18. 10 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Nation Bless Israel Event Online Deon van Baalen Australian Advocate for HaYovel An Evening of Thanksgiving, Prayer and Praise for Israel! On the evening of 14 May—Israel’s Independence Day on the Gregorian calendar—the restoration of Israel was celebrated online with an evening of thanksgiving and praise. The event was hosted live on Zoom with over 165 Christian and Jewish participants and 185 people connecting to the live stream on Facebook. The event can continue to be viewed at vimeo.com/418698833 or via the Beersheba Vision Facebook page, and to date over one thousand replays have occurred post the event. The line-up of speakers and key community leaders from Australia and Israel included: • Mark Sofer, Israeli Ambassador to A ustralia • Yuval Rotem, Dir ector General of Israeli Department of Foreign Affairs • Senator James Paterson • Andrew Tuck er, Director of THINC • Zac Waller , Executive Director of HaYovel • Rabbi Tuly W eisz, Founder of Israel365 • Dr Jennie B ickmore-Brand, Educationalist • Dr Michael Halberthal, Director at Rambam H ospital • Rabbi Riesenberg, Cen tral Shule Melbourne • Russell Gra y, Beersheba Vision. Live musical items by violinist Ron Jontof Hutter provided a beautiful music interlude and excellent rendition of the respective national anthems. The evening brought together people from the Jewish and Christian Zionists community to celebrate and also focus on current day affairs. It was the second year of the event focussing on nations blessing Israel—last years was the inaugural event hosted at the Central Shule Melbourne in Caulfield South. This year we could not gather together in person due to Covid-19, but all were blessed with a great night of celebration online. In Genesis 12 God says that He will bless those who bless Israel and through Israel all the people of the world will be blessed. The event is a tribute to the late Peter Kentley of blessed memory—the man that originally brought us all together in celebration last year. Sadly Peter passed away earlier this year but we honour his memory and celebrate his legacy of establishing this event in Melbourne. Jill Curry (friend and author) gave a fitting tribute to Peter during the event as did Rabbi Riesenberg who was very inspired with Peter’s faith in his hour of trial. The organising committee consisted of Rabbi Riesenberg (Central Shule Melbourne), Russell Gray, David Jack and Joy Heylen (all from Beersheba Vision), John Lockwood (Kingdom Builders) and Deon van Baalen (HaYovel). John Lockwood was an excellent host and we appreciate his coordinating the live event. Although registration of the event was free, the committee would like to extend our deep gratitude to those who made donations in appreciation, which will go directly to the Australian Friends of Rambam Hospital. We look forward to continuing celebrating these prophetic times where we can see and experience the restoration of Israel and its people. Information of further events this year will be made available soon. A big thank you to all who made this year’s event a success! _______________________________________________________ Deon van Baalen – on behalf of the organising committee. Screen-shot of participants. Ron Jontoff Hutter – Violinist Andrew Tucker Rabbi Tuly Weisz Senator Dan Paterson Yuval Rotem

16. 8 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Political Analysis Dr Ron Weiser AM Hon Life Pres of the Zionist Council of NSW We stand just weeks after celebrating that the Balfour Declaration of 1917 moved from a statement of British intent, to the legal process of affirmation of the Jewish Homeland at the San Remo Conference in April 1920—and its then formal ratification by the League of Nations. This is turn was then incorporated into the foundational treaty of the United Nations in Article 80 of the UN Charter. And stands of course, till today. Israel has finally established a new Government and it has two initial tasks that form the basis of the coalition agreement: • fighting the corona virus • and dealing with the Trump Plan. Whilst one would think that the term ‘annexation’ is redundant because of San Remo, that is the term used by the Trump Plan, the US administration and the Israeli government. The real question is what annexation will mean, or come to? For the first time in some years, the Likud —the party of Prime Minister Netanyahu —finds itself as the most right wing in the coalition and no-one knows at this point in time, what the Prime Minister is aiming for vis a vis annexation. There is no-one in the coalition opposed to annexation and indeed there is much general agreement on what areas should ultimately be annexed. But the range of opinion is based on a judgement retiming and of potential consequences. The annexation on offer under the Trump Plan, whilst appealing to the new government, comes with a price that some are not willing to pay, or at least, to happily embrace. Primarily, that Israel will have to agree to a Palestinian State in 70% of Judea & Samaria/ West Bank. To others in the new government, the cost may be too great in terms of the relationship with Jordan, the Palestinian Authority et al. The real questions the government is debating internally are whether annexation in one form or another, will bring Israel greater physical security, or less—and how to enhance that security whilst formally incorporating portions of the Jewish people’s historical homeland into the State of Israel. Joint detailed US/Israel mapping of the Trump Plan is now occurring. Even within the 30% in question, there is complexity about separating some of the Jewish towns and villages from the Palestinian ones— particularly with 15 of those Jewish entities isolated and surrounded by Palestinian towns. The settler movement is becoming increasing concerned that these 15 villages may not be incorporated into the map of Israel after all, despite the Trump Plan’s initial form. In such a small area details really matter and ridiculous as it sounds, even the size and type of the pens/markers being used to delineate borders, have effect. Last week was Yom Yerushalayim— celebrating the reunification of Israel’s capital. Aviva and Shmuel Bar-Am writing in the Times of Israel, describe just how many issues arose between Jews and Arabs, how many streets ended up being divided and how deeply life was affected, simply because when drawing up the Armistice Line that divided Jerusalem after the War of Independence, certain types of pencils were used. They wrote: “... They were the direct result of the temporary borders created in 1948 during a meeting between Moshe Dayan, commander of Israel’s forces in Jerusalem, and his opposite number, Abdullah Tal of Jordan......the preliminary lines on their map, [were] written with soft grease pencils which expanded from the heat and blurred over time” This had severe consequences from 1948 to 1967. So the current mapping process is being watched very carefully. It is interesting to listen to Zvi Hauser MK to try and gain some insight as to how the government may proceed. Hauser was previously Netanyahu’s cabinet secretary from 2009 to 2013, amongst other positions he held in Netanyahu governments. Now in Blue & White, he is considered one of their hawks and has been appointed the chairman of the powerful Knesset Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee. Notwithstanding that many refer to the San Remo document as giving Israel legal title to the whole of Judea & Samaria/ West Bank, Hauser’s take is both deliberate and Netanyahu is in a good position to do as much or as little annexation as he wants. Will Annexation to Israel Bring Greater or Less Security? JERUSALEM - Elections billboard showing Netanyahu shake hands with Trump. Slogan “Netanyahu. Another league.” gali estrange / Shutterstock.com

24. 24 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Lawfare 12 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Andrew Tucker and n Dr Matthijs de Blois The status of the Old City of Jerusalem, the ‘Holy Basin’ (the area around the Old City), Judea and Samaria is complex. It is gradually becoming the subject of an international dispute that could even lead to military conflict. The recent coalition agreement between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Benny Gantz allows the Prime Minister to bring ‘the agreement which will be achieved with the United States on the imposition of sovereignty’ for approval to the cabinet and Knesset from the beginning of July. It is n ot clear what the government intends to do. Many news reports use the word ‘annexation’. ‘Annexation’ applies to a situation where a state seeks to incorporate into its own territory adjacent territory that does not belong to it and has been acquired by force. Like the Nazi’s did with Austria in 1938. But the status of these territories is different. The current status of the ‘occupied territories’ The legal regime applicable in the territories (re-)gained by Israel in 1967 (commonly referred to as the West Bank) is extremely complex and cannot be described in detail here. With the exception of Jerusalem, Israel has not incorporated them into Israel, but has encouraged Israelis to live there (ie. has facilitated ‘settlements’) and has gradually applied a complex web of civil and criminal laws and administrative measures. The whole matter is made even more complex by the complicated arrangements agreed under the Oslo Accords, dividing the West Bank into Areas A, B and C, each with different legal and administrative arrangements, and the creation of the Palestinian Authority and other Palestinian institutions. In our view, the term ‘annexation’ is not applicable to the West Bank. This is because there are very good arguments to support the view that Israel in fact already has sovereignty over the West Bank. This is certainly (in our view) the case in ‘East Jerusalem’, where Israel immediately applied Israeli law and jurisdiction to the whole city after the Six-Day War in 1967. It also appears to apply to Area C, that remains under full Israeli control. However, the vast majority of states, academics and international institutions consider that none of the ‘occupied territories’ belongs to Israel - though they usually fail to explain why they think this to be the case. The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Cou rt (ICC), Ms Bensouda, argues that these territories belong to the Palestinian people. The Prosecutor has been ‘examining’ ‘the Situation in the State of Palestine’ for five years and recently decided she thinks that Israel’s policies of establishing ‘settlements’ in East Jerusalem and the West Bank constitutes a war crime. She has submitted two documents to the Court recently arguing that ‘Palestine’ should be considered a State, even though it does not meet the normal criteria of statehood under general international law, and that all of these territories (ie . ‘East Jerusalem’ and the ‘West Bank’) belong to this State of Palestine. Palestinian narrative The ICC Prosecutor portrays all Palestinians as victims – not only with respect to the alleged Israeli war crimes (settlements) but more generally in their pursuit of self- determination. She asserts that the Palestinians are the rightful sovereign owners of the land and that their ‘right to statehood’ has been and continues to be obstructed by Israel. Israel alone is the wrongdoer. She makes no mention of Palestinian terrorism, or of peace offers that have been rejected by the Palestinians, or of the institutional Palestinian incitement to terror or the payment of salaries to Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons. In the eyes of the Prosecutor, the Palestinians bear no responsibility for the lack of a Palestinian state or the break-down of negotiations. Israel, on the contrary, is depicted as an Occupying Power that has no claims to sovereign title and is preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state. The Prosecutor relies on two arguments to support the view that the Palestinian people have sovereignty over the ‘Occupied Palestinian Territory’: 1. sovereignty over all of the ‘occupied’ territories is ‘best viewed as residing in the Palestinian people under occupation’; and 2. the Palestinian people have a right to a State in the occupied territories. These arguments are, of course, contradictory – either the Palestinian people are ‘under occupation’ or the State of Palestine exists. It cannot be both at the same time. Territorial sovereignty: to whom does the West Bank ‘belong’? The Prosecutor dismisses Israel’s assertion that sovereignty over the territories is ‘in abeyance’ (meaning that the sovereignty is temporarily suspended). Sovereignty lies with the Palestinian people. She states that Israel cannot claim sovereignty over the territories. The argument that ‘sovereignty over all of the ‘occupied’ territories belongs to the Palestinian people as people under occupation’ is completely novel. Contrary to the Prosecutor’s assertion, this line of thinking is not shared by most international lawyers. She rejects out of hand the arguments (articulated by a number of leading international law jurists) that Israel has sovereign claims to these territories based on the rights flowing from the Mandate and the legal doctrine of uti possidetis juris, which would imply that the borders of the Mandate territory have become the borders of the State of Israel. The Prosecutor ignores the fact that the Mandate expressly was intended to ensure the ‘establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people’. This view of sovereignty leads the Prosecutor’s to continue to fundamentally misread the Oslo Accords. She proceeds o n the premise that at the time the Accords were signed Israel had no territorial or criminal law jurisdiction to transfer to the PLO. But, for the reasons given above, she fails to establish the validity of this premise. Statehood under international law The Prosecutor argues that international law requires a ‘case-specific application’ of the law when it comes to the determination of Palestinian statehood. One of her main arguments is that the Palestinians have a ‘right’ to statehood. But the right to ‘self-determination’ does not automatically entail statehood. The International Court of Justice recognised the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people in its 2004 Wall Advisory Opinion but did not find that there is a Palestinian S tate. The Prosecutor relies heavily on UN statements/ decisions. This overstates the normative value of UN resolutions. General Assembly resolutions are, in general, not binding under international law. Although they may provide evidence establishing the existence of a rule, this depends on factors such as its content, the conditions of its adoption, and whether states intended the rule to have a binding character. Even then, objections, explanations of vote, interpretations and public statements expressed by Member States must be considered in o rder to contextualise and qualify consensus or majority vote decisions. What next? First, concerning the ICC: it is to be hoped that the ICC will reject the Prosecutor’s flawed reasoning, and decide that ‘Palestine’ is not a state. The ICC case also shows how important it is that other states who oppose Palestinian statehood should clearly and unambiguously record their opposition to Palestinian assertions of statehood and territorial sovereignty. Second, concerning Bibi’s proposed ‘annexation’: Israel has over the last 50 years been unclear about what it considers the status of the territories to be. Except for Jerusalem, it has not treated these territories as part of the State of Israel, yet at the same time it has gradually applied more and more Israeli laws to Israelis living in the territories. The result is a complex web of legal and administrative measures in which Israelis are treated differently from non -Israelis. All of this is clearly unsustainable in the long term. The proposed measures may bring some clarity. On the other hand, applying Israeli jurisdiction over parts of the West Bank, and not other parts. It will threaten the continued viability of the Oslo Accords, and is likely to attract much international condemnation. Andrew Tucker is Director and Dr. Matthijs de Blois is Senior Fellow at The Hague Initiative for International Cooperation (thinc.). More information can be found at www.thinc.info ‘Annexation’, the ICC and ‘Palestine’ Fatou Bensouda, Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) briefs the Security Council

13. 5 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Virtual Israel Tour 2020 Invite What is it and why is it? Last year I had the privilege of being part of the inaugural Christian Tisha B’Av Event held in Jerusalem. According to Jewish tradition, Tisha B’av (the 9th of Av on the Hebrew Calendar) is a day when Jewish People mourn and repent over past sins that led to tragedies that have uncannily befallen them on that one particular day since Moses broke the tablets at Mount Sinai (three weeks leading up to that date) in response to the sin of the Golden Calf. It includes the spies giving a bad report on the Land God commanded them to enter, the destruction of the First and Second Temples, the defeat of the Bar Kochba revolt and the ploughing over of Jerusalem by the Romans and its renaming to Aelia Capitolina. In modern times some have included Prime Minister Sharon’s decision to evict 10,000 Jewish residents from Gush Katif and 4 other towns in Samaria in 2005, as a tragedy to be officially mourned. The eviction was initially unwittingly scheduled for the 9th of Av due to the use of the Gregorian Calendar and when this was realised it was postponed one day, to the 10th of Av. It was a decision that was touted to bring peace but since that fateful day Israel has had to engage in three wars, with the now Hamas- controlled Gaza strip and more recently the Burning Kite Intifada. The Christian Tisha B’av Event is not only about joining with Jewish people to share in their sorrow over these tragedies. It is also to repent to Almighty God for the tragedies that were inflicted on the Jewish people on this day at the hands of people bearing Christ’s name, and to mourn over OUR sins. An account of these appalling atrocities, which I would encourage people to read, have been published in a book called “The LIST: Persecution of Jews by Christians Throughout History” written by New Zealander Ray Montgomery and American Bob O’Dell. Simon Wiesenthal’s book “Every Day Remembrance Day: A Chronicle of Jewish Martyrdom” provides a similar history of horrors. On Tisha B’av Jewish people also lament the expulsion of alI Jews from “Christian” England in 1290 and from Catholic Spain in 1492, wherein Jewish people were given the option to convert to Christianity or to die. Many preferred death rather than to denounce their faith. In synagogues on Tisha B’Av Jewish people around the world recite prayers and liturgies surrounding these and other horrendous events, events which have understandably done nothing to endear Jews to Christianity. But the list of atrocities goes on. World War One started on Tisha B’Av 1914; in 1942, the Treblinka Death Camp started operations; and that same year deportations commenced from the Warsaw Ghetto, laying the infrastructure for the Holocaust itself, the ultimate in incomprehensible evil perpetrated against the Jewish People. None of the above has occurred in a vacuum. These atrocities were fuelled by documented Christian Anti Semitism dating back to the early Church fathers, and added to in particular by Martin Luther’s 65,000 word treatise “The Jews and Their Lies.” Some give this as a reason why Christian Europe was mostly silent during those horrendous years of the Holocaust and why churches are known to have sung their hymns louder to drown out the cries of those going by on the trains to the Concentration Camps. Fortunately, the World Federation of Lutheran Churches distanced itself from Luther’s writing in 1985, but in World War Two Luther served as an ideological basis for the killing of six million Jews. So the Christian Tisha B’av Event aims to gather Christians together to repent for atrocities committed by Christians against Jews throughout history. It is being hosted by an organisation made up of Jews and Christians called Root Source www.root-source.com. The Christians will be fasting, praying, and seeking the Lord alongside the Jewish community on the 9th of Av. They will begin with a Live Stream event from the Promenade overlooking Jerusalem on the evening of July 29th 2020 and conclude after sunset on July 30th. This will be followed up with a week of online virtual tours into Biblical Judea and Samaria. This program provides an environment for Christians to build relationships with Jews, so that walls from the centuries can come down and bridges of friendship and fellowship can be built. In doing this, they will “embrace the past to transform the future of Christian-Jewish relationships.” Special Guest Speakers are as follows: • Rabbi Yehudah Glick – Former Knesset member & Presiden t Shalom Jerusalem Foundation • Rabbi Tul y Weisz—Publisher of The Israel Bible and Breaking Israel News, Founder and CEO Israel365 • Rabbi Chaim Eisen— Founder and Dean Yeshivath Sharashim • AnaRina Heymann— Founder & Director Align With Zion • Yishai Fleisher —Broadcaster, columnist, lecturer and International Spokesman for Hebron • Tommy W aller—President & Founder HaYovel • Gidon Ariel —Founder & CEO of Root Source • Dr. Rivkah Adl er—Freelance Journalist and teacher, Author of “Ten from the Nations” • Rabbis Ari Abramowitz and Jerem y Gimpel—Cofounders of The Land of Israel Network • Eliyahu Berkowitz in terviewing Rabbi Pinchas Winston • Ruth G uggenheim with a member joining from the Emunah Counseling Center in Sderot The Virtual Tour includes: • Temple Mount walk with Yehuda Glick • A message from 4 coupl es: The meaning and significance of Shabbat (Gidon & Devra Ariel, Aaron & Eti Lipkin, Rabbi Chaim & Raye Eisen, Rabbi Elan & Dr. Rivkah Adler) • A virtual “Gala A wards Dinner” as we celebrate the grace and mercy of our God and the fellowship we share in Him! • Jerusalem walk with Rabbi Chaim E isen • Elon Mor eh with Tommy Waller • Hebron with Y ishai Fleisher • Shiloh with Aar on Lipkin • Arugot Farm/J udean Hills with Ari & Jeremy • Mount Gerizim with Ha Yovel & Zac Waller • Gush Etzi on, Negohot, Itamar, Kochav HaShachar, Joshua’s Altar, Gilgal and many more visits with friends and families This year’s Christian Tisha B’av will be a Virtual Event because of Covid-19. People can register for it at www.lipkintours.com An absolute bargain for US$99. Hope to see you there. ________________________________________________________ Joy Heylen retired Social Worker, Intercessor for Israel, National Coordinator of Stan Goodenough’s Speaking Tours to Australia and the Australian Representative for Christian Friends of Israel Communities (Judea & Samaria). Joy Heylen Retiered Social Worker and Intercessor for the Nation of Israel A Christian Virtual Tisha B’Av Event and Tour July 28th to August the 6th 2020

14. 6 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Biblical Insights With the global sweep of the coronavirus pandemic, our world has suddenly changed. Normal life is no longer normal and probably never will be again. The planet is undergoing violent shakings of illness and death with a massive economic fallout that leaves us all reeling. However, there are positives that have come out of this worldwide wake-up call. Pubs, brothels, casinos closed, Hobart’s Satanic Dark Mofo festival was cancelled, the worship of sport stopped in its tracks, movie theatres have closed, even Hamas had to stop their weekly mass protests against Israel at the Gaza border and Islamic worship on Temple Mount ceased! Governments have largely stopped their squabbling as left and right jointly attacked this unseen enemy. Of course, many good things were also put on pause or forced to find ways to adapt— such as church services—but there were also many opportunities that opened up through this too. Our air is cleaner and workplaces have never been so sanitised. With entertainment on hold and many of the false things our society clings to unavailable, we have been forced to take stock and re-think what is important. What do we really worship? Is it our job, which is perhaps now non- existent? Is it money, as we see stock markets crash around us? Is it the love of shopping or spending our cash on the things of the world? Is it a love of travel, which we now can’t do? Perhaps it is even our family that we now can’t visit because of social distancing advice? We are certainly being challenged to assess whether the things in which we trust are of earthly or of eternal value. We have been forced to take a long-forgotten but much-needed Shabbat—a ceasing from our normal activities. We did not choose this, but we do have a choice as to whether we will learn from it and rise up stronger for it at the end of the tunnel. ‘Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it....So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.’ Hebrews 4:1, 9 What is the purpose of the Shabbat? • To rest. Gen 2:2-3. ‘On the seventh day, God rested from His work of creation. ’ The first thing God sanctified was time, not things or people. It was instituted at creation not Mt Sinai, so it has implications for all humanity, not just the Jews. At Mt Sinai, He then commanded the Israelites to keep the Sabbath rest, even during the busy times of the year (Ex 34:21). Most of us find this exceedingly difficult. We find something to fill our time: watching sport, drinking with friends, going to the movies or doing more jobs. With COVID-19, all that ceased. As the virus abates, will we fill the void with seeking more of God or resume our ‘normal’ livestyle? • To have time to connect with God. Adam and E ve’s first day on earth was Shabbat, to enjoy God’s presence and creation. After God showed them around the garden, He then assigned them their task of tending it (Gen 2:15). Our work is meant to stem from relationship and God’s instruction and guidance, not come from our good ideas which we then ask God to bless. Anything of eternal value must not only flow from the throneroom but also be done in God’s strength, not ours, and give Him the glory. Jesus used Shabbat to go to synagogue to worship the Father with others, to teach and to do good works like healing people. Shabbat is a time to come back to our first love and spend additional time with the Lord in extended prayer and Bible study. • To spend time with our families. Shabbat in Israel begins with a family meal where God is remembered, honoured and thanked. At the Shabbat table the man blesses His wife and prays for each of his children. Oh how we need to return to this precious tradition. It is said that the Shabbat has kept Israel rather than Israel keeping the Shabbat. In Israel, it is such a joy to see whole families going for a Sabbath walk or parents playing interactively with their kids, as no gadgets are allowed on Shabbat. • To allow time for everyone to be refreshed. Ex 23:12. The Sabbath extended to include slaves, servants, foreign workers and animals. No such thing existed elsewhere in the ancient world. Refreshment is not idleness or laziness. It is an opportunity to re- vitalise for the coming week. We need to learn to be Marys not Marthas. • Sabbath was a sign and a perpetual covenant bet ween God and His people. Ex 31:12-17. The covenant relationship is one of love and trust. The reason we think we have to keep working stems from lack of trust that God will provide, which God promised to meet (Ex 16:26), or a de-valuing of the importance of our relationship with Him. God promised special favours to those Gentiles who chose to keep His Sabbaths (Is 56:3-7, 58:13-14). Hebrews 4:9-11 tells us that there is a Sabbath rest for God’s people to enter, but also warns us that we can miss it (4:1). Will we emerge from this pandemic Shabbat with eternity etched in our hearts, stronger and ready to take ground for God? I pray we will understand what God wants us to re-set and how we should proceed from here. Let us build on the rock and not on the sand. God is using this time to purge us of the things that are fleeting and reinforce the things that will ensure we spend our days well on earth when the Coronavirus finally passes. May we hear His voice and respond to His love. Sabbath made for man not man for the Sabbath. Mk 2:27-28 ________________________________________________________ Jill Curry is author of ‘The Anzac Call.’ Jill Curry Jewish & Israel Prayer Focus Cooordinator The Coronavirus Sabbath Rest We are being challenged to assess whether the things in which we trust are of earthly or of eternal value.

