Hezbollah To Open ‘New Front’ In Golan Heights

 

Beloved Prayer Warriors ,

we are sending this prayer alert due to the fact that things are becoming increasingly hot on the northern border of Israel and the Golan could become engulfed in the war ! Read the articles and pray accordingly for the Head nation Israel! Pray also for the believers in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Syria 

Iran has convinced Syria to allow Hezbollah to open a “new front” against Israel in the Golan Heights, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Hayat reported Wednesday.

Tehran, seeking to prevent the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government, asked Damascus if Hezbollah could set up a new military front against Israel in the Golan.

“All Arabs and Muslims” are requested to join the fight against Israel, Tehran said, according to Israel Radio.

The report comes a week after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to respond to Jerusalem’s ostensible aggression against Syria with the help of Syria’s advanced “game-changing” weapons. The next stage, he warned during a speech, would be opening up a front on the Golan Heights.

The Palestinian newspaper al-Quds also reported Wednesday that Tehran had persuaded Damascus “to open the door to jihad” in the Golan Heights in an effort enable Arab and Muslim fighters to unite and confront Israel, so that they’re “ready” if Israel strikes Syria again.

According to unnamed Israeli and American sources, Israeli planes struck sites outside Damascus twice during the first weekend in May, targeting weapons transfers from Iran to Hezbollah. The Syrian regime warned a few days later that it would retaliate immediately to future Israeli attacks on its soil.

The al-Quds website wrote that Iran also discussed the issue with other Arab leaders, namely Jordan’s King Abdullah, who expressed his own “concerns” about the surge of radical Islamist groups, such as the Jabhat al-Nusra, in Syria.

The Lebanese daily al-Akhbar suggested last week that Iran had “reached a final decision” to respond to Israel’s reported strike on Syria by “turning the Golan into a new Fatah-land. The front has become open to Syrians and Palestinians and anyone who wants to fight Israel.”
Earlier this week, the Syrian government announced that it reserves the right to invade the Israeli-held Golan Heights at any time, and accused Jerusalem of violating the terms of the 1974 ceasefire that ended the Yom Kippur War.

During a speech in Damascus, Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi accused Israel of attacking sites near the Syrian capital, allowing rebel groups to operate in the demilitarized zone separating Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights, and letting those groups kidnap UN observers on multiple occasions.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow Tuesday in what was described as a bid to prevent Moscow from selling the cutting-edge missile defense system, the S-300, to Damascus. Jerusalem fears that the advanced weaponry could fall into the hands of Hezbollah, Syria’s key ally in neighboring Lebanon.

Prayer Points : HE who watches over Israel does not slumber nor sleep ! Ps.121:4:

Ps.83: Isa.49:1-3: Isa.41:8-13

Prophetic Declaration Over Israel

He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 2 Kings:6:16

Pray in the Spirit and with understanding

 

We thank you very much for praying, may you and your families be blessed as you bless us by your prayers

“For Sion sake, I will not keep silent “

Kad Esh Map Team. 

 

The start of something new? A gov’t without Israel’s ultra-Orthodox

Netanyahu hopes to present new government by next week, and it likely won’t have any ultra-Orthodox parties, giving national religious and ‘secular’ a chance to redefine Israel’s religious policies

Tuesday, March 05, 2013  Ryan Jones  israeltoday.co.il

Developments in Israel on Sunday might have signaled the start of a major earthquake in the political foundations of the state.

According to reports across the Hebrew media, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally conceded that he will not be able to form a stable majority coalition that includes the ultra-Orthodox parties that have long controlled the religious institutions of the State of Israel.

While Netanyahu would prefer a government that included the ultra-Orthodox Shas, which tends to simply go along with any and all policies so long as tax revenues flow to its own causes, an impromptu alliance between the centrist Yesh Atid and the right-wing Jewish Home parties meant that doing so would leave Netanyahu with a minority government.

Yesh Atid, which stunned everyone by becoming the Knesset’s second largest party in January’s election, and Jewish Home, the new face of the old National Religious Party, don’t necessarily see eye-to-eye on major diplomatic issues like Jewish settlements and the peace process.

However, the two parties are fully united in their belief that ultra-Orthodox hegemony over determining who is a Jew and how Jews must live needs to be broken. They also agree that it is high time that the ultra-Orthodox community, which receives large sums of government funding for child welfare and seminaries, join the workforce, start paying taxes and carry their fair share of the military burden.

The talk now is that Netanyahu will give Yesh Atid the ministries of health, interior and welfare, allowing it to keep its election promises to bring about social change that will benefit the entire population, and institute an educational system that fosters broad acceptance of the Bible and Jewish culture.

Jewish Home is looking to take the ministries of industry, housing and religion, the last of which will allow the party to seriously alter the way the state relates to Jewish religious issues. There is even talk of Israel electing its first national religious (as opposed to ultra-Orthodox) chief rabbi.

Netanyahu reportedly hopes to present the new government sometime next week, and if Yesh Atid and Jewish Home have their way, it could mark the beginning of something quite unique in the Jewish state.

We will explore this new phenomenon in greater depth in the upcoming issue of Israel Today Magazine.

