6. Melanie Phillips n 5 January 2023. The attacks on Ben-Gvir’s Temple Mount excursion defy reason. Those scratching their heads over the way Western liberals have lost all connection with reason over issues of race, gender and Western ‘colonialism’ might usefully look at the reaction to Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount this week. Here was a Jew walking for 15 minutes on the site that is most sacred to Judaism. He did it without fanfare or media attention, early in the morning when the compound was almost empty and didn’t pray there or say anything to stir up trouble. Yet his visit provoked uproar with claims that it was an extremist act, that it was likely to spark a new terrorist war and even—this from a Ha’aretz columnist—that Ben- Gvir was leading Israel ‘on the road to hell.’ In any sane universe, this is simply unhinged. Ben-Gvir was fully entitled to be there. He did nothing out of the ordinary. Other Israeli Jews, including government ministers, regularly visit the site. The people actually responsible for inciting violence over the Temple Mount are the Palestinian Arabs. Since the 1920s, they have been provoking fanatical religious hysteria and the murder of Israelis with the wickedly false claim that the Jews were either storming or planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Similar claims were made in 2022 when Palestinian Arabs turned Al-Aqsa into an ammunition store from where they hurled rocks down at Jews praying at the Western Wall and attacked Jews making their way there. The reason is that, as the site of the Jewish Temple that was the focus of Jewish religious life in ancient Israel until it was destroyed in 70 AD, the Temple Mount stands at the very centre of the Jews’ unique entitlement to Jerusalem and the land. That’s why the Palestinians have tried to destroy the archaeological evidence that has been dug up at the site over the years. They attempt to wipe the Jews out of their own history in the land—centuries before the first Arabs or Muslims invaded it—in order to support the laughably bogus claim that the Palestinian Arabs were its indigenous people. Yet this use of the Temple Mount for incitement, violence and religious supersessionism draws no condemnation from the Western left. They do not acknowledge that this aggression, which strikes against Judaism itself, is the real cause of the Middle East conflict. Instead, the Biden administration condemned the Ben- Gvir excursion as an “unacceptable” and “unilateral” action that “undercut the historical status quo.” Not only was this untrue, but the status quo, which Israel has upheld, is itself unacceptable. The status quo prevents Jews and Christians from praying at their own holy site; it restricts non-Muslims to entry through only one of 12 gates while Muslims can use all the gates; it forbids Jews from drinking from the water fountain in the compound because of the claim that Jews are ‘unclean’. While falsely asserting that Israel is attempting to drive Muslims out of their holy site, the Palestinian Arabs bellow that no Jew is to be allowed to set foot on the Temple Mount with what Palestinian Authority chieftain Mahmoud Abbas described as ‘their filthy feet’. This odious racial discrimination and violence draws no condemnation from the Biden administration or the Western left. Instead, it is Ben-Gvir who is accused of racism. The Oslo Accords state: “The Palestinian side shall ensure free access to, respect the ways of worship in and not make any changes to, the Jewish holy sites.” At both the Temple Mount and the sacred Jewish site of Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus, which is under the control of the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian Arabs have repeatedly broken this pledge. For years, Jews visiting Joseph’s Tomb have been attacked by Arab rioters and gunmen, most recently on 21 December 2022, when Jewish worshippers and the soldiers guarding them came under heavy gunfire. Yet this draws no condemnation from the Biden administration or the Western left. Instead, there are veiled threats that the US will punish Israel for having Ben-Gvir in its government. In the same way, successive Democratic administrations and other Western liberals have held Israel responsible for the Arab war against it on the grounds that Israel is ‘illegally occupying’ Palestinian land. This is geopolitically illiterate. Only the Jews have a legal, historical and moral entitlement to this land. The Jews are its only extant in digenous people, and the Palestinian Arabs are its would-be colonial occupiers, declaring that ‘not one Jew’ will be allowed to live in the state of Palestine. Yet this attempt to erase the Jews from their own country and even from their own history is ignored by the ‘anti- racist’ Western left, who instead accuse Ben-Gvir of promoting ethnic cleansing. In a savage tweet this week, Sen. Ted Cruz said that the Biden administration’s ‘pathological obsession’ with undermining Israel was endangering the national security of America and its allies. The administration’s attacks following the Ben-Gvir visit, Cruz said, will convince Palestinian officials that compromise is unnecessary because Democratic administrations “will coerce our Israeli allies into making dangerous concessions.” The administration, he added, consistently seeks to undermine Israel’s security and sovereignty while pouring more than $1 billion into Palestinian areas and “bringing officials from the terrorist Palestine Liberation Organization to Washington DC.” This perverse behaviour by Western liberals, aided by Israeli leftists who fan the flames by even more hysterically promoting these lies and appeasement, hugely incentivises further Palestinian rejectionism and violence. It also actively emboldens Israel’s existential foes among the world’s tyrannies and kleptoc racies who use United Nations resolutions and ‘lawfare’ to try to bring Israel down. Just imagine if America said that these Palestinian lies and incitement have to stop, that Israel has law and history on its side and that the only aggressors in this war are the Palestinian Arabs who want to destroy the Jews’ right to their country and historic identity. The Palestinians’ strategy of extermination would collapse overnight because the main reason this war never ends is the West’s support for their cause. The result is the unique and insane situation in which Israel is forced to fund people who continue to build an infrastructure of genocidal warfare that they periodically unleash against Israeli civilians, in which so-called allies prevent Israel from taking measures essential to defend its people against mass murder; and in which the same so-called allies now have the gall to tell Israel that the composition of its government doesn’t meet with their approval. Israel, however, is not the only example of a looking-glass world in which aggressor and victim, right and wrong, truth and lies have been turned on their heads. Many are observing similar denials of reality and character assassination in the West’s culture wars and are concluding that the world has simply gone mad. Israel’s new Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, may turn out to behave badly or unwisely. Ben-Gvir and the other two ‘extremists’ in Israel’s government may promote the fanaticism or recklessness with which they are associated. If they do so, they will deserve to be criticised. But just as happened with former US President Donald Trump, such a rational, evidence-led approach is vanishingly unlikely. To liberals, there are simply no facts or evidence that can reframe the way they view the Netanyahu government: That it has crossed over to the dark side from which there can be no return. Antisemitism repudiates reason. Anti-Israelism repudiates reason. It’s well known that the Jews are always the canary in the cultural coal mine. Today, anti-Jewish bigotry is both symptomatic of and fueled by a far broader and deeper phenomenon. We can see this in the madness of identity politics. The West, having produced the age of reason, is now intent on destroying it. Melanie Phillips, a British journalist, broadcaster and author, writes a weekly column for JNS. Currently, a columnist for The Times of London, her personal and political memoir Guardian Angel has been published by Bombardier, which also published her first novel, The Legacy. Go to melaniephillips.substack.com to access her work. Originally published at www.jns.org. Republished with permission. News 4 The Israeli Canary in the West’s Cultural Coal Mine February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar - Nisan 5783 Itamar Ben Gvir arrives to visit the Temple Mount, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City on Tisha B’Av, 7 August 7 2022. | Photo: Flash90 ISRAEL Celebrating

9. 7 75 Years Anniversary February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar - Nisan 5783 Napoleon Bonaparte Shaftesbury is sometimes cited to ‘prove’ that European political Christian Zionism preceded Herzl’s Jewish political Zionism. This is true in itself, but even long before Shaftesbury, many other non-Jewish European intellectuals had been calling for a national restoration of Israel. In April 1799, for instance, French General Napoleon Bonaparte issued a declaration of support laced with Biblical references to “the rightful heirs of Palestine”. This was on the eve of his invasion of what was then Turkish-Ottoman-controlled Palestine. The document should have been officially declaimed in Jerusalem. But thanks to a British maritime intervention in support of the Turkish defenders, the French invasion stranded near the Mediterranean port of Akko in May 1799. Crusades Nevertheless, 1799 is seen as the year when Europeans, for the first time since the Crusades, returned to the Holy Land with great ambitions. In the following period, competing European powers France, Britain, Germany and Russia each established religious, economic and political power bases in the Palestinian part of the disintegrating Ottoman Empire. The largely desolate area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea was almost literally broken open and awakened. This also created locally essential conditions for large-scale Jewish immigration and Jewish national recovery. French and British declarations During World War I, Britain and France conquered large parts of the Ottoman Empire, including the territories of Palestine and Syria. This created opportunities for international political recognition of the Jewish return, even though, organisationally and numerically, it was in its infancy at the time. Well-known is the declaration of the British cabinet published on 2 November 1917 by British Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour, which promised the Jewish people ‘a national home’ in Palestine. Less well-known is that on 4 June that year, France’s top diplomat Jules Cambon had already issued a declaration in which the French government officially declared itself in favour of “national Jewish recovery in the land from which the people of Israel were expelled so many centuries ago.” San Remo and Mandate As Britain captured Palestine and France captured other parts of the Turkish Empire, Balfour’s declaration became more politically relevant than Cambon’s. In April 1920, the victors of World War I held a conference in San Remo, Italy, to discuss the division and future of the conquered Turkish territories. The Balfour Declaration was adopted as an official policy document, and the right of Jews to settle anywhere in Palestine was confirmed under international law, i.e. in all areas between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River as well as the region across the Jordan. This right of settlement was subsequently reaffirmed by the League of Nations (the forerunner of the UN) in the Mandate for Palestine assigned to Britain. Banned for Jews London was also instructed to facilitate Jewish emigration to the area. In 1922, however, the Jewish right of settlement for the region across the Jordan River was unilaterally revoked by London. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was later founded there. Jewish right of settlement in the area west of the Jordan River (including Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem) was never negated by the League of Nations or, subsequently, the UN. Lord Balfour. | Photo: GPO Participants in the San Remo conference. | Photo: GPO The Balfour Declaration was adopted as an official policy document, and the right of Jews to settle anywhere in Palestine was confirmed under international law, i.e. in all areas between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River as well as the region across the Jordan. The Balfour Declaration. | Photo: GPO ISRAEL Celebrating

27. 13 History February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar - Nisan 5783 Dr Sheree Trotter n Thirty years ago, on 20 January 1993, the first secret talks took place that would eventually lead to the signing of the Oslo Accords. Two Israeli academics and three Palestinian representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), met at the home of a Norwegian couple to begin negotiations. The secluded spot away from the public eye afforded the opportunity for discussions and relationship building, in an attempt to cultivate trust between the Israelis and Palestinians. After months of talks, the ‘Oslo backchannel’ culminated in the signing of the ‘Declaration of Principles On Interim Self-Government Arrangements’ on 13 September 1993. The formal signing ceremony hosted by US President Bill Clinton, at which Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat shook hands, provided the perfect photo opportunity for a world eager to resolve the long-standing Israel- Palestinian conflict. This historical moment marked a turning point in the relationship by initiating open, direct talks between Israel and the PLO. Letters of Mutual Recognition were exchanged in which the PLO recognised the existence of the State of Israel and Israel recognised the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, while core issues such as refugees, settlements, borders, Jerusalem and mutual security, were to be resolved at some future time by direct negotiation b etween the two parties. Such was the initial euphoria surrounding the signing of the Oslo Accords that in 1994 Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize. Rabin also signed a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994. However, in November 1995, Rabin was assassinated by a disgruntled Jewish extremist. Leaders on both sides failed to take their people along with them and internal political opposition hindered progress. Commitments were broken and efforts to negotiate final status issues were fruitless. Violent outbreaks undermined trust. The attempt by Clinton at the 2000 Camp David talks, to broker an agreement between new Israeli PM Ehud Barak and PA chairman Yasser Arafat failed and the subsequent outbreak of the Second Intifada further dampened hopes for peace. As Yossi Klein Halevi expressed in ‘Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor’, The second intifada exhausted my capacity for outreach; I didn’t think I could ever resume that journey in any form. I no longer wanted to hear your stories, your claims, your grievances. I wanted to shout at your hill: It could have been different! Partner with us, and negotiate a compromise! And look at me, acknowledge my existence! I’ve got a story, too. Halevi, Yossi Klein. Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor, p.15, Kindle Edition. A key factor in the initial hopeful phase of negotiations was recognition of the need to build a relationship of trust. The Norwegians worked to provide an atmosphere that would facilitate friendly relations, where stereotypes could be overcome and the other party humanised. A policy of constructive ambiguity was pursued with the view to remaining ambiguous on key issues until the relationship was strong enough to face difficult decisions. Thirty years on, the prospects for peace appear further away than ever. The Palestinian leadership has refused land for peace offers, including the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state in 97% of the West Bank with east Jerusalem as its capital, the dismantling of isolated settlements and land swaps for the remainder. They have rather chosen to pursue a path of demonising and delegitimising Israel with a litany of fabricated accusations, from settler-colonialism to genocide to apartheid. Terrorism has been ongoing. Indeed at a recent celebration of the 58th anniversary of the launch of Fatah, which controls the Palestinian National Authority in the West Bank and is considered more moderate than the hardline Islamist Hamas party in Gaza, the party reasserted its commitment to undertake more terrorist activity in 2023. The Fatah statement expressed commitment to the ‘path of comprehensive popular resistance’, and to ‘striving together with the Palestinian struggle forces to escalate, organise, develop, and expand [the resistance] against all the occupation’s aggressive plots, with all types of resistance remaining open to our people’. Significantly, the 58th anniversary is counted from Fatah’s first terror attack against Israel in 1965—two years prior to the Six Day War, highlighting the fact that the resistance to the Jewish state is unrelated to the territory Israel gained in the Six Day War. Palestinian rhetoric and actions point to a stubborn refusal to accept Jewish presence anywhere in the land between “the River and the Sea”. When in 1996 Israel followed through with Oslo commitments to pull out of Jenin and Gaza in 2005, these territories became bases for terrorist activities. Rather than engaging in direct negotiations, the Palestinian leadership has sought to internationalise the conflict, the latest example being the UN’s push to have Israel brought before the International Court of Justice. Not only is there no indication that the Palestinians are interested in pursuing peace with Israel, the Palestinian Authority has made little progress in setting up the structure and machinery necessary for achieving statehood. No legislative or presidential elections have been held in the Palestinian territories since 2005. Abbas’s presidential term was supposed to end in 2009. Twelve years later in 2021, an election was planned, but Hamas was poised to sweep the parliamentary election. This was widely seen as the real reason Abbas postponed the poll, while he cited Israel’s refusal to allow voting in East Jerusalem. Meanwhile the conflict between Hamas and Fatah has continued , having begun prior to Hamas seizing Gaza in 2007. Fatah faces a severe leadership crisis, charges of corruption and lack of public support. These factors add to general insecurity and the alarming rise in terrorist activity. Palestinian lawyers and other unions staged a series of protests in 2022. They challenged decision- making processes, deep-rooted nepotism and corruption among senior officials. In addition to the general corruption and incompetence of the PA, Palestinians lack basic human rights. According to Human Rights Watch, the Palestinian leadership goes to extreme lengths in its persecution of journalists and activists. HRW documents more than 80 cases of torture and arbitrary arrests, some for nothing more than writing a critical article or Facebook post, others for belonging to the wrong student group or political movement. Both the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Gaza have in recent years carried out scores of arbitrary arrests for peaceful criticism of the authorities, particularly on social media, among independent journalists, on university campuses, and at demonstrations. Further, a litmus test in the attitude of the government is what is taught to children. Sadly, Palestinian children are indoctrinated to hatred with a school curriculum that encourages violence, jihad, martyrdom, antisemitism, hate, and intolerance. This is further entrenched in Summer camps where children are encouraged to become martyrs and recruited to become child soldiers, a war crime. Palestinians are incentivised to terrorist activity with the families of ‘martyrs’ receiving financial rewards. Israel for its part has shifted focus elsewhere in the Middle East, normalising relations with other Arab countries, beginning with Bahrain, the UAE, Morocco and Sudan. Normalisation has opened new opportunities for defence and security cooperation, cultural and economic activity. Just as building trust was considered important in the Oslo process, developing relationships around common interests has been a significant factor in the success of the Abraham Accords. Seeing the others as cousins rather than foes, with a common descent from Abraham has been key in setting the stage for mutual cooperation. In addition, these Arab countries have grown weary of waiting for the Palestinians to progress towards peace and recognise that the Iranian threat is of greater mutual concern. While a new paradigm for peace has begun in the Middle East, the Palestinian leadership has remained intransigent, still hoping to purge the region of all Jewish presence. Given that Israel is unwilling to oblige by disappearing from the pages of history, the conflict looks set to continue indefinitely. Dr Sheree Trotter is an historian, founder of the Indigenous Coalition for Israel and co-director of the Israel Institute NZ. ww.indigenouscoalition.org The Oslo Accords: A Failed Pursuit of Trust Yitzhak Rabin, Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat at the White House 13 September 1993. | Photo: GPO Photos A key factor in the initial hopeful phase of negotiations was recognition of the need to build a relationship of trust. ISRAEL Celebrating

3. Understanding Israel and world events from a Biblical perspective Israel & Christians Today is the premier publication of Christians for Israel 12 English Feast of ‘Lots’ 16 Just Some Old Documents Members of Israel’s new Knesset together with President Isaac Herzog, just before the end of 2022. | Photo: Flash90 Israel’s new government was sworn in on 29 November 2022. It contains more religious party members than Israel has ever had. All five coalition partners of PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party are religious parties. Several Likud politicians are ‘religious’. That unity of Bible-based faith and the fact that this coalition has a majority of 64 out of 120 seats in the Knesset could make this government even more stable than recent governments. From 2009-2018, Netanyahu ruled with coalitions of parties that were ideologically much further away from Likud. None of these coalitions turned out to be able to serve the full four-year reign. Netanyahu’s new government resulted from the Knesset elections held on 1 November last year. Before this, Netanyahu’s political rivals had ruled for a year with a coalition perceived as ‘anti-religious’ by believers in Israel. This further exacerbated the political divisions between secular and religious Israelis. Since Netanyahu’s new coalition took shape, secular media in Israel and abroad, in particular, have sought to portray it as ‘ultra-right-wing’, ‘ultra-nationalist’, ‘undemocratic’ and even ‘theocratic’. Already, there has been much controversy in Israel surrounding this government. There have been large demonstrations in Tel Aviv against the government’s proposed judicial reforms. One Minister in the government has had to resign after the Supreme Court ruled that his appointment was unreasonable. Pray with us that this government will transcend divisions and that God’s glory will take shape in Israel. Israel’s Controversial New Government February 2023 Adar — Nisan 5783 ISRAEL Celebrating AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIA www.c4israel.com.au | info@c4israel.com.au Israel’s Secular Legitimacy is Much Older than 75 Years 6 3 Israel Cracks Down on PA Over ‘Legal and Political War’