4. 16 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 News 4 Israel’s New Government Yochanan Visser n Christians for Israel Correspondent Israel On 17 May 2020, Benyamin Netanyahu became Israel’s Prime Minister agai n. This happened after 72 Israeli lawmakers voted in favour of a bill that recommended giving ‘King Bibi’ as his supporters call him the task to form Israel’s next government. On Thursday, 7 May, President Reuven Rivlin officially assigned the task of forming Israel’s next government - Netanyahu’s fifth in a row - to the current Prime Minister, despite indictments for alleged bribery, breach of trust and corruption. “According to the request of a majority of Knesset members, presented to me today Thursday 7 May 2020 / 13 Iyyar, according to the provisions of Article 10(a) of Basic Law: The Government (2001), and according to the provisions of Articles 10(b) and 10(c) of Basic Law: The Government (2001), I hereby inform you that you have a period of 14 days to form a government,” read the letter sent to Netanyahu and signed by the President. Leftist political parties such as Meretz and the Movement for Quality Government again filed petitions to the High Court of Justice to strike out the coalition deal which provides for Netanyahu to become vice-Prime Minister in November 2021 but chances are close to zero that they will succeed. The Israeli High Court of Justice earlier rejected similar petitions to the court demanding that the court disqualify Netanyahu forming Is rael’s next government. The Court ruled that no legislation preventing a member of Knesset from forming a government while under indictment. Netanyahu has performed the near impossible after he failed to form a right-wing coalition after the rightist parties did not obtain a majority of Knesset seats in the third election Israel experienced in one year. The magician, as even his opponents now call him, succeeded in breaking up the Kachol Lavan (Blue and White) party that was founded in March 2019 with only one goal: to dethrone Netanyahu, who has been Israel’s PM since 2009. Kachol Lavan, which has only 15 MK’s in the new Knesset, got a large number of ministerial posts in the new cabinet in exchange for joining the Netanyahu-led government and agreed to sign a rotation deal for the premiership. Under the deal, Netanyahu will continue to be Israel’s Prime Minister for one and a half years and will then step down after which Kachol Lavan leader, current Speaker of the Knesset and ex-IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz will become Israel’s PM. Gantz changed his mind about Netanyahu after the Corona crisis paralysed Israel’s economy and society and broke his election promises that he would never sit with the Likud leader in the same government. That decision was necessary, said Gantz, because of the dire state of affairs in Israel where more than 26 percent of the workforce became jobless as a result of the Corona crisis and where whole sectors collapsed. Telem and Yesh Atid - the other parties who formed Kachol Lavan together with Gantz’ Resilience party - will now lead the opposition. They will be joined by the right- wing Yamina party led by Naftali Bennett that according to Likud sources, demanded too many ministerial posts in the new government. The other right-wing parties such as the ultra-orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ) will join the new government but Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman of UTJ lost his job as Health Minister. Litzman has been heavily criticised for his role in the Corona crisis because he looked too much to the interests of his own voters, the ultra-orthodox Jews, and initially refused to implement measures aimed at preventing gatherings of people during prayer services. Litzman also failed to expand Israel’s health system which is one of the smallest in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Kachol Lavan leader Benny Gantz now serves as Israel’s Defense Minister until November next year when he will take over from Netanyahu and will become Israel’s PM while the party’s number two Gabi Ashkenazi became Israel’s new Foreign Minister. The new government has to deal with the implementation of the new peace plan of US President Donald J. Trump which envisions Israeli sovereignty over parts of the so- called C-area in J udea and Samaria as well as the whole Jordan Valley that is deemed Israel’s eastern security belt. Trump’s plan also envisions the creation of a Palestinian state in the remaining areas of the so-called West Bank (Judea and Samaria) but the Palestinian leadership has rejected Trump’s plan out of hand. The new coalition deal in Israel stipulates that implementation of Israeli sovereignty in areas that have been under Israeli control since June 1967 will take place around the beginning of July. The sovereignty issue has now, temporarily, disappeared from the political agenda because Prime Minister Netanyahu’s trial has begun. The Israeli PM was summoned by th e court in Jerusalem to appear for its first hearing of his case on Sunday, 24 May. The trial is expected to be drawn out for a long time and could even be years before there is a verdict. June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Understanding the Times Dr Emilie Noteboom n Director of Outreach, European Coalition for Israel Eighty years ago on 18 June 2020, Winston Churchill delivered his famous ‘finest hour’ speech to the House of Commons. On the heels of the ‘Battle of France’ being lost he rallied his countrymen for the Battle of Britain that was to come, ending his speech with these legendary words (copied in the style of his typed speech notes): Three weeks later the Battle of Britain did come. It and the battle for ‘the survival of Christian civilisation’ were fought, and five years later ultimately won. All Europe was freed. The world’s descent into ‘the abyss of a new Dark Age’ that had already begun was reversed. ‘Broad, sunlit uplands‘ beckoned yet again. We commemorated the 75th anniversary of this great victory early May and paid tribute to the men and women who ‘braced themselves to their duties’ at such terrible cost in human life and suffering. How fitting to celebrate the peace and liberation their sacrifice has gifted us, and honour men like Churchi ll who, as the sons of Issachar of old ‘had understanding of the times’ to know what ought to be done (I Chronicles 12:32). Churchill’s understanding of his times was remarkable. As early as 1934, he had been a lone voice warning that war with Germany was coming, imploring the British government to prepare to meet it. Did he recognise as insatiable the ‘might makes right’-undercurrent that permeated German politics from the early 1930s onwards to eventually brutalise everything the Third Reich touched? Was it Germany’s shocking treatment of its loyal Jewish citizen s —many of whom had faithfully served the Fatherland in the First World War— that alerted him to the destructive cancer that was festering in Germany in the 1930s? After all, treatment of a society’s Jews is the proverbial canary in the coalmine and the fail-proof measure of the moral health of a society... When war broke out, what was it that made Churchill recognise it for the battle for the survival of Christian civilisation that it was? What was it that convinced him that the world would plunge into the abyss of a new Dark Age if Hitler were to prevail —long before the atrocities for which the Third Reich is most infamous had been committed? Churchill must have grasped the essence of a Christian civilisation for him to recognise a counterfeit even in embryonic form. His knowledge of history must have guided him in this, as must have his thorough familiarity with the Bible, in his time the prerogative of the educated. The seminal influence of the Bible on Churchill is reflected even in the style of his speeches, which he wrote in blank verse format with paragraphs of indented type after the style of the Psalms. There are other suggestions to offer. The most compelling one in my vie w is that the God of Israel gave Churchill eyes to see and a mind and heart to understand, along with preparation and ability to lead the war effort. Churchill hints at this when he writes in his memoirs about 10 May 1940, the day King George VI had asked him to form a government: “as I went to bed about 3 a.m. I was conscious of a profound sense of relief. At last I had the authority to give directions over the whole scene. I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial [emphasis added].” History has vindicated Churchill’s sense of walking wi th destiny and having been prepared for all that winning the Second World War would mean. He was the man for the hour, prepared and used by God to defeat Hitler. The evil the Nazis perpetrated, particularly against the Jewish people, is a bottomless pit from which continues to reverberate the anguished cry ‘where was God?’. In the silence that follows this unanswerable question, I grieve over what man has done to his fellow man and think of the fact that God prepared and destined a man like Churchill, and with him many others, to have ‘an understanding of the times’ to know what ought to be done so as t o triumph in the fight against this evil done to His people. May Churchill’s readiness and his example encourage us to do the same and to walk in the ’good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do’ (Ephesians 2:10) for the blessing of His people and the fight against evil. From left, PM Netanyahu, President Rivlin and Benny Gantz, Mr. Netanyahu’s main challenger, at a memorial in Jerusalem. | Photo: EPA

6. 18 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 6 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Anniversary SPECIAL LIFTOUT Sara van Oordt-Jonckheere n Christians for Israel | Netherlands It was in the turbulent years of the 1970s and 1980s that Christians for Israel and the Israel Products Centre were born. Two organisations, built on two foundations: support for Israel, and prayer for the Jewish people. A story about how a small group of Dutch people standing on barricades for Israel grew into an international movement. What obstacles did they face? What were the victories? A fascinating 40- year journey through history. A man, on his knees, in his bedroom. That image would stick with young Karel van Oordt (1928-2013) forever. His father, Wijnand Egbert Pieter van Oordt (1901-1972), was a businessman who daily humbled himself before God for Christianity in its state of division, and who prayed ardently for the restoration of Israel. His wife Simonne passed away shortly after the birth of their youngest daughter. Wijnand was left with four small children: Hannie, Piet, Karel and Marietje. Karel van Oordt followed in his father’s footsteps. Prayer was the foundation of Christians for Israel: in the bedroom, on the knees. Father Wijnand was owner and director of AAKO, a dyestuff trading company for the textile industry. Over time, a chemical products department was added. The management of this division was entrusted to his son Karel. In the late 1960s, Karel decided to import chemicals from Israel, and this immediately became a great success. Oil boycott On 6 October 1973, Egyptian and Syrian armed forces invaded Israel on Yom Kippur, the most sacred Jewish holiday. Israel was taken completely by surprise by the Arab offensive and suffered heavy casualties. The situation was so critical that the survival of the state was feared. Israel received support from the west, including from the United States and the Netherlands. Against all odds, Israel won the Yom Kippur War. This was the moment in which the ‘oil weapon’ was fully deployed by the Arab League. Oil production was reduced every month. The Netherlands, among others, had actively supported Israel during the war. Oil exports to Israel’s allies were completely stopped. The oil crisis broke out, with disastrous consequences for the global economy. The oil boycott was not an isolated case. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Arab League imposed boycott measures on all western companies doing business with Israel. The Arab boycott covered two aspects: a ‘product’ boycott and a ‘personal’ boycott. The product boycott meant that all companies doing business with the Arab countries had to declare that their products were not from Israel, or from a company that was on the Arab ‘blacklist’ - a list of companies compiled by the Central Bureau for the Boycott of Israel in Damascus. Former director or the Dutch-based Centre for Information and Documentation and Israel (CIDI) Ronny Naftaniel explains: “That’s where the trouble started. The boycott also included companies with Jewish shareholders. But it went even further. For example, the Egyptian Omar Sharif was on the Arab boycott list because he had given Jewish actress Elizabeth Taylor a kiss in a film. All companies having ties with Israel and with Jews were severely punished.” The second aspect of the Arab boycott was a personal boycott. Companies had to issue a so- called ‘non-Jew statement’ that stated that an employee was Christian or Muslim, and had no ties to Israel. Naftaniel: “Companies simply issued that declaration, also in the Netherlands. But that was not the only thing: these declarations had to be legalised by the Chamber of Commerce. An extremely antisemitic measure, to which the government turned a blind eye.” It was not until 1995 that the Arab boycotts were lifted. Battle against boycott In the midst of the boycott battlefield, Karel van Oordt became convinced that he had to put his love for Israel into concrete action. In addition to his company AAKO, he founded a company to actively fight the Arab boycott. He called that company AAFAB (nobody knew this, but the name was an acronym for AAKO Fighting Arab Boycott). Sometime later, he was asked by the kibbutz movement in Israel to establish a few private limited companies to help the ailing kibbutzim in Israel. One company he called KiNeMon (Kibbutz Needs Money), followed by the company MoDoNee (More Dollars Needed). More and more Israeli companies approached Karel for support. In 1979, he sold his company AAKO at the age of fifty. He wanted to focus on his two passions: to serve the church and to support the Jewish people. Together with a few business people, he founded IP-80 in Jerusalem. Karel felt that Christians were doing too little for Israel. The goal of the organisation was twofold: to give economic support to Israel in the anti- Israeli climate of the time, and to reach the churches with the message of God’s faithfulness to Israel. Because that is where Karel’s heart was. A few months later IP-80 was separated into Christians for Israel and the Israel Products Centre. Christians for Israel and Israel Products Centre grew steadily. In 1989, Pee Koelewijn (1940-2002) joined Christians for Israel, as editor-in-chief for the newly- established Dutch-language newspaper Israel Aktueel. From that moment on, the work of Christians for Israel gained momentum, with all kinds of activities in the churches, media and politics. There was a lot of media attention, feathers were ruffled. Not everybody thanked them for that. Grim atmosphere The atmosphere around Israel grew grimmer. After 1973, there was increasing anti-Israel sentiment, both in Israel and worldwide. In 1992, over fifty activists demonstrated at the entrance of concert hall De Doelen in Rotterdam, where Christians for Israel’s “Israel Family Day” was being held. There were serious blows. Two -false- bomb threats were reported. Prayer for Israel In addition to expressing support for Israel, intercession was central to Christians for Israel. Pieter Bénard joined Christians for Israel around 1990, and started to write prayer letters, and to organise prayer meetings for Israel. Pieter: “Prayer groups sprang up all over the Netherlands. Sometimes, those consisted of four sisters who were praying every week. But some congregations prayed for Israel once a month. Many of those groups are still active today. It All Began in Prayer Karel van Oordt (centre) during his last visit to Israel in August 2012 for the ‘dedication of the restored Montefiore Windmill. Karel van Oordt addressing church delegates in the Netherlands in the early years. Karel van Oordt in the early days He wanted to focus on his two passions: to serve the church and to support the Jewish people. Continued on page 7

19. 11 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 New Book Release Rev Fraser J Harding Founder/Director of Good News for Israel LOCATION-LOCATION-LOCATION geographical . historical . spiritual To visit Jerusalem and ‘walk where Jesus walked’ is the desire of many Christians. It certainly was for me. The first opportunity to do so came my way in February 1969, which was less than 20 months after the 1967 Arab-Israeli ‘Six Day War’. On my way to London from India, I touched down at (what was then known as) the Lod Airport in Tel Aviv. With only four days to spend, I determined to take in as much as possible. Among several other famous historic sites, I made a brief visit to the ‘Garden Tomb’ in Jerusalem which is situated just a short walk on the northern side of the old city. At that time, a Dutchman—Jan Willem van der Hoeven—custodian of the Garden, took me on a guided tour. He was passionate about this site and his passion was not lost on me, for I was completely awe-struck by the seeming authenticity of this place in relation to the accounts of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus in the Scriptures. Of course, no one really knows for certain where that historic event specifically took place in Jerusalem, but in my opinion this is the best visual aide anywhere in the world depicting this awesome and historic event. Little did I realise at the time, 41 years later I would become one of the guides at that very place. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the experiences encountered as a guide at the Garden Tomb are up there with some of the most exciting and fulfilling in all my years of service as a minister of the good news of the gospel of Jesus. The book titled ‘Location Location Location’ recounts some of those experiences. An Apologetic This publication, however, has more content than just my personal experiences. It deals with the most important aspect about which the site represents, namely the historic details of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. There has been a plethora of articles written by scholars and ‘would be scholars’ over the centuries about whether or not this event actually occurred, and whether or not Jesus was and is, who and what the Bible claims. So an important factor contained therein, deals with this issue as seen by various reliable and renowned evangelical scholars. Then too, as Pastor and Evangelist for many years, people have posed questions to me about some apparent contradictions they have noticed in the four gospel accounts. These concern the order of events in relation to the resurrection of Jesus as witnessed by the disciples and the women. For example: • Matthew says that as the first day of the week began to da wn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb; but John in his account describes Mary Magdalene as coming alone. • Matthew says that the women departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell His disciples; but Mark says that they fled from the tomb and said nothing to anyone. • Mark says that three of the women bough t spices after the Sabbath; Luke says that they prepared spices before the Sabbath; while John says that it was Nicodemus who brought the spices to the cross, before the Sabbath. There are other ‘apparent’ anomalies which appear to show some difficulties in the various texts. One cannot easily reconcile these differing statements by taking them at face value. So a valid question which arises is “does this bring into question the accuracy of the Gospel records?” The fact is that when geographical factors, the underlying language, the cultural issues and circumstances of the day are considered, and when the whole story is put together, we are not left with such complexity. The Visitors Tourists and pilgrims from almost every nation including the citizens of Israel come to view this site. Some do so individually, others in family groups but there are also busloads that converge wanting to take in the story and the visual that the Garden Tomb location presents. Although more than 50% of these groups comprise Christian people representing various mainline denominations, there are also other religious groups including Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses as well as agnostics, atheists and ‘callithumpians’ (those with an undefined belief system). Moreover, other interest groups including historical, archaeological, political and general tourist groups, all form the wonderful diversity of visitors. It is very rare that anyone participating in such a visit is unimpressed after their experience at this unique location in Jerusalem. After the guided tour an opportunity is afforded for groups to enjoy a time of prayer and reflection in a ‘communion service’ with the elements being provided by the Garden Tomb staff. Unlike most historic sites in Jerusalem, no fee is charged for visitors to enter, though freewill gifts are invited. Visitors are given the opportunity to view Skull Hill (possible Golgotha), the Wine Press (evidence of a 2,000-year-old garden spoken about in the gospels) and an Ancient Tomb (which may have been the tomb where Jesus was buried and from where He was resurrected). This is an amazing opportunity for people from anywhere and everywhere to focus on the most significant event in human history—when the God of the Bible made the way possible for human beings to be reconciled to Himself. To receive Fraser’s latest book ‘Location, Location, Location’ for a gift of $15 simply use the form on the back page or go to: c4israel.com.au/store _ Rev Fraser J Harding is Founder/Director of ‘Good News for Israel’ , an Australian based Charities and Not-for-profits organisation which commenced operations in 2002. Originally an Accountant, Fraser also completed theological Studies and was ordained into the Baptist Ministry. He has served full time pastorates in NSW and in the UK, as well as pioneering the Evangelistic movement ‘Ambassadors for Christ’ in Britain for seven years and has conducted ministry in 40 countries worldwide. The Garden Tomb, Jerusalem. One of the possible sites of Jesus’ burial and resurrection.

9. Dear faithful readers, partners and friends (chavorim), Welcome to our June / July edition of the Israel & Christians Today newspaper. It’s hard to believe we are halfway through 2020 already. So much has happened to disrupt our world and many of our plans and events have been cancelled, postponed or have been moved online via Zoom and Skype and other virtual media platforms. I pray you are doing ok and encouraged as we see Australia and other nations start to open up and emerge from the lockdowns. Most schools are open and students are back in the classroom, albeit with strict social distancing and hygiene practises in place. Even some states are now allowing small gatherings and church services, hotels and restaurants, and some cinemas are also beginning to accept small groups. (after some fierce negotiation for parity with our state and federal politicians). In this issue you will see Israel finally has a government in place with Benjamin Netanyahu returned as the Prime minister for the first half of the next term of office and his rival Benny Gantz will take the PM role for the second term. However Netanyahu is now fighting what seems to be a very biased mob within the media and opposition political parties seeking his conviction on questionable charges of corruption. To me, it’s very similar to President Trump’s impeachment. We are watching closely to see how the World reacts in the negotiations of Judea and Samaria being “annexed” as part of the historical sovereign land of Israel. Netanyahu is going over the maps with great care to ensure no Jewish communities are isolated and hopefully the world leaders will encourage the Palestinians to take the $50 Billion Trump is offering them as part of the deal. One of our passionate supporters said the phrase “Reclaiming Sovereignty” should be used instead of “Annexation” as it’s really  the correct term based on the San Remo Resolution. Here is the definition of Annexation: “Annexation is the administrative action and concept in international law relating to the forcible acquisition of one state’s territory by another state and is generally held to be an illegal act.” We don’t see Israel “forcibly acquiring” anybody else’s land but reconstituting what was her own since the days of Abraham. So again the world continues to be shaken and buffeted in these uncertain times of change and unrest. Just as God’s Word said would be the case. The rumours of a pending conflict between China and America and even Australia are regular features in the news and on social media. Threats of Global recession and financial collapse, record unemployment, lack of trust and truthful accountability from those managing the pandemic. And now at the time of writing; a huge rise in anarchy and riots in America, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Of course we can’t help but recall the words of Jesus when he was asked by his disciples during the 40 day* period between His resurrection and His ascension. What would be the Signs of His return to set up His Kingdom? The Messiah’s response is recorded in Mathew’s Gospel, chapter 24. “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.’ *The word ‘Quarantine’ comes from the word ‘forty days’. Sadly we are even getting reports of escalating persecution of believers in China and Korea, parts of Pakistan and India, Iran, Nigeria and so on. The returning rise of antisemitism even in the western world is also quite alarming... so it does seem that we are now seeing the “birth pangs” which the Messiah spoke of. So how do we ensure we are not deceived, worried or troubled as the Lord instructs? The Scriptures tell us God’s people perish for lack of knowledge and we are to study the Scriptures to show ourselves approved so we can rightly discern the times. We are fortunate we live a in a time where knowledge has increased, and where we can access information that previous generations would have longed for. I wish to present the excellent teaching series on ‘The Signs of the Times’ by our International President and author Rev Willem Glashouwer. These are available as either a 52 chapter book or 52 part DVD series of the same title. You can get them either individually or as a bundle. See page 7 for our special offer. Also I am pleased to offer you some great discounts on almost all of our entire resource store when you donate to support the ongoing work of Christians for Israel Australia . We have observed many folk still under some form of isolation, are redeeming the time in home studies watching and reading during this season. In addition, we’ve found ourselves between office locations and many of our resources have been put into storage at one of our local volunteer’s home until we can find a new future office. So rather than seeing them collect dust in a dark shed, we want to make them even more affordable for all of our wonderful readers and partners. Please see the special promotion on page 12 . Perhaps these could be a great early Christmas presents for family and friends to introduce them to a new understanding about what God’s Word teaches about His precious Israel in these last days? We’ve had a good response to our Newspaper promotion with a number of our supporters getting their complimentary ‘Israel 70 Magazine’ or ‘The Sign of the Times’ DVD as their reward for signing up a family or friend to get the newspaper delivered to their home. It’s free and without obligation, and of course your friends can cancel anytime without fuss, should they decide the paper is not for them. We want to see our subscription base grow, so thanks for those who have helped in this way. It also helps spread teaching about Israel, God’s Word and the Church in these last days—equipping people to be prepared and understand the time we are living in. The paper is freely available in digital form from c4israel.com.au or via our free app which can be downloaded from the Apple or Google play stores. The app has lots of free videos and other features to enjoy from your phone or tablet. Another new initiative we’ll be launching soon to help bridge the isolation and keep you all informed on Israel and the Church is a regular newsletter. It will include links to great teaching videos and other resources from our leaders and teachers from around the world. We could send these by regular post, but it would be so much quicker, cheaper and easier to email you. Plus there’s the convenience of playing video content right there on your smartphone, tablet, laptop or home computer. We also have prayer calendars, special offers and free resources being planned to help you grow, learn, and be inspired. Please visit our website, log in, and register your details so we can stay in touch. You can also update your details securely, so if you change your address or phone number, or want to increase or decrease the number of newspapers you receive you can easily do this online without having to wait for us. See the details on page 16. During all of these days of turmoil we as Christians have an opportunity to show the Love of Messiah for Israel and the Jewish people who are in even greater need because of the loss of jobs, trade and travel restrictions. We have Jews wanting to make Aliyah and move to Israel from the former soviet states of Ukraine and Russia. Many are needing food and shelter and other practical care and assistance. Many elderly survivors of the Holocaust have experienced renewed stress and anxiety because the COVID pandemic shutdown has forced them into further isolation, reminiscent of the terrible days of the pogroms and the concentration camps. Your generous gift to bring Jews home, or give them shelter, food and a warm blanket is a real way of extending a heartfelt hug and hand up in their time of need. If you haven’t sent a donation for a while or if you have never given before, perhaps now is a good time to experience the joy of giving, and feeling the smile of our Heavenly Father as you show care and love for His people. You can fulfil the Prophecy that says: ‘Then you will say in your heart, “Who has begotten these for me? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. So who has reared them? Look, I was left all alone, so where did they come from?’”  This is what  the Lord  GOD  says:  “Behold,  I will lift up  My hand to the nations, and raise My banner to the gentiles.  They will bring  your sons  in their arms  and carry  your daughters  on  their shoulders.  Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers... Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in Me will never be put to shame.” – Isaiah 49:21-23 Thank you for your continued faithful prayers and support, even during these challenging times. May the Holy One of Israel bless you and keep you and your family safe as we serve and worship Him. _____________________________________ Ian Worby National Leader & Regional Director for Christians for Israel Australia & Oceania. June 2020 Report From Our National Leader Comforts Informs Inspires Ian Worby C4I Australia National Leader and Regional Director for Oceania Ian and Mandy Worby at Sachne springs near Mt Gilboa Israel

