Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

The Women Waiting, and Weaving, for the Third Temple
Aug 15th, 2016
Daily NewsTimes of Israel
Categories: The Nation Of Israel

The Temple Mount, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque atop it, have been a recurring source of tension in Jerusalem in recent years.

Palestinians have cited Israeli “provocations” there as one of the main catalysts for months of violent attacks this year and late last year. They have become increasingly wary of Israel’s intentions at the holy site, often accusing the Jewish state of attempting to impose greater control over the compound, and even of planning to eliminate the mosque and establish Jewish hegemony there.

The Israeli government has repeatedly rejected such accusations as absurd, outlandish paranoia — the ravings of extremist clerics intended to incite the masses.

There is, however, a growing number of Israelis for whom the dream of establishing a third temple in the place of Al-Aqsa is far from outlandish or absurd: It is a life’s mission. And they are slowly but surely moving from the fringes of the religious right into the country’s corridors of power.

On the eve of the Tisha B’Av fast on Sunday, in which Jews commemorate the destruction of the First and Second temples, Channel 2 news followed a group of female devotees who call themselves “Women for the Temple” and are diligently toiling in private as well as public forums to realize their dream of a third temple in Jerusalem.

The group’s members are hard at work preparing themselves for the many needs of the temple, when it comes, poring over Scripture and following its instructions. They are learning how to prepare sacrificial offerings, how to bake the sourdough bread required for the rites and how to cultivate the so-called crimson worm with which the priests’ vestments are dyed.

Perhaps most important of all, they are studying how to make the parochet — in ancient times the great curtain that separated the Temple’s main hall from the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant it contained (nowadays the cloth that covers the Torah ark in synagogues is called a parochet).

Women for the Temple is also intensely dedicated to recruiting more supporters to the cause. To that end, members hold regular lectures and classes on the Temple and their mission for interested women.

A founding member of the group is Rina Ariel of the settlement of Kiryat Arba, who was in the news in recent months when her daughter was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist. Thirteen-year-old Hallel was stabbed and killed in her sleep in June.

In the wake of the attack, the Ariel family held a memorial service on the Temple Mount. Rina stated at the time that “it is only from there that all deficits can be filled, it is only from there that we will receive any sense of solace.” Urging her community to join her for the visit to the holy site, she said, “The terrorist butchered our daughter in her heart, and our heart is in the Temple Mount.”

Hundreds heeded the call. “We pray that (next time) we won’t stand here as dozens but as thousands,” Ariel told attendees.

Asked by Channel 2 how her daughter’s death had affected her, Ariel said her work gave her strength to deal with the loss, “to continue the momentum of building” Women for the Temple.

Ariel and her three sisters are considered to be the beating heart of the movement. One sister, Tzipora Filtz, lives with her 10 children in a heavily guarded house in the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem, overlooking the Mount.

Asked if she feels comfortable living practically inside the Mount of Olive’s Jewish cemetery, Filtz said: “I am standing before the most holy place and I live this (holiness) in my daily life.”

The sisters noted proudly that talk of constructing a Third Temple had transformed from a quaint dream of those who were once considered fringe elements into a serious mission shared by many.

“When you’d say the word ‘temple’ [they’d say] ‘What, are you crazy? How can you even say that?'” sister Yael Kabilio laughed. “Today’s it’s obvious. You can say it full-throated.”

The women’s group is hardly alone. The Temple Institute, established in 1987, hasbeen advocating for almost 30 years for the reestablishment of the Temple.

The Institute focuses on preparing the objects and skills needed for the sacrifice of animals and the esoteric rituals that had been carried out by kohanim, or priests, in front of crowds of Jewish pilgrims before the temple’s destruction. All of its work is led by a rabbinical council and based on meticulous analysis of Jewish scripture and academic research.

An exhibition of the group’s preparations for the temple moved in 2013 from a small side street in the Old City to a larger space just outside the Western Wall plaza.

The great parochet is once again being woven in a small shack on the edge of the West Bank settlement of Itamar — or, at least, its prototypes are. Three Women for the Temple members are toiling day and night to produce what is considered to be the pinnacle of feminine contribution to the Temple.

Inside, great looms stand at the ready, as strands are dyed red in the extract of the crimson worms and meticulously woven together into ever-larger cloths. Slowly but surely, the work advances.

“Step by step, patiently, we are preparing,” said Orna Hershbag, who works in the shack.

Asked how she envisions the establishment of the Temple, Hershbag said: “I think the Arabs will simply come and say, ‘Come, come and take this place.’

“There are also opinions that say the Temple will come down, complete, from the sky,” she added earnestly.

Dr. Tomer Persico of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem described the group as fundamentalists “who wish to return to some golden past that allegedly once existed, some golden age when things were supposedly perfect.

