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1. Netanyahu to UK: Jerusalem is Sovereign Capital of Israel
by Hana Levi Julian
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told British officials Tuesday in London that Israel would not stop building in any area of its capital city. Netanyahu was in the British capital to meet with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
At the front entrance to Number 10 Downing Street, where the meeting took place, hundreds of protesters yelled epithets such as "Netanyahu's a war criminal." Others shouted "Free Palestine" and waved signs proclaiming "Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine," "Judea and Samaria are Palestinian territory" and "Let the Palestinians live."
Prime Minister Netanyahu, accompanied by Israeli Ambassador to London Ron Prosor, entered the building through the back entrance, where they were met by Prime Minister Brown. All three were flanked by security details.
Following the meeting, the two prime ministers held a joint news conference at which their differences were made clear. Despite Brown's insistence that the UK is a loyal friend to the Jewish State and supports the Israel-PA "peace process" the British prime minister underscored the UK demand that Israel halt construction in Judea, Samaria and parts of Jerusalem restored in 1967.
Prime Minister Netanyahu's response made it equally clear that he was having none of it.
"Jerusalem is not a settlement. It is the sovereign capital of the State of Israel, and Israel will not accept limits on its sovereignty there," he told reporters bluntly. "We have been building in Jerusalem for 3,000 years."
Moreover, growing Jewish families in the existing communities of Judea and Samaria need schools for their children and homes to live in, he added. "This is different from grabbing land," he emphasized, and said he hoped to find a "bridging formula" that would enable Jews living in the regions to live a "normal life."
Israel has already removed more than 140 security checkpoints and roadblocks, Netanyahu pointed out, adding that it is now time for the Palestinian Authority to exhibit "courageous leadership" and recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland.
He also discussed his disappointment with the inflammatory rhetoric that came out of the recent Sixth Annual Fatah General Assembly held in Bethlehem, at which PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas was elected to another five-year term as the faction's leader. Fatah, he said, should have adopted a straightforward stance that it is willing and ready for an end to the conflict with Israel and all claims.
Noting that he had come forward and expressed his support for a PA state, Netanyahu said the PA leadership should reciprocate. "We need a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes Israel," he said. "Recognition is the pillar of peace."
Fatah Convention: Incitement, No Peace
The convention, held earlier this month, appeared to be anything but a gathering of PA activists seeking peace, despite the generous financial support of the U.S. government, which gave Fatah $50 million to cover conference expenses, according to a report in the Syrian daily Al-Watan that was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). The paper said that the financial support was an attempt to strengthening Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. However, said the paper, the U.S. rejected Abbas' request for permission to fire Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
Convicted murderer Marwan Barghouti was elected to the faction's Central Committee. Also elected, according to the preliminary results, were Jibril Rajoub and Mohammed Dahlan. Not making the list was former PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, who had also served as head negotiator between the PA and Israel.
Delegates to the convention applauded loudly at the mention by Qureia of two terrorists who committed the worst terror attack in Israel's history.
In their final meetings, the delegates approved a resolution stating that Jerusalem is an "integral part of the Palestinian homeland and political entity." The holiest city in Judaism is "awaiting our sacrifices," stated the resolution, which Fatah committed itself to carry out "until Jerusalem returns to the Palestinians void of settlers and settlements."
Time Running Out on Iran
Netanyahu also told reporters that although Iran is not yet capable of completing construction of a nuclear weapon, the window of opportunity within which to stop the Islamic Republic from doing so is growing smaller.
The prime minister said that, "Time is running out, it is late in the day, but it is not too late."
His British counterpart said, "If there is no further progress immediately [on talks to suspend Iran's nuclear development activitie, then I believe the world will have to look at stepping up sanctions against Iran as a matter of priority."
2. PA Police Operate in Jerusalem
by Hillel Fendel
PA police directed traffic in northern Jerusalem neighborhoods three times this past month – in violation of Israeli law and the Oslo Accords. A World Net Daily (WND) report documents other violations of Jerusalem’s sovereignty by the Palestinian Authority, indicating to some that the division of Jerusalem has already begun.
WND’s Aaron Klein reports that at least three witnesses said they saw PA police directing traffic during one or more of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s visits to Beit Hanina this month. Beit Hanina is a neighborhood in northern Jerusalem, under exclusive Israeli sovereignty, populated almost totally by Arabs. On each of his visits, Abbas’s convoy passed through neighboring French Hill, an almost entirely Jewish neighborhood.
One man driving through French Hill last week while Abbas' convoy passed told WND he was stopped by uniformed PA police, who asked him to wait until the motorcade passed. Two others said they witnessed uniformed PA police direct traffic in Beit Hanina earlier this month during Abbas' two previous visits there.
Israeli law and the Oslo Accords state that the PA is not allowed to operate in Jerusalem....
