Police on High Alert as Thousands Gather at Western Wall for Priestly Blessing

October 14, 2022

What is Sukkot (The Feast of Tabernacles) All About?

Videos from Iran Prove that Protests Only Continue to Grow - Analysis

Oil Workers Join Iran Protests: 'We'll Destroy Everything We Built'

Iran Racing to Expand Enrichment at Underground Plant, IAEA Report Shows

Russians Search for Jewish Roots, to Flee Putin’s Army Draft for Israel

Government Supports Maritime Agreement Between Israel and Lebanon

Energean Announces New Israel Gas Discovery, Estimated at 7-15 Billion Cubic Meters

Groundbreaking Israeli Research Uncovers What Protects Us from Heart Disease

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Feast of Tabernacles, Sukkot, the feast of Ingathering, the feast of Booths...what do these feasts mean? What is Sukkot all about and what is the Biblical significance behind it all? Join Barry Segal for this special Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) episode where he dives deep into the spiritual significance of this feast and why you, as a believer in Yeshua (Jesus), should be observing Sukkot.  

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On this year's Sukkot, that concludes on Sunday, October 16, we wish everyone Chag Sameach! May all of our readers be blessed with health, prosperity and happiness throughout this season.

Police deployed across Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday, October 12, with tens of thousands of Jewish worshipers attending the traditional priestly blessing event at the Western Wall, amid heightened tensions in the city and across the West Bank. 

Traditionally, Jewish pilgrims make their way twice a year to the Western Wall on the intermediate days of the Passover and Sukkot festivals, with crowds of men and women spilling out from the Wall’s plaza to surrounding areas. 

The ceremony has frequently seen clashes between security forces and Palestinians on the Temple Mount compound, which sits above the Western Wall, who have sometimes thrown stones and objects at the Jewish worshipers below. 

The ceremony, which sees male descendants of the Kohanim priestly caste gather to bestow a benediction, involves the raising of hands to perform the blessing, with those conducting the blessing wrapped in prayer shawls. 

The event appeared to pass peacefully, but hundreds of police and Border Police remained deployed in the Old City to secure access routes to the Wall, as well as protect the many visitors who were expected to the Old City during the day. Old City roads were shut to traffic.

This year’s ceremony comes after two deadly shooting attacks against IDF soldiers in recent days, and during wide scale ongoing manhunts in East Jerusalem and the northern West Bank to find the shooters. (TOI / VFI News)

“God, thank you for shielding the worshipers today from harm and we ask that you give peace to the families and friends of the IDF soldiers who were in the shooting attacks this week.”

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.

In recent days, Iran has tried to flood the city of Sanandaj in western Iran with security forces on motorcycles, in an attempt to regain control over the area, and yet the willingness of protestors to confront security forces is apparent in videos that have been circulating online. 

A series of videos obtained by the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis capture several minutes of footage of protesters confronting Iranian regime forces in at least two different locations. One video shows dozens of regime members arriving on motorcycles, some of whom appear to carry weapons. Throughout the video, explosions can be heard in the background, although it is unclear if the noise is the sound of live gunfire or not. 

The security forces in the footage may be members of the IRGC Basij forces, or they may be other security forces and regime anti-riot police, as it is not uncommon for the regime to send plainclothes agents to attack protestors. 

These clashes come after several nights of fear that Iran is trying to cut Sanandaj and other Kurdish cities off from the rest of the country and the outside world. Some sources say that Iranian regime forces have been firing on crowds and into homes, smashing up cars and cutting off social media and phone connections. It is hard to verify the death toll from these incidents. 

Iran has also carried out drone and missile attacks against Kurdish dissident groups in neighboring Iraq, subjecting them to over ten days of artillery bombardment. (JPost / VFI News)

“God, we ask that you protect innocent citizens from Iran’s strict authoritarian regime, and that you help stop violent attacks against them.”

Contract workers at petrochemical plants and oil refineries across Iran went on strike on Monday and Tuesday, October 10-11, as protests following the killing of Mahsa Amini continued across the country for a fourth week. 

Workers at the South Pars Phase 14 Conventional Gas Field stated in a video shared on social media that they were giving Iranian forces attacking protesters three days to lay down their weapons, warning that otherwise "we will destroy everything we have built." 

Another video showed a worker announcing his cooperation with striking oil workers, and repeating the warning that workers would "destroy everything" they built if the suppression of protesters did not cease. 

The Organizing Council for Protests of Oil Contract Workers had warned late last month that petrochemical workers would strike if the suppression of protesters continued.

The Council addressed oil and petrochemical workers across the country on Monday, stressing that "now is the time to protest widely and prepare ourselves for nationwide and back-breaking strikes." The council demanded that the government release all arrested protesters and stop attacking protesters. At least 11 striking oil workers have been since Monday, according to the council. (JPost / VFI News)

Deceit is in the hearts of those who plot evil, but those who promote peace have joy. - Proverbs 12:20

Iran is rapidly expanding its ability to enrich uranium with advanced centrifuges at its underground plant at Natanz, and now intends to go further than previously planned, a confidential UN nuclear watchdog report showed on Monday, October 10. 

While indirect talks between Iran and the United States on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have stalled, Tehran has brought onstream an ever larger number of advanced centrifuges the deal bans it from using, to produce enriched uranium. 

These machines are far more efficient than the first-generation IR-1, the only centrifuge that the deal lets Iran use to grow its stock of enriched uranium. Iran has been adding them, particularly at two underground sites at Natanz and Fordow that may be designed to withstand potential aerial bombardment.

At the underground Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) at Natanz, Monday's ad hoc report to member states showed Iran has quickly completed the installation of seven cascades, or clusters of advanced centrifuