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(IsraelNN.com) Likud party chairman and Knesset Opposition leader MK Binyamin Netanyahu warned at the Jerusalem Conference Wednesday that the Obama administration and leftist Israeli politicians will try to internationalize holy sites in Jerusalem -- and he vowed to fight the move. Netanyahu told the audience, “Some politicians are trying to blur the importance of the Temple Mount to the Jewish People by referring to it as the ‘Holy Basin.’ We, as Jews, know who built the Temple Mount.” The term “Holy Basin” refers to the area of the Temple Mount, the Mount of Olives, Mount Zion and a variety of...

Likud party chairman and Knesset Opposition leader MK Binyamin Netanyahu warned at the Jerusalem Conference Wednesday that the Obama administration and leftist Israeli politicians will try to internationalize holy sites in Jerusalem -- and he vowed to fight the move. Netanyahu told the audience, “Some politicians are trying to blur the importance of the Temple Mount to the Jewish People by referring to it as the ‘Holy Basin.’ We, as Jews, know who built the Temple Mount.” The term “Holy Basin” refers to the area of the Temple Mount, the Mount of Olives, Mount Zion and a variety of Christian...

(IsraelNN.com) Likud party chairman and Knesset Opposition leader MK Binyamin Netanyahu warned at the Jerusalem Conference Wednesday that the Obama administration and leftist Israeli politicians will try to internationalize holy sites in Jerusalem -- and he vowed to fight the move. Netanyahu speech starts at 1:00 minute mark in video below. MK Binyamin "Bibi" Netanyahu Arutz 7 Video 00:00 Embed Video - Copy code to embed video in HTML document Email readers: click here to watch Netanyahu speech. Netanyahu told the audience, “Some politicians are trying to blur the importance of the Temple Mount to the Jewish People by referring...

North American Lutheran Bishops Visit Israeli Officials 09-008-JB JERUSALEM (ELCA) -- Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) met Jan. 8 with Israeli government and religious officials as part of a pilgrimage to the Middle East. The bishops also toured the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem and laid a wreath. Forty-five bishops representing both churches are participating in a series of meetings Jan. 6-13 with religious, political and community leaders in Israel and the West Bank. The visit, focused on supporting the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land,...

AMMAN, Jordan (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), said the United States government needs to take a more active role in stopping the conflict in Gaza. Stopping the conflict needs to be a top priority, and it must be accomplished as soon as possible, he said. Hanson, who also serves as president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), said Israeli troops must withdraw from Gaza, Hamas must stop rocket attacks on civilians in Israel, and negotiations must be restarted for "a permanent peace with justice and a two-state solution."...

Dozens of American and Canadian Lutheran bishops arrived in Jerusalem on Tuesday for their annual Academy, a meeting for theological discussion. Planned many months in advance, they gathered in the shadow of the war in Gaza. Bishop Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, called for a cease-fire ahead of his visit, urging "officials of both parties to the conflict to... refrain from all violent acts, which only bring destruction and tragedy, and urge them instead to work to resolve their differences through peaceful and nonviolent means," the church said in a statement. The church believed...

We made an emergency trip to the Middle East the day after Christmas. I am leading a team of ACLJ and ECLJ lawyers and Government Affairs staff on a critical matter involving Christian persecution in the Gaza Strip. We had no idea when we left that we would be literally flying into a war zone. For the past several months, we’ve been working on a very sensitive case involving Christian persecution by Hamas. Christian persecution is nothing new in this area, but under Hamas, the regime has been particularly brutal towards Christians. A year ago, the owner of the Christian...

(IsraelNN.com) A team of Jewish workers accompanied by the IDF spruced-up two nights ago the tomb of the Biblical Joseph in Shechem. The restoration was performed by the Shechem Echad organization, which is responsible for restoring historic Jewish graves throughout Samaria. snip At present, the IDF usually allows access to Joseph’s Tomb once a month, but limits the number to 1,000 people. Due to the security situation, the IDF only gives limited advanced notice when Joseph’s Tomb is officially open to Jews. Due to a large waiting list, the Shomron Community Council also does not publicize extensively the dates when...

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - Thousands of Christian pilgrims gathered in Bethlehem's Manger Square on Wednesday to celebrate Christmas under the protection of security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. About 500 security men arrived from the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Jericho to provide security for the holiday. Similar deployments have taken place across the West Bank over the past year with U.S. backing. "We expect about 40,000 visitors in Bethlehem this week," said Khouloud Daibes-Abu Dayyeh, the Palestinian Authority's minister of tourism. The estimate includes Christians from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Israel and the...

