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JPost Middle East- Analysis: Why has the West Bank been quiet? January 6, 2009
- Lebanon doubts Hizbullah will open second front January 6, 2009
- UNSC to meet on Gaza resolution January 6, 2009
- Hamas opens hospital for gunmen January 6, 2009
- Sarkozy urges Assad to press for truce January 6, 2009
- ynet - Updates for RSS
- Bush adviser: Iran, Pakistan key Obama challenges January 7, 2009
- Judge to ponder whether Bernard Madoff dangerous January 7, 2009
- Rice says US supports Mubarak proposal on Gaza January 7, 2009
- Saddam wouldn't have allowed Israel's Gaza raid, says aide January 7, 2009
- UK voices support for Egyptian ceasefire initiative January 7, 2009
- Haaretz.com - News
- ANALYSIS / Israel must double, triple, quadruple its medical aid to Gaza January 7, 2009A few days ago, Physicians for Human Rights began soliciting $700,000 in donations for hospitals in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli humanitarian organization also provided a detailed list of the medical equipment Gaza lacks, including portable monitors, respirators, ultrasound and X-ray machines, wheelchairs, needles, dressings, catheters, oxygen, medical gases, endo-tracheal tubes, screws and plates for shattered limbs, and surgical gloves. According to PHR, Gaza also has a severe shortage of intensive-care beds, which cost about $50,000 apiece. Moreover, many Palestinian ambulances are out of commission. ...
- As truce efforts grow, Israel mulls expanding Gaza ground op January 7, 2009Israel's political leadership will meet in Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning to discuss expanding the ground offensive in the Gaza Strip at a time when most of the aims of the operation have been met. ...
- Rice: U.S. backs Egypt proposal for Gaza cease-fire January 7, 2009U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday Washington backed a proposal by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. ...
- Venezuelan President Chavez: Gaza operation is a Palestinian 'holocaust' January 7, 2009Venezuela expelled the ambassador to Israel on Tuesday in protest over the offensive in Gaza only hours after leftist President Hugo Chavez called the attacks a Palestinian "holocaust." ...
- Israel to establish 'humanitarian corridor' for Gaza Strip January 7, 2009Israel will set up a "humanitarian corridor" to counter a crisis caused by its offensive in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office ...
- ANALYSIS / Israel must double, triple, quadruple its medical aid to Gaza January 7, 2009
BREAKING: Israeli prime minister to resign
olmert
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will resign his office on or about September 17th.
Suffering single digit approval ratings and haunted by numerous on-going corruption investigations, the Prime Minister just announced on national television that he will step down after the Kadima party primaries scheduled.
“I have decided I won’t run in the Kadima movement primaries, nor do I intend to intervene in the elections,” the embattled politician said just moments ago. “When a new (Kadima party) chairman is chosen, I will resign as prime minister to permit them to put together a new government swiftly and effectively….I want to make it clear - I am proud to be a citizen of a country where the prime minister can be investigated like a regular citizen. It is the duty of the police to investigate, and the duty of the prosecution to instruct the police. The prime minister is not above the law…. From my first day in office I was forced to ward off malicious attacks, even while dealing with far-reaching decisions affecting Israel’s defense and existence. I continue to believe with all my heart that the achievement of peace, combating terror, strengthening our security, and the realization of a different type of relationship with our neighbors are all necessary goals for the future of the State of Israel.”
It’s not clear yet when new elections will be held. Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently well ahead of all contenders to replace Olmert, but Israeli politics are Byzantine, to say the least, and anything could happen.
Israel’s political crisis could not come at a worse time, with the real threat of war with Iran growing daily.
Who is Joel C Rosenberg?
Joel C. Rosenberg is the New York Times best-selling author of The Last Jihad, The Last Days, The Ezekiel Option, The Copper Scroll, and Epicenter: How the Current Rumblings in the Middle East Will Change Your World, with more than one million copies in print. He is also the founder and president of the Joshua Fund, a nonprofit charitable and educational organization that provides humanitarian relief for victims of war and terrorism in Israel and the Muslim world.
