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| Visit our Web site: www.bridgesforpeace.com | January 7, 2011 |
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1. Gaza Rockets, Mortar Attacks Continue in 2011
2. Abbas Lays Cornerstone of Palestinian Embassy in Brazil
3. Hamas Plan: Missile at Soccer Match
4. Israel's Labor Party Grows Restless as Peace Process Unravels
5. Arab Kids in Jerusalem Taught to Sing: "May Our Blood Be Shed"
6. Netanyahu Off to Egypt to Meet Mubarak
7. Al-Hayat Anti-Judaism Slur Slammed
8. Hebrew University Ranks among Top Universities
9. An ER for Kisumu, Kenya, Courtesy of Israel
1. Gaza Rockets, Mortar Attacks Continue in 2011
Violence involving the Gaza Strip has continued - and at a disturbing pace - in the new year, with more than 10 projectiles being fired at Israel in the first week of 2011, according to a news report on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Web site.
The peak in attacks came on Wednesday [January 5], when seven mortar shells were launched into the Eshkol Regional Council. According to the IDF Twitter page, on Tuesday, the day before the mortar barrage, one Kassam rocket hit and damaged a greenhouse in Israel. The Israel Air Force (IAF) has also responded to the attacks by targeting terror-related sites.
Following the Wednesday barrage and another rocket attack on Thursday, the IAF hit a Gaza terror activity center and a Hamas tunnel intended for infiltrating Israel. Earlier in the month, Israel registered direct hits on a Hamas terror activity center and a weapons manufacturing facility following the attack on January 1, and targeted a Hamas terror activity center and a smuggling tunnel on Tuesday.
While 2011 has just started, the pace of Gaza attacks against Israel - at least 11 the first week - is well ahead of last year's per week average. The IDF said that in 2010, more than 235 Grad missiles, Kassam rockets, and mortar shells were fired from Gaza into Israel, for an average of around five per week.
Said the IDF, "The IDF holds the Hamas terrorist organization solely responsible for maintaining the calm in the Gaza Strip and for any terrorist activity emanating from it."
(By Joshua Spurlock, BFP Israel Mosaic Radio, January 6, 2011)
Prayer Focus
Pray that the Lord will intervene and bring an end to these appalling, on-going attacks on the nation of Israel. Pray that any rockets fired will do no damage whatsoever, including emotional damage to the people of the region.
Scripture
"'No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me.' says the Lord" (Isaiah 54:17).
2. Abbas Lays Cornerstone of Palestinian Embassy in Brazil
Underscoring the growing momentum for international recognition of a Palestinian state, Palestinian Authority [PA] head Mahmoud Abbas on Friday [December 31] laid the cornerstone for what will be the Palestinian embassy in Brasilia. Since Brazil announced its recognition, Ecuador, Argentina and Bolivia have followed suit, and Uruguay said it will do so early this year.
The land upon which the embassy will be built was donated by the Brazilian government. The United States has criticized the spate of recognitions of the Palestinian state, calling it "premature" and arguing that it impedes progress in peace talks with Israel.
The Palestinians have been moving away from the US-brokered peace process by soliciting international support for statehood and shifting the process toward the United Nations. A Security Council resolution condemning Israeli building on land the Palestinians claim is set to be introduced, and many believe the Palestinians will turn to the General Assembly for a resolution on statehood.
(Excerpts of an article by The Media Line, January 2, 2011)
Prayer Focus
Pray against the destructive effects these unilateral moves may have on Israel's future. Pray that declaration of statehood will be determined by face-to-face negotiation and no other way.
Scripture
"And he said: 'The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; the God of my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge; my Savior, You save me from violence'" (2 Samuel 22:2-3).
3. Hamas Plan: Missile at Soccer Match
Two Hamas members from East Jerusalem were indicted Sunday [January 2] on suspicion of planning to fire a missile at Jerusalem's Teddy Stadium during an Israeli premier league soccer match. Their remand was extended by two weeks. According to a Shin Bet [Israel internal security] investigation, the two men - Moussa Hamada of Sur Baher and Bassam Omri of Beit Safafa - began planning the terrorist activity after the Israeli operation in Gaza.
One of their plans was to fire a missile at the stadium during a soccer match. The two visited a hill overlooking the stadium in order to locate the best place for the attack and collected information on the area. However, their plan did not materialize into action.
