There is more good news for Jerusalem on the diplomatic front. On September 4, Serbia announced that it was moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. And on the same day, Muslim-majority Kosovo announced that it would not only be establishing diplomatic relations with Israel, but according to Kosovo’s President Hashim Thaci, will be placing its embassy in Jerusalem. This will make Kosovo the first Muslim-majority country to have its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem.
By: AP & Times of Israel Staff – timesofisrael.com
Gestures to Israel come as part of US-brokered agreement between Balkan nations signed at White House; Israel to establish diplomatic relations with Kosovo
WASHINGTON — Serbia announced Friday that it would move its embassy to Jerusalem, while Muslim majority Kosovo is to recognize Israel. The moves come as part of US-brokered discussions to normalize economic ties between Belgrade and Pristina.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the moves and said Israel would establish diplomatic relations with Kosovo.
After two days of meetings with Trump administration officials, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo’s Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti agreed to cooperate on a range of economic fronts to attract investment and create jobs. The White House announcement provided US President Donald Trump with a diplomatic win ahead of the November presidential election and furthers his administration’s push to improve Israel’s international standing.
By: Giulio Meotti – Israel National News; israelnationalnews.com
Europe’s empty churches are now hotels or empty lots not far from where shuls were once burned to the ground. And mosques flourish. Op-ed.
A traveller to Eastern Europe can visit the sites of once-famous yeshivas like Slobodka, Kelm, Volozhin Telze and Ponevech and mourn at seeing buildings that once echoed with Talmudic study and which are now either empty ruins or have been transformed into community centers or shops.
Those yeshivas, however, abandoned because of the Holocaust and prior periods of persecution, and the shuls burned to the ground by Nazis and their cohorts, have been reborn in Israel (and the USA)..Today, the sound of Torah echoes from thousands of voices, more than there ever were in the renowned European yeshivas.
One cannot say the same about what is happening to Christianity in Europe, with France at the head. The worshipers are no more, and now it is the turn of the buildings.
Fox 2 Detroit claims, without evidence, that “some of the past opposition” was “sparked by islamophobia.” But in reality, “some residents previously cited zoning rules and the residential nature of the neighborhood.” However, Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News, said: “I do not buy that, I think they were using it as an excuse.” For “Islamophobia,” that is.
Well, maybe they were using it as an excuse, and maybe there weren’t. But now the precedent has been set, with the help of the Justice Department: Muslims can build a mosque absolutely anywhere they want, including in quiet residential neighborhoods, and obliterate all concerns about zoning and parking and the character of the neighborhood by charging that all such concerns are just cover for “Islamophobia.”
Also, it wasn’t the racist, redneck, “Islamophobic” yahoos of Leftist media myth who were opposing this mosque. It was Iraqi Christian refugees, who know very well from bitter experience what a mosque in the neighborhood means for non-Muslims. But their concerns were also brushed aside. It was all “Islamophobia,” you see. The Justice Department said so.
“Peaceful protest speech such as this – on sidewalks and streets – is entitled to the highest level of constitutional protection, even if it disturbs, is offensive, and causes emotional distress,” U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts of the Eastern Michigan District Court wrote last week in dismissing a lawsuit that sought to stop the protesters, the Ann Arbor News reported.
The protests outside of Beth Israel Congregation have been held weekly at the same time as Saturday morning services for nearly two decades, since 2003. The handful of protesters who show up plant signs on the grass that read “Resist Jewish Power,” “Jewish Power Corrupts,” “No More Holocaust Movies,” “Boycott Israel,” “Stop U.S. Aid to Israel” and “End the Palestinian holocaust.”
By: TOI Staff – Times of Israel; timesofisrael.com
Army chief holds briefing with southern command after a night that saw 12 rockets fired toward Israel and three rounds of reprisal airstrikes by Israeli warplanes
Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Friday warned the terror groups in Gaza that the Israel Defense Forces will deliver a “very harsh blow” if violence continues, after a night that saw 12 rockets fired toward Israel and three rounds of reprisal airstrikes by Israeli warplanes.
“The IDF is ready, it defends and will continue to defend the residents of the south and will attack any one who attacks us and deliver a very harsh blow,” Gantz said after a meeting with senior IDF officers.
IDF chief of staff Aviv Kohavi met with the heads of the Southern Command and “heard a situational assessment and authorized the command’s plans for various scenarios,” the IDF said. Gantz joined the briefing via video conference.
JERUSALEM, Israel – As all sides move to finalize the peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), it’s causing a political shuffle across the Middle East and some believe it may have prophetic implications.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he saw only good results from the historic agreement.
“Peace is a good thing and peace unites moderates, two of the most advanced economies in the world – Israel and the United Arab Emirates – and two of the most moderate,” he told Fox News in an interview on Sunday.
“We’re fighting Iran and the radicals who are trying to overthrow our order in the Middle East, subjugate people, propagate terrorism. So, this is good for peace, good for security, good for prosperity. I think it’s good for the United States and good for Israel,” Netanyahu continued.
By: Nathan Jeffay – The Times of Israel; timesofisrael.com
Hadassah hospital gave three people a new drug made from antibodies from people who had had coronavirus; they are all now home after ‘astonishing’ recovery
The world’s first clinical trial for a coronavirus drug made from antibodies got off to a promising start in Jerusalem, with all three patients involved released from the hospital days after receiving it.
The patients were in moderate condition, with COVID-19-induced pneumonia, when given the drug, manufactured from antibodies found in the plasma of recovered coronavirus patients, earlier this week.
“The response was, in my eyes, it was almost a miracle — they received it and they are now home,” said Zeev Rothstein, director of Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, which worked with the biopharmaceutical firm Kamada to develop the drug, and is now running the clinical trial.
By: Times of Israel Staff – Times of Israel; timesofisrael.com
Cyber criminals from Lazarus group built fake LinkedIn accounts, tried to woo Israeli officials with lucrative job opportunities to gain access to their networks
The Defense Ministry on Wednesday said hackers from a group linked to the North Korean government targeted Israeli defense officials, luring them with fake job offers in a failed attempt to gain access to the databases of the country’s top defense industries.
In a statement, the ministry said the attempted cyber-attack by the Lazarus Group was thwarted and no sensitive information was compromised.
“Members of the group used various hacking techniques, including ‘social engineering’ and impersonation,” and built fake profiles on LinkedIn, said the Defense Ministry.
By: Brandon Showalter – The Christian Post; christianpost.com
A new survey shows that the majority of Americans no longer believe that Jesus is the path to salvation and instead believe that being a good person is sufficient.
As part of the ongoing release of the Arizona Christian University-based Cultural Research Center’s American Worldview Inventory, the latest findings — exploring perceptions of sin and salvation — from George Barna, the group’s director, show that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that having some kind of faith is more important than the particular faith with which someone aligns.
Sixty-eight percent who embrace that notion identify as Christians, including 56% of self-described evangelicals and 62% of those who identify as Pentecostals. Sixty-seven percent of mainline Protestants and 77% of Catholics also embraced that idea, the findings show.