To read the rest of this important story, click here!
3. IDF Foils Terrorist Attack in Hevron
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Soldiers shot and seriously wounded an Arab terrorist who tried to stab a soldier in Hevron shortly before noon Wednesday. The terrorist’s target was not wounded. IDF medics treated the terrorist, who was rushed to Shaarei Tzedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.
The clash occurred at “Soldier’s Square” near the Jewish community in the city, where Arabs frequently are caught at the Patriarchs’s Cave with knives.
Wednesday’s attempted murder of an IDF soldier came at the same time Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was meeting for talks with U.S. Middle East special envoy George Mitchell in London. The Obama administration is demanding that Israel stop building for Jews in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria while stating that the Palestinian Authority must stop incitement and violence.
The PA, as a rule, does not denounce terrorist attacks, and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas did not comment on Wednesday’s attempted murder.
Israel has complained that the PA is not meeting its commitment to halt incitement, and has noted that the PA education system continues to teach that all of Israel, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, is Arab Palestine.
4. Peres: Kennedy Studied Israel's Health Insurance
by Hana Levi Julian
U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, who died late Tuesday of brain cancer at the age of 77, was one of the first American legislators to study Israel's health care system, President Shimon Peres noted Wednesday in a statement of condolenc.
He called Ted Kennedy a "great American leader who was also a great friend of the State of Israel."
Peres recalled the 1986 visit to the Jewish State by the Massachusetts senator, which he said had been specifically aimed at learning about Israel's health care system. It "was basically for the first time to study the health insurance system in Israel because he saw already at that time that the health issues are going to be central ones for the American people," said Peres.
Kennedy, who called health care reform "the cause of my life," once said "the achievements of yesterday are the problems of today, namely that we have to achieve things anew and not just be satisfied with the past," Peres said.
The issue did indeed become Kennedy's signature cause and also continued to dog American administrations throughout the senator's career. Health care reform is a major centerpiece of the current Obama White House as well.
The Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which was headed by Kennedy, passed new health care legislation last month. The bill is now being debated in Congress.
'Family Knew Great Tragedies'
Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy served as a federal Democratic lawmaker for 46 years. Two of his younger brothers, one a U.S. president and the other also a U.S. senator, were both shot to death by assassins while serving in office.
President John F. Kennedy was killed in 1963 during a motorcade in Texas by 24-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine. The assassin was himself killed within hours by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby as he was being transferred from police headquarters to the county jail, leading to decades of speculation by conspiracy theorists.
U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy was killed in 1968 while celebrating his successful primary election campaign in California for the Democratic U.S. presidential nomination. The assassin was a 24-year-old Palestinian Arab immigrant named Sirhan Sirhan, who remains incarcerated in a U.S. prison to this day.
Ted Kennedy came from a family "that knew great tragedies," Peres noted, "but also has shown greatness in many ways. We listened to him as a world leader because he was great on all issues of our time and our generation. It is a real loss to the American people it is also a painful loss for us," he said.
5. Synagogues Flourish in Secular Kibbutzim
by Hillel Fendel
A few years ago, a member of Kibbutz Deganiah predicted, “There has been no synagogue here in 100 years, and there won’t be one in the next 100 years.” She was wrong.
Not only is there a synagogue in Deganiah, founded in 1910 as Israel's first Kibbutz ever, but similar houses of worship (popularly known as “shuls”) are open and active in other secular kibbutzim in the north such as Ein Harod and Maoz Chaim, as well as in other secular communities in the region such as Tomrat.
Another example of a long shul-less kibbutz is Givat HaShloshah, founded by a long-time member who suddenly realized that she wanted to commemorate her one “Jewish” day of the year – Yom Kippur – at home. The woman waged a one-person campaign to gather together a Torah scroll, prayer books, a building – and now, a scant few years later, some 15-20 people take part in weekly Sabbath prayers.
Just ten weeks ago, at a joyous Torah scroll installation ceremony in the famously-secular Kibbutz Ein Harod, the son of one of the more active shul “members” came and asked him, “What do you need a synagogue for, anyway?” The father answered, “We went far away – too far.” The reference was to the escape from Torah Judaism by many of the early Zionist pioneers – a vacuum that is now once again being filled with spirituality.
The above story is told by Rabbi Shlomo Raanan, head of the Ayelet HaShachar (Morning Star) association that - among its many other activities - accompanies secular communities that wish to build a synagogue or otherwise enhance their connection to Judaism. Two years ago, for instance, more than 500 northern farmers took part in a “telephone chavruta (study partner)” program organized by Ayelet HaShachar on matters concerning the Shemittah year.
Though many kibbutzim were predicated on the idea that no synagogue would ever be built there, “today there are those who feel that there is a communal need for a synagogue,” Raanan told B’Sheva’s Ofrah Lax.