“This whole idealistic picture — as if we only need to build the Temple for everything to be all right, or that we will perhaps then ascend to another mental plane — it doesn’t even have a basis in Scripture. But people project all of their dreams onto this point, perhaps because they don’t have something else.”

In the meantime, the group’s message appears to be resonating with many religious women. At one of the organization’s classes in the settlement of Mevo Horon, Hannah Katan was enraptured.

“It’s impossible not to be convinced,” she told Channel 2. “It’s here, we feel it. All the trains that are being built from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the highway that is being widened to six lanes, the light rail in Jerusalem — what’s all this for?” She smiled. “So that we can all ascend, as one, to the Temple.”

The women are aware that their objectives may not be easy for everyone to swallow, at least for now, and they regularly discuss how best to communicate their vision to the public.

“Some people don’t want to hear the more difficult details right now… such as sacrifices,” Rina said, but she offered other paths to persuasion, such as through the discussion of joy in people’s lives. “Women want to rejoice, everyone wants to rejoice. Joy is tied to the Temple, because there is no issue that isn’t tied to it.”

The women bristled at the suggestion that they are extreme in their views. They maintained that they are focused on sensible, achievable goals.

Once again challenged by Channel 2’s reporter on how the group plans to deal with the reality of Arab presence at the Temple Mount, one activist, Yehudit Dasberg, said some things are in their power and “the rest will be done by the Lord.”

Another, Michal Ben Omri, chimed in: “Imagine you want to go into your bedroom with your husband but you can’t, because someone else is there. You tell him, ‘Please move,’ but he says, ‘No, I’m not moving.’ You tell him, ‘This is my home,” he tells you ‘So what?’… would you agree to that?

“The Holy of Holies is the Lord’s bedchambers with the people of Israel,” she said. “Someone is in my bedroom.”

The group’s spokeswoman and lobbyist, Rivka Shimon, noted that her grandparents had been labeled crazy when they left Poland to come to the Land of Israel before the Holocaust. It saved their lives when all others perished, she observes.

Persico warned that the movement’s efforts could become a real threat to regional stability should they receive “political backing” and “when real action is taken to change the status quo.

“Anyone who tries to change the status quo at the Temple Mount is playing with fire,” he said.

In the halls of Israeli power, Shimon is intent on eventually doing just that. In recent years she has been paying increasingly frequent visits to the Knesset. She said her audience, though not speaking openly of a third temple for now, has become more and more receptive to the group’s call for Jewish prayer rights on the Mount.

Among the Knesset members she considers to be her supporters are Jewish Home MKs Shuli Mualem and Bezalel Smotrich, as well as Sports and Culture Minister Miri Regev and Likud’s most recent addition to its lineup, Yehuda Glick — a well-known Temple Mount activist.

Shimon admitted that forging a democratic path to a new temple is only the first stage in what she envisions as a fundamental transformation of the state into one guided by the light of Jewish faith, when the lawmakers of a secular government are no longer the leaders of the Jewish nation.

Not the she wants to shut down the Knesset entirely. The legislature, she said, could continue to handle the particulars of daily life in the new Temple-led society.

“The small stuff,” she said, smiling

The Real Caliphate Threat is not from Isis But Turkey
Aug 15th, 2016
PNW STAFF
Categories: Contemporary Issues

The social media reach of ISIS has allowed it to recruit thousands of foreign fighters per month to its cause and build connections with other terror networks across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. 

But, beset by a coalition of powerful militaries and forced to cede territory in Iraq and Syria, its dreams of a glorious world-dominating Caliphate now seem far-fetched. ISIS and its affiliate groups will continue to be sources of death and terror but, meanwhile, the real threat of a Caliphate or Islamic kingdom looms large in neighboring Turkey.

Turkey has been a secular nation with no recognized state religion and a constitutional right to freedom of worship, but with a 99.8% Muslim population. The hijab had been banned in schools and government building for decades, but with the creeping entrance of Islam into politics, was lifted for schools and government buildings between 2011 and 2014.

Turkey's authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, himself a hard-line Islamist, has pushed for a greater role for Islam in society, just as he has expanded his own powers. 

The coup attempt of July has launched Turkey onto the path of political reform that is both purging secular opposition and threatening to seat Erdogan in a position of power not seen since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. The proposed reforms would reorganize Turkey into a more authoritarian system with power concentrated in the President.

President Erdogan has used the attempted coup, which he laughably claims was orchestrated in secret by 100,000 plotters, to arrest tens of thousands of the secular opposition throughout the government and military, as well as all university deans.

Known for his strict control of the media, Erdogan became President in 2014, after he had already reached his term limit as Prime Minister, but the new reform would consolidate far more power in his hands as President.

