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Newsletter : 2fax0614.txt
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Yishai: In 2010 Most Immigrants Will Be Non-Jews
By IsraelNationalNews.com
Minister of the Interior Eli Yishai Thursday announced that in 2010, 94% of the new immigrants will be non-Jews. Yishai stated the alarming reality demands the Law of Return be amended to limit the trend that will lead to a loss the Jewish majority in Israel. Yishai pointed out that at present, there is a growing number of IDF soldiers refusing to take the oath of allegiance on the Bible, insisting on doing so on the New Testament.
Bush Discusses Mideast Ideas with Saudi Minister
By VOA News
President Bush said he is committed to what he calls "the evolution of a Palestinian state."
In Washington Thursday, Bush said such a Palestinian state would need strong institutions so that it can live peacefully alongside Israel and give hope to Palestinians. He spoke after meeting at the White House for 20 minutes with Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, who said he was pleased with what he heard from the president. The Saudi envoy also met separately with Vice President Dick Cheney.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said "The president praised the crown prince's efforts to work with the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority to focus on ways to bring the Palestinian Authority around to their responsibilities and the Palestinians around to their responsibilities to enhance the prospects for peace."
Fleischer added that the United States and Saudi Arabia are committed to a process that includes Israeli security and what Fleischer called "a hopeful, helpful future for the Palestinian people."
Bush is expected to unveil a new plan for Mideast peace as early as next week, but he warned Thursday against speculation on what it might contain. He said he will lay out a vision that will help lead toward two states living side by side.
Secretary of State Powell said a provisional Palestinian state should be considered as an interim step. However, a White House spokesman said this is one of many ideas and is not U.S. policy.
Peres Backs 'Provisional' Palestine
Ha'aretz and Israel Faxx News Sources
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on Thursday came out in favor of the creation of a provisional Palestinian state, an idea floated by Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Palestinians did not rule it out.
Peres said that the provisional state idea is "more or less" like a concept he worked out with Palestinian negotiator and Parliament Speaker Abu Ala. According to the plan, Israel would recognize a Palestinian state beginning with the territories now under Palestinian control, about 40 percent of the West Bank and two thirds of the Gaza Strip.
A senior Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that if the Palestinians received guarantees that the final borders would include virtually all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, they would accept the proposal of a provisional state.
Megiddo: good versus evil (Commentary)
By Micah D. Halpern
Every so often, news events resonate in ways that fiction can never even try to imitate. In ways that the perpetrators of the event, the players in the event, the puppeteers pulling the strings behind the event, never even imagined. When this happens, when nature, fate, history fly in the face of research and planning, I am shaken to the very core.
A terrorist attack took place at Megiddo Junction in the Southern Galilee. An 18-year-old Palestinian blew himself to bits and killed 17 Israelis. He drove a stolen car, fitted with license plates stolen from another car, filled with 250 pounds of explosives and nails, bolts and screws. He detonated his massive bomb alongside a packed bus, causing death and destruction, shattering bones and nerves, shattering lives.
The 18-year-old had only just received his driver's license. The night before the attack he took his father out for a spin. Unbeknownst to the proud father, it was a practice run. The son had learned to drive in order to kill.
After the explosion, there was nothing left of the car except a two-foot piece of metal from the engine block. The bus was a charred shell. Anyone who survived was considered lucky to be alive. Nearly half the passengers were killed, several still fight for their lives.
As for the location, well, that was one big missed opportunity. What was totally missed by the terrorist and his organizers was the image and symbolism of Megiddo.
The Book of Revelations, the last section of the Christian Bible, refers to the ultimate battle of good versus evil. It describes Armageddon. The Prophet Isaiah calls it the battle of Gog and Magog. These acts are supposed to herald the beginning of the messianic era. They are the "eschatology" - the end of days. In the end the truth will be determined by the battle that takes place at the end. In Armageddon. At Megiddo. But will the final battle take place in Megiddo?
Megiddo is mentioned quite often in the Bible. It is a juncture of several valleys in the lower Galilee. A perfect location.
The derivation of the word Armageddon is actually embroiled in some dispute. Most often it is seen as coming from the Hebrew "Har Megiddo" or Mount Megiddo, that place in the Galilee. But Megiddo is not a mountain it is a valley and the city there was a "Tel" or archeological mound. There are several other interpretations that are even more powerful and more appropriate given the context of the Biblical text. And that may make Megiddo even more significant especially given the situation today.
Armageddon almost certainly refers to a battle in Jerusalem and not in Southern Galilee. This is clear from the prophets as well as from the textual meaning in Revelations. The final conflict will take place in THE CITY. Look at the texts and you will see that is how it is explicitly stated.
The more probable derivations of Armageddon come from the Hebrew. "Har Hamoed" the Mount of Assembly which is Moriah in Jerusalem where the Holy Temple stood. Or, perhaps "Har Megiddo" meaning the Fruitful Mountain, referring to Mount Zion, the main residential area of Jerusalem during the Second Temple period.
But whether in Jerusalem, itself, or in the Galilee, Megiddo symbolizes the battle of good versus evil. Good versus evil. Real and symbolic, isn't that what it's all about?
Views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of Israel Faxx.
Micah D. Halpern (JcommMicah@aol.com) is an educator, theologian
and historian based in Israel. He is the founding director of the
Jerusalem Center for European Study.
