Two Israeli Arabs Arrested in Plot to Assassinate Netanyahu

Two Israeli Arabs were indicted on Friday for planning to assassinate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Hazam Sanduka, 22, an Arab resident of Jerusalem’s Old City, and Fahdi Abu Kia’an,19, an Israeli Bedouin from the Negev, were arrested last month as part of a Hamas cell and charged with assisting an enemy at wartime, contact with a foreign agent, plotting a terrorist attack and manufacturing explosives. Prosecutor Anat Greenbaum wrote in the indictment that they had helped Hamas operative Ahmad Jamal Mousa Azzam.

Azzam, a resident of Qalqilya in Samaria, rented an apartment in the Abu Dis neighborhood of East Jerusalem. Azzam and Sanduka acquired ingredients to make explosives and planned on carrying out several attacks.

Sanduka, who had worked in a security firm in the past, initiated the plan to plant explosives under the stage in Jerusalem’s Payis Arena where Netanyahu was scheduled to speak.

They also planned a large attack in Jerusalem for earlier this month. The plans were directed by Hamas in Gaza and the two men were in constant contact with the terror organization.

Kia’an was identified as a supporter of the Islamic State (ISIS) and planned on transporting weapons from Judea and Samaria to the interior of Israel in order to carry out attacks against Israelis. He had also agreed to carry out a mass suicide attack by driving a car loaded with explosives.

25 suspects were arrested last month as part of the investigation. Most were students in Abu Dis University

 

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Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘Christians … are Suffering a lot because of Radical Islam’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel is the only Middle East country helping Christians from the violence of radical Islam.

Netanyahu, speaking in a video message to the Israeli Christians Recruitment Forum, said that Christians are being persecuted and killed by radicals in the Middle East.

“You know very well that our region is in flames and Christians in Iraq, Syria and, unfortunately, under the Palestinian Authority, are suffering a lot because of radical Islam. These communities are persecuted, and unfortunately many people have lost their lives for their faith,” Netanyahu said.

“Radical Islam does not make any difference between Christians, Jews and Muslims who reject their extremism. They are all infidels who must be killed. For this now more than ever it is clear which is the only State in the Middle East that protects minorities, where Christians live in peace and where their community is growing: This state is the State of Israel,” he said.

Netanyahu has put a blockade on the region, which restricts the flow of goods.

Meanwhile, the Christian community in Gaza has fallen at a rate of 5 percent per year.

“People might think we’re leaving because of Hamas, but no it’s because of … [Israeli] policies on Gaza,” said Jaber Jilder, an official with the Greek Orthodox Church.

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Ancient Seal of Biblical King Hezekiah Discovered in Jerusalem’s Old City

An ancient seal of the Biblical King Hezekiah has been found at an archaeological site at the foot of the wall that surrounds Jerusalem’s Old City.

Charisma News reports that the clay imprint is known as a bulla and is dated from the period of King Hezekiah around 700 B.C. The area in which it was found is rich in relics from the period of the first two ancient Jewish temples.

However, “This is the first time that a seal impression of an Israelite or Judean king has ever come to light in a scientific archaeological excavation,” said Eilat Mazar of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University who directed the excavation.

The ancient seal is thought to have been discarded into a refuse dump at the time of King Hezekiah. The bulla was initially discovered five years ago, catalogued, and placed in a closet with 33 others.

It was only recently that one of the archaeologists on Mazar’s team realized its true identity after studying it further.

The seal has Hebrew scripts imprinted on it, as well as a symbol of a two-winged sun. The Hebrew script reads, “Belonging to Hezekiah (son of) Ahaz king of Judah.”

The details of Hezekiah’s reign over Judah can be found in the Biblical books of 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and Isaiah.

2 Kings 18:5-7 states, “Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the Lord and did not stop following him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.”

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Heaven Opened

by Henry Morris, Ph.D. | Mar. 23, 2015

“And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” (John 1:51)

In Jacob’s dream (Genesis 28:12), angels were ascending and descending on a great ladder between Earth and heaven. Christ promised a future reality in which He Himself would be the ladder to the opened heaven.

But that was to be “hereafter.” Until Christ came to die and rise again, heaven was closed, for nothing unclean could enter there and death had “passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). Even those who died in faith could only be “comforted” in “Abraham’s bosom” deep “in the heart of the earth” (Luke 16:22, 25; Matthew 12:40), because “it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4).

Then Christ died and rose again “to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Hebrews 9:26). In His spirit, “he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth,” and “when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive” (Ephesians 4:8-9), leading all pre-Calvary saints with Him into heaven. Then was fulfilled the wonderful scene predicted in Psalm 24:7: “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.”

Since that wonderful day when Christ ascended back to heaven, “to be absent from the body” is “to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). Heaven someday will even receive our resurrected bodies. John prophesied it this way: “I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice . . . said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter” (Revelation 4:1). Heaven thenceforth will be open eternally to all the redeemed. “The gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there” (Revelation 21:25).

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