JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.
ISRAEL SATAN COMES AGAINST
1 CHRONICLES 21:1
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
ISRAELS TROUBLE
JEREMIAH 30:7
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;(ISRAEL) but he shall be saved out of it.
DANIEL 12:1,4
1 And at that time shall Michael(ISRAELS WAR ANGEL) stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:(ISRAEL) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation(May 14,48) even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,(WORLD TRAVEL,IMMIGRATION) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS,CHIP IMPLANTS ETC)
The defense budget for 2014 was approved on Tuesday night by a joint
committee of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and
the Knesset’s Finance Committee.The budget includes an increase of 750 million shekels to improve the IDF’s procurement and preparedness.Last October, the Ministerial Committee for National Security Matters decided unanimously to transfer 2.75 billion shekels from the budget surplus to the defense establishment budget.The decision was taken after the defense establishment asked for an increase in its budget after it carried out a series of streamlining steps.There have been calls, especially by Finance Minister Yair Lapid, to slash the defense budget and use the money that would be saved to improve social services.Last May, a cut in the defense budget that
was agreed upon but it has since increased following a demand to do so
by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz.Ya'alon welcomed the approval of the budget on Tuesday night, saying,
“We are in a difficult budgetary year and part of our activity is
carried out as a result of budgetary constraints. Israel cannot afford a
mediocre army.”
ISRAEL SATAN COMES AGAINST
1 CHRONICLES 21:1
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
ISRAELS TROUBLE
JEREMIAH 30:7
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;(ISRAEL) but he shall be saved out of it.
DANIEL 12:1,4
1 And at that time shall Michael(ISRAELS WAR ANGEL) stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:(ISRAEL) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation(May 14,48) even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,(WORLD TRAVEL,IMMIGRATION) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS,CHIP IMPLANTS ETC)
Knesset Committee Approves 2014 Defense Budget
Defense budget for 2014 approved, including an increase of 750 million shekels to improve the IDF’s preparedness.-By Elad Benari-First Publish: 2/5/2014, 2:15 AM-Israelnationalnews
IDF patrol in Golan Heights
Reuters
As Kerry works on peace framework, Jewish groups keep low profile
Though top organizations hve refrained from aggressive lobbying, communal leaders say sensitive compromises would require community consideration, particularly on Jerusalem
February 5, 2014, 2:39 am
0-The times of Israel
WASHINGTON — As the Obama
administration prepares to unveil a framework plan for peace between
Israel and the Palestinians, Jewish groups have responded by laying low.In
contrast to the noisy Iran sanctions contretemps between the
administration and much of the pro-Israel community, the leading
centrist Jewish groups have largely adopted a wait-and-see approach as
US Secretary of State John Kerry works on the framework agreement.The groups all publicly express support for
Kerry’s efforts, but they have refrained from aggressive lobbying or
commenting on news reports about purported details of the framework.The American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC), which usually takes the lead in framing community response to
peace talks, has been quiet, congressional and administration insiders
said.“As we have since the beginning of the
process, we continue to support Secretary Kerry’s diplomatic efforts to
achieve a secure and lasting peace between the Israelis and the
Palestinians,” AIPAC spokesman Marshall Wittman told JTA.There are a number of reasons for the
community’s relatively low profile. In addition to their focus on Iran,
centrist groups do not want to prematurely weigh in on an anticipated
proposal that has yet to see the light of day.The muted response also echoes the approach
taken by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has emphasized that he
is receptive to Kerry’s efforts, even as he suggests Israel will not
necessarily have to agree to all the elements of an American framework
proposal.In addition, the Obama administration has
tried to head off concerns by stressing that it is developing the
framework in close consultation with Israeli and Palestinian leaders,
emphasizing that there will be no surprises.At least 50 Jewish organizational leaders
received a preview of some of the framework’s likely elements in a
conference call last week with Martin Indyk, the US special envoy for
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.Jewish communal leaders offer varied
assessments of the communal expectations of whether Kerry’s efforts will
advance the cause of peace.Martin Raffel, senior vice president at the
Jewish Council of Public Affairs, the umbrella body for Jewish public
policy groups, said the community was invested in a successful outcome.“The mainstream is overwhelmingly hopeful that
Kerry will get to what they are trying to accomplish,” he said, “which
is to get to a framework that the parties will agree to even if they
have reservations, but there are sufficient grounds to build on.”But Abraham Foxman, the Anti-Defamation
League’s national director, noted what he described as a widespread
Jewish communal skepticism rooted in two decades of frustration.“The skepticism is overwhelming on all sides,
so now we’re waiting and seeing,” Foxman said, referring to attitudes
within the organized Jewish community.In a short radio commentary released Tuesday,
the American Jewish Committee’s executive director, David Harris,
applauded Kerry’s efforts.Noting that advancing peace “isn’t for the
faint-hearted,” Harris said, “Bravo, then, to Secretary of State John
Kerry for his current effort.”