The President also recently stated that he would approve an amendment to the law that allows the death penalty and has promised to execute his political rival, the moderate religious leader Fethullah Gulen, who currently lives in self-imposed exile in rural Pennsylvania.

Turks who look back fondly on days of former glory flock now to a strong nationalist leader. Under the banner of religion, and Erdogan does appear to be a true believer, he promises to restore Turkey to its position of power from centuries past.

The coup attempt rolled tanks through the streets, bombed parliament and took over television stations but Erdogan who was out of the country, simply took to social media and sent a text message to every cell phone in the country.

He asked Turks to rise up and protect 'democracy', and they filled the streets en masse. It is perhaps ironic that the Turkish military has a history of overthrowing elected governments to protect the nation and the July 2016 coup attempt was the 6th such military intervention since 1960. 

Now, however, secularists are being purged from the military, government and educational system, all to be replaced by pro-Erdogan Islamists.

The would could be witnessing something like the Islamic Revolution of Iran yet with the fascist underpinnings and burning of the Reichstag that brought Hitler to power.

Erdogan advocates a political Islam that would represent a fundamental change to the modern Turkish state. The new powers of the President that are being debated would make him a Turkish Caliph in all but name. 

In a nation of 80 million Muslims with the 10th most powerful military on the planet and massive immigration into Europe, the idea of a Turkish-Islamic super-state, a true Caliphate is an exciting allure.

While ISIS grabs headlines for its stone-age savagery, perhaps the greater threat is a resurgent Turkey that, like Iran before it, will look differently on its alliance with the West once it has embraced Islam and its ideology of political domination.

Ankara's relations with Washington have been sour for quite some time and the more Ankara feels estranged from Washington, the more it will want to feel closer to Moscow. There is already strong evidence of Erdogan's shift towards Russia and a patching or relations that could help form a new Turkey-Russia-Iran axis in the region.

Erdogan has suspended or arrested some 50,000 soldiers, teachers, judges and government workers. A full 20% of the country's judges are under arrest and it looks as though his power is both absolute and unassailable at this point. 

Already accused of aiding ISIS and turning a blind eye to al-Qaida, Erdogan may be just the lightening rod needed to attract the loyalty of a global Islamic movement.

During the coup attempt, the Turkish government forces cut electricity to and shut down Incirlik Air Base, home to 1,500 US troops. What is even more frightening is that the base houses 50 nuclear weapons, nominally under US control, though this came into question on the night of the coup attempt.

The Ottoman Turkish Empire carried the mantel of the Islamic Caliphate from the 14th to the early 20th century. Perhaps a tide of Islamic nationalism can carry Erdogan and the rest of Turkey to another Caliphate in the 21st century as we see yet another theocratic dictatorship unfurl its banners.

The Coming Age of the Chimera
Aug 15th, 2016
CommentaryThe Washington Times
Categories: Contemporary Issues

Science wants to break down the fence between man and beast

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Flights of fantasy have long envisioned animals with human traits. George Lucas’ “Star Wars” entertained millions of movie fans with an iconic tavern scene where all manner of beastly aliens packed a drinking dive and behaved in a way that any visitor to a biker bar would recognize. Beasts behaving badly. Science has a way of seizing fantasy and fashioning it into fact, so it shouldn’t shock anyone if someday soon, we can, like Dr. Dolittle, “walk with the animals, talk with the animals.” This would be the dawning of the creepy age of the chimera — a creature part human, part animal.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is preparing to drop its ban on federal funding for medical research that combines animal embryos with human stem cells. The intent is to grow human organs for medical research and testing of drugs without the limitations of experiments on human beings. Our Bradford Richardson reports that NIH thinks there’s great potential for scientific advancement once the funding prohibition is removed.

Breaking taboos, however, has consequences, which is why the ban was imposed last year on federal funding of chimera research. Ethics concerns were raised over combining human and animal genetic material. NIH officials prohibited experimenting on primate embryos and breeding of chimeras to reduce the risk of creating humanlike beings. Now the ban is about to go. “I am confident that these proposed changes will enable the NIH research community to move this promising area of science forward in a responsible manner,” says Carrie D. Wolinetz, the associate director for science at NIH.

A 30-day period for public comment will run before a final decision is made. It’s common government practice to offer such a perfunctory opportunity for public venting, and the government usually brushes the comments aside and proceeds as planned. There’s little reason to doubt that will happen this time, too.

