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view from the Mount of Olives

People often ask me if I have a favorite place I’ve visited in Israel. “You mean other than Jerusalem?” I usually reply with a smile.

No other city in history comes close to Jerusalem’s significance.

Others have had more power, more land, more people, more natural resources—even more prestige—but none has more significance. And none ever will.

Yet when you see Jerusalem for the first time, you may wonder why all the fuss. Except for the Temple Mount with its golden Dome of the Rock, the city seems drab. No skyscrapers pierce the skyline of Israel’s capital city. Only some scattered antennae, towers, domes, cranes, crosses and crescent moons protrude in a tangled mess—like wheat and tares. Myriads of dumpy buildings and uneven rooftops betray the hodgepodge of intentions each era has imposed on the city’s fixed spaces.

The tour group I traveled with began the sharp descent from the Mount of Olives by following a narrow road with high walls on either side. On top of the walls, colored pieces of broken glass jutted up from the concrete as a primitive barbed-wire fence. Immediately to my left was a sign: “Tombs of the Prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.” Although the first-century A.D. kokhim (shaft) tombs could not have belonged to these sixth- and fifth-century B.C. prophets, I found it interesting that Zechariah, who foresaw Israel’s King coming on a donkey, would allegedly rest on the slope where his words found fulfillment.

Mount of Olives

The high wall on my left overlooked a vast Jewish graveyard—the largest in the world. Literally thousands of white tombs give testimony to the Jewish hope that when the Messiah comes, “His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives” (Zech. 14:4), and those buried there will stand first in line for blessing (see Daniel 12:2; Revelation 20:11-15). Just last week I saw a group of mourners surrounding a grave.

The high wall to my right enclosed the grounds of the Dominus Flevit Church. The chapel’s name means, “the Lord wept,” memorializing the moment Jesus wept over Jerusalem (see Luke 19:41). The roof of the quaint chapel resembles the shape of an inverted teardrop. I entered and walked to the altar on the right and the large arced window that frames the city of Jerusalem. The window’s decorative wrought-iron bars depict a cup, a loaf, thorns and a cross. A few potted plants and candles sat on the sill. The capstone above the window supports a stone relief of Jesus riding a donkey with his face in his hands.

Jerusalem through the window of Dominus Flevit Church

As I stared out the window at the city over which the Lord had wept, it seemed as though I gazed through a porthole of time. The wrought-iron elements of Jesus’ Passion overshadowed the city. I couldn’t see Jerusalem without also seeing the cross.

As I continued down the steep road, I had to marvel at the contrast on either side of me. One wall guarded the hope that the Messiah will come one day. The other wall guarded the belief that he already had come. Only a narrow, steep road separated these two walls. Somehow the distance seemed much greater.

Passover and Easter bring to mind pictures of the Messiah—both for Jews and for Christians. The Mount of Olives echoes these hopes from its slopes.

By Dore Gold www.JewishPress.com

Anti-Israel hatred on campus crests each year during an event called “Israel Apartheid Week.” With this ominous name and programs that thrive on ignorance and blind disregard for the facts, tens of thousands of college students are urged to rise up against Israel – painfully evoking the types of racist characterizations of the Jewish people which defined attitudes once heard in Europe in the middle of the last century. Warning: this year’s display will come to a campus near you before the end of February.

These campus initiatives were incubated in 2001 at the first Durban Conference, proclaiming “no apartheid South Africa in the 20th century and no apartheid Israel in the 21st.” This battle cry sparked the BDS movement calling for boycotts, divestment and sanctions to punish Israel, and it all evolved into an invective-loaded campaign that found a degree of favor on campuses coast to coast, not to mention among some labor unions, churches, media and cultural institutions. But it is based on a lie.

Typically, those hurling these charges against Israel hope that their audiences are ignorant of the facts. In apartheid South Africa, blacks were not allowed to use white hospitals, they could not attend white universities and they could not participate in the South African parliament. Visit Hadassah Hospital today, or any other health facility in Israel, and see Jewish and Arab doctors caring for Jewish and Arab patients. Witness for yourself at Hebrew University or any institution of higher learning as Jewish and Arab professors teach students of different backgrounds. Go to the Knesset, and observe the debates involving both Jewish and Arab parliamentarians.

Given this reality, Justice Richard Goldstone, a former judge on the South African Supreme Court wrote in the New York Times on October 31, 2011: “The charge that Israel is an apartheid state is a false and malicious one that precludes, rather than promotes, peace and harmony.” Goldstone, it should be remembered did not have a problem criticizing Israeli policies in the aftermath of its 2008-2009 military operation in the Gaza Strip. But when it came to calling Israel and apartheid state like the old South Africa, with which he was intimately familiar, he firmly rejected the charge which was completely divorced from the reality of Modern Israel.

No nation has fought racism more consistently than the Jewish people, whether through the anti-apartheid activists in the South African Jewish community or through those American Jews who joined the civil rights movement and locked arms with Martin Luther King, Jr. The Jewish State was founded on the very same moral outlook, reflecting the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam, or repairing the world, which is deeply held across the Jewish religious spectrum. When Israeli medical teams rushed to international disaster zones in Turkey (1999), Kosovo (1999), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2008), and Haiti (2010) helping the afflicted regardless of their race or creed, they were driven by the very same core Jewish value.

