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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a ceremony marking
the 70th anniversary of the victory over the Nazis. (GPO photo by
Haim Zach)
Shalom,
Israel Marks 70th Anniversary of the Nazi Defeat in WWII
"I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts. I will speak of your statutes before kings and will not be put to shame." (Psalm 119:45–46)
On Thursday, Israel marked the 70th anniversary of the Nazi defeat in WWII.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Reuven Rivlin, and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon attended a ceremony honoring more than 1,000 US, British, and Russian Jewish World War II veterans at the Israel Defense Forces tank memorial in Latrun.
Rivlin told the audience of 6,000 that eight percent of the Jewish population, 1.5 million people, served in the War, and a third of that number fell in battle. (Ynet)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with a WWII veteran
at the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.
"In every branch of the military, of each army which fought against the Nazis, were found decorated and dedicated Jewish heroes. No political affiliation, and no Jewish community was absent from the war," Rivlin said.
Rivlin said the veterans had left an important legacy.
“We look to the past, and beyond you we see the faces of the Maccabees,” he said. “We look to the future and we see the faces of the soldiers and commanders of the Israel Defense Forces. You are all links in the intricate chain of Jewish heroes, whose roots are in the pages of the Bible, and whose responsibility today, is to the defense of the people and Land of Israel.”
Netanyahu emphasized the importance of the 70th anniversary of the Nazi defeat saying that the lessons of WWII are still relevant.
"The lesson that was learned during the years of the Holocaust is also valid these days; we paid an unbearable price because we did not have a state. Now we do have a state, and soldiers with weapons, whose duty is to protect us from our enemies. We know that the first lesson is that we must be capable and able to protect ourselves by ourselves against any threats, this is the lesson of 70 years since the victory over the Nazis," Netanyahu said.
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon shakes the hand of Red Army
veteran Efraim-Fiodor Papernyi, who is wearing his Red Army
uniform and medals for bravery during the Second World War.
Among the many celebrations marking the end of WWII, the German Parliament celebrated May 8 as "a day that stands for a new beginning, and the double liberation from war and Nazism." (NewsTribune)
Indeed, it is spiritually significant that Nazi Germany surrendered and the end of WWII occurred on May 8, since the number 8 in Scripture often signifies new beginnings.
The United Nations also marked the anniversary of the Nazi defeat with a Peace and Unity tree planting last week.
"This particular tree, the weeping cherry, is a symbol of mourning for the fallen. The white flowers of the weeping cherry are also meaningful, pointing to purity and rebirth," said UN General Assembly President Sam Kutesa at the ceremony.
Sam Kutesa (left), President of the sixty-ninth session of the General
Assembly, and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plant the tree of
peace and unity. (UN photo by Mark Garten)
Speaking at the UN commemoration of the end of WWII, Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, addressed Kutesa: "Mr. President, we know the evil that man is capable of, and we know that some things are worth fighting for. Freedom is worth fighting for."
"Equality is worth fighting for. Democracy is worth fighting for. Seventy years ago, a generation of men and women sacrificed in war so that we would inherit freedom, equality and democracy. We cannot allow those sacrifices to be in vain," Prosor said. "With courage and conviction we must now fight for the ideals for which they lived and died." (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Prosor also noted that history shows that "Jewish lives can never be entrusted to another people or another nation. We must always be able to defend ourselves by ourselves. The State of Israel is the fulfillment of that promise."
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Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor
Temple Mount Activist Yehuda Glick Allowed Monthly Visits
"As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy." (James 5:11)
Jerusalem Magistrate's Court has granted Temple Mount activist Rabbi Yehuda Glick a monthly visit allowance to the Temple Mount.
Glick has sought to acquire wider access to the Mount for Jews, who also have faced limits in their visitation activities to the site—such as moving their lips or expressing any signs of public prayer. (Arutz Sheva)
Recently, a Jerusalem court overturned the 40-year prayer ban for Jews on the Temple Mount. That ruling is expected to be appealed by the Jerusalem police department; yet, even this initial victory came at great cost.
Rabbi Glick was shot at point blank range four times last year by 32-year-old Moataz Hejazi, an Islamic Jihad member.
While recovering from gunshot wounds to his stomach, arm, lung, throa,t and hand that also fractured ribs and caused damage to his intestinal system, Glick told Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau that, before shooting, Hejazi called him "an enemy of al-Aqsa," the mosque that sits on the south side of the Temple Mount. (JPost)
Yehuda Glick, advocate for the rights of Christians and Jews on the
Temple Mount.
