No More Salaries For Terrorists

August 11, 2017

The Taylor Force Act has cleared another hurdle and appears to be on its way to becoming law, reports the Jerusalem Post.

The bill would cut U.S. taxpayer funding of the Palestinian Authority (PA) if it doesn’t stop paying salaries to terrorists and their families. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the measure by a 16-5 vote late last week.

The Act, named for a former U.S. Army officer who was stabbed to death by a Palestinian in Tel Aviv in March 2016, will now advance to a full Senate vote.

If it passes, the bill would compel the State Department to cut off funding to the PA if it does not suspend its practice of paying what it considers “martyr” compensation — monthly payments to terrorists if they are convicted or to their families if they are killed.

Speaking to reporters, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham praised the bill, while decrying the situation that prompts it: “The longer you’re in jail, [or] the more vicious the crime, the more money you get. That’s inconsistent with peace. It is a sick system. It needs to change.”

The Act also requires the PA to take “credible steps” against inciting violence against Israelis and Americans.

The United States currently gives the PA nearly $500 million in annual aid. The legislation would preserve only the portion designated for security assistance and humanitarian aid — roughly $60 million.

Misinformed and counterproductive
– The Palestine Liberation Organization

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) quickly responded, criticizing the bill as a “misinformed and counterproductive” measure that risks undermining the PA.

Husam Zomlot, the PLO’s Washington envoy, told the Post, “This is a 52-year-old program to support families who lost their breadwinners to the atrocities of the occupation, the vast majority of whom are unduly arrested or killed by Israel.”

“The Act does not enhance the security of Americans and Israelis,” the Palestinian further maintained. “Nor does it permit Palestine to provide for the security and well-being of its people who continue to live under a half-century-old military occupation."

The bill gained the support of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobby group. The organization says on its website that “the legislation does not affect U.S. funding for security cooperation, nor does it cut humanitarian programs if the U.S. government can certify that the PA is taking credible steps to end violence against Israelis and Americans.”

After weeks of unrest, it’s nice to hear this good news

After all of the tension, rioting and violence in Israel that resulted from the recent Temple Mount crisis, it’s a relief to hear reports that action is being taken that just might reduce terrorism in the region.

U.S. taxpayers should not be compelled to reward terrorists who kill Israelis or other Americans.

Still, we know that the roller coaster ride of political and religious conflict in the Middle East will continue until Yeshua (Jesus), The Prince of Peace, returns. He has promised to make all things right — not only for the nation of Israel, but for all nations.

We know He’ll keep that promise. While we wait for that day, our scriptural call remains the same: to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6). We continue to pray for peace in the Land of Israel and also in the hearts of each person — whether Jewish or Arab — which can only be achieved through faith in Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah).

 

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Your gift now will share His love with Jewish people and their neighbors around the world.

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Saying Goodbye – How Campbell’s Final Album Came to Be

August 09, 2017

Glenn Campbell

After his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease in 2011, Glen Campbell’s abilities to play, sing and remember songs began to decline rapidly. His wife Kim’s sense of urgency grew to get him into the studio one last time to capture what magic was left, knowing this would be the last opportunity.
 

“Just as our new reality began to sink in,” Kim recalled in the album’s liner notes, “fate found us spending an afternoon with Carl Jackson, Glen’s long-time banjo player and friend – and, most notably, the person who set Glen and me up on a blind date 34 years ago!
 

“We reminisced that day about all of the songs that were still on Glen’s ‘list’ – songs he had loved to sing but never recorded,” she said. But time had slipped away, and it hadn’t happened. Conversation sparked inspiration that afternoon, and the wheels were put in motion.
 

Jackson laid down some basic tracks and vocals for Campbell to study and practice in preparation for his final session. Then, more than 50 years after he recorded his first hit song, “Turn Around, Look At Me,” Campbell was ready to walk into the vocal booth one last time.
 