 

Palestinians let Netanyahu off the ‘peace hook’

Before he has even had a chance to form a new government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is already under pressure from new US Secretary of State John Kerry to return to the negotiating table and make concessions to the Palestinians.

Fortunately for Netanyahu, the Palestinian leadership, famously never missing an opportunity to miss and opportunity, has already provided the Israeli leader with an “out.”

The very day after Kerry phoned Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian officials began listing preconditions for even meeting with the Israelis.

Among those preconditions: The immediate release of all jailed Palestinians, most of whom have either tried or succeeded in killing Jews, and a full halt to the building of homes for Jews in areas claimed by the Palestinian Authority, including the eastern half of Jerusalem.

Both are red lines no Israeli government could cross, even one headed by the left-wing Labor Party.

Israeli leaders from across the political spectrum have blamed Abbas and his regime for scuttling peace talks over the past four years by refusing to talk without preconditions that would prejudice the outcome of negotiations.

 

New Knesset Bible study group off to strong start

More than 30 Knesset members show up for inaugural weekly Bible study session initiated by new centrist party Yesh Atid, which has called for all Israelis to both learn the Bible and serve the nation

Friday, February 22, 2013  Israel Today Staff

We have already reported several times on Benjamin Netanyahu’s revival of the Prime Minister’s Bible Study group in Israel. Now the Knesset is getting in on the trend with the establishment of its own weekly sessions of scriptural enlightenment.

The initiative came from one of the new Knesset parties, the centrist Yesh Atid, which fields both secular and religious lawmakers.

Despite running an election campaign that emphasized an end to army exemptions for and exaggerated welfare payouts to the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sector, and subsequently being labeled anti-religious by ultra-Orthodox leaders, Yesh Atid has since the election been the most outspoken party about getting more Israelis to study the Bible.

Tuesday’s Knesset Bible study was led by Yesh Atid lawmakers Rabbi Shai Piron, Rabbi Dov Lipman and Torah scholar Dr. Ruth Calderon. More than 30 Knesset members attended the inaugural session.

“Seeing MKs and staff members from ultra-Orthodox through secular studying Torah together showed the beauty of the environment we are creating in this new Knesset,” Lipman told the Times of Israel.

There is a growing sense in Israel that the Bible needs to form the basis of the state’s culture and policies, but that the ultra-Orthodox must not have a monopoly on the biblical interpretation of what it means to be Jewish.

 

Another election for Israel!?

With time running out, and obstacles mounting, it is looking increasingly unlikely that Netanyahu can form a stable, majority coalition

Thursday, February 21, 2013  Ryan Jones – israeltoday.co.il

It might sound ludicrous, but Israel could be headed for another early election just a month after the last poll, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces mounting challenges to forming a stable coalition.

That was the threat issued by senior members of Netanyahu’s Likud Party this week, and they were taken seriously by at least one major party, Jewish Home, which reportedly reinstated its election campaign committee, just in case.

Netanyahu has until the middle of March (which includes a standard 14-day extension) to present a stable coalition. Should he fail to do so, either another party will be given a chance to form a government, or new elections will be called.

Earlier this week, Netanyahu scored his first coalition partner in Tzipi Livni and her six-seat party, Hatnuah (The Movement). The centrist Kadima Party, which has been reduced to a paltry two seats, is expected to join in the coming days.

All together, that gives Netanyahu 39 out of 120 seats. The ideal solution in the minds of most Israelis would be for Netanyahu to add to that total the centrist Yesh Atid and right-wing Jewish Home parties, giving the coalition a commanding 88 seats.

However, Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett and Yesh Atid chief Yair Lapid have forged something of an alliance, and are refusing to enter the coalition unless Netanyahu agrees to their joint demand that the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community be stripped of its exemption from serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Bennett and Lapid also want the ultra-Orthodox to begin entering the work force in greater numbers, or risk losing their massive welfare payouts, which are provided by the government despite the fact that most ultra-Orthodox do not pay taxes.

It is a policy that would shake the existing unwritten rules of Israeli politics, and Netanyahu is presumably fearful of rocking the boat so severely.

Netanyahu has long been chummy with the ultra-Orthodox political sector, and so is looking at bringing the religious Shas Party into the coalition as an alternative to Lapid and Bennett.

Reports Thursday are that Shas is very close to joining the coalition, and the other Orthodox party, United Torah Judaism, would likely follow suit.

If that happens, and if Lapid and Bennett stick to their guns, that would give Netanyahu a minority coalition of 57 seats. Sources in the Prime Minister’s Office told Israel Hayom that would be unacceptable, and would result in another election.

The idea is to put pressure on Bennett to join the coalition, even if Lapid remains outside. The main plank of Lapid’s election platform was ending draft exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox, so it is extremely unlikely he would join a government that includes Shas.

If this is Netanyahu’s direction, and if the gamble pays off, making Lapid the head of the opposition could be a two-edged sword. While Lapid and Netanyahu largely see eye-to-eye on security, the peace process and many economic issues, it is no secret that Lapid intends to himself become prime minister one day, and might work undermine Netanyahu and bring about, yes, another early election.