The court's ruling this past Tuesday put an end to the restraining order that has kept Glick from the site since last fall, stating that Glick's presence could not be proven as a cause for riots on the Mount or in wider Jerusalem.
The ban was put into effect after an Arab woman filed a complaint that Glick had knocked her over on Sept. 2, 2014, at the holy site, breaking her arm. However, Glick proved that he wasn’t even on the Mount that day. The woman then changed her story, saying that Aug. 31, 2014 was the date of the incident. Three of the police officers accompanying Glick said they saw no such incident. (JP)
Despite the ruling, Glick seems to be facing an uphill battle in acquiring fair treatment for Jewish visitors to the heritage site. He said that the court's allowance "is far from being proportionate: both because it confers permission to ascend [to the Temple Mount] once a month to someone who was used to ascending three to four times a day.”
“And also because it is based on the mistaken assumption that Arab violence is a result of the behavior of the Jews and not due to a terrorist initiative, as security experts have already revealed," he added. (Forward)
While Muslims enjoy free access to the Temple Mount, Jewish and
Christian visitors have a police escort both for their own protection
from Muslims and to prevent them from praying. (Photo by
Michael Jones)
The court also required that Glick leave behind any cameras or smart phones, in case his holding one would provoke the Muslim community. It also banned him from "reading anything at all aloud."
For 25 years, Glick has guided daily tours on the Temple Mount and for a time served as the executive director of the Temple Institute, whose stated goals are "to rekindle the flame of the Holy Temple in the hearts of mankind through education" and, over time, "to do all in our limited power to bring about the building of the Holy Temple." (Temple Institute)
Reaffirming the Prophet Isaiah, Glick asserts that the Third Temple will be “a house of prayer for all nations.”
Glick currently serves as the director of the Haliba movement for Jewish Freedom on the Temple Mount and chairman of the Temple Mount Heritage Foundation.
“We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." (Romans 5:3–4)
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York
Cardinal Dolan Calls on Catholics and Jews to Lead the Way
"Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord." (Romans 12:9–11)
Fifty years after the Catholic Church issued the Nostra Aetate (In Our Time) document that paved the way for groundbreaking change in Catholic attitudes toward Jews, the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Dolan, urged a Jewish audience to continue with interfaith friendship.
"This friendship, this mutual appreciation and understanding, is something that you and I need to remind the world of," Cardinal Timothy Dolan told his audience at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America on Wednesday. "We’ve got something to give to the world."
Although the Nostra Aetate has led to cooperation between Jews and Christians, Dolan said, people might think "you don't have to work at it, because it's just there and it's going to stay." (National Catholic Report)
"We all know the hard way," Dolan stated. "If it's not something you constantly work at and constantly remind yourself of, it will quickly dissipate."
The archbishop described Pope John Paul as having been inspired not just to tolerate Jews but also to embrace a shared proclamation of "we want God."
The partnership John Paul sought, Dolan said, flowed from "a mutual faith, love and Biblical roots, where Jews become like their prophets of old and Catholics like the Twelve Apostles, calling the world away from the worship of false gods, false idols, into the arms of the one true, eternal God who persistently and passionately loves us." (National Catholic Report)
Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury (International Monetary
Fund photo by Ryan Rayburn)
The day before, across the ocean, Britain's Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, called on Christians to stand against the "horrendous" violence against Jews today.
At the annual dinner of the Board of Deputies of British Jews held in London, he said,“Within the Christian community we need to stand against our own tendency, when exhibited over many centuries, to violence—violence against each other and above all violence against Jewish communities in horrendous and horrible ways going back well over a millennia.” (Algemeiner)
Welby also called for the development of an ideology that would effectively counter the beliefs of "radicals," while not describing who they might be.
“If we don’t do that, we leave all the good arguments in the hands of the radicals,” he said.
Growing trend of earthquakes detected and reported, years 1900 to 2014 – Centre
for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. (EM-DAT: The International
Disaster Database)
End-Time Signs: Earthquakes on the Rise
"Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains." (Mark 13:8)
Yeshua (Jesus) prophesied that earthquakes would characterize the end times. Indeed, evidence suggests that the frequency of earthquakes is on the rise.
Most recently is the devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the capital of Nepal on April 25, killing at least 7,803 people.
But, a potential earthquake in the country was considered a real possibility in the minds of earthquake experts as more than 50 specialists and social scientists had come together in Kathmandu less than two weeks before.
Nepal's National Society for Earthquake Technology hosted the April 11–13 meeting on how to prepare the region to cope with earthquakes. Still, spending resources on earthquake preparations is not alsways a top priority.
