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Tel Dan: Archaeology, Nature and Biblical History
Sep 30th, 2009
IsraelArutz Sheva - Shalom Pollac
Categories: The Nation Of Israel

Tel Dan: Archaeology, Nature and Biblical History
 

Want to see a sensational archaeological find in the middle of one of the most beautiful places in Israel? Make the trip to Israel’s northeast corner where the Jordan River spills into the always lush Hula Valley, the foot of majestic and sometimes snow-capped Mount Hermon.







View of the Hula Valley

Ministry of Tourism

Tel Dan is a favorite place to take visitors and to marvel at. Why do so many people love this place? Tel Dan gets embraces archaeology, nature, and Biblical history in one sweep.

Known as Laish to its original Canaanite inhabitants, the area was conquered by the tribe of Dan (Judges: 18) when they sought a safer place to live in the wake of recurring Philistine attacks in their original tribal portion near Beit Shemesh. The place was perfect, as beautiful and bountiful as it is today.







Tel Dan-Israelite Gate

Wikimedia Commons

When Lot, Abraham’s nephew was captured by the four kings of the north, Abraham led an expedition to free him (Genesis 14:14). The city gates of Dan from Abraham’s time have since been uncovered by archaeologists -- imagine! You can sit in the very gate that Abraham sat. This is more than just where the Bible comes alive. You can also view inscriptions with the words, “House of David, King of Israel.”

Apparently this was part of a boast made by Hazael, King of Aram in which he falsely claimed to defeat the Jewish forces that stemmed from the Davidic dynasty.

When Yirovam ben Navat broke away from the kingdom of Rechavam, son of Solomon, he took 10 of the12 tribes with him to prevent the kingdom from reuniting. To distract the people from the lawful king and from the symbol of unity -- the Temple in Jerusalem -- he established pagan worship in the form of golden calves (Kings I 1: 28) and erected them at the borders of his kingdom, one in Beit El on the southern border with Judah (Judea) on the way to Jerusalem, and the other at the northern border, Dan.







Tel Dan-Canaanite Gate

Wikimedia Commons

You will be able to see the actual altar of Yiravam ben Navat. It’s as if you’re viewing the actual drama unfold from the Book of Kings.

Tel Dan didn’t seem to lose any of its original beauty and vitality during the long exile of the Jewish People and absence from their land. It didn’t become a wasteland under the thumb of brutal conquests and neglect as much of Israel did. The waters of Mount Hermon have not ceased rushing through her streams from time immemorial. The majestic streams have maintained its youthful beauty.







Snow-capped Mt. Hermon

Ministry of Tourism

In 1939, Tel Dan was established, despite the fact that its creation was against British law. The British occupying administration at the time had issued the infamous “White Paper” severely curtailing Jewish immigration to Israel, just as the Jews were fleeing Hitler’s grasp. The British placed a “settlement freeze” on the Jews, one that was ignored by young idealistic pioneers, who resisted the draconian anti-Jewish decrees to establish new Jewish villages throughout the land.  

During the 1948 War of Independence when Arabs attacked from the Golan, the Dan kibbutz evacuated women and children and stood fast against the Syrians that advanced towards them from Syria’s high vantage point. The Jewish residents lived for 19 years under the shadow of the Syrian guns.

In 1967, all that changed. With the Syrians swept from the Golan, Kibbutz Dan could breath easy and enjoy the exquisite beauty of their home.

When visiting the nature reserve today, one can enjoy the calming effects of the sounds of rushing water, the chirping of exotic birds and the sights and smells of a collage of ferns, plants and trees. At the crossroads of three continents and sitting on the great Syrian-African rift, Tel Dan hosts a wide variety of species within its 120 acres

Powerful Earthquake Rocks Western Indonesia
Sep 30th, 2009
Daily NewsAP
Categories: Today's Headlines

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - A powerful underwater earthquake rocked western Indonesia Wednesday, triggering a tsunami alert for countries along the Indian Ocean and sending panicked residents out of their houses.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.9. An Indonesian television network reported that buildings had collapsed in the coastal city of Padang, in Southern Sumatra province.

Indonesia's meteorological agency said the quake had a preliminary magnitude at 7.6 and hit 30 miles (50 kilometers) off the coast of Padang, along the same fault line the spawned the massive 2004 Asian tsunami.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami alert for Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Thailand.

"There is a possibility of a destructive regional tsunami in the Indian Ocean," it said in an e-mailed statement.