21. 21 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 9 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Anniversary SPECIAL LIFTOUT Proclaim it in Distant Lands This year, Christians for Israel celebrates its 40th anniversary. What started as the mission of one single man has grown into a global organisation, with representatives and activities in over forty countries. Rev Willem Glashouwer, at present President of Christians for Israel International, had never heard of Christians for Israel till founder Karel van Oordt showed up on his doorstep, about 35 years ago. Van Oordt was looking for a successor to the chairmanship of the board of Christians for Israel. He introduced himself and said: “We prayed about it as a board and think you should be the next chairman.” At that time, Willem was still recovering from major brain surgery and had just gone back to studying theology in order to get ordained. He had never met Karel van Oordt before. Willem and his wife Marianne had been working at the Evangelical Broadcasting Company in the Netherlands for twenty years, he as a producer and executive director of the television department, she as an anchorwoman. Willem told Karel: “I was brought up with Israel. My parents hid Jews in our home during the Second World War, and later on, Aunt Corrie (ten Boom) came to visit from time to time, but that’s the extent of my connection to Israel. Of course, I know that they are the Chosen People of the Bible, and in the Netherlands, we (the Dutch people) have always had a good relationship with Jewish people for centuries. But that’s about it!” “We will help you with that”, Van Oordt insisted. After praying and thinking it through for a week, Willem and Marianne decided to move forward. They took this step reluctantly because they felt far from being experts on Israel. Glashouwer became chairman of Christians for Israel in the Netherlands, finished his degree and became a pastor in the town of Katwijk, in the western part of the Netherlands. In later years, he became involved fulltime. Revelation Although Rev Willem Glashouwer’s father was a well- known pastor, who was closely involved with Israel, the subject was quite new to his son. “As a teenager, I had strongly rebelled against the church and faith. I considered myself an agnostic. This changed when I got radically converted at eighteen years old. From that moment on, I started discovering for myself who God was, and that the Bible is the absolute reliable Word of God. That’s why I started studying theology. This was when Bible criticism was prevalent, and the link between God’s promises and modern-day Israel was hardly spoken. As the brand new chairman of Christians for Israel, I started intensely studying the Bible on the subject of Israel. This resulted in the book ‘Why Israel?’ It was a revelation to me that God speaks so much about Israel, and also about the restoration of present-day Israel. Apparently, more people were impressed by my findings, because without ever asking for it, people from all kinds of countries started translating this book. It has now been published in over forty languages.” Sign of hope The work of Christians for Israel grew, was and is greatly blessed, and expanded to other countries on all five continents. In 1998, it started in the USA with the publication of Israel & Christians Today, a quarterly newspaper at the time. More countries followed. Now, in 2020, Christians for Israel has representatives in over forty countries and will continue to fulfil its mission to bring a Biblical understanding of God’s plan with Israel. Rev Willem Glashouwer: “We are called more and more to spread our Biblical message about Israel around the world. For God’s Word will endure forever and will not budge an inch. Israel is the great sign of hope. God will not let go of what His hand began. He leads the history of the world to the goal set by Him. And that goal is the coming of His Kingdom and the coming of the King of that Kingdom. Across everything, we hear His footsteps. He is coming! Who knows how soon.” Countries in which Christians for Israel has Affiliates and Representatives Pastor George of the Cook Islands together with Graham Simpson, Rev Willem Glashouwer and Bryce Turner Conference in Nepal 2019 President Chaim Herzog (President of Israel from 1983-1993) receives a work of art from Rev Willem Glashouwer. | Photo: Alfred Muller We have Affiliates and Representatives in: Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Cook Islands, Denmark, Fiji, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Niue, Philippines, Romania, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Tonga, Uganda, Ukraine, USA, Vanuatu and Vietnam. We have Partners in: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, French Guyana, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Russia, and former Soviet Union, Suriname, United Kingdom, Uruguay.

11. 3 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Biblical Commentary Through Jewish Eyes Enoch Lavender Pastoral leader of Shalom Israel and Assistant Pastor at Living Way Christian Network. The Corona Virus epidemic has dominated international headlines for months and has resulted in over 300’000 deaths globally as of May 2020. Looking beyond the headlines, this article will look briefly at the dark agendas which are trying to manipulate the crisis for their own gains, before turning to the exciting news of what God has been doing in this season in Israel and the nations. The Dark Side of Corona From a prophetic perspective, it is interesting to note that in English ‘Corona’ is spelt with 6 letters, and the numerical value of Corona’s letters are ‘66’ – leading some to point out the connection with the infamous number ‘666’ from the book of Revelation. Jesus taught His disciples to watch for End Time signs, and one clear event to watch was when former UK PM Gordon Brown recently advocated publicly for a temporary one world government with executive powers. While Mr Brown touted it as the solution to deal with the Corona crisis, his call fits hand in glove with the warnings of many prophecy teachers of a coming one world government. A Call for Repentance While Globalists such as Gordon Brown certainly are trying to exploit Covid-19 for their own agenda, we will see that God is also at work in this crisis. In March 2019, a little-known pastor from South Carolina, Ps. Kadesha Jenkins, prophetically warned of a coming deadly virus plague. In a Facebook video she declared “It’s going to be like a viral sickness almost like a deadly flu.... and it’s gonna take people out.” Interestingly she specifically felt that the coming virus was a call to repentance because God’s ‘people have turned away’. As we entered 2020 and the virus broke out on the global stage, another unexpected voice emerged to speak a message of repentance—none other than the world- famous flamboyant wrestler Hulk Hogan. Sharing a message to his 1.5 million Instagram followers, he stated “God said, ‘you want to worship athletes, I will shut down the stadiums... You want to worship actors, I will shut down theatres. You want to worship money, I will shut down the economy and collapse the stock market’” Hulk Hogan’s post went on to call for repentance and was reported on by media in the US, UK and Australia. While the media were largely mocking his message, they none the less copied his message word for word to their readers! As nation after nation have been impacted by Corona, unprecedented prayer has also been rising from the nations. Footage has emerged from many countries including Brazil, Guatemala, Venezuela, Mozambique, India and the US of people passionately crying out to God for mercy —along main roads, in public squares, outside hospitals and even inside the four walls of prisons. You can see some of the video footage at www.youtube.com/ watch?v=EKqo0xftjPg (or by searching in youtube for ‘Enoch Lavender Corona Virus’ ) Across the globe, prayer movements have been springing up bridging traditional denominational lines. Government leaders have been calling for prayer, including President Trump and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Here in Australia our Prime Minister Scott Morrison joined an online prayer call with hundreds of intercessors— and interestingly it was not long after this prayer event that we began to see an early slowing down of Corona in our nation. A Significant New Interest in the Gospel With all this prayer rising across the nations, there appears to have been a shift in the spiritual atmosphere. For example, in the UK, there has been a surge of interest in prayer and online church services, with a survey finding that a third of young people have watched an online church service. Fascinatingly, one in five of those who have watched church online have NEVER gone to any church service before in their lives. Meanwhile in the US, 22% of non- Christians have started reading the Bible since the crisis began (yes you read that number right!!). In fact, some secular stores such as Walmart have been running out of Bibles, and Bible sales across the nation are up between 40-160%. Israel and Corona Israel has not been immune from the Corona Virus despite early and strong intervention by the Netanyahu government. To date there have been 279 confirmed deaths in Israel from Corona, with over 16,000 cases. Yet on the spiritual level, God is also at work in Israel through this crisis. Local Messianic ministries have reported a doubling in interest in online video presentations about Yeshua since Corona began. A key part of God’s End Time agenda is the regathering of the Jewish people (or ‘aliyah’) to the land of Israel. The Corona virus plague has generated an unexpected global surge of interest in aliyah. The reasons for this increase are mixed, with Jewish communities in several countries including France, Britain and the US being disproportionately affected by the outbreak. On the other hand, Israel has been seen to handle the outbreak well— making the prospect of moving back home more attractive to many Jews. Once travel restrictions ease, the Jewish agency expects close to 100,000 Jews will make aliyah this year—which would be almost a trebling of the usual rate. One day the Jews of Jerusalem will welcome back the Messiah with the familiar words ‘Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord’. Thank God for those who are returning to Israel right now in preparation for that glorious day! Summary While we have seen a lot of evil that has come with Corona and have seen some dark agendas lurking in the shadows of this crisis, it is clear that God is at work in the midst of the crisis! Perhaps the quiet time of lockdown has caused us all to re- evaluate our priorities—it has brought Christians to their knees in fervent prayer, it has brought a remarkable new interest in the God of the Bible among non-believing Jews and Gentiles alike, and it has sparked a fresh wave of Jews returning home to their land of Biblical promise. For teaching on the End Times from A Jewish perspective get the new DVD series ‘ The End times Through Jewish Eyes.’ See backpage to order your copy or go to www.c4israel.com.au/store Ps. Enoch Lavender Enoch is the Pastoral leader of Shalom Israel and serves as Assistant Pastor at Living Way Christian Network. Sarah is a graduate of the Caleb Company training program and has led a ministry tour to Israel and been involved in many aspects of local church ministry. Corona Virus, Israel and the End Times

17. 9 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Have you downloaded the FREE C4I app yet? • Read the latest editions if Israel & Christians Today, as well as past editions. • Easily access all current and past topical articles. • Listen and watch teaching resources about Israel and the Church from a Biblical perspective. • Access current and past prayer calenders , so you know what and how to pray for our ministry. • Make secure online donations towards Israeli Projects, C4I A ustralia and teaching resources. • You can also stay in touch by sending us secure messages via an easy-to-use form. SEARCH: ‘C4I’ in your app store DOWNLOAD TODAY! Inspiring and informative content, wherever you are. Dr Ron Weiser article continued + free app interesting. He writes this week as follows: “While the conference did not determine the territorial boundaries of the land promised to the Jewish people, the United Kingdom and France concluded that the starting point for such a discussion would be the depiction of “Eretz Israel” in the Bible.” Hauser continues: “The San Remo Conference recognized, in a way unprecedented in modern times, the idea of a connection between the Land of Israel and the Jewish people, and certified it as part of the Mandate charter. This documentation contradicts later invidious claims that try to break the umbilical cord connecting the Jewish people to their historic homeland, and declaring Jewish settlements in the mandated territories to be a violation of international law or even a ‘war crime’.” Hauser is typical of many in the Likud and indeed in Blue & White as well. He stresses the historical connection of the Jewish people to Eretz Yisrael and is very comfortable about the legality of Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria/ West Bank. For the Prime Minister too, the legality is not in doubt. His consideration is the wisdom of exercising these legal rights and to what extent. Netanyahu is in a good position to do as much or as little annexation as he wants. Firstly he has a huge majority in the Knesset and his power to annex is written into his coalition agreements. Moreover, in this regard he can expect 10 to 12 additional votes from Lieberman and Bennett from opposition. This means that whatever Netanyahu decides on annexation, as long as the coalition agreements hold—he will likely be supported by more than 2/3rds of the Knesset—or at worst, with some possible abstentions. And he will have scapegoats for all scenarios. If he annexes little, he can blame it on the need to keep Blue and White happy. In past statements—Netanyahu has, from time to time, agreed to a Palestinian entity of some description. Another example of this was on Yom Ha’atzmaut 2016, when speaking in English to the assembled foreign diplomatic corps Netanyahu said: “I want to state unequivocally and in front of diplomats from around the world, I continue to support two states for two peoples, a demilitarised Palestinian state that recognises the Jewish state.” But now if he wants someone to blame for agreeing to a Palestinian entity, he can use Trump. Whilst he has internal considerations, in the end I suspect that it will be people like President Trump and then Jordan’s King Abdullah et al—leaders outside of Israel —that will play the bigger role in shaping Netanyahu’s thinking. ________________________________________________________ Dr Ron Weiser AM is a Life Member of the ZFA Executive, Past President of the ZFA and Hon Life Pres of the Zionist Council of NSW. Trump’s Proposal for a Palestinian State NOTE: Boundaries are approximate and based on data provided by the White House. The administration is proposing Israeli homes in the West Bank become the site of future Israeli “enclaves.” Source: White House, The New York Times. See full proposed plan here: www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Peace-to-Prosperity-0120.pdf

1. 13 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Special Lift-out to Keep Anniversary 4 Understanding the Times Understanding Israel and world events from a Biblical perspective & Christians Today ISRAEL June 2020 Israel & Christians Today is the premier publication of Christians for Israel 10 All Israel 15 Meals on Wheels The Christians for Israel leadership during our Forum in Jerusalem (March 0 ). Together we bring the good news about God’s faithfulness to the Jewish people to the world. Israel: A Sign of Hope for all Nations In Matthew 24, Jesus’ disciples asked Him about the ‘signs of His coming’ and the ‘end of the age’. Jesus said there will be wars and rumours of wars. Nations will rise against each other, there will be famines and earthquakes – but these will be just the beginning of the ‘birth pangs’. At the end of this age, leading to the coming of Christ (”rst for those who are ready for Him, then in glory for the whole world to see) there will be a growing ‘wickedness’, lack of love, and even hatred by all nations of true followers of Jesus. It will be a time in which those who profess faith in Christ will be hunted. But in the midst of this persecution, Jesus says, there will be two positive signs, beacons of hope in the darkness. The ”rst of these is the ”g tree whose twigs get tender and its leaves come out, showing ‘the summer is near’ (verse 32). This speaks about the national restoration of Israel. The other sign of hope is that ‘this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations’. When that happens, ‘then the end will come’ (verse 14). Over the last 00 years, we have no doubt seen a rise of wickedness in the world and falling away in the Church. But we have also seen both those signs of hope being ful”lled: the restoration of the Jewish people to the land, and the ‘gospel of the kingdom’ going to the nations. Renewed interest in th e ‘gospel of the %ingdom’ came about as a result of the spiritual revival that began in Europe in the early 00s, following the massive upheavals caused by the French Revolution. Bible-believing Christians and Jews began to study God’s word afresh and realised that the great hope offered by the Bible is the coming %ingdom of peace and prosperity on earth when the Messiah comes. This idea of the kingdom on earth under Messiah had been lost (or denied) for centuries by most Church denominations. It is a message that to this very day challenges the established theology of most church denominations. Since the early 0s, there have been many renewed efforts to bring this gospel into the nations. This year is the 40th anniversary of the ministry of Christians for Israel – bringing good news about God’s faithfulness to the Jewish people to the world. We feel immensely grateful and privileged to be witnesses of God’s amazing work of restoration at the ‘end of this age’. In this edition of Israel & Chr istians Today, we wish to share with you some of the highlights of our ministry. We do so not out of pride, but out of thankfulness for what God achieves despite our own weakness. Many Christians are awakening to the signi”cance of these events. 3et many are still asleep. There remains so much to be done to raise awareness in the church around the world of what is happening - to bring the ‘gospel of the %ingdom as a testimony to all nations’. Will you help us? We feel immensely grateful and privileged to be part of God’s amazing work of restoration at the ‘end of this age’. AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIA www.c4israel.com.au | info@c4israel.com.au Sivan - Tammuz 5780

8. 20 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 8 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Anniversary SPECIAL LIFTOUT It has been 24 years since Christians for Israel started the campaign ‘Bring the Jews Home’. Yet even before 1996 and the fall of the Iron Curtain, the return of Jews, and in particular, Soviet Jews, was a topic that stirred many Christians. Koen Carlier (Aliyah fieldworker Ukraine) and Pieter Bénard (former prayer coordinator at Christians for Israel) look back to that time. Of their own accord “I grew up in a reformed family,” relates Pieter Bénard. “Faith was present, but not defining. Only later I really came to faith, and from that moment on three things became important of their own accord: a personal relationship with Jesus, love for Israel and intercession, particularly for Israel.” The love for Israel also came of its own accord to Koen, who came to faith as a teenager. “In that time, the early eighties, Christians were already expecting that the Jews would return from the Soviet Union. That touched me so deeply. I wanted to be involved in that!” Let my people go Pieter: “Around that time, I lived in Jerusalem with my wife and children, where we worked for the Near East Ministry. I became involved in the establishment of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem in 1980. Within a few weeks, the topic of Russian Jews had already become one of the key elements of our work.” It was a time when stories about refuseniks came out. Stories about Jews who wanted to leave Communist Russia to emigrate to Israel, but were kept from going there by the S oviet authorities. “In 1984, we started to pray weekly and to demonstrate on Saturday mornings before the Russian embassy in The Hague (Netherlands). ‘Let My people go’. We continued to do that for seven years. Then communism fell. I later heard from the Israeli ambassador how encouraging those demonstrations were for him. He lived not far from the Russian embassy at that time and on Saturdays heard us demonstrate, sing and pray.” Return In 1991, what was left of the Soviet Union, fell apart. The way was paved for Jews and a large migration flow was initiated. “But that was only the beginnin g”, Koen relates. “I read about the work of Exobus in the newsletter of the Christian Embassy. Picking up Jews by bus from a city and then crossing the border with them in order to put them on an airplane to Israel. The notice said that they were looking for drivers. I knew: this is what I wanted to do. Together with my friends, Nick, David and Ben Vandeputte we prepared and headed to Ukraine, where we got to work. Before 1994, there were no direct flights from Ukraine, so we had to cross the border to Warsaw, Vienna, Budapest or Bucharest by bus. That meant we sometimes had to wait at the border for hours.” Bring the Jews home “I started working at Christians for Israel in 1994”, says Pieter. “It was Pee Koelewijn, one of the founders of Christians for Israel, who strived to support the return of the Jews. I thought it was great! Eventually, Christians for Israel officially started its campaign in 1996. We made a video of the work, so thousands of people learned about the return of the Jews from the former Soviet Union. Numerous Christians started to support the campaign!” Ukraine Since the beginning, the work of Bring the Jews Home focused mainly on Ukraine. Why is that? Pieter: “We didn’t realise this in the beginnin g, of course. In our perception, it was just ‘the Soviet Union’. When we came there for the first time, we discovered all sorts of regional and provincial names, of which we couldn’t make any sense.” Koen: “In the time of Tsarina Catherine the Great, an edge of the empire was allocated to Jews to live there. Ukraine means ‘edge’. So, most of the Jews from the Soviet Union lived there.” Intercession “You know what I find so beautiful?,” Pieter begins. “Every year, Intercessors for Israel organises a prayer meeting in Israel, in which they pray for Israel. In 1991, that meeting fell at the same time as the Gulf War was going on. People were praying with their gas masks on. Then one of the attendees decided to do something, besides praying. He launched the initiative to sail from Odessa to Haifa with ships to bring Jewish immigrants. I also remember when we met you, Koen, in Belgium for the first time. You showed us where you always prayed and we prayed together. I find it so beautiful to see that all this work has originated from intercession for Israel!” Influx Koen: “When the Soviet Union’s borders opened up, Israel did not know what was happening to them. Monthly, ten thousands of people came into the country. Hotels, holiday homes, everything was used to absorb the influx. It really was a balagan, which is the Hebrew word for chao s. Fortunately, many organisations pitched in and, eventually, the integration of the Soviet Jews turned out to be a great success. There were very bright people who turned out to be a great blessing to Israel’s economy. That influx has decreased over the years. It is now more gradual. We don’t need ships or big buses any more to transport the stream of Jews wanting to leave for Israel. Nowadays we drive smaller passenger vans because many Jewish families live in remote areas. But since the conflict in eastern Ukraine broke out in 2014, the stream of Jewish migrants has increased conside rably. And we expect a great exodus after the coronavirus crisis too.” Cooperation When it comes to the practical application of the return to Israel, the Jewish Agency is virtually always involved. This is also the case in Ukraine. Koen: “In the beginning, there was a sort of iron curtain between our organisations. Like: let the Christians do their thing, but keep them at a distance. Of course, Christians have often had a conversion agenda and they are still apprehensive about that in the Jewish world. But over time, the relationship has thawed and even become very warm. Now, we organise man y things in cooperation with the Jewish Agency, such as information sessions on the possibilities of going to Israel. And although people come and go at the Jewish Agency, the good relationship is passed on.” Testimony “The return of the people of Israel to the promised land is such a tremendous testimony of God’s faithfulness to His people. It really is a very powerful message,” Pieter relates. “There are sometimes people that say: you are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. But you just can’t maintain that position. The fall of Communism, the massive return to Israel, Israel’s miraculous capacity to integrate the influx, they are all signs of God’s promises.” Koen: “The work of Bring the Jews Home has given numerous Christians an insight into the topicality of God’s promises to Israel. It has opened the eyes of many Christians in the West to the prophetic Word.” Future Seeing so many Biblical promises being fulfilled of course raises expectations for the future. Pieter: “In Jeremiah 16:15 it says: “but it will be said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where He had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave their ancestors.” I consider the Soviet Union to be the land of the north, but it also says out of all the countries where He had banished them. And we do see the Jews returning from so many other countries. It is the promised return to Israel and that means that God’s other promises will be fulfilled. As the Jews talk about it: the Messiah’s footsteps are approaching.” Witnesses of Great Things In the early days of Bring the Jews Home, Jews were picked up by coaches and taken to the airport. Ben Vandeputte and Koen Carlier with one of the buses which they used for transportation in 1995 Pieter Bénard and Koen Carlier Pieter Bénard in 2010 with Larissa Vaisburd, the hundred thousandth Jew whom we as Christians for Israel could assist to return to Israel, together with her husband Ruslan.