20. 10 February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar — Nisan 5783 Love Israel Conference In September 2022 I had the great joy of being present at one of the most enriching Biblical teaching conferences I had ever had the pleasure to attend. The Love Israel Conference in Chatswood, Sydney, was organised by LoveIsrael.org , the ministry founded by Dr Baruch Korman who lives in Israel. Dr Korman led a most fascinating teaching on the lives of Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Esau, taken from the book of Genesis and visiting other Books as the fascinating excursion wove in and around God’s intricate, beautiful Scriptures. Over a number of Sessions Dr Korman led us skilfully and with great understanding through the wonders of God’s Word, in due course coming to an astounding conclusion that Rebekah had received a prophetic word from the LORD concerning His plan that Jacob (Israel) must be the one to receive the blessing which has, in turn, led to great blessing for the entire world, through the coming of Messiah. The teaching left many of us deeply thrilled by this revelation. Most of the hundreds of attendees were well versed in the Scriptures and in fact long time Bible scholars, but were stirred by this teaching. I had to admit that I had always been a little troubled by Rebekah’s part in deceiving her husband into believing that Jacob was Esau, the one who rightfully should have received the inheritance/ blessing from his father. After Dr Korman’s adept study, skilfully taking us through many Scriptures, I had a new understanding into the profound extent of God’s dealings, leading and provision for His beloved Israel, reaching eventually to the Gentile nations who have been grafted into the Olive Tree. Our God has so much to teach us and He delights to surprise and bless us through His faithful teachers and Spirit-led encounters. When reading Isaac and Rebekah’s story it always speaks to me of the vital importance of speaking God’s blessing over our children, their children and their children’s children, that they would rise to the fullness of life that the Lord has planned for them and, that they too would be a blessing to all those who come into their lives, flowing from them over future generations. I strongly urge all who wish to receive such teaching and fresh revelation to attend next year’s Conference in Darling Harbour, Sydney. “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16). _______________________________________________________ Judy Russell is an advocate for Christians for Israel Australia. You can contact Judy at judy.russell@iinet.net.au Judy Russell Christian’s for Israel Advocate and host of popular worldview meetings, Parliament House, Sydney An Opportunity For Rich Biblical Teaching And Worship Led By Two Israeli Leaders Set For September 2023 In Sydney Jacob deceives Isaac. James Tissot (1836-1902) – The Jewish Museum, New York. www.thejewishmuseum.org

8. 6 Wim Kortenoeven n Author, Journalist and Former Politician According to the Jewish calendar, the State of Israel will celebrate its 75th anniversary on 26 April 2023. The regained Jewish independence was declared on 14 May 1948, according to the Gregorian calendar. This marked the first phase of the prophesied Jewish return to the Land of Israel after nearly two thousand years of exile. That national restoration had long before been proposed by influential European non-Jews and legitimised by non-Jewish states under international law. Viewed properly, the celebration of the 75th anniversary of Israel is an absurdity. After all, the (restored) Jewish state is rooted in a statehood tradition going back more than three thousand years. It was King Saul who, from Hebron, united the tribes of Israel into a unitary state, with the lands of Yehuda (later called ‘Judea’ by the Romans) and Shomron (‘Samaria’) at its core. It was Saul’s successor David who established Jerusalem as the capital of that Jewish federation, and it was his son Solomon who built the first temple there. During that period of Jewish boom, the most basic civilisation was far from penetrating Western Europe, and most of the Netherlands was still a marshland where the animal-skin- clad inhabitants lived in sod huts. Christian Zionism It was only 2,600 years after the start of David’s reign, in 1585, that The Hague became the ‘Dutch’ seat of government. And Amsterdam, founded in 1275, did not become the capital of the Netherlands until 1808. The Jewish return had been propagated by numerous prominent European non-Jews, mostly ‘Christian Zionists’, since the early nineteenth century. And they naturally projected it onto the cradle of Jewish civilisation: Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. Those voices rang out long before the Jewish ‘political Zionism’ of secular Viennese journalist Theodor Herzl gained a foothold (in 1897). And in the early twentieth century, their logical premise was explicitly, formally and ethnically endorsed by the international community. Geopolitical Considerations One of the best-known earlier Christian Zionists was the British statesman Lord Shaftesbury (1801-1885). In 1840, he published an appeal in the daily newspaper The Times for the “return of the Jews to their original land”. It was not his intention that they should establish their own state there but settle there “at their own expense and risk” and submit to the local government. At the time, the Land of Israel was under the Egyptian-based governor Mohammed Ali, who had rebelled against the Turkish- Ottoman sultan in 1831. Shaftesbury was primarily driven by the idea that the Jewish return to Zion would hasten the return of Christ. But he also saw it as the cheapest and most efficient way to colonise Syria. According to Shaftesbury, its benefits, including the undermining and partition of the Turkish- Ottoman Empire, would “benefit the entire civilised world”. These religious and geopolitical considerations dovetailed well with those of the British political establishment. And they laid the foundation for later political British support for Zionism. 75 Years Anniversary February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar - Nisan 5783 Israel’s Secular Legitimacy is Much Older than 75 Years What preceded the founding of Israel–Part 1 Theodor Herzl in Basel, Switzerland. | Photo: GPO In 1799, the French General and later Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte issued a statement calling for the national restoration of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. | Photo: History Extra The Jewish return had been propagated by numerous prominent European non-Jews, mostly ‘Christian Zionists’, since the early nineteenth century. ISRAEL Celebrating

10. 8 C4I News Leon Meijer n Chairman | Christians for Israel International With bare hands, a four-year-old girl is digging a hole in the ground. Another girl places a tulip bulb in the hole. Together they cover the bulb with soil and continue their work. The girls are wearing hearing aids. In daily life, they receive help from Smaya, a medical daycare centre in Bnei Barak, an orthodox Jewish city in Tel Aviv. In the north of Israel, on the Lebanese border, we see twenty-year-old soldiers putting their guns aside and getting down on their knees. Holes are being dug; tulip bulbs are being planted and covered with soil. Within a week, this same ritual takes place at more than fifty locations all over the country. 150,000 Tulip Bulbs In November, two Christians for Israel teams visited Israel and distributed over 150,000 tulip bulbs. In every place the teams visited, they sat with the people, explaining that Christians for Israel represent thousands of Christians worldwide. Christians who learned from the Bible that God loves His people and made everlasting covenants with them. These Christians like to follow the Lord in His love for His people. And what do you do when you love someone? You bring flowers. Reminder The flowers we bring need a little more attention and patience than regular flowers, but they also give the opportunity to do something together. While planting the tulip bulbs, you have the most wonderful discussions. And long after the teams have left Israel—as the tulips start to grow and blossom in early spring—people are reminded (again) that all over the world, there are Christians who love the people of Israel. Open Arms Several years ago, Christians for Israel Netherlands took the initiative for the so-called ‘Tulip Tour’, and it has become an annual event. The tulip bulbs are being sponsored by Christians who love Israel. Their donations make it possible to order the bulbs from Dutch tulip horticulturists. The bulbs are then shipped to Israel in large containers. Upon arrival, they are packed in smaller boxes. During the Tulip Tour, each team visits as many c ommunities, Christians for Israel projects, schools, kindergartens, army bases and absorption centres as possible. The programme is being put together with the help of Israeli contacts of Christians for Israel. And everywhere the teams come, they are welcomed with open arms. I have visited Israel many times, but the Tulip Tour is something special. On a normal visit, you drink tea or coffee and speak with the host. During the Tulip Tour, you not only drink coffee or tea, but you also get down on your knees, plant the bulbs together and have the most wonderful conversations. Small talk with four-year-olds, encouraging talks with soldiers, comforting talks with people of old age, impressive talks with new immigrants who sometimes had to flee their country. Often, we see tears in the eyes of the people we visit. It touches their hearts that we make an effort to visit them, that we remind them of God’s love, and that there are Christians around the world who love them. Longing for Zion During the recent Tulip Tour, all visits were special, but I will highlight two visits. Beit Alfa is a village close to the Gilboa mountains, where Saul and Jonathan fought the Philistines. It also houses an absorption centre for new immigrants from Ethiopia. At the centre, they start to learn Hebrew and get used to living in a modern Israeli society where houses have kitchens and toilets. We were welcomed with Ethiopian coffee and Injera, Ethiopian flatbread. Young and old walked with us to the garden, and as I got down on my knees, I looked around me and was surrounded by Ethiopian immigrants; a people who have longed for Zion for centuries. Here we were, digging in the soil of Zion, planting flowers, knowing that God intended His people to be planted back in Israel. Coming Generation Close to the springs of the Jordan River in northern Israel, we visited a school where children learn to dance. Full of joy and sweetness, the children walked—many barefoot—to the garden to plant the tulips. Israel’s coming generation learns that God loves them and cares for them as a flower in the garden. | Photos: Christians for Israel International How a Small Gift Makes a Huge Impression February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar - Nisan 5783 “This is a New Revelation to Me”- Part 2 Rev Cornelis Kant n Executive Director | Christians for Israel International A pastor from Bangalore, India, recently proposed to us that he was prepared to organise conferences, on the subject of Israel, designed for pastors, in three different cities in India. “Your message about Israel is important for India, and pastors here are eager to learn about Israel”, he told us. As a result, conferences have been held in Bangalore, Pondicherry and Chennai in November. In the previous edition, I wrote about Bangalore. In Pondicherry, a local church bought a parking garage and converted it into a church. Over 200 pastors attended the conference. Rev Willem Glashouwer explained that the Kingdom of God will come from heaven to the earth when Jesus returns. Dr Conrado Lumahan, from the Philippines, spoke about why Christians should stand with Israel. I spoke about the role of the Messiah, as revealed in the Bible, relating to the current return of the Jewish people to their homeland Israel. In Chennai, a city with over six million inhabitants, we held our conference in a church that looked more like an industrial warehouse than a church. The pastor told us they have four church services every Sunday with over 2,000 visitors each. The church congregation is growing every year. Over 180 pastors attended our Israel conference. They were all touched by the biblical message regarding the significance of Israel and the Jewish people in our Christian faith. One of them told us with tears in his eyes: “I need to repent for never preaching about Israel in my Sunday sermons”. All pastors receive a copy of the book ‘Why Israel’, translated into their own regional Tamil or Telugu language. India is number ten on Open Door’s ‘World Watch List’ of 50 countries where Christians are persecuted. Some pastors told us that they were personally beaten by radical Hindus in the past. But all of them are eager to go on with church planting and spreading the gospel of Jesus without regard to consequences. It was impressive to meet these pastors and to witness how the message about Israel touched them. Together with pastors from the city of Hyderabad, we are now preparing similar conferences there in 2023. Our Christian brethren in India need our prayers and support. | Photos: Christians for Israel ISRAEL Celebrating

21. 11 February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar — Nisan 5783 Biblical Insights from Heartland of Judea & Samaria Israel’s Trees Were Destroyed by the Nations. Now, They’re Planting Trees in the Holy Land 2,000 years ago, the nations began destroying the land of Israel. Now, the nations have the opportunity to restore Israel’s forests. There is a remarkable group of people who can be found in all parts of the world. They are those who have been to Israel, often many times over, and are passionate about helping Israel in any way they can. There are also those who have not been to the holy land, but have a burning fire in their hearts to stand with Israel. If this description fits you, there is a story about Israel’s trees that I’d like to tell you. Israel lay desolate for two thousand years. The prophet Jeremiah even predicted it: “It will be made a wasteland, parched and desolate before me; the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares.” (Jer. 12:11) The Roman Conquest Destroyed the Land of Israel The destruction of the land started with Rome. Josephus records that the Roman armies cut down Israel’s trees and destroyed the forests in order to build siege works in their conquest. There is a legend that even speaks of the Romans uprooting Israel’s vineyards and taking them back to Italy. In his book, Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain had the following to say about his visit to the region of Palestine in 1867: “ ...[a] desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds - a silent mournful expanse....A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action.... We never saw a human being on the whole route....There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of the worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.” Not only were the forests cut down at the time of the Roman conquest, but the large, grazing herds of wildlife in Israel were hunted and driven elsewhere to find forests and grasslands that could sustain them. The removal of the animals--herds of sheep, cattle and goats resulted in the desertification of the land. With the root structure no longer in place to hold the land, erosion began to happen. The ground could not hold water, and with no trees or grass to shade the soil, the sun began to parch the land. It’s estimated that one inch of topsoil has been lost to erosion every year for the last 1,000 years. That’s eighty feet of soil that Israel has lost! If you come to Israel today, you’ll find this fact supported when you look at the rocky and barren mountains. Without root structures on their slopes, the hillsides lost their soil to the valley floors. Israel Enters a Time of Desolation For the next two thousand years, many people fought over the land of Israel. One kingdom after another took possession of it. With each new conqueror, the land grew more desolate. More forests were destroyed; more livestock and wildlife were forced to flee the country. The people who tried to survive in the land had to cut down more trees during the cold winters. They shepherded their goats in the forests, and they overgrazed the grasslands. The final blow came when the Ottoman Turkish Empire ruled over Israel and decided to build a railroad that would connect Africa and Europe. They taxed the only trees remaining in Israel so that they would be cut down and sent in to build the new railroad. This was the nail in the coffin of Israel’s land destruction. This was the final act. • Once vibrant for ests were cut down and destroyed. • Due to erosion, Israel l ost eighty feet of topsoil. • The Romans cut down the trees and too k Israel’s vines back to Italy. • Mark Twain confirmed utter desolati on in the region of Palestine. • The Ottoman Empire caused the onl y remaining trees in the area to be cut down during the 1800s. All of this evidence confirmed the words of Jeremiah. Israel was utterly and completely destroyed. Jews Began Returning to Israel and the First Trees were Planted In the late 1800’s Jews began returning to Israel in record numbers with a desire to see the land restored. They drained swamps in the north, planted orchards all along the Mediterranean coast, and began to farm the Negev Desert. During the British Mandate period, which started in 1923, the British ruled that anyone who planted a tree would own the land where the tree was planted. Olive trees began to pop up all over the Land. The very same prophets that predicted Israel’s utter desolation also prophesied that Israel’s agriculture would one day be restored. During the late nineteenth century and into the twentieth, those prophecies began to come true. “Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; And it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” (Isaiah 55:13) Millions of trees were planted all over Israel. However, because Judea and Samaria (falsely known as the West Bank) has never been recognized as sovereign in Israel, this region has been left out of much of the tree planting projects that have taken place over the last century. Christian Group Begins Planting Trees & Vines in Israel When HaYovel, a non-profit Christian organization dedicated to serving Israel’s farmers, first came to Israel 18 years ago, we never imagined that we could be a conduit for the nations to be a part of restoring the land of Israel. After bringing thousands of Christians to serve dozens of farmers in Israel’s heartland, however, we are now launching our largest project to date: Greening Israel - planting trees in Israel’s heartland. With a vision to see tens of thousands of trees planted all throughout Judea and Samaria, we are planning to plant 20,000 trees every year beginning in 2023. Together, we can restore the ancient forests that once dotted the mountains in the heartland of Israel. You can partner with HaYovel to physically restore the forests of the biblical heartland! You can find out more about the Greening Israel Project here, www.greeningisrael.com Time to Reverse the Destruction of Israel’s Forests The time has come to reverse the destruction that took place in the land of Israel. It is time to break the cycle of the nations destroying the land of Israel. Now, the nations can restore the land by planting trees, just like the prophets foretold. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; And it shall be to the LORD for a name, For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. (Isaiah 55:13) Instead of simply being an observer in the restoration of God’s Kingdom, the nations of the world can become a partner. It’s time to restore Israel’s forests to their former glory. Plant a tree in Israel’s heartland today. —————————————————————— If you want to partner with Ha Yovel in this glorious work and be the Christian foreigner the prophets wrote about, please reach us at: deon@hayovel.com or www.serveisrael.com Luke Hilton Marketing Director HaYovel

