Weekly Update: For Zion’s sake
Despite the current crisis, it appears the Jewish people are returning to Israel in larger numbers than ever before.
What makes the Jewish people yearn for “Zion”?
And why is the international community so determined to make sure the Jews cannot live in the Old City of Jerusalem and the hills of Judea and Samaria – the heartland of Zion?
The meaning of Zionism was expressed eloquently by former Israeli President Chaim Herzog in his speech to the UN during the “Zionism is racism” crisis in the UN in 1975.
“Zion” is about a specific place, but it is also about much more than that. It is about the God of Zion. So Zionism is about the return to that God. It affects all of us: the Jewish people, the church and the nations.
The battle for Zion continues today.
Shabbat shalom,
Andrew Tucker
Editor-in-Chief – Israel & Christians Today
Aliyah update
Watch this update from Ukraine, where Koen Carlier and his team are assisting Jewish people who want to emigrate to Israel in a very practical way with transportation and arrangement of travel documents. With the current situation in Ukraine, the Jewish people are now listening more than ever to the call to return to Israel – the land of their forefathers. This coming Monday 32 olim (immigrants) will leave Ukraine via Kiev airport and they will make Israel their new home. Click here..
Jewish Agency Secretary General Josh Schwarcz says that Israel can expect up to 50,000 new immigrants from around the world in 2021, a huge increase over figures from recent years. Read more..
Extension of Israeli law to parts of Judea and Samaria – the saga continues
Maj. Gen. (ret.) Gerson Hacohen writes: The issue of applying sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the West Bank’s Israeli communities puts PM Benjamin Netanyahu on the horns of a difficult strategic dilemma, one of the most important in Israel’s history. At critical strategic junctures, decisions are always complex, and Netanyahu’s is complex many times over. But full Israeli control over the West Bank’s main traffic arteries is absolutely essential. Read more..
Hacohen also writes: If the Israeli government misses the opportunity presented by President Trump’s plan to apply sovereignty, the risks to Israel multiply; they do not decrease. That is because Israel will not be able to preserve its temporary security presence in the Jordan Valley forever. Read more..
There is a growing crescendo of warnings by Israel’s neighbours about annexation. Eric Cortellessa at Time of Israel reports: Jordan’s king is warning congressional leaders that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to annex parts of the West Bank would strengthen Hamas and damage Israel’s ability to normalize relations with the rest of the region, according to a source familiar with the discussions. Read more..
Seth Frantzman analyses the warning by the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the US that Israel’s planned annexation of parts of the West Bank would “upend Israeli aspirations for improved security, economic and cultural ties with the Arab world and with the UAE.” Read more..
Jewish Agency head Isaac Herzog urges people not to jump to conclusions about what the future holds in terms of annexation — especially given all the “spin.” “We don’t know yet if and when such a process would really begin, what its contents would be… I think there’s so much going on behind the scenes with the Arab countries, with our neighbors, with the United States,” Herzog says. Read more..
Israel will not be “annexing” territory. ‘Annexation’ applies to a situation where a state seeks to incorporate into its own territory adjacent territory that does not belong to it and has been acquired by force. Like the Nazi’s did with Austria in 1938. But the status of these territories is different. Read more..
What is Zionism?
To understand what Zionism is all about, watch former Israeli President Chaim Herzog’s famous speech to the UN during the “Zionism is Racism” debate in 1975. Click here..
Israeli writer Samuel Agnon’s speech at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm in 1966 reveals the love of the Jewish people for Jerusalem:
“As a result of the historic catastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem and Israel was exiled from its land, I was born in one of the cities of the Exile. But always I regarded myself as one who was born in Jerusalem.”
Read more..
The racism riots
Dr. Asaf Romirowsky writes at BESA: “The recent riots in the US underscore how identity politics have been hijacked by red and green alliances between socialist and Islamist ideologies. We are now seeing a conjoining of black American politics with Palestinian thinking, which is itself consumed by identity politics.” Read more..
Israel and the International Criminal Court
Tunisian-born international lawyer Michael Calvo writes: The ICC Prosecutor follows a political agenda. Her latest Response is based on law created by the Prosecutor to enable the prosecution of Israeli Jews/leaders for crimes they never committed. Ms. Fatou Bensouda’s impartiality can reasonably be doubted and she should be disqualified Read more..
“The well” – Video teaching by Johannes Gerloff
Episode 28 in the series of teachings by Israeli-based Bible teacher and journalist Johannes Gerloff:
Abused, depressed and tired of life Hagar finds herself at a cistern in the desert. There, the living God encounters her.
“Proclamation” – Video teaching by Rev. Willem J.J. Glashouwer
Rev. Willem Glashouwer helps us understand God’s prophetic word, and how prophecy is being fulfilled in our generation.
The proclamation of the Gospel resounds from mid-air – through satellites, radio and television channels, internet, social media, whose signals move through the sky. Media can be received anywhere and everywhere in the world. What is the content of this ‘eternal Gospel’ in Revelation 14:6-7? It’s this: at least give to the Creator the glory He deserves, honour to Whom honour is due. Do not rob Him of His Glory by removing Him from your mind, and replacing Him with the theories of your brain of rational science and technology.
Scripture for the week: Isaiah 62
Because I love Zion, I will not keep still.
Because my heart yearns for Jerusalem, I cannot remain silent.
I will not stop praying for her until her righteousness shines like the dawn, and her salvation blazes like a burning torch.
2 The nations will see your righteousness. World leaders will be blinded by your glory.
And you will be given a new name by the Lord’s own mouth.
3 The Lord will hold you in his hand for all to see—a splendid crown in the hand of God.
4 Never again will you be called “The Forsaken City” or “The Desolate Land.”
Your new name will be “The City of God’s Delight” and “The Bride of God,”
for the Lord delights in you and will claim you as his bride.
5 Your children will commit themselves to you, O Jerusalem, just as a young man commits himself to his bride.
Then God will rejoice over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride.
6 O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls; they will pray day and night, continually.
Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord.
7 Give the Lord no rest until he completes his work, until he makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth.
8 The Lord has sworn to Jerusalem by his own strength: “I will never again hand you over to your enemies.
Never again will foreign warriors come and take away your grain and new wine.
9 You raised the grain, and you will eat it, praising the Lord.
Within the courtyards of the Temple, you yourselves will drink the wine you have pressed.”
10 Go out through the gates! Prepare the highway for my people to return!
Smooth out the road; pull out the boulders; raise a flag for all the nations to see.
11 The Lord has sent this message to every land: “Tell the people of Israel,[e]
‘Look, your Savior is coming. See, he brings his reward with him as he comes.’”
12 They will be called “The Holy People” and “The People Redeemed by the Lord.”
And Jerusalem will be known as “The Desirable Place” and “The City No Longer Forsaken.”
The goal of Israel & Christians Today is to help Christians to take God’s Word seriously, and study current events in the world in the context of the Bible.
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