There were no immediate reports of a high waves.

Witnesses said residents of Padang, and other town and cities, ran out of homes and buildings in fear.

"People are panicking. They are running out of the buildings... There are many collapsed buildings," an unidentified witness in Padang told MetroTV.

Pastors Defy Irs Ban on Partisan Sermons
Sep 30th, 2009
Daily NewsAssociated Press -
Categories: Today's Headlines;Persecution

KANSAS CITY, MO - A Christian advocacy group says about 80 pastors have preached partisan political sermons -- daring the Internal Revenue Service to revoke their churches' tax exempt status.

The Alliance Defense Fund's Erik Stanley says most of the sermons were preached this past Sunday, with a few scheduled this coming Sunday. He says the goal of "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" is to trigger an IRS action that a church can challenge in court in an effort to get the ban on pulpit politics declared unconstitutional.

Partisan political sermons that were preached last year at 33 churches led to one IRS action that was suspended over a procedural issue.

Barry Lynn, the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, says pastors can preach anything they want, but should not expect their churches to remain tax-exempt if they endorse or oppose candidates.

Netanyahu to Probe Gaza War in Compliance With Goldstone Report
Sep 30th, 2009
Daily NewsIsrael Today
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Anti-Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will comply with the demands of the Goldstone Commission into the recent Gaza war by proposing a full investigation into purported war crimes committed during the conflict, which ran from mid-December of last year until the middle of January.

Netanyahu is expected to present his parameters for the commission of inquiry at a cabinet meeting on Thursday. But officials cited by Ha'aretz said the Israeli investigation is likely to spend the bulk of its time determining how Judge Richard Goldstone and his team reached such outlandish conclusions regarding Israeli behavior during the war, and may end up being an indictment of the UN Human Rights Council that commissioned the report.

If Israel commissions its own report, it is sure to make note of Goldstone's shaky history of differentiating between actual war crimes and fictional accounts.

Israel's Makor Rishon newspaper in its weekend highlighted one such incident, recalling how Goldstone, while heading the international tribunal tasked with indicting Serbian war criminals in 1995, ended up indicting a fictional Serbian character based on the false claims of an unidentified eyewitness.

Goldstone's indictment of a man known only as "Gruban" for allegedly raping and torturing Muslim prisoners made international headlines when it turned out Gruban is a fictional character from a famous Serbian novel about World War II.

It was later revealed that the eyewitness was a Serbian war correspondent who made an off-hand comment about the terrible war criminal "Gruban" to an American colleague. Based on nothing more, Goldstone issued an indictment and launched an manhunt for the criminal.

In related news, a war crimes suit filed by a British Muslim lawyer against Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was thrown out by a London court on Tuesday. The court ruled that Barak enjoys diplomatic immunity, and so cannot be prosecuted. The lawyer and his colleagues vowed to continue seeking the arrest and prosecution of any Israeli officials who visit the UK.

N.y. Health Care Workers Revolt Over H1n1 Vaccine
Sep 30th, 2009
Daily NewsCBS
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

Saying They Should Be Given A Choice, Employees Rally In Albany, Around State, Chant "No Forced Shots!"

Protesters Hold Signs That Read: "The State Doesn't Own My Body'"

STONY BROOK, N.Y  They're upset over an ultimatum from the health department.

Workers are being told to either get the swine flu vaccine or lose their jobs.

New York is the first state in the country to mandate flu vaccinations for its health care workers. The first doses of swine flu vaccine will be available beginning next week. Much of it is reserved for state health care workers, but there is growing opposition to required innoculations.

Health care workers in Hauppauge screamed "No forced shots!" as they rallied Tuesday against the state regulation requiring them to roll up their sleeves.

"I don't even tend to the sick. I am in the nutrition field. They are telling me I must get the shot because I work in a health clinic setting," said Paula Small, a Women, Infants and Children health care worker.

Small said she will refuse, worried the vaccine is untested and unproven, leaving her vulnerable. In 1976, there were some deaths associated with a swine flu vaccination.

Registered nurse Frank Mannino, 50, was also angry. He said the state regulation violates his personal freedom and civil rights.

"And now I will lose my job if I don't take the regular flu shot or the swine flu shot."

Art's Comments....... What will it be tomorrow? Freedom and World Government do not mix.

Moslems refuse Jews access to holy sites during holy days
Sep 30th, 2009
News UpdateJimmy DeYoung
Categories: Jimmy DeYoung News

The three Jewish holy days in the Fall are always times when the Jews from around the world flow to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount in obedience to ancient laws that require all Jews to make a pilgrimage to Judaism's holiest site.