Moreover, no group cherishes or champions freedom of speech more than the Jewish people. But, the systematic dissemination of hate-based lies is not what freedom is about. This crosses the line. No one has a license to lie, manipulate, or manufacture falsehoods. Make no mistake, the primary characteristics of Israel Apartheid Week programming are terrible, unjustified charges expressly aimed at demonizing Israel. Unsubstantiated allegations, constantly repeated, take a toll on American opinion despite bedrock gut support for Israel which, thankfully, exists as a strong counter-force to this mass exercise in propaganda. Studies confirm that when accurate information about Israeli policies, society, and values is provided, the false arguments are uniformly rejected.

Our most critical challenge is to educate the young and to begin this process during high-school years or earlier -– long before they arrive on college campuses. Our students feel confident and empowered when they know the facts and can challenge group-think favoring Israel’s isolation, dismantlement, or destruction. We are duty-bound to engage students in creative, effective ways, through the media they best relate to: Facebook, Twitter, and other Internet communication. We must knock down the posturing of the IAW agitators, who could not care less about promoting peace or helping people in the Mideast. Encouraged by foreign governments that do NOT share Israel’s commitment to democracy and human rights, they are the purveyors of hatred, akin to many others who have preceded them.

Here’s the good news. Friends of Israel are not backing off or ignoring the challenge. Important new initiatives are already working hard to roll back the hatred. We must spare no effort to protect full legal rights and freedom of speech for pro-Israel students on campus. Visual communications which have the power to speak the truth immediately and graphically are one super-critical tool required for this process.

Specifically, I conclude with a vitally important call to action, as easy to do as it is effective: I invite you to watch a film of monumental importance called Crossing the Line. This powerful 30-minute documentary exposes the growing anti-Israel sentiment taking root on college campuses across North America. Once you understand the problem, I hope you will join me in my quest to make sure that all Jewish [and gentile-Christian] students are educated and empowered with the facts about Israel.

Dore Gold

By John P. Mello Jr. www.PCWorld.com

After spending centuries hidden in caves where they were accessible to no one, and decades on display in a Jerusalem museum where they were viewed by the few, the Dead Sea Scrolls arrived on the Internet today, where they can be seen by everyone.

Using technology from Google, The Israel Museum in Jerusalem has created an online exhibit for the scrolls, which were discovered in the Judean Desert in 1947, where they’d been hidden in 11 caves since 68 BCE. The scrolls have been on exhibit at the museum since 1965.

The display is interactive.

The exhibit is going live just in time to celebrate the beginning of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, which starts at sunset on Wednesday, Sept 28.

More than just pictures posted to the Web, the exhibit is interactive. Not only can you zoom in and out on a scroll — which is photographed at 1200 megapixels, almost 200 times the resolution of the average consumer digital camera — but you can click on areas of Hebrew text in the scroll and get an English translation of it. Viewers may add comments regarding the documents that others can see and comment on, too. What’s more, you can perform text searches on the scrolls.

The scrolls include the oldest known biblical manuscripts in existence. At the online exhibit, you can see:

** The Great Isaiah Scroll. One of the original seven scrolls discovered in 1947, it is also the most complete and the longest at 734 millimeters (28 inches). It contains the text of the Hebrew version of the Book of Isaiah, known for its description of the End of Days: “And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks: Nation shall not take up sword against nation; they shall never again know war.”

** The War Scroll. Also one of the original seven scrolls, this document describes the final war at the End of Days between the “Sons of Light” and “Sons of Darkness.”

** Commentary on Habakkuk Scroll. Another of the seven found in the caves of Qumran in 1947, this scroll discusses religious politics of the day and the arrival of the Romans on the scene. No historical figures are mentioned by name, but there are allusions to characters such as the Teacher of Righteousness,”the Wicked Priest,” “the Man of Lies,” and others, whose identities haven’t been determined.

** The Temple Scroll. Discovered in 1956, this scroll is written on the thinnest of parchments — 0.10 millimeter thick — and purportedly provides the details of God’s instructions to Moses regarding the construction and operation of the Temple.

** The Community Rule Scroll. This is a sectarian document, also part of the 1947 find, that sets down community rules such as admission of new members and conduct at community meals.

The Dead Sea Scroll project is part of a larger effort by Google to bring important cultural and historical collections to the Web, according to Eyal Miller, of Google New Business Development, and Eyal Fink, a software engineer at the Israel Research and Development Center. Other similar projects Google has participated in include the Yad Vashem Holocaust photo collection and collections at the Prado Museum in Spain.

Great Isaiah Scroll. Source: Google blog

“We are thrilled to have been able to help this project through hosting on Google Storage and App Engine, helping design the Web experience and making it searchable and accessible to the world,” Miller and Fink wrote in a Google blog. Google technology provides similar access to exhibits at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

If you live in the West, this can happen …

Facts of what can and will happen as Muslim populations increase. Please be aware that this is for educational purposes only; not to spread hatred, but to spread awareness and vigilance so that the takeover won’t be allowed to happen.