  1.  When Brian Wilson left the Beach Boys, it was Glen Campbell who stepped in for him.
  2.  He had his own TV show on CBS from 1969 to 1972, "Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour," with a weekly audience of 50 million.
  3.  He released more than 70 of his own albums and in the 1990s recorded a series of gospel CDs.
  4.  He was the summer host for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late 1960s (even though the Smothers Brothers’ peppered the show with their very liberal politics and Campbell was just as conservative.)
  5.  He played guitar on Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night,” Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas," and “Daydream Believer” with the Monkees.
  6. He won a Grammy for best country song in 2015 – four years after his Alzheimer’s diagnosis. The same song, "I'm Not Gonna Miss You," was also nominated for an Oscar for best original song that year.
  7. He co-starred in the 1969 movie “True Grit” with John Wayne (for which Wayne won his only Oscar.)

“We weren’t sure what would come of those recordings, but it felt like something that had to be done,” Kim explained. “We knew that if we were able to preserve these moments, we would be giving the world a gift – but we would also be helping Glen successfully complete a big task on his bucket list.”
 

The process of capturing Campbell’s vocals was heartbreaking at times.
 

“I’d heard Glen sing these songs so many times over the years and was trying my best to remind him of the subtle nuances and details that he’d developed – and then forgotten,” Kim recalled.
 

Campbell was barely able to remember the words to the songs as he sang them. Jackson would hold up sheets of paper with large print lyrics and feed them to the Country Music Hall of Fame performer one line at a time, Kim said, adding that, although he struggled, she could tell he was clearly ecstatic about being in the studio again.
 

“The songs flowed freely and clearly straight from his heart, and the voice and tone were still remarkably – unmistakably – his,” Kim said.
 

“Our son Cal described it well, saying that his dad sang ‘better than most other performers could, even with half of his brain tied behind his back.’ ’’
 

Once completed, the recordings were stored away. Later, as Kim coped with the trauma of watching her husband descend into late stages of dementia, she decided to crack open the vaults and, with Jackson, listen once more to those basic tracks they had recorded that day.
 

“It only took a few minutes to be reminded of how good he sounded and how beautifully he interpreted each phrase. We realized immediately that it would be a shame to not finish this record. We had to share it with the world.”
 

Kim and Jackson set out to enlist some of the best musicians in the business to give the record the polish and charm that Campbell was known for.
 

The result was Adiós, Campbell’s final album. The name comes from the last track on the record, one of his favorite Jimmy Webb songs. But with Campbell dying just weeks after its release, the title is heart breaking even while its music is uplifting.
 

The process of recording the final version of Adiós took nearly six months, Kim recalled.
 

“We brought in Willie Nelson to sing the other half of a duet with Glen, Vince Gill added harmonies to a Roger Miller tune, Aubrey Haynie came in to play some fiddle, and Mike Johnson added classic steel guitar tones alongside many of Nashville's top session players. Carl handled all of the guitars himself this time around,” she said.
 

The final days of tracking were both the most rewarding and the hardest, as Campbell’s children Ashley, Shannon and Cal each took their turns in the booth to add vocals behind their dad’s parts.
 

“It’s easy to get caught up in the recording process and lose track of the meaning behind the lyrics or story that each song is telling, but these sessions were different,” Kim said.
 

“The feelings of love, respect, and the somber realization that these would be the last Campbell family harmonies committed to tape were very present in the room. Just like their father, each of them stepped up to the microphone and performed with that rare mix of professionalism, skill, heart and soul.”
 

While the experience was bittersweet, Kim said it was “more than worthwhile” when she listens to the finished album today.
 

“What you’re hearing when listening to Adiós is the beautiful and loving culmination of friends and family doing their very best for the man who inspired, raised, and entertained them for decades – they gave him the chance to say one last goodbye to his fans, and put one last amazing collection of Glen Campbell songs onto the record store shelves,” she said.