Who would oppose medical research that could end up saving lives? Only those who look farther into the future and envision where it might lead. Bureaucrats, alas, are blind to the slippery slope. As rapid as the pace of scientific advancement may be in the 21st century, the rise of subversive abuse is greater. Consider the assurances that the federal government gives taxpayers, and retailers give consumers, that required personal and financial information is safe from prying eyes. Millions of stolen files later, Americans have learned better than to trust those little padlock icons on web pages that purport to guarantee that all will be well.

Researchers could soon be growing a human kidney in a pig for implantation, and perhaps a generation from now man’s best friend could be endowed with the mental ability to, say, serve in Congress (perhaps there’s not so far to go). To be sure, current ethics militate against the creation of smart beasts, but rules are meant to be broken and we’re told that ethical standards “evolve” over time. If abortion, the killing of unborn humans, is OK now, there’s no reason to think the creation of sentient chimeras would be considered out of bounds tomorrow.

Let the Headlines Speak
Aug 15th, 2016
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines

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Magnitude 5.6 quake hits off northern Japan
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"A House for All Believers" to Open in Jerusalem
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Clashes Erupt on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount as Thousands Gather to Mourn Destroyed Temples
Clashes broke out at the Temple Mount compound on Sunday morning as Muslim rioted against Jews touring the area in commemoration of Tisha B’av, the Hebrew date on which both temples were destroyed, according to Jewish tradition. Earlier, thousands of Jewish mourners gathered throughout the night at the adjacent Western Wall plaza to cite lamentations.  

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The women waiting, and weaving, for the Third Temple
A group of religious activists is diligently laying the groundwork for a renewed sanctuary. ‘Step by step, patiently, we are preparing,’ one says. There is, however, a growing number of Israelis for whom the dream of establishing a third temple in the place of Al-Aqsa is far from outlandish or absurd: It is a life’s mission. And they are slowly but surely moving from the fringes of the religious right into the country’s corridors of power.  

Taking the First Step to Ending our Unhealthy Dependence
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Hamas debunks its own lies of 'Gaza in ruins'
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Jordan's King Abdullah vows to fight Israeli 'extremism' at Temple Mount
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Destruction of both Temples supported by archaeological findings
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Earthquake shakes buildings in Tokyo, no danger of tsunami
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US nukes at Turkey base at risk of seizure: report
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74 Percent of World's Population Live in Religious Freedom Violating Country, New Report Finds
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Apparent Boko Haram Video Claims Some Schoolgirls Killed In Nigerian Airstrikes
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Sudan floods kill 100, destroy villages: officials
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‘Black Lives Matter’ Rioters Target Whites For Beat Downs
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MK Ghattas calls for Israel boycott at far-left Montreal conference
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The coming age of the chimera
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German far-right party wants to expel migrants to islands as Merkel tells companies to hire refugees
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2012 Pentagon report warned Obama was creating ISIS
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Jordan's King Abdullah Vows to Fight Israeli Extremism At Temple Mount
Aug 15th, 2016
CommentaryJpost
Categories: The Nation Of Israel

King Abdullah of Jordan vowed to fight against "repeated violations and attacks carried out by Israel and extremist groups," in an interview to the Jordanian Ad-Dustour daily on Monday. 
As part of the 1994 peace agreement between the two countries, Jordan was given management of the Temple Mount and al-Aksa Mosque, the third holiest site for Muslims. Tensions have frequently erupted on the Temple Mount and Palestinians have claimed that Israeli efforts to "Judaize" the site have motivated the current wave of violence in Israel.

The king accused Israel of attempting to "violate the sanctity and compromise al-Aksa Mosque," and added that, "Our responsibility towards the Muslim holy places in Jerusalem is our top priority in the international arena, and we use all means necessary to defend al-Aksa Mosque."

Abdullah said that Jordan would resist Israel's "blatantly repeated attempts to change the status quo in Jerusalem regarding its landmarks and the prejudice against Islamic and Christian peoples."

He affirmed Jordan's commitment to the Palestinian people saying that "the Palestinian issue is our first priority and a supreme national interest." 

The King addressed the current impasse in peace negotiations, saying that "failure to reach a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue and allowing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to move away from the two-state solution feeds violence and extremism in the region."

Jordan has repeatedly claimed that Israel has sought to change the status quo at the Temple Mount, an assertion that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has staunchly denied.

The two sides had agreed on a plan to install cameras at the site, however, the Jordanians pulled out of the agreement under pressure from the Palestinians in April.

Israel Prepares to Build Third Temple As It Mourns Previous Temple Destruction
Aug 15th, 2016
CommentaryPNW STAFF
Categories: The Nation Of Israel

 It may have been almost 2000 years since the Roman Empire destroyed the Second Temple in 70 AD and even more since the Babylonians destroyed the First Temple but a growing movement of Jews is determined to see the Temple rebuilt and once again take its place at the center of Jerusalem.