But Kerry’s efforts have met with outspoken opposition from the Right, both in the American Jewish community and in Israel.The Zionist Organization of America, for
example, accused the Obama administration of turning itself into the
Palestinian Authority’s “attorney and chief negotiator.”Some right-wing members of Netanyahu’s Likud
party and larger governing coalition have also reacted with alarm to
Kerry’s efforts.Last month, Israel’s defense minister, Moshe
Ya’alon, was quoted by an Israeli newspaper as privately telling
colleagues that Kerry was “obsessive” and “messianic.” He later
apologized.More recently, a Knesset member from the
pro-settler Jewish Home party, Moti Yogev, suggested that Kerry was
driven by anti-Semitic and anti-Israel feelings. His statement was
condemned by Jewish groups, including the ADL and AJC.Tensions also flared recently between Kerry
and Netanyahu. Israeli officials reacted with anger to Kerry’s warning
in a speech last weekend that failure to arrive at a deal could give
momentum to efforts to isolate and boycott Israel.Netanyahu responded that “no pressure will
cause me to concede the vital interests of the State of Israel,” while
Israel’s minister of strategic affairs, Yuval Steinitz, called Kerry’s
remarks “intolerable.”State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki shot
back that Kerry opposes boycotts and simply was describing what was at
stake, adding that the secretary of state “expects all parties to
accurately portray his record and statements.” Susan Rice, Obama’s
national security adviser, said on Twitter that the attacks on Kerry
were “unfounded and unacceptable.”The ADL weighed in with an open letter criticizing Kerry’s remark.“Describing the potential for expanded
boycotts of Israel makes it more, not less, likely that the talks will
not succeed; makes it more, not less, likely that Israel will be blamed
if the talks fail; and more, not less, likely that boycotts will ensue,”
Foxman wrote.Foxman’s letter did, however, express support for Kerry’s peace efforts and respect for his work.Some of the likely elements of the framework
that have been discussed in briefings and news reports would be warmly
received by Jewish groups. According to participants in the
off-the-record call with Indyk, the peace envoy suggested that the
framework would include a call for recognition of Israel as a state of
the Jewish people — a key Netanyahu demand that has been firmly rejected
by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.But in addressing delicate issues such as
Jerusalem and refugees, the framework could draw objections from both
sides. News reports have suggested that the framework would call for
Jerusalem to be a shared capital and for Palestinian refugees and their
descendants not to have the right to resettle in Israel, although the
reliability of such reports is not clear.
The State Department has stressed that the framework is a work in progress and so even Indyk’s characterizations should not be considered final.Jewish communal professionals say that sensitive compromises likely to be embedded in an agreement would require community consideration, particularly on Jerusalem.“Most organizations have passed a number of resolutions on these issues,” said Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, executive vice president of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly. “If what comes out in the framework differs from that, we want to engage with our community in a thoughtful examination of where we are now.”Nathan Diament, the Washington director of the Orthodox Union, said his group would push back against anything less than full Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem.“Our position is very clear,” he said. “The OU is flat opposed to any proposals that would re-divide the city of Jerusalem and we regularly communicate that to people in the Obama administration.”Josh Block, the president of the Israel Project, said Jewish groups throughout the process should be urging sensitivity to Israeli security needs in a tumultuous neighborhood. But he said the groups should be prepared as well for the possibility of the talks failing due to Palestinian intransigence.In that event, Block said, it will be important to work to ensure that the Palestinians, and not Israel, are held responsible.“The Israelis are cooperative,” he said. “Are Indyk and Kerry at the end saying both sides wouldn’t get it done, or are they going to say it’s the Palestinians?”