5. 17 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Biblical Reflection 5 Short News June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 EL AL in Crisis Before the COVID-19 Israeli airline EL AL already had financial difficulties. The airline had asked the Israeli government for help to restructure the company. The additional losses from the coronavirus outbreak will have a deep financial impact on its operations. Without help, EL AL is likely to close according to chairman Eli Defes. EL AL stressed that an airline is essential for a country like Israel, which is surrounded by hostile nations. | Photo: Flash90 Researchers Isolate Coronavirus Antibody The Israel Institute for Biological Research has isolated a key coronavirus antibody that successfully neutralised the aggressive virus in lab tests, Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett announced on 4 May 2020. Bennett said this is a ‘significant breakthrough’ toward a possible treatment for the virus. The institute has been collecting blood plasma from Israelis who have recovered from Covid-19. It is expected that antibodies in the plasma can form the basis of an effective treatment. The governmental research institute, which normally works on defense projects, is now directing all its efforts toward novel coronavirus research, including developing both a treatment and a vaccine. Despite Covid-19, 40,000 Palestinians Return to Work Many Palestinians have returned to Israel to work. Most are employed in harvesting or construction. 40,000 are to resume their jobs at the beginning of June 2020. In March, Israel sealed off the West Bank after the first cases of coronavirus became known. In that area, 353 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed. For the first time, Palestinian police officers are keeping order among the workers to ensure that the passage is quick and smooth. For the Palestinians, the income from work in Israel means economic survival in the face of a lack of jobs in the autonomous territories. Biblical Borders of Israel Johannes Gerloff n Theologian, Journalist, Lecturer & Author On the political stage of the Middle East, I have never seen anyone ask about the biblical borders of the Promised Land. I know of no politician who pursues an agenda of translating prophecies of the Bible concerning the borders into political reality. However, I come across Christians with the question of when the state of Israel will reach its biblical borders. And in past years, secular journalists and political analysts have given public thought to whether certain Israeli politicians dreamed of a ‘greater Israel within biblical borders’. It is, therefore, appropriate to outline what the Bible actually says about the borders of the Promised Land. The land is limited First of all, it should be noted, that the land to which the Hebrew people were led by Moses was never borderless. It always had its limits. Egypt, in the southwest of the land of Canaan, is as obviously a foreign country from a biblical perspective, as was A ssyria in the northeast. The fact that the Promised Land is limited may also be recognised by the acknowledgement that it can become too small. Consequently, the immigrating people of God may not simply take whatever they like when they think they are capable of it. The Bible does not support international law based on majority decisions, nor does it accept as rightful owner whoever prevailed in a conflict as the more successful. The creator sets borderlines According to the Bible, it is the one, true, living God who distinguishes between language groups and ethnic entities (Genesis 11:9), caus es nations to migrate (Amos 9:7) and set the limits of the peoples. A crucial factor in this is people’s obedience to the Word of God. Therefore, from a biblical point of view, the borders God sets for a nation are never an unchangeable ‘Law of the Medes and Persians’ carved in stone. The borders of a country depend on the relationship of the respective people with the living God. Their course may, therefore, indicate something about this relationship. What belongs to the Promised Land The Bible thinks from the centre. Beginning with the story of the patriarchs up to the New Testament, it is clear that the centre of the Promised Land is Zion, the city of Jerusalem. The prophet Ezekiel calls this city the ‘navel of the land’ (Ezekiel 38:12). Jerusalem is the place that the Lord has chosen from all the tribes of Israel. Jerusalem is located on a mountain ridge that stretches north-south and reaches a height of over a thousand meters above sea level. In the Bible, it is mentioned as ‘mount of the Amorite’ or ‘Mountains of Israel.’ South of Jerusalem is Judea, with its capital Hebron. North of Jerusalem the ‘Land Benjamin ’, the ‘Mountains of Ephraim’ or later ‘Samaria’, with its centre Shechem, present-day Nablus. Mt Carmel (Jeremiah 50:19) forms an extension of this mountain range towards the northwest. Seen from Jerusalem to the west, the mountainous region declines to the hilly country, the ‘shefelah’ in Hebrew. This is followed by the coastal plain and the natural and therefore never controversial western border of the Promised Land, the Mediterranean, also known as ‘Sea of the Philistines’ or ‘the Great Sea’. To the east, the central Israeli mountains drop sharply into the Syrian-African rift valley, which is the lowest point on the earth’s surface at the Dead Sea at more than 400 meters below sea level. South of the Dead Sea, the ‘Aravah’ separates the Negev desert in the west from the Edomite Mountains in the east and extends to the northern tip of the Red Sea, wherein our time the Jordanian town of Aqaba and the Israeli resort town of Eilat are within sight of each other. From the foot of Anti-Lebanon mountain ridge, the southern tip of which is Mt Hermon, the river Jordan flows through the Sea of Galilee from the north towards the Dead Sea, thereby forming a natural eastern border. In biblical Hebrew, the Dead Sea is called ‘the salt sea’ or ‘the eastern sea’. The Negev desert is a natural border at the southern end of the Promised Land, which is sometimes referred to in the Bible as the ‘ends of the land’. This borderline is flexible depending on wea ther conditions and technical skills of the people who live in that part of the country. In Solomon’s time Ezion Geber is mentioned, a port town on the Red Sea in the area of today’s Eilat. In the north and east, geographical and climatic conditions offer fertile cultivated land – and consequently cause for confusion, discussions, friction points and armed conflicts. Therefore, it is especially in the north and east that there have been many changes in the borders of the Promised Land, due to the relationship of the people with their God. The Bible alludes many times to these natur al geographic and related climatic conditions. The East Bank of the Jordan Originally the areas of the tribes Edom, Moab and Ammon were foreign lands untouchable for the Hebrews. After leaving Egypt, God had explicitly told them concerning the territory of the Edomites: “I will not give you anything of their land” (Deuteronomy 2:5). The same was true of the lands of the Ammonites (Deuteronomy 2:19,37) and Moabites (Deuteronomy 2:9). Therefore, the area east of the Jordan was considered ‘abroad’ in the book of Ruth (1:1). However, that changed already in the time of Moses. The area ‘from the Arnon up to Mt Hermon’, the territories of Moab and Ammon, but then especially the ‘Land of Gilead’ and Bashan (Jeremiah 50:19), today’s Golan Heights, were added to the settlement areas of the Israelites. The prophet Obadiah even foresees Israel taking possession of the ‘mountains of Esau’ (Obadiah 19). The expansion of the country of Israel ‘from D an (at the foot of Hermon) to Beer Sheva (in the northern Negev)’ is proverbial in Biblical language. From the very beginning, however, Mount Lebanon, the area ‘where you reach Hamath’ (today the city of Hama in Syria), and ‘up to the Euphrates’ were mentioned as the northern border of the Promised Land. Republished with permission. This article is the first instalment of a tw0-part series. The second article will be published in the August issue. The Eilat Mountains and view of the Red Sea and the Edom Mountains in the distance. | Photo: Shutterstock Nitai Eliash

12. 4 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Commentary Ron Ross Author and Middle East correspondent and commentator Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu: From Commando to Commander Dr H. V. Evatt (Australia) president of the United Nations welcomed Israel as a UN member May 11, 1949 at 3p.m. Fifty four Governments, including forty- five Members recognised Israel in their vote. Fifty years before Theodore Herzl envisaged the Jewish state. This UN decision was seen as ‘awesome’, ‘significant’ and an acknowledgement of international ‘equality.’ Just a few months later, October 21, 1949 in Tel Aviv, Israel Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu was born. His father Benzion Netanyahu moved to work in the USA. He was a noted Jewish historian and certainly his knowledge and expertise contributed to the zeal and passion of his sons. Benjamin and Yonatan Netanyahu were brothers in arms. Benjamin returned to Israel in 1967 to serve in the Israeli Defence Forces elite unit ‘Sayaret Matkel’ also known as ‘The Unit.’ Sayaret Matkel was commissioned to conduct top secret intelligence-gathering missions into enemy territory. The Unit was also actively involved in hostage rescue and counterterrorism operations. Yonatan joined Sayaret Matkel earlier. In 1972 he was appointed Deputy Commander. On July 4, 1976 he led ‘The Entebbe Raid”, a mission to free 105 hostages held in Entebbe, Uganda. Yoni was the only casualty in a brave and successful mission. Benjamin Netanyahu was deeply affected by the death of his eldest brother. He later initiated and organised two conferences on ways to combat international terrorism, one in Jerusalem 1979 and the other in Washington D.C. 1984. Captain Benjamin Netanyahu was discharged from the military after the Yom Kippur War. He served The Unit for six years. In 1982 Bibi joined Israel’s diplomatic mission in the United States of America. Interestingly he was in the first delegation to talks on strategic measures for Israel-United States cooperation. He became Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations in 1984. He led the campaign to open the UN’s Nazi War Crimes initiative in 1987. Next came politics. In 1988 he became a member of the Knesset (Israel’s national parliament). He joined Likud , a powerful conservative party. Netanyahu was Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs almost immediately. In his four years serving in that position he dealt with serious events including the First Intifada , the 1991 Gulf War and the Madrid Peace Conference . The passionate, articulate Netanyahu was already growing in party room influence. On March 25, 1993 he was elected Chairman of Likud and for the first time was a candidate for Prime Minister. The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin was a tragic event in the time Netanyahu led the opposition. Palestinian terrorism became better organised and brutally effective. In 1996 Benjamin Netanyahu defeated the Labor candidate Shimon Peres to become Prime Minister of Israel. The tables were reversed in 1999 when he was beaten by Ehud Barak (Labor). It was time out for Bibi but he returned to politics in 2002 first as Minister of Foreign Affairs and then Finance Minister until 2005. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resigned in 2009 and Bibi won his second term as Premier. Tensions mounted between Israel and the USA as American President Barack Obama made numerous decisions that upset the Israeli leaders. An Obama trip to Cairo with no visit to Jerusalem was not taken lightly. Throughout the following years the lobbying and jockeying for position within the political arena was feverish. At one stage at a joint session of the US Congress (May 2011) Netanyahu indicated support for a Palestinian state conditionally. In the day before the March 2015 Israel elections he categorically declared there would no chance of a Palestinian state while he was Prime Minister. “Whoever moves to establish a Palestinian state or intends to withdraw from territory is simply yielding territory for radical Islamic terrorist against Israel,” he said. He won reelection in 2015 with a coalition agreement. Nevertheless in the USA the Obama administration was offended by the Palestinian state reversal by Netanyahu. Obama came to the Oval Office with a determination—to establish the Palestinian State. On his first day President Obama called the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas before calling the Israel prime minister Ehud Olmert. When Netanyahu won the premiership Obama found a considerable articulate and stubborn obstacle. Netanyahu said: “First of all, Arafat is wrong. Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, will never be divided, and will remain the capital of the State of Israel, the capital of the Jewish people, for ever and ever.” Arafat was the founding leader of the Palestinian Liberation organisation (PLO). Iran also became a contentious issue between Netanyahu and Barak Obama. A dramatic change came with the election of billionaire businessman Donald J. Trump. The new President recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moved the US Embassy from Tel Aviv. Netanyahu and Israel were ecstatic. Settlers declared Trump ‘the King of Israel.’ A Golan Heights community was named Ramat Trump (Trump Heights in Hebrew). At the Ramat Trump inauguration Prime Minister Netanyahu said: “President Trump is a very great friend of the country, a friend who did things for the country that were not done in the past and should have been done in the name of justice and truth.” The Trump-Netanyahu connection was a dynamic change from the past. In the April, 2019 Israel elections a chaotic, confused and unsettling situation emerged. The Likud Party led by Netanyahu won 35 seats. That result was equalled by the new Israel Resilience Party led by Benny Gantz the former Chief of General Staff for the Israel Defense Forces. The fierce political manouvring began. In an attempt to gain greater numbers the Resilience Party joined forces with Telem and Yesh Atid parties to form Blue and White, in Hebrew Kahol Lavan, the colours of the Israel flag. In a season of uncertainty both leaders were given opportunities to form government by President Reuven Rivlin. Neither succeeded. The great shadow over Benjamin Netanyahu darkened as serious investigations led to criminal charges. It was suggested the Netanyahu family had received lavish gifts (Case 1000), media manipulation with Israel’s second largest newspaper Yediot Achronot (Case 2000), allegations of bribery in a submarine deal with Germany (Case 3000), known as the Bezeq Affair collusion with a business owner with confidential documents involved (Case 4000). On January 28, 2020 the Prime Minister withdrew a request for parliamentary immunity to avoid a criminal trial. Consequently he was indicted and charged with fraud and breach of trust in Case 1000 and Case 2000. His opponents called for an immediate resignation but without a conviction that was premature. The arrival of the Coronavirus pandemic forced the court dates to be delayed. Covid 19 also forced the opposing political factions to negotiate with the national interest paramount. The arrangement made between Netanyahu and Benny Gantz looks flimsy. Only time will tell if it holds together. As if to explain his own context for being, he said: “My first name, Benjamin, dates back a thousand years earlier to Benjamin - Binyamin - the son of Jacob, who was also known as Israel. Jacob and his 12 sons roamed these same hills of Judea and Sumeria 4,000 years ago, and there’s been a continuous Jewish presence in the land ever since.” He has lived determined to bring forth the ordained history of Israel. Many a biblical hero was hindered by their human weakness but the final outcome has always been divine destiny. _______________________________________ Ron Ross worked as a newsman in Jerusalem, broadcasting Middle East reports internationally. He is the Middle East correspondent for Vision Christian Radio and a popular speaker. www.ronross.org | ronandyvonne@mac.com Editorial credit: Roman Yanushevsky / Shutterstock.com

7. 19 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 6 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Anniversary SPECIAL LIFTOUT Sara van Oordt-Jonckheere n Christians for Israel | Netherlands It was in the turbulent years of the 1970s and 1980s that Christians for Israel and the Israel Products Centre were born. Two organisations, built on two foundations: support for Israel, and prayer for the Jewish people. A story about how a small group of Dutch people standing on barricades for Israel grew into an international movement. What obstacles did they face? What were the victories? A fascinating 40- year journey through history. A man, on his knees, in his bedroom. That image would stick with young Karel van Oordt (1928-2013) forever. His father, Wijnand Egbert Pieter van Oordt (1901-1972), was a businessman who daily humbled himself before God for Christianity in its state of division, and who prayed ardently for the restoration of Israel. His wife Simonne passed away shortly after the birth of their youngest daughter. Wijnand was left with four small children: Hannie, Piet, Karel and Marietje. Karel van Oordt followed in his father’s footsteps. Prayer was the foundation of Christians for Israel: in the bedroom, on the knees. Father Wijnand was owner and director of AAKO, a dyestuff trading company for the textile industry. Over time, a chemical products department was added. The management of this division was entrusted to his son Karel. In the late 1960s, Karel decided to import chemicals from Israel, and this immediately became a great success. Oil boycott On 6 October 1973, Egyptian and Syrian armed forces invaded Israel on Yom Kippur, the most sacred Jewish holiday. Israel was taken completely by surprise by the Arab offensive and suffered heavy casualties. The situation was so critical that the survival of the state was feared. Israel received support from the west, including from the United States and the Netherlands. Against all odds, Israel won the Yom Kippur War. This was the moment in which the ‘oil weapon’ was fully deployed by the Arab League. Oil production was reduced every month. The Netherlands, among others, had actively supported Israel during the war. Oil exports to Israel’s allies were completely stopped. The oil crisis broke out, with disastrous consequences for the global economy. The oil boycott was not an isolated case. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Arab League imposed boycott measures on all western companies doing business with Israel. The Arab boycott covered two aspects: a ‘product’ boycott and a ‘personal’ boycott. The product boycott meant that all companies doing business with the Arab countries had to declare that their products were not from Israel, or from a company that was on the Arab ‘blacklist’ - a list of companies compiled by the Central Bureau for the Boycott of Israel in Damascus. Former director or the Dutch-based Centre for Information and Documentation and Israel (CIDI) Ronny Naftaniel explains: “That’s where the trouble started. The boycott also included companies with Jewish shareholders. But it went even further. For example, the Egyptian Omar Sharif was on the Arab boycott list because he had given Jewish actress Elizabeth Taylor a kiss in a film. All companies having ties with Israel and with Jews were severely punished.” The second aspect of the Arab boycott was a personal boycott. Companies had to issue a so- called ‘non-Jew statement’ that stated that an employee was Christian or Muslim, and had no ties to Israel. Naftaniel: “Companies simply issued that declaration, also in the Netherlands. But that was not the only thing: these declarations had to be legalised by the Chamber of Commerce. An extremely antisemitic measure, to which the government turned a blind eye.” It was not until 1995 that the Arab boycotts were lifted. Battle against boycott In the midst of the boycott battlefield, Karel van Oordt became convinced that he had to put his love for Israel into concrete action. In addition to his company AAKO, he founded a company to actively fight the Arab boycott. He called that company AAFAB (nobody knew this, but the name was an acronym for AAKO Fighting Arab Boycott). Sometime later, he was asked by the kibbutz movement in Israel to establish a few private limited companies to help the ailing kibbutzim in Israel. One company he called KiNeMon (Kibbutz Needs Money), followed by the company MoDoNee (More Dollars Needed). More and more Israeli companies approached Karel for support. In 1979, he sold his company AAKO at the age of fifty. He wanted to focus on his two passions: to serve the church and to support the Jewish people. Together with a few business people, he founded IP-80 in Jerusalem. Karel felt that Christians were doing too little for Israel. The goal of the organisation was twofold: to give economic support to Israel in the anti- Israeli climate of the time, and to reach the churches with the message of God’s faithfulness to Israel. Because that is where Karel’s heart was. A few months later IP-80 was separated into Christians for Israel and the Israel Products Centre. Christians for Israel and Israel Products Centre grew steadily. In 1989, Pee Koelewijn (1940-2002) joined Christians for Israel, as editor-in-chief for the newly- established Dutch-language newspaper Israel Aktueel. From that moment on, the work of Christians for Israel gained momentum, with all kinds of activities in the churches, media and politics. There was a lot of media attention, feathers were ruffled. Not everybody thanked them for that. Grim atmosphere The atmosphere around Israel grew grimmer. After 1973, there was increasing anti-Israel sentiment, both in Israel and worldwide. In 1992, over fifty activists demonstrated at the entrance of concert hall De Doelen in Rotterdam, where Christians for Israel’s “Israel Family Day” was being held. There were serious blows. Two -false- bomb threats were reported. Prayer for Israel In addition to expressing support for Israel, intercession was central to Christians for Israel. Pieter Bénard joined Christians for Israel around 1990, and started to write prayer letters, and to organise prayer meetings for Israel. Pieter: “Prayer groups sprang up all over the Netherlands. Sometimes, those consisted of four sisters who were praying every week. But some congregations prayed for Israel once a month. Many of those groups are still active today. It All Began in Prayer Karel van Oordt (centre) during his last visit to Israel in August 2012 for the ‘dedication of the restored Montefiore Windmill. Karel van Oordt addressing church delegates in the Netherlands in the early years. Karel van Oordt in the early days He wanted to focus on his two passions: to serve the church and to support the Jewish people. Continued on page 7 7 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Anniversary SPECIAL LIFTOUT Rev Cornelis Kant n Executive Director | Christians for Israel International The international work of Christians for Israel has grown enormously since Christians for Israel International was established in 1998. Branches were established first in USA, Canada and Germany, and shortly afterwards in the UK. Step by step, people in many countries came into contact with the message about Israel and were touched by it - at conferences, lectures or by reading our publications. A desire and calling arose to share this message about Israel in the churches in their own countries. Small teams of volunteer s were set up to spread the message in their own countries with lectures, newsletters and other tools of communication. Everything arose and grew out of a deep sense of calling, faith and voluntary engagement. Of course, we often meet resistance or financial setbacks, but ultimately it is God who provides and makes our mission fruitful. Over the last twenty years we have been able to reach hundreds of thousands of Christians with the message that has remained the same everywhere: God remains faithful to His people Israel and will fulfill all His promises for Israel and the Jewish people. Israel’s place in our faith is not finished, but God has a great future for his people. So now we have grown into a global family in 42 countries, and partnerships with several global and national ministries. The dissemination of the message about Israel started with visits to connect with the local churches, and was followed up with conferences, newsletters, newspapers and books. Today, modern social media such as Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp are being used more and more. Our friends come from all different denominations and churches, and it is remarkable to see how a shared biblical vision on Israel creates unity in diversity. We meet each other at the biennial International C4I Forum in Jerusalem and hold regular regional teaching and training conferences. The first goal of our ministry is to spread the message of God’s faithfulness to Israel. But we don’t want to just talk about Israel – we want to give practical blessing to the Jewish people through projects such as: helping Jewish Holocaust survivors in Ukraine and Israel, facilitating Jews who want to go to Israel on Aliyah, food kitchens in Israel, and helping children from vulnerable families in Israel, Jews and non-Jews. People who are touched by the message about Israel also want to support Israel with offerings and prayers. Many Israelis are deeply touched when they notice that there are Christians who love, support and pray for them. In addition to Christians for Israel, many other Christian organisations have emerged with a focus on Israel and the Jewish people. We try to work together as much as possible - each ministry fulfilling its own calling with regard to Israel and the churches. Our newspaper Israel & Christians Today has evolved into a unique publication full of biblical, political, historical and practical information about Israel and the Jewish people. It is published in Dutch, German and English, and we have also launched editions in Danish, Portuguese, Italian and Korean. In addition to physical distribution, the newspaper is also distributed digitally. In the coming period we also want to make more use of modern tools of communication and social media. With the gifts of friends from richer countries, we can support our teams in poorer countries to spread the message. We have no policy of being present in as many countries as possible. We just want to be present wherever the Lord opens doors to bring the message. We are very grateful to God for His blessing over the past 40 years and we trust that He will show us the way forward with this important work - until Jesus comes. Rev Cornelis Kant has been Executive Director of Christians for Israel International since 2018. He is an ordained pastor in the Dutch Reformed Church. Based in The Netherlands, he is responsible for overseeing the international development of the ministry. Sharing God’s Love for Israel Over the years, people have become more and more aware of the importance of intercession.” Pieter Bénard is convinced that intercession is definitely effective: “If you ask me: what is a special answer to prayer? Then I would say, the very fact that Israel still exists. Israel is God’s miracle! If I go through the prayer letters from 1992 up to the present time and read about the wars, enmity, terror, ridicule, antisemitism, anti- Zionism, protests, Jew-hatred, anti-Israel tendencies in the UN, UNESCO, EU, many NGOs, churches and evangelical movements, then the survival of Israel is the result of God’s faithfulness to His people, and the result of the countless faithful intercessors around the world.” The turmoil in Israel persisted. The 1993 Oslo Accords promised independence to the Palestinians and secure borders to Israel. But the result was disappointing. Tensions ran high. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat called for a second intifada (= Palestinian violent uprising) in 2000. Hundreds of terrorists committed suicide attacks in Israel. It was then that Christians for Israel started organising tours to Israel. Former Christians for Israel Netherlands Chairman Pim van der Hoff: “We started our tours as Christians for Israel in 2001. We did this in response to an urgent request from the then Minister of Tourism of Israel, Benny Elon. Tourism in Israel had plummeted to an all- time low because of the intifada. On our first trip, we went to Israel with two hundred people. It was great. That we were the only ones who dared to come was greatly appreciated in Israel.” Unforgettable In 2004 the Arab world, supported by many other states, asked the International Court of Justice to issue an Advisory Opinion condemning Israel for the construction of the security fence. Roger van Oordt, son of Karel and director of Christians for Israel in the Netherlands: “We wanted to show that this wall was erected by Israel to stop the hundreds of terrorist attacks that plagued the country during the violent intifada. So we brought a bus to the Neth erlands that had been destroyed by a terrorist attack in Israel. Eleven people had died in that bus and dozens of people were injured. We wanted to put the bus wreckage at the entrance to the Peace Palace in The Hague, and walk through The Hague in a silent march with the photos of the victims killed.” Christians for Israel needed permission for this demonstration by Mayor Deetman of The Hague. Roger: “Deetman was afraid that the photos of the victims would provoke too many emotions and would lead to countermeasures, thereby disrupting public order. In a fast-track procedure, the judge ruled in our favour. So on Monday morning, 23 February 2004, we walked with four thousand people in a silent march in The Hague. That became world news.” Where do we go from here? Christians for Israel has grown into an international movement represented in more than forty countries worldwide. The message of God’s faithfulness to His people can be heard up to the far reaches of Africa, Asia and Australia. It started with prayer in a bedroom in the Netherlands. Now hundreds of thousands of Christians are praying for Israel and the Jewish people. Intercession has remained central to the work of Christians for Israel for the past forty years. It started on its knees, and so it will continue. Karel van Oordt in the early days Wreckage of the bus that was bombed by terrorists was displayed in the silent march, The Hague 2004 Continued from page 6 Rev Cornelis Kant and the team from Christians for Israel Tanzania