24. 10 Theology Recommended Reading Johannes Gerloff n Theologian, Journalist, Lecturer & Author This is part nine in a series of articles based on the book Rejoice, You Nations, with His People, by Johannes Gerloff. “From them comes the Messiah according to the flesh” (Romans 9:5) The fact that Christ, according to the flesh, stems from the Israelites, and that the Israelites are both the home and the people of Messiah, is the “final and highest of Israel’s prerogatives”. Because “salvation is of the Jews,” as Jesus himself emphasises (John 4:22), “they were separated as a peculiar people, and preserved amidst all their afflictions”. That our Lord Jesus Christ is born a Jew was not only for Martin Luther, but already for Paul, more than just a historical coincidence. Jesus Christ cannot be separated from His Jewish people and background. It was not by accident that God put in all the effort and took two thousand years to create the cultural, national and spiritual environments into which He sent His Son. This is not just a question of an historical- cultural background through which we might better understand Biblical texts. We are not even just talking about messianic prophecies which have been tangibly fulfilled in history. Towards the end of this series about the privileges of the Jewish people, it’s all about Messiah Himself, about His Jewishness, that is, about the very identity of Messiah Yeshua. The biological descent and the historical fact of Jesus’ coming from Judaism are by no means theologically irrelevant. Whoever tries to strip Jesus of His Jewishness in order to create a redeemer that is ‘more relevant’ for other cultural environments, is in imminent danger of fabricating a god according to his own standards and imaginations and, thus, of falling into idolatry. Whoever consciously dismisses Israel as irrelevant or even secondary should beware lest they all of a sudden also lose Messiah Himself - and with Him the only way to the Father. For of Paul’s “kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites,” comes not least Christ Himself “according to the flesh”. And this is by no means a coincidence! “The fact of Jesus being born Jewish permanently binds all those from the nations who believe in Him to God’s history with his people”. In all this, Paul does not say that the Jews were once Israelites, sometime in the past. Rather, they are Israelites to this very day. The title of honour ‘Israel’, including all its riches and privileges, is valid up to the present time. Marquart writes: “The Apostle writes and preaches after the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, after the rejection of Jesus as Messiah by the Jews, after ‘the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom’. This present tense is present tense in the face of the cross of Christ, not denying its relevance and importance”. Similarly, Klaus Wengst observed the use of the term ‘brothers’ in verse 3 of chapter 9: “With this terminology [Paul] refers exclusively to people from the churches. If he uses it in this case for Jews who do not believe in Jesus, then this is worthy of special notice”. This professor of theology from Bochum University in Germany thinks it “probable, that Paul consciously upgrades his countrymen according to the flesh by calling them ‘brothers’. He thereby sets the Church and the Israel that does not believe in Jesus in analogy to each other”. Wengst concludes: “It is not about what once distinguished Israel but is no longer valid. Rather, it is about what distinguishes the people of God now and in the future from all other nations“. The focal point and objective of the uniqueness and riches of Israel, however, are not human beings, but the one— ...who is God over all, forever praised! Amen. (Romans 9:5) Thus, Paul slides from theology into worship. In this way he directs the attention from the gifted to the giver of all spiritual gifts. Furthermore, he prepares the way for the text that follows. There, Paul emphasises the absolute sovereignty of the Creator. He is indeed and unquestionably God. Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn by Daniel Gordis (2016) By Simon Smelt Daniel Gordis delivers with this book. An influential and well-known writer and blogger on Israel, he writes with vigour and cla rity. At 585 pages, including six appendices, 38 pages of notes, ten useful maps, and lengthy ‘works cited’, this is neither a quick guide nor a plodding history. But it is concise. Gordis describes the Jews’ return to their homeland as “one of the great dramas of human history” and “like a fairy tale.” He writes in sufficient depth to bring out the drama and tensions and deftly summarises complex events. He gives each of the main characters a brief bio and provides a feel for the street through popular songs and poetry. Gordis remarks that he is not writing a military or economic history. So, there are no details of tank battles but economic pressures on the early state are well described. He centres his story on politics and political decision-making amidst competing factions, a divided populace, scarce resources, military threats and unreliable allies. He pro vides a page-turner on the struggle for independence, on Ben Gurion’s determination to build a nation and the new Jewish man from often unpromising material, and on the shifting dynamics of the multi-fold divisions in Israeli society: Arab and Jew, religious and secular, Sephardic and Ashkenazi, settler and city dweller, Sabra and immigrant. Gordis brings out the huge ongoing challenges after independence: the overwhelming influx of refugees into a poverty-stricken and barely functioning state, the lack of shared experience, knowledge or comm on ground between the various peoples most of whom lacked understanding of democracy. He gives nuance to the shifting fault lines as the nation develops and grows and suffers various military, economic, political and population shocks and setbacks. Inevitably, the book has limitations. The period prior to the emergence of Zionism receives light coverage: the impact of the Russian revolution and subsequent civil war on the lands where most Jews then lived gets half a sentence, the Holocaust a paragraph. Gordis writes from a secular perspective: here is the red emption of Israel but the Lord is not an active participant. He discusses the Arab side but as secondary. He refers casually to the ‘Palestinians’, without explaining that prior to 1967 the term was used to indicate location not ethnic identity. Jewish groups and products were referred to as ‘Palestinian’ during the Mandate period: the ‘Palestinian companies’ within the British army, the ‘Palestinian Post’ newspaper, and so forth. Arafat’s drive for a Palestinian man to match Ben Gurion’s new Jewish man is unremarked. The novice prepared to tackle a weighty tome should be entertained and well- informed; the more knowledgeable will find surprises and fresh perspectives. February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar - Nisan 5783 The Origin of Messiah | Photo: Lightstock The garden tomb where Jesus was buried. | Photo: Lightstock ISRAEL Celebrating

18. 8 February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar — Nisan 5783 Opinion Piece from the Jerusalem Watchman Explainer: What on Earth is Going on in Israel? Two Months After Election Earthquake, Tsunami Roils Israeli Politics STOP PRESS: On January 19, Israel’s Supreme Court barred a member of the new Netanyahu government from serving as minister. The decision should be seen against the backdrop of what appears below. Go to these links for details: • Israel’s S upreme Court rejects Deri as minister in Netanyahu government: www.jns.org/israels-supreme-court- rejects-deri-as-minister-in-netanyahu- government • Supreme Cour t Declares War on Netanyahu’s Government, Cancels Minister Aryeh Deri: www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/the- knesset/supreme-court-declares-war- on-netanyahus-government-cancels- minister-aryeh-deri/2023/01/18/ The election that had millions of Israeli voters placing a conservative government in power, and then saw tens of thousands of furious citizens take to the streets to oppose it, has caused confusion and uncertainty among Christian watchers of Zion. How to understand what is happening in the Jewish state which in four months celebrates the 75th anniversary of its rebirth? On November 1, 2022, 16 months after the Bennett-Lapid coalition was elected, a large majority of Israel’s Jewish voters replaced it with a new administration under Binyamin Netanyahu. In this election: • 4.7 million Israelis voted f or the parties that made it into the Knesset’s 120 seats. • 64 seats went to the right— the pro-Netanyahu Jewish national and religious parties. • 46 seats went to the left— the anti- Netanyahu Jewish liberal-progressive parties. • (10 seats went to the pro- Palestinian/ anti-Israel Arab parties. Insofar as Jewish Israelis’ aspirations for their state go, those votes are irrelevant here). • The totals of the right and left J ewish parties votes was 2,304,964 vs 1,669,596. Out of a total 3.9 million Jewish voters, the Right-Religious beat the Left-Progressive 66 to 44 percent. An indisputably democratically -secured win. On December 29, the new government was sworn in. It hit the ground running. Ten days into the fresh reality, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu proclaimed: “We have established a different government with a different policy, and everyone will see this.” By then most people—Israeli citizens and international onlookers alike— already could. When I mentioned to a long-standing Israeli friend how strikingly the headlines had become, his face lit up. “What a change!” he enthused. “At last, we have hope!” But for many there is more uncertainty than hope. I have heard, from Israeli Jews (among them believers in Jesus), and from Jews and Christians abroad, outspoken condemnation of the new government in expressions of anger, anxiety and despair. One believer even told me that he has decided to “join the resistance” against it. In the weeks between election and the installing of the new, free and fairly elected, leadership, the defeated politicians, together with their allies, (politicised supreme court judges, officers in the top tier of the IDF, town councillors, schoolteachers and sexuality-obsessed militants, all platformed by a sycophantic news media), openly incited against it. Nothing was unacceptable. There was no constraint. Fear and fury were consciously fomented. Following the well-worn playbook of socialist-leaning secularists, the Left projected its insurrectionism onto the Right, accusing the incoming leadership of dashing democracy on the rocks and leading the country to civil war. Chosen as pretext for their shockingly undemocratic behaviour, immediately after the government was sworn in, was its embarkation on a path of judicial reform—reform that all parties in the new coalition had included in their election platforms. On January 7 and 14, in gatherings orchestrated and funded by liberal American Jews, tens of thousands of Israelis protested against the government, which a former prime minister, Ehud Barak, labelled “illegitimate”. Inflammatory speeches whipped up the crowd. It was a hysterical demonstration; more are planned. And yet, as Netanyahu told the nation after the second protest: “Two months ago, there was a huge demonstration in Israel... Millions of people took to the streets to vote in the elections. One of the main issues they voted for is reforming the judicial system.” It will not be easy for observers to understand the increasingly chaotic and toxic situation. Christians who know their Bibles can, however, make sense of it, and thereby bring their responses and prayers into line with God’s Word. What is happening is really only the latest manifestation of a very long- standing and deep divide among the Jewish people. The battle-lines are clear. They go to the very core of what it means “to be a Jew.” The struggle is an in-house one between Jews holding radically different views on Judaism itself as well as on what the Jewish state should look like. Nor is it new. This kulturkampf goes back more than 3000 years: it has split the Hebrews since Moses conveyed God’s message to them at the inauguration of the brand- new nation of Israel: “...if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people ... And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation...” (Exodus 19:5-6) “But...if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes... Stan Goodenough Journalist and an Israeli-accredited tour guide What is happening is really only the latest manifestation of a very long- standing and deep divide among the Jewish people. Israeli protesters attend a rally against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government in the coastal city of Tel Aviv on January 14, 2023 (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)

13. 3 February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar — Nisan 5783 Messianic Jews—the Elephant in the Room of Jewish Christian Relationships The Elephant As an evangelical Christian closely involved in building bridges between Christians and Jews, there is a subject I try studiously to ignore, and that is the “problem” of Messianic Jews. It is indeed the “elephant in the room.” The issues for many of my Jewish brethren are twofold, firstly, “Messianics” (Jews who have accepted Jesus as their Messiah) are considered traitors and heretics and secondly, evangelicals are mainly concerned about getting Jews converted, they always have an agenda. As to the former I understand their concern and this concern I might suggest is not primarily theological, but rather one cultivated by a long history of sickening persecution by Christians. I say this because this hostility and charge of apostasy does not seem to apply to Jews converting to Buddhism or even becoming atheists for example. The elephant of the Messianics is not leaving the room, and to continue with the idiom, it can’t leave, as the doors with their constrictive theological and historic frameworks, are too small to let the elephant out. If I may digress for a moment, let us remember that the Scriptures are replete with idioms and metaphors as they can often explain Biblical concepts better than “literal language.” In fact, it could be argued that the attempt to interpret the “literal language” of many Biblical texts is responsible for many of the theological differences that exist, resulting in the formation of over 40,000 different Christian denominations, according to the Centre for the Study of Global Christianity . I can hear someone say “well, if you have correct exegesis and apply correct hermeneutics you will arrive at the same interpretation of any passage.” Having been around a long time, including having done a stint at Bible College I know that is not necessarily the case, so let us not be bogged down in “minutiae” and miss the “burden” of God’s Word. Back to our idiom, if the elephant can’t leave the room, if we are to get anywhere in Jewish Christian relationships, we must leave that room, and we can and still remain in the “house.” Building relationships is like building a bridge, the utility of bridge building starts by building foundations on both sides of the divide with the construction on each side reaching out to make the connection. In other words, both Jews and Christians have a job to do in this most sacred of tasks. Our Jewish brethren must overcome their animosity towards Messianics, which is an attitude that both concerns and saddens me greatly, as although we may not agree with “Messianics” on all matters and with some even adopting a spirit of superiority, we still regard them as our brothers and sisters. On our side of the ledger Christians must not see Jews as evangelical targets and must have a greater sensitivity to their concerns. We must on both sides of the divide be prepared to hand over our concerns to the Almighty for the sake of what Rabbi Nekrutman calls this most “sacred calling.” Our Light is our love Let God do His own work by His Spirit, for both sides our light must be our love, and that love must be unconditional, no strings attached. The picture accompanying this article says it all, theological discussions are not the answer as the elephant is ever present, casting its shadow over all proceedings. I have seen many debates on the subject by leading Rabbis and Christian theologians over the years and they are interesting, but in reality don’t go anywhere, at least not from what I have seen. However, encounters like this do; this one happened when I was attending the Bridges for Peace Institute of Israel Studies , in Jerusalem in 2019. The evening session of worship was to be led by an Orthodox Jewish Rabbi, Rabbi Akiva Gersh, I couldn’t see it going anywhere spiritually but thought to myself this is novel and should be interesting. The young Rabbi quietly strumming on his guitar led us in a worship session that was profoundly uplifting. In moments without any conscious effort or understanding, I transitioned from an interested spectator to an enthusiastic participant. As I look back, I am still shocked at how I felt, and how close to God I felt at the end of our worship, we were all somewhat transfixed by the wonder of the moment. Shortly after, I went up to him as he was quietly packing away his guitar and with a voice trembling with emotion, said, “Rabbi you have touched our hearts tonight,” he looked at me and said quietly, “and you have touched mine.” Now that is the “room” we must go to as that is where reconciliation and understanding takes place, too much of our Christian faith is cerebral and not enough of the heart. It was a classic case of the “deep calling unto deep” we were communing at a level that transcended the realm of the theological, the realm of the mind. It is a state where the heart encompasses what the mind cannot. I must say I have had similar experiences such as the recent meetings with the Israel Ambassador Amir Maimon and other Jewish leaders last year at Nambour Baptist Church , where the Ambassador was reported to have said he was “blown away” by what he called the unconditional love of Christians, and the joyous celebration of our love for Israel and one another that was spontaneously shared by all. Also, the monthly Southern Cross Alliance For Israel zoom meetings hosted by Jews and Christians, and the Beersheba Vision broadcast on Jewish radio continue to progress this movement of reconciliation in a similar vein. The Upper Room In summary, if we are to progress further in Jewish Christian relationships, as indeed with all relationships requiring transformation, we must leave that room downstairs where the elephants are, and go to the “Upper Room,” where elephants can’t be found, to that transcendent place where God can do His transforming work. —————————————————————— Barry Rodgers OAM, President of Beersheba Vision . To contact Barry please email him: admin@beershebavision.org If you would like to know more about Beersheba Vision please visit our website at www.beershebavision.org Barry Rodgers OAM President of Beersheba Vision Opinion Piece from Beersheba Vision ...too much of our Christian faith is cerebral and not enough of the heart

19. 9 February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar — Nisan 5783 Article continued from Stan Goodenough... all these curses will come upon you...” (Deuteronomy 28:15) It’s the choice that has always stood before them: Live according to the Torah, and it will “go well for you and for your children after you forever.” Stray, and your future will be increasingly dark. This is what devout Jews believe, pointing to their nation’s particularly painful history. Unbelieving Jews, however, seek to modify or adjust Judaism to fit their progressive world-view—positing humanistic reasons for Jew-hatred; even blaming it on their observant fellow Jews. It is an unbridgeable divide. What the Jewish people overwhelmingly have agreed on for 2000 years, is that Rome’s destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, with its accompanying mass slaughter and scattering of the nation, was directly attributable to their own internal strife (in Hebrew: sinat chinam, lit . baseless hatred) which degenerated into a dreadful civil war. That hatred was between Jews who wanted to live and let live in the Roman Empire, (the world of their day) on the one hand, and those who were zealous for their Jewish faith and sovereignty, on the other. As the factions raged, “ordinary” Jews who—like today— wanted to be left in peace, were seduced or forced into opposing sides. The nation self-destructed from within, enabling its near-complete destruction from without. Today, this sinat chinam is rife, and along very similar lines. It has not been uninfluenced by what has happened in the once “Christian West”: For generations, liberalism has been making massive inroads into Judeo- Christian civilisation—assaulting conservative values and, via the media, police and law courts, compelling progressivism on those who oppose it, deeming Christians enemies: “enemies of the state”; “enemies of democracy,” and an assortment of “phobes.” In the US, this culture war exploded with the ascendency of Donald Trump. His presidency was, correctly, seen as an existential threat to everything The Left had been deep-planting for decades. Trump spelled doom to their ambitions, and breathed hope into almost-defeated, conservative America. More than anything else, it is the extreme danger he posed to the progressives’ program that fired the frantic, teeth-gnashing reactions against him. At Trump’s bewildering 2016 victory, the American Left, (within whose fold a major chunk of that nation’s syncretised Jews have their home), raised a black flag. He had to be gotten rid of, no matter what it took or how unlawful the means of resistance. No quarter. Not even his—dubious—defeat by Joe Biden was enough. Skulduggery has continued apace, from “January 6” misrepresentations to FBI raids for classified documents; the displaying of his tax records ... the list continues. There is no way in which that man can be permitted to return to the Oval Office. The Left’s version of America must be preserved at all costs. Which brings us back to Israel. The Jews have followed their own trajectory. Their divisions run along a number of fault lines, but, in Israel, mostly lie as follows: On the one side are those who practice Judaism as their forefathers did for more than 2000 years—religious Jews of various stripes—and who believe in their God-given right to their ancestral home. They reject the global effort to drive them off their land and create a Palestinian enemy state in their place. In their ranks (though they might argue that they are a rank of their own) are the secular Zionists. They don’t attribute a whole lot to God, but they ardently believe that the Land of Israel is the cradle of their nationhood and their lawful heritage. On the other side are the Jews who either repudiate religion and embrace secularism, or who practice a syncretism of Judaism mixed with progressivism, from which place they dismiss the notion that Jews have any claim to the “West Bank.” These Jews will frequently align themselves with the anti-Judeo-Christian world against the State of Israel. What is happening today is, therefore, described as a clash between “the Jews” and “the Israelis” in Israel. “The Jews”, on the one hand, are those who want to be Jewish first and foremost—Jewish in the Torah- observant, rabbinical way. The “Jewish state” they envisage is as different from all other nation states as the Jews in the Diaspora were for centuries different from the Gentiles among whom they lived. Assimilation, to them, was and is anathema. They hold to the doctrine of a personal Messiah and the restoration of sacrificial worship in the Temple. They believe in the geulah —redemption. “The Israelis”—on the other hand—are those Jews who want a State of Israel that is modern, and liberal-progressive; a state which courts favour from the international community and comfortably fits into the Global Village. For them, Israel should no longer be “A people dwelling alone, not reckoning itself among the nations” (Number 23:9). This was the Israel which the late Shimon Peres and his “Peace Camp” sought to construct. Peres despised the devout sectors of Jewish society; he saw national religious Zionists and the Ultra-orthodox as an embarrassment, a kind of antiquated throwback. It was, in fact, Peres who, in his own words, 1 spurned and labelled them as “The Jews” while upholding the non-religious, himself included, as “The Israelis.” Before he became state president he infamously told 2 observant activist Ruth Matar, (an Austrian-born Holocaust survivor who co-founded the NGO, Women for Israel’s Tomorrow ,) 3 to “go back to where you came from.” Reform Judaism , which is the largest Jewish sect in the United States, and has adherents in numerous other countries, including Israel, was established in 19th-century Germany. It rejects Rabbinical Judaism as archaic and the theophany at Mount Sinai as insignificant. These Jews say that they are “attuned to that of the Christian surroundings in which they live.” In other words, they have succumbed to a kind of assimilation. Israel’s cultural war is reaching its apex. Clearly, according to His numerous promises, this is not what God has brought the Jews home for. How things will unfold we cannot precisely know, but Israel has an appointment with the One Who founded her. As He says, He is returning the people to the Land and the Land to the People. And, as He says, He is to return them to Himself. This is their destiny. His purpose, unhindered and uninterrupted, will stand. “For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.” (Ezekiel 36:24-28) References: 1. www.israelmybeloved.com/churchill-or-chamberlain 2. www.jta.org/archive/behind-the-headlines-u-s- olim-in-israel-worry-about-rift-with-government 3. www.womeningreen.org —————————————————————— Stan Goodenough is an Evangelical (Gentile) Israel-accredited tour guide who for 30 years called Jerusalem home. After Covid-19 collapsed tourism to Israel, he moved with half of his family to the Czech Republic. Now that tourism has resumed, he commutes to Israel to once again guide Christian visitors to the Land God calls His own. Israelis attend a protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government, at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, on January 7, 2023. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

