JNN Newsletter - December 7, 2016 https://www.visionforisrael.com/our-vision “As the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.” Isa 61:11 PILLAR OF CLOUD DEFENDS ISRAEL’S BORDER WITH SYRIA: Amidst increasing ISIS activity on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, Israeli soldiers stationed there reported that over the weekend a literal pillar of cloud descended on the border. The bizarre storm completely engulfed the Syrian side of the border, but stopped just at the boundary and did not enter Israel. A number of soldiers captured the phenomenon on their cellphones. One video went viral on Facebook, where not a few Israelis labeled the storm as “divine intervention.” “Huge miracle! Notice how God stopped this enormous storm exactly on the border,” wrote Yifat Romano. “Thank you, Father!” Netanel Tanaami wondered, “What more do you need to believe?” “The Creator of the world is protecting us,” proclaimed Nissim Nahoum. (Israel Today) “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’” Ps 92:1-2 ABBAS PRAISES TERRORISTS AGAIN: In a speech on Mon. 5 Dec. 2016, at the Seventh Conference of the Fatah Movement in Ramallah, Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of Fatah, the PLO, and the Palestinian Authority, praised the generations-long Arab struggle against Israel. Abbas mentioned the fedayeen who sacrificed their lives, calling them “heroes” and “brave revolutionary fighters.” The Arab Fedayeen were terrorists who infiltrated Israel to carry our terrorist operations. They operated mostly from Jordan in the 50’s and 60’s and from Lebanon in the 70’s and 80’s. These “brave fighters,” said Abbas, were a “shield for the Palestinians” in Jordan, Lebanon and the “occupied lands” until the current “Al-Quds Intifida,” (the most recent terror wave). Abbas also called the Arab security prisoners “heroes,” though many of them are serving jail sentences for murdering Israelis in terrorist attacks. (Arutz-7) Continue to pray there will be growing numbers of Palestinians who weary of terrorist leaders and their focus on the destruction of Israel and honoring terrorist murderers as role- models for their children - rather than on building better lives for their own citizens. WHY THE USA FAILED TO ADVANCE ISRAELI –PALESTINIAN PEACE: While Secretary of State John Kerry and President Barack Obama assured Israelis they could afford to take the risk of territorial compromise for the sake of peace, we have watched countries all around us descend into chaos, and seen every unsavory terror group you can name gain footholds in the neighborhood. We have watched Iran grow emboldened and richer, thanks to a lousy accord that did not fully dismantle its rogue nuclear program. We saw Hizbullah fill the vacuum when we left southern Lebanon. We watched Hamas take over when we left Gaza, and we have since endured rocket fire and intermittent conflict as the reward for our withdrawal, even as we have been battered internationally for fighting back. We have witnessed Mahmoud Abbas' Judea & Samaria, Palestinian hierarchy encourage hostility to Israel, lie about our plans for the Temple Mount, and rewrite the previous Muslim narrative that acknowledged the historicity of Jerusalem's Jewish temples in favor of a revisionist creed that denies all Jewish connection to the holy city and thus delegitimizes Israel's very presence. The lesson that Kerry refused to learn, but that his successors would be wise to, is that you cannot broker peace when the people on one side of the negotiating table do not so much as acknowledge the right of the people on the other side to be there. (Times of Israel) EGYPT FLOODS GAZA TUNNEL, KILLS FOUR: The four men aged 22 to 45 "were found dead after the tunnel they were working in was flooded nine days ago by the Egyptian army," local authorities in the Gazan city of Rafah near Egypt's border said in a statement. Hamas and other groups use such tunnels to smuggle goods into Gaza, as well as to transfer terrorists undetected to neighboring Israeli or Egyptian- controlled areas. The border between Egypt and Gaza has remained largely closed since the 2013 overthrow of Egyptian Islamist president Mohammed Morsi. While the tunnels into Egypt have been used for smuggling, terror tunnels into Israel have been used for attacks, particularly during Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014. Hamas alleges Egypt has carried out work to flood the area along its border to destroy tunnels into the Sinai, where Egyptian security forces are also fighting ISIS-linked jihadists. In recent months, at least 20 smugglers and terrorists have died in both terror and smuggling tunnels in the strip of some two million people. A number of terror tunnels have collapsed in