Transcript of the video:
Adapted from Dr. Peter Hammond’s book: Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat

Islam is not a religion, nor is it a cult. In its fullest form, it is a complete, total, 100% system of life.

Islam has religious, legal, political, economic, social, and military components. The religious component is a beard for all of the other components.

Islamization begins when there are sufficient Muslims in a country to agitate for their religious rights.

When politically correct, tolerant, and culturally diverse societies agree to Muslim demands for their religious rights, some of the other components tend to creep in as well.

Here’s how it works:

As long as the Muslim population remains around or under 2% in any given country, they will be for the most part be regarded as a peace-loving minority, and not as a threat to other citizens. This is the case in:

United States — Muslim 0.6%
Australia — Muslim 1.5%
Canada — Muslim 1.9%
China — Muslim 1.8%
Italy — Muslim 1.5%
Norway — Muslim 1.8%

At 2% to 5%, they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups, often with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs. This is happening in:

Denmark — Muslim 2%
Germany — Muslim 3.7%
United Kingdom — Muslim 2.7%
Spain — Muslim 4%
Thailand — Muslim 4.6%

From 5% on, they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population. For example, they will push for the introduction of halal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims. They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature halal on their shelves — along with threats for failure to comply. This is occurring in:

France — Muslim 8%
Philippines — 5%
Sweden — Muslim 5%
Switzerland — Muslim 4.3%
The Netherlands — Muslim 5.5%
Trinidad & Tobago — Muslim 5.8%

At this point, they will work to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves (within their ghettos) under Sharia, the Islamic Law.
The ultimate goal of Islamists is to establish Sharia law over the entire world.

When Muslims approach 10% of the population, they tend to increase lawlessness as a means of complaint about their conditions. In Paris, we are already seeing car-burnings. Any non-Muslim action offends Islam and results in uprisings and threats, such as in Amsterdam, with opposition to Mohammed cartoons and films about Islam. Such tensions are seen daily, particularly in Muslim sections in:

Guyana — Muslim 10%
India — Muslim 13.4%
Israel — Muslim 16%
Kenya — Muslim 10%
Russia — Muslim 15%

After reaching 20%, nations can expect hair-trigger rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings, and the burnings of Christian churches and Jewish synagogues, such as in:

Ethiopia — Muslim 32.8%

At 40%, nations experience widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks, and ongoing militia warfare, such as in:

Bosnia — Muslim 40%
Chad — Muslim 53..1%
Lebanon — Muslim 59.7%

From 60%, nations experience unfettered persecution of non-believers of all other religions (including non-conforming Muslims), sporadic ethnic cleansing (genocide), use of Sharia Law as a weapon, and Jizya (the tax placed on infidels), such as in:

Albania — Muslim 70%
Malaysia — Muslim 60.4%
Qatar — Muslim 77.5%
Sudan — Muslim 70%

After 80%, expect daily intimidation and violent jihad, some State-run ethnic cleansing, and even some genocide, as these nations drive out the infidels, and move toward 100% Muslim, such as has been experienced and in some ways is on-going in:

Bangladesh — Muslim 83%
Egypt — Muslim 90%
Gaza — Muslim 98.7%
Indonesia — Muslim 86.1%
Iran — Muslim 98%
Iraq — Muslim 97%
Jordan — Muslim 92%
Morocco — Muslim 98.7%
Pakistan — Muslim 97%
Palestine — Muslim 99%
Syria — Muslim 90%
Tajikistan — Muslim 90%
Turkey — Muslim 99.8%
United Arab Emirates — Muslim 96%

100% will usher in the peace of ‘Dar-es-Salaam’ – the Islamic House of Peace. Here there’s supposed to be peace, because everybody is a Muslim, the Madrasses are the only schools, and the Koran is the only word, such as in:

Afghanistan — Muslim 100%
Saudi Arabia — Muslim 100%
Somalia — Muslim 100%
Yemen — Muslim 100%

Unfortunately, peace is never achieved, as in these 100% states the most radical Muslims intimidate and spew hatred, and satisfy their blood lust by killing less radical Muslims, for a variety of reasons.

‘Before I was nine, I had learned the basic canon of Arab life. It was me against my brother; me and my brother against our father; my family against my cousins and the clan; the clan against the tribe; the tribe against the world, and all of us against the infidel. — Leon Uris, ‘The Haj’

It is important to understand that in some countries, with well under 100% Muslim populations, such as France, the minority Muslim populations live in ghettos, within which they are 100% Muslim, and within which they live by Sharia Law. The national police do not even enter these ghettos. There are no national courts, nor schools, nor non-Muslim religious facilities. In such situations, Muslims do not integrate into the community at large. The children attend madrasses. They learn only the Koran. To even associate with an infidel is a crime punishable by death. Therefore, in some areas of certain nations, Muslim imams and extremists exercise more power than the national average would indicate.

Today’s 1.5 billion Muslims make up 22% of the world’s population. But their birth rates dwarf the birth rates of Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, and all other believers. Muslims will exceed 50% of the world’s population by the end of this century.