It's All Good- by Christine Sakakibara

This is a blog written by a good friend here in Israel. At the end is a link to a video from Israeli TV. The video is in Hebrew, but you can still get the sense that it is POSITIVE coverage of a very contraversial subject in Israel--Messianic Jews. This was aired on national TV on Friday evening, Feb 16, 2007. This is a breakthrough! Some of those featured are close friends. The reason the show was done was one of the young children in the video was witnessing to a schoolmate, the reporter's child. God is AMAZING!

We all know that bad news sells more newspapers than good news, well at least that is the case in Israel.

One of the leading stories on the last day of December 2006 said the following: "Report paints gloomy picture of life for Israeli children". The report went on to reveal statistics released by the National Council for the Child. More Israeli children than ever are suffering from divorce, poverty, abuse, neglect and trauma. In short.. Third of Israel's children live below the poverty line. What the reporter of this particular article did not mention was all the assistance, both financial and material, that is being provided in aid by numerous non-profit Christian and Jewish organizations.

The reports that do not make the front page news are many times very encouraging and exciting. If the media had the good sense to give them time and space it would be a real morale builder, both to those who live in Israel and to the faithful ones who pray and support Israel in other ways.

Let's look at the immigrants from Western countries. According to figures released by the Jewish Agency, immigration from the West is on the rise. Aliya from the UK in 2006 reached a record high and surpassed all figures and was the best in 22 years. Russian immigrants are still coming and still make up the majority of immigrants. For the first time ever 220 Jews from the Bnei Menashe tribe in India immigrated after receiving approval that they indeed were one of the lost tribes of Israel.

Despite Israelis' many problems and complaints, a survey carried out by the Ministry of Health found that nearly half of all interviewed felt "happy most or all of the time". The survey interviewed 10,000 Israelis'. The conclusion of the survey showed, half of all Israelis' suffer from "chronic happiness"!

From all media reports, we often come to the conclusion that Israel is isolated and in danger of constant threat from surrounding Arab countries. Recently there was a report that an Israeli system for milking camels has been installed in Dubai. The system, the first of its kind, can milk 48 camels at the same time. Israel and Dubai do not have diplomatic relations. This particular system has the potential to attract 200 million Arab customers. Other countries, who do have diplomatic relations, act as the go between in purchasing Israeli technology for Arab countries. By the way, people who are lactose intolerant can drink camel milk.

Europe is becoming a hot bed of anti Semitism, yet the German government is encouraging tourism to Israel for German citizens who suffer from skin diseases such as psoriasis. The German Ministry of health made a decision to include Dead Sea treatment in the German basket of health services. A health study carried out in Germany concluded it was more economical and proved more successful if patients were sent for four weeks of treatment at Dead Sea hotels and clinics, rather than to skin clinics in Germany.

A Christian Arab researcher, 31years old, now living in Haifa and originally from Nazareth, recently won the largest grant ever given by the European Union to an Israeli scientist. He was given 1.75 million Euros to develop an "electronic nose" to sniff out cancerous cells and tumors before they have a chance to spread and kill. The grant will allow him to set up a new lab and hire researchers from Israel and abroad. He said the team's first goal will be "sniffing out" lung cancer.

But the biggest and best news was stated just this week on a Friday night TV report (Channel 22) on Messianic Jews in Israel. The reporter said that it's believed that there are now 15,000 Messianic Jews living in Israel and in Jerusalem alone are 15 congregations. Three years ago an Israeli newspaper reported they believed there were 10,000 Messianic Jews in Israel. One thing is for sure, souls are being added to the body of Christ.