 

  1.  When Brian Wilson left the Beach Boys, it was Glen Campbell who stepped in for him.
  2.  He had his own TV show on CBS from 1969 to 1972, "Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour," with a weekly audience of 50 million.
  3.  He released more than 70 of his own albums and in the 1990s recorded a series of gospel CDs.
  4.  He was the summer host for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late 1960s (even though the Smothers Brothers’ peppered the show with their very liberal politics and Campbell was just as conservative.)
  5.  He played guitar on Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night,” Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas," and “Daydream Believer” with the Monkees.
  6. He won a Grammy for best country song in 2015 – four years after his Alzheimer’s diagnosis. The same song, "I'm Not Gonna Miss You," was also nominated for an Oscar for best original song that year.
  7. He co-starred in the 1969 movie “True Grit” with John Wayne (for which Wayne won his only Oscar.)


Glen Campbell Dies at 81

Glen Campbell Dies at 81

August 09, 2017

Glenn Campbell

Longtime Jewish Voice Ministries supporter and Country Music Hall of Fame member Glen Campbell died in Nashville August 8. He had been struggling through the final stages of Alzheimer’s disease. He was originally diagnosed with the disorder in 2011.

The superstar of rock and country music had not performed since 2012, but his last album was released just weeks before his death.
 

It was a bittersweet experience, capturing those last vocals before his health declined to the point that he could no longer sing, explained his wife, Kim.
 

And, while Campbell became a performer in 1952 and was a chart-topping, Grammy-winning singer from the 1960s, he and Kim did not become involved in the Messianic Jewish movement until the ’90s.
 

After some highly publicized problems, all-too common side effects of stratospheric stardom, Campbell sought help for drug abuse and became a Christian in the 1980s.  
 

  1.  When Brian Wilson left the Beach Boys, it was Glen Campbell who stepped in for him.
  2.  He had his own TV show on CBS from 1969 to 1972, "Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour," with a weekly audience of 50 million.
  3.  He released more than 70 of his own albums and in the 1990s recorded a series of gospel CDs.
  4.  He was the summer host for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late 1960s (even though the Smothers Brothers’ peppered the show with their very liberal politics and Campbell was just as conservative.)
  5.  He played guitar on Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night,” Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas," and “Daydream Believer” with the Monkees.
  6. He won a Grammy for best country song in 2015 – four years after his Alzheimer’s diagnosis. The same song, "I'm Not Gonna Miss You," was also nominated for an Oscar for best original song that year.
  7. He co-starred in the 1969 movie “True Grit” with John Wayne (for which Wayne won his only Oscar.)

“It was the early 1990s when Glen and I saw teaching about the Festivals of the Lord on Trinity Broadcasting Network,” Kim recalled. “We were blown away to learn how intricately they pointed to the work of the Messiah in His first and second comings.
 

“I immediately became a voracious student of the subject and ordered every book I could find written from a Messianic perspective.”
 

The Campbells then took their family to Israel, where they participated in Yeshiva classes. On their return to their home in Phoenix, they enrolled in Fuller Theological Seminary to take a class at the Messianic Jewish Theological Institute.
 

By then, they were ready to be not just students, but teachers as well.
 

“We hosted a conference by First Fruits of Zion at a Phoenix resort. Much to our amazement, 300 people showed up and expressed an interest in learning more,” Kim said.
 

Since there was no Messianic congregation in Phoenix at the time, they started a teaching foundation called Torah Study Chavurah, bringing in scholars from all over the world to teach the Jewish roots of the Christian faith.
 

It was during this period that my wife, Sandie, and I really got to know the Campbells. When we moved to Phoenix in 1998, they invited us to a local Saturday morning Messianic Jewish Bible study that they were leading.
 

“TSC grew very fast,” Kim explained. “One of the fun things we did was to put on an annual Sukkot celebration and Purim play.”
 

In fact, I played Mordecai, Esther’s cousin, in that play. A more famous Phoenix resident, Alice Cooper, also made an appearance in the production.
 

