the veracity of Scripture, but also the long history of the Jewish People
in Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed excitement
about the discovery after it was announced on Wednesday, connecting it to
Chanukah, which focuses on the Maccabees' restoration of the Temple. "The
find is further evidence of the deep connection between the Jewish people and
Jerusalem, our eternal and undivided capital. It
is also another refutation of the absurd claim that we are colonialists in a
foreign land," Netanyahu said in a public statement.
The Ophel is located in Jerusalem between the City of David and the
southern wall of the Temple Mount.
southern wall of the Temple Mount.
In a formal excavation of the Ophel, an elevated
area between the palace of the City of David and the southern wall of the
Temple Mount, a team of scientists and archaeologists from Hebrew University of
Jerusalem discovered the oval impression of Hezekiah's seal, who ruled the
kingdom of Judah 727–698 BC, during the First Temple period. The royal
impression was set in inscribed clay that measures 3 mm thick and 9.7 by 8.6 mm
across. The edge of King Hezekiah's ring also left its mark around the
impression. It's back shows indications of course fabric, likely from
being used to seal sacks of foodstuffs. While similar seals have been available
in the antiquities market since the 1990s with, perhaps, questionable origins, "this
is the first time that a seal impression of an Israelite or Judean king has
ever been uncovered in a scientific archaeological excavation," said
Hebrew University's Dr. Eilat Mazar, a world-renowned archaeologist and
director of the dig site on behalf of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. "Belonging to Hezekiah [son of] Ahaz king of
Judah," states the seal in ancient Hebrew. At the center
of the artifact, a sun bears two wings that point downward and are bracketed by
two ankhs — an ancient symbol of a cross with a handle that represents life. Mazar
said that Hezekiah changed the symbol of his own identity and of the royal
administrative authority from a scarab to a "protector" sun late in
life. "The change most likely reflected both the Assyrian influence and
Hezekiah’s desire to emphasize his political sovereignty, and Hezekiah’s own
profound awareness of the powerful patronage given his reign by the God of
Israel," Mazar added. This special addition of the symbol of life may
support the assumption that the change on the king’s personal seal was made
after Hezekiah had recovered from the life-threatening illness of leprosy, when
the life symbol became especially significant for him [in 704 BC],” Mazar said.
King Hezekiah's seal
Israel Marks Day
for Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries
"I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the
gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet
this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love
we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail." (Lamentations
3:19–22)
On November 30, Israel marked with a formal event
the expulsion and/or murder of 850,000 Jews from Middle East nations in the
20th century. The commemoration of the “silent Exodus” came
about through a Knesset (Israel parliament) law introduced by Member of the
Knesset (MK) Dr. Shimon Ohayon last year. The date chosen for the memorial
marks the day after the United Nations' November 29, 1947 partition plan of
Mandatory Palestine when persecution against Jews in the Middle East began to
significantly rise. Orders by the Arab League to persecute the Jews led to
pogroms (organized massacres) and forced expulsions. Over the next 20 years, for instance, Morocco's Jewish
population dropped from 286,000 to 50,000.
Algeria's dropped from 130,000 to 1,500 and Egypt's dropped from 75,000
to fewer than 1,000.
Jewish Girl in Tangiers
Israel's commemoration ceremony held in Jerusalem
last Monday was organized by Israel's Social Equity Minister Gila Gamliel, who
is descended from 20th-century Jewish refugees of Libyan and Yemenite families. Gamliel
committed herself to introducing "Jewish heritage from Arab countries and
Iran to the Israeli education system." Gamliel stressed that by teaching
Israel's children about the heritage of Jews from Middle Eastern countries, "every child in Israel will know about the pogroms
and persecution faced by Jews in Middle Eastern countries, just as they know
about the persecution in Europe." The 2nd annual ceremony,
titled "Longing for Home," began with a moment of silence for the
victims of the pogroms, followed by stories from Jewish refugees and musical
performances. Many of the performers have roots in Iran or the Arab world,
including singer-actors Liraz Charhi of Iranian heritage and Guy Zu-Aretz of
Libyan heritage. Singers Dikla and Rita Shalhoun are of Egyptian and
Lebanese heritage, respectively; and musicians Gilad Segev, Haim Oliel and Yair
Dalal are of Syrian, Moroccan and Iraqi heritage.
Gila Gamliel, Social Equity Minister
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a
video message for Monday's ceremony in which he pledged to create a prize
for research on the heritage of Jewish communities native to Iran and Arab
countries. Gamliel flew to New York for a similar event held the next day
by the Permanent Israeli Mission to the United Nations to mark what Israel
Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon has called a "historical injustice."