The State Department has stressed that the framework is a work in progress and so even Indyk’s characterizations should not be considered final.Jewish communal professionals say that sensitive compromises likely to be embedded in an agreement would require community consideration, particularly on Jerusalem.“Most organizations have passed a number of resolutions on these issues,” said Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, executive vice president of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly. “If what comes out in the framework differs from that, we want to engage with our community in a thoughtful examination of where we are now.”Nathan Diament, the Washington director of the Orthodox Union, said his group would push back against anything less than full Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem.“Our position is very clear,” he said. “The OU is flat opposed to any proposals that would re-divide the city of Jerusalem and we regularly communicate that to people in the Obama administration.”Josh Block, the president of the Israel Project, said Jewish groups throughout the process should be urging sensitivity to Israeli security needs in a tumultuous neighborhood. But he said the groups should be prepared as well for the possibility of the talks failing due to Palestinian intransigence.In that event, Block said, it will be important to work to ensure that the Palestinians, and not Israel, are held responsible.“The Israelis are cooperative,” he said. “Are Indyk and Kerry at the end saying both sides wouldn’t get it done, or are they going to say it’s the Palestinians?”
Bennett threatens to bolt coalition over Kerry proposal
If ‘framework’ for peace doesn’t jibe with Jewish Home’s positions, religious Zionist party will join the opposition, leader says
February 4, 2014, 7:31 pm
5-The times of Israel
Economy and Trade Minister
Naftali Bennett threatened on Tuesday to pull out of the ruling
coalition if the government agrees a peace deal with the Palestinians
that goes against the values of the Jewish Home party, which he heads.“I
told the prime minister: Bring me a document and then we will evaluate
it. If it doesn’t fit our values, then we don’t be in the government. If
it does fit, we will stay and we will support the prime minister,”
Bennett said, speaking at a ceremony organized by B’Sheva, a popular
religious magazine distributed for free on Fridays. He was apparently
referring to a much-anticipated “framework” agreement for further talks
that is being finalized by US Secretary of State John Kerry.The Jewish Home won’t pull out of the
coalition just “to prove something,” but there is no purpose in
“clinging” to its position, Bennett said. The current government is a
good one, he added, but plagued by “difficulties and full of paradoxes.”
Jewish Home, a religious Zionist party, is in
principle opposed to giving up areas of the West Bank and of uprooting
any of the Jewish settlements there, both of which are key demands of
the Palestinians in the negotiations.The Jewish Home commands 12 MKs, and if it
does bolt the coalition, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu could be in danger of collapsing.However, Netanyahu could likely bring in the
15 MKs of Labor, who support the peace negotiations, to replace the
Jewish Home and therefore retain a ruling majority in the Knesset.Kerry is
expected to present in the near future the so-called “framework
agreement,” a set of guidelines, some details of which have been leaked
to the press, to be agreed upon by both the Israeli and Palestinian
negotiating teams ahead of final-status peace talks.Bennett’s statements come after last week’s high-profile spat between his camp and that of Netanyahu – set off by a Times of Israel report –
over the prospect of Jewish West Bank settlers living in the future
under Palestinian rule. At one point Netanyahu threatened to fire
Bennett.
Op-Ed: 1964-2014: two Popes and the Temple Mount
Published: Tuesday, February 04, 2014 8:15 PM
Giulio Meotti
The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book "A New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary. He has just prblished a book about the Vatican and Israel titled "J'Accuse: the Vatican Against Israel" published by Mantua Books.
On January 5, 1964, Pope
Paul VI made, for the first time in the history of the Papacy, a papal
visit in Jerusalem. The Pope said in Megiddo, where he entered Israel,
“We are coming as pilgrims, we come to venerate the Holy Places; we come
to pray”.