This past weekend saw thousands of Israelis from across the country converge on the capital to participate in the Fast of the 9th of Av (Tisha B'Av), the day of mourning for the destruction of the First and Second Holy Temples in Jerusalem which took place on this same day centuries apart.

Events to commemorate the day of mourning include gathering at the Western Wall as well as marching around the walls of the Old City and reading from the Book of Lamentations. Traditional customs also include not greeting one another during the fast, refraining from studying Torah, except for certain selections, sitting on low chairs until noon, refrain from bathing, leather footwear, cosmetics and intimate relations - all this a culmination of three weeks of keeping various customs that symbolize mourning and even more stringent ones during the nine days leading to the fast.

The Ninth of Av is a date marked by tragedy in Jewish history in addition to the destruction of the first and second Temples. Several other terrible events in Jewish history occurred on this date:

- The decree in Numbers 13 and 14 that they would not be allowed to enter the promised land until the entire generation had died out due to unbelief and murmuring against the Lord.

- The Bar Kokhbah Revolt was crushed resulting in the plowing of Jerusalem and the killing of 600,000 Jews by the Roman Empire

- The expulsion of the Jews from Britain in 1290

- The expulsion of the Jews of Spain by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1492

- World War I erupted in 1914, causing untold suffering to the Jews of Europe and Palestine and setting the stage for World War II and the Holocaust.

- Tisha B'Av of 2005, the expulsion of 9,000 Jews from the region of Gaza by Israel's own government. This has resulted in Hamas creating a missile launching area that has seen thousands of missiles and rockets fired at Israeli civilians and consequently leading to three IDF operations...with more expected.

Speeches by many prominent Rabbis at rallies across Jerusalem were directed not only toward a sense of mourning for the past, but looking to the hope of redemption and the importance of the future, including the rebuilding of the Temple.

Rabbi Ben-Dahan spoke of the centrality of Israel's capital to the Jewish nation."We aren't the only ones who know this, our enemies know it too. There is a reason [Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas] [a.k.a. Abu Mazen] claims that the Temple in Jerusalem never existed; there's a reason why he makes sure every archeological discovery found linking the Jewish people to the Temple Mount will disappear. 

He understands that the Temple Mount is the beating heart of the Jewish people. The Temple Mount and the Temple are the heart of the nation of Israel, and without a heart there is no body."

Rabbi Ben-Dahan added that the rebuilding of Jerusalem would not be complete until the Temple, too, is rebuilt and the Temple Mount redeemed."We are all here to declare that we have returned to Jerusalem and God-willing we will prepare the hearts of the people to return to the Temple Mount as well and to rebuild the Temple. We aren't embarrassed to say it: We want to rebuild the Temple on the Temple Mount."

MK Yehuda Glick, a notable Temple Mount activist, said the time had come to replace mourning with action. "For 2,000 years we lived out the verse in the Book of Lamentations 'you shall surely weep at night'. No more! We must stop weeping and start to take action. 

The founders of the Zionist movement taught us that the Exile was not just a punishment but a sin as well. Today we are in a different place. Anyone who reads the Book of Lamentations cannot possibly think we are still there in that situation. We are not under siege and we are not isolated."

Rabbi Chaim Richman, International Director of the Temple Institute, declared: "Everyone that has ever attended a Jewish wedding knows that we break a glass, but how many internalize the message. 

The broken glass isn't supposed to let guests know when to shout 'mazal tov', on the contrary it is a catalyst to move people into a new level of consciousness that fuses mourning with celebration - giving hope for a time in which we will finally rebuild the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. 

Every single bridegroom announces the proclamation that he and his future household will not forget Jerusalem, because it is incumbent on everyone of us, at all times to prepare for the rebuilding of the Holy Temple. With the work of the Temple Institute over the last three decades, preparation for the Temple is no longer a dream, it's a reality, in which everyone can play a part".

In the run up to the annual commemoration of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, the Temple Institute has released a video proposing the rebuilding of the third Temple. The video uses the metaphor of a glass, which is broken as part of the Jewish wedding ceremony, to signify that the celebration is incomplete so long as the Temple isn't rebuilt.

Despite the 2000-year-old fast and palpable longing for the Temple to be rebuilt on Judaism's holiest site on Mount Moriah, UNESCO and the EU are entertaining proposals to recognize it as a Muslim site, ignoring all of the above. Foreign Ministry Director General Dore Gold blasted the proposal, saying, it "deliberately ignores the historical connection between the Jewish people and their ancient capital".

It is told that the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was walking down a street one night and saw a darkened synagogue lit by several candles and people lamenting while sitting on the floor.