The Fall feast, Feast of Tabernacles, is what the Bible calls a pilgrim feast, one of three such feasts God gave the Jewish people and then told them that they must travel to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to be obedient to His law.

Because the Islamic Trust has custodial control of the Temple Mount, the Moslems have restricted the religious Jews who seek entrance to the Temple Mount from carrying any religious articles onto the mount or even praying while on this sacred site.

Jimmy's Prophetic Prospective on the News

Limited access to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem for the Jewish people during their high holy days by the Moslem world will only increase the tensions surrounding this sacred site to the point that will result in Bible prophecy being fulfilled.

Evident during the Fall Jewish feast days has been the restrictions put in place by the Islamic Trust for the access Jewish worshipers wish to have at this holy time of year to the holy mountain of God, the Temple Mount. This control of Judaism's most sacred holy site, the Temple Mount, is an offense not only to the Jewish people, but to the Lord Jesus Christ as well.

In a preincarnate appearance to the prophet Zechariah 2,500 years ago, Jesus told the prophet He was displeased with the arrogant control of the Temple Mount by the enemies of the true God, Zechariah 1:15. In verse 14 of the Zechariah passage, Jesus, the Angel of the Lord, a preincarnate appearance of Jesus Christ, said He was jealous for the Temple Mount, in fact the Hebrew flavor of the word "jealous" seems to indicate that Jesus Christ is aggressively possessive for this sacred spot.

Jesus concludes His message to Zechariah in verse 16 by saying that one day He would come back to Jerusalem to build His Temple on this controversial site, the Temple Mount, a location of conflict in the future.

Love is the Most Abiding Grace
Sep 30th, 2009
InspirationalThomas Watson, "All Things for Good" pg. 96
Categories: Meditation

Love is the most abiding grace. This will stay with us when other graces take their farewell. In heaven we shall need no repentance, because we shall have no sin. In heaven we shall not need patience, because there will be no affliction. In heaven we shall need no faith because faith looks at things unseen (Heb. xi. 1). But then we shall see God face to face; and where there is vision, there is no need of faith.

But when the other graces are out of date, love continues; and in this sense the apostle says that love is greater than faith, because it abides the longest." Charity never faileth" (1 Cor. xiii. 8). Faith is the staff we walk with in this life." We walk by faith" (2 Cor. v. 7). But we shall leave this staff at heaven's door, and only love shall enter. Thus love carries away the crown from all the other graces. Love is the most long lived grace, it is a blossom of eternity. How should we strive to excel in this grace, which alone shall live with us in heaven, and shall accompany us to the marriage supper of the Lamb! -

Likud to Send Gaza Evacuation Report to Obama
Sep 30th, 2009
Daily NewsIsrael Today
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Warning

Outspoken Likud MK Danny Danon plans to translate an interim report on the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza and its aftermath into English and have it sent to US President Barack Obama as evidence of why Israel will never again conduct such a pullout on the "whim" of an American leader.

The report highlights the ongoing instability experienced by a large portion of the Israeli Jews uprooted from Gaza's 21 Jewish communities, as well as the escalation of Palestinian violence following the withdrawal and Hamas' subsequent takeover of the territory.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Danon noted that Israel had taken a great risk to jump-start peace efforts at the behest of former President George W. Bush. By sending the report to Washington, Danon hopes to make clear that Obama's disregard for Israel's gesture and the Palestinian response to it means the Jewish state is no longer prepared to take such risks for peace based on American assurances.

Iran Tests Advanced Missiles, Threatens Israel
Sep 30th, 2009
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Maayana Miskin
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

 
Iran fired some of its most powerful missiles on Monday as the Revolutionary Guard concluded two days of war games. Among the missiles tested, according to Iranian state media, were the Shahab-3 and Sajjil.

Both missiles have a range of more than 1,000 miles, and are capable of hitting Israel, Europe, and United States military bases.

On Sunday, the Revolutionary Guard fired a number of short-range missiles. Military leaders said they had also tested a multiple missile launcher for the first time, and had successfully fired two missiles at once.

The announcement of the two-day war games, which began Sunday, was made at the same time as Iranian leaders admitted the existence of a covert uranium enrichment site. “Allah willing, this plant will be put into operation soon, and will blind the eyes of the enemies,” the Supreme Leader's Office said in an official announcement.

