Free Republic

Last year I presented a paper to this body regarding the Jewish historian Josephus’ understanding of the Olivet Discourse and the Fall of Jerusalem and particularly how Preterists had written about Josephus’ recording of the event. ... As I demonstrated last year, little if any of Josephus’ description satisfies the words of our Lord in His discourse. ... is there support for this type of understanding of the Fall of Jerusalem and the predictions of Christ within the writings of the Church that follows A.D. 70? Did the Church Fathers of the ensuing centuries look back on A.D. 70 as...

Jerusalem Arabs set ablaze a police station next to the Lions’ Gate in the capital’s Old City on Wednesday. Aryeh King, nationalist Jerusalem city councilman and member of the municipality’s Emergency and Security Committee, was present at the scene of the attack and managed to document it. According to King, instead of stopping the attackers, police officers fled the scene. “Unfortunately the prime minister is instructing the authorities to avoid eastern Jerusalem, and these are the results,” charged King. …

Militia carries out exercise to prepare for invasion of Holy City. General: the Islamic world is waiting for Tehran to call them to battle. The Islamist Basij militia force in Tehran ran a special military exercise Thursday and Friday preparing for an Iranian takeover of Jerusalem. The exercise, entitled “March to Al-Maqdis (Jerusalem),” included training in the event of such a takeover, including drills for the protection of cities, assistance and rescue, dealing with social unrest, the protection of sensitive and important military centers, dealing with the invasion and landing of “enemy” (IDF) forces from helicopters, and carrying out complicated...

Palestinians in the village of Abu Dis, which lies just outside of the Jerusalem municipal boundaries, staged a procession over the weekend to mark the 45th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Marxist faction and a member organization of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Dozens of Palestinians were seen brandishing AK-47 and M16 semiautomatic rifles as well as hand grenades and pistols while clad in military gear, according to Israel Radio. A number of shots were fired in the air during the festivities. .....

Iran’s President, Hassan Rouhani, on Wednesday said that Jerusalem should “be liberated from the yoke of Israel.” The comments were made during a meeting in Tehran between Rouhani and the Speaker or the Palestinian Authority (PA) parliament, Salim Zanoun, and were reported by the semi-official Fars news agency. During the meeting, according to Fars, Rouhani expressed the support of the Iranian government and nation “for the oppressed people of Palestine”, and called for the “liberation of the Holy Quds (Jerusalem) from the yoke of Israel.” …

<p>TEL AVIV – The Palestinian Authority received a pledge from the U.S. that by the end of 2014, the Obama administration will issue an official written declaration presenting general highlights of a future Palestinian state, a senior Palestinian negotiator told WND.</p>

Four East Jerusalemites aged 19 to 21 were indicted with planning to carry out a shooting attack in a functions hall in the Jewish neighborhood of Bayit VeGan in Jerusalem. […] Two of the defendants planned to enter the hall through the main entrance dressed as haredim, along with the other guests. …

White House: The White House press secretary, Jay Carney, did not say that Tel Aviv was the capital. But he also would not say it was not, in this semi-comical exchange with reporters: First Reporter: What city does this Administration consider to be the capital of Israel? Jerusalem or Tel Aviv? Carney: Um . . . I haven’t had that question in a while. Our position has not changed. Can we, uh . . . First Reporter: What is the capital? Carney: You know our position. First Reporter: I don’t. Second Reporter: No, no. She doesn’t know, that’s why she...

Does John Kerry understand the world he inherited? Is he in denial? Consider. At Davos, Switzerland, Kerry called it a "myth" that America is withdrawing, and "the most bewildering version of this disengagement myth is about a supposed U.S. retreat from the Middle East." Is he serious? How else does Kerry describe Obama's pullout of all U.S. troops from Iraq, and from Afghanistan by year's end? Syria is "someone else's civil war," says President Obama. If we do any strikes there, promised Kerry, they will be "unbelievably small," and rest assured there will be "no [U.S.] boots on the ground."...

As expected, the Palestinian Authority (PA) reacted with outrage on Sunday to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s idea that if a Palestinian state is established in Judea and Samaria, Jews who wish to remain in that state should be allowed to do so. While Netanyahu did not publicly make this statement, a source in the Prime Minister's Office told reporters that Netanyahu believes there is no reason for the Palestinian state, if it is created, to be “mono-ethnic.” The source explained that the idea is a continuation of Netanyahu's statement in his speech at Davos, Switzerland, on Friday, in which he...

Tens of thousands of people in Yarmouk, mostly palestinians, have been besieged for months by Syrian government forces, with little access to food and medicine. The below video was taken in Yarmouk and posted to YouTube Palestinian In Damascus: “We Do Not Want Palestine..We Ask For Israeli Citizenship” Posted by: Aussie Dave in Aussie Dave January 26, 2014 4 Comments 156 Views Tens of thousands of people in Yarmouk, mostly palestinians, have been besieged for months by Syrian government forces, with little access to food and medicine. The below video was taken in Yarmouk and posted to YouTube . It’s...

