VFI News February 15, 2022

Israel Earthquake Warning & IDF drills for winter war with Hezbollah and more! Barry's got the news that you want to hear!

#earthquakes #IDF #Hezbollah #Congressman # Pfizer #missile #Netanyahu

• 00:58 - IDF drills for winter war with Hezbollah
• 02:41 - Iran unveils new missile designated for Jewish Oasis
• 04:36 - Israeli police hacked phones to target Netanyahu
• 07:29 - Biden unfreezes $29 Billion for Iranian Regime
• 09:28 - Congressman wants Israel to be narrower than his own district
• 11:52 - Israel gets new earthquake warning system
• 13:09 - Expiration date for Pfizer’s shots extended by 2 weeks

Want more of what you just saw?

SUBSCRIBE TO GET NOTIFIED! https://www.youtube.com/c/VisionforIs...

Israel called on all of its citizens on Saturday, February 12, evening to leave Ukraine immediately, as a Russian invasion looked increasingly likely.

“Following the tensions and concern at escalation, the Foreign Ministry calls on Israeli citizens in Ukraine to leave the country as soon as possible,” the travel warning reads.

“In addition, the Foreign Ministry calls on Israelis planning to arrive in Ukraine soon to cancel their trips at this time,” the ministry stated. “The Foreign Ministry and Israeli Embassy in Ukraine call on Israeli citizens in the country to register [on the embassy website].” Some 4,500 had done so by Saturday night.

They also discussed the possibility that it will be necessary to evacuate Israelis from the country, with the IDF and Foreign Ministry already planning for such a scenario.

There are currently 22 flights per week from Ukraine to Israel, and the airports are open, so there is no need for special flights yet, a Foreign Ministry source said, urging Israelis not to wait until the last minute to get out.

The Foreign Ministry estimated that there are 10,000-15,000 Israelis in Ukraine. About 200,000 Ukrainians qualify for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return, according to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research. (JPost / VFI News)

“God, we ask that you protect the people of Ukraine from attack and invasion.”

The articles included in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Vision for Israel. We try to provide accurate reporting on news pertinent to Israel, the Middle East, the diaspora, and Jewish issues around the world—and we hope that you find it both informative and useful for intercessory prayer.

British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has compared Western diplomatic efforts to head off a Russian invasion of Ukraine to the appeasement of Nazi Germany ahead of World War II.

Wallace told the Sunday Times that Russian President Vladimir Putin could send his massed troops into Ukraine “at any time.”

And he suggested unnamed Western countries were not being tough enough with Moscow.

“It may be that he (Putin) just switches off his tanks and we all go home but there is a whiff of Munich in the air from some in the West,” Wallace said.

The 1938 Munich Agreement handed Nazi Germany parts of Czechoslovakia in a failed bid to head off major conflict in Europe.

Western leaders have been shuttling back and forth to Moscow in the hopes of persuading Putin to stand his troops down.

Wallace said, “The worrying thing is that despite the massive amount of increased diplomacy, that military build-up has continued. It has not paused, it has continued.” (TOI / VFI News)

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. - Ecclesiastes 3:8

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with US Senator Lindsey Graham at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on Monday morning, February 14.

Their discussion focused on “the Iranian threat, which is faced by both Israel and the US, and ways to deal with it,” according to a readout by the PMO.

“They also discussed the security challenges in the Middle East and ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation,” the statement added.

After the meeting, Bennett thanked Graham for being “a true friend of Israel in both good times and in more challenging moments.”

The meeting came as Iran on Monday said talks with world powers in Vienna to restore the 2015 nuclear deal are “complicated and difficult” but have not hit an impasse.

US President Joe Biden is in a tough spot over the talks, gambling on a successful outcome but facing growing bipartisan concern that even if a deal is reached it may be insufficient to curb Tehran’s nuclear program.

US negotiator Rob Malley and National Security Council envoy Brett McGurk said last week that Iran could have enough fissile material to build a nuclear weapon within weeks if it wants to, indicating a growing urgency to reach a deal soon. (TOI / VFI News)

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” - Matthew 5:9

Turkish and Israeli intelligence forces came together to foil an assassination attempt of Israeli businessman Yair Geller, according to Turkish media.

The alleged assassination attempt, which in this case included a team of nine, is in response to the killing of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in 2020, which Iran has attributed to Israel, according to Turkish and Israeli media reports. It is unclear what Geller's connection is.

"I am an Israeli businessman in Turkey with an engineering research and development company. I was informed that the Iranians are tracking and are attempting to assassinate me," Geller told KAN in the first response to Israeli media on the story.

His company, CNC İleri Teknoloji, a metal machinery supplier for the automotive, aerospace and medical industries, is based in Istanbul.

The Iranian cell tracked Geller and took photos of him in his home. Turkish intelligence was aware of the tracking movements done by the Iranian cell and reportedly shared the information with the Mossad once the activity neared operational status.

The cell was reportedly run by Yassin Tahermkandi, 53, an Iran-based intelligence officer, and Saleh Mushtag Bhighus, 44, his Turkish counterpart. Bhighus was among eight arrested. (JPost / VFI News)

“God, we ask that you protect Your people from Iran and the violence they are trying to inflict upon us.”

Official Video for Barry & Batya Segal's single, “Shimcha Kadosh - O Holy One”

The United Nations has allegedly concealed the murder by the regime of President Bashar Assad of two humanitarian staffers who were part of a relief convoy between the Syrian cities of Aleppo and Homs in 2016.

A year-long investigation into alleged UN misconduct in Syria can now reveal that UN officials in 2016 appeared to have worked at cross purposes and did not publicize an internal UN message saying that Assad’s military had killed two aid workers.