"Facing violent, and even murderous
anti-Jewish riots, government confiscation of wealth, nearly a million Jews
were forced to flee the places their families had called home for generations,
leaving behind everything they had,” Danon said Tuesday. “We
are here tonight to ensure that the world finally recognizes the stories of
these forgotten refugees.” Danon also pointed to the UN's focus on the
650,000–700,000 Palestinian refugees that left Israel during or before the
1948–1949 War of Independence (as well as their descendants, all designated by
the UN as "refugees"), while ignoring Jewish refugees that came out
of the Muslim world.
Danny Danon (center left), Permanent Representative of Israel to the UN,
poses for a group photo with participants of a special event entitled “The
Untold Story of 850,000 Refugees: The tale of ancient Jewish cultures in
Arab Lands.” Gila Gamliel stands to his right. The event was organized
by the Permanent Mission of Israel to the UN.
poses for a group photo with participants of a special event entitled “The
Untold Story of 850,000 Refugees: The tale of ancient Jewish cultures in
Arab Lands.” Gila Gamliel stands to his right. The event was organized
by the Permanent Mission of Israel to the UN.
Danon also said the UN has focused on trying to
reclaim property left behind in Israel while ignoring property "left
behind in Casablanca and in Cairo." Jewish refugees also "do
not have a special UN agency and several UN organizations acting as a lobby on
their behalf” as Palestinian refugees do. Jewish refugees were fully
absorbed by the State of Israel, while the Arab nations refused to absorb their
Arab brothers, Danon noted. Gamliel also spoke before the UN "to
declare that our story be brought to light in this institution so that at long
last, justice shall finally be served." "Over
the last 65 years, the UN and its agencies have spent tens of billions of
dollars on Palestinian refugees, but not a cent on the Jewish Refugees,"
Gamliel said, "and since 1949, the United Nations has passed more than a
hundred resolutions regarding Palestinian refugees and not a single one
regarding Jewish refugees from Arab countries."
A Jewish woman prays before lighting the hanukkiah.
Women Light Candles
at Kotel in Separate Ceremony
"Neither do people light a lamp
and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives
light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine
before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in
heaven." (Matthew 5:15–16) On Sunday night, Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lit both the shamash (helper) and the first-day
candle in a public ceremony at the Western Wall’s men’s section. At the
same time, about 100 women joined together in the women's section with 20
menorahs, including a communal candlestick. Because they are women, they
were sidelined from the Kotel Plaza's state candle-lighting ceremony. Israel's
attorney general had made an attempt earlier in the week to include women in
the ceremony. Assistant Attorney General Dana Zilber told Western Wall
and Holy Places administrator Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz last Monday, "Preventing women from participating in national
ceremonies is wrongful discrimination and we request that you ensure this fact
is not taken for granted and that steps are being taken to include women in the
national candle-lighting ceremony on this coming Hanukkah at the Western
Wall."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lights the Chanukah menorah
at the Western (Wailing) Wall.
at the Western (Wailing) Wall.
Rabinowitz opposed the attorney general's
integration order on the basis that women wanting to have a
"non-Orthodox" candle-lighting ceremony should do so in the Ezrat
Yisrael section of the wall several yards south near the Rambam Gate.
Built in 2013, women and men, Reform and Conservative Jews can worship
there together. Rabinowitz said that last month he invited "several"
women government officials in response to the attorney general's demand, but
"to my regret, they are exploiting my wish to bring peace to the Kotel to
undermine and harm the delicate balance." Women's participation was
orchestrated by the Women of the Wall group, which has long fought for women's
Jewish-practice rights at the holy site. However, only when Zionist Union
MK Ksenia Svetlova intervened were the women's candlesticks allowed in by
security guards. "Despite Rabbi
Rabinowitz’s ridiculous regulations and despite the police’s shameful attempts
to keep us out, we entered and held a candle-lighting ceremony where women were
full participants," Svetlova said. "The Western Wall
belongs to the entire Jewish people, women and men alike, and the time has come
for real equality — at the Kotel, in the Rabbinate and beyond." Despite
this sidelining of the women by Rabinowitz, women historically have had a
special part in the observance of Chanukah and are considered to be part of the
Chanukah miracle.