recent months. (Arutz-7) The obvious solution to prevent tunnel flooding and cave-ins is for terrorists and smugglers to stop digging tunnels. DOES A THREEFOLD RISE IN GERMAN ANTI-SEMITISM SIGNAL A ‘NEW ERA’? The world has entered a new era of anti-Semitism, a top European rabbi warned in response to a report released this week about rising anti-Semitism in Germany. A spokesperson for the German Justice Ministry, confirmed to media sources that anti-Semitism in Germany has risen threefold in one year - 2,083 cases of attacks on Jews, Jewish property and hate speech against Jews last year, compared with 691 in 2014. “There is a rejection of mainstream politics, and we need to be aware of the waves of anti-Semitism sweeping across Europe,” Conference of European Rabbis president Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt said. “As a society we must take measures to reject anti-Semitism and ensure that it does not become a new norm.” Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said: “The recent report published by Süddeutsche Zeitung showing that the number of right-wing extremist offenses has risen is indeed worrying. At the same time, the sensitivity of the population and its willingness to report such incidents have apparently also increased. Moreover, the German government actively supports the fight against hate speech, anti-Semitism and sedition in social networks and elsewhere. We highly appreciate the civic and government engagement.” (J.Post) AS SYRIA BURNS, THE UN AGAIN BASHES ISRAEL: French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault last week demanded an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on the bloodshed in Syria, where Bashar al-Assad is butchering civilians. The Security Council didn't act - but the UN General Assembly managed to pass six resolutions targeting Israel. One of them even calls for putting more people under Assad's thumb, demanding that Israel cede the Golan Heights to Syria. As the Syrian regime kills "its own people by the hundreds of thousands," asks UN Watch's Hillel Neuer, "how can the UN call for more human beings to be placed under Assad's rule?" (NY Post) IRAN THREATENS TO RESUME ITS NUCLEAR ACTIVITIES: Iran is threatening to resume its nuclear activities which were halted as part of the deal with the West, in response to the United States’ Congress extending the sanctions on the Islamic Republic. A member of the Iranian Parliament’s Presiding Board said 3 Dec. 2016 that the legislature is preparing a motion which would mandate the government to resume nuclear activities halted under the agreement. “The USA and its Congress are the ones who have acted in violation of international law and trampled upon it,” he charged. He emphasized that the motion calls for "the swift, comprehensive and complete" resumption of nuclear activities in Iran. Ranjbarzadeh said Iran would "repeatedly and round the clock declare to the world through its diplomatic apparatus and media that it was Washington which initiated this illegal action and that we (Iran) had no option but retaliation." This past week, the Senate unanimously voted 99-0 to extend the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) by ten years. The bill had previously been approved by a vote of 419-1 in the House of Representatives. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill into law. The ISA, which was first passed in 1996, enacts sanctions on companies that invest in Iran's energy sector in order to deter the Islamic Republic's pursuit of nuclear weapons. Senior Iranian officials reacted angrily after the House of Representatives passed the extension of the sanctions, saying that doing so goes against the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the official name of the nuclear agreement signed last year between Iran and six world powers. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday 4, Dec. 2016 demanded that USA President Barack Obama not sign an extension of USA sanctions on his country. Rouhani said the bill is a violation of a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. (Arutz-7) IRAN OPENS AMUSEMENT PARK TO TEACH KIDS TO FIGHT ISRAEL: The City of Games for Revolutionary Children in Mashhad, Iran, is open free of charge to children aged 8 through 13. In the park, the children wear military uniforms and undertake activities simulating fighting the enemies of the Islamic Revolution. At 12 stations, children can launch plastic missiles and fire plastic bullets at targets such as Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, USA and Israeli flags, and members of the Saudi royal family. At the final station, children are blindfolded and asked to throw a ball at a puzzle of an Israeli flag and knock it down.