The investigation revealed that the two - who were also active in the Muslim Brotherhood movement - purchased a number of guns and attempted to buy rifles and explosive devices. Moussa's cousins, Mahmoud and Amer Hamada, were involved in the weapons' purchase and in attempts to hide them. The guns were bought from Balal Bahtan, who lives in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina. All the suspects were arrested, questioned and confessed to their involvement in purchasing the weapons.
Moussa Hamada visited Saudi Arabia several times in the past two years for meetings with a Muslim Brotherhood representative. During one of the meetings, the Saudi gave him money to purchase the weapons in return for collecting information on places in Jerusalem.
The investigation also uncovered extensive Hamas activity in Jerusalem in general, and on the Temple Mount in particular, including maintenance activities on the Mount and bringing groups of students and other visitors to the al-Aqsa Mosque - all subsidized by Hamas.
The indictments, filed with the Jerusalem District Court, accuse Moussa Hamada and Bassam Omri of being members and supporters of a terrorist organization, committing weapon offenses, and conspiring to commit a crime. The other suspects, who aided the two men, were indicted for arms dealing and other offenses.
(By Ynet reporters, Aviad Glickman, Hanan Greenberg and Yair Altman contributed, Ynetnews, January 2, 2010)
Prayer Focus
Praise the Lord that this plot, which could have resulted in tremendous loss of life, was discovered before it could be implemented. Pray that the Lord will continue to give supernatural wisdom and direction to Israel's security forces and protection to His people.
Scripture
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me" (Psalm 23:4).
4. Israel's Labor Party Grows Restless as Peace Process Unravels
Bitter and embarrassed over its failure to push Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu into peace talks with the Palestinians, Israel's Labor Party is edging closer to leaving the coalition - a step that may mark the beginning of the end for the government, analysts say.
After a stormy meeting of the party's lawmakers Monday [January 3], a reluctant Ehud Barak, Labor's chairman and Israel's defense minister, succumbed to pressure from party leaders and agreed to a party conference that will likely issue an ultimatum to the prime minister to restart Palestinian talks or Labor will bolt. Netanyahu's government has 74 seats in Israel's 120-member parliament, which has assured him a comfortable majority since his government was hammered together in 2009.
Labor's exit with its 13 seats would cut his majority to a razor thin 61, making Netanyahu vulnerable to rebel lawmakers and demands from his other coalition partners. "He will have a very serious problem. With 61, it's very difficult to govern, especially when you have rebels," Dan Schueftan, deputy director of the National Security Studies Center at the University of Haifa, told The Media Line. "The alternative is to go for Kadima [the largest opposition party], but they won't accept the existing government."
Kadima has supplanted Labor as Israel's leading left-of-center party and the standard bearer of Israeli doves. In 2009's elections, Kadima emerged as Israel's biggest party, but Netanyahu succeeded in cobbling together a coalition with Labor and an array of parties to his political right and ultra-Orthodox.
Barak took a leading role in trying to restart peace talks, but the effort unraveled after the U.S. failed last month to convince Israel to extend a settlement freeze, [which] the Palestinians insisted had to be a precondition for talks to resume. Barak himself was personally embarrassed by a report in the Ha'aretz daily citing unnamed U.S. officials as blaming the defense minister for misleading them.
"In light of the news, which is especially worrying because it means the U.S. no longer has faith in Ehud Barak, that he tricked all of us … We must resign immediately," Daniel Ben-Simon, a Labor lawmaker, told Non-Stop Radio in an interview Sunday [January 2].
Barak, who is leading an increasingly isolated campaign to keep Labor in the government, said the party conference would take place in another three months, but other party leaders weren't backing down from their calls for the conference to take place much sooner.
Labor's leaving wouldn't necessarily present an immediate threat to the Netanyahu government. The far-right, opposition National Union Party offered two weeks ago to support the government from outside the coalition and abstained from a critical budget vote last month that it would normally have opposed.
But Labor's exit would create headaches for Netanyahu. His government has been driven by disputes over conversion and other religious-status issues between the ultra-Orthodox Shas party and Yisrael Beiteinu, whose voters are principally secular immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The government may also come under pressure from a new U.S. effort to revive the peace process.
(Excerpts of an article by David Rosenberg & Benjamin Peim, The Media Line, January 4, 2011)
Prayer Focus
Pray for stability in the Israeli government. Pray that Prime Minister Netanyahu will be able to hold his coalition together toward that end. Pray that the Lord will strengthen those that are His leaders for this time.
Scripture
"For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly" (Proverbs 2:6-7).