Good things are happening in Israel, too good to be kept hidden. Israel is well on its way to becoming "A light to the nations". (Isaiah 42:6, 49:6)

link to Israeli tv-video (it begins with advertisements, but the video starts with the family at the kitchen table)

For more articles and news from Christine go to her blog: http://christine-theview.blogspot.com

OUR WORLD: WELCOME TO PALISTINE by Caroline Glick, Jerusalem Post

The Jerusalem Post one of the main sources of media in Israel. I am posting this, not because I don't love Muslims who have been terribly deceived and brainwashed, but because most Americans don't have a clue what it's like here. We have friends in ministry in Gaza, and in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria). It is utter insanity that the US is putting $ and weapons in the hands of Fatah, who has taken credit for the suicide bombing last week in Eilat. I think all US politicians should be required to go visit some of these places for a few days to open their blind eyes. The Bible says the "Truth will set us free."  Please continue to pray fervently for Jesus to invade these areas in dreams and visions and sending believers as witnesses--AND for protection for those brave believers. Nothing is too hard for God. If you are interested in reading a perspective of Israelis in the aftermath of the bombing in Eilat please visit my friend Christine's blog: http://christine-theview.blogspot.com/

*************************************************

The Jerusalem Post Internet
Edition

Our World: Welcome to Palestine
by Caroline Glick
THE JERUSALEM POST Jan. 30, 2007
________________________________

In the world of international diplomacy few issues receive
more wall-to-wall support than the notion that it is
essential to establish a Palestinian state. Leaders
worldwide are so busy speaking of how essential it is for a
State of Palestine to be founded that none of them seems to
have noticed that it already exists.

This state was officially founded in the summer of 2005,
when Israel removed its military forces and civilian
population from the Gaza Strip and so established the first
wholly independent Palestinian state in history. Israel's
destruction of four Israeli communities in Northern Samaria
and curtailment of its military operations in the area set
the conditions for statehood in that area as well.

And so it is that as statesmen and activists worldwide
loudly proclaim their commitment to establishing the
sovereign State of Palestine, they miss the fact that
Palestine exists. And it is a nightmare.

In the State of Palestine 88 percent of the public feels
insecure. Perhaps the other 12 percent are members of the
multitude of regular and irregular militias. For in the
State of Palestine the ratio of
police/militiamen/men-under-arms to civilians is higher than
in any other country on earth.

In the State of Palestine, two-year-olds are killed and no
one cares. Children are woken up in the middle of the night
and murdered in front of their parents. Worshipers in
mosques are gunned down by terrorists who attend competing
mosques. And no one cares. No international human rights
groups publish reports calling for an end to the slaughter.
No UN body condemns anyone or sends a fact-finding mission
to investigate the murders.

In the State of Palestine, women are stripped naked and
forced to march in the streets to humiliate their husbands.
Ambulances are stopped on the way to hospitals and wounded
are shot in cold blood. Terrorists enter operating rooms in
hospitals and unplug patients from life-support machines.

In the State of Palestine, people are kidnapped from their
homes in broad daylight and in front of the television
cameras. This is the case because the kidnappers themselves
are cameramen. Indeed, their commanders often run television
stations. And because terror commanders run television
stations in the State of Palestine, it should not be
surprising that they bomb the competition's television
stations.

SO IT WAS that last week, terrorists from this group or that
group bombed Al Arabiya television station in Gaza. And so
it is that Hamas attacks Fatah radio announcers and closes
down their radio station claiming that they use their
microphones to incite murder. Because indeed, they are
inciting murder. What would one expect for terrorists to do
when placed in charge of a radio station?

And so it is that in the State of Palestine, journalists -
whether members of terror groups or not - are part of the 88
percent of their public who are afraid. Sunday they
protested outside the offices of one terror faction or
another that controls the Palestinian Authority.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, reporter Ala Masharawi
explained, "No one goes outside, no one moves without
thinking twice. Gaza's streets have become terrible streets,
especially at night. Gaza is a ghost town."

As the Post's Khaled Abu Toameh reported last week, in the
State of Palestine, Christians are persecuted, robbed and
beaten in what can only be viewed as a systematic campaign
to end the Christian presence in places like Bethlehem. As
Samir Qumsiyeh, owner of the Beit Sahur-based private
Al-Mahd (Nativity) TV station lamented, "I believe that 15
years from now there will be no Christians left in
Bethlehem. Then you will need a torch to find a Christian
here."

MANY GOVERNMENT ministers and commentators seek strategic
meaning in the strife in the State of Palestine. Foreign
Minister Tzipi Livni, for instance, goes on and on about the
need to strengthen the "moderates" - that is, the Fatah
terror group - over the "extremists" - that is, the Hamas
terror group.