"They have everyday concerns common to Asian urban life that are much more real and pressing—like pollution, air and water quality, traffic and simply poverty," said James Jackson, a meeting attendee from the University of Cambridge Department of Earth Sciences. (Wall Street Journal)
Those who converged at the Earthquakes Without Frontiers program had understood for decades the "well-publicized fact … that Kathmandu was at considerable risk," Jackson told reporters. "Physically and geologically what happened is exactly what we thought would happen." (Slate)
People rummage through the ruins of their home following the
earthquake in Nepal. (Photo by SIM Central and Southeast Asia)
While some suggest that better and more widespread earthquake detection mechanisms are likely a factor in global trends showing an overall increase in tremblers, some have attributed the increase in quakes to everything from fracking to promiscuity.
The process of fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, uses pressurized liquid to crack open ground reserves for oil and gas, a controversial practice among groups who argue that this activity destabilizes the structure of the Earth.
According to an April 23 report by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), 17 areas within eight US states show a growing trend for earthquakes, including places where earthquakes were previously seen as rare—Oklahoma, northern Texas, and southern Kansas. (South China Morning Post)
Recent earthquakes in northern Texas are cause for question, as the region started to tremble only as recently as 2008. (Chron)
Four months of earthquake activity (Jan 8, 2015, to May 8, 2015) in the
United States (European Mediterranean Seismological Centre)
One theory suggests that "manmade" earthquakes might be the result of the disposal of fracking wastewater deep into the ground. It is thought that this process is changing pressure in areas of the Earth's crust that might create further stress on fault lines.
"What we've seen is very, very large volumes of wastewater being injected over many different areas in the mid-continent, Oklahoma principally but also Kansas, Texas and other states," said USGS seismologist Bill Ellsworth, who suggested that having many small earthquakes throughout the US "raises the likelihood of larger earthquakes."
Meanwhile, a May 2 earthquake that struck Kalamazoo County, Michigan, with a 4.2 magnitude, unearthed a previously uncharted fault, whose existence was suggested by a Michigan State University scientist 20 years ago.
However, this fault occurs nowhere near any high-pressure injection wells used for fracking, so Western Michigan University geoscientist Chris Schmidt says the quake isn't manmade but from an old fault under strain. (MLive: Michigan Local News)
The USGS reported on April 23 said that it would upgrade its forecasts of seismic risks for places like Oklahoma, which last year saw three times as many magnitude-3-or-greater earthquakes than California.
California sees daily tremblers in the 2s and 3s, sometimes several per day; the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre tracked a "strong" 3.7-magnitude quake in southern California on Wednesday and, last Sunday, a "strong" 3.6 in San Francisco and a "largely observed" 3.9 in the Los Angeles area.
Other quakes have been mildly felt in Missouri and Mississippi; these two states fall within an area called the New Madrid Seismic Zone, which has been suggested as possibly at fault for the Michigan earthquake.
But the US is not the only country with growing seismic activity.
As of 6 p.m. Thursday on Japan's Sakurajima Island, there have been 505 explosive volcanic eruptions this year. This number exceeds last year's total.
Because large-scale volcanic eruptions seem to go hand in hand with earthquakes, Toshitsugu Fujii, the chair of the Japan Meteorological Agency's Coordinating Committee for Prediction of Volcanic Eruptions stated, "Japan might have entered an era of great earthquakes and volcanic eruptions." (AsiaOne)
Seismic activity in Japan has caused some to
speculate it is entering a time of earthquakes
and volcanic activity.
While some attribute earthquakes to fracking and faultlines, Iranian imam and Tehran prayer leader Hojatoleslam Kazim Sadeghi told his congregation on Friday, May 1 that promiscuous women were to blame.
"When promiscuity spreads, earthquakes increase," he said.
Sadeghi went on to suggest the only way to survive is "taking refuge in religion and adapting ourselves to Islamic behavior." (Independent)
Although earthquakes can be connected to sin, the Hebrew Bible also draws parallels between events in the end days and earthquakes that God will issue in his zeal against the nations that oppose Israel.
Part of the end-times' coalition that invades Israel with Gog and Magog (Russia) is Persia (Iran), (see Ezekiel 38–39). Perhaps a prelude to this prophecy was seen last year in Iran, one of the most seismically active nations in the world.
On Monday, August 18, 2014, two earthquakes at 6.0 magnitude (with five greater than 5.0) hit near Dehloran, Iran, and a 5.4 hit near Abdanan, causing millions of dollars in damage to government buildings alone.
