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| Week ending Shabbat, November 19, 2005 |
17 Cheshvan, 5766 |
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A Night to Honor Israel in Orlando:
Thursday evening, the first "Night to Honor Israel" was held in Altamonte Springs (north of Orlando) facilitating the central Florida area. Steve Strang, owner of Strang Communications sponsored the event, which brought nearly two thousand Christians and Jews together with the intent to bless Israel. Featured guest speaker and primary inspiration for the event was John Hagee, pastor of the Corner Stone Church in San Antonio, Texas. Strang began raising funds through his "Charisma" magazine with the intent to purchase an ambulance for Magen David Adom (the red star of David), which is the Israeli equivalency to the American Red Cross. At the end of the evening total contributions exceeded ninety-eight thousand dollars, enough to purchase a "Mobile Intensive Care Unit."
Pastor Hagee also challenged participants to sign his petition to denounce the maniacal and Hitlerian rhetoric of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stating that Israel should be "wiped off the map." The petition also calls for Iran to be expelled from the United Nations and states that Israel's battle with terrorism is America's battle with terrorism. We stand united together!
Four Terrorists Killed in Attempted Attacks:
Sunday morning in Jenin (in Samaria) an Israeli Defense Force unit identified two armed terrorists who evidently were on their way to an attack against another IDF unit. Soldiers fired on the terrorists, wounding one - but both escaped. IDF forces pursued them into Jenin and shot and killed Shajija Bilawi, who had been wanted by the IDF.
Early Monday morning 34-year old Ahmed Hinawi, the top Hamas man in Shechem and one of Israel's 'most wanted men', was killed. When forces neared his home, Hinawi burst out of the building, wildly firing his Kalachnikov rifle. Soldiers returned fire and killed him. Hinawi had led an effort to build explosives factories. He also has been involved in many terror attacks. The Shechem operation also resulted in the arrests of several leading Hamas terrorists.
The IDF reported also killed two terrorists in Gaza. The first was killed Sunday as he tried to place a bomb. The second terrorist was killed on Monday as he tried to launch a mortar shell. Two other terrorists were seriously wounded in that attempt.
Rabbis to Unite Religious Zionist Groups into One Party:
Israeli Rabbis, ranging from Rabbi Dov Lior (chairman of the Yesha rabbinical council) (left), to Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein (head of Yeshivat Har Etzion in Alon Shvut) (right), have issued a combined statement that calls for political cooperation "in order to ensure the Jewish character of the state and of the future government." Rabbi Lichtenstein is a supporter of Meimad, a religious Zionist party that ran in the last elections on a list with the Labor party. Meimad supports withdrawing from parts of the land of Israel for the purpose of attaining peace. In contrast, Rabbi Lior was an ardent opponent of the government’s disengagement plan from Gaza and northern Samaria, and held that a soldier must refuse to obey orders if called on to implement the plan. Rav Lior heads the Council of Yesha [Judea and Samaria] Rabbis.
The cooperatively written statement begins with words that recall the destruction of Jewish communities in Gush Katif and northern Samaria, stating that it should be used as a "lever to unify the ranks, despite differences of opinion on various matters." Furthermore, the statement identifies the greater responsibility of religious Zionists to ensure faithfulness to the Torah and Zion in the State of Israel. The Rabbis "call on all the political forces among the religious Zionist parties, and in other groups, to immediately unite and work as one joint political body."
Other Rabbis who signed the declaration include Rav Zalman Melamed, head of Yeshivat Beit El and a supporter of the Tekuma party; Rav Shlomo Aviner, co-Rabbi of Beit El; Rav Chaim Druckman, associated with the National Religious Party; and Rav Shlomo Riskin, Rabbi of Efrat.
Religious Schools go on Strike:
Studies in religious high schools all over Israel will began at ten o'clock in the morning on Thursday, instead of the normally scheduled eight o'clock opening. This decision was made by the Religious Education Task Force, headed by Yanki Friedman of the Noam-Tzivya Religious Education Network, supported by Elchanan Glatt of the Yeshivot Bnei Akiva movement, Amit Network head Amnon Eldar, and representatives of principles of religious high schools around the country. The root of the problem is budget cuts totaling no less than seventy percent of the religious education budget over the past four years. The principals and yeshiva heads have warned at various emergency gatherings over the past several months that they cannot continue to operate the double-curricula of Jewish and general studies that characterize their schools. As a result, tuition costs have risen sharply. Principals say that they cannot continue to pass on the financial burden to the parents. One strike-organizer expressed, "In the current situation we cannot operate our institutions the way we have until now - and certainly not at the current level of Jewish studies and activities." Organizers say that all their attempts to meet with Finance Minister Ehud Olmert have been unsuccessful.
Israelis Develope Alternative to Arab Oil:
According to inventor Dr. Sergei Rosenberg, the equivalency of half a ton of oil, 300 kg of gas, or 150 kg of green coal can be extracted from one ton of garbage. Dr. Rosenberg said, "I turned to the Ministry of Infrastructure with my invention and they told me to build such a machine outside Israel and they would consider bringing it here." "I built the machine in Moldova and demonstrated there that it works - with the oil undergoing tests demonstrating
that the process is not toxic." Dr. Rosenberg went on to say that the Israeli government was afraid of implementing the changeover due to concern of taking away the monopoly of the oil tycoons. "To my surprise much of the interest actually came from Arab parties because they have a lot of refuse they want to get rid of in an efficient manner."
Another company is also working on alternatives to Arab oil. Genova Ltd. has signed an agreement with an olive press in a village in the Galilee to establish a small facility to produce electricity from the waste produced by olive pressing. The facility will produce an estimated 200 kilowatts of power, which will provide power to 70 homes. It will also provide for the disposing of olive waste formed during oil production, which eliminates the previous environmental waste hazard.
Israeli Tourism Still on the Up Swing:
For the third consecutive year tourism to Israel has continued to rise. The figures released this week by the Ministry of Tourism and the Central Bureau of Statistics show that the number of tourists over the past ten months has risen twenty-seven percent over the same period last year. Just in the month of October, 164,400 tourists entered Israel, which is a twenty-eight percent increase over October 2004. The total number of tourists last year was approximately 1.5 million. The peak of over 2.4 million occurred in the "pre-Oslo War" year of 2000. Tourism Minister Avraham Hirschson says he expects to surpass this number in 2007.
Israel Study Mission Trip:
 Join us and experience your bible coming alive as you travel the land of Israel. The tour will be from February 18 through March 3, 2006 at a cost of $2,050.00. It has been arranged and will be directed by Pastor Ken Garrison.
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