The Pope thanked unspecified “authorities” for arranging his visit and refused to address Zalman Shazar as “Mr. President”, avoiding any mention of that damned word: “Israel”. On his return to the Vatican, Paul sent a thank you note to “Mr. Shazar” in Tel Aviv”, not Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Israel. To exorcise the Israeli devil, they refuse to name it expressis verbis.Pope Paul VI spent only eleven hours in Israel. He avoided Israeli-controlled West Jerusalem, refusing to meet there with then Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Nissim. The rabbi therefore refused to attend the official welcome arranged in Megido. A few years later, Nissim attacked Pope Paul VI for his implied criticism of Israel’s reprisal raid on Beirut Airport and accused the Pope and the Vatican of conducting a “general campaign” against the Jewish religion and the Jewish people. The Chief Rabbi alleged that the Pope was not moved by the lives lost in the terrorist bombing of the Machane Yehuda market place in Jerusalem a month earlier, “but he hurried to console Lebanon after the destruction of a few planes without loss of life.”In 1964, when Pope Paul VI made the first papal visit to Jerusalem and the terror-organization PLO was formed by Arafat (not surprisingly, the Vatican was one of the first to recognize it), Jerusalem was divided by barbed-wire and snipers crouched on the roofs. Jews and Christians with Israeli passports were barred from entering the Old City.At that time, the Vatican ambassador’s residence at the foot of the Mount of Olives, provided a close look at the razing of over 40,000 Jewish graves in Judaism’s oldest cemetery and where, according to tradition, the resurrection of the dead on the Day of Judgment will happen.The Vatican never raised its voice to protest against the apartheid imposed by the Jordanian Muslims. Israeli leaders and rabbis asked the Vatican to use its “good offices” to intervene in order to stop the desecration, but during this dark period, the rape of Jewish Jerusalem did not lead to any expression of concern from Vatican diplomats.Another Pope, Francio, will visit Israel this spring to mark the 50th anniversary of Paul VI’s visit in 1964. And the battle is still on for the control of Mount Zion, near the very site of the two Holy Temples in Jerusalem.As in 1964 after the Machane Yehuda attack, the Vatican has remained silent during the last terrible trials for the Jewish people, when Evyatar Borovsky of Yitzhar was stabbed to death by a Palestinian Arab; when Sgt. Tomer Hazan of Bat Yam was murdered; when Sgt. Maj. Gal Kobi of Tirat Carmel was shot in the neck near Hevron's Cave of Patriarchs; when Retired IDF Colonel Seraya Ofer was beaten to death outside his home and when Pvt. Eden Atias was stabbed to death on a bus.Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, a resident of the Old City of Jerusalem that he himself helped liberate in 1967 and the head of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, has just given warning that there is a “terrible plan” to give away parts of the Old City to the Vatican and Islam.Meanwhile, it is possible that in the “peace agreement” between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Jerusalem neighborhoods such as Maaleh HaZeitim and Shimon HaTzaddik will be under Arab-Muslim sovereignty. The includes the same cemetery vandalized under the Pope’s eyes in 1964.The alliance between the mosques and the Vatican will open the Jordan Vally border towards Jordan, permitting Islamic terrorists to flush into the Mountains of Zion.
1964-2014: The Temple Mount is still in danger. And with it, the life of the Jewish people.
The footage is old, and the quality grainy, but the message is unmistakable.A public relations video
produced by the IDF Spokesperson's Unit more than 30 years ago makes the
case for Israel to retain the Judea and Samaria region, from a purely
military perspective, and offers a unique glimpse into a very different
age, in which official Israeli government bodies were not shy of
articulating the need for the Jewish state to maintain control over its
Biblical heartland.Entitled "9 Narrow Miles" - a reference to the perilously slim
waistline of the Jewish state without Judea and Samaria - the video was
released in 1980, in the days before the Oslo Accords, which saw Israel
effectively cede parts of the region to the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) and its Palestinian Authority (PA). After accepting
the Accords as a pillar of government policy, much of the Israeli
establishment became fixated on the idea of an independent Arab state in
the Biblical heartland. At the time of the recording, however, while
Israel's political establishment prevaricated over what to do with the
region - which, as the cradle of Jewish civilization, includes ancient
Jewish sites such as Hevron, Shechem and of course the Temple Mount -
the country's security experts had little doubt as to the existential
strategic importance of retaining Judea and Samaria.The film was released to explain Israel's case to the outside world -
and specifically to English-speakers. Though it might seem hard to
believe now, in the days before Twitter and live blogs, it really was
the cutting-edge of Israel's PR efforts.But following the decision to pursue a "Two-State Solution" which
would involve ceding all or most of the region, such positions became
politically-incorrect. Not only was the video, and many others like it,
shelved - they were set to be destroyed, as embassies around the world
were instructed to "dump" materials which did not sit with the accepted
political orthodoxy.