Our family became close friends with the Campbell family. When I went to work for Jewish Voice Ministries in 2004, I introduced them to Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Bernis, and they became generous supporters of JVMI.
 

Kim’s calling for the past 6 years had been that of caregiver.
 

She explained that the documentary, Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me, shared their journey with millions of people through countless screenings and prime-time broadcasts on CNN Presents and Netflix.

“Families everywhere living with Alzheimer's suddenly felt seen and heard because we were telling their story too,” Kim explained.

As an expansion of their quest to educate people about Alzheimer's Disease, Kim made it her personal mission to improve the quality of life for people with dementia and, in particular, their caregivers.
 

“In August of 2016, I launched CareLiving.org, a website and social movement designed to inspire, encourage and empower caregivers. The CareLiving website features regular articles and updates from me and a host of guest writers, specialists, musicians, doctors and other caregivers,” she said.


“I knew that there was a desperate need for a new voice – any voice! – for caregivers, but didn’t anticipate the outpouring of support that we’d received from fans, friends, medical professionals, ministries and others. Many caregivers feel that CareLiving.org is their voice – that we are not only speaking directly to them, but for them.”
 

  1.  When Brian Wilson left the Beach Boys, it was Glen Campbell who stepped in for him.
  2.  He had his own TV show on CBS from 1969 to 1972, "Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour," with a weekly audience of 50 million.
  3.  He released more than 70 of his own albums and in the 1990s recorded a series of gospel CDs.
  4.  He was the summer host for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late 1960s (even though the Smothers Brothers’ peppered the show with their very liberal politics and Campbell was just as conservative.)
  5.  He played guitar on Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night,” Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas," and “Daydream Believer” with the Monkees.
  6. He won a Grammy for best country song in 2015 – four years after his Alzheimer’s diagnosis. The same song, "I'm Not Gonna Miss You," was also nominated for an Oscar for best original song that year.
  7. He co-starred in the 1969 movie “True Grit” with John Wayne (for which Wayne won his only Oscar.)

 

She suggests that, for those who are interested, the best way to get involved with CareLiving is to follow the social channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram; all @carelivingorg) and become part of the CareLiving community by sharing stories and experiences with others.

 

“In the near future we will venture in to real-world interactions and events that people can get more directly involved with, but for now we simply encourage caregivers to take care of themselves while caring for their loved ones,” she said.
 

Timothy Smith | The Chamberlain Key

Summary
Timothy P. Smith discovered an encryption code in the ancient Hebrew Scriptures which led to astonishing findings revealed in his book, “The Chamberlain Key”.
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Timothy P. Smith
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JVMI 50th Anniversary: 2008-2010

August 03, 2017

Medical Outreaches to the Jewish people in Ethiopia brought a new and deeply impactful element to Jewish Voice Ministries. Meanwhile, other ministries continued.

2008

In 2008, television coverage continued to expand, reaching into Russia and republics of the former Soviet Union. Jewish Voice Ministries UK was registered as a charity in the United Kingdom.

JVMI sent three shipping containers of urgently needed rice to the Bnei Menashe Jewish people in Mizoram, India, during the worst famine endured by that region in more than 50 years. Following the shipments, JVMI conducted a Medical Outreach in Mizoram.

Bnei Menashe

During this time, the Jewish Voice offices received a number of threats and experienced some acts of vandalism. They had petitioned the City of Phoenix for a variance to install a security fence around the studio and office property. In 2008, JVMI received that permission.

Jonathan Bernis kept a fast-paced schedule in 2008. In the spring, he conducted a Passover Seder in Hong Kong. In May, he and his wife led a teaching and prayer tour to Israel. He also taught for a week at the opening of the new Messianic Jewish Bible Institute in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that year. In September, his speaking schedule included engagements in Brazil, Missouri, Germany and Israel. Also that year, his book A Rabbi Looks at the Last Days was published.