5. Charles Bybelezer n Authorities confiscated the VIP passes of top Palestinian officials and are withholding taxes and tariffs collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) to hold Ramallah accountable for last month’s ‘distorted’ UN resolution on Judea and Samaria. Israel on Sunday, 8 January 2023, revoked the VIP pass of PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, in line with a Cabinet decision last week to sanction Ramallah in response to the UN’s passage, at the PA’s behest, of a resolution asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to weigh in on the legal status of Judea and Samaria. Border officials stopped al-Malki as he crossed from Jordan into the PA and confiscated the travel document allowing him to expedite or altogether bypass normal security checks in Judea and Samaria. “In the diplomatic sphere, the Security Cabinet convened last Thursday and decided on a series of measures against the PA for advancing a radical anti-Israel decision at the UN,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netan yahu said. “These steps include sanctions against senior Palestinian officials, the offsetting of terrorist funds and the freezing of Palestinian construction projects in Area C, which contravene the explicit commitments that the PA has taken upon itself. “We have established a different government with a different policy, and everyone will see this,” added Netanyahu. Ahmed al-Deek, an aide to al-Maliki, told Reuters that the Palestinian diplomat “will continue his job with or without the card.” The official PA Wafa news agency reported that Ramallah was “considering a legal and political response to the vindictive measures,” which al-Malki claimed violate international law. He added that “work is underway to build an international public opinion against the occupying regime by exposing its crimes before the countries of the world.” The decision to retaliate against Ramallah came a week after the UN General Assembly passed a resolution calling on the ICJ to “render urgently an advisory opinion” on Israel’s “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of Palestinia n territory.” In response to the PA’s ongoing ‘political and legal war’ against the Jewish state, the Security Cabinet decided to withhold taxes and tariffs collected on behalf of and transferred to the PA in an amount equal to that which Ramallah paid to terrorists and their families in 2022 under its ‘pay- for-slay’ policy. An additional sum of nearly $40 million was deducted from the same PA pool of funds to be disbursed to Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorism. The Knesset had previously passed legislation mandating such deductions. However, the Bennett-Lapid government repeatedly found loopholes to delay its implementation. Netanyahu had said that the ‘disgraceful’ UN move would not obligate or restrain his government, adding: “The Jewish people is not occupying its land and is not occupying its eternal capital Jerusalem. No UN resolution can distort this historical truth.” Meanwhile, the Israeli Defense Ministry suspended the entry permits to Green Line Israel of three other senior PA officials after they participated in a homecoming ceremony for a convicted terrorist released from prison. The three officials , including an assistant to PA chief Mahmoud Abbas, arrived in the Arab Israeli town of ‘Ara, in northern Israel, to greet Karim Younis, an Israeli jailed for murdering IDF Cpl. Avraham Bromberg on the Golan Heights in 1980. The three men were identified as Mahmoud al-Aloul, deputy chairman of Fatah’s Central Committee, Azam al- Ahmad, and Ravhi Fatuh. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced the cancellation of a regulation implemented by the previous government that allowed any lawmaker to meet with jailed Palestinian terrorists. Ben-Gvir said that he took the step after “concluding that these visits resulted in incitement and the promotion of terrorist actions.” The policy will now revert back to that of the past when only one legislator from each political party was permitted to meet with imprisoned terrorists, and under ‘appropriate supervision.’ Originally published at www.jns.org. Republished with permission. Analysis 3 Israel Cracks Down on PA Over ‘Legal and Political War’ February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar - Nisan 5783 4hort NeXs Sustainable Apparel Reduces Pollutant Emissions The final stage in textile production, fabric finishing, is the most polluting step in textile production. In this process, the fabric is dyed and/or coated with antibacterial, odour- repellent, water-repellent, UV-blocking or other substances. German company Brückner Textile Technologies, which supplies a quarter of the world’s textile finishing machines, has collaborated with the Israeli technology company Sonovia to develop a textile finishing machine that uses sound waves to give fabrics the desired properties. This technology uses much less water and energy than conventional processes and significantly reduces pollutant emissions. It also makes garments more durable. The first jointly developed SONOfix machine was recently installed at Delta Galil Industries in Galilee to produce underwear and sportswear for brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and Adidas. Sonovia plans to supply additional machines to textile mills in Taiwan and Central America that produce apparel for brands such as Adidas, Nike, The North Face, Decathlon and Lululemon. Pakistani Cotton Found in 7,200-year- old Israeli Village Archaeologists excavating a 7,200-year- old village in Israel have found cotton from what is now Pakistan. The find is considered one of the earliest records of cotton in the ancient Near East. The site in the Jordan Valley already held “amazingly well-preserved organic material,” archaeologist Danny Rosenberg of the University of Haifa explained. The new finds involve microscopic cotton fibres. Until now, historians have assumed that fabrics in the region at that time were made of flax or linen. The cotton find therefore points to the importance of Tel Tsaf as a trading centre, which is also supported by other finds. In recent years, archaeologists have found pottery from Iraq or beads from Anatolia and Africa. “Tel Tsaf was a kind of hub where a lot of trade was done, and many people from all over the world met.” | Photo: Lightstock ISRAEL Celebrating Valley of Dry Bones Holocaust Remembered On 27 January—official International Holocaust Remembrance Day—the Shoah was commemorated in many different ways around the world. For some people, the creation of the State of Israel in 1948—three years after the end of the Second World War—was a fulfilment of the prophet Ezekiel’s prophecy about the valley of dry bones. The Jewish nation rose out of the ashes of the Shoah. Israel lives— Am Yisrael Chai! Dutch Christian artist Otto de Bruijne recently made a special painting about it. “I made more than 30 drawings: Ezekiel lying on his side near a model of the besieged city of Jerusalem, how he was not allowed to mourn when his wife died. I made an image of the merkava, the mysterious chariot of heaven with the angels, and large paintings about the nations attacking Israel, the new temple, the promise of a new heart, and the temple stream. Bible reading, designing images, working them out, each time an adventure. But somehow the Holy Spirit is also involved. Don’t ask me how... Tears But it happened very clearly when I got to the prophecy (in Ezechiel 37 ) about the valley with the dry bones of death. Where is that valley? Is that future? Has that already happened? Naturally, out of intuition, I started with the railway tracks and the gate of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The black gaping hole... While painting, seven chimneys emerged above the building. And then... tears. Out of those chimneys came black dots, it di dn’t stop. I may have touched twenty thousand of them. And I got tired of it, but in reality there were six million of them. Each dot a person, a child, an elderly person. The dots became shapes: arcs, lines, circles. Then something like ribs, legs, arms, heads. Then they became skeletons, and they grew into human shapes, and the seven braces became seven arms of the menorah. People took on colour and grew with the seven arms of the candlestick: dancing, singing, praying, working, loving. Resurrection This painting became the Word for me: the valley of the barren bones of death is the Shoah. And the menorah is the resurrection of the millions who were killed: Israel is resurrected. Rarely have I painted in such a way, hour after hour, from dot to man, from chimney to menorah, reflecting on the darkest night of God’s people.” Otto de Buijne’s beautiful paintings inspired by the prophet Ezekiel are to be seen in the Israel Centre in Nijkerk, Netherlands.

17. 7 February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar — Nisan 5783 The EU is supporting Palestinian take- over of Area C—in conflict with the Oslo Accords, and international law. In the June 1967 Six Day War, Israel gained control of the Eastern part of Jerusalem (including the Old City), and Judea and Samaria—territory that had been illegally obtained and controlled by Jordan between 1949 and 1967, and became known as the “West Bank.” Since then, the West Bank has been in dispute. Israel claims sovereignty rights, and has declared willingness to trade “land for peace.” Important steps were taken in the 1990s, when Jordan abandoned its claims to East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and Israel entered into the Accords with the Palestine Liberation Organisaiton (PLO). Under the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority was established, and the West Bank was divided into Areas A, B and C. Pending a final status agreement (which has never eventuated, thus far), the PA would govern Area A, there would be joint Israeli-PA control in Area B, and Israel was to have full civil and military control over Area C. In a recently-leaked internal European Union policy paper, which created an uproar in Israel, European bureaucrats propose options to “contain” Israeli settlements (which are perceived as illegal) and “reinforce Palestinian presence in Area C.” In fact, this was nothing new. It is well known that since 2012, the EU has spent hundreds of millions of euros to enable the Palestinian Authority to erect more than 20,000 buildings in Area C, in contravention of Israeli law. For decades, the European Union has claimed that its foreign policy is grounded in European and international law. And yet its policies concerning Israel and the Palestinians—such as those concerning Area C—undermine the very law it seeks to promote. In our recent study, Two States for Two Peoples? , published by Sallux, we expose how the EU uses international law as a cloak to justify policies that advance Europe’s political and economic interests. Following the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the European Economic Community entered into an agreement with the Arab world. Europe was desperate to obtain secure access to Arab oil, and to be rid of Palestinian terror on European soil. The Arabs promised both. In return, they demanded that Europe allow Arab/ Islamic immigration into Europe, and support Palestinian rights. The nine European states, influenced largely by De Gaulle’s antisemitic pro-Arab attitude, were only too ready to comply. The result was the Euro Arab Dialogue (EAD): a set of institutions and policies implementing deep Europe-Arab political and economic ties. The European “two-state” policy, developed since 1980, is based on the quid-pro-quo of the EAD. In essence, the EU argues: international law requires a Palestinian state to be established within the “1967 lines,” subject only to minor territorial adjustments. East Jerusalem must become the capital of the Palestinian state. However, rather than reflecting international law, this policy conflicts with international law. First, Israel was justified in “annexing” East Jerusalem after the 1967 Six Day war, and has legitimate territorial claims to the West Bank . The “1967 lines” are not a border, but were merely Armistice Lines. Second, the Palestinians have a right to self-determination, but not a right to statehood. Third, Israel was entitled in 1967 to treat Judea and Samaria (the “the West Bank”) as occupied , under the international law of belligerent occupation. In so doing, it never abandoned its sovereignty claims to the territory. Fourth, the Oslo Accords entered into between Israel and the PLO in the 1990s are binding treaties. They divided the West Bank into three areas: Areas A, B and C. Pending a final status agreement, Israel retains jurisdiction in Area C with regard to security, public order and all issues related to the territory, including planning and zoning. True, the Oslo Accords require the parties to treat the whole of the West Bank as a “single unit”, and not to change its status. However, the Oslo Accords do not require the creation of a Palestinian state. By assisting the Palestinian Authority to build illegal constructions in Area C, the EU is breaching the very international law it claims to promote. This hypocrisy is not only immoral, it is fuelling Palestinian extremism. It must stop. The report “Two States for Two Peoples?” can be accessed here: thinc.info/eu-two-state-policy-review ——————-———————————————— Andrew Tucker is the Director of The Hague Initiative for International Cooperation (thinc.) —a global initiative to advance the fair and just application of international law in the middle east. For more information: www.thinc.info Support of Illegal Construction in Area C Undermines International Law Andrew Tucker Director of thinc. By assisting the Palestinian Authority to build illegal constructions... the EU is breaching the very international law it claims to promote az-Za’ayyem, located 3 kilometers east of Jerusalem in the central West Bank. Ma’ale Adumim, an urban Israeli settlement in the background. Something to thinc. about with our C4I strategic ministry partner

2. Informs • Inspires • Comforts / Other Easy Ways To Donate Name on card: My Donation Today: $ Exp Date The 3 digits of the reverse of your credit card. (4 digits if using Amex) Card No Visa Mastercard Amex (Payable to Christian’s for Israel Australia Inc) Cheque/Money Order Credit Card *CVC Cardholder’s signature: Over the Phone 07 3088 6900 (during office hours) Securely Online c4israel.com.au TEL. 07 3088 6900 EMAIL info@c4israel.com.au www.c4israel.com.au Visiting address: 3398 Pacific Highway Springwood QLD 4127 P .O. Box 1508 Springwood QLD 4127 Australia ABN: 58 655 970 086 Christians for Israel Australia Foundation Ltd. Bank Transfer BSB: 014-279 ACC: 405318551 REF: Member Number in making your will. A legacy is a significant way to sow your powerful gift into Christians for Israel Australia after you have passed on. By remembering C4I in your will, you are—by the grace of God—helping to bless the nation of Israel, and continue that blessing into the next generation. If you are making a bequest, the most important consideration is to make certain that you use the correct name and address for our office in the country where you wish to designate your bequest. To make this process easier for you we’ve created a Will and Bequest brochure that provides helpful advice on how you can begin creating your Will and how—if you choose to—you can include C4I in your Will. If you’d like to receive a copy of this brochure please email info@c4israel.com.au or phone us during office hours on 07 3088 6900 . Thank you for considering leaving a lasting legacy to Christians for Israel Australia . Ian Worby, National Leader And the Christians for Israel Australia team. P.S. We are appreciative of all financial gifts to C4I’s ministry as they help cover the print and distribution costs of this newspaper as well as helping Jewish people in their unique and often desperate situations around the world—from bringing them safely back into their homeland of Israel, to providing food, clothes and shelter to those still experiencing persecution and various difficulties in the diaspora. Your gift today can bring hope and comfort to God’s people tomorrow—and your donations are also tax-deductible so you can also benefit from t he tax break as well. God bless you as you give.

11. Dear Faithful readers and friends (Chavorim). Happy New Year to you all and welcome to this 2023 February-March Australian edition of Israel & Christians today . I hope and pray that this year will be full of new exciting opportunities for us all to be more intentional and effective in fulfilling our purpose and God-given vision and mission—both personally as well as our joint partnership through this international movement of like minded Christians who love and pray for Israel. As we launch into 2023, as the National Leader, I want to reaffirm what our main purpose is as Christians for Israel Australia , especially as my son Steven and I prepare to travel to the international office in Amsterdam this month; to meet with the Global Executive Council for a two day strategic review and time of prayerful reflection over what Christians for Israel will be focusing on in the months and years ahead. As this is our first time travelling overseas in nearly 3 years, please pray for our safe travel, good health and for wisdom and discernment. Our Vision is to establish a global network of Christians having local impact, for the blessing of the nation of Israel, the Jewish people and the Church.  Our Mission is bringing Biblical understanding in the Church and among the nations of God’s purposes for Israel and promoting comfort of His people through prayer and action. Standing with Israel during Chanukah last year in Sydney’s Great Synagogue Just before we ended 2022, you may recall from our previous edition that I was able to fly down and represent Christians for Israel at the 4th ‘Standing shoulder to Shoulder with Israel’ event on December 20, at the Great Synagogue in Sydney, which was on the 3rd night of Chanukah. The event was coordinated by the Southern Cross Alliance for Israel (SCAFI) in partnership with us and a number of other like-minded pro-Israel Christian and Jewish organisations. Our special guest of honour was the Ambassador of Israel to Australia and our good friend, H.E. Amir Maimon, together this time with his lovely wife Tal. A highlight of this event was the afternoon tour of the Great Synagogue with informative and fascinating commentary by their Host, Rabbi Ben Elton. We learned about the history of the immigration of many Jews from Europe starting with the first fleet and then other waves of Jews arriving seeking refuge from the ravages of war, the Holocaust and antisemitism. Because it was part of the Chanukah festival of dedication (also known as the festival of lights), we enjoyed some moving songs by the resident worship leader known as a Cantor, who had the Ambassador and the other guests all singing along as part of the candle lighting ceremony. Earlier we got to enjoy traditional Jewish Chanukah food including jam filled donuts known as sufganiyot and a selection of tasty savoury Bagels, all washed down with tea and coffee or soft drinks. Rabbi Issac Riesenberg, founding Rabbi of the Central Shule in Melbourne, also gave us a very informative power-point presentation on the history and significance of Chanukah and some of the traditions, like the lighting of a 9 candle menorah and the playing of a children’s game with aspiring top called a dreidel. The dreidel incorporates into its design the Hebrew letters  nun, gimmel, hey  and  shin  which stand for  Nes Gadol Haya Sham —’A great miracle happened here.’ This refers of course to the miracle of the oil that did not run out during the events of the Maccabean revolt. Over 150 participants representing various Churches, Jewish congregations, organisations and even some political leaders including, Fred Nile and his wife, and many other individuals from all across greater Sydney and the rest of Australia. We even saw the director of the ICEJ flying in from Fiji and many more from other countries participate in this historic event. Unfortunately one of our keynote speakers Judy Russell, who is well known to many of our readers, fell ill and was unable to attend as planned. (Since this event we learned that Judy was taken to hospital for emergency surgery to remove a brain Tumour. She is currently recovering with her children by her side as she undergoes further medical treatment. Please see Judy’s article else where in the edition and please continue to lift Judy up in prayer as we believe for a full recovery). Sarah Way from ICEJ Australia did a great job of representing the Christian communities with her inspiring address which included the Biblical example of how Ruth a gentile, and Naomi a Jewess, came together with shared family and faith values and commitment in following the God of Israel—which for Ruth, resulted in God brining from her the royal linage of King David and the long awaited Messiah. Pictured below are guests inside the Great Synagogue of Sydney. This synagogue has its origins in the 1820s, where the first Jewish services in Australia took place. Another synagogue was founded in York Street in 1844, and although a rival congregation was formed on Macquarie Street, the two communities reunited in 1878 to form The Great Synagogue , which was designed by a Christian church architect Thomas Rowe.  Cantor Rabbi Chazzan Menachem Feldman can be seen below leading the Rabbi’s and Ambassador Maimon in singing around the lit Chanukah Menorah, much to the glee of all the congregation. Also, below and over the page are more photos of the event which was recorded by David Jack from SCAFI. You can watch it free online: vimeo.com/783766011 February 2023 Report From Our National Leader Comforts Informs Inspires Ian Worby C4I Australia National Leader and Regional Director for Oceania Ian Worby at the spring of David Ein Gedi, Israel Left to right: Ian Worby, Steven Green, Tal and H.E. Amir Maimon, Rabbi Issac Riesenberg, Rabbi Ben Elton, Cantor Rabbi Chazzan Menachem Feldman, Dr Ron Weiser.