"First Time I Have Felt Jewish"
The founding of the synagogue in Kibbutz Maoz Chaim, a bastion of secularity since its founding in 1937 just east of Beit She’an, did not happen without some rancor. Only after two votes of the entire membership was a building approved for designation as a synagogue – and even then, only by the narrow margin of two votes. Friday night services are held regularly, and the members hope to expand to Sabbath morning services as well.
The shul’s founder told this story: “One long-time resident, a 78-year-old who immigrated from Argentina 40 years ago, told me after his first visit to the synagogue, ‘I’ve been in Israel all these years, and this was the first time I felt Jewish. I plan to come every week, and I want you to teach me the prayers.’ I told him that the whole thing was worth it just for that.”
"Just today," Rabbi Raanan told Israel National News on Tuesday, "an eye surgeon asked us for help in starting a synagogue in Barkan, near Ariel. And we are already at work on Yom Kippur prayers in kibbutzim such as HaHotrim, Hof HaCarmel, and others that have never had synagogues."
The small synagogue in Mei Ami – near Umm el Fahm, just south of the Galilee – was founded by the grandson of early Kibbutz movement leader Yitzchak Tabenkin, in honor of his son’s Bar Mitzvah. Its success has been modest, however; only three people pray there regularly. "But we have a minyan [required prayer quorum of ten me on Yom Kipppur…," Yoav says.
Another story told by Raanan: “A few years ago, I was in Deganiah [Israel’s first kibbut, and I asked where the synagogue was. The secretary told me, ‘For 100 years we haven’t had one, and we won't have one in the next 100 years either.’ Two years ago, I was again in Deganiah, on Simchat Torah [the holiday commemorating the joy of Tora, and I pointed to the newly-opened synagogue and said, ‘This is our true Torah joy.’”
“The name of the game,” says Raanan, in between organizing Torah classes and other programs for those who have never enjoyed them before, “is patience and tolerance. Each place according to its own pace and requests.”
6. Unprecedented Miniature Carving of Alexander the Great Found
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
Excavations in Tel Dor have turned up a rare and unexpected work of Hellenistic art: a precious stone bearing the miniature carved likeness of Alexander the Great. Archaeologists are calling it an important find, indicating the great skill of the artist.
The Tel Dor dig, under the guidance and direction of Dr. Ayelet Gilboa of Haifa University and Dr. Ilan Sharon of Jerusalem's Hebrew University, has just ended its summer excavation season. For more than 30 years, scientists have been excavating in Tel Dor, identified as the site of the Biblical town of Dor. The town's location, on Israel's Mediterranean Sea coast some 30 kilometers south of Haifa, made it an important international port in ancient times.
"Despite the tiny proportions - the length of the gemstone (gemma) is less than a centimeter and its width less than half a centimeter - the artist was able to carve the image of Alexander of Macedon with all of his features," Dr. Gilboa said. "The king appears as young and energetic, with a sharp chin and straight nose, and with long, curly hair held in a crown."
According to the archaeologists involved in the Tel Dor excavations, the discovery of the miniature Alexander gemstone carving in Israel is fairly surprising. The Land of Israel was not, for the Greek Empire, a central or major holding.
"It has been accepted to assume that first-rate artists - and whoever carved the image of Alexander in this gemstone was certainly one of them - were primarily active under the patronage of the large royal courts in Greece itself or in major capitals," the scientists explained. "It turns out that local elites in secondary centers such as Dor could allow themselves - and knew to appreciate - superior artwork."
Additionally, the new find is important for the study of the historical Alexander the Great. The gemstone was found in the remains of a large public building from the Hellenistic period in the southern area of the tel. Unlike most of the portraits of Alexander in museums throughout the world, with unknown origins, the Tel Dor carving was found and classified within its archaeological context. The face was definitively identified as that of Alexander the Great by Dr. Jessica Nitschke of Georgetown University and Professor Andrew Stewart of UC Berkeley.
Historically, Alexander himself passed through Dor in 332 BCE, during his voyage to Egypt. It appears that the city fell to him without resistance. Since that time until its conquest by the Hasmonean Jewish King Alexander Yannai around 100 BCE, Dor served as a stronghold of non-Jewish Hellenists in the Land of Israel.
7. Temple Mount Show: What Exactly is the Day of Judgement?
by IsraelNationalTV Staff
Broadcasting live overlooking the Temple Mount, Rabbi Tovia Singer & Jeremy Gimpel answer your questions on Israel and Judaism. Today's question: What exactly is the Day of Judgement?
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Email readers, please click here to view the show!
The Singer & Gimpel Show is broadcast live Thursday 11PM Israel 4PM EST on www.IsraelNationalRadio.com. Call in with your questions at 1-800-270-4288.