As a communications strategist, Joel has worked with some of the world’s most influential leaders in business, politics, and media, including Steve Forbes, Rush Limbaugh, former Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Natan Sharansky, and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As a novelist, he has been interviewed on more than 300 radio and TV programs, including ABC’s Nightline, CNN Headline News, Fox News Channel, the History Channel, MSNBC, the Rush Limbaugh Show, and the Sean Hannity Show. He has been profiled by The New York Times, The Washington Times, and The Jerusalem Post, and he was the subject of two cover stories in World magazine. He has addressed audiences all over the world, including Russia, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, and Belgium. He has spoken at the White House, the Heritage Foundation, AOL, and the International Spy Museum, as well as at dozens of conferences, universities, churches, synagogues, political events, book-seller conventions, and charitable fund-raisers.
The first page of his first novel-The Last Jihad-puts you inside the cockpit of a hijacked jet, coming in on a kamikaze attack into an American city, which leads to a war with Saddam Hussein over weapons of mass destruction. Yet it was written before 9/11, long before the actual war with Iraq. When published, The Last Jihad spent 11 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, reaching as high as #7. It raced up the USA Today and Publishers Weekly best-seller lists, hit #4 on the Wall Street Journal list, and hit #1 on Amazon.com.
His second thriller-The Last Days-opens with the death of Yasser Arafat and a U.S. diplomatic convoy ambushed in Gaza. Six days before The Last Days was published in hardcover, a U.S. diplomatic convoy was ambushed in Gaza. Thirteen months later, Yasser Arafat died. The Last Days spent 4 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, hit #5 on the Denver Post list, and reached #8 on the Dallas Morning News list. Both books were optioned by a Hollywood producer.
The Ezekiel Option centers on a Russian dictator who forms a military alliance with the leaders of Iran who are feverishly pursuing nuclear weapons and threatening to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. On the very day it was published in June 2005, Iran elected a new leader who vowed to accelerate the country’s nuclear program and later vowed to “wipe Israel off the map.” Six months after the book was published, Moscow signed a $1 billion arms deal with Tehran. The Ezekiel Option spent four weeks on the New York Times hardcover best-seller list and more than six months on the CBA best-seller list. It was named the “Best Christian Novel of 2006″ by the Christian Booksellers Association.
The Copper Scroll is the fourth novel in the series and a New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and CBA best seller. On June 1, 1956, The New York Times broke a story that captured the imagination of the world. Another Dead Sea Scroll had been found, unlike any before it, describing unimaginable treasures worth untold billions buried in the hills east of Jerusalem and under the Holy City itself. In the years that followed, scholars came to believe that the Copper Scroll could be history’s greatest treasure map, one that could not only lead to great wealth but pave the way to the building of the Third Jewish Temple. But the scroll’s code has never been broken, and experts from all sides warn that any effort by Israel to rebuild their Temple in Jerusalem would unleash a war of biblical proportions. Saddam Hussein is gone. Yasser Arafat is dead. A new Iraq is rising. And now White House advisors Jon Bennett and Erin McCoy find themselves facing a terrifying new threat triggered by an ancient mystery.
Epicenter is Joel’s first nonfiction book, focusing on the rapidly rising Iranian nuclear threat, why Russia is selling arms and nuclear technology to Iran, why Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad believes it is the end of the world, and why Ahmadinejad is saying that the way to hasten the coming of the Islamic Messiah is to annihilate the United States and Israel. Using exclusive interviews with U.S., Israeli, Arab, and Russian leaders and previously classified documents from the White House, CIA, and State Department, Joel examines 10 future headlines that could come out of Russia and the Middle East, and does so in the light of Islamic, Jewish, and Christian eschatology (end-times theology). Epicenter has spent months on the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and CBA best-seller lists. It is currently being turned into a documentary for a major national television network.
Joel is an evangelical Christian from an Orthodox Jewish heritage. His grandparents escaped Russian persecution of the Jews in the early part of the twentieth century. Joel graduated from Syracuse University in 1989 and studied at Tel Aviv University. He is married, has four sons, and lives near Washington, D.C., where he and his wife are members of McLean Bible Church.