22. 12 February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar — Nisan 5783 New Book Release on Antisemetism Announcing the publication of a new book “Unconditional ‑ the Enigma of Antisemitism” by Author and Theologian Rev Fraser Harding. The first public launch of the book was held at Kingdom Church on the Gold Coast Sunday 29 January. In the 1980’s significant truths began to dawn upon Bible-believing Christians in a new way after two thousand years of ‘Christian’ antisemitism. Sadly, there was shocking history of blood-libels, pogroms and slaughter that resulted from vitriolic hatred against the Jews and Judaism, much of it imbedded in Christendom. The peak of the Enigma occurred in Europe under the Nazi Regime in the early 1940’s, about which much has been written. Celebration Shalom Various Christian pro-Israel movements have been established to support both Israel and the Jewish communities. Celebration Shalom Inc. was one such organisation founded by the late Audrey Hodges on the Gold Coast in the early 1980’s. Audrey believed that God conceived in her spirit the idea ‘to build a bridge of unconditional love and understanding between Christians and Jews ’ and ‘to be a healing balm to the Jewish people’. She hoped that this would be the means of helping to eliminate some of the deep hurts and misunderstandings, which existed for centuries, including that for which some Christian leaders were responsible. Though fraught with huge challenges, It was a very exciting time and brought about a greater appreciation by the Christian and Jewish communities which embraced the concept. The early chapters of this book record the marvellous history about the good work that was achieved for two decades. Although those activities ceased in 2002, the baton has been passed to other organisations which are endeavouring to fulfil those goals. The Enigma Antisemitism has a long history, existing at least 3,500 years which continues to this day and is even on the rise in the 21st century. It has been called “the longest hatred” but remains an ongoing diabolical and inexplicable attitude about which, sadly, many people are either in ignorance or turn a blind eye and a deaf ear towards its reality. But silence gives licence to the enigma. We must not be silent! The author provides not only substantive evidence tracing the foundation of this enigma, but also details how it is continuing to develop in 2023. He states “It is time for Bible ‑ believing Christians to make a stand against these evil attitudes and actions which negatively target both Jews as well as the nation of I srael.” Holocaust survivors We must never forget that 6 million Jews including 1½ million children were murdered during the dark days of the Holocaust, simply because they were Jews. Moreover, there were others who experienced the horrors but managed to survive. There are many stories of survivors which have been published, Every person, most especially Christians should read at least two or three of those accounts which are readily available— details can be sourced on the internet. Also Included in this book (for the purposes of posterity) are witness accounts of Jewish people, who were living on the Gold Coast at the time and known personally to those of us involved. They were survivors of those dark days and became part of the Celebration Shalom story. Most of those personal stories have not been previously published. Commendations Well known Jewish personality Dr David Beirman , has written a commendation of the book which is on the back cover. David was a regular attendee and participant at the annual festivals held by Celebration Shalom during those 20+ years when he was Director of the Australasian & South Pacific Israel Government Tourist departmental office. The Foreword has been written by Hugh Kitson, Christian leader and renowned Film maker with over 45 years’ experience in the film and television industry. Hugh has produced several informative documentaries about Israel and the Holocaust. —————————————————————— About The Author Professionally Fraser has trained and worked as an Accountant. He is also a Baptist Minister (now retired) and a qualified Theologian. He was ordained into the Christian Ministry and accredited with the Baptist Union of NSW. He has pastored churches in Australia and the UK and was National Director of Ambassadors for Christ in Britain for seven years. In addition, he has served in various Christian pro-Israel ministries in Australia including Prayer for Israel, Good News for Israel (which he founded), and is currently on the board of CMJ in Australia. During various ministry tours he has visited two of the European concentration camps, the relics of the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Centre in the Ukraine. Fraser has been a frequent visitor to Middle East countries since 1967 e.g. Egypt, Israel Jordan, Turkey and Iran. During 1991 - 2014, he led pilgrim tours from Australia to Middle Eastern countries and was the first Australian to serve as a member of the volunteer guides at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem which he did over a period of five years from 2010. At 85 years, he conducts limited speaking engagements. Rev Fraser Harding Founder of Good News for Israel and Board Member for CMI Australia Unconditional - the Enigma of Antisemitism April 25 2022; Auschwitz, Poland: Nazi concentration and extermination camp. EricBery / Shutterstock.com Order your copy today! Contact Rev Harding today: fraser@titledeedmedia.com $25 inc p&h We must never forget that 6 million Jews including 1½ million children were murdered during the dark days of the Holocaust

14. 4 February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar — Nisan 5783 Historical Perspective The San Remo Resolution of 25 April 1920 gave Great Britain the responsibility for executing the Mandates for Palestine and for Mesopotamia (now Iraq). France was given the responsibility for the Mandate for Syria, which was later to be split into Syria and Lebanon. The San Remo Resolution was subsequently endorsed unanimously by all founding members of the League of Nations. ‘A Sacred Trust of Civilisation’ The Mandatory Powers had a legally binding obligation to fulfil the terms of their Mandates on behalf of the League of Nations. Article 22 of the Covenant of League of Nations refers to the Mandates as a “sacred trust of civilisation.” International Lawyer, Dr Cynthia Day Wallace explains: “A ‘Sacred Trust of Civilisation’ means in this case one country being entrusted with the administration of a nation that is not yet ready for self-government. It is ‘a sacred trust’, not just for that one nation, but a sacred trust of all civilisation—meaning entrusted on behalf of the League of Nations, and all of humanity.” 1 As was stated in the previous article, the whole concept of the Mandate system was not ‘colonialist’—in fact it was quite the opposite. Also previously mentioned, the Mandate for Palestine was unique in that its beneficiaries were the Jewish people, most of whom were scattered across the world in the Diaspora. Not only was it a ‘sacred trust of civilisation’, but it was ‘a sacred trust’ bestowed upon Great Britain by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to restore the Jewish people to their Promised Land as foretold in the Hebrew Scriptures. Many Christians living in Britain at that time realised this truth, as did many of the Jewish people themselves: “He remembers His covenant forever, the word which He commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac, and He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying: ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan, as the allotment of your inheritance’” (Psalm 105:8-11) and “For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries and bring you into your own land” (Ezekiel 36:24). These are just two of literally dozens of Scripture passages that speak of the Jewish people’s ownership and restoration to the territory then known as Palestine—referred to in the Bible as ‘the Land of Israel.’ On July 24, 1922 the Mandate for Palestine was signed off by Great Britain and the League of Nations, creating a legally binding international treaty. In effect it was the blueprint for the restoration of Israel in its historic homeland. Key Terms of the Mandate So, what did the Mandate for Palestine obligate Great Britain, as Mandatory, to undertake? First, the pre-amble to the Mandate incorporated the wording of the Balfour Declaration. Another foundational clause in the pre-amble states: “Whereas recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.” 2 The word ‘re-constitute’ here is crucial. The Jewish people were not being given a new right, but a pre-existing right was being recognised, and it applied to all the territory then known as ‘Palestine’. At the Cairo Peace Conference in 1921, the territory east of the Jordan River had been excluded from Jewish settlement, which was legitimised in Article 25 of the 1922 document. However, the territory west of the Jordan River, accordingly was reserved for the Jewish National Home. Secondly, in the main body of the Mandate document, Article 2 stated: “the Mandatory [Great Britain] shall be responsible for placing the country under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish national home, as laid down in the preamble...” 3 Article 4 describes the obligation of the Administration to work with a Jewish agency (the Zionist Organisation is mentioned) “in such economic, social and other matters as may affect the establishment of the Jewish national home and the interests of the Jewish population in Palestine...” .3 Nowhere in the Mandate document were the Arabs specifically mentioned. What was expressed several times in the Mandate for Palestine, and indeed the San Remo Resolution and the Balfour Declaration that preceded it, was “nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.” 4 A Subordinate Provision Legal expert Dr Gerald Adler understands wording of this clause to mean: “When a document says “without prejudice” to ‘this, that or the other’—it is very clear that that is a subordinate provision. When you have a subordinate clause like that it clearly indicates that there is a main clause, a main objective, a main policy which is restricted in some fashion, but there is no equality between the two provisions.” 5 Following, the Arab massacres of 1929, in which 139 Jews were murdered, the British Commission reports indicated they were to no longer favour Jewish political rights, but that Arab political interests had to be promoted alongside Jewish interests. Dr Adler believes that such a concession was inconsistent with the terms of the Mandate: “When we have a look at ‘nothing shall be done which might prejudice’ —it says ‘the civil and religious rights’. It does not say ‘political rights’. It says “civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities.” 5 Dr Adler also believes that there was a time limit to this subordinate clause: ‘the phrase says “the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities.” Now it doesn’t mention the future communities. In other words, we’re talking about the existing population as of 1922. Now, the fact that Britain failed to regulate Arab migration after 1922 certainly places the Jews in an invidious position.’ 6 The Real Purpose of the Mandate Article 6 of the Mandate obligated Britain to ‘facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and...encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews on the land...’ 7 International Human Rights Lawyer Dr Jacques Gauthier summarises the purpose of the Mandate thus: ‘The whole idea of the Mandate was for the Jews to be given the right to immigrate so that the population could increase, so that while the Trust is on-going they would be stronger, more numerous, and then could declare the independence of their country. That was the whole strategy.’ 8 Centenary of the Mandate for Palestine: Part 4 – The Legal Obligations of the Mandate Hugh Kitson Writer, Director and Producer of the Whose Land? documentary. Jewish protest against Palestine White Paper, May 18, 1939. Demonstration at the Rehavia gymnasium in Jerusalem. Shutterstock.com The Jewish people were not being given a new right, but a pre-existing right was being recognised, and it applied to all the territory then known as ‘Palestine’

1. Please send mail-in donations to: Christians for Israel Australia PO Box 1508 Springwood QLD 4127 AUSTRALIAN EDITION EMAIL: info@c4israel.com.a u PHONE: 07 3088 6900 ABN: 58 655 970 086 $ ____________ MY TOTAL DONATION TO: Christians for Israel Australia Inc. See over for credit card and other giving options My Gift Thanks for your financial sup port 10 February 2023 <<Addressee>> or <<CompanyName>> Member Number: <<MemberNum>> LeN0223 Yes Ian, I’d like to give a special one-off tax-deductible donation towards... $ __________ Aliyah: $350=1 person $1250=5 people $6250=25 people $__________ Food Parcels ($25 per parcel–see over for what’s included) $ __________ General Donation (Admin, Print + Post Costs) *please don’t use staples* The Importance of Leaving a Legacy Dear friend, “The LORD knows the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever.” — Psalm 37:18 Leaving an inheritance for future generations is grounded in many Biblical stories and principles throughout. We are of course reminded of the special blessing given to Abraham and his descendants by God—a blessing which yes, includes many physical earthly blessings as part of national Israel’s earthly Inheritance. Yet we cannot overlook it’s primary spiritual significance—the Heavenly inheritance of God’s eternal grace and righteousness for sinners who put their trust in God’s Messiah—Yeshua. In this salvation—for both Jews and Gentiles—God has foreordained that all His people enjoy a future sin-free world forever in His presence and with each other in eternal bliss. God also expects that His people likewise plan ahead and leave an earthly legacy that will bless others long after they’ve gone (Proverbs 13:22). Preparing a will is an important thing to do for the sake of your loved ones. A properly drawn-up will ensures that those closest to you are provided for, instead of your assets being directed elsewhere, or to the state. Through a will, your desires will be carried out—making arrangements easier on your family and friends and giving you peace of mind that your estate will be handled as you would like. We recommend our friends and supporters who wish to make a legacy to the Christians for Israel Australia Foundation Ltd. to consult a lawyer continued over... Your latest edition of Israel & Christian’s Today is enclosed. We hope you enjoy and are greatly encouraged by the latest News articles and stories. Simple. Just visit myaccount.c4israel.com.au and login with your username and password. Haven’t setup your online account? Go to myaccount.c4israel.com.au/ web/signup and follow the instructions. Need to change your address or Newspaper order?

7. 5 Holocaust Kelvin Crombie n Researcher & Author Introduction In March 2018, Rev David Pileggi of Christ Church, Jerusalem, asked me to undertake a research project relating to Jewish people who were involved with the Church during the period of the Holocaust. This group of Jews were officially classified as ‘non-Aryan Christians’ by the Nazis, but often saw themselves as Jewish Christians or Hebrew Christians, while to their detractors they were known as converts or meshumaddim (traitors). Irrespective of their classification, there was a considerable number of such Jewish people spread throughout Europe, involved in the Church at different levels and capacities. In most instances these Jewish Christians underwent the same persecution suffered by their Jewish brethren, and many of them (possibly into the tens of thousands) were also murdered. Discovering There Were a Number of Interconnecting Phases The sheer volume (and darkness) of the material being read, and observed during four on-field research trips to archives and ‘the killing fields’ of Europe, overwhelmed me, forcing me to develop a system in order to digest and collate this information. While reading a book entitled From Gurs to Auschwitz (the life story of a Jewish woman named Maria Krehbiel- Darmstadter, a ‘non-Aryan Christian’), I was intrigued why a Jewish person from the western part of Germany was transported, together with thousands of others, to southern France and primarily to a detention camp at the base of the Pyrenees named Gurs. Sometime later they were transported back north to the death camp at Auschwitz. It just di d not make any rational sense—if indeed anything about the Holocaust makes rational sense! It was then that I became familiar with the Nazi scheme to transport the Jewish people under German control in 1940 to the French colony of Madagascar. My interest was now piqued. After further research on the so-called Madagascar Plan, I began to see that this was actually just one phase in the Nazi attempt to make Europe Judenfrei —Jew free. From that point onwards I was able to recognise that there were other phases, culminating in the Nazis ‘final solution’ to the so-called ‘Jewish problem’—which was total genocide. Thereupon I developed a working model based upon seven phases which culminated in the decision to murder eleven million Jewish people in Europe and surrounding regions, including the Middle East. These were not seven distinct phases, as there was overlap between them. This model has greatly assisted me to better understand a very complex and complicated subject. Seven Phases of the Holocaust Ÿ Phase One : Until 1933—Foundation of the Nazi worldview. When the Nazi’s came to power on 30 January 1933 they already had an established worldview. This worldview had been conditioned and prepared by a number of streams or sources during the previous hundred or more years, and included historic anti- Semitism in the Church. A central component of this worldview was that Germany was to be made Judenfrei —Jew free. Ÿ Phase Two: 1933-1939—Intimidation, exploitation and emigration. Once the Nazis took power they began to exploit and intimidate the Jewish people with the goal of getting them to emigrate from the German Reich. This goal only partly succeeded. That Hitler detested the Jewish people is clearly evident in a speech he made on 30 January 1939 in which he alluded to “the annihilation of the Jewish race throughout Europe.” Did he, at that stage, contemplate their physical annihilation, or was it merely their removal from Europe? Ÿ Phase Three: 1939-1940 —The Lublin and Ghettoization Plan. When the Germans invaded Poland they ‘inherited’ another 3 million or so Jewish people. The plan was to place them in ghettos in larger cities and ultimately to move them to a region of Poland near Lublin, which would become a large Jewish ghetto. This plan was partially implemented. Ÿ Phase Four : 1940-1941 —The Madagascar Plan. With the conquest of the Netherlands, Belgium and France, the Nazi regime inherited another 550,000 Jewish people. It was then decided to remove these, as well as those from Germany, to the French colonial island of Madagascar. When Adolf Eichmann drew up a plan it included the deportation of all 4 million Jewish people under German control. Britain, whose navy ruled the sea lanes, though, could not be defeated thereby rendering this plan obsolete. Ÿ Phase Five : 1941 (22 June) —The Eastern Plan. As part of Hitler’s grand plan for gaining lebensraum (living space) the Germans invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. Indiscriminate shooting of some Jewish people was sanc tioned at this point, while it was also planned that Jewish people from Europe would ultimately be transported further East into Russian Asia. Encouragement was also given for local pogroms against Jewish people. Ÿ Phase Six : 1941 (30 July) —Initial implementation of genocide. Following a directive from Herman Goring on 31 July 1941, the SS and other units began indiscriminately shooting Jewish men, women and children throughout occupied areas of the Soviet Union. SS leader Himmler then ordered that other forms of mass murder be developed. From late 1941 murder by gassing, including in gas vans, began to be employed. Five specialised death camps were established for gassing, namely Chelmno, Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibor and Belzec—for the systematic murder of all the Jewish people in Europe. Ÿ Phase Seven : 1942 - 1945 —Complete implementation of genocide. This plan to murder 11 million Jewish people in Europe and surrounding regions was formalised at a conference at Wannsee House near Berlin on 20 January 1942. While mass shootings would continue in many areas, large numbers of Jews from throughout Europe were thereafter transported by train to the death camps of Chelmno, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec and Auschwitz. Throughout this period hundreds of thousands of Jewish people were also incarcerated in ghettos, and concentration camps and used as slave labour where many were executed, or died of starvation, sickness and beatings. By the time Auschwitz was liberated on 27 January 1945 the gassings had ended. But many more died thereafter through death marches and deprivation in camps mostly in Germany. Thankfully the Nazis were defeated by May and were not able to fully implement their demonic plan in total. The United Nations in 2005 designated 27 January as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Conclusion Three lessons being learnt through this research are: (1) There is no human way to understand the Holocaust, leaving me with the words of Jeremiah: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17: 9). (2) One’s faith, prestige or position in society made no difference—if you were Jewish you were earmarked for death—including in most instances, the Jewish Christians. If the totalitarian Nazi regime didn’t want you, then nothing could save you. (3) Signs and symptoms from that terrible period are still evident today. The challenge for us today is to discern these signs, and to then seek for God’s wisdom as to how best to act against them. © Kelvin Crombie 2023. More complete details of the Seven Phases of the Holocaust will be provided in a forthcoming publication of this name. Details of other publications on the subject matter can be obtained through kelvin@heritageresources.com.au, various branches of CMJ (Church’s Ministry among Jewish People) or Christians for Israel. Seven Phases of the Holocaust February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar - Nisan 5783 Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. | Photo: Unsplash Hebrew Christians in CMJ Warsaw congregation, pre-1939. Most of these people were murdered. | Photo: Conrad Schick Archive, Jerusalem Umschlagplatz, Warsaw Ghetto ISRAEL Celebrating