HearOisrael

2009

With Medical Outreaches fully established as annual events, JVMI resumed presenting Hear O Israel! Festivals of Jewish Music & Dance in major cities with large Jewish populations.  In 2009, the festival traveled to Cordoba, Argentina, where more than 12,000 attended and 400 people accepted Yeshua. Another 1,070 in attendance submitted follow-up cards indicating they wanted to learn more. Local pastors invited the team to speak in their churches, and the congregants were moved to tears as they heard the Gospel from a Jewish perspective.

As the summer of 2009 approached, Dennis Phillips retired after 42 years with Jewish Voice. Though he joined the staff a few years after the ministry’s founding in 1967, Dennis had been working with Louis Kaplan and Jewish Voice since its very first broadcast.

Over the years, Dennis held several positions and performed many jobs. He produced, wrote and hosted the radio and TV programs. He was half of the two-man film crew documenting, writing and producing the film about JVB’s Israel Witnessing Tours. Dennis also managed the ministry for nearly a year after Brother Kaplan’s stroke. He wrote the “Headquarters Report” for the magazine and even worked in Partner Relations, communicating with JVMI supporters each day, a role he truly enjoyed.

After his retirement, Dennis also began producing and editing Jonathan Bernis’ “Insider’s Reports” sent to several thousand Jewish Voice partners quarterly. He also works on production and editing of the CDs that accompany Jonathan’s “Confessing the Hebrew Scriptures” workbooks. To this day, Dennis remains very connected to Jewish Voice and can sometimes be found at a TV taping manning a camera. He has a truly unique perspective on the ministry of Jewish Voice:

I remember the day back in 1967 when Evangelist Louis Kaplan came into the offices of KHEP, the Christian radio station in Phoenix where I was the program director. He identified himself as a “Christian Jew” and said the Lord had spoken to him to start a daily radio program to speak to the Church about God’s love for His chosen Jewish people. 

I had never met a Jewish person who believed in Jesus and was intrigued by his message. God began to give me a love for the Jewish people. In 1968, I joined Jewish Voice Broadcasts as manager and radio producer.

It was our total dependence upon God that built our faith and gave Brother Kaplan the encouragement to continue to expand the radio program domestically and overseas.  He would be ecstatic, if he were here today, to see that Jewish Voice’s television program is being broadcast in Israel. 

I am grateful to have had a unique perspective as I assisted in the ministry’s birth and have watched it grow and expand to a worldwide outreach. Over the 50 years, I have been associated with Jewish Voice, I have proved that the promise in Genesis 12:3 – where God says He will bless those who bless the Jewish people – is true.  He has blessed me abundantly beyond anything I could ask or think.

 

In 2009, Jonathan and outreach staff conducted the first exploratory trip to the Gefat Jewish people of Woliso, Ethiopia. Approximately 200 villagers warmly welcomed the JVMI team and claimed the visit was an answer to their prayers.

2010

In the early years, Jewish Voice television programs aired on the local TBN affiliate in Phoenix. Then, in 2010, “Jewish Voice with Jonathan Bernis” began airing internationally on TBN, the largest Christian television network.

In the fall of 2010, JVMI took the Hear O Israel! Festivals of Jewish Music & Dance to Montevideo, Uruguay, where nearly 9,000 people attended five concerts.

“The altars were overwhelmed with people hungry to know the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” said Jonathan Gannon, director of global outreach at the time.

“Through Jonathan’s message, many hundreds of Jewish men, women and children understood for the first time that they were not being asked to convert to a new religion or abandon their Jewish roots. Rather, they were being invited to encounter the God of their forefathers!”

--------

Join us on the Jewish Voice Blog each month in 2017 as we unfold the Jewish Voice story and piece together for you how two ministries with the same heart merged and became the Jewish Voice Ministries International you know today.

 

Check out Flashback Fridays on our Facebook page, where you’ll see glimpses of our 50-year journey.