Return of Judith to Bethulia
In chapter 7 of the second Book of Maccabees (an
Apocryphal book) the story of a mother named Hannah and her seven sons reveals
that Antiochus IV promised not to kill her sons if they would pay homage to an
idol. Six of the sons refused and perished. Antiochus attempted to
persuade Hannah to urge her youngest son to comply with his offer so that she
would not lose her last son. But this brave woman refused. Her son
was killed and she threw herself into a fire, according to the Book of
Maccabees. The Book of Judith, yet another book in the Apocrypha, is thought to
be linked to Chanukah, as well. It is customary for women to refrain from
working while the Chanukah lights are burning in honor of Judith, daughter of
the High Priest and aunt of Judah the Maccabee. Judith pretended to acquiesce
to the Greek ruler's desire for her; she wined and dined him until he became
drunk and fell asleep. Once he was asleep, she beheaded him; his soldiers
fled when she displayed his severed head above the city walls. Because of
her heroic acts, some Sephardim dedicate the seventh Chanukah light to women
while singing songs praising Hannah and Judith
Seven lights on the Chanukah menorah
Obama, Netanyahu
Respond to San Bernardino Terror Attack
"But evil men are all to be cast
aside like thorns, which are not gathered with the hand. Whoever touches
thorns uses a tool of iron or the shaft of a spear; they are burned up where
they lie." (2 Samuel 23:6-7) According to a statement made
Saturday by the Islamic State (ISIS or Da'esh), the terrorists who killed 14
in San Bernardino, California, last Wednesday were "soldiers of the
caliphate." ISIS itself has not taken responsibility for the
attack.
Syed Rizwan Farook, 2013 driver's licence
United States-born, Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his
Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik, 29, had been radicalized, but Los Angeles
Assistant Director of the FBI David Bowdich said the question remains:
"How and by whom?" Farook, who was an environmental
health specialist for the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health,
targeted his coworkers at an event for employees held at San Bernardino's
Inland Regional Center, which serves people with developmental disabilities. Before
the slaughter, a department event had transitioned from a training session into
a holiday gathering. Farook left during a break and returned with Malik.
Together they fired up to 75 rounds into
the crowd of about 80, killing 14 and injuring 21 others. Farook and
Malik also planted three homemade pipe bombs at the Inland Regional Center that
failed to detonate. FBI officials found an additional 19 pipes in the
couple's home. Malik had pledged an oath of allegiance to the Islamic
State on Facebook moments before the attacks began.
Tashfeen Malik, passport photo
"There’s a number of pieces of evidence which
has essentially pushed us off the cliff to say we are considering this an act
of terrorism," Bowdich said. Meanwhile, Farook's father told Italy's La
Stampa that his son was "obsessed with Israel," and that,
"I told him he had to stay calm and be patient because in two years Israel
will not exist anymore." Farook's anti-Israel comfort to his son included
telling him that "geopolitics is changing: Russia, China and America don't
want Jews there anymore. They are going to bring the Jews back to
Ukraine.” "What is the point of fighting? We have already done it
and we lost. Israel is not to be fought with weapons, but with politics.
But he did not listen to me; he was obsessed," Farook said. Nicholas Thalasinos, 52, was the first San Bernardino
victim to be announced. Thalasinos, a Gentile Messianic believer in
Messiah Yeshua, was vocal for Israel and against Islamic radicalization.
Early reports erroneously naming Thalasinos as a Messianic Jew lit a
firestorm among commentators arguing against or for the Jewish classification
of Messianic Judaism. "As a gentile who loves HaShem, I know my place is
to support Israel and the Jewish people," Thalasinos wrote in September to
an Israeli woman, Bat Zion Susskind-Sacks, who befriended him online a year ago
and provided the transcript to the Jewish Telegraph Agency. "Nicholas was
a great supporter of Israel, no question about that. He felt he was put
on this earth to follow HaShem and God’s people," Susskind-Sacks told the
Times of Israel. According to Jennifer Thalasinos, her late husband "was
very outspoken about Islamic terrorism and how he feels about politics in the
state of the country."
The four guns used by the shooters.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu issued a video message via the Saban Forum on the San Bernardino
attack, which he described as terrible and savage. "I wish to offer the
condolences of the people of Israel to the families, the aggrieved families,
and of course send our wishes for a speedy recovery to the wounded,"
Netanyahu said, later adding, "If I look at the world overall, the core of
the conflicts in the Middle East — that is, the battle between early
medievalism and modernity — is the battle that is being waged now around the
world." "And the advanced countries in the world, the civilized
countries of the world, have to make common cause to contain and ultimately
defeat militant Islam," he said. "Deep
down, human beings want to have freedom and I think that desire and the
technology of freedom, the spread of information, will ultimately defeat
militant Islam, just as it defeated another murderous ideology bent on world
domination: Nazism." Also on Sunday in a primetime address, US
President Barack Obama sought to tackle the fears of the nation, while rising
in defense of Islam. "... it is clear that the [San Bernardino
terrorists] had gone down the dark path of radicalization, raising a perverted
interpretation of Islam that calls for war against America and the West,"
he said. We will "not depend on tough talk or abandoning our values
or giving in to fear. Instead, we will prevail by being strong and smart,
resilient and relentless." "If we are to succeed in defeating
terrorism, we must enlist Muslim communities as some of our strongest
allies," he said.
The couple had 1,400 rounds for the rifles and 200 for the handguns with
them at the time of the shootout.
them at the time of the shootout.
