By: Chris Mitchell – CBN News; cbn.com
JERUSALEM, Israel – Perhaps the main threat facing Israel and the United States in the Middle East is a nuclear Iran.
Before the proverbial ink was even dry on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed in 2015, also known as the Iranian nuclear deal, Iran had pushed its limits.
Israeli investigative journalist Ronen Bergman told CBN News that Iran has been slowly and consistently breaching the limits laid out in the nuclear deal.
By: Times of Israel Staff – timesofisrael.com
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday announced that Israel signed a deal with Pfizer to purchase millions of coronavirus vaccine shots, days after the US pharmaceutical firm said data suggested the vaccine was 90 percent effective at preventing COVID-19.
The announcement came amid new worrying signs that infections in the country may be trending upwards again.
By: Jerusalem Post Staff – The Jerusalem Post; jpost.com
Some 22.7% of Israelis, 938,000 people, were unemployed at the height of the second coronavirus lockdown, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, Calcalist reported. The statistics refer to the first half of October and are based on a poll of the workforce.
In the month before the second lockdown, unemployment was at 11.5%, according to the bureau.
The definition of unemployment used in this report is the bureau’s broad definition of unemployment that includes those who are unemployed, those on unpaid leave (measured by the metric of if they have worked at in the week of the poll) and those who lost their job during the pandemic and are not currently seeking work.
Without accounting for those who are not currently looking for work, unemployment stands at 20.7%.
Jewish News Syndicate – jns.org
The Iranian parliament has passed a bill obligating the government to dramatically step up the country’s nuclear-related activity, Iranian media reported on Monday.
The legislation consists of nine articles, among which are a requirement that Iran produces 120 kilograms (265 pounds) of 20 percent-enriched uranium a year, according to Iran’s Channel 2.
By: Tovah Lazaroff – The Jerusalem Post; jpost.com
After their son Menachem’s birth in Jerusalem in 2002, Ari and Naomi Zivotofksy asked for a passport that recorded his birthplace as Israel, but they were granted the document only this Friday – some 18 years later.“
I am honored to receive this passport as a representative of the many American citizens who were born in Jerusalem, who can now have their official government documents reflect the fact that they were born in Israel,” said Menachem.
He spoke at a brief ceremony at the US embassy in Jerusalem, in which US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman officially handed him his passport, the first one ever to link Jerusalem with the State of Israel.
By: Abigail Klein Leichman – Israel21c; israel21c.org
Maysoon Hameed comes home from work as a vice president of an Emirati bank, spends time with her family – and then begins a 90-minute live Hebrew class online.
“After the UAE signed [the Abraham Accords] with Israel, there are a lot of investment opportunities” for both sides, Hameed tells ISRAEL21c.
“To make connections and build relations, you need something in common with the other party no matter where in the world they are. You have to find a common comfort zone,” she says.
“If I have colleagues from Israel, we don’t have to speak English all the time, even though that is the international business language,” says Hameed. “We will feel closer speaking in a mother tongue.”
https://www.israel21c.org/arabs-from-gulf-states-rush-to-learn-hebrew/
By: Walter Bingham – The Jerusalem Post; jpost.com
All over the Western world Jews are experiencing a resurgence of antisemitism. Synagogue doors are being reinforced; Jewish businesses are being attacked; Jewish monuments have been defaced; people are careful not to wear anything that can identify them as Jews, and those who do are in danger of verbal or even physical attacks. It happens now predominantly in European cities, as well as in Jewish areas in the United States.
Members of Antifa, the supposedly anti-fascist organization, have been known to support the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. And in Germany, where antisemitism was suppressed after the defeat of Nazi regime, it is again unashamedly raising its ugly head.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/82-years-after-the-kristallnacht-and-antisemitism-is-rising-647023
By: Franklin Graham – Billy Graham Evangelical Association; billygraham.org
With Election Day a couple of weeks away, Franklin Graham is calling for a day of prayer and fasting this Sunday.
Coming on the heels of the September 26 Washington Prayer March, he posted the following appeal on Facebook, asking others to join him in seeking God’s direction for our country:
When the survival of King Jehoshaphat’s nation was at stake and his people were in danger from their enemies, he called for a fast. The people sought the Lord and His help—and He delivered them.
Today, our nation is at a critical juncture. We need to call out to God for His help, His intervention, and His mercy. It is only by His hand that America will survive and be able to thrive again.
We have an election coming up with so much at stake—two vastly different directions for the future of this country. This not only affects us, but our children and our grandchildren.
By: Baruch Yadid/TPS – Israel Today; israeltoday.co.il
Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the PLO and chief Palestinian Authority negotiator, is currently hospitalized in serious condition at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital. Erekat had a lung transfer a year ago, and has contracted COVID-19.
There is a great embarrassment in the PA following Erekat’s hospitalization because it is a step that requires civilian and security coordination with Israel and exposes the discrimination of senior PA officials over its residents, who are banned from seeking medical treatment in Israel.
In recent months, since PA head Mahmoud Abbas severed ties with Israel, patients in the Gaza Strip and the PA have found it difficult to receive medical treatment.
By: Leah MarieAnn Klett – The Christian Post; christianpost.com
China has been tightening restrictions on the distribution of religious materials in recent months by threatening fines, the closure of printing shops, or even imprisonment for selling Christian books or allowing customers to photocopy hymns.
Bitter Winter, a publication that monitors religious liberty violations in China, reports that this month, Chinese Communist Party officials in Luoyang, a prefecture-level city in the central province of Henan, searched a local printing house for banned religious materials.
“Any religious content makes the issue political, not religious. Although banners on the streets say people are allowed religious beliefs, the only faith they can practice freely is that in the Communist Party,” a store manager told Bitter Winter.