Israel's narrow waistline
After giving a brief overview of the region's history, the gritty-yet-effective video illustrates how without Judea and Samaria, with more than two thirds of Israel's population and the vast majority of Israeli industry concentrated in a narrow strip of land between just 9 and 22 miles wide, Israel's major population centers are entirely at the mercy of enemy guns looking down from the Samarian hills. The video also illustrates how Israel's only international airport - Ben Gurion - lies totally exposed to a potential attacker positioned on those same hills, something which will come as no surprise to Israeli residents of the region.The footage was salvaged by American activist and Arutz Sheva contributor Mark Langfan, who is himself an avid advocate for Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, in the early 1990s. Langfan's group, Americans For a Safe Israel (AFSI), have published numerous (somewhat more modern) visual aids communicating essentially the same message as the video: that Israel's security relies on retaining control over the highlands of Judea and Samaria."It's unbelievable. They were going to throw all of this stuff away because it suddenly didn't fit their agenda any more," recalled Langfan. "A friend of mine working at the embassy called me and said 'Look, Mark, we've got all this stuff and we don't know what to do with it. They want us to throw it away but I think you might have a better use for it'."Of course, not all of the military consideration remain the same today, and Israel's security situation vis-a-vis neighboring states is considerably less precarious given the Jewish state's overwhelming conventional military superiority - a fact which US Secretary of State has been trying to use to persuade a full withdrawal.But perhaps the most notable strategic difference, and one which is painfully obvious from the film itself, is the importance of the Jordan Valley, which acts as a buffer to a conventional military invasion from the east.To this very day, the received wisdom among the Israeli establishment is that in the event of a withdrawal from the rest of Judea and Samaria, keeping the Jordan Valley would at least secure Israel's borders.But whereas at a time when Israel's greatest strategic threat came from the conventional forces of its neighbors, such a buffer zone would likely have "done the trick" - keeping central Israel out of the sites of hostile forces and their artillery - the present ability of terrorist groups to acquire mobile, medium-to-long-range rockets (for example, in Gaza) renders such a calculation obsolete. With Israeli forces gone, existing terrorist groups could easily deploy along the Samarian highland.
It's a topic which Langfan has been particularly vocal about."It's like guarding the door when the bad guys are already in your house," Langfan notes. "Those who still think that the Jordan Valley alone can guarantee Israel's security need to take a look at this video. They are applying old, obsolete military paradigms to the current reality for political reasons. They're playing with lives."
The Pope thanked unspecified “authorities” for arranging his visit and refused to address Zalman Shazar as “Mr. President”, avoiding any mention of that damned word: “Israel”. On his return to the Vatican, Paul sent a thank you note to “Mr. Shazar” in Tel Aviv”, not Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Israel. To exorcise the Israeli devil, they refuse to name it expressis verbis.Pope Paul VI spent only eleven hours in Israel. He avoided Israeli-controlled West Jerusalem, refusing to meet there with then Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Nissim. The rabbi therefore refused to attend the official welcome arranged in Megido. A few years later, Nissim attacked Pope Paul VI for his implied criticism of Israel’s reprisal raid on Beirut Airport and accused the Pope and the Vatican of conducting a “general campaign” against the Jewish religion and the Jewish people. The Chief Rabbi alleged that the Pope was not moved by the lives lost in the terrorist bombing of the Machane Yehuda market place in Jerusalem a month earlier, “but he hurried to console Lebanon after the destruction of a few planes without loss of life.”In 1964, when Pope Paul VI made the first papal visit to Jerusalem and the terror-organization PLO was formed by Arafat (not surprisingly, the Vatican was one of the first to recognize it), Jerusalem was divided by barbed-wire and snipers crouched on the roofs. Jews and Christians with Israeli passports were barred from entering the Old City.At that time, the Vatican ambassador’s residence at the foot of the Mount of Olives, provided a close look at the razing of over 40,000 Jewish graves in Judaism’s oldest cemetery and where, according to tradition, the resurrection of the dead on the Day of Judgment will happen.The Vatican never raised its voice to protest against the apartheid imposed by the Jordanian Muslims. Israeli leaders and rabbis asked the Vatican to use its “good offices” to intervene in order to stop the desecration, but during this