The president said Muslim leaders must reject acts
of violence and "interpretations of Islam that are incompatible with the
values of religious tolerance, mutual respect and human dignity." Likewise,
it's the responsibility of all Americans "to reject religious tests on who
we admit into this country," he added. "It's our responsibility
to reject proposals that Muslim Americans are somehow treated
differently." However, Obama said he has ordered the Department of
Homeland Security to examine the fiancé visa-waiver program under which Malik
entered the US, and urged Congress to ensure "no one on a no-fly list is
able to buy a gun." In describing aspects of the US strategy to tackle
terrorism, Obama said, "We need to make it harder for people to buy
powerful assault weapons," noting that officials are not able to identify
"every would-be mass shooter." Meanwhile, gun permit applications are
up about ten-fold in the conservative areas of California's Southland,
including San Bernardino.
United States Secretary of State John Kerry greets Israel's Defense
Minister Moshe Ya'alon at the 2015 Saban Forum.
Minister Moshe Ya'alon at the 2015 Saban Forum.
Kerry, Netanyahu
Uphold PA and Reject One-State Plan
"From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the
whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the
boundaries of their lands." (Acts 17:26)
On Saturday at the annual Saban Forum of the
Brookings Institution, United States Secretary of State John Kerry rebuked
Israeli and Palestinian leadership, warning them of a bleak future if they
failed to negotiate peace. Kerry condemned Palestinian
attempts at the United Nations to isolate Israel. "How would
that bring them closer to peace? Isn't it the Palestinian people who
would then suffer most? Do they really believe that boycotts and efforts
to delegitimize Israel, or passing biased resolutions in international bodies,
are going to help them achieve a Palestinian state?" he asked. "Are
Palestinian officials really doing everything possible to prevent all forms of
incitement?" he continued. "Don't these terrorist attacks
against innocent civilians deserve public condemnation? And how can
Israelis be assured that the Palestinians are truly prepared to end the
conflict and allow them to live in peace as part of a two-state solution?
How do they address Israel's concerns about not creating another
situation like Gaza in the West Bank?"
United States Secretary of State John Kerry delivers a keynote address
at the 2015 Saban Forum.
at the 2015 Saban Forum.
While acknowledging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu’s commitment to the survival of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and
his “vision of two states for two peoples, living side by side in peace and
security," Kerry urged Israel, for the sake of its own security, to
help prevent the Palestinian Authority from collapsing. He said that the
consequence of annexing Gaza, Judea and Samaria would result in a bi-national
state — one state with Jews and Palestinians as co-citizens. That would
weaken Israel's Jewish and democratic identity, he said. "The truth is
many of those arguing against the PA simply don't believe in two states.
Prime Minister [Netanyahu] has been clear that he does not want a
bi-national state, and that he remains committed to the vision of two states
for two peoples; but at the same time, many current Israeli ministers have been
equally clear that they oppose a Palestinian state, not just now but
ever," Kerry said. "It is important
that [two states for two peoples] not become a slogan, not become a throwaway
phrase; that it becomes a policy, which is what it is meant to be," Kerry
said. "The one-state solution is no solution at all for a
secure, Jewish, democratic Israel living in peace; it is simply not a viable
option," Kerry said. "How does Israel possibly maintain its character
as a Jewish and democratic state when, from the river to the sea, there would
not even be a Jewish majority?" Kerry asked at Brookings. The
comment is in questionable taste since Palestinians have often chanted they
want to reclaim all of “Palestine” from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean
Sea (the entire region of Israel).
Delegates participate in a panel discussion at the 2015 Saban Forum.
Kerry also suggested that if Israel were to annex
Judea, Samaria and Gaza, there would be an increase of "chaos, lawlessness
and desperation" among terrorists and extremists, and that it somehow
would create a "vacuum." "The United States is
deeply committed to secure Israel's future as a Jewish and democratic state,
and we are also committed to an independent, viable Palestinian state, where
Palestinians can live in freedom and dignity," Kerry said. "The
only way to achieve that is through a negotiated solution that creates two
states for two peoples side by side, living in peace and security." Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu followed Kerry's warning at his weekly
cabinet meeting on Sunday saying that Israel will not become a bi-national
state. He reiterated that "in order to have peace, the other side
must decide it too wants peace." He emphasized that the PA continues to
erect obstacles to peace — including any viable two-state agreements. "Unfortunately, this is what we see:
Primarily, the incitement in the Palestinian Authority continues.
Then I see the chief Palestinian negotiator [Saeb Erekat] visiting the
family of a terrorist who tried to murder Jews," Netanyahu said of the PA
security officer-turned-terrorist who shot an Israeli soldier and civilian on
Thursday. "Not only is he not condemning [terror attacks], he's
going to offer his condolences."