5. Arab Kids in Jerusalem Taught to Sing: "May Our Blood Be Shed"
A Hamas terrorist arrested last month for planning to shoot a missile at a sports stadium in Jerusalem was a resident of the Sur Baher neighborhood in East Jerusalem. A glimpse of the world of education in Sur Baher in East Jerusalem was recently made available by Hamas TV.
A broadcast showed how the Jerusalem children in the Islamic Riyad (Gardens of) Al-Aqsa School were taught to sing about desiring death: "May our blood be shed." They also sang the following in front of the cameras: "How strong is the army of Al-Aqsa [Temple Mount mosque]. I am a soldier, defending its protected area. How precious is the land of Al-Aqsa. I shall give up my life for its sake."
This footage of young children singing and being taught these lines in the Islamic Riyad Al-Aqsa School in Sur Baher appeared in a documentary program entitled "The Shahids' [Martyrs'] Wedding" on Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV.
In the past, Palestinian Authority [PA] TV has also shown children in PA schools reciting poems glorifying Martyrdom death, for example including the words: "I have let my land drink my blood, I love the way of Martyrdom." [PA TV (Fatah), Nov. 14, 2008]
PMW [Palestinian Media Watch] has documented the promotion of shahada (martyrdom) to children and adults by both Fatah and Hamas. The following is the transcript of the words of the songs Arab children were taught in Sur Baher in East Jerusalem: "How beautiful are the gardens of Al-Aqsa. I am a bud atop its hills."
Footage of children doing "V" signs while others try to hide their faces as they hold up stones and a rifle bullet.
"How strong is the army of Al-Aqsa.
I am a soldier, defending its protected area.
How precious is the land of Al-Aqsa.
I shall give up my life for its sake."
Young children in classroom sing: "In the way of Allah we proceed aspiring to raise the flag. May the glory of the religion (Islam) return, and may our blood be shed." [Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas), Dec. 10, 2010]
(By Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, Palestinian Media Watch, January 4, 2011)
Prayer Focus
Pray against this evil abuse of children on the part of those who should have their best interests at heart. Pray that the Lord will move to bring the truth to these children and reformation to the Palestinian educational system.
Scripture
"You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man" (Psalm 5:6).
6. Netanyahu Off to Egypt to Meet Mubarak
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is to travel to Egypt on Thursday [January 6] to meet with President Husni Mubarak, ostensibly to seek ways to revive the stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Mubarak earlier this week blamed Israel for the failure to get the peace process moving and called on the international community to pressure it.
However, concerns shared by the two countries about Iran are likely to surface in the Netanyahu/ Mubarak summit. Earlier this week, Netanyahu sent his national security adviser, Uzi Arad, to coordinate with Egyptian Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman about Iran.
Mark Regev, Netanyahu's spokesman, said the visit would be in Sharm el-Sheikh resort. "We are always eager to engage with the Egyptians and Mubarak on how best to move forward and to make sure that those who believe in peace and reconciliation have the upper hand over those who are causing problems," Regev told The Media Line.
(By The Media Line, January 5. 2011)
Prayer Focus
Pray that the Lord will reinforce the relationship Israel has with Egypt, strengthening ties based on shared concerns.
Scripture
"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye" (Psalm 32:8).
7. Al-Hayat Anti-Judaism Slur Slammed
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is denouncing a respected Arab writer for alleging in a column in the London-based al-Hayat newspaper that Jews "invented a religion to steal a land from its owners" and urging readers to learn to differentiate between the true prophets of the Koran [Islam's sacred book] and the false ones in the Jewish Torah [Gen.-Malachi].
"We now have to deal with a new theological front in the war against Israel, one that denigrates the ancient religion of Judaism," charged Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish human rights NGO. "Apparently, the 3,000 year-old Torah is no longer to be respected in the eyes of Israel-haters, despite the fact that its writings inspired both Christianity and Islam."
Jihad al-Khazen alleged in al-Hayat that "any history student in any major Western university will learn that Jewish history is only an amalgamation of biblical myths about prophets, kings, and kingdoms that never existed."
"Al-Khazen's remarks are reminiscent of Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan's infamous labeling of Judaism as a 'gutter religion,'" said Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, director of interfaith affairs for the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
"In Farrakhan's case, everyone understood it to be unvarnished hatred of Jews. Al-Khazen, on the other hand, asserts that archaeology supports his claims, apparently blissfully unaware of how unfounded his approach is," he added.