10. 2 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Biblical Insights Every morning and evening, the High Priest would enter through the second veil which was the entrance to the Holy Place. Each time he had to bring fresh hot coals from the sacrificial altar along with a special mix of incense for the golden altar, and he had to refill the crushed, pure oil in the seven lamps of the Menorah and trim the wicks so it would keep burning. Ex.30:6-8; Lev.24:1-4 . The priests, on behalf of the children of Israel, had to daily offer a lamb morning and evening, with a meal offering and a drink offering. Exodus 29:38-42 . When the priests cleaned out the hot coals and added more wood to keep the fire burning and perform the mandatory morning and evening sacrifices, some of these coals would have been taken to the incense altar. On Shabbat there were extra duties; two more lambs to be sacrificed, and fresh unleavened bread to be brought to the table and the old bread eaten by the priests. ‘Then on the Sabbath day two male lambs one year old without blemish, and two-tenths [of an ephah] of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, and its drink offering. This is the burnt offering of every Sabbath, in addition to the continual burnt offering and its drink offering.’ Numbers 28:9-10 . “Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes (bread of the Presence, showbread) with it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake (loaf ). You shall set the bread of the Presence (showbread) in two rows, six in a row, on the pure gold table before the LORD. You shall put pure frankincense [in two censers, one] beside each row, so that it may be with the bread as a memorial portion, an offering by fire to the LORD. Every Sabbath day Aaron shall arrange the showbread before the LORD continually; it is an everlasting covenant for the Israelites. The bread of the Presence shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a sacred place, for it is for Aaron a most holy portion of the offerings by fire to the LORD, his portion forever.” Lev.24:5-9 . The table with the Bread of Presence continually before the Lord represents our covenant meal with the Lord. Yeshua is the Bread of Life. Jesus replied to them, “I am the Bread of Life. The one who comes to Me will never be hungry, and the one who believes in Me [as Savior] will never be thirsty [for that one will be sustained spiritually]” . John 6:35 . “I am the Living Bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this Bread [believes in Me, accepts Me as Savior], he will live forever. And the Bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh (body).” John 6:51 . See also John 6:33&48. The Menorah, or Lampstand, represents Yeshua is the light of the world, and it represents the Holy Spirit. Once more Jesus addressed the crowd. He said, “I am the Light of the world. He who follows Me will not walk in the darkness but will have the Light of life.” John 8:12. “I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes and trusts in Me [as Savior—all those who anchor their hope in Me and rely on the truth of My message] will not continue to live in darkness.” John 12:46 . The representation of the Holy Spirit is in the seven branches of the menorah and in the oil. “Then a Shoot (the Messiah) will spring from the stock of Jesse [David’s father], And a Branch from his roots will bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him— The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and strength, The Spirit of knowledge and of the [reverential and obedient] fear of the LORD.” Is.11:1-2 . “These are the words of Him who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars.” Rev.3:1. ‘But my horn [my emblem of strength and power] You have exalted like that of a wild ox; I am anointed with fresh oil [for Your service].’ Ps.92:10 . ‘how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with great power; and He went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with Him.’ Acts 10:38 . Now, in Yeshua, we have the Holy Spirit residing in us to remind and teach us. ’But the Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf], He will teach you all things. And He will help you remember everything that I have told you.’ John 14:26 . The Altar of incense represents Yeshua interceding for us. ‘...but, on the other hand, Jesus holds His priesthood permanently and without change, because He lives on forever. Therefore, He is able also to save forever (completely, perfectly, for eternity) those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede and intervene on their behalf [with God].’ Heb.7:24-25 . It also represents our prayer, praise, and worship. In many of the Psalms this is the theme. ‘Through Him, therefore, let us at all times offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, which is the fruit of lips that thankfully acknowledge and confess and glorify His name.’ Heb.13:15. We have fellowship with God through our Lord Yeshua HaMashiach. ‘Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin [and your relationship to it broken], but alive to God [in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.’ Rom.6:11. ‘but if we [really] walk in the Light [that is, live each and every day in conformity with the precepts of God], as He Himself is in the Light, we have [true, unbroken] fellowship with one another [He with us, and we with Him], and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin [by erasing the stain of sin, keeping us cleansed from sin in all its forms and manifestations].’ 1 John 1:7. ________________________________________________________ Alison Marshall is a New Zealand born believer in Jesus and has been a Tour Guide for the Tabernacle in the Wilderness since 1999 at Timna Park in Israel. www.berean-to-berean.com The Fervent Fellowship with God — An Overview of the Tabernacle - Part 4 Alison Marshall Tour Guide for the Tabernacle in the Wilderness at Timna Park in Israel We have fellowship with God through our Lord Yeshua Model of inside the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, past the second veil - the entrance to the Holy Place.

26. 26 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Walk through the Land 14 Israel Tests Blood of 100,000 People for Herd Immunity Although it is unknown if anƟbodies against Covid-19 can stop reinfecƟon, the data will help health authoriƟes plan and prepare for a second wave. Israel’s health organisaƟons are tesƟng the blood of 100,000 ciƟzens, as well as healthcare workers, for Covid-19 anƟbodies. The sampling will provide insights into how widely the coronavirus has spread, how quickly restricƟons can be eased, and whether Israelis have sufficient ‘herd immunity’ against a second outbreak. Israelis who agree to the anƟbody test will provide informaƟon abou t their exposure to Covid-19. Those shown to have Covid-19 anƟbodies will also be retested for the virus. | Photo: Israel21c.org Israeli Drone Manufacturer Wins Award The Percepto company from Modi’in in central Israel received an internaƟonal award for its autonomous drones on Sunday. The US consulƟng firm Frost and Sullivan praised Percepto’s docking staƟons, to which the flying objects return independently for recharging. The drones allowed many companies to conƟnue operaƟons despite shortages of manpower during the Corona pandemic. For example, the equipment can m easure buildings and check them for defects. They can also disƟnguish between humans, animals and other objects. Rare Bar Kokhba Revolt Coin Found The Israel AnƟquiƟes Authority on 11 May 2020 revealed a coin issued during the Bar Kochba revolt, an uprising against Roman rule in Judea in 132-135 AD. The coin was discovered near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City and includes the words “Year Two of the Freedom of Israel” and “Jerusalem.” Dr Donald Tzvi Ariel, head of the Israel AnƟquiƟes Authority’s coin department, said of the thousands of coins found in the Old City, only four have be en from the Ɵme of the Bar Kochba revolt, though many more have been discovered elsewhere in the country. | Photo: Sci News Short News Kameel Majdali n Director | Teach All Nations Inc. Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties. Genesis 49:20 We continue our ‘walk through the land’ (Genesis 13:17) series, helping us to learn more about the Bible by understanding the land where much of it took place. We still find ourselves on Israel’s coastal plain, which consists of three subsections: Plain of Philistia (south), Plain of Sharon (Center), and Plain of Acre (north). Our focus will be on the last of these. Remember that the entire coastal plain stretches 187 kilometers or 116 miles. Nearly 60% of Israel’s population lives on the plain, especially clustered around the major cities of Tel Aviv-Yafo and Haifa. Not only is it Israel’s most Jewish section, of which Jews comprise 96%, but is the third most Jewish area in the world. The Plain of Acre starts in the northern suburbs of the port city of Haifa and goes northward 32 kilometers (20 miles) to the Lebanese border at Rosh Ha Niqra, a seaside rock grotto and tourist site. The breadth of the plain is 8-14 kilometers (5 to 9 miles), from the Mediterranean to the hills of Western Galilee and Armageddon Valley. It is a fertile region which contains a lot of agricultural communities, namely kibbutzim and moshavim, with islands and islets off the coast. Cities in the region, from north to south, include Nahariya, Acre (Akko), and Haifa. Haifa This is Israel’s chief port and third largest city after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. While not mentioned in the Bible, Haifa is located on the Biblical site of Mount Carmel (I Kings 18), which we will examine separately. The first mention of the city is in the Talmud. Church historian and topographer Eusebius spoke about the city, calling it Sykaminos. The crusaders captured the city in 1100 AD and named it Caiphas. Centuries later the British took Haifa in 1918 and it became part of the Mandate in Palestine. The Arabs surrendered the city into Jewish control on 22 April 1948. Haifa is home to the University of Haifa (1964) and the Israel Institute of Technology, known as the Technion (1924). It also serves as world headquarters of the Bahai religion and hosts the magnificent terraced Persian Gardens (it is worth coming to Haifa just to see it, as well as the awesome view of the Mediterranean). The city’s population is over 250,000 and has a diverse population, including a large Arab minority. e (Akko [Hebrew] or Akka in [Arabic]) This ancient port city sits at the northern end of Haifa Bay, and provides an intersection with major roads inland. Acre is considered one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. It was subject to invasion and occupation during the centuries; here the Crusaders made their last stand, calling it St. Jean d’Acre. The surrender of the city to the Muslim armies in 1291 AD signaled the end of the Crusader kingdom in Palestine. Today Acre has 50,000 residents and welcomes pilgrims from the Bahai religion. Acre has scant Biblical reference, one in the Old Testament and one in the New. It is mentioned in passing in Judges 1, where it’s called Accho or Akko. In the New Testament it was named Ptolemais, a Greek name meaning ‘warlike,’ named after Alexander the Great’s general Ptolemy Soter. His was one of four kingdoms established after Alexander’s death. Josephus Flavius mentions it more than once in his book War of the Jews (Book 1 Chapter 20, 3; Book 3, Chapter 2, 4). When Paul made his fateful, final journey in Jerusalem, he sailed from Tyre in Phoenicia to Ptolemais: And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, and saluted the brethren, and abode with them one day. Acts 21:7 The city has only been in Israelite hands a short period during its long history, becoming part of the State of Israel in 1948. The subterrane an crusader city is worth a visit, though it dates 1,000 years after the Bible. The Tribe of Asher Neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho, nor the inhabitants of Zidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of Achzib, nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of Rehob: But the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: for they did not drive them out. Judges 1:31-32 While the Plain of Acre has little Biblical reference, it still part of the tribal allotment of Asher. Another name for it could be the ‘Plain of Asher,’ son of Jacob and Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid (Genesis 30:13). Asher was meant to possess the plain but apparently his military did not break through to the Mediterranean. Asher was Jacob’s 8th son and his name means ‘happy.’ Like Simeon, this tribe does not have an illustrious history. It provided no judge, deliverer, or great leader. It is given an honorable mention in the tribal lists (Genesis 35:26; 46:17; Exodus 1:14). Asher grew during the wilderness sojourn. Its boundaries are described in Joshua 19:24-31, containing some of the best agricultural soil in the country, but it failed to capture these according to Judges 1:31-32 (quoted above). Despite its obscurity and mediocrity, Asher has a brighter future. When Jesus was dedicated in the temple in Jerusalem, Simeon prophesied over the infant that he would be the Lord’s Messiah. Immediately, an elderly woman, a prophetess like Miriam, Deborah, and Huldah (II Chronicles 34:22), who never left the temple but prayed and fasted day and night, confirmed Simeon’s word with thanksgiving. She gave encouragement to all who looked for Jerusalem’s redemption. Her name was Anna, daughter of Phanuel, from the tribe of Asher (Luke 2:36-38). In Revelation 7:6, Asher is numbered among the 144,000 and gets a pearly gate in the New Jerusalem (21:12). Rev Kameel Majdali, PhD (Melb) is Director of Teach All Nations (tan.org.au). His MA degree is ‘Historical Geography of the Holy Land’ from the Institute of Holy Land Studies. Acre, Israel. | Photo: Unsplash Introducing the Plain of Acre June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Ha-Hagana St, Acre, Israel. | Photo: Unsplash

22. 22 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Theology 10 Jewish Festivals Rosh Chodesh Tamuz Beginning of new Hebrew month of Tamuz 22 June 2020 Is the beginning of the Hebrew month of Tamuz. Tamuz is the 4th month of the Hebrew year. It corresponds to June or July on the Gregorian calendar. Rosh Chodesh Tamuz begins at sundown on 21 June 2020. Tzom Tammuz Fast commemorating breaching the walls of Jerusalem before the destruction of the Second Temple 9 July 2020 The Seventeenth of Tammuz (Hebrew: Shiv’ah Asar b’Tammuz) is a Jewish day of fasting commemorating the breach of the walls of Jerusalem before the destruction of the Second Temple. It falls on the 17th day of the Hebrew month of Tammuz and marks the beginning of the three- week period of mourning leading up to Tisha B’Av. Like other minor fasts, Tzom Tammuz begins at dawn (first light) and ends at nightfall (full dark ). Tzom Tammuz begins at dawn on 9 July 2020. Rosh Chodesh Av Beginning of the new Hebrew month of Av 22 July 2020 Marks the beginning of the Hebrew month of Av. Av is the 5th month of the Hebrew year, corresponding to July or August on the Gregorian calendar. Rosh Chodesh Av begins at sundown on 21 July 2020. Shabbat Chazon Shabbat before Tish’a B’Av 25 July 2020 Shabbat Chazon (Sabbath of vision) takes its name from the Haftarah that is read on the Shabbat immediately prior to the mournful fast of Tisha B’Av, from Isaiah’s prophetic words of rebuke and doom in the Book of Isaiah 1:1-27. It is also referred to as the Black Sabbath due to its status as the saddest Shabbat of the year (as opposed to the White Sabbath, Shabbat Shuvah, immediately preceding Yom Kippur). Shabbat Chazon begins at sundown on 24 July 2020. Tish’a B’Av The Ninth of Av, fast commemorating the destruction of the two Temples 30 July 2020 Tisha B’Av (Hebrew: the Ninth of Av) is an annual fast day in Judaism, named for the ninth day (Tisha) of the month of Av in the Hebrew calendar. The fast commemorates the destruction of both the First Temple and Second Temple in Jerusalem, events which occurred about 655 years apart, but on the same Hebrew calendar date. Tisha B’Av is never observed on Shabbat. If the 9th of Av falls on a Saturday, the fast is postponed until the 10th of Av. Tish’a B’Av begins at sundown on 29 July 2020. Hundreds of people praying at the Western Wall. | Photo: Unsplash All Israel Kees de Vreugd n Theologian | Christians for Israel International & Editor | Israel & the Church “And so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.’” Romans 11:26 It is written here in plain terms: all Israel will be saved. Not a single translation or explanation can avoid it. it is possible to translate: ‘then, all Israel will be saved, as it is written...’, but ‘all Israel’ is all Israel. Or is it not? Then the questions arise. Does Paul mean all Israel in his own time, or in the end time (as a matter of fact, Paul experienced his own time as the end time), or throughout the ages? And there are still expositors who say: “Not all that is Israel, really belongs to Israel (Romans 9:6). All Israel is the church, existing of believers from Jewish and gentile origin.” They call that a ‘spiritual Israel’. I believe that the key to understanding this verse lies indeed in Romans 9:6. But the question is: how do you read that verse? Contrary to most translations, in its context, it appears most logic to read verse 6b as a question: “Are not all those Israel, who are descended from Israel?” Then Paul goes on to say: “But it is not so that all descendants of Abraham are children (vs. whom God had promised and with whom He would continue His covenant with Abraham).” And then everything falls in its place. Look at the prophecies Paul is quoting in his argument in Romans 9, 10 and 11. They are all about the restoration of the ten (‘lost’) tribes. In my opinion, even the “fullness of the gentiles” (verse 25) refers to this restoration (Genesis 48:19). The ten tribes will be united with the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin under the Messianic King in the land of Israel. Note that Paul in these chapters consistently speaks of ‘Israel’, and not of ‘the Jews’. He is not concerned with just one tribe, but with all Israel, that is, the entire nation, existing of the twelve tribes. The Deliverer is taking up the broken-off branches, cleansing them, and planting them back into the land. So, all Israel will be saved. June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 The Deliverer is taking up the broken-off branches, cleansing them, and planting them back into the land. So, all Israel will be saved. David Pawson (1930-2020) Christians for Israel mourns the passing of David Pawson on 21 May 2020 at the age of 90. David was a British evangelical Bible teacher. A prolific author and speaker, since the 1970’s Pawson had a huge international ministry teaching and writing. His teaching was characterised by clarity, lucidity and absolute faithfulness to the Bible. Pawson was a strong opponent of ‘replacement theology’. His books Defending Christian Zionism and Israel in the New Testament argue that the return of the Jewish people to the Holy Land is a fulfilment of scriptural prophecy, and that Christians should support the existence of the Jewish State (although not unconditionally its actions) on theological grounds. Pawson argues that prophecies about Israel in the Old and New testaments relate specifically to the Biblical people of Israel (not to the church). He was an outspoken critic of Dispensationalism. In Israel in the New Testament Pawson points out that many Christians read the Old Testament prophecies on Israel in a symbolic and spiritualised way because the nation of Israel is not as prominently present in the New Testament as it is in the Old Testament. Pawson explains this is a huge misunderstanding. In the course of 280 pages, he carefully demonstrates that dozens of passages in the New Testament speak about both a historical and a future significance of Israel and the Jewish people in God’s redemptive plan. For many Christians, this book has been an eye-opener. Christians for Israel was honoured that David provided a number of foundational teachings at our European Teacher Training conference in Netherlands in 2016. David Pawson’s life was a testimony of God’s love. He will be sorely missed. See www.davidpawson.org

15. 7 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 New Resources + Ways to Promote C4I Australia Sign up a friend to ‘Israel & Christians Today’ Newspaper and receive the ‘ Israel 70 Years Magazine ’ or the new ‘ The Signs of the Times DVD ’ FREE * ! Your Full Name: ____________________________ Address: _________________________________ _________________________________________ State: ________________ P ostcode: __________ Friends Full Name: _________________________ Address: _________________________________ _________________________________________ State: ________________ P ostcode: __________ Number of Newspapers Bi-monthly: c 1 c 2 c 5 c Other: __________________ *1 Magazine/DVD per person. limited offer. while stocks last. SEND DETAILS TO: Christians for Israel, Australia , PO Box 1508, Springwood, QLD, 4127 Israel 70 Years Commemorative Magazine Please choose ONE of the below gifts to receive upon successfully signing up a new friend to ‘ Israel & Christians Today’ Newspaper. The Signs of the Times DVD ( 7+ Hours Teaching) The friend/church you nominate to receive the Israel & Christians Today Bi-monthly Newspaper will also receive a complimentary copy of ‘The Signs of the Times’ DVD as well. DVD 7+ hrs teaching 115 pages PAPERBACK DVD + BOOK PACK SAVE $7 $25 $12 $30 The Signs of the Times Looking at the future from a Biblical Perspective by Rev. Willem J.J. Glashouwer NEW NEW Are we standing at the beginning of the end of mankind and planet earth? Or are we rapidly approaching the dawn of a splendid new future? Is Israel a sign of hope? Rev. Glashouwer looks at fifty-two signs of the times mentioned in the Bible— a perfect companion to his 115 page, 52 chaptered book! For our complete range of our products or to place an order, complete the coupon on back page and post or email it, or go online: c4israel.com.au/store Please include payment with the coupon or pay by internet banking (put your name and item as reference). inc P&H inc P&H inc P&H