Wondering what terrible catastrophe could have befallen them, he asked and was told they were mourning the destruction of their Holy Temple in Jerusalem. He was sure this was a recent tragedy and upon hearing that it had occurred almost two millennia earlier, is said to have remarked: "A people who mourns their Temple for thousands of years will also live to see it rebuilt."

Editors Note....“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28).

Evangelical Lutherans to U.S.: End Israel Aid If Settlements Stay
Aug 15th, 2016
Daily NewsTimes of Israel
Categories: Anti-Israel

At triennial assembly, church also wants to halt investment in companies profiting from Israeli occupation, urges Obama to recognize Palestine

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America approved a resolution calling on the US government to end all aid to Israel if Israel does not stop building settlements and “enable an independent Palestinian state.”

Voting at its triennial assembly in New Orleans that ended Saturday, the church also sought a halt to all investment in companies that profit from Israel’s occupation and called on US President Barack Obama to recognize the State of Palestine.

The aid vote, which passed 751-162, urged church members to “call on their US Representatives, Senators and the Administration to take action requiring that to continue receiving US financial and military aid, Israel must comply with internationally recognized human rights standards as specified in existing US law, stop settlement building and the expansion of existing settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, end its occupation of Palestinian territory, and enable an independent Palestinian state.”

The resolution also called on Obama not to prevent the application of the State of Palestine for full membership in the United Nations and, in coordination with the United Nations Security Council, to “offer a new, comprehensive and time-bound agreement to the governments of Israel and Palestine, resulting in a negotiated final status agreement between Israel and Palestine leading to two viable and secure states with a shared Jerusalem.”

Destruction of Both Temples Supported By Archaeological Findings
Aug 15th, 2016
CommentaryYnet News
Categories: The Nation Of Israel

Arrowheads, coins, burnt houses and various testimonies all support the biblical and external accounts of the First and Second Temples' destruction.

For nearly two thousand years, Jews have mourned the destruction of the Temples. They have traditionally relied on the account of the First Temple's destruction as told in the Bible and the external accounts for the destruction of the Second Temple—but over the past decade, archaeological findings supporting the Jewish canon have been adding evidence.

Prof. Aren Maeir, an expert on the First-Temple period from Bar Ilan University's Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, "From a chronological historical standpoint, we're talking about the year 586 BCE, when Jerusalem was destroyed. There are accounts of the siege on Jerusalem. In the Jewish Quarter, there's a tower that's an Israelite fortification on which you can actually see the arrowheads that the Babylonians shot at the Kingdom of Judea and that soldiers of the Judean Kingdom fired back. There's a difference between the Babylonian arrow and the Judean arrow.

Remnants have also been found in excavations in the City of David, layers that date to the eve of the destruction. Throughout the Kingdom of Judea at the end of the Iron Age before the destruction of Jerusalem, we have evidence of more than a few other sites that have the layer from the destruction.

While the destruction of the First Temple is described in detail in the Bible, the destruction of its successor is not, and most of the information on it comes from the historian Josephus Flavius. The archaeological evidence uncovered also seems to support this information.

Prof. Boaz Zissu, the head of Bar Ilan University's Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology and an expert on the Second-Temple period, said, "The archaeological findings support, complete, expand what we learn from Josephus."

He continued, "In Jerusalem, when you dig in the area of the Jewish Quarter and remove the later layers, you'll reach the complete destruction. You'll find houses that sometimes burnt with their residents inside, or the remains of their residents. One of the more exciting finds was a cut-off arm, which was found nearby a spear.

"In a structure that was destroyed in a fire in 70 CE, we've found coins that the rebels minted themselves in Jerusalem with writing in Hebrew… At the foot of the Western Wall, a street was uncovered that had on it remnants of the destruction of the Temple.

"There is also lots of evidence in the Galilee. In Yodfat and in Gamla, evidence has been found of the siege, of the destruction, of the fighting. The findings here are unequivocal. If we go to fortresses in the desert, of which Masada is a very famous example, and ditto for Herodium, which also has the story of the Bar Kochba Revolt.

"Then Josephus speaks of a 1,100,000 deaths as a result of the Great Revolt. We learned of the result of the Bar Kochba Revolt from a Roman source, Cassius Dio. He gives as a number 580,000 Jews who were killed in battle alone. But doesn't count the civilian population at the end of the Bar Kochba Revolt, but he tells of 985 villages or towns and 50 fortresses. Archaeology teaches us that those numbers that Cassius Dio records are apparently trustworthy."