29. 15 From Our Projects Part of our mission is to comfort Israel and the Jewish people through prayer and action. If you would like to support one of our projects you can complete the coupon on page 16 or make an online donation. Thank you very much for your support! Aliyah Aliyah is the Hebrew word for the return of the Jewish people to Israel. We support Aliyah mainly from Ukraine (and the former Soviet Union), but also from India and France. Furthermore, we help new immigrants (in Hebrew: olim) to integrate into Israeli society. Hineni Soup Kitchen We help the poor of Israel, by providing them with food. We do this in partnership with the Hineni Center in Jerusalem, headed by Benjamin Philip. Your gift for the soup kitchen goes directly to the purchase of food. Holocaust Survivors We support impoverished Holocaust survivors in Israel and Ukraine through various projects which provide assistance to survivors of the Holocaust. Those survivors are elderly and will not be among us for long, and there is a growing demand for practical assistance. Christian Friends of Israeli Communities (CFOIC) You can support the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, the heart of Biblical Israel. The main purpose is to encourage the people in the Biblical Heartland and to show them that there are Christians throughout the world who support them and share the belief that the areas of Judea and Samaria are part of Israel’s inheritance. Food Parcel Campaign Ukraine We distribute food parcels amongst Jewish people in Ukraine. These parcels are handed out to Holocaust survivors, needy families, and the sick. Those food parcels are a sign of friendship that demonstrates your support for our Jewish brothers and sisters and that they are not alone. Arab Christians Life for Christians in Bethlehem is often not easy. Christians for Israel supports the First Baptist Church of Rev Naim Khoury in Bethlehem and Jerusalem. The members of this church spread the gospel among Arabs and share their love and heart for Israel and the Jewish people. For country-specific or further information on our projects, go to our website, www.c4israel.com.au Overview of our projects Marie-Louise Weissenböck n Christians for Israel Austria The Jewish people are returning home from the four corners of the earth. Once in Israel, it is important to integrate into society. For many, this is not an easy process, as it includes learning to speak Hebrew, finding employment and housing, and a school for the children. The First Home in the Homeland programme aids in this integration process. Since 1989, thousands of families have been welcomed to Israel by the First Home in the Homeland programme, which was established by The Jewish Agency for Israel. The programme is run in kibbutzim, where families live for their first six to twelve months in Israel and study the Hebrew language. They learn more about Jewish history and traditions and receive assistance with their integration into Israeli society. More than forty kibbutzim participate in this programme. Getting Settled Olim (immigrants) are carefully matched with one of the participating kibbutzim in the Negev and Galilee, where a coordinator is assigned to introduce the family to the new community and helps them to get settled. For the first six months, the parents study Hebrew in ulpan (classes for adults) either three or five mornings weekly, while their children attend schools on the kibbutz or nearby. The smaller ones attend the kindergarten in the kibbutz. Thousands Participated After completing their integration process, they are given the option of extending their stay for another half-year; most olim use that extended time to find employment in the area, continue in advanced ulpan, or join vocational courses. Each kibbutz also provides after-school care for school-age children six days a week and on holidays. Additionally, local recreation centr es offer after-school sports, music, ballet, and the like. Following their initial experience on the kibbutz, participants are given the option of remaining on the kibbutz as residents, or applying for kibbutz membership. They may also opt to pursue life and employment in other areas of Israel. Thousands of men, women and children have participated in this programme and have now made Israel their home. Olim from Ukraine The war in Ukraine has turned lives upside down and destroyed homes. With the help of Christians for Israel and other initiatives, thousands of Ukrainian Jews made Aliyah and many of them have joined The Jewish Agency’s First Home in the Homeland programme in Israel. As the war is continuing, more families are following. Also, many Jewish families from Russia have been coming to Israel in the past few months. In many kibbutzim, Russian and Ukrainian olim live together, eat together and their children play together. They are united through the fact that they are Jews and are saddened by the war that is raging between their two countries. Celebrating Hanukkah Together in Israel In December 2022, the end of Hanukkah coincided with Christmas. Hanukkah commemorates a holy miracle that happened more than two thousand years ago. Annually, it reminds the Jewish people that light always wins out over darkness. In the different kibbutzim participating in the First Home in the Homeland programme, this feast was celebrated together with the new olim. February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar - Nisan 5783 First Home in the Homeland With your support, we can help many families to integrate successfully, so that they in turn can be a blessing to others. Costs to assist one person for one month in the First Home in the Homeland programme: AU $350. Please donate on page 16. The miracle of Hanukkah in a kibbutz in the Jordan Valley. All olim celebrated together. (Left): In the Museum of Yarmukian Culture located in kibbutz Shaar Hagolan. Children received instructions on how to light candles for Hanukkah. (Right): Hanukkah celebration in kibbutz Ein HaShofet, Megiddo. In kibbutz Revivim, Hanukkah candles were lit under the super vision of kibbutz ‘veterans’, those who have lived there for almost all their lives. “I can speak Russian”, were the words an old lady began her speech with. “My father was Russian. We came here over sixty years ago, and I still live in kibbutz Revivim, which will celebrate its 80th annivers ary this year. Imagine, I was born when it was established.” Emilia from Mukachevo (Ukraine) and her friend Alina from Saint Petersburg (Russia) lit candles together, and then everybody present started singing a prayer and helping themselves to Hanukkah tre ats, which the olim from Mashabei Sade and Revivim had prepared. The festive Hanukkah table brought together olim from Russia and Ukraine in kibbutz Ein HaShofet and kibbutzim in the Eshkol area. “The light of human hearts can do more than the light of a cand le”, exclaimed Valeria Zakharova, one of the coordinators of the programme, when experiencing this familiar celebration. | Photos: The Jewish Agency for Israel ISRAEL Celebrating

12. 2 February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar — Nisan 5783 National Leaders Report continued + SCAFI Perth Event Representatives from different churches and organisations had the opportunity to read portions from the Psalms. After the event Ambassador Amir spent time engaging with many of our guests including this discussion below with C4I Sydney liaison Jacqui Bakker and ICEJ Director form Fiji. The next Standing with Israel event to be held in Perth WA, February 22. The Ambassador was again moved and delighted with how these gatherings of solidarity and expressions of unconditional love between the Christian and Jewish communities have worked in bringing these diverse and sometime disparate groups together. As such, he agreed to attend another Special event to be hosted in Perth, Western Australia, on Wednesday February the 22nd. Similar to the successful event in Sydney, there will be a pre-event program at the Great Synagogue in Perth in the afternoon, with a walking tour and explanation of Jewish life, the history of their congragation and Western Australia Jewry from local Rabbi Lieberman, as well as light refreshments. Rabbi Justice Marcus Solomon will also deliver an address on Judeo Christian Ethics. Then the main event will be held at Rev Dr Margaret Court’s Victory Life Centre from 6:30-8:30 PM. The special guests of honour will be H.E. Amir Maimon, Israeli Ambassador to Australia and also the well known and popular historian, author, documentary maker and Israel and middle east tour leader—Kelvin Crombie. Bookings will be essential and should be made as per the details in the SCAFI invitational flyer here below. Unfortunately I will not be able to attend due to my overseas travel commitments, but we are sending Keith and Trixie Buxton who many of our readers and supporters will know already. They will represent Christians for Israel and will bring our greetings and help distribute extra copies of this February-March edition of Israel & Christians Today to all the attendees. If you are able to attened I encourage you to look out for Keith and Trixie and give them a warm greeting—I know they would appreciate meeting any of you who support this vital ministry. It is sure to be a momentous event that should not to be missed. Nearly 100% has now been raised for a new Rapid Response Vehicle for Magen David Adom Israel . In our October 2022 edition C4I launched an exciting 2 to 1 matching gift donation project to fund a new $40,000 special- purpose customised Rapid Response Vehicle for the Israeli Ambulance and first response charity Magen David Adom . This was also in celebration of Christians for Israel Australia being given deductible gift recipient status (DGR) which means all donations over $2 are now tax deductible. Well the Good News is that as of the 16th of December we have nearly received most of the required funds from our readers and supporters; and once the remaining $ 1 ,022 comes in (which may have happened by the time this paper has been published), Christians for Israel Australia will be adding our promised matching gift and will soon be notifying the Christian Friends of Magen David Adom Australia office, to start making the arrangements to order that brand New Rapid Response vehicle and to organise the sign writing on the doors to say the vehicle was given as a special gift from Christians for Israel Australia and its generous supporters as a blessing for the people of Israel. These smaller sized ambulance vehicles can quickly navigate the narrow busy streets in Israel to bring urgent, life saving, help and comfort in their times of need. This coming May, I'll be attending the Christians for Israel International Forum in Jerusalem, and while there I hope to hand over the keys to the MDA team at a special presentation on your behalf. New Years goal: To grow the readership and raise more funds to comfort Israel I am pleased to give you another quick update. In that last financial year we collectively raised and sent over $557,700 to comfort Israel, by bringing the Jews home, giving them food and shelter and medical care on behalf of all of you—our generous and faithful readers and supporters. This year, now that we have DGR tax-deductibility; my hope and prayer is that we can increase this amount Significantly. We also hope to continue to grow our readership as you tell your friends and family and church members about the newspaper and the good things we can achieve together with Gods help. I know many of you needed to drop your bulk-copy orders during the pandemic as it was all but impossible for many of you to hand out extra-copies during the many lock-downs and the post-postponement of in-person gatherings and various events. However, now that our country— indeed most of the world—has finally opened up again and in-person events— including church services—are back to normal, can I encourage those of you who can, to increase your bulk-copy orders and start helping us share and distribute this world-class Newspaper to your friends, family and neighbours, so they to can be inspired, informed and encouraged to bring comfort to God's people. I am sure our Heavenly Father smiles when He sees His children show such unconditional love and generosity to “these, the least of His brethren” as we read Jesus words in Matthew 25:37-40. Thank you for being prayerful and generous as you make your tax- deductible donation on the back page of this newspaper or online at c4israel.com.au/donate Ian Worby National leader, Christians for Israel Australia Foundation Ltd. PS. As a special thank you gift , we're pleased to present the latest 21 page edition of our theological journal  Israel and the Church . The theme of this edition is  The blessing of Abraham . The authors explore the meaning of Genesis 12:3 and to whom the words are addressed. What does it mean for Gentiles to bless Israel? It's C4I's hope that through this unique resource you'll gain a deeper understanding of the blessing of Abraham. Read or download to print your copy from: c4israel.com.au/israel-and-the-church H.E. Amir Maimon, Israeli Ambassador to Australia, conversing with guests at the Great Synagogue in Sydney Photo: Pastors from a Catholic and Anglican church, Jane O’Neil from Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast, C4I liaison Jacquie Baker, ICEJ Fijian Director, Pastor from Zambia and Peter Stucken from Ebenzer.

28. David Zwartz n Former Honorary Consul of Israel in New Zealand It is an extraordinary and unique achievement by the young State of Israel—now only 75 years old—that in spite of major military, economic, and political threats to its existence from the very first day of being an independent nation, it has contributed so significantly to world culture. True, Israeli cultural development started earlier than 1948. In particular, rapid development occurred in the 1920s with the growth of the Yishuv, the organised Jewish community in Eretz Israel, during the time of the British Palestine Mandate. Also true, the Jews who arrived to found and build the modern State of Israel in Eretz Israel had behind them a history of outstanding cultural richness and variety in the many countries where they were forced to live during the previous 1900-odd years of exile in the Diaspora. The tensions and excitement of creating a nation made up of scores of different ethnicities and nationalities brought a wave of creativity in every cultural field. Dance, song, literature (in the new and still-developing language, Ivrit —Israeli spoken Hebrew), film and art and crafts have flourished. Dance in Jewish and Israeli culture dates back to Biblical times, with many Torah and Talmudic references. Western-style classical dance in Israel grew out of prominent Jewish involvement in Russian ballet, through the Batsheva dance company (which has visited New Zealand), to a wide range of modern dance creativity. The Israeli horah, based on a dance from Eastern Europe, and popular in kibbutzim, became a symbol of the early days of agricultural and socialist reconstruction. It was often danced to folk tunes such as Hava nagila, a modern folk song written around 1920 and widely popularised by Harry Belafonte. Israeli folk dance today reflects the cultures of Israel’s many different immigrant societies, culminating in the most recent Ethiopian Beta Israel aliyah. It is practised and enjoyed by dance groups around the world. Large-scale post-1948 Mizrahi (Middle Eastern) Jewish immigration has also influenced pop songs, changing their earlier Ashkenazi flavour to world-level Middle Eastern fusion style, featuring popular songwriters and singers such as Yemenite-born Ofra Haza and Tel Aviv- born Achinoam Nini (Noa). Ofra is in Rolling Stone’s top 200 singers of all time. Male pop stars include Arik Einstein, Dudu Fisher, David Broza, David D’Or (who performed at WOMAD in 2008) and Aidan Raichel. Israeli success at the international level is shown by its four Eurovision contest victories – Izhar Cohen and Alphabeta with A-Ba-Ni-Bi in Paris (1978); Milk and Honey with Hallelujah in Jerusalem (1979); Dana International (the first transgender person to win Eurovision) with Diva in Birmingham (1998); and Netta Barzilai with Toy in Lisbon (2018). In mainstream classical music, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is pre-eminent. It was founded as the Palestine Symphony Orchestra in 1936 and gained its international fame under the 50-year leadership of conductor Zubi n Mehta. World-class Israeli violin soloists include Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Shlomo Mintz (who gave master classes here in 2018), Gil Shaham and Miriam Fried. With conflict continuously present in Israeli life— whether historically recent Holocaust memories or current internal and external confrontations— contemporary authors do not lack subject matter for both sensitive and strong poetry and prose. Shmuel Yosef Agnon (1888-1970) won the Nobel Literature prize in 1966 for novels reflecting the growth and transformation of the Jewish State during his lifetime. More recent outstanding writers include A B Yehoshua, David Grossman, Amos Oz (published in 45 languages), Etgar Keret (also a film maker), and historian Yuval Noah Harari, whose ‘world history’ books Sapiens and Homo deus have reached many readers in many languages. Israeli books and scripts have inspired successful TV series such as Fauda, Tehran, Absentia, Shtisel and Traitor. The widespread artistic and cultural creativity described briefly here reflects a society which, compared to Aotearoa New Zealand, is tumultuous but at the same time has the ‘feel’ of a large family. Israel’s sense of the bonds of mishpoge is like our sense of whānau (family). An interesting consequence of this is the strikingly large number of museums in Israel—over 230, more per capita than anywhere else in the world. This links to Israelis’ strong sense of history. When your forbears have lived in your country for thousands of years, a school pupil can (and does) pick up an ancient coin on a weekend hike, and archeological discoveries are almost everywhere, the pride of displaying your heritage is understandable. History, art, science and special subject museums range from the world-class Israel Museum in Jerusalem, displaying Dead Sea scrolls, and the ANU Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv-Yafo, showing 4,000 years of Jewish and Israeli creativity, to the local kibbutz museum. The range of topics and changing exhibitions, and the high quality of presentation, is dazzling. David Zwartz ONZM was President of the New Zealand Jewish Council for seven years and Honorary Consul of Israel in New Zealand 2003-2008. 14 Modern History Celebrating Israel’s Successes Yuli Edelstein, PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Itzhak Perlman, Stan Polovets, Natan Sharansky and Helen Mirren at the Genesis (Jewish Nobel) prize award ceremony. Jerusalem, Israel, 23 June 2016. | Photo: Shutterstock February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar - Nisan 5783 Music to Our Ears Tal Hartuv n Israeli Tour Guide | Author | Cartoonist Every country has their iconic bands, artists and musicians, and Israel is no exception. One of the first indigenous cultural trailblazers to establish the reputation of an indigenous musical and theatrical heritage, is the Banai family. More of a clan, the Banai siblings and cousins have all made their mark on Israeli culture, on the likes of music, art, literature and comedy. Like many Jews who came from far-off lands, the beginnings of this popular and influential family is also extraordinary. At the end of the nineteenth century, the first Banais arrived from Persia (now Iran). The original doting parents came with three sons, aptly and succinctly named, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Upon arriving in the Land of Israel after a perilous journey, they were unable to find a place to live in the Old City of Jerusalem. Under the yoke of the negligent Turkish authorities, Jerusalem was filthy, overcrowded and dise ase was rampant. Disappointed but pragmatic, they settled down in the (now famous) Mahaneh Yehuda market, and began selling vegetables. They were successful beyond their imagination. It wasn’t long before they began investing in projects in Jerusalem. First, they established a school and then, a synagogue, for the impoverished Persian Jewish community. Just a few generations later, the Banai family continue to leave a deep footprint on Israeli culture. In the middle of the Corona pandemic, they had an idea to set up a virtual musical exhibition in the Tower of David Museum to display their family’s amazing journey from Persia to the Promised Land. This was new ground. Not just because of the restrictions of lockdown but also because of history. With much attention given to the European Jewish community decimated in the Holocaust, the Banai family wanted to remind us all, that the history of the Jewish community of Shiraz, also was rich in culture and history. Persia was the place where Jewish poets, singers and actors were also in plenty. For the exhibition, the Banai siblings banded together and used musical instruments from the Levant barely heard in Israel. In doing so they created a musical drama of pre-state Israel, the waves of aliyah up until the Jewish community in Jerusalem who lived and fought to see independence in 1948. The family have made their mark as a native and cultural superpower. They are admired and cherished, because of their extraordinary talent, and because it was from impoverished beginnings, that these Persian Jews flourished against all odds. The music of the Banai’s sabra-born generation struck a chord with sabras and with those who have been here for most of their life. This is because the Banai’s did not have a Russian, Polish, Romanian or Yemenite accent. Theirs was seen as the ‘authentic’ accent, and they spoke with the ‘right’ diction. The love of a Hebrew, barren of a European or Arab accent, led one member of the Banai family, Yossi (pictured above), to record an album of Psalms. It became an instant hit. He further went on to record every chapter in the Hebrew Bible. For months he sat in the studio, reading in ‘Israeli’ Hebrew, with perfect diction. For some, his is a local, indigenous Hebrew, a revived People-of-Israel Hebrew and one which hasn’t been heard on the streets of Jerusalem for two thousand years. Whether that be true or not, whoever we are or wherever we have come from, listening to him read the words of the prophets, is music to our ears. ISRAEL Celebrating