25. 25 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Lawfare 12 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Andrew Tucker and n Dr Matthijs de Blois The status of the Old City of Jerusalem, the ‘Holy Basin’ (the area around the Old City), Judea and Samaria is complex. It is gradually becoming the subject of an international dispute that could even lead to military conflict. The recent coalition agreement between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Benny Gantz allows the Prime Minister to bring ‘the agreement which will be achieved with the United States on the imposition of sovereignty’ for approval to the cabinet and Knesset from the beginning of July. It is n ot clear what the government intends to do. Many news reports use the word ‘annexation’. ‘Annexation’ applies to a situation where a state seeks to incorporate into its own territory adjacent territory that does not belong to it and has been acquired by force. Like the Nazi’s did with Austria in 1938. But the status of these territories is different. The current status of the ‘occupied territories’ The legal regime applicable in the territories (re-)gained by Israel in 1967 (commonly referred to as the West Bank) is extremely complex and cannot be described in detail here. With the exception of Jerusalem, Israel has not incorporated them into Israel, but has encouraged Israelis to live there (ie. has facilitated ‘settlements’) and has gradually applied a complex web of civil and criminal laws and administrative measures. The whole matter is made even more complex by the complicated arrangements agreed under the Oslo Accords, dividing the West Bank into Areas A, B and C, each with different legal and administrative arrangements, and the creation of the Palestinian Authority and other Palestinian institutions. In our view, the term ‘annexation’ is not applicable to the West Bank. This is because there are very good arguments to support the view that Israel in fact already has sovereignty over the West Bank. This is certainly (in our view) the case in ‘East Jerusalem’, where Israel immediately applied Israeli law and jurisdiction to the whole city after the Six-Day War in 1967. It also appears to apply to Area C, that remains under full Israeli control. However, the vast majority of states, academics and international institutions consider that none of the ‘occupied territories’ belongs to Israel - though they usually fail to explain why they think this to be the case. The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Cou rt (ICC), Ms Bensouda, argues that these territories belong to the Palestinian people. The Prosecutor has been ‘examining’ ‘the Situation in the State of Palestine’ for five years and recently decided she thinks that Israel’s policies of establishing ‘settlements’ in East Jerusalem and the West Bank constitutes a war crime. She has submitted two documents to the Court recently arguing that ‘Palestine’ should be considered a State, even though it does not meet the normal criteria of statehood under general international law, and that all of these territories (ie . ‘East Jerusalem’ and the ‘West Bank’) belong to this State of Palestine. Palestinian narrative The ICC Prosecutor portrays all Palestinians as victims – not only with respect to the alleged Israeli war crimes (settlements) but more generally in their pursuit of self- determination. She asserts that the Palestinians are the rightful sovereign owners of the land and that their ‘right to statehood’ has been and continues to be obstructed by Israel. Israel alone is the wrongdoer. She makes no mention of Palestinian terrorism, or of peace offers that have been rejected by the Palestinians, or of the institutional Palestinian incitement to terror or the payment of salaries to Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons. In the eyes of the Prosecutor, the Palestinians bear no responsibility for the lack of a Palestinian state or the break-down of negotiations. Israel, on the contrary, is depicted as an Occupying Power that has no claims to sovereign title and is preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state. The Prosecutor relies on two arguments to support the view that the Palestinian people have sovereignty over the ‘Occupied Palestinian Territory’: 1. sovereignty over all of the ‘occupied’ territories is ‘best viewed as residing in the Palestinian people under occupation’; and 2. the Palestinian people have a right to a State in the occupied territories. These arguments are, of course, contradictory – either the Palestinian people are ‘under occupation’ or the State of Palestine exists. It cannot be both at the same time. Territorial sovereignty: to whom does the West Bank ‘belong’? The Prosecutor dismisses Israel’s assertion that sovereignty over the territories is ‘in abeyance’ (meaning that the sovereignty is temporarily suspended). Sovereignty lies with the Palestinian people. She states that Israel cannot claim sovereignty over the territories. The argument that ‘sovereignty over all of the ‘occupied’ territories belongs to the Palestinian people as people under occupation’ is completely novel. Contrary to the Prosecutor’s assertion, this line of thinking is not shared by most international lawyers. She rejects out of hand the arguments (articulated by a number of leading international law jurists) that Israel has sovereign claims to these territories based on the rights flowing from the Mandate and the legal doctrine of uti possidetis juris, which would imply that the borders of the Mandate territory have become the borders of the State of Israel. The Prosecutor ignores the fact that the Mandate expressly was intended to ensure the ‘establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people’. This view of sovereignty leads the Prosecutor’s to continue to fundamentally misread the Oslo Accords. She proceeds o n the premise that at the time the Accords were signed Israel had no territorial or criminal law jurisdiction to transfer to the PLO. But, for the reasons given above, she fails to establish the validity of this premise. Statehood under international law The Prosecutor argues that international law requires a ‘case-specific application’ of the law when it comes to the determination of Palestinian statehood. One of her main arguments is that the Palestinians have a ‘right’ to statehood. But the right to ‘self-determination’ does not automatically entail statehood. The International Court of Justice recognised the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people in its 2004 Wall Advisory Opinion but did not find that there is a Palestinian S tate. The Prosecutor relies heavily on UN statements/ decisions. This overstates the normative value of UN resolutions. General Assembly resolutions are, in general, not binding under international law. Although they may provide evidence establishing the existence of a rule, this depends on factors such as its content, the conditions of its adoption, and whether states intended the rule to have a binding character. Even then, objections, explanations of vote, interpretations and public statements expressed by Member States must be considered in o rder to contextualise and qualify consensus or majority vote decisions. What next? First, concerning the ICC: it is to be hoped that the ICC will reject the Prosecutor’s flawed reasoning, and decide that ‘Palestine’ is not a state. The ICC case also shows how important it is that other states who oppose Palestinian statehood should clearly and unambiguously record their opposition to Palestinian assertions of statehood and territorial sovereignty. Second, concerning Bibi’s proposed ‘annexation’: Israel has over the last 50 years been unclear about what it considers the status of the territories to be. Except for Jerusalem, it has not treated these territories as part of the State of Israel, yet at the same time it has gradually applied more and more Israeli laws to Israelis living in the territories. The result is a complex web of legal and administrative measures in which Israelis are treated differently from non -Israelis. All of this is clearly unsustainable in the long term. The proposed measures may bring some clarity. On the other hand, applying Israeli jurisdiction over parts of the West Bank, and not other parts. It will threaten the continued viability of the Oslo Accords, and is likely to attract much international condemnation. Andrew Tucker is Director and Dr. Matthijs de Blois is Senior Fellow at The Hague Initiative for International Cooperation (thinc.). More information can be found at www.thinc.info ‘Annexation’, the ICC and ‘Palestine’ Fatou Bensouda, Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) briefs the Security Council Rodney Curtis n Historical Theologian | University of Bristol Elizabeth Anne Finn (1825-1921) was an outstanding woman who deeply loved the Jewish people. She lived in Warsaw, London, and, significantly Jerusalem, where she married James Finn (1806-1872), the second British Consul in the city. He was recommended for that post by Lord Shaftesbury. As the daughter of Professor Alexander McCaul (1799-1863), she was born in Warsaw, where her father had been sent in 1821 to establish a mission station for the London Jews Society (LJS). Elizabeth should be regarded as a notable Christian philosemite in her own right, not just as the daughter or wife of famous Christians who also loved Jewish people. Elizabeth had no formal education, but she came from a well-educated home. A former rabbi and Jewish convert taught her Hebrew in Warsaw, Poland. As she was used to Jews visiting their Warsaw home, she was soon fluent in Hebrew, then German and Yiddish. Her skills extended to those of a pioneer photographer in Jerusalem, and also as an archaeologist and philanthropist. Arnold Blumberg, in his introduction to his reconstruction of the Finns’ jointly written private consular diary, considers that “Elizabeth was a strong willed and intelligent wife... she was the stronger one of the pair”. She lived to see the Balfour Declaration promoted worldwide in 1917, which was a direct result of her restorationist heart for the Jewish nation. She died aged 96 at Hammersmith in London. Living at Palestine Place, Bethnal Green in East London Elizabeth recorded a unique insight into life at 8 Palestine Place, the LJS mission centre. She arrived in London aged six with her family in 1831, before her father became the Principal of the Missionary Training College. By the age of 12, she was holding Hebrew classes for the schoolchildren at Palestine Place. “My father took an active part in making the condition of the Jewish people made known to the people in England. They knew very little about it and cared even less.” She had observed that her father “learned to love and admire the Jewish people in Warsaw”. On Saturdays, her father and others from the LJS held debates with local Jews at Aldermanbury Hall in Spitalfields. In her Reminiscences, she gave an eye-witness account of watching the red glow in the sky as Parliament burnt down in 1834. In 1837, she also attended the procession in Fleet Street, when 30,000 people paid their respects to King William IV at his funeral. Her social vision for Jerusalem from 1846 Elizabeth Finn had a unique link to Jerusalem, marrying James Finn in January 1846 just before they set out for Jerusalem to take up his appointment as British Consul (1846-1863). That appointment included the role of being ‘the Protector of Jews in the East’. Proselytising was forbidden in Jerusalem, so the LJS refocused its efforts towards charitable work, carefully seeking not to aggravate Jews, Muslims or other Christian denominations. Whilst living in the city, Elizabeth had five children, two dying in infancy, and she added Arabic and Ladino to her languages. Yaron Perry, a Jewish historian from the University of Haifa, makes a searing criticism of this Jerusalem mission: “by sending a motley crew of foreign nationals... the London Society revealed its lack of confidence in its own ability to sustain a significant presence in Palestine”. On the contrary, community building activity was a key motivation behind the Finns’ formation of the Jerusalem Literary Society and a museum from 1849. The Finns used their own books to establish the original library. Their meetings encouraged exploration of Palestine and the collection of local antiquities, and many link this group with the foundation of the famous Palestine Exploration Fund. The Finns petitioned extensively for the poor Jews in the city, so much so that James was accused of being “too supportive” of the Jews by officials in England; he ignored them. An insight into Jerusalem life is found in their joint diary, which shows evidence of both of their handwriting. In 1850, James purchased land for a Jewish convert to Christianity, stating that “it is my great object and desire to see the land of Israel cultivated by Christian Israelites, preparatory to the time when the land will be restored to their nation”. He further petitioned in 1854 for the Ashkenazi Jews to be allowed to build a synagogue in Jerusalem. The Finns purchased land at Talbiyeh, just outside the old City, to teach farming skills. Talbiyeh has been claimed to be the first kibbutz. Another site was later purchased near Bethlehem. Together they also tried to help the local Arabs as much as possible, which confirms their Christian love for all types of people, and refutes Perry and other critics like him who try to dismiss them as mere conversionists. The effectiveness of their efforts, and their achievements as compassionate advocates for all communities, completely refutes the negative tropes from these dismissive Jewish scholars. By the time James died in 1872, aged 66, Elizabeth had established a soap factory, which employed local Jews. She also taught needlework in an attempt to provide employment for women and older people, which eventually employed 150 impoverished Jews. She founded the Sarah Society to visit poor women and provide gifts of food, mainly funded from England. This work is continued today at Christ Church in Jerusalem, being described as their ‘Mercy Fund’. Her enduring legacy Another Jewish scholar, Lask Adams, is appreciative of Elizabeth’s work on behalf of the Jews: “she was a remarkable person in her own right; who by her agricultural plantations helped shape the direction of the Jewish destiny in Palestine quite as much as her husband”. Further praise comes from Albert H yamson, the President of the Jewish Historical Society of England in 1917: “to her is due the honour of being the first in modern times to place rakes and spades in the hands of Jerusalem Jews”. He also highlights the Sarah Society as evidence of the genuine love shown for the Jewish people by Christians in Jerusalem. In 1882, she founded in London the Society for the Relief of Distressed Jews, to support Russian Jews suffering from the pogroms in Russia. John Simon, a Jewish leader in England, expressed his “astonishment that a Christian should take such an interest in his afflicted people”. Her memory lasts until today, as she and her daughter Constance founded the Distressed Gentlefolk’s Aid Association, now known as Elizabeth Finn Care. Constance exclaimed in 1948: “I knew that the State of Israel would be resurrected, for Prophecy promises this!” At Constance’s death in England at the age of 99, representatives from the newly established Israeli Embassy in London attended her funeral as a mark of respect towards the Finn family, recognising their work of establishing British support for the State of Israel. Alexander, Elizabeth’s son also born in Jerusalem and later Consul General to Chile, made the prescient comment in 1923: “the lack of anything like national unity among [the people of Palestine]... would render entrusting them with a measure of self-government a somewhat hazardous experience.” Yet despite the challenges of the complicated mixture of peoples and culture in Jerusalem, Elizabeth set a noble example of love for both Jews and Gentiles, there and afterwards in London. “I knew that the State of Israel would be resurrected, for Prophecy promises this!” History 13 Isaac In Hebrew, Isaac is Yitzchak (the ch pronounced as in Loch) , meaning ‘He will laugh’. There is much laughter already in the history preceding his birth. Sarah laughed when she heard that she would have a son, a burst of bitter laughter, in which self-mockery and unbelief were mingled: “After I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also?” (Genesis 18:12). Don’t make me laugh! Abraham had heard God’s promise even earlier, and then ‘Abraham fell on his face and laughed’ (Genesis 17:17). In other words he ‘doubled-up’ with laughter. Did Abraham believe God’s promise or not? When Sarah laughed, she was reproached for her disbelief of God’s power. Remarkably, God responded to Abraham’s laughter with the order to name his son Isaac. It is said, however, that he who laughs last laughs best. When the son was born he was named Isaac, just as God had told Abraham. Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me” (Genesis 21:6). The mocking laughter, furtively behind the tent-cloth, had disappeared. Instead there is a real joy, for the child had indeed been born. This laughter does not need to stay hidden in the tent, it echoes all around. This laughter is infectious. And Isaac? He is the child of the promise. God has made a covenant with him. There would be a lot of moments in his life, though, in which he would not be laughing for long. When he was a little boy, Ishmael, his older half- brother, mocked him and laughed at him. Sarah saw it. This was not the laughter she had meant, and so Ishmael was sent away with his mother. In the Bible stories, Isaac only rarely laughs, just as he only rarely speaks. His life seemed forever marked by the radical event on Mount Moriah, that in Jewish tradition is called the ‘binding of Isaac’ (Genesis 22). There he spoke to his father, but when it turned out that Isaac himself was to be the burnt-offering, he fell silent. Fortunately he also knew joy with Rebekah, his wife. In the Hebrew of Genesis 26:8, the being together of Isaac and Rebekah rings as a joyful laughter. Biblical Names By Kees de Vreugd June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Elizabeth Finn, a British Mother in Israel Elizabeth Anne Finn (1825-1921). | Photo: Wikipaedia

20. 12 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 ‘Redeeming the Time’ Resource Specials * REV WILLEM J.J. GLASHOUWER RESOURCES: Why Israel? + DVD BOOK Why End Times? + DVD BOOK Why Jerusalem? + DVD BOOK + Study Guide & Facilitators Guide free when you get both the Book & DVD Israel: Covenant & Kingdom BOOK KELVIN CROMBIE RESOURCES: The Battle of Beersheba FREE WITH EVERY ORDER BOOKLET Gallipoli: The Road to Jerusalem DVD BOOK Israel, Jesus & Covenant BOOK OTHER TRUSTED RESOURCES: The Light Horse Centenary (ALHA Documentary) DVD 70 Questions About Israel (Chan Siew Fong) BOOK ( stock limited so be quick ) Israel on Trial (Andrew Tucker) BOOK ( stock limited so be quick ) Israel 70 Years (Christians for Israel, International) MAGAZINE The Third Choice (Dr Mark Durie) BOOK Islam Rising (Dr Stuart Robinson) BOOKLET While many of us are still experiencing complete or partial isolation due to the Corona Virus now is a great opportunity to make the most of the extra time we have to study and reflect on God, His Word and His promises for Israel and the Church. You can either cut this page out and send it in to our mailing address, or if you would prefer not to cut up your newspaper, consider scanning the page first or ordering your resources online at c4israel.com.au/store ‘Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.’ Ephesians 5:16 N LT PLEASE COMPLETE FORM & RETURN TO: ATT: Christians for Israel Australia, PO Box 1508, Springwood, QLD 4127 MY TOTAL DONATION $___________ 1 = $15 2 = $25 4 = $40 6 = $50 It’s our gift for your gift of support for C4I Australia Tick the resource Books or DVDs you want + send us your order Christians for Israel Australia ABN: 79 941 819 693 ICT-RTT0620 *While stocks last or until August 1, 2020. **If you select an item we are out of stock, you can choose another item, or ask for a refund. Please post cheque or money order to: Christians for Israel Australia Inc (don’t use staples) NEW INTERNET BANKING DETAILS: BSB: ANZ BANK – 014-279 Account No: 405318551 Ref: Your name & donation purpose. Please confirm by emailing info@c4israel.com.au MY DETAILS Name: __________________________________________________ If you don ’t know or have your Member ID please include: Address: _________________________________________________ Phone: __________________________________________________ Email: ___________________________________________________ Member ID (If Known) : C4IA

27. 27 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Walk through the Land 14 Israel Tests Blood of 100,000 People for Herd Immunity Although it is unknown if anƟbodies against Covid-19 can stop reinfecƟon, the data will help health authoriƟes plan and prepare for a second wave. Israel’s health organisaƟons are tesƟng the blood of 100,000 ciƟzens, as well as healthcare workers, for Covid-19 anƟbodies. The sampling will provide insights into how widely the coronavirus has spread, how quickly restricƟons can be eased, and whether Israelis have sufficient ‘herd immunity’ against a second outbreak. Israelis who agree to the anƟbody test will provide informaƟon abou t their exposure to Covid-19. Those shown to have Covid-19 anƟbodies will also be retested for the virus. | Photo: Israel21c.org Israeli Drone Manufacturer Wins Award The Percepto company from Modi’in in central Israel received an internaƟonal award for its autonomous drones on Sunday. The US consulƟng firm Frost and Sullivan praised Percepto’s docking staƟons, to which the flying objects return independently for recharging. The drones allowed many companies to conƟnue operaƟons despite shortages of manpower during the Corona pandemic. For example, the equipment can m easure buildings and check them for defects. They can also disƟnguish between humans, animals and other objects. Rare Bar Kokhba Revolt Coin Found The Israel AnƟquiƟes Authority on 11 May 2020 revealed a coin issued during the Bar Kochba revolt, an uprising against Roman rule in Judea in 132-135 AD. The coin was discovered near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City and includes the words “Year Two of the Freedom of Israel” and “Jerusalem.” Dr Donald Tzvi Ariel, head of the Israel AnƟquiƟes Authority’s coin department, said of the thousands of coins found in the Old City, only four have be en from the Ɵme of the Bar Kochba revolt, though many more have been discovered elsewhere in the country. | Photo: Sci News Short News Kameel Majdali n Director | Teach All Nations Inc. Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties. Genesis 49:20 We continue our ‘walk through the land’ (Genesis 13:17) series, helping us to learn more about the Bible by understanding the land where much of it took place. We still find ourselves on Israel’s coastal plain, which consists of three subsections: Plain of Philistia (south), Plain of Sharon (Center), and Plain of Acre (north). Our focus will be on the last of these. Remember that the entire coastal plain stretches 187 kilometers or 116 miles. Nearly 60% of Israel’s population lives on the plain, especially clustered around the major cities of Tel Aviv-Yafo and Haifa. Not only is it Israel’s most Jewish section, of which Jews comprise 96%, but is the third most Jewish area in the world. The Plain of Acre starts in the northern suburbs of the port city of Haifa and goes northward 32 kilometers (20 miles) to the Lebanese border at Rosh Ha Niqra, a seaside rock grotto and tourist site. The breadth of the plain is 8-14 kilometers (5 to 9 miles), from the Mediterranean to the hills of Western Galilee and Armageddon Valley. It is a fertile region which contains a lot of agricultural communities, namely kibbutzim and moshavim, with islands and islets off the coast. Cities in the region, from north to south, include Nahariya, Acre (Akko), and Haifa. Haifa This is Israel’s chief port and third largest city after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. While not mentioned in the Bible, Haifa is located on the Biblical site of Mount Carmel (I Kings 18), which we will examine separately. The first mention of the city is in the Talmud. Church historian and topographer Eusebius spoke about the city, calling it Sykaminos. The crusaders captured the city in 1100 AD and named it Caiphas. Centuries later the British took Haifa in 1918 and it became part of the Mandate in Palestine. The Arabs surrendered the city into Jewish control on 22 April 1948. Haifa is home to the University of Haifa (1964) and the Israel Institute of Technology, known as the Technion (1924). It also serves as world headquarters of the Bahai religion and hosts the magnificent terraced Persian Gardens (it is worth coming to Haifa just to see it, as well as the awesome view of the Mediterranean). The city’s population is over 250,000 and has a diverse population, including a large Arab minority. e (Akko [Hebrew] or Akka in [Arabic]) This ancient port city sits at the northern end of Haifa Bay, and provides an intersection with major roads inland. Acre is considered one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. It was subject to invasion and occupation during the centuries; here the Crusaders made their last stand, calling it St. Jean d’Acre. The surrender of the city to the Muslim armies in 1291 AD signaled the end of the Crusader kingdom in Palestine. Today Acre has 50,000 residents and welcomes pilgrims from the Bahai religion. Acre has scant Biblical reference, one in the Old Testament and one in the New. It is mentioned in passing in Judges 1, where it’s called Accho or Akko. In the New Testament it was named Ptolemais, a Greek name meaning ‘warlike,’ named after Alexander the Great’s general Ptolemy Soter. His was one of four kingdoms established after Alexander’s death. Josephus Flavius mentions it more than once in his book War of the Jews (Book 1 Chapter 20, 3; Book 3, Chapter 2, 4). When Paul made his fateful, final journey in Jerusalem, he sailed from Tyre in Phoenicia to Ptolemais: And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, and saluted the brethren, and abode with them one day. Acts 21:7 The city has only been in Israelite hands a short period during its long history, becoming part of the State of Israel in 1948. The subterrane an crusader city is worth a visit, though it dates 1,000 years after the Bible. The Tribe of Asher Neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho, nor the inhabitants of Zidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of Achzib, nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of Rehob: But the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: for they did not drive them out. Judges 1:31-32 While the Plain of Acre has little Biblical reference, it still part of the tribal allotment of Asher. Another name for it could be the ‘Plain of Asher,’ son of Jacob and Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid (Genesis 30:13). Asher was meant to possess the plain but apparently his military did not break through to the Mediterranean. Asher was Jacob’s 8th son and his name means ‘happy.’ Like Simeon, this tribe does not have an illustrious history. It provided no judge, deliverer, or great leader. It is given an honorable mention in the tribal lists (Genesis 35:26; 46:17; Exodus 1:14). Asher grew during the wilderness sojourn. Its boundaries are described in Joshua 19:24-31, containing some of the best agricultural soil in the country, but it failed to capture these according to Judges 1:31-32 (quoted above). Despite its obscurity and mediocrity, Asher has a brighter future. When Jesus was dedicated in the temple in Jerusalem, Simeon prophesied over the infant that he would be the Lord’s Messiah. Immediately, an elderly woman, a prophetess like Miriam, Deborah, and Huldah (II Chronicles 34:22), who never left the temple but prayed and fasted day and night, confirmed Simeon’s word with thanksgiving. She gave encouragement to all who looked for Jerusalem’s redemption. Her name was Anna, daughter of Phanuel, from the tribe of Asher (Luke 2:36-38). In Revelation 7:6, Asher is numbered among the 144,000 and gets a pearly gate in the New Jerusalem (21:12). Rev Kameel Majdali, PhD (Melb) is Director of Teach All Nations (tan.org.au). His MA degree is ‘Historical Geography of the Holy Land’ from the Institute of Holy Land Studies. Acre, Israel. | Photo: Unsplash Introducing the Plain of Acre June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Ha-Hagana St, Acre, Israel. | Photo: Unsplash Anemone Rüger n Project Coordinator - Holocaust Survivors in Israel & Ukraine | Christians for Israel Stepping up support for needy Jewish people in Ukraine “Which plague will be next?” a secular Ukrainian news platform asked recently in a report about the devastating wildfires in the north of Ukraine. The fires had released a 16-fold emission of radioactivity in the troubled Chernobyl region and temporarily made Kiev the world’s smog capital. The reference to the ten plagues which befell Egypt on the eve of the Hebrews’ exodus from slavery is not too far-fetched. In Jeremiah 23: 7-8 we read of a time when the exodus from Egypt will no longer serve as a point of reference, but rather man will say: “As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north.” “For the first time since the opening of the Iron Curtain in 1991, the synagogues were closed for Passover this year,” said Koen, who is in charge of the work of Christians for Israel in Ukraine. “Everyone observed the Seder quarantined at home in their Soviet flat” – much like during the first Passover night, which the Israelites were instructed to observe each in their houses, ready for departure. “At every Seder, the family members express their wish, ‘Next year in Jerusalem.’ Maybe this year, for many people here these weren’t just words.” In the meantime, Koen and his team are taking care of the manna. Since the Corona pandemic reached Ukraine and largely paralyzed public life at the end of March, thousands of Jewish elderly are confined to their four walls, including many holocaust survivors. This brings back terrifying memories. Those over 60 were instructed not to leave their houses at all, if possible. Public transportation has been curtailed to near-zero. Except a few supermarkets, most shops have been closed, including also the low-cost daily farmers markets. Food and hope on wheels “I realised that it wouldn’t take long before the soup kitchens would be closed here as well, putting many Jewish people in a precarious situation of entirely depending on external help,” said Koen as he recalled making initial preparations as early as the beginning of March. “Then we kicked off ‘Meals on Wheels.’ We mobilised all our staff, volunteers, and vehicles. We started out with 100 meals in Vinnitsa, then 200. Today we work with more than 25 soup kitchens all over Ukraine, which prepare and deliver 5,000 kosher meals every other day.” “Thank you for not leaving us alone in these difficult times,” said Ludmila, deeply touched by another delivery of meals. At age 73, she still works in a hospital in order to afford the medication for her bedridden husband, Boris. “We are so grateful to you, and to God. We couldn’t make it without your help.” The warehouse of the Baptist Church in Vinnitsa – the packing station for food parcels and an integral part of each working trip – never empties out for more than a few hours these days until the next wholesale delivery arrives. “We packed more than 10,000 food parcels with our helpers in the last two months, transporting them across thousands of kilometers,” Koen said. This was made possible by the support of many faithful donors. “Our old people are overwhelmed. They don’t know what to say,” said Rabbi Dan expressing his appreciation. He chairs the Jewish community of Kropyvnytskyi, formerly Kirovograd. “For many recipients, this is more than food. The fact that someone thinks of them gives them a new will to live.” Valentina, an 82-year old cancer patient in Kiev, is also on the list for a visit by our team member Natalia. “She still cannot say the word ‘Holocaust’ – it still hurts so much. She lost a large part of her family,” Natalia explained. “Since she cannot leave the house, she is also losing precious time for her direly needed chemotherapy. “Valentina is all alone. We took her under our wings. I bought chicken, eggs, milk, butter, bread, tea and vegetables for her. You should have seen her eyes! When we said good-bye, she said, ‘You didn’t just bring me food. You brought me hope!’” The image of Passover is ever-present these days, also reminding many of the liberation from the Nazi regime during World War II. 9 May, or Victory Day, is still one of the most important holidays in post-Soviet Ukraine. It carries a deep personal meaning for many. One of them is Faina, chair of the Bratslav Jewish Community, whose father suffered through unspeakable horrors at the Pechora death camp as a child. “My father always said, ‘This is the highest holiday for me – to think that I survived such terror!’” Faina transitions to her good wishes without blinking. “I bow before you in deep appreciation for everything you do for us. May God reward you 100-fold. May you be blessed for a thousand generations!” Emergency help is not limited to Holocaust survivors. “Thousands of Jewish people who want to go to Israel are stuck here, waiting for the strict Corona measures to be lifted,” said Koen. “They have sold everything, sitting on packed suitcases waiting. We help them, too, get through this difficult time.” For AUD $10, a nutritious meal will be delivered at the home of an elderly member of the Jewish community in Ukraine. Please support Meals on Wheels by completing the coupon on the back page. Our Projects 15 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780   *orKionJ o= Manna "in<ni $<ruJal<D Benjamin Philip of Hineni recently wrote to us: “Dear friends, because of the coronavirus, we have been very busy distributing thousands of meals and hundreds of Pesach packages. I would like to thank all the friends of Christians for Israel who help us to provide food and assistance to Holocaust survivors, the frail elderly and other people in need. I am also grateful that the mayor of Jerusalem, Moshe Leon, together with his wife, offered to volunteer at Hineni and helped prepare packages at our centre. In this way, a difficult period also becomes a meaningful time. Thank you so much!” Ludmila and Boris, who struggle for survival even without Covid-19 82-year old Valentina in Kiev – “You brought me hope” With your help we could help people like Aaron and Maya with our Meals on Wheels

