LLX News

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 slammed normalization between Israel and UAE. But when he gets sick, where does Erekat turn? To Israel.

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.

https://www.israeltoday.co.il/read/hypocrite-arab-media-mocks-palestinian-official-for-seeking-israeli-help/

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.

https://www.christianpost.com/news/china-bans-christians-from-photocopying-hymns-religious-material.html

By: Israel 365 – israel365news.com

“It is no secret that Christian scriptures have been misused over the centuries to incite antisemitism,” says Tricia Miller, who holds a PhD in the Hebrew Bible and currently works as a senior research analyst in the Christian department of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA).

“Too often, biblical passages have been taken out of context,” she says. “Influential translations and commentaries sometimes omit the Jewish dimensions of the ancient texts, leaving out the Jewish faith and practices that provided the context for the growth of Christianity in first century Judea and Samaria.”

But a new translation called the Hebrew Heritage Bible Newer Testament seeks to rectify the problem by highlighting the Jewish roots of Christianity.

https://www.israel365news.com/159589/new-christian-bible-translation-underscores-jewish-roots-of-christianity/

But contrary to conventional wisdom, the Jewish state is one of the few where young Arabs are content

By: Ryan Jones – Israel Today; israeltoday.co.il

Israel as the great and intractable foe of the Arab world is a notion that’s crumbling before our eyes, in more ways than one.

The Jewish state was supposed to be a place where all an Arab could expect was discrimination and racial hatred. It’s an “apartheid” state, they told us. So why, then, is Israel one of the very few places in the Middle East from which young Arabs aren’t trying to escape?

 Trying to escape

Every year since 2008, the Dubai-based research group ASDA’A BCW has conducted the “Arab Youth Survey.” And every year the numbers have been getting progressively worse.

The 2020 edition of the survey found that more young Arabs than ever before see no future for themselves in the Middle East. It’s a situation no doubt exacerbated by the coronavirus crisis, but equally driven by government corruption and sectarian violence, which combine to leave little, if any, economic hope.

Among Arabs aged 18-24, a full 42 percent across all the Middle East and North Africa want to emigrate, and 15 percent are taking steps to do so.

https://www.israeltoday.co.il/read/survey-most-young-arabs-want-to-leave-middle-east/

By: Leah MarieAnn Klett – The Christian Post; christianpost.com

A Chinese Christian has opened up about the severe persecution he and other Christian children have endured for their faith, from bullying and discrimination at school to restrictions on freedom of thought and religious expression. 

“Growing up as a Christian in China was a difficult experience,” a Chinese Christian identified only as “Enoch” said during the United Nations Human Rights Council Side Event: China Bans Faith for All Children webinar, hosted by the Jubilee Campaign on Monday. 

Because his father was a pastor, Enoch’s entire family was monitored by Chinese Communist Party officials, neighbors, and surveillance cameras 24 hours a day.  The family was prohibited from worshiping together in church, while Enoch and his siblings were ordered to refrain from sharing their faith at school.  

“We were to only believe in the CCP,” he recalled. “If our religious affiliation was discovered, we would receive punishment from the school.”

https://www.christianpost.com/world/chinese-christian-children-persecuted-for-their-faith.html

By: AP and Times of Israel staff – The Times of Israel; timesofisrael.com

Britain’s Roger Penrose and American Andrea Ghez receive physics award along with German Reinhard Genzel for showing phenomenon predicts general theory of relativity

Three scientists won this year’s Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for advancing our understanding of black holes, the all-consuming monsters that lurk in the darkest parts of the universe.

Briton Sir Roger Penrose, descended from a Hebrew scholar and of Russian Jewish heritage, received half of this year’s prize “for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity,” the Nobel Committee said.

German Reinhard Genzel and American Andrea Ghez, who also has Jewish heritage, received the second half of the prize “for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/scientist-of-jewish-heritage-among-trio-to-win-nobel-prize-for-black-hole-finds/

By: Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz — Israel 365 News; israel365news.com

A terrorist tunnel in northern Gaza collapsed on Sunday evening, killing two Palestinian terrorists and injuring at least eight others. 

Over the weekend, Israeli security forces detained four Palestinians who attempted to infiltrate into Israel by crossing the border fence from the Gaza Strip.

Hamas, the elected governing body of Gaza, has constructed a sophisticated network of military tunnels running some dozens of kilometers within the Gaza Strip. The tunnels are used to hide its arsenal of rocketry, to facilitate communication, to permit munition stocks to be hidden and to conceal militants, making detection from the air difficult.

https://www.israel365news.com/158594/psalm-57-comes-to-life-as-terrorists-die-in-trap-they-dug-against-israel/

Jewish News Syndicate – jns.org

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hails the “authentic friendship and steadfast support” that Jerusalem has received from Tegucigalpa.

Israel and Honduras will open embassies in each other’s capital cities before the end of this year, according to a statement released on Sunday by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office.

The joint announcement came following a conversation earlier in the day between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, said the statement. During their talk, the two leaders reaffirmed the close ties between Jerusalem and Tegucigalpa, and Hernández also congratulated Netanyahu on the historic agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, known as the Abraham Accords.

The Honduran leader also extended his best wishes for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

https://www.jns.org/honduras-to-relocate-embassy-to-jerusalem-by-years-end/

By: Nathan Jeffay – The Times of Israel; timesofisrael.com

Sheba Medical Center says Israel will become popular destination for treatment, due to geographical proximity to Gulf state and convenience of having many Arabic speakers on staff

Israel’s biggest hospital expects to see an influx of medical tourists from the United Arab Emirates, following a deal with a large Emirati investment fund.

Seizing on opportunities opened up by the new Israel-UAE normalization agreement, Sheba Medical Center has just signed a memorandum of understanding with Abu Dhabi-based APEX National Investment. There will be a special ceremony in Abu Dhabi later this month which will be attended by the UAE’s minister of health and members of the royal family.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/coming-soon-to-israel-medical-tourism-from-uae-as-part-of-new-hospital-deal/#gs.fkrmy4