23. 9 History of the Church Signs of Faith By Kees de Vreugd Megillat Esther In this series, ‘Signs of Faith’, objects, procedures and concepts that express Jewish faith are explained and discussed. Megillat Esther is Hebrew for the ‘scroll of Esther’. There are five books in the Old Testament traditionally referred to as ‘scrolls’: Ruth, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther. They are linked to the various feast and memorial days. But only Esther is traditionally read from a kosher scroll, which is a parchment scroll, handwritten with ink, in the classical Hebrew script, just like a Torah scroll. Only Esther is invariably referred to as the Scroll of Esther. This will probably have to do with the popularity of the story and of the feast. One notable difference from a Torah scroll is that Esther scroll is rolled on one stick, while a Torah scroll has two. This is purely practical, as the Talmud describes. A Torah scroll, of course, is much larger. Moreover, a piece is read from it every week. Then it is easier to roll it through on two sticks, so that it can be closed where one left off. An Esther scroll, on the other hand, is actually a letter (Esther 9:20 and 26) and is therefore read like a letter: all at once. This happens on Purim, twice, on the eve and in the morning. The scroll is first completely unrolled and neatly folded on the lectern, to be read aloud. The precept (mitzvah) for Poerim is that you must hear the Esther scroll read aloud, preferably in the synagogue. Moreover, you must hear the reader immediately and not throu gh a phone, live stream or microphone. When reading aloud, therefore, it must be absolutely silent so that not a word is lost. Absolutely silent... except when the name Haman drops. Then as much noise as possible is made, with rattles and by stamping your feet, to drown out that name. In practice everyone reads along, in his/her own scroll, or in a printed Bible. There are four passages that are jointly read aloud by everyone, after which the reader repeats them again, to ensure that everyone has heard them . These are known as the four ‘verses of salvation’. Rev Cornelis Kant n Executive Director | Christians for Israel International In this new series of articles Rev Cornelis Kant explains how it happened that the role of Israel was seen as insignificant in the development of our Christian faith and in the history of Christian theology. Destruction of the Temple & Jewish Diaspora In the year 70 AD, the Roman army invades Jerusalem and destroys the city and the Temple. Many thousands of Jews are slaughtered in a gruesome way. Jewish boys and girls are sold as slaves, and many flee abroad. The Temple service comes to a definitive end and the Jewish dispersion, the Diaspora, begins. This news also reaches the Christians in the various congregations around the Mediterranean Sea. It touches them deeply. Many see it as a judgment of God on the Jews. It feels like a confirmation of what they have always thought: God is executing His judgment on the Jews as punishment, because they rejected and killed Jesus. The covenant with Israel would have been definitively broken. Israel has ceased to be God’s people, so they thought. The Christian church is now the only and true people of God. Replacement Theology This perspective has had a profound impact on the further development of Christian theology. It has been called ‘replacement theology’: the Christian church has replaced Israel’s position as God’s people. It is astonishing to see how, in a relatively short period of time, Christians in this first period of the church were able to set aside the multitude of Bible passages about God’s eternal love and faithfulness to His people. The aversion to the Jews was apparently stronger than the biblical testimony of God’s plan for the Jewish people. One might pose the question: what is left of Paul’s thorough explanation in his letter to the Romans? The Killing of Jesus Is it true that the Jews killed Jesus and thereby brought about God’s eternal judgment on themselves? No, this is not true at all, and for several reasons. The Jewish Council wanted the Romans to crucify Jesus. They were afraid that the movement around Jesus might cause an uprising against the Romans which would lead to bloodshed. High Priest Caiaphas explains this in John :49 It is, of course, unfair to attribute this to the entire Jewish population of Israel, let alone the many thousands of Jews who were already living outside Israel at that time. Besides, Jesus Himself said: “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father’ (John : ) God’s Everlasting Plan Paul even clarifies that God “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world” (phes@ans : 4) This shows that it was God’s eternal plan that Jesus Christ should die and rise for our salvation. It was therefore part of God’s salvation plan for the world. It is quite remarkable, then, that we would reproach the Jews for this. Besides, Pilate, who was then the Roman governor, said after having interrogated Jesus: “I find no guilt in this Man” (&LBe 23:4) So he could have released Jesus, but had Him scourged and crucified in spite of it, and hypocritically washed his hands in water as a sign of his innocence. So you could say that Pilate, as a Gentile, was at least as guilty of Jesus’ death. The old creeds of the Church also state: “crucified under Pontius Pilate”. That is, if you want to speak of guilt, because in the end Jesus’ death was already determined by God’s plan of salvation. Even before creation, the coming of Jesus was already included in God’s plan of salvation. So it is ultimately pointless to speculate in a legal sense about the question of guilt for Jesus’ death. Nevertheless, this perception of the Jewish guilt of Jesus’ death has deeply influenced attitudes and thinking about Jews within the Christian church, as we will see in the following articles. | Photo: Lightstock Believing Without Israel - Part 3 How Israel Disappeared from our Christian Faith www.c4israel.org/video-on-demand February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar - Nisan 5783 ...This shows that it was God’s eternal plan that Jesus Christ should die and rise for our salvation. It was therefore part of God’s salvation plan for the world. ISRAEL Celebrating

16. 6 February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar — Nisan 5783 And You Shall Love The Lord – ואהבת את יהוה When a scribe came to Jesus and asked Him ‘Which is the first commandment of all?’, He answered: Mark 12:29-30 ‘“...The first of all the commandments is: Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” This is the first commandment.’ This is a very familiar verse to most Christians and often quoted. Did you realise that Jesus was quoting the first two verses of the Shema which was an integral part of daily prayer then—and now? Deuteronomy 6:4-5 ‘Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.’ Jesus taught the scribe (and us) that the second verse of the Shema, is the first and greatest commandment . Out of the 613 commandments in the Torah— this is number one . Why do you think that Jesus responded to the scribe starting with the words ‘Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!’ rather than straight into the words ‘And you shall love the Lord your God..?’ Knowing Comes Before Loving Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch explains that before you can love God with all your heart, you must first understand whom it is that you are loving. In other words—to love God requires a comprehension of His uniqueness—His oneness. ‘The commandment to love actually lies in the previous verse, ‘Hear O Israel ...’ Because the word ‘shema’ (hear) also means ‘comprehend’, the Torah is commanding a person to study, comprehend and reflect upon the oneness of G‑d... and such contemplation by the mind will inevitably result in a feeling of love towards G‑d.’ That makes sense. When couples “fall in love,” their love deepens as they begin to know each other more and more; and this happens naturally when they spend time together talking and listening to one another and experiencing each other. But what about with the Lord. We can’t see Him and we certainly don’t interact with Him in quite the same way as we do with another human being. Yes we can spend time with Him daily in prayer and occasionally receive a sense of His love and direction for our lives. But Jesus was stating to his learned friend that learning and studying about God and His commandments is the way that will reveal His true nature to us, which in-turn will lead to us knowing God, and knowing God will in-turn lead us to loving God. The scribe acknowledged Jesus’ response: Mark 12:32-33 ‘So the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbour as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt o ff erings and sacr ifices.”’ If You Love Me Keep My Commands Loving God leads to my desire to serve God. And how do I serve Him? Jesus said it simply enough: John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” The apostle John certainly agreed with the Master. 1 John 5:3 ‘For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments ; and His commandments are not burdensome.’ Do you love the Lord and serve Him by keeping His commandments? And when you do so, do you do so out of love? Or do you inadvertently serve God out of fear? Love Not Fear Rashi taught that the command to love the Lord means to perform His commandments out of love which is preferable to serving Him out of fear. Rashi rightly taught that if a servant serves his master out of fear, the relationship is actually very fragile— because if the master sets too great a burden upon him, the servant will leave him and go away . On the other hand, if the servant serves his master out of love, he will serve him even under great burden. (Rashi on Deuteronomy 6:5) Certainly the scribe in our story had already arrived at this truth and so Jesus a ffi rmed to him that his personal spiritual journey was leading Him near er and nearer to the Kingdom of God. Mark 12:34 ‘Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”’ The Benchmark Of Love How do we know how to love God? We know it through His love for us which is revealed in His Word. The apostle John said: ‘We love Him because He first loved us.’ (1 John 4:19) God demonstrated His love for us by sending us His Son, whom He loved. John 3:16 ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.’ Jesus in turn demonstrated His love for the Father by living a life of total obedience to Him, even dying on the cross for us while we were still sinners. Romans 5:8 ‘But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’ Jesus is our model for both: 1. Being loved BY God and 2. How to love God with all our heart, soul, and migh t. Jesus’ love towards God was manifest in the form of perfect submission and resulted in the Father issuing these words: Matthew 3:17 ‘And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”’ Our love for the Father starts by receiving His Son Jesus as Messiah . This results in God’s forgiveness for our sins and our justification . We then have the privilege of demonstrating our love for the Father by following Jesus’ example of love for God by living a life of obedience to Him and fulfilling His commandments—or in the words of John the Baptist— ‘bearing fruits worthy of our repentance’ (Luke 3:8). If I truly love God, then I will seek to please Him in all that I do. This is accomplished by the assistance of the wonderful Holy Spirit, Who guides us into all truth (John 16:13). Loving God IS the greatest commandment because loving God should be our motivation for keeping all the other commandments. Therefore the commandment to love God must come first. ‘You shall love the LORD your God.’ —————————————————————— For more information on The Torah Portion visit www.thetorahportion.org Greg Cumming The Torah Portion www.thetorahportion.org Teaching from the Torah

15. 5 February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar — Nisan 5783 The Grand Mufti Derails the Mandate As mentioned in the previous article in this series, there was serious opposition to any Jewish presence in Palestine at all, let alone a Jewish national home there. The first British High Commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel, had appointed Haj Amin Al-Husseini, a radical Islamist who had carried out the first pogrom under British rule in 1920, as Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. The thinking behind this appointment was it would moderate his behaviour, but it had the opposite effect. As Mufti, he constantly incited violence which effectively torpedoed the British administration of the Mandate. Instead of confronting Arab insurgency, the British adopted a policy of appeasement. By the 1930s Palestine had become virtually ungovernable and the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations was far from happy with Britain’s conduct of its Mandate. The 1939 White Paper By this time Adolf Hitler had risen to power in Germany and European Jewry was in mortal danger. For fear of the Arabs siding with the Nazis, which they did anyway, the British administration increased their policy of appeasement. The end result was the MacDonald White Paper of 1939. The White Paper severely restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine to 75,000 over the next five years—at a time when millions needed to escape from Europe—and specified that any future Jewish immigration would have to have Arab approval. Land sales to Jews were forbidden and, moreover, British Government policy restricted the Jewish population of Palestine to one-third of the total, thus making the governance of the Jewish national home by the Jewish people impossible. Dr Jacques Gauthier had this verdict on the 1939 White Paper : ‘When Great Britain decided to introduce the White Paper, it violated the material obligations imposed upon it by the Mandate for Palestine. As a result hundreds of thousands of Jewish people who could have escaped Europe, who could have survived, are stuck in Europe and end up in the death camps.’ 9 By violating the terms of the Mandate in this way, Great Britain washed its hands of its ‘sacred trust of civilisation’ in the blood of hundreds of thousands of Jewish people, if not millions. In 1946 the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry , which was headed by two leading judges, one British and the other American, unanimously found that the 1939 White Paper was unlawful. Apart from former British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt admitting that the 1939 White paper was a dark stain on British history,10 the British Government has hitherto refused to own up to this fact. Moreover the British government has never made a formal apology to the Jewish people or the Government of Israel. Britain’s comprehensive violation of the terms of its Mandate to help establish the national home of the Jewish people has had other serious consequences that have ramifications to this day. We will examine those in the next article. References 1 Quoted from an interview segment in ‘Whose Land?’, produced by Hugh Kitson and presented by Colonel Richard Kemp. 2 Quoted from the text of the Mandate for Palestine treaty document (24 July 1922). 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid. 5 Quoted from an interview with Dr Gerald Adler in ‘The Forsaken Promise’, produced by Hugh Kitson for Hatikvah Film Trust. 6 Ibid. 7 See note 2. 8 See note 1. 9 See note 1. 10 The then Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Jeremy Hunt, made this admission at a Holocaust Day Remembrance commemoration at the Foreign Office on 23 January 2019. He repeated it at a Conservative Friends of Israel luncheon a few days later. —————————————————————— Hugh Kitson is a documentary filmmaker who has made many films about Israel. His films about the British Mandate for Palestine include “ The Forsaken Promise” —a three-part series (Hatikvah Film Trust 2006) and “Whose Land?” Part One , presented by Colonel Richard Kemp (Title Deed Media 2017)—see www.whoseland.tv . Part Two is still in production. This article is the fourth in a six-part series exploring the significance of the British Mandate for Palestine for today. Part 5, ‘The Fall-out from the Betrayal of the British Mandate’, will follow. To contact Hugh Kitson please email him: hugh.kitson@titledeedmedia.com Hugh Kitson Article continued... Watch Episodes Online: c4israel.com.au/whose-land Sign up a friend to ‘ Israel & Christians Today ’ and receive the ‘Israel: Covenants and Kingdom book’ OR the ‘ The Signs of the Times DVD’ FREE! * You can help us grow the reach and impact of our premiere publication. 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4. February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar - Nisan 5783 Editorial 2 Colophon Israel & Christians Today is the premier publication of Christians for Israel. Mission Our mission is to bring Biblical understanding in the Church and among the nations concerning God’s purposes for Israel and to promote comfort of Israel through prayer and action. Editorial Team Andrew Tucker International Editor-in-Chief atucker@c4israel.org Cathy Coldicutt Managing Editor newspaper@c4israel.org Marloes van Westing International Communications Manager international@c4israel.org Ian Worby, Bryce Turner, Rita Quartel, Marie-Louise Weissenböck and Marijke Terlouw Scripture references: THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. C4I Offices Christians for Israel International Leon Meijer, Chairman Rev Willem JJ Glashouwer, President Rev Cornelis Kant, Executive Director PO Box 1100 | 3860 BC Nijkerk, The Netherlands | Tel: +31 33 422 0405 info@c4israel.org | www.c4israel.org The English Edition of Israel & Christians Today is published by the following English speaking branches: Christians for Israel - Australia Ian Worby, National Leader PO Box 1508, Springwood Queensland, Australia 4127 Tel: +61 7 3088 6900, info@c4israel.com.au www.c4israel.com.au Christians for Israel - New Zealand Bryce Turner, National Executive Director PO Box 12 006, Penrose, Auckland, New Zealand 1642 Tel: +64 9 525 7564, +6421 127 7214 info@c4israel.org.nz www.c4israel.org.nz Christians for Israel - Korea Rev Paul Wonil Jung, Director Suite 3, 37 Railway Parade, Eastwood NSW, Australia 2122 Tel: +61 410 430 677 email: c4israelkorea@gmail.com www.c4israelkorea.org Christians for Israel - USA David Sudlow, Chairman PO Box 400, Front Royal, VA 22630, USA usa-info@c4israel.org www.c4israel.us DISCLAIMER - Articles printed in Israel & Christians Today express the views of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Editors or that of the Board of Christians for Israel. The printing of articles or advertising in Israel & Christians Today does not necessarily imply either endorsement or agreement. ©Christians for Israel International. Reproduction, or storage in a r etrieval system or in any other form, is prohibited without permission. Please contact the Managing Editor should you wish to syndicate or republish any articles or materials appearing in Israel & Christians Today. Prayer Points By C4I Prayer Team Israel l Pray for wisdom and insight for the new government of Israel under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu. Pray that they will be guided by wisdom from God and not by international criticism. l In 2022, twice as many Jews (74,000) immigrated to Israel compared to 2021. Give thanks for this huge increase. Pray that many Jews choose to make Aliyah this year. Pray also for Jews from Russia and Ukraine, that it remains possible to leave for Israel. Israel & the Nations l Since Israel’s new government took office, there has been much criticism from the international community about its right-wing character, which resulted in a very negative press worldwide. Pray that many will stand up and choose to support Israel and pray for unity among Christians in taking a stand for Israel. l ‘He (Nebuchadnezzar) was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal; he lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like the ox; and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and sets over them anyone He wishes’ (Daniel 5:21). Pray that God will appoint other leaders in Iran who will abandon enmity with Israel. Christians for Israel l ‘All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal’ (Psalm 119:160). Give thanks that it’s possible again to organise meetings and conferences in various countries around the world. Pray that these gatherings also attract people who haven’t heard the message of God’s faithfulness to Israel before. l The outbreak of war in Ukraine made it a very intense year for Koen Carlier and his team. Give thanks for the thousands of Jews they were able to help by offering comfort, food, shelter and transport to Moldova, from where they could leave for Israel. Pray for the safety of the team, that they may receive strength to cope with all challenges. For daily Prayer Points, go to our website www.c4israel.com.au Crisis in Israel

*oliti:al or -Giritual Andrew Tucker n International Editor | Christians for Israel Israel’s new government, led by Prime Minister Netanyahu, comprises a coalition of several right-wing political parties. The main members of the coalition are Likud (headed by Netanyahu), the Religious Zionism party led by Bezalel Smotrich, and the Otzma Yehudit Party of I tamar Ben-Gvir. Smotrich has become Minister of Finance and has been given responsibility for Israel’s civil authority in Area C of the West Bank. Ben Gvir has become Minister of Security. Smotrich and Ben Gvir are widely branded as ‘ultra-nationalist’ and ‘extreme right’. Among the key clauses in the coalition agreement between Religious Zionism and Likud are a commitment to pass a law designed to reduce judicial checks on executive and legislative power, a vaguely- formulated commitment to annexing the West Bank to Israel, legalisation of dozens of unauthorised settlements, and the provision of large funds for road building and public transport in the West Bank. In mid-January, Minister of Justice Yariv Levin (Likud) announced reforms that will alter the existing relationship between the executive, legislature and judiciary. The planned reforms include measures that will significantly limit the power of the Israeli High Court. This reflects the view of many in Israel that the court—an unelected body of jurists—has, over recent decades, assumed too much power. Key aspects of the proposals will: Ÿ allow the governing coalition to ‘override’ Supreme Court rulings by a simple majority of 61 votes in the 120- member Knesset; the overriding legislation could only be struck down by a unanimous ruling of all 15 justices; Ÿ end the Supreme Court’s ability to revoke administrative decisions by the government on the grounds of ‘reasonability’; Ÿ require a ‘special majority’ in an expanded bench of justices to strike down laws and/or decisions deemed to contradict Israel’s quasi-constitutional Basic Laws; Ÿ enable government ministers to install political appointees as legal advisers in their ministries; and Ÿ give the government a greater say in the appointment of judges. It is important to note that Israel is a Parliamentary democracy on the British model. It does not have a written constitution. It only has one house of Parliament (Knesset); there is no upper chamber. The coalition of parties that forms the majority in the Knesset also forms the government (executive). The President has very limited powers. Thus, there are (compared with some other democracies) relatively few inherent checks and balances on the power of the Knesset and government. Many feel that the judiciary’s wide powers promote democracy by providing an essential rein on the risk of abuse of power by the executive. Others feel the court has infringed democracy by enabling a college of unelected judges, on the basis of subjective views, to strike down laws and measures passed by the elected legislature and government. The government thus says the reforms will ‘restore’ Israel’s democracy, while its critics assert that the proposed reforms will destroy democracy in Israel, paving the way for a ‘democratic dictatorship’. These proposals have led to a political crisis. There have been violent demonstrations. Opposition leaders have accused the government of treason. Opposition Leader Yair Lapid vowed to wage “a war over our home.” At the same time, Benny Gantz, the defence minister until two weeks ago, warned that the judicial overhaul could lead to “civil war” and urged the public to lawfully take to the streets, declaring: “It’s time to go out en masse and demonstrate; it’s time to make the country tremble.” These are disturbing scenes. One suspects they will be only too happily misused by those who are already intent on destroying Israel’s credibility and international standing. This comes at a time that Israel is under increasing pressure in the international community. For example, late December, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to seek an Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice about the legality of Israel’s ‘occupation’. There is something paradoxical about Israel that perhaps many in the land do not appreciate. God is restoring His people to the land for a specific purpose: in order to live in unity, in accordance with His law, under His authority—as a witness to the nations of God’s sovereignty and love for the whole world. Seen from a spiritual perspective, the essential question is thus not how wide the judiciary’s powers are or whether the government has too much power. No institution, person or system will ever be perfect. The core issue is one of the heart. It is whether the people—as a whole, together —Jews and non-Jews—are genuinely seeking to live in unity, serving the God who is bringing the Jewish people home. This is the spiritual crisis facing the people of Israel. Therefore, let us, as non-Jewish Christians outside the land of Israel, refrain from becoming embroiled in Israel’s political crisis. Instead, let us hope and pray that, in the coming days and weeks, Israel’s people and political leaders will put aside personal, and even political differences, and seek the common good of the nation, living in accordance with God’s laws. As crisis after crisis engulfs the earth, the other nations of the world desperately nee d Israel to play the leadership role for which it was established and to which it is called. One suspects they will be only too happily misused by those who are already intent on destroying Israel’s credibility and international standing. ISRAEL Celebrating www.facebook.com/c4israelAUS