 

Discover the whole inspiring JVMI story with our beautiful, full-color coffee table book, Jewish Voice: A Look at 50 Years. Along with more than 200 photographs and a fascinating narrative chronicling 50 years of ministry, this special edition includes biographies, stories, and reflections from television guests, partners and staff. 

 

Previous JVMI 50th Anniversary blog posts: 

Meet Louis and Chira Kaplan

The Early Years – Jewish Voice Broadcasts

Jonathan Bernis

Hear O’ Israel Ministries

Meeting, Partnering, and Merging

Jewish Voice Ministries International

Called to Ethiopia

 

Weeping With Israel

July 31, 2017

Tisha B'av

Imagine if the U.S. had experienced multiple traumatic events over the centuries since its colonization, all occurring on September 11. That’s what the 9th of Av – or Tisha B’Av (TISH-ah Beh-Ahv) in Hebrew – is like for Israel and the Jewish people.

It’s easy to see why Tisha B’Av is a Jewish day of mourning. Over the millennia, the number of tragedies that have befallen Israel on this precise date is astonishing. Most notably, both the First and Second Temples were destroyed on this date more than 600 years apart.

According to Jewish tradition, the first adversity to occur on the 9th of Av was in the wilderness just outside the Promised Land. The 10 spies returned to the Hebrew camp on the 8th of Av and reported that the land was plentiful. But eight of them persuaded the camp that it was unconquerable, despite God’s declaration that He would give it to them.

That night, after the calendar had turned to the 9th day of Av, the people cried out that they would rather go back to Egypt than face certain slaughter by the Canaanites in the Promised Land. As a result, that entire generation was not allowed to enter the Land. They wandered in the wilderness until the last of them died before God permitted their children into the Land He had pledged to them.

 

 

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Over the millennia, some of the other catastrophes that have struck the Jewish people on that date are:

  • 587 BCE (Hebrew calendar year 3338) – The First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians under the ruler of Nebuchadnezzar
  • 70 CE (3830) – The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans under the leadership of Titus
  • 135 CE (3895) – The Romans conquered Bar Kochba's last fortress, Betar, and destroyed his army. The Roman Emperor Hadrian turned Jerusalem into a Roman city
  • 1290 (5050) – King Edward 1st of England signed an edict expelling all Jews from England
  • 1492 (5252) – Jews were expelled from Spain
  • 1670 (5430) – The last Jews left Vienna, following expulsion orders
  • 1914 (5674) – World War I began (Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, 1914)
  • 1940 (5700) – Himmler presented his plan for the "Final Solution" to the Jewish problem to the Nazi Party
  • 1942 (5702) - Nazis began deporting Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto
     

Every year, the 9th of Av falls in July or August on the Gregorian calendar. In 2017, Tisha B’Av begins at sundown on Monday July 31st. For three weeks preceding the 9th of Av, Jewish people mourn. Weddings and parties are not permitted, and people do not have their hair cut during this period.

On Tisha B’Av itself, Jewish people abstain from eating meat or drinking wine. They also refrain from wearing new clothing. Synagogue attendees hear the book of Lamentations read and recite prayers of mourning. The cabinet housing the Torah scroll is draped in black.

Romans 12:15 tells us to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. As Tisha B’Av approaches, we join in the sadness of this date, and pray for God to use Israel’s history to continually call them to Himself. We lift up the Jewish people in prayer on this date of historical tragedy.

 

Get the "9 Prayers for Israel" Devotional

Download this free devotional and discover 9 ways you can pray for Israel and the Jewish people worldwide during these critical times.

When will the violence end?

July 28, 2017

Pray for Peace

More tension at the Temple Mount . . .

NBC News reported online early this week that an attack on an Israeli security guard at Israel’s embassy in Amman, Jordan, could be an indication that more violence is coming.

The guard was attacked at Israel’s embassy in Jordan by a delivery worker who was then fatally shot by the guard. A second Jordanian man was apparently hit in the cross fire and later died of his injuries. Although the guard carries diplomatic immunity, Jordan officials declared they would not allow him to leave the country. It appears the attack on the guard was spurred by Israel’s installation of metal detectors at the Temple Mount.