Helping her to propound this nonsense is PA Chairman and
Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas and his men tell Westerners
how pro-Western they are at the same time as they name
streets and schools financed by US aid after Saddam Hussein
and build sports facilities on the American taxpayers' tab
in memory of terrorists who killed American soldiers in
Iraq.

For the umpteenth time, on Sunday Fatah spokesmen in PA
Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's office blamed Iran and Syria for
the escalating violence in Gaza and Judea and Samaria that
has killed 29 people, including two children, in four days.
"Iran and Syria are encouraging Hamas to continue fighting
against Fatah," they alleged.

And yet, just last Thursday the Shin Bet arrested Omar
Damra, a Fatah terrorist in Nablus. Damra is accused of
manufacturing suicide bomb belts and attempting to smuggle
them into Israel. He also stands accused of plotting to
place explosive devices along roads in Judea and Samaria
with the intention of blowing up IDF patrols.

Damra and his partner and fellow Fatah terrorist Mahmad
Ramaha, who was arrested a month ago, were working under the
instruction of Hizbullah - that is, under the direction of
Iran. According to the Shin Bet, Hizbullah - that is, Iran -
has taken over Fatah operations in Nablus. Since Israel's
withdrawal from northern Samaria in August 2005, the Shin
Bet has noted that, like Gaza, the Nablus area has become a
mini-Afghanistan.

So not only are Hamas terrorists operating under Iranian and
Syrian direction today, Fatah terrorists are as well. Yet
this doesn't stop the US and Israel from pouring guns and
money into the hands of Fatah terror chiefs. They fail to
recognize that what you see is what you get.

These guns are not used to encourage moderation. These guns
are used against Israelis and Palestinians alike in a turf
battle between terror groups over money, guns and power that
will never end. And it will never end because fighting and
killing for money, guns and power is what terrorists do.

FOR THE past 13 years, since the Palestinian Authority was
established in 1994, the contours of the State of Palestine
have taken form in front of our eyes. Starting with Yasser
Arafat's abrogation of the rule of law and murderous
campaign against land dealers and journalists, with each
passing year and with each move to further empower the PA,
the situation has only grown worse. And yet, international
pressure on Israel from Arabs, Europeans and the US to
surrender more territory, curtail its authority, abrogate
its claims to the areas set for Palestine, and finance the
Fatah terror group have only grown in intensity.

And with each passing year, as the reality of Palestine has
become clearer, the Israeli leadership's will to resist this
pressure is increasingly eroded.

So it is that last week Defense Minister Amir Peretz
announced that he supports negotiating with Hamas. Peretz
laid out his "vision" for the reinstatement of the so-called
peace process with the Palestinians, and stated that, to
"empower" the Palestinians, he supports extending the ban on
IDF operations from Gaza to Judea and Samaria. It should go
without saying that such IDF operations are aimed at
preventing massacres of Israeli civilians like the one that
happened in Eilat Monday morning.

LIVNI, FOR her part, has become the international champion
of Fatah. Gushing to an audience of international peace
processors in Davos, Switzerland, last week, Livni said, "In
order to achieve peace and in order to promote a process, we
must stick to this vision of a two-state solution and
examine what the best steps to take are."

Of course, neither Livni nor Peretz, who insist that
Israel's most urgent priority is to establish Palestine, is
willing to recognize that Palestine exists already. They
refuse to acknowledge what we already know: Palestine is a
terror state and an economic basket case fully funded by the
international community. Indeed, over the past year since
Hamas won the Palestinian elections, international
assistance to the Palestinians has increased dramatically.

As Ibrahim Gambari, the UN under-secretary-general for
political affairs, noted last Thursday, official Western aid
to the Palestinians, not including Arab and Iranian support
for Hamas and Fatah, increased by 10 percent in 2006 over
2005, and stood at $1.2 billion.

The Palestinians, who receive more aid per capita than any
people on earth, are needy not because they lack funds. They
are poor because they prefer poverty, violence and war to
prosperity, peace and moderation. So it is that 57 percent
of Palestinians support terror attacks against Israel.