Clashes Erupt on Jerusalem?s Temple Mount As Thousands Gather to Mourn Destroyed Temples
Aug 15th, 2016
Daily NewsIsrael Breaking News
Categories: The Nation Of Israel

Illustrative: Palestinians throw stones towards Israeli police during clashes following Friday prayers at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound, on December 6, 2013. (Photo: Sliman

Clashes broke out at the Temple Mount compound on Sunday morning as Muslim rioted against Jews touring the area in commemoration of Tisha B’av, the Hebrew date on which both temples were destroyed, according to Jewish tradition. Earlier, thousands of Jewish mourners gathered throughout the night at the adjacent Western Wall plaza to cite lamentations.

Tisha B’av is a day of mourning on which observant Jews do not eat, drink, bathe, or wear leather clothing. The day, however, has also become politically sensitive. Many Israeli Arabs and Palestinians oppose the influx of Jews to the Old City in commemoration of the day, and clashes frequently erupt with Jewish worshipers and police forces.

In anticipation of these riots, the IDF and Border Police increased their presence throughout the Old City on Saturday night and Sunday. They were also deployed near other popular prayer sites, such as Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem. Security has been especially tight at Rachel’s Tomb recently ever since a pipe bomb was discovered and disarmed nearby on August 7.

Over 400 Jews entered the Temple Mount compound during the standard visitation hours, but some 40 others were barred from entering the site after Muslim rioters clashed with police forces and attempted to attack the visitors. Palestinian sources reported that 15 people were wounded in the clashes, and the police said they had detained a man for impeding policemen in duty.

A total of 19 Jews were removed from the site by police forces, and two more were arrested, for visibly mourning during the visit—crying, tearing their shirts, or reciting Jewish verses. Such behaviors are considered violations of visitation rules, which prohibit Jewish prayer at the contested holy site.

“The police will act in accordance with the status quo and will take decisive action against anyone attempting to disrupt the order,” said a statement by the Jerusalem District Police following the arrests.

Palestinian media and social media closely monitored the Jewish visits to the Temple Mount, presenting them as “invasions by settlers” and as “Israeli escalations against the Al-Aqsa Mosque.” They also reported that some Muslims were denied entry to the holy site, including Sheikh Hussam Abu Leil, the deputy of Raed Salah, leader of the outlawed Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement.

The Hamas terror organization warned on Twitter that “these crimes could blow up the whole situation if continued. We call on the masses to protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque and call on the international community to intervene to stop the aggression by the occupation and the settlers.”

The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism though Jewish access to the site is severely restricted. The site is also considered to be the third holiest to Muslims, who refer to it as Haram al-Sharif or as the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. According to Israel’s peace agreement with Jordan, the latter has a “special role” in administering the holy sites in Jerusalem. Jordan vocally opposes many Israeli actions in the Old City of Jerusalem, frequently decrying them as violations of the status quo.

A House for All Believers - to Open in Jerusalem
Aug 15th, 2016
Daily NewsIsrael Breaking News
Categories: One World Church

A new interfaith and spiritual gathering of Christians, Jews and Muslims will take place in Jerusalem this September.

“Amen-A House of Prayer For All Believers”, part of the 2016 Mekudeshet Festival from September 4-23, is an initiative created by the Jerusalem Season of Culture, an annual festival in Jerusalem, to bring together the world’s three major faiths “who share a belief in one God and a boundless love for Jerusalem to dialogue, study, sing and pray together in one temporary house of worship,” said a press release.

Artists, actors, musicians and media figures from around the world are expected to participate in the event

“We will study, argue – yes, this is also allowed – and pray – together and alone. We will see if it is possible, despite all the corporeal difficulties and earthly obstacles, to create a new reality,” said Mekudeshet Artistic Director Itay Mautner.

For a month, representatives from all three religions will offer a series of discussions at the Jerusalem Music Center, with options to pray three different times per day in Arabic, Hebrew and Coptic.

“It is nothing short of a miracle that between four walls, we will inaugurate a temporary home for the three religions that share Jerusalem and for all those who wish to dwell under the wings of the Almighty,” said Mautner.

A Flood of Evidence: Chronological Snobbery and Archaeology
Aug 15th, 2016
CommentaryBY ERIC METAXAS/BREAKPOINT.ORG
Categories: Exhortation

In his conversion story, "Surprised by Joy," C. S. Lewis explains how his close friend, Owen Barfield, demolished his "chronological snobbery." Lewis defined chronological snobbery as "the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate of our own age and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that count discredited."
In Lewis's time, much of academia was already convinced that every past generation formed a staircase of progress, leading (of course) to enlightened modernity. And since Lewis's death, many intellectuals have only become more convinced of their own perch at the pinnacle of history. These days, we barely even notice the snobbery.

But it's time to notice, especially in archaeology. An article last week in The New York Times describes new evidence for the Chinese great flood, an event which ancient records say coincided with the rise of China's first imperial dynasty. For many years, Western academics have considered this flood a myth--on par with Noah's Flood in Genesis which, unsurprisingly, they also dismiss as fiction.