Israel installed the devices after three West Bank terrorists, with the help of a fourth accomplice, smuggled guns into the sacred site in Jerusalem’s Old City and murdered two Israeli police officers. The heightened security measures touched off protests and violence that have resulted in the deaths of at least three Israelis and three Palestinians, with injuries to dozens more.

Reportedly spurred by the protests, a 19-year-old West Bank man climbed a barrier fence and entered the first house he came to in the Israeli community of Halamash. Once inside, he stabbed to death three adult members of a family gathered to celebrate the birth of a new baby. A fourth victim remains hospitalized.

Jordan manages religious activities at the Temple Mount, while Israel oversees security. There is widespread belief in the Islamic world that the increased security is part of an Israeli plan to slowly take over the site, which is considered sacred by Jews, Muslims and Christians

The Jerusalem Post reported clashes and protests at a dozen locations in the West Bank region during the week, as well as several in Jerusalem and Nazareth. The paper also said that hundreds of Muslims took part in a “sit-in” in the Old City of Jerusalem to protest the increased security at the Mount.

Israel faced increasing pressure from neighboring Muslim nations and the United States to remove the metal detectors, according to The Times of Israel. Muslim worshipers protested the metal detectors at the holy site by refusing to go inside for prayer. Instead, they have crowded the entranceways, bowing for prayer outside the Temple Mount.

Israel removed the security devices on Tuesday, but Israeli media report that high-resolution cameras will instead be installed at the site over the next six months.

Also on Tuesday, Prime Minister Netanyahu successfully negotiated with Jordan’s King Hussein to allow the detained embassy guard, who had been involved in the shooting, to return to Israel.

Tensions remain high. A poll reported that 77 percent of Israelis say their leaders capitulated >to foreign and Palestinian pressure. Fatah, the Palestinian Authority’s ruling party, called on Arabs to intensify pressure on Israel at the Temple Mount.

Palestinian Authority President Abbas froze all security coordination with Israel unless all security measures returned to those in place before July 14. He referred in part to remnants of metal railings and scaffolding used for the detectors at the site.

Protests continued despite removal of the metal detectors, and violence broke out again after Tuesday evening’s prayers. The Palestinian terror group Hamas declared victory over the removal, but also called for a “day of rage” to occur on Friday.

This morning, Israel removed the final vestiges of the added security measures. The Grand Mufti then called off the boycott of the Temple Mount and called for prayer services to be held at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, urging worshipers to pray there rather than at their local mosques. It remains to be seen if Hamas will rescind its call for rage on Friday.

When will the violence end? Will the violence end?

Is a week without violent confrontation in the Middle East too much to ask? Sometimes, I think many of us believe it is.

The fallout from the initial terrorist event a week ago in Jerusalem’s Old City is mounting, spreading and could lead to a result none of us wants to contemplate.

I think Israel reacted reasonably by installing metal detectors at the Temple Mount to protect its security force and Muslim worshippers. Palestinians and Muslims reacted to that with indignation, suspicion, riots, and – finally, more murders.

Eventually, when Yeshua (Jesus) returns in power and glory, He’ll usher in the final, lasting peace and the New Jerusalem promised to us in Revelation 21:2-5.

Until then, we must act with urgency to be sure that as many Jewish people as possible hear the Good News that the Prince of Peace is their Messiah.

I do hope you’ll stand with us in this God-given calling. Your gift now will make it possible to reach Jewish people with love and compassion, earning us the opportunity to share the Good News that undergirds our care and gives it meaning.

For your gift of $25 or more today, we’ll send you encouragement directly from the pages of the Bible. The Promise Box contains 120 Bible verses revealing God’s promises for you. Even as headlines from Israel are distressing, these Scriptures will bolster your faith and strengthen you to continue praying for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6).

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