Nes Ammim
Nes Ammim (Hebrew: נס עמים, lit. Banner of the Nations) is a Christian community in the northern district of Israel. Close to the towns of Acre and Nahariya, in the western Galilee region, the community is under the jurisdiction of Matte Asher Regional Council. It was founded by European Christians as a sign of solidarity with the Jewish People after the Holocaust. Its theology emphasises the need for dialogue with Jews and also with adherents of other religions.
More information you will find on there website or on the blog of Fam. Bos (dutch)
Nes Ammim
In the aftermath of the slaughter of six million European Jews in the heart of Christian Europe, in the 1950s a movement sprung up of Christians who were not only profoundly shocked by this event, but also sought to give expression to a desire for a different relationship. This was to encompass the rejection of attempts to convert Jews to Christianity, and the desire for dialogue and mutual respect in place of confrontation and triumphalism.
Among those thinking this way, were some who thought a concrete expression of this new approach could take the form of building a living Christian community in Israel. It would work the land and participate in the hardship of what was still a poor country under threat of war. This idea, after fund-raising and promotion among churches in Germany, Holland, Switzerland and the USA, resulted in the purchase in 1960 of 250 acres (1.0 km²) of land from a Druze sheikh in the Galilee. The first inhabitants moved into the village in 1963. Prominent among them was Dr. Johan Pilon, who was to be its guide and inspiration for over ten years until his death in 1975.
Name and logo
“Nes Ammim” was chosen as the Hebrew name for the new village. It is taken from the Bible, from Isaiah 11: 10, and means “Banner of the Nations”. The pioneers from different nations saw it as their calling to show their friendship and solidarity in the Land of Israel.
The Nes Ammim logo consisted of a fish outline crossing a blade of wheat. The fish is a symbol of the early Christian church that refers to Jesus. The fish is meshed with the wheat, to represent a community growing in the country.
History
Early days (1963-1978)
As for every other village in Israel, the early years were characterised by hard work on the land. Simple accommodation was built, and a communal dining hall and other facilities. It was similar to a kibbutz or more exactly to a moshav shitufi, a collective settlement but where families were living with their children in their own houses. Agriculture was the main activity, and avocado orchards were planted as a long-term venture.
The presence of Dutch inhabitants gave an opportunity to add another element to the project. Apart from solidarity and support for people facing antisemitism and the threat of war, the community could assist by bringing technical experts from the Netherlands to develop the cut-flower industry as an export crop. Glasshouses were built, which would expand over the years and be the mainstay of the community’s income for many years.
Expansion and development (1978-1990)
During the latter part of the 1970s and throughout the 1980s Nes Ammim expanded rapidly and diversified into the booming tourist trade. Numerous groups of Christian pilgrims visited the community during their visit to Galilee. A youth hostel and guesthouse were built. The population rose to 140 adults and 60 children. A lively community life ensued, and hundred of young Christians worked there for short or long periods before returning to their churches in Europe with the knowledge learned there.
Economic difficulties (1990-2005)
The two Palestinian intifadas hit the Christian tourist trade hard. Nes Ammim was seriously affected. To make matters worse, Israel’s high-tech economy pushed up costs and made the cut-flower trade no longer viable. Retrenchment was required as debts mounted.
Nes Ammim today
The community has made the tough decisions in order to survive. The community is smaller than it was, and houses built for the community are now rented out to Israelis. Nevertheless, the spiritual aims of the community are still expressed, because in some ways the need for inter-faith dialogue is still more urgent than in 1960. The community has added another expression of its commitment to reconciliation: it promotes peace-making in the region by providing a neutral location for Arabs and Jews to meet and talk over their differences.
Aims of the movement
The movement still maintains its aims as they have been developed over the years. These are:
* To show practical solidarity to the Jewish People by living a concrete community in Israel .
* To learn about the origins of Christian faith by studying Jewish tradition. A starting point is the shocking realization: that the Nazi Holocaust directed against the Jews was facilitated by a centuries-long negative image of Jews and Judaism, promoted by numerous church leaders.
* To contribute - in a modest way - to peace-making, by organizing seminars of encounter and dialogue between Israeli Jews and Arabs.
Nes Ammim trivia In 1975 the Jerusalem Post included a two-page spread on the community. However, either by bad translation or worse proof-reading, the name was rendered across two pages as : “BANKER OF THE NATIONS”.
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