2. 14 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 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 J.J. Glashouwer, President Rev Cornelis Kant, Executive Director P.O. 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, info@c4israel.org.nz www.c4israel.org.nz Christians for Israel - South Korea Tel: +61 410 430 677 email: wijung@gmail.com www.c4israel.org/korea Christians for Israel - USA Fred J van Westing, CEO PO Box 2589, Manteca, CA 95336, USA Tel/Fax: +1 209 665 4280 fredvanwesting@c4israel.org www.c4israel.us DISCLAIMER - Articles printed in Israel & Christians Today expr ess 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 retrieval 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. www.facebook.com/c4israel Prayer Points By Pieter Bénard Israel l Pray for the emergency unity government of national conciliation that was formed. Give thanks that the recent deadlock in Israeli politics is coming to an end. Pray that after a long period of having no government, the nation will again be governed well. l “In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From His temple He heard my voice; my cry came before Him, into His ears”. (Psalm 18:6). Pray for all who feel anxiety and insecurity in these days, but who do not call upon the Lord. l Jeremiah 31:5 states that there will be vineyards again on the hills of Samaria. This had not been the case for 2000 years, until the 20th century. Thank our Heavenly Father that He fulfilled that wonderful promise in our days! Israel & the Nations l We know from history that in times of crisis, Jews were often blamed for the misery. Pray for the protection of God’s people against anti-Semitism. l The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court plans to investigate and prosecute Israeli leaders for war crimes in ‘Palestine’. Pray for the protection of Israel and Israeli leaders and that ‘lawfare’ against Israel will be defeated. Christians for Israel l David Ben Gurion once famously said: “Our future depends not on what the Gentiles say but on what the Jews do”. It is our task as Christians to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, peace for the land, and peace for all in the land. l Small groups of Jews are able to leave Ukraine and make Aliyah to Israel despite the corona crisis. Pray for these olim (immigrants) who arrive in Israel during the pandemic. Give thanks that the return of Jews who want to go home to Israel continues! l The departure of Jews from Ukraine cannot take place at the moment because of the coronavirus measures. However, the work of Koen Carlier ’s team continues unabated. Thank you for the work of Koen and his team and pray for blessing on this work. l Pray and give thanks from Psalm 46:1-2 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear.” For daily Prayer Points, go to our website www.c4israel.com.au Andrew Tucker n International Editor | Christians for Israel In this edition, we focus on the relationship between Israel, the nations and the land. We celebrate 40 years of bringing the ‘message about God’s faithfulness to Israel’ to the nations. And part of that message concerns Israel’s relationship with the land. At the moment this is very controversial: many nations condemn what they think is Israel’s unjustified expansion of its territory. In the Song of Moses in chapter 32 of the book Deuteronomy, the Lord calls Jacob (ie. the nation of Israel) “his allotted inheritance”. Moses says: “When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.” Much later, in the book of Acts, Paul speaks to the people of Athens and says: “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us” (Acts 17). This means that the nations and Israel are dependent on each other. It also appears that there is a deep interrelationship between: 1. the number (12) of the children of Jacob; 2. the inheritance of Jacob, including the land; 3. the inheritance and the division of the nations; and 4. the “boundaries for the peoples, according to the number of the sons of Israel.” Israel recently turned 72. That is a very Biblical number. Seventy nations descended from the children of Noah (Genesis 10), and the number seventy points in Jewish tradition prophetically to the nations. The nations and Israel are called to bless each other. We read, for example, there will come a time when Messiah reigns and the nations will come up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles (Zech. 14:16). Today the nations are faced with the conundrum of the restoration of Israel to the land. It is a miracle that doesn’t fit neatly in the thinking and plans of the nations. At the moment, the nations are very upset by Israel’s proposal to ‘annex’ parts of the West Bank. Why do they get so upset when it comes to Israel and the land? I suspect the nations ‘rage’ (Psalm 2) because they sense that ‘the time of the Gentiles’ is almost over. They are upset and angry that God is restoring his favour on Jacob. The strange thing is: if only they realised what a blessing Israel will be for the nations, they would be rejoicing! What should be our response to these developments? Our calling as Christians in the nations is not to tell Israel what to do. I would suggest our task is threefold. First, we need to pray for the Peace of Jerusalem. We should pray for peace for the land, and peace for all who live in the land, and the coming of the Prince of Peace. Second, we should encourage the Jewish people to remember their covenant with God, which includes the obligations to possess the land, and to look after the ‘stranger in the land’. Third, we need to remind the leaders of our nations that 1. it was God who created the nations, divided them and gave them their inheritance and ‘appointed times in history’; 2. the inheritance of the nations is closely connected with the inheritance of Jacob (Israel) – which includes restoration to the land promised to them; and 3. God longs for the nations to ‘seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him ’ (Acts 17). Jacob - My Allotted Inheritance Map of Canaan - Twelve Tribe Portions. | Image: Bible History Online The strange this is: if only they realised what a blessing Israel will be for the nations, they would be rejoicing!

23. 23 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Theology 10 Jewish Festivals Rosh Chodesh Tamuz Beginning of new Hebrew month of Tamuz 22 June 2020 Is the beginning of the Hebrew month of Tamuz. Tamuz is the 4th month of the Hebrew year. It corresponds to June or July on the Gregorian calendar. Rosh Chodesh Tamuz begins at sundown on 21 June 2020. Tzom Tammuz Fast commemorating breaching the walls of Jerusalem before the destruction of the Second Temple 9 July 2020 The Seventeenth of Tammuz (Hebrew: Shiv’ah Asar b’Tammuz) is a Jewish day of fasting commemorating the breach of the walls of Jerusalem before the destruction of the Second Temple. It falls on the 17th day of the Hebrew month of Tammuz and marks the beginning of the three- week period of mourning leading up to Tisha B’Av. Like other minor fasts, Tzom Tammuz begins at dawn (first light) and ends at nightfall (full dark ). Tzom Tammuz begins at dawn on 9 July 2020. Rosh Chodesh Av Beginning of the new Hebrew month of Av 22 July 2020 Marks the beginning of the Hebrew month of Av. Av is the 5th month of the Hebrew year, corresponding to July or August on the Gregorian calendar. Rosh Chodesh Av begins at sundown on 21 July 2020. Shabbat Chazon Shabbat before Tish’a B’Av 25 July 2020 Shabbat Chazon (Sabbath of vision) takes its name from the Haftarah that is read on the Shabbat immediately prior to the mournful fast of Tisha B’Av, from Isaiah’s prophetic words of rebuke and doom in the Book of Isaiah 1:1-27. It is also referred to as the Black Sabbath due to its status as the saddest Shabbat of the year (as opposed to the White Sabbath, Shabbat Shuvah, immediately preceding Yom Kippur). Shabbat Chazon begins at sundown on 24 July 2020. Tish’a B’Av The Ninth of Av, fast commemorating the destruction of the two Temples 30 July 2020 Tisha B’Av (Hebrew: the Ninth of Av) is an annual fast day in Judaism, named for the ninth day (Tisha) of the month of Av in the Hebrew calendar. The fast commemorates the destruction of both the First Temple and Second Temple in Jerusalem, events which occurred about 655 years apart, but on the same Hebrew calendar date. Tisha B’Av is never observed on Shabbat. If the 9th of Av falls on a Saturday, the fast is postponed until the 10th of Av. Tish’a B’Av begins at sundown on 29 July 2020. Hundreds of people praying at the Western Wall. | Photo: Unsplash All Israel Kees de Vreugd n Theologian | Christians for Israel International & Editor | Israel & the Church “And so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.’” Romans 11:26 It is written here in plain terms: all Israel will be saved. Not a single translation or explanation can avoid it. it is possible to translate: ‘then, all Israel will be saved, as it is written...’, but ‘all Israel’ is all Israel. Or is it not? Then the questions arise. Does Paul mean all Israel in his own time, or in the end time (as a matter of fact, Paul experienced his own time as the end time), or throughout the ages? And there are still expositors who say: “Not all that is Israel, really belongs to Israel (Romans 9:6). All Israel is the church, existing of believers from Jewish and gentile origin.” They call that a ‘spiritual Israel’. I believe that the key to understanding this verse lies indeed in Romans 9:6. But the question is: how do you read that verse? Contrary to most translations, in its context, it appears most logic to read verse 6b as a question: “Are not all those Israel, who are descended from Israel?” Then Paul goes on to say: “But it is not so that all descendants of Abraham are children (vs. whom God had promised and with whom He would continue His covenant with Abraham).” And then everything falls in its place. Look at the prophecies Paul is quoting in his argument in Romans 9, 10 and 11. They are all about the restoration of the ten (‘lost’) tribes. In my opinion, even the “fullness of the gentiles” (verse 25) refers to this restoration (Genesis 48:19). The ten tribes will be united with the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin under the Messianic King in the land of Israel. Note that Paul in these chapters consistently speaks of ‘Israel’, and not of ‘the Jews’. He is not concerned with just one tribe, but with all Israel, that is, the entire nation, existing of the twelve tribes. The Deliverer is taking up the broken-off branches, cleansing them, and planting them back into the land. So, all Israel will be saved. June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 The Deliverer is taking up the broken-off branches, cleansing them, and planting them back into the land. So, all Israel will be saved. David Pawson (1930-2020) Christians for Israel mourns the passing of David Pawson on 21 May 2020 at the age of 90. David was a British evangelical Bible teacher. A prolific author and speaker, since the 1970’s Pawson had a huge international ministry teaching and writing. His teaching was characterised by clarity, lucidity and absolute faithfulness to the Bible. Pawson was a strong opponent of ‘replacement theology’. His books Defending Christian Zionism and Israel in the New Testament argue that the return of the Jewish people to the Holy Land is a fulfilment of scriptural prophecy, and that Christians should support the existence of the Jewish State (although not unconditionally its actions) on theological grounds. Pawson argues that prophecies about Israel in the Old and New testaments relate specifically to the Biblical people of Israel (not to the church). He was an outspoken critic of Dispensationalism. In Israel in the New Testament Pawson points out that many Christians read the Old Testament prophecies on Israel in a symbolic and spiritualised way because the nation of Israel is not as prominently present in the New Testament as it is in the Old Testament. Pawson explains this is a huge misunderstanding. In the course of 280 pages, he carefully demonstrates that dozens of passages in the New Testament speak about both a historical and a future significance of Israel and the Jewish people in God’s redemptive plan. For many Christians, this book has been an eye-opener. Christians for Israel was honoured that David provided a number of foundational teachings at our European Teacher Training conference in Netherlands in 2016. David Pawson’s life was a testimony of God’s love. He will be sorely missed. See www.davidpawson.org Theology 11 Rev Cornelis Kant n Executive Director | Christians for Israel International The book of Ruth is traditionally read in the synagogue during the Feast of Pentecost (Shavu’ot). As a Gentile woman Ruth joins her Jewish mother-in-law Naomi, who is returning to Israel and says: “Your people will be my people and your God my God.” Her love for Naomi is stronger than her self-interest. As the story develops, we notice Ruth is being blessed abundantly by God for that attitude. Boaz later confirms this: May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel. Ruth is a symbol, a type, of Christians who love Israel and the Jewish people. Yet the meaning of this beautiful story reaches further. Naomi, a widow like Ruth, is poor and forced to sell her family plot of land. In getting new perspectives for the future, she needs a ‘guardian-redeemer’. A ‘guardian- redeemer ’ (Hebrew: go’ël) is someone who buys your family plot back for you until the jubilee year, so it remains your property forever (Leviticus 25:25). Boaz turns out to be the guardian-redeemer. Ruth lies down at his feet on the threshing floor and says to Boaz: “I am your servant Ruth”, she said. “Spread the corner of your garment over me since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family.” This is going to cost Boaz money, a ransom, but he is committed to it with his heart and soul. Boaz even goes a step further. He doesn’t only offer economic perspective and rehabilitation to Naomi and Ruth; he also marries Ruth as his wife. And that’s where this wonderful story takes on a deeper significance. Isaiah calls God the Redeemer of Israel: Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer (go’ël), the Lord of hosts: I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God (Isaiah 44:6). This also reminds us of the Messiah, Jesus. He is also the King of Israel. In Revelation He calls Himself the first and the last, the alpha and omega. The relationship between God and His people Israel is also described as a marital bond between groom and bride: “Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. For your Maker is your husband—the Lord Almighty is his name—the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer (...) The Lord will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit” (Isaiah 54:4-6) . God is the ‘guardian-redeemer’ of Israel, who was like a poor and abandoned widow. But God will restore and marry his people Israel, just as Boaz married Ruth, and will provide Israel a great future. A wonderful parallel is drawn here between Ruth and Boaz on the one hand and Israel and God on the other hand. This is reflected by the terms King, Redeemer (go’ël), widow and marriage. No longer being a foreigner in Israel Ruth becomes a full part of Israel. The witnesses at the city gate told Boaz: “May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel”. Ruth even becomes David’s great-grandmother. Ruth is a wonderful story with a wonderful message. Ruth is not only a type for Christians who love Israel, but also a type for Israel itself, who will be redeemed and married by the King of Israel. Ruth as the ‘Type’ of Israel | Photo: Lightstock Mandy Worby n Christians for Israel Australia Last time we talked about the mind-set of the Jewish people after thousands of years of dealing with judgment for disobeying God’s laws. Circumcision was non- negotiable and so were the dietary laws. God told His people that if they touched an unclean animal, let alone ate an unclean animal, they would be cut off from their people. They took these laws very seriously. So we need to be a little more understanding about the Jewish believers in Acts 15, who were actually part of the Pharisaic denomination when they taught Gentiles coming to faith in Jesus that they needed to be circumcised and observe the Law of Moses and the dietary commands. I don’t think they had animosity toward the Gentile believers. They wanted to ensure the Gentiles were properly saved and they only had their own experiences to use as guidelines. Remember, any Gentile who wanted to belong to the God of Israel before Jesus came, had to convert to Judaism, be circumcised and obey all the Jewish Laws. The view point of the Jews during the first decade after Jesus ascended is very understandable. But that is where the Council in Jerusalem comes into play. It is really important for Gentile believers to understand the decision of the Council so they don’t get caught thinking that they now have to embrace all things Jewish in order to please God and be a ‘proper’ Christian. Acts 15 is the account of the Council meeting. Jesus’ half brother James was the pastor there. Apparently some of the leaders among the Jewish believers taught that in order for a Gentile to be saved, they needed to be circumcised and observe the laws of Moses. Basically, they were teaching that Gentiles were required to become Jews who could then become believers in Jesus. This caused disagreement because Gentiles were already being saved but were not converting to Judaism! Do Gentiles Have to Become Jews to be Saved? Part 2 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 The synagogue traditionally reads from the book of Ruth during the Feast of Pentecost (Shavu’ot). Matza, Tallit and Kosher Kiddush. | Photo: Shutterstock