Iranian officials said the exercises were unconnected to the discovery of the site, and had been planned for some time. Government-run media quoted military leaders as saying the exercises would serve as a message for “arrogant countries which intend to intimidate.”

On Monday, Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi appeared on state television to threaten Israel with destruction in case of an Israeli strike on Iran. “If this [stri happens... its ultimate result would be that it expedites the Zionist regime's last breath,” he said.

Vahidi claimed that Israel is “on a slope of destruction,” and that its “lifespan is today coming to an end,” whether or not it attempts to strike Iranian nuclear sites.

Russia Worried

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that his country was worried about Iran conducting test launches of missiles. Earlier in the day, Iran successfully test launched upgraded missiles capable of reaching Israel. Lavrov was quoted by several Russian news agencies as saying, "Of course it is worrisome, when missile launches happen against the backdrop of unresolved situation concerning Iran's nuclear program."

After meeting with his Iranian counterpart at the United Nations in New York, Lavrov said that he urged Tehran to be "maximally cooperative" in its contacts with the International Atomic Energy Agency regarding its previously undisclosed uranium enrichment facility. "It's necessary to show restraint, and we talked

Holiday Attacks in Gaza, Jerusalem and Hevron
Sep 30th, 2009
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Maayana Miskin
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Antisemitism

 
Gaza terrorists fired three rockets at southern Israel over the course of the Yom Kippur holiday. One rocket landed within Gaza, while two others hit open areas in Israel. No injuries or damage were reported in the attacks.

On Monday night, the IAF hit a rocket launcher in Gaza. Pilots reported a direct strike on the device, which was loaded and prepared to fire. It is not yet clear if there were casualties in the strike.

In central Gaza, terrorists fired an anti-tank missile at an IDF patrol near the Gaza security barrier. The patrol returned fire. Gaza Arabs reported that two people were lightly wounded by IDF fire. The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack.

In a separate incident in central Gaza, terrorists attacked IDF troops with gunfire. No injuries were reported among the soldiers.

In Jerusalem: Firebombings, Arson

Security forces faced attack in Jerusalem as well. In the Isawiya neighborhood in the northern part of the city, Arab rioters attacked Border Police officers. A total of 20 firebombings were reported in the area, as were dozens of rock attacks. Six officers were lightly wounded; one required hospitalization.

Isawiya rioters also set fire to trees in the neighborhood. Firefighters managed to extinguish the flames. Police deployed in the nearby Jewish neighborhood of Giva Tzarfatit (French Hill) to ensure that the riots did not spread. Residents of the area reported hearing explosions and yelling from the direction of Isawiya.

In the neighborhood of Mei Shiloach (Silwan), outside Jerusalem's Old City, Arabs threw two firebombs at Jewish homes. One firebomb failed to ignite, while the second caused a fire. No injuries were reported in the attack.

Tensions were high in Jerusalem going into the Yom Kippur holiday due to Arab riots on the Temple Mount the day before. On Sunday, approximately 150 Muslims attacked a group of non-Muslim tourists who entered the Temple Mount as part of a routine tour.

Eighteen police officers and 17 of the attackers were wounded in the subsequent clash. Eleven suspects were arrested. The incident caused rage in much of the Muslim community, and police were on high alert on Sunday and Monday.

Rock Attack in Hevron

A woman was lightly wounded by rocks thrown at her by Arabs as she walked from Kiryat Arba to the Maarat Hamachpelah Cave of the Patriarchs in Hevron. She was treated at the scene for her wounds.

High Alert Continues in Jerusalem
Sep 30th, 2009
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Nissan Ratzlav Katz
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning;Anti-Israel

 
Jerusalem police were on heightened alert Tuesday morning following a day of rioting and violence on Yom Kippur. A wave of arrests in the capital is part of the police response.

Thirteen Arabs from the predominantly Arab eastern part of Jerusalem were arrested overnight Monday, including a number of minors, in connection with violent disturbances before and during the Yom Kippur holiday. Twenty-two officers were wounded throughout the capital in violence that began on the Temple Mount on Sunday. Muslim rioting in eastern Jerusalem included the throwing of rocks and over 20 firebombs targeting police. Police and Border Guards had to be deployed in Jewish neighborhoods of the capital to ensure that the rioters did not endanger Jewish civilians.

Police say more arrests are expected in coming days.

Monday was also the anniversary of then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon's visit in 2000 to the Temple Mount. The visit became a rallying point for the Palestinian Authority terror war...