dark period, the rape of Jewish Jerusalem did not lead to any expression of concern from Vatican diplomats.Another Pope, Francio, will visit Israel this spring to mark the 50th anniversary of Paul VI’s visit in 1964. And the battle is still on for the control of Mount Zion, near the very site of the two Holy Temples in Jerusalem.As in 1964 after the Machane Yehuda attack, the Vatican has remained silent during the last terrible trials for the Jewish people, when Evyatar Borovsky of Yitzhar was stabbed to death by a Palestinian Arab; when Sgt. Tomer Hazan of Bat Yam was murdered; when Sgt. Maj. Gal Kobi of Tirat Carmel was shot in the neck near Hevron's Cave of Patriarchs; when Retired IDF Colonel Seraya Ofer was beaten to death outside his home and when Pvt. Eden Atias was stabbed to death on a bus.Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, a resident of the Old City of Jerusalem that he himself helped liberate in 1967 and the head of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, has just given warning that there is a “terrible plan” to give away parts of the Old City to the Vatican and Islam.Meanwhile, it is possible that in the “peace agreement” between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Jerusalem neighborhoods such as Maaleh HaZeitim and Shimon HaTzaddik will be under Arab-Muslim sovereignty. The includes the same cemetery vandalized under the Pope’s eyes in 1964.The alliance between the mosques and the Vatican will open the Jordan Vally border towards Jordan, permitting Islamic terrorists to flush into the Mountains of Zion.
1964-2014: The Temple Mount is still in danger. And with it, the life of the Jewish people.
Old-School Israeli PR Makes the Case for Judea and Samaria
Slated
for destruction, 30-year-old video by IDF Spokesperson's unit offers a
glimpse into pre-Oslo days, when security trumped politics.-By Ari Soffer-First Publish: 2/4/2014, 9:08 PM-Israelnationalnews
Secure borders?-Reuters
Israel's narrow waistline
After giving a brief overview of the region's history, the gritty-yet-effective video illustrates how without Judea and Samaria, with more than two thirds of Israel's population and the vast majority of Israeli industry concentrated in a narrow strip of land between just 9 and 22 miles wide, Israel's major population centers are entirely at the mercy of enemy guns looking down from the Samarian hills. The video also illustrates how Israel's only international airport - Ben Gurion - lies totally exposed to a potential attacker positioned on those same hills, something which will come as no surprise to Israeli residents of the region.The footage was salvaged by American activist and Arutz Sheva contributor Mark Langfan, who is himself an avid advocate for Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, in the early 1990s. Langfan's group, Americans For a Safe Israel (AFSI), have published numerous (somewhat more modern) visual aids communicating essentially the same message as the video: that Israel's security relies on retaining control over the highlands of Judea and Samaria."It's unbelievable. They were going to throw all of this stuff away because it suddenly didn't fit their agenda any more," recalled Langfan. "A friend of mine working at the embassy called me and said 'Look, Mark, we've got all this stuff and we don't know what to do with it. They want us to throw it away but I think you might have a better use for it'."Of course, not all of the military consideration remain the same today, and Israel's security situation vis-a-vis neighboring states is considerably less precarious given the Jewish state's overwhelming conventional military superiority - a fact which US Secretary of State has been trying to use to persuade a full withdrawal.But perhaps the most notable strategic difference, and one which is painfully obvious from the film itself, is the importance of the Jordan Valley, which acts as a buffer to a conventional military invasion from the east.To this very day, the received wisdom among the Israeli establishment is that in the event of a withdrawal from the rest of Judea and Samaria, keeping the Jordan Valley would at least secure Israel's borders.But whereas at a time when Israel's greatest strategic threat came from the conventional forces of its neighbors, such a buffer zone would likely have "done the trick" - keeping central Israel out of the sites of hostile forces and their artillery - the present ability of terrorist groups to acquire mobile, medium-to-long-range rockets (for example, in Gaza) renders such a calculation obsolete. With Israeli forces gone, existing terrorist groups could easily deploy along the Samarian highland.
It's a topic which Langfan has been particularly vocal about."It's like guarding the door when the bad guys are already in your house," Langfan notes. "Those who still think that the Jordan Valley alone can guarantee Israel's security need to take a look at this video. They are applying old, obsolete military paradigms to the current reality for political reasons. They're playing with lives."
The current reality Americans for a Safe Israel