A UN source in the Middle East said the reluctance to investigate and report the alleged murder of aid workers can be explained by the global organization’s fears it would be banned from conducting future relief missions in the Syrian Arab Republic.

Mohammad Al Abdallah, a Syrian human rights and democracy researcher and activist who is executive director of the Washington-based Syrian Justice and Accountability Center, said the UN had accepted a “poisoned and unhealthy” relationship with the Damascus government, in which the Syrian regime has allowed them to access places where they operate in exchange for dealing with the regime or concealing its violations.

When confronted about its failure to disclose the killings, including in its public documents, the UN proceeded to delete evidence on its webpage that was based on a disclosure from a local UN official for Syria.

After press queries were sent to the UN in June, the international body scrubbed its website of a video news conference that took place in Geneva on April 28, 2016, when an Arabic translator noted the death of one person during an aid mission. (JPost / VFI News)

Latvia's parliament passed a law on Thursday, February 10, regarding Holocaust restitution to the country's Jewish community.

Prior to the onset of World War II and the Holocaust, Jews in the Baltic nation owned schools, orphanages, cultural institutions, hospitals and other properties. However, during the Nazi occupation, approximately 75,000 Jews in Latvia were murdered.

"This was the most serious crime against humanity ever committed on Latvian territory," the Latvian parliament said in a statement.

Something that is complicating the issue is the fact that many of the institutions that owned property no longer exist and that no heirs can be found. Additionally, the exact amount of private property lost has been hard to determine. However, the government managed to calculate the worth of stolen Jewish real estate to be in excess of €47 million, based on property belonging to Jews in 1940 and based on real estate value at the end of 2018.

Jews were denied property during the Holocaust, which was seized by the Nazis. However, in Latvia, as with most countries in Eastern Europe, that property was subsequently nationalized after the war ended when the area was under Communist rule.

When Latvia achieved independence in 1991, the property then became the property of the new country.

The law stresses that Latvia is not to blame for the loss of Jewish property, but "it would be ethical and fair if the state would, in good faith, reimburse the Latvian Jewish community," the parliament said. (JPost / VFI News)

“God, we ask that you bring peace to those who were persecuted in the Holocaust and their families. We pray that these actions are never repeated nor forgotten.”

This week, the government announced the rollout of a plan to reduce the cost of living in Israel. It includes tax credit for working parents, tariff reductions, and increased negative income tax for low-wage workers.

The plan comes in response to consumer protest regarding inflation, a word that has been on the financially conscious Israeli’s mind for the past few weeks as a developing wave of increased prices has crashed over the nation.

Over the course of 2021, Israel’s consumer price index – a key statistic used to measure inflation – rose by 2.8%. While that number pales in comparison to other nation’s inflation rates during the COVID-19 pandemic’s second year, it looms over Israel’s rate over the last several years, which has consistently remained close to 0%.

One of the driving factors behind the current trend of inflation is an increase in the cost of food. The most notable instance of this unfolded earlier this month, as food mega-manufacturer Osem (a subsidiary of Nestlé) announced that it would be increasing the prices of its products by as much as 5% due to higher costs of packaging, transport and raw materials.

This spurred severe pushback from community leaders, the public, and the finance and economy ministers, the latter of whom co-wrote a letter to food manufacturers in Israel urging them not to raise their prices, lest they face government intervention.

Additionally, residents of Israel grew restless when, on February 1, the government introduced increased tariffs on electricity (which has been addressed, at least in part, by the government’s aid plan), and raised the maximum price for standard 95 octane gasoline.

The cost increase of electricity and gasoline reflects global increases in material costs. The Electricity Authority directed blame toward the rising cost of coal as a primary cause for the rise in electricity production costs. The Energy Ministry indicated that gas prices are rising in tandem with the surging price of crude oil.

These climbing raw material costs have led to significant supply shortages; the raw materials are only one link in a chain of compounding issues plaguing the global economy. (JPost / VFI News)

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. - 1 Timothy 6:10

Barnabas Szollos finished in sixth place overall in the men’s alpine combined at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics on Thursday, February 10, in Israel’s best-ever Olympic skiing finish.

Szollos, a Hungarian-born skier representing Israel in his Olympic debut, finished an incredible second in the slalom portion of the event, and 11th in the downhill portion, granting him an overall sixth-place finish with a time of 1:45.04.

Gold in the alpine combined went to Austria’s Johannes Strolz, who finished with 1:43.87, silver was won by Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and bronze taken by Canada’s James Crawford.

“It was a really good race, I had a lot of fun,” Szollos said in a video message to reporters following the event. “To place sixth feels amazing and I’m really happy… it’s an honor to be here, to represent Israel, and I’m really, really happy.”

Ahead of the Games, the head of Israel’s delegation to the Winter Olympics, Yaniv Ashkenazi, said it would be “a very impressive achievement” if Szollos finished his races in the top half of athletes.

The alpine combined was Szollos’s third Olympic event, after he finished 30th overall in both the men’s downhill and Super-G. On Sunday, February 13, he is slated to compete in the giant slalom, and on Wednesday, February 16, in the slalom.

His sixth-place finish in the alpine combined puts him tied for Israel’s best Winter Olympics showing with ice dancers Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovski, who placed sixth in ice dancing at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City. Today, Chait is the head coach and choreographer for Israel’s national figure skaters. (TOI / VFI News)

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; - Romans 12:6

The suggestions, opinions, and scripture references made by VFI News writers and editors are based on the best information received.

Want to see more from VFI? Follow us on Facebook! Our official Facebook name is Vision for Israel. Follow us there and please hit “like” if you like us.