The Wiesenthal Center official invited al-Khazen to visit historical sites in the Holy Land with them. "He will find the archaeological connections between the Jewish people and the Land overwhelming and undeniable. A good place to start will be by sifting through the truckloads of earth removed illegally by the Waqf [Islamic manager] from the Temple Mount and then dumped. It has yielded priceless treasures dating back to the time of the First Temple Jewish prophet Jeremiah," Rabbi Adlerstein concluded.
(By Ynetnews, Ynetnews, January 1, 2011)
Prayer Focus
Pray against this new level of anti-Semitism in the form of outrageous denigration of Judaism. Pray that the message will fall on deaf ears.
Scripture
"'And like their bow they have bent their tongues for lies. They are not valiant for the truth on the earth. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know Me,' says the Lord" (Jeremiah 9:3).
8. Hebrew University Ranks among Top Universities
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has been ranked ahead of such prestigious universities as Yale and Cambridge in the subject of computer science, according to a press release from the university. The recently published rankings from the Academic Ranking of World Universities issued by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China placed Hebrew University at 21st in the world in computer science.
Hebrew University also placed in 44th place in economics and business, besting Georgetown University in the US and the London Business School. The Israeli university was ranked 46th in social sciences and in the top 75 in the field of mathematics and natural sciences.
Dean of the School of Business Administration Professor Dan Galai said in the press release that "this is an impressive achievement which, among other things, results from our efforts in the last few years to recruit for the school a leading and dynamic young group of excellent staff in the areas of both research and teaching."
The rankings are put together by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which considers more than 2,000 universities from around the world, ranking the top 500. Among the criteria considered for the rankings, include awards won by a school's alumni and staff and the number of well-recognized researchers.
(By Joshua Spurlock, BFP Israel Mosaic Radio, January 3, 2011)
Prayer Focus
Praise the Lord for this recognition of Israel's high standard of education! Pray for the continued success of Hebrew University and others that are preparing Israel's next generation of leaders.
Scripture
"For the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His special treasure" (Psalm 135:4).
9. An ER for Kisumu, Kenya, Courtesy of Israel
US President Barack Obama's father was born in a village that lies about 25 miles [40 kilometers] from Kenya's third-largest city, Kisumu. MASHAV, Israel's Agency for International Development, was helping to improve life there even before the president was born.
"Kisumu is our number-one partner city in the world," states MASHAV director Haim Divon, who recently returned from the inauguration of an Israeli-built Emergency Room (ER) at Kisumu East District Hospital. This state-of-the-art facility, put together in less than a month by a team of Israeli engineers and medical specialists, is the hospital's first fully-equipped ER. It will be a center for both regional emergency treatment and professional training.
"There is no other such facility in a region of 6 million people," Divon tells ISRAEL21c, noting that he has traveled to the East African republic many times on behalf of MASHAV. The agency invested about a quarter of a million dollars in the project and is committed to provide ongoing support and capacity building.
Israel and Kenya have enjoyed close ties since the 1950s, when a fledgling MASHAV set up ophthalmology "camps" there to treat patients with eye diseases. "We have a special sentiment for Kenya because it was one of the first countries we established diplomatic relations with," he recalls. The East African country of 40 million has a sizeable Jewish community and is also a popular tourist destination for Israelis.
"We are always asking ourselves where we can be relevant and effective, given our modest budget," Divon continues, "Where do we have the expertise in areas relevant to the challenges they face?"
When Israel Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman visited last year, he learned of the need to upgrade services at the district hospital. He asked MASHAV's medical adviser, Dr. Yossi Baratz, who served as the agency's representative in Kenya from 2003 to 2006, to study the situation. Baratz decided to begin with an ER and emergency medical training.
Divon says that MASHAV may next help to train emergency medical responders at the request of the Kenyan minister of health, who was impressed with Israel's Magen David Adom nationwide emergency response organization during a recent visit. "In Kenya, they don't have adequate medical knowledge or facilities to treat victims on the scene, so ambulances are mainly just for transport. In our system, the ambulance squad is already administering emergency care and this is a concept they want to adopt," Divon elaborates.
MASHAV's efforts in Kenya are focused mainly on food security, health, education and empowerment of women. Divon says these programs earn Israel great respect and appreciation from the Kenyan people and elected officials. The planning model could later be introduced to other cities along picturesque Lake Victoria, he adds, not only in Kenya but also in neighboring Uganda and Tanzania.
(Excerpts of an article by Abigail Klein Leichman, Israel21c, January 2, 2011)
Prayer Focus
Praise God that Israel continues to be a blessing to the nations of the earth!
Scripture
"I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:3).
Note: All Scripture is taken from the New King James Version, unless otherwise noted.
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