That summer, during Israel's war with Hamas, Iran conducted a major cyber attack against Israel. One intelligence source said that the attack “is not something we have seen before, both in terms of scope and the type of targets. They targeted communications infrastructure that belong to the civilian sector in Israel.” (usgs/JPost)
Earthquake debris clogs Port-au-Prince streets (UN Photo by
Marco Dormino)
The imam falsely promised that the Muslim religion would be a refuge from such earthquakes. On the contrary, prophecy in Scripture describes what happens to those who come against Jerusalem, as Iran desires to do:
"In an instant, the Lord Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire. Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel [symbolic name for Jerusalem], that attack her and her fortress and besiege her, will be as it is with a dream, with a vision in the night—as when a hungry person dreams of eating, but awakens hungry still ... so will it be with the hordes of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion." (Isaiah 29:5–8)
To many Muslims, Isaiah is a true prophet of their faith; yet, they do not revere such prophecies against their own actions.
May the world heed prophecies like these and align their hearts with God’s heart for His city and His people.
"For the LORD of Hosts says this: 'He has sent Me for His glory against the nations who are plundering you, for anyone who touches you touches the pupil of His eye. '" (Zechariah 2:8)
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Agriculture in Israel
Israel's Agritech Innovations Bless the World
"'The days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes.'" (Amos 9:13)
Israel’s agricultural technology, which was recently on display at Agritech, is quickly becoming a major blessing to populations around the world.
Precision agriculture is the new technological revolution, which focuses on key factors from enhancing crops to monitoring, growing, and harvesting food; to stretching further the money and resources used in production. (Haaretz)
Applying other industries' technologies such as airborne photography to agriculture, farmers are finding tools that take them, their farming methods and their produce to another degree of quality—and with greater consistency.
This spring has seen a selection of agriculture-based trade fairs, including Agrivest 2015 and Agritech Israel 2015, drawing out an array of forward-thinking solutions that attracted ten thousand attendees from Israel and abroad.
Cucumbers grown with the help of drip irrigation, an Israeli innovation.
India's Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis attended Agritech Israel, stating his desire to set up an Indo-Israel industrial park in his district. (DNAIndia)
With India being a popular destination for Israelis, the landscape of agritech (agricultural technology) ideas has already seen some Indo-Israeli cross-pollination.
When Israeli firm NaanDan merged with India's Jain in 2007, the new NaanDanJain set out on a path toward solving world hunger, claiming at the Agritech fair that their "new rice drip irrigation product really has the potential to vastly improve the lives of people in the developing world," consuming only 30 percent of the water used in the common flooding technique.
NaanDanJain director Amnon Ofen added, "There is no question that our firm has been responsible for the green revolution in India. … Millions of Indian farmers are using Israeli equipment and technology, and they are producing more from their land."
The rice drip irrigation system might make greater improvements for the developing world, as chief agronomist Maoz Aviv stated, discovering a 50 percent increase in rice output during tests.
"The rice did better with drip-irrigation than with traditional irrigation. It was stronger, bigger, and less prone to fungus attacks," Aviv stated. (Times of Israel)
A Balinese terraced rice field farmed with traditional flooding methods.
The 2015 Bloomberg Innovation Index shows Israel second, behind South Korea, in research and development (R&D), with its innovative firms constantly seeking out more efficient and effective answers to new and old problems alike.
With the highest concentration of engineers in the world as of 2011, Israel has been relentless in tackling the limits of its desert-climate nation, exporting the fruit of its innovation in water, food, and farming techniques.
"In a few decades it is predicted that there will be some 9 billion people in the world. Without technology to improve yields, fight pests, and expand the amount of land available for crops, there is no way we will be able to feed all those people. Israeli technology can go a long way to helping accomplish these goals," said Trendlines Group CEO Steve Rhodes, emphasizing Israel's more than 200 agritech (agricultural-technology) research groups. (Times of Israel)
Fountain and Flowers in front of Kings Hotel, Jerusalem (Photo
by Zeevveez)
With all their ideas for food and farming, Israeli researchers have likewise made strides in the field of water. While the United Nations' 2015 water report says the world in 2030 will have only 60 percent of the fresh water it needs, Israel is leading the way in tapping solutions: from using salt water to irrigate crops to making salt water drinkable through reverse osmosis.
The 2-year-old Sorek desalination plant not far from Tel Aviv provides clean drinking water to more than 1.5 million people and, in fact, produces the cheapest desalted drinking water in the world.
The plant has set "new industry benchmarks in desalination technology, capacity and water cost" with its reverse osmosis techniques, still undergoing innovation reforms as recently as February. (IDE Technologies; Nextbigfuture)
"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." (Isaiah 43:19)