In what appears to be the worst crisis yet for the governing coalition, sources close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday threatened to fire Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett over his criticism of Netanyahu a day earlier. “Bennett was given a message that he has to apologize clearly and unequivocally or there will be a price to pay,” a source in the Prime Minister’s Office told The Times of Israel. On Tuesday, Bennett delivered a speech lambasting the prime minister in the wake of a Times of Israel report according to which Netanyahu wants Jewish settlers to be...

The "Kerry Plan" is likely to be unveiled soon, Thomas Friedman of The New York Times wrote on Tuesday in a column titled "Why Kerry is Scary." The “Kerry Plan,” writes Friedman, is expected to "call for an end to the conflict and all claims, following a phased Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank (based on the 1967 lines)." Friedman also said that there will be "unprecedented security arrangements in the strategic Jordan Valley." According to Friedman, some settlements will remain under Israeli control and Israel will "compensate" Palestinians for the land. The plan will set east Jerusalem as the...

Jerusalem will seal the fate of the current peace negotiations. Jews and Arabs must square the circle and recognize the legitimate demands of each side in order to clinch a genuine peace agreement. Is doing so a geometrical impossibility or can Jerusalem transcend the limits of political geometry? […] The Gordian knot negotiators need to tackle is reconciling Arab sovereignty aspirations with Jewish security rights. This political aporia can only be solved by looking beyond the bounds of European political convention. Although there are good reasons to oppose a Palestinian militarization of east Jerusalem, there is no reason Arabs in...

MALIK OBAMA, brother of Barack Obama has been pictured at a charity function wearing a Hamas scarf (keffiyeh) that bears a well-known Palestinian slogan – ‘Jerusalem is ours – WE ARE COMING!’ While in Sanaa, Yemein in 2010, President Barack Obama’s brother Malik Obama was at an event billed as the Orphans Development Fund (ODF) Conference. It’s quite the ironic title considering a group photo Malik is in that he has posted to his website. In the photo, he can be seen wearing a Hamas scarf (keffiyeh) that bears a well-known Palestinian slogan – ‘Jerusalem is ours – WE ARE...

The government is planning to cede several sites in ancient Jerusalem to Muslim and Christian ownership, and Israel’s rabbis remain silent, Rabbi Yisrael Ariel has accused. “There is a terrible plan, called the ‘holy basin,’ to split Jerusalem between Christians, Muslims and Jews,” Rabbi Ariel said, speaking to Arutz Sheva. Rabbi Ariel, who heads the Temple Institute, continued, “The Christians will get the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Mount Zion, the Muslims will get the Temple Mount, and we Jews will need to visit the Kotel (Western Wall) under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority.” The Palestinian Authority (PA)...

In the latest incident of Palestinian Authority (PA) incitement against Israel, a PA minister openly called for “Jihad” in Jerusalem. […] “Jerusalem is still waiting. Jerusalem is the direction. Jerusalem is the address,” Habbash stressed in the speech, adding that “evil hands” were “conducting a filthy game” intended to weaken the Islamic nation and “to divert the compass away from its true direction.” “We must convey a message to the people who have seized the Yarmouk refugee camp [in Syria], with slogans, pretexts, and false baseless claims. We say to them: Resistance and Jihad should not be waged in the...

A former Canadian minister who visited the Temple Mount on Sunday was shocked to learn of the discrimination shown by Israeli police officers towards Jews. Stockwell Day, who served as Canada’s Minister of Public Safety between 2006 and 2008, visited the Temple Mount following a coincidental meeting with a resident of Jerusalem, Yosef Rabin, who regularly visits the Temple Mount compound. […] “[The former Canadian minister] was shocked over how Jewish police can do these things to Jews. He did not understand how one can talk about the reunification of Jerusalem while at the same time Jews are not allowed...

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sent a defiant message to Israel’s leadership and U.S. mediators Saturday, telling cheering supporters that the Palestinians “won’t kneel” and won’t drop demands for a capital in east Jerusalem. Abbas’ unusually fiery speech highlighted the wide gaps between him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the outlines of a peace deal. It also raised new doubts about the chances of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to bridge those gaps in coming weeks and come up with a framework for an agreement. Abbas adopted tough positions in the wide-ranging speech, saying that “there will be...

In a normal state of affairs, there would be no need for Miri Regev’s bill. Two important laws, which have been included in our book of laws since the past millennium, should prevent negotiations over Jerusalem to begin with. One is Basic Law: Jerusalem, 1980, and the other is a more ancient law which prescribes an irreversible punishment for anyone working to remove sovereign territories from the State. Since Rabin’s murder, those who quote it are usually accused of incitement, so we’ll give up on the full wording here. A word to the wise is enough as is Miri Regev...