Pope Benedict XVI is set to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories in May 2009 after accepting an invitation by President Shimon Peres. The Vatican and Israel are said, thus, to hopefully end the high tension of recent months between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people over the initiative of canonizing Pope Pius XII. This visit, which would be the third visit of a pope to Israel since the establishment of the state, has not yet been officially confirmed. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1041322.html

For ancient Greek and Roman pagan authors, Jerusalem definitely was a Jewish city. This article draws on references to Jerusalem from nearly twenty different sources, dating from the third century BCE to the third century CE, which are included in the late Professor Menahem Stern's comprehensive anthology, Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism. An examination of these texts indicates the unanimous agreement that Jerusalem was Jewish by virtue of the fact that its inhabitants were Jews, it was founded by Jews and the Temple, located in Jerusalem, was the center of the Jewish religion. In these sources, Jerusalem...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The patriarch of the Melkite Catholic Church, who lives in Syria, and the Latin-rite patriarch of Jerusalem invited members of the Synod of Bishops on the Bible to visit them and discover how living in the land of the Bible can make its words come alive. Melkite Patriarch Gregoire III Laham of Damascus, Syria, and Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem addressed the synod Oct. 10, extending invitations but also talking about some of the challenges Christians in the Holy Land are facing. Patriarch Laham told the synod: "The word of God unites us; it reinforces...

Russia seeks to restore its prestige in the Holy Land JERUSALEM (AFP) — Eager to revive its prestige in the Holy Land, Russia is pressing a claim to ownership of an historic Jerusalem building formerly owned by a tsarist prince and which once housed aristocratic pilgrims. The 19th century Sergei Building is in the centre of Jerusalem and at the heart of complex negotiations in which even British royal consort Prince Philip has been mentioned as a potential, though unlikely, heir. The Russian state had initially hoped to take possession in June of the impressive property that once belonged to...

An ancient monastery adjacent to where, according to Christian tradition, Jesus ate the Last Supper, has turned into a legal battleground for Catholics and Jews. Last week the High Court of Justice issued a temporary restraining order halting construction work by a Jewish organization in a Franciscan monastery on Jerusalem's Mount Zion adjacent to the Cenaculum, the Latin term for the room where the Last Supper was held. The court also issued an order preventing the Jewish organization - the Institute for the Study of the Family and Family Laws in Israel - from moving people in to live in...

Here on the plains of the Tigris River lies the shrine of Ezra, the Jewish prophet, who returned to Jerusalem at the end of the Babylonian exile. According to biblical scholars, Ezra died years later back in the Mesopotamia at age 120 in what is now called Uzair. Locals believe Ezra passed away while roaming through the area with his donkey. His shrine still exists in this predominantly Shiite district of Amarah province filled with supporters of young cleric Muqtada's Sadr late father, a grand ayatollah assassinated in 1999. Bashir Zaalan is the custodian of Ezra's shrine. Zaalan inherited the...

A seal impression belonging to a minister of the Biblical King Zedekiah which dates back 2,600 years has been uncovered completely intact during an archeological dig in Jerusalem's ancient City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said on Thursday. The seal impression, or bulla, with the name Gedalyahu ben Pashur, who served as minister to King Zedekiah (597-586 BCE) according to the Book of Jeremiah, was found just meters away from a separate seal impression of another of Zedekia's ministers, Yehukual ben Shelemyahu, which was uncovered three years ago, said Prof. Eilat Mazar who is leading the dig at the...

Political Messiah in the Holy LandObama in the Mideast. An NRO Q&A Caroline B. Glick is the deputy managing editor of the Jerusalem Post and the senior fellow for Middle East Affairs at the Center for Security Policy. Her book, Shackled Warrior, Israel and the Global Jihad was released earlier this year. She took questions from National Review Online editor Kathryn Lopez on Friday about Barack Obama’s visit to the Mideast. Kathryn Jean Lopez: Am I wrong in saying that Barack Obama did not impress Israel?Caroline Glick: Israelis are very caught up with our local news right now. Foremost on...

A note of prayer that Barack Obama penned and slipped into the cracks of the Western Wall in Jerusalem was pilfered from the holy site and published in an Israeli newspaper - exposing to the world a personal plea for God to help him "guard against pride and despair."

An Israeli newspaper is under fire after publishing a private prayer which Barack Obama left at Judaism's holiest site. The row broke out as the U.S. Presidential candidate visited France as part of his whistlestop tour. Obama had tucked his prayer into the cracks of the Western Wall early yesterday morning. 'Lord - Protect my family and me,' read the note, published in the newspaper Maariv today. 'Forgive me my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will.' Many visitors...

JERUSALEM - A written prayer that Barack Obama left this week in the cracks of the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, asks God to guide him and guard his family, an Israeli newspaper reported Friday. "Lord—Protect my family and me," reads the note published in the Maariv daily. "Forgive me my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will." The paper's decision to make the note public drew fire. The rabbi in charge of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitz, said...