But several new dig sites have unearthed inscriptions that refer to just such a flood along the Yellow River, almost 4,000 years ago. And a team of geologists led by Qinglog Wu of Peking University in Beijing says they've found evidence in the rocks of a natural dam that trapped several cubic miles of water. When the dam collapsed, it sent a deluge downriver large enough to wipe out a civilization--just as the Chinese legends suggest.

Western experts were less than enthused at the news. The Times quotes several prominent archaeologists who scoff at the discoveries as attempts to read too much into Chinese myths. Dr. Paul Goldin of the University of Pennsylvania derides what he sees as a "fixation" among Chinese archaeologists with "[proving] that all the ancient texts and legends have some fundamental truth...It shouldn't be every archaeologist's first instinct," he says, "to see if their findings are matched in the historical sources."

Come again? Shouldn't archaeologists want to know if what they're digging up has significance in known history? Sadly for many in the West, the answer is a resounding "not really." This dismissal of ancient writings--including the Bible--is rooted in chronological snobbery. The ancients, experts today assume, were just too dumb or superstitious to get their own histories right.

This attitude has not only blinded us to potential discoveries, it's made it very embarrassing for archaeologists when the ancients do turn out to be correct. I think, for example, of the recent discovery of Goliath's hometown, Gath. Or what about the unearthing of evidence for the biblical King Hezekiah, the likely discovery of the palace where Pilate tried Jesus, or the compelling evidence that "the house of David," contrary to decades of secular scholarship, was founded by a real, historical man after God's own heart?

All of these discoveries came as shocks to archaeologists and historians who doubted that such figures, places, or people ever existed. But a gain and again, our belief that the ancients were better at making myths than they were at recording history has handicapped archaeology, and left a lot of smart folks scraping egg off their faces.

Now, I'm not suggesting every legend is a history textbook, or even that Scripture renders archaeology superfluous. What I'm suggesting is that we set aside our chronological snobbery and stop dismissing the ancients out-of-hand.

They were not dummies. And we who dig up the remains of their civilizations aren't always as clever as we like to believe.

74 Percent of World's Population Live in Religious Freedom Violating Country, New Report Finds Read
Aug 15th, 2016
Daily NewsCP Politics
Categories: Persecution

Religious freedom violation around the world is growing, with nearly 1 in 4 countries having laws directly attacking this freedom, according to a new State Department report released Tuesday.

David Saperstein, U.S. Ambassdor-at-Large for Religious Freedom, said Tuesday at a special briefing releasing the 2015 Annual Report on International Freedom in Washington, D.C. that 24 percent of nations —where 74 percent of the world's population live — have blasphemy laws or other harsh statutes on the books against religious freedom.

The Christian Post asked the Hudson Institute's Nina Shea, who has been an international human rights lawyer for over 30 years, what is driving this heightened regulatory approach to religious faith.

"There are two big factors," Shea said in a telephone interview Friday. "One is China. They are using more regulatory state to repress religious freedom instead of outright torture and long-term gulag tactics, to be seen as more acceptable in the global market place."

"Another factor is political Islam," she added, "and you have a moving away from more secular systems to religious systems, so that's very dangerous for freedom and for religious freedom, that you can't dissent within your own religion."

At the briefing releasing the report, Saperstein said that "more than one in 10 have laws or policies penalizing apostasy, and the existence of these laws has been used by governments in too many cases to intimidate [and] repress religious minorities, and governments have too often failed to take appropriate steps to prevent societal violence sparked by accusations of blasphemy and apostasy,"

"No one region, country or religion is immune to the pernicious effects of such legislation," he continued, noting that "in countries where religious minorities have long contributed to their national societies in relative comity for decades, centuries, even millennia, we continue to witness violent upheavals, some of historic proportions, in which entire communities are in danger of being driven out of their homelands based solely on their religious or ethnic identities."

Also noted in the report was the research of Roger Finke and Dane Mataic from Penn State University, who found that in the past 20 years countries that require some kind of religious registration has risen significantly.

"The percentage of countries that required submission of religious doctrine for approval prior to registration increased from 13 to 18 percent" the researchers found, and "the percentage of countries that required a minimum number of religious community members increased from 17 to 32 percent, and that the percentage of countries that sometimes denied registration increased from 22 to 27 percent."

In addition to the concerns about these governmental policies, the report further describes the role of non-state actors like terrorist groups ISIS and Boko Haram, calling them among "the most egregious abusers of religious freedom in the world." Also highlighted are the actions against Sunni Muslims and other minority sects in Iran, the persecution of Christians in China, anti-Semitic activity in Europe, and the complete nonexistence of religious freedom in North Korea.