3. 15 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 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 J.J. Glashouwer, President Rev Cornelis Kant, Executive Director P.O. 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, info@c4israel.org.nz www.c4israel.org.nz Christians for Israel - South Korea Tel: +61 410 430 677 email: wijung@gmail.com www.c4israel.org/korea Christians for Israel - USA Fred J van Westing, CEO PO Box 2589, Manteca, CA 95336, USA Tel/Fax: +1 209 665 4280 fredvanwesting@c4israel.org www.c4israel.us DISCLAIMER - Articles printed in Israel & Christians Today expr ess 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 retrieval 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. www.facebook.com/c4israel Prayer Points By Pieter Bénard Israel l Pray for the emergency unity government of national conciliation that was formed. Give thanks that the recent deadlock in Israeli politics is coming to an end. Pray that after a long period of having no government, the nation will again be governed well. l “In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From His temple He heard my voice; my cry came before Him, into His ears”. (Psalm 18:6). Pray for all who feel anxiety and insecurity in these days, but who do not call upon the Lord. l Jeremiah 31:5 states that there will be vineyards again on the hills of Samaria. This had not been the case for 2000 years, until the 20th century. Thank our Heavenly Father that He fulfilled that wonderful promise in our days! Israel & the Nations l We know from history that in times of crisis, Jews were often blamed for the misery. Pray for the protection of God’s people against anti-Semitism. l The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court plans to investigate and prosecute Israeli leaders for war crimes in ‘Palestine’. Pray for the protection of Israel and Israeli leaders and that ‘lawfare’ against Israel will be defeated. Christians for Israel l David Ben Gurion once famously said: “Our future depends not on what the Gentiles say but on what the Jews do”. It is our task as Christians to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, peace for the land, and peace for all in the land. l Small groups of Jews are able to leave Ukraine and make Aliyah to Israel despite the corona crisis. Pray for these olim (immigrants) who arrive in Israel during the pandemic. Give thanks that the return of Jews who want to go home to Israel continues! l The departure of Jews from Ukraine cannot take place at the moment because of the coronavirus measures. However, the work of Koen Carlier ’s team continues unabated. Thank you for the work of Koen and his team and pray for blessing on this work. l Pray and give thanks from Psalm 46:1-2 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear.” For daily Prayer Points, go to our website www.c4israel.com.au Andrew Tucker n International Editor | Christians for Israel In this edition, we focus on the relationship between Israel, the nations and the land. We celebrate 40 years of bringing the ‘message about God’s faithfulness to Israel’ to the nations. And part of that message concerns Israel’s relationship with the land. At the moment this is very controversial: many nations condemn what they think is Israel’s unjustified expansion of its territory. In the Song of Moses in chapter 32 of the book Deuteronomy, the Lord calls Jacob (ie. the nation of Israel) “his allotted inheritance”. Moses says: “When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.” Much later, in the book of Acts, Paul speaks to the people of Athens and says: “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us” (Acts 17). This means that the nations and Israel are dependent on each other. It also appears that there is a deep interrelationship between: 1. the number (12) of the children of Jacob; 2. the inheritance of Jacob, including the land; 3. the inheritance and the division of the nations; and 4. the “boundaries for the peoples, according to the number of the sons of Israel.” Israel recently turned 72. That is a very Biblical number. Seventy nations descended from the children of Noah (Genesis 10), and the number seventy points in Jewish tradition prophetically to the nations. The nations and Israel are called to bless each other. We read, for example, there will come a time when Messiah reigns and the nations will come up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles (Zech. 14:16). Today the nations are faced with the conundrum of the restoration of Israel to the land. It is a miracle that doesn’t fit neatly in the thinking and plans of the nations. At the moment, the nations are very upset by Israel’s proposal to ‘annex’ parts of the West Bank. Why do they get so upset when it comes to Israel and the land? I suspect the nations ‘rage’ (Psalm 2) because they sense that ‘the time of the Gentiles’ is almost over. They are upset and angry that God is restoring his favour on Jacob. The strange thing is: if only they realised what a blessing Israel will be for the nations, they would be rejoicing! What should be our response to these developments? Our calling as Christians in the nations is not to tell Israel what to do. I would suggest our task is threefold. First, we need to pray for the Peace of Jerusalem. We should pray for peace for the land, and peace for all who live in the land, and the coming of the Prince of Peace. Second, we should encourage the Jewish people to remember their covenant with God, which includes the obligations to possess the land, and to look after the ‘stranger in the land’. Third, we need to remind the leaders of our nations that 1. it was God who created the nations, divided them and gave them their inheritance and ‘appointed times in history’; 2. the inheritance of the nations is closely connected with the inheritance of Jacob (Israel) – which includes restoration to the land promised to them; and 3. God longs for the nations to ‘seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him ’ (Acts 17). Jacob - My Allotted Inheritance Map of Canaan - Twelve Tribe Portions. | Image: Bible History Online The strange this is: if only they realised what a blessing Israel will be for the nations, they would be rejoicing! News 3 Blueprints for Ventilators Saving human lives is important for the Israel division of Medtronic, a medical device company. Therefore, they provided the blueprints of its ventilators free of charge to companies who are seeking to produce them. The CEO stated: “Our goal is to prolong lives—to save lives, in fact. This is what’s needed right now, in the emergency situation we’re in, and this consideration comes before everything else.” The company is not afraid that this decision will have a negative impact on the firm’s profit. | Photo: Flash90 Compensation Nazi-looted Art Heirs of Jewish art historian Curt Glaser will receive financial compensation from the ‘Kunstmuseum Basel’ (Switzerland). Glaser was director of Berlin’s ‘Kunstbibliothek’ – the city’s historical art library. Glaser lost his job when the Nazis seized power in 1933 and he had to sell most of his art at an auction at a very low price. Part of his collection was purchased by the ‘Kunstmuseum Basel’. Glaser then fled to Paris and later to the US where he died in 1943. It took years before the heirs and the museum reached a compromise. Jackals Take Over While the majority of Israel stays inside, some seize the opportunity: jackals are taking over Tel Aviv’s main park. Normally these animals would look for scraps in secluded areas of the park. But since there are hardly any visitors, they need to find their food elsewhere. | Photo: Flash90 Iranian Spy Captured Israel’s Shin Bet security service has charged a citizen with spying on behalf of Iran. The spy was asked to carry out terror attacks and collect information about Israeli defense and strategic sites. “This investigation shows again that Iran and its proxies are working to recruit and take advantage of Israelis for the interests of Iran,” the Israeli security service said. Short News Israel & Christians Today Staff n The new Israeli government’s plans to apply Israeli law and jurisdiction to the settlement blocs in Area C of the West Bank, and the Jordan valley, have led to outrage in the international community. Jordan’s King Abdullah has warned that should Israel move forward with plans to annex parts of the West Bank, it would lead to a ‘massive conflict’ with his country. According to an interview published by the German daily Der Spiegel, Abdullah insisted that a two-state solution was ‘the only way forward’ in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “What would happen if the Palestinian National Authority collapsed? There would be more chaos and extremism in the region. If Israel really annexed the West Bank in July, it would lead to a massive conflict with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,” he said. “I don’t want to make threats and create an atmosphere of loggerheads, but we are considering all options. We agree with many countries in Europe and the international community that the law of strength should not apply in the Middle East. Leaders who advocate a one-state solution do not understand what that would mean,” he told the German Daily. France, Ireland, Sweden, Belgium, Spain and Luxembourg have reportedly expressed support for threats of punitive action in a bid to deter the new Israeli government from carrying out the move with a green light from Washington. Annexation of settlements and the Jordan Valley has been a key campaign promise of Netanyahu and his Likud party in recent elections. Slightly fewer than half of Israelis back the idea, and fewer than a third think the government will actually go through with it, according to a recent survey of Israelis. President Donald Trump’s Mideast peace plan allows for the possibility of US recognition of such annexations provided Israel agrees to negotiate under the framework of the proposal that was unveiled in January. According to the proposed plan, the US will recognise an I sraeli application of sovereignty over parts of the West Bank following the completion of a survey conducted by a joint US-Israel mapping committee and Israel’s acceptance of both a four-year freeze of the areas earmarked for a future Palestinian state and a commitment to negotiate with the Palestinians based on the terms of Trump’s peace deal. Alone among most governments, the Trump administration has said it will support the annexation of West Bank territory claimed by the Palestinians for an eventual state as long as Israel agrees to enter peace talks. US Ambassador David Friedman said that Washington is ready to recognise Israeli sovereignty over parts of the West Bank should it be declared in the coming weeks. Israel Plans to ‘Annex’ Land in West Bank Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivering a statement to the press in Ramat Gan. | Photo: Flash90 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Denmark’s Fake Bible Rev Dr Petra Heldt n Director | Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity | Jerusalem The misrepresentation of Holy Scripture by the Danish Bible Society (DBS) has been met with a crescendo of international protest demanding the withdrawal of the falsified Bible. The March 2020 Danish Bible, has omitted or replaced the word ‘Israel’ in all but two places of the more than 60 Greek occurrences in the New Testament and in 9% of the Hebrew Bible. On April 26, the Bible Society of Israel (BSI) issued a gracious but unambiguous statement asking DBS to “take measures to correct” the translation. BSI said it was ‘troubled’ by what it found when researching the translation. Amongst the analyses it presented were: Matt. 2:21: “and he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.” [speaking of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus’ return from their time in Egypt]. In the DBS translation the phrase “land of Israel” is changed to simply “home”. Luke 4:25: “many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah”. In the DBS translation “many Jewish widows in the time of Prophet Elijah.” [This is an anachronism: the word ‘Jewish’ was not in use in Elijah’s time, and he was a prophet in the northern kingdom, not in Judah.] In the Hebrew Bible, BSI counted the term ‘Israel’ 2,521 times, of which in 205 cases the word was omitted/replaced. Isa. 43:1: “But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.’” In the DBS translation “O Israel” and “O Jacob” have been removed. Jer. 33:7: “I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel...” In the DBS translation “Judah and Israel” changed to “all my people”. It is difficult not to see an intentional technique that eliminates the homeland of Israel and replaces it with a home for others; and that replaces the God of Israel with the god of you. While any translation has to wrestle with the meaning and culture of the text from one lang uage to another, the extraordinary decision of the DBS staff to deprive their readers of some of the key points of the Christian faith is mind-boggling. Above all, the Danish Bible Society separates Israel from its Land. Apart from other key issues of the faith, it denies the reader the knowledge of the intrinsic connection between the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, and between Israel and its Land. It falls in the trap of which the Apostle Paul warned, “It is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you” (Romans 11: 18). Its version of the Bible robs the Christian fa ith of its Jewish roots. It presents a new story of the Christian faith. For Christians and Jews, the Bible is serious. Any tampering with its words, above all with the word Israel, is unacceptable and rejected, unequivocally. The attempted murder of Israel, from time eternal until our day, is too real to let people play, whimsically, with its land, its people or its name. While the international protest against this Bible translation grows, while the Danish Bible Society of which the Archbishop of the Danish Lutheran Church is the president, cannot be far off the Danish Lutheran Church, and while the reputation of the Danish churches that will use the Bible 2020 is at stake, together with the trust in the Christian faith by Christians and Jews in Israel and worldwide, Denmark really does need to discard its fake Bible. The full text of this article can be found at https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15973/denmark- bible-translation-outrage

28. 28 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 2 3 Jewish Agency for Israel n On 10 May 2020, 53 olim from Ukraine were able to make Aliyah to Israel. Upon arrival, they entered quarantine for 14 days. We would like to share with you the touching story of the Shternstein family whose late father dreamt of making Aliyah. And now they are fulfilling the dream. Yevgeniy Shterenshtein shares his story: I had been aware of my Jewish roots for quite a long time. I was raised on the stories of my late Grandfather – Israel. My father Konstantin told me a lot about the life and traditions of the Jewish people and maybe also because of the name of his father, Isra el, he always dreamt of one day coming to the land of Israel. In the 1990s, when I was a child, we were planning to make Aliyah to Israel, my father was an active member of the Donetsk synagogue, but unfortunately, he died before we could fulfil his dream. Only in 2018, my cousin Nikolay decided to make Aliyah. He began the process with applications to various governmental authorities, to regain the documents. It was a very difficult task, because part of the Donetsk region had been occupied by then, and we could not receive any certificates from archives, etc. The Jewish Agency for Israel was a great h elp and support all the way through. Nikolay and his wife Viktoria finally made it to Israel in July 2019, and for me, it was a sign that nothing is impossible. A road of a thousand miles begins with one step. In March 2020, another cousin, Alexander Shterenshtein, with his wife Yana and daughter Milena, moved to Israel. They managed to catch the last flight to Tel Aviv before the regular flights were cancelled due to corona restrictions. My own family also began the process of preparation for Aliyah, in late 2019. The Jewish Agency coordinator in Mariupil’ offered us to participate in the seminar dedicated to Aliyah programs, which was organized by the Jewish Agency in Kharkiv together with Christians for Israel. Besides tons of information on the life in Israel, we were also introduced to the traditions of Shabbat, and felt the connection with other families who were at different stages of their “road of a thousand miles”. In January we received an appointment with Israeli consul in Dnipro, who was supposed to decide whether our documental proof of Jewish roots was sufficient. If yes – he would give us a visa. Our trip to Dnipro (about five hours’ drive from Mariupil’) was organised by a Christian charitable organization which helps Jews to make Aliyah. Finally, we received an OK from the consul and the long-awaited visa. And now, despite the pandemic restrictions, and global lockdown, my family and I are making Aliyah on May 10 – and I can’t call it anything but a miracle. We are thrilled, and excited, and can’t even believe that this is finally happening. My father’s dream has become mine, and I am living it now! The prophets of the Old Testament tell us that the Jews will return to the land from the four corners of the earth, in preparation for the coming of Messiah. We can see these prophecies being fulfilled before our eyes. You can help us in this exciting fulfilment of Biblical prophecy by completing the coupon below. Our Projects 16 June 2020 | Israel & Christians Today Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Making Aliyah during Covid-19 Photos: Yevgeniy’s family. Photos: Jewish Agency for Israel / Svetlana Soroka PLEASE COMPLETE FORM & RETURN TO: Christians for Israel Australia, PO Box 1508, Springwood, QLD 4127 or you can donate securely online c4israel.com.au/donate Yes, I would like to make a donation towards... C4I MINISTRY 1 SOCIAL WELFARE PROJECTS ALIYAH - BRING THE JEWS HOME TEACHING RESOURCES & PREMIUM GIFTS DONATION DONATION SEE OUR FULL RANGE AT: C4ISRAEL.COM.AU/STORE QUANTITY SUB TOTAL $___________ SUB TOTAL $___________ MY TOTAL DONATION $___________ $___________ My donation for general admin costs (inc print & post) $___________ $___________ $___________ Hineni soup kitchen ($10 per meal) First Baptist Church Bethlehem ($10 or your best gift) Meals on Wheels Ukraine ($15 per meal) $350 One Person* $6250 One Busload (25 persons)* $1460 Bnei Menashe - Asian Jews (1 person) $___________ First Home in the Homeland ($350 pp) $1250 One Family (5 persons)* $______ ___________ Israel and Christians Today Paper (free or by donation) $30 each NEW! The Signs of the Times (BOOK) by Willem Glashouwer NEW! The Signs of the Times (DVD) 7+ Hours Teaching NEW! The Signs of the Times (BOOK+DVD PACK) Save $7 ___________ ___________ $25 each ___________ NEW! Location Location Location (BOOK) by Rev Fraser Harding NEW! The Final Countdown (DVD) by Enoch Lavender NEW! The End Times Through Jewish Eyes (DVD) by Enoch Lavender $___________ Food Parcels ($15 per parcel) $12 each ___________ $15 each ___________ $20 each $15 each ___________ Special Lift-out to Keep A nniversary 4 Understanding the Times Understanding Israel and world events from a Biblical perspective & Christians Today ISRAEL June 2020 Israel & Christians Today is the premier publication of Christians for Israel 10 All Israel 15 Meals on Wheels The Christians for Israel leadership during our Forum in Jerusalem (March 0 ). Together we bring the good news about God’s faithfulness to the Jewish people to the world. Israel: A Sign of Hope for all Nations In Matthew 24, Jesus’ disciples asked Him about the ‘signs of His coming’ and the ‘end of the age’. Jesus said there will be wars and rumours of wars. Nations will rise against each other, there will be famines and earthquakes – but these will be just the beginning of the ‘birth pangs’. At the end of this age, leading to the coming of Christ (”rst for those who are ready for Him, then in glory for the whole world to see) there will be a growing ‘wickedness’, lack of love, and even hatred by all nations of true followers of Jesus. It will be a time in which those who profess faith in Christ will be hunted. But in the midst of this persecution, Jesus says, there will be two positive signs, beacons of hope in the darkness. The ”rst of these is the ”g tree whose twigs get tender and its leaves come out, showing ‘the summer is near’ (verse 32). This speaks about the national restoration of Israel. The other sign of hope is that ‘this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations’. When that happens, ‘then the end will come’ (verse 14). Over the last 00 years, we have no doubt seen a rise of wickedness in the world and falling away in the Church. But we have also seen both those signs of hope being ful”lled: the restoration of the Jewish people to the land, and the ‘gospel of the kingdom’ going to the nations. Renewed interest in th e ‘gospel of the %ingdom’ came about as a result of the spiritual revival that began in Europe in the early 00s, following the massive upheavals caused by the French Revolution. Bible-believing Christians and Jews began to study God’s word afresh and realised that the great hope offered by the Bible is the coming %ingdom of peace and prosperity on earth when the Messiah comes. This idea of the kingdom on earth under Messiah had been lost (or denied) for centuries by most Church denominations. It is a message that to this very day challenges the established theology of most church denominations. Since the early 0s, there have been many renewed efforts to bring this gospel into the nations. This year is the 40th anniversary of the ministry of Christians for Israel – bringing good news about God’s faithfulness to the Jewish people to the world. We feel immensely grateful and privileged to be witnesses of God’s amazing work of restoration at the ‘end of this age’. In this edition of Israel & Chr istians Today, we wish to share with you some of the highlights of our ministry. We do so not out of pride, but out of thankfulness for what God achieves despite our own weakness. Many Christians are awakening to the signi”cance of these events. 3et many are still asleep. There remains so much to be done to raise awareness in the church around the world of what is happening - to bring the ‘gospel of the %ingdom as a testimony to all nations’. Will you help us? We feel immensely grateful and privileged to be part of God’s amazing work of restoration at the ‘end of this age’. AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIA www.c4israel.com.au | info@c4israel.com.au Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Special Lift-out to Keep Anniversary 4 Understanding the Times Understanding Israel and world events from a Biblical perspective & Christians Today ISRAEL June 2020 Israel & Christians Today is the premier publication of Christians for Israel 10 All Israel 15 Meals on Wheels The Christians for Israel leadership during our Forum in Jerusalem (March 0 ). Together we bring the good news about God’s faithfulness to the Jewish people to the world. Israel: A Sign of Hope for all Nations In Matthew 24, Jesus’ disciples asked Him about the ‘signs of His coming’ and the ‘end of the age’. Jesus said there will be wars and rumours of wars. Nations will rise against each other, there will be famines and earthquakes – but these will be just the beginning of the ‘birth pangs’. At the end of this age, leading to the coming of Christ (”rst for those who are ready for Him, then in glory for the whole world to see) there will be a growing ‘wickedness’, lack of love, and even hatred by all nations of true followers of Jesus. It will be a time in which those who profess faith in Christ will be hunted. But in the midst of this persecution, Jesus says, there will be two positive signs, beacons of hope in the darkness. The ”rst of these is the ”g tree whose twigs get tender and its leaves come out, showing ‘the summer is near’ (verse 32). This speaks about the national restoration of Israel. The other sign of hope is that ‘this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations’. When that happens, ‘then the end will come’ (verse 14). Over the last 00 years, we have no doubt seen a rise of wickedness in the world and falling away in the Church. But we have also seen both those signs of hope being ful”lled: the restoration of the Jewish people to the land, and the ‘gospel of the kingdom’ going to the nations. Renewed interest in th e ‘gospel of the %ingdom’ came about as a result of the spiritual revival that began in Europe in the early 00s, following the massive upheavals caused by the French Revolution. Bible-believing Christians and Jews began to study God’s word afresh and realised that the great hope offered by the Bible is the coming %ingdom of peace and prosperity on earth when the Messiah comes. This idea of the kingdom on earth under Messiah had been lost (or denied) for centuries by most Church denominations. It is a message that to this very day challenges the established theology of most church denominations. Since the early 0s, there have been many renewed efforts to bring this gospel into the nations. This year is the 40th anniversary of the ministry of Christians for Israel – bringing good news about God’s faithfulness to the Jewish people to the world. We feel immensely grateful and privileged to be witnesses of God’s amazing work of restoration at the ‘end of this age’. In this edition of Israel & Chr istians Today, we wish to share with you some of the highlights of our ministry. We do so not out of pride, but out of thankfulness for what God achieves despite our own weakness. Many Christians are awakening to the signi”cance of these events. 3et many are still asleep. There remains so much to be done to raise awareness in the church around the world of what is happening - to bring the ‘gospel of the %ingdom as a testimony to all nations’. Will you help us? We feel immensely grateful and privileged to be part of God’s amazing work of restoration at the ‘end of this age’. AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIA www.c4israel.com.au | info@c4israel.com.au Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Special Lift-out to Keep Anniversary 4 Understanding the Times Understanding Israel and world events from a Biblical perspective & Christians Today ISRAEL June 2020 Israel & Christians Today is the premier publication of Christians for Israel 10 All Israel 15 Meals on Wheels The Christians for Israel leadership during our Forum in Jerusalem (March 0 ). Together we bring the good news about God’s faithfulness to the Jewish people to the world. Israel: A Sign of Hope for all Nations In Matthew 24, Jesus’ disciples asked Him about the ‘signs of His coming’ and the ‘end of the age’. Jesus said there will be wars and rumours of wars. Nations will rise against each other, there will be famines and earthquakes – but these will be just the beginning of the ‘birth pangs’. At the end of this age, leading to the coming of Christ (”rst for those who are ready for Him, then in glory for the whole world to see) there will be a growing ‘wickedness’, lack of love, and even hatred by all nations of true followers of Jesus. It will be a time in which those who profess faith in Christ will be hunted. But in the midst of this persecution, Jesus says, there will be two positive signs, beacons of hope in the darkness. The ”rst of these is the ”g tree whose twigs get tender and its leaves come out, showing ‘the summer is near’ (verse 32). This speaks about the national restoration of Israel. The other sign of hope is that ‘this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations’. When that happens, ‘then the end will come’ (verse 14). Over the last 00 years, we have no doubt seen a rise of wickedness in the world and falling away in the Church. But we have also seen both those signs of hope being ful”lled: the restoration of the Jewish people to the land, and the ‘gospel of the kingdom’ going to the nations. Renewed interest in th e ‘gospel of the %ingdom’ came about as a result of the spiritual revival that began in Europe in the early 00s, following the massive upheavals caused by the French Revolution. Bible-believing Christians and Jews began to study God’s word afresh and realised that the great hope offered by the Bible is the coming %ingdom of peace and prosperity on earth when the Messiah comes. This idea of the kingdom on earth under Messiah had been lost (or denied) for centuries by most Church denominations. It is a message that to this very day challenges the established theology of most church denominations. Since the early 0s, there have been many renewed efforts to bring this gospel into the nations. This year is the 40th anniversary of the ministry of Christians for Israel – bringing good news about God’s faithfulness to the Jewish people to the world. We feel immensely grateful and privileged to be witnesses of God’s amazing work of restoration at the ‘end of this age’. In this edition of Israel & Chr istians Today, we wish to share with you some of the highlights of our ministry. We do so not out of pride, but out of thankfulness for what God achieves despite our own weakness. Many Christians are awakening to the signi”cance of these events. 3et many are still asleep. There remains so much to be done to raise awareness in the church around the world of what is happening - to bring the ‘gospel of the %ingdom as a testimony to all nations’. Will you help us? We feel immensely grateful and privileged to be part of God’s amazing work of restoration at the ‘end of this age’. AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIA www.c4israel.com.au | info@c4israel.com.au Sivan - Tammuz 5780 Please post cheque or money order to: Christians for Israel Australia Inc (don’t use staples) NEW INTERNET BANKING DETAILS: BSB: ANZ BANK – 014-279 Account No: 405318551 Ref: Your name & donation purpose. Please confirm by emailing info@c4israel.com.au MY DETAILS Name: _________________________________________ If you don ’t know or have your Member ID please include: Address: ________________________________________ Phone: _________________________________________ Email: __________________________________________ Christians for Israel Australia ABN: 79 941 819 693 ICT0620 *NOTE: Certificates for individuals and families from the Ukraine only. 4 $___________ CFOIC (Judea and Samaria) Heartland ($30 or your best gift) NEW! NEW! NEW! NOTE: NEW DONATION AMOUNTS DUE TO $ US EXCHANGE New Phone Number: 07 3088 6900 Member ID (If Known) : C4IA