26. Dr GH Cohen Stuart n Theologian | Certified Israeli Tour Guide The name Purim, Lots, is taken from the book of Esther 3:7 . Ordered by, and in the presence of Haman, the lot (pur) was cast to determine the best day to extinguish the Jewish People. Purim celebrates the failure of Haman’s plot (the final solution of the Jewish question). That single failure has never lost its horrible and shocking reality. Steps Purim is celebrated in steps, representing different aspects of the feast. The first step is set during the morning service on the Sabbath before the feast. The usual Torah reading is followed by a special reading from Deuteronomy 25:16-19. There, Israel is called not to forget to blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven after entering the promised land. What is the connection with Esther? The last king of Amalek, mentioned in 1 Samuel 22, was Agag. The Agagite Haman was his descendant. The plot of Haman was a continuation of the cowardly assault by Amalek on Israel’s rear, right after the exodus from Egypt (Exodus 17). The reading of Deuteronomy 25 reminds Israel that it is the most principal struggle in all of Tenach (the Hebrew designation for the Old Testament): “The Lord will have war against Amalek from generation to generation” (Ex. 17:16). It is not just a fight against (meanwhile extinct) Amalek, but a combat against any form of antisemitism—even until today. When in the evening the celebration starts, the second preparation is also finished. Convinced of the seriousness of Haman’s threat (Esther 4:14), Esther —through her uncle Mordechai—called on all Jews in Shushan, the capital of the empire, to fast with her for three days. Then she risked her own life to save her people: “If I perish, I perish” (4:16). To commemorate this, 13 Adar (in 2023 on 6 March) is a day of fasting. According to tradition, upon entering the throne hall, she said: “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me” (Psalm 22). Masks The fast ends at sunset, when the 14th of Adar begins. Synagogues fill up with people. Many visitors are dressed up, often masked. That masquerade is a reminder that people often act different than who they really are. Haman, too, kept up the appearance of a loyal servant to King Ahasuerus, while in fact he was not just after blotting out the Jews, but in particular after royal power (hence his arrogant suggestion, Esther 6:6-9). Mordecai, by refusing to kneel for Haman (Esther 3:3) seems a rebel, but at the same time prevented a conspiracy against Ahasuerus (Esther 2:19-23). In the second part of the book, the masks fall. This turns everything upside down. The day Haman had wanted to exterminate all Jews becomes a day of punishment for Jew-haters. In Esther 9:1, ‘contrary’ is used as a rendering of the Hebrew wenahafoch hu. Those words mean: it was reversed. When the masks are dropped, Haman turns out to be Jew-hater, Esther a Jewess, Mordecai her uncle, and the Jews loyal subjects of King Ahasuerus. Haman’s accusation (Esther 3:9) of a people ‘not fulfilling the king’s laws’ is belied. Jews love to play with such masquerades. You poke fun at all kinds of ‘news’. In Israeli newspapers, you no longer know what real facts are. In Jewish periodicals, but also in communal magazines, ‘fake news’ articles at Purim. At talmudic high schools, rabbis are made fun of by their students. Bad traits are exposed during hilarious performances. Both in the evening and the following morning, the entire book of Esther is read. As ‘the memory of Amalek’ is to be blotted out, the name of Haman, when read, is made inaudible by trampling the feet and the noise of rattles and tooters. It causes young and old to attentively read the text. The morning service is followed by a festive meal. During the preparations, neighbours and friends bring each other gifts and deliver food packets to people with limited income, so they can celebrate the feast (Esther 9:19, 22). From all neighbours you can expect plates with sweets and Haman’s ears, the special Purim cookies. It is the only feast in Judaism where one is allowed to drink without limits, to the extent that one does not know anymore whom to bless or to curse, Haman or Mordecai. Esther 9:15 tells that in the capital, Shushan, Jew-haters were allowed to be punished one day longer. In remembrance of this, Purim in Jerusalem (as a walled city) is celebrated a day later. Victory Pesach celebrates the Divine intervention in history. In the Purim story, the Jewish people act themselves. No name of God appears in the book of Esther, though hidden references were discovered in the text. Against the divine intervention of the exodus, Purim seems just a secular happening. This least religious (?) of Israel’s feasts is one of the most beloved, not just in secular, but especially in strictly religious circles. According to rabbis, Purim is the only feast that will be celebrated in the coming new world (olam haba): the victory over antisemitism and Jew-haters. Dr GH Cohen Stuart is a theologian and in Israel a certificated tour-guide. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife Marian. 12 Biblical Reflection English Feast of ‘Lots’ February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar - Nisan 5783 A Daily Devotional by Rev. Willem J.J. Glashouwer Get daily readings in your inbox Did you know the Book of Revelation is the only book of the Bib le to give a special blessing to those who read, hear and apply its message? (Rev 1:3) Study God’s roadmap for the future, step-by-step. You only need a couple of minutes each day to study one or two verses of the Book of Revelation to come to a clearer understanding of its m ajor themes and messages. 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MEMBER ID (IF KNOWN) : C4IA + while stocks last From Our Projects Just Some Old Documents Koen Carlier n Aliyah Fieldworker | Christians for Israel Ukraine Recently, we brought four ladies and two small children from Ukraine to Moldova, or at least that was the intention. Among them was Yana, a single mother, with her two young children and younger sister Alina, who has a mental disorder. Normally, you can only cross the border when having an international passport. However, during wartime, you are also allowed to leave the country with a Ukrainian passport. At the border, however, it turned out that Alina’s Ukrainian passport had expired. Therefore, she was not allowed to leave the country. After the gruff- looking Ukrainian border guard bluntly told Alina she had to go back, she started crying. Fortunately, one of our volunteers with a van was nearby, and he took Alina back to our shelter. My wife Ira immediately went with Alina to apply for a new passport. Orphanage Meanwhile, we were in Moldova and the atmosphere in the van was initially subdued, which is understandable. After all, Yana is like a mother to her younger sister and cares for her. We assured Yana that Alina was in good hands with us. And then Yana told her own story. At the age of five, she ended up in an orphanage because her father regularly beat Yana and her mother. Growing up in an orphanage is quite hard, but Yana also had to endure all kinds of antisemitic comments from other children, which she did not understand at the time. At the age of 17, she left the orphanage only to get married not much later. Unfortunately, her husband also proved aggressive and Yana and the (now born) children were regularly beaten. History seemed to repeat itself. In addition, Yana took care of Alina. A New Life After years without contact, Yana suddenly received a message from her father asking her to come and visit him. He was on his deathbed and gave her some old documents, saying: “With this, you can start a new life.” Yana did not understand what he meant but asked no questions and left. Once home, she looked at the documents, and a birth certificate from 1911 showed not only her grandmother’s name (Chava), but also her Jewish identity. Yana now understood why she was bullied so much in the orphanage. Exit Visa She contacted a Jewish organisation in Dnepr and was invited to come and visit. The people examined the documents her father had given her, and it turned out that these papers allowed her to move to Israel to start a ‘new life’. It seemed almost too good to be true. Yana wanted nothing more than to take her children and sister Alina with her as well. Miraculously, her ex-husband gave permission for the children to go. As soon as Alina receives her new passport, we will bring her to Kishenov as well. Together they can apply for the exit visa to indeed build a new life in Israel. Shepherd Yana trusts the Almighty that very soon, they will be able to leave the Diaspora and go to Israel for good. Yana’s story touched us and shows that—despite everything— we may also see the mighty hand of the Lord in this. Like a shepherd, He calls the children of His people one by one to His land! | Photos: Christians for Israel 16 February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar - Nisan 5783 We continue our practical help in Ukraine to assist them with their Aliyah. Will you help? It costs AU $350 to assist one Ukrainian Jew to make Aliyah. Please complete the coupon below. Any amount is welcome! Yana (left) with her two children. Behind her (wearing the black hat) stands Alina. Several times a week, Koen and his team members bring Jews to Moldava’s capital Kishenov, from where they leave for Israel. Alina in the snow with Natalia Kriszhanoviski, team member of Christians for Israel Ukraine. ISRAEL Celebrating IF YOU DON’T KNOW OR HAVE YOUR MEMBER ID PLEASE INCLUDE: Address: _____________________________________ _____________________________________________ Phone: _______________________________________ Email: _______________________________________ PLEASE COMPLETE THIS FORM AND RETURN TO: Christians for Israel Australia, PO Box 1508, Springwood, QLD, 4127 or donate securely online c4israel.com.au/donate For enquires: 07 3088 6900 SUB TOTAL $____________

25. Kameel Majdali n Director | Teach All Nations Inc. Thus say the Lord God; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her— Ezekiel 5:5 It is arguably the most famous city in the world—a household name even in remote places like the highlands of Papua New Guinea or the jungles of the Amazon. It has four thousand years of history of which the first thousand was heathen, the second thousand Israelite, the next two thousand Gentile, and then after the June War of 1967, the city returned to Jewish/Israeli rule. This six-part series will look at Jerusalem—historically and prophetically. When we understand Jerusalem, we better comprehend the will of God. Bird’s Eye View The very first time Jerusalem is mentioned in the Bible by name is in Joshua 10:1. Adonizedek formed a coalition against the royal city of Gibeon, for having the audacity of making a league with Joshua and Israel. He is referred to as ‘king of Jerusalem’. Despite its lack of mention in the Torah, (the first five books of the Bible), Jerusalem is undoubtedly the chief city of the Bible. It’s explicitly named 811 times. In addition, it has other names like: Ÿ City of God (Psalm 46:4; 87:3) Ÿ City of David (2 Samuel 5:7; Isaiah 22:9) Ÿ Jebus (Joshua 18:28; Judge 19:10) Ÿ City of Righteousness (Isaiah 1:26) Ÿ City of Truth (Zechariah 8:3); Ÿ City of the Great King (Psalm 48:2); Ÿ Holy City (Nehemiah 11:1) Ÿ Faithful City (Isaiah 1:21,26) Ÿ Salem (Genesis 14:18; Psalm 76:2) Ÿ Holy Mount (Daniel 9:16) Ÿ Perfection of Beauty (Lamentations 2:15) Ÿ Throne of the Lord (Jeremiah 3:17) Ÿ Egypt & Sodom (Revelation 11:8) Ÿ Zion (1 Kings 8:1; Zechariah 9:13). When you tally up the references, it amounts to a 1000 times Jerusalem and its synonyms are found in Scripture. In contrast, the city of Babylon—the spiritual rival to Jerusalem—is cited 252 times. The Glory of Zion It is impossible to understand Jerusalem’s significance without mentioning Zion. Are Jerusalem and Zion the same thing or are they distinct? The name ‘Zion’ needs special emphasis. It is often associated with ‘Zionism,’ though ultimately it has a spiritual, prophetic side that is above politics. Zion has several meanings in Scripture, depending on the context. The word is used 152 times in the Bible, along with ‘Sion’ nine times. Ÿ Zion can mean the city of Jerusalem (Psalm 87:2-3; 48:1-4); Ÿ Zion can mean the land of Israel (Isaiah 51:3); Ÿ Zion can mean the Jewish people (Isaiah 51:16); Ÿ Zion can mean Salem, which is equal to Jerusalem (Psalm 76:1-3). Thus, while Zion’s exact meaning is uncertain, it has become synonymous with Jerusalem, Israel, and the Jewish people. Significant as these points are, Zion goes to a whole new level when referring to Almighty God Himself. Psalm 132 gives great insight into the significance of ‘Zion.’ We learn that God has chosen it (verse 13), desires it as His habitation (verse 14) —His local earthly address; He desires it as his final abode above all other places (verse 14); the lamp of God’s anointed (David and Messiah, son of David) will be there. In light of Psalm 132, and other Scriptures, Zion’s greatest glory is this: It is associated with God’s literal dwelling place on earth; His local earthly snail mail address. The phrase, ‘The Lord Dwells in Zion’ is found in the following verses: Psalm 9:11; Psalm 135:21; Isaiah 8:18; Joel 3:21; Isaiah 33:5. In summary, Zion appears to be a royal city, or at least the royal section of the city, where the King of Israel will live. Zion/Jerusalem is a holy city, where the God of Israel dwells, too. Messiah is the Son of David and Son of God, the heir who will sit on David’s throne and rule from the holy city. Since G od has chosen Zion for Him and His King to dwell, you can be sure that the forces of darkness will do their utmost to foil the divine plan. If it were possible, they will try to keep the King out of Zion. In Psalm 2 and Zechariah 12, 14, we begin to see a picture of why the nations are so restive and concerned about Jerusalem. These passages are the beginning of understanding why Jerusalem is the burdensome stone. Either Zion will be God’s capital or that of an anti-God, anti-Christ force. The First Thousand Years (2000-1000 BC) While the first millennium of Jerusalem was not in Israelite hands, it is mentioned by implication in the following events: Ÿ Melchizedek, king of Salem, welcomed the patriarch Abraham after the slaughter of the kings. He was a priest of the Most High God (Genesis 14:18-20). Ÿ Isaac’s near-death experience occurred in the ‘land of Moriah,’ traditionally considered Mount Moriah, Jerusalem. Ÿ Joshua’s conquest of Canaan: Information was sparse, but we learn that Judah did not drive out the Jebusites , inhabitants of Jerusalem (Joshua 15:63) and neither did Benjamin (Judges 1:21); Ÿ Alternatively, Judah destroyed Jerusalem by fire (Judges 1:8) but did not retain it. Then the Jebusites inhabited it afterwards. Ÿ In short, neither Joshua, the judges, nor king Saul succeeded to capture and keep Jerusalem. That honour would be left for a man called David. To be continued... 11 Theology Biblical Roots Esther: The Holy Spirit On the evening of 22 February, we will begin the Hebrew month of Adar— launching our annual Hebraic redemptive season. It includes the holidays of Purim, Pesach (Passover) and -havuot (Pentecost). The first sacred text we read during this season is the Book of Esther. Not only was Esther written and canonised within Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) by the Ruach "akodesh (Holy Spirit), but the establishment of the Purim on the Jewish calendar was also done by the work of the Ruach "akodesh. The Book of Esther, for all intents and purposes, should not be in the Bible. It’s a story that takes place outside of Israel after the giving of the Torah at Sinai, between the First and Second Temple periods. The book does not even contain God’s name in it. If I were on the Bible Canonisation Committee Board, I wouldn’t dare put Esther into the Hebrew Bible. However, the Ruach "a%odesh ensured that Esther was in the Hebrew Bible. At first glance, the Book of Esther seems to be an exclusive Jewish experience and victory. It is, therefore, quite astounding that Esther remained in the Christian canon. Certain early Church fathers, and later, Martin Luther, argued for the removal of Esther from the Bible. I t was just too Jewish! How does one explain Esther’s canonisation in Christian Scriptures, as well as being used by a remnant of Christian brothers and sisters to “stand in the gap” for Israel (Esther 4:14) ? The Ruach "akodesh I humbly believe that Christians should celebrate Purim with the Jewish people. Although God’s hand provided the military victory, it was both Jews and non-Jews who were the divine agents to win the war. Traditionally, Esther :1 has been translated to invoke that a mass conversion to Judaism occurred— “... Then many of the people of the land became Jews because fear of the Jews fell upon them.” My preferred translation is, “Then many of the peoples of the land anchored their destiny with the Jewish people because the remarkable God of the Jews descended upon them.” Due to the limited scope of this article, I cannot extrapolate the two Hebrew terms in Esther :1 — Pachad "aë3ehudim (traditional translation—‘fear of the Jews’) and Mitëyiëhadim (traditional translation—‘became Jews’) to understand how I arrived at my translation. Let’s just say that the traditional translation reflected a late Second Temple period understanding of the verse when a more formalised conversion system was in place. However, an Esther :1 live stream would show a move of God that took hold of a segment of non-Jews, and they recognised Him. This non-Jewish remnant decided to defend His people without conversion to Judaism. I encourage my Christian brothers and sisters to study Esther this season. It is truly a Ruach "a%odesh holiday. David Nekrutman is an )rthodox $ewish theologian involved in the sacred calling of $ewish-Christian relations for over two decades and currently serves as the Israel Director for The Isaiah Projects. In 201, Mr Nekrutman received his masterës in biblical literature from )ral Roberts /niversity. By David Nekrutman February 2023 | Israel & Christians Today Adar - Nisan 5783 In the Beginning: The History of Jerusalem—Part 1 Jerusalem 1900.| Photo: Wikimedia Commons ISRAEL Celebrating