The multitude of protesters worldwide who demand an end to
the so-called "occupation" and the establishment of
Palestine should be made aware of the fact that Palestine
already exists. The hordes of political leaders mindlessly
squawking about "visions" and "two-state solutions" should
know: This is Palestine. Enter at your own risk.

The Jerusalem Post Internet
Edition article

Trust in the Lord with all your heart... PROVERBS 3:5,6

I awoke on Sunday, December 31 with a strong feeling about the parable of the 10 virgins found in Matthew Chapter 25. Usually I study the "wise" virgins, because of course we want to be ready, as they were, in this parable told by Jesus. In fact I have often encouraged friends with that scripture and even given gifts from Israel of tiny oil lamps as a reminder that we all need to be diligent to be ready. But in waking on Sunday morning my focus was on the 5 foolish virgins. My heart ached for them.

There was a sentence that pounded through my head concerning them, they have fallen... fallen. I cannot remember the exact words, perhaps they weren't in English, but the meaning was there. It wasn't until reading an email from Chuck Pierce today, that this feeling hit me again.

Now as I rehearse the story in my head once again, I picture all 10 of these virgins huddled together at the beginning talking about the coming wedding, the handsome bridegroom--the beautiful bride, who would be at the feast, what a glorious time it would be. Each time they hear footsteps approaching they look up in anticipation, is it the bridegroom? But as the sun sets and darkness creeps in around them they pull their cloaks closer around them. Some of them look for a comfortable place to sit and wait.

Half of them wonder why the others are carrying around the extra supplies they had brought, as unnecessary additional burdens. In fact, as they all nap, they may even spill some of the extra oil on themselves and be stained before the feast. Some begin to talk about other things not related to the wedding feast at all. Perhaps the bridegroom won't come until morning, so we need not jump up at every footstep we hear. Probably he will wait until morning, and come with the freshness of a new day, as the sun rises in the east... They convince themselves that they are adequately prepared for their perceived understanding of the bridegroom. While the 5 who have prepared for a long night, are still looking expectantly to every footstep which approaches. Perhaps he will tarry, but they are prepared regardless. They all fall asleep feeling they are prepared.

When the announcement came in the middle of the dark night, they all trimmed their wicks that their lights might shine. But there was no reserved oil for those foolish virgins. They had not prepared for a long night. They ran to buy more oil when it was too late. They were shut out. They knew the bridegroom, they knew where he was at the feast--yet they were not allowed in. In fact his response is, "I don't know you." What a crushing blow! It reminds me of the scripture

"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you...." Matthew 7

You see, just knowing that Jesus is the bridegroom isn't enough. The devil and his servants know who He is, and tremble (James 2:19) but that will not save them.

We have been in a preparation time for a very long time. Some have been quite satisfied with their level of understanding and service in the Kingdom of God. But there are some who seem to be "redeeming the time, for the days are evil" Ephesians 5:16, living each day for God in active pursuit of learning, growing and serving in whatever ways the Lord puts before them. These are those who have been storing up that extra oil in prepared vessels.

The day is coming when there will be a separation between those who profess to know God and those who are truly serving him. If you are one who looks to going to heaven or some kind of "rapture" to deliver you from this cruel world--or difficulties to come, I earnestly ask you to examine yourself to see if you have extra oil, or even a vessel to put it in, and are you carrying it with you everyday--all day and night. The current events of this world should be shaking each of us to consider our lives in light of eternity. When the world finishes shaking, the only ones left standing will be those firmly established and trusting in God. You see you cannot get your oil from someone else, the wise virgins could not share their oil. You must have your own, in your own vessel.

Read the Bible, the Word of God. Spend time talking to Him, as those in the Bible did. Learn to fully trust God today--and you will be prepared for tomorrow.

Lord, have mercy on us. Shake us, wake us up, that none of us would be complacent. Do whatever it takes to make us wise, that we might be prepared for your soon coming. Make us encourager's of one another, not to just be ready, but to place our absolute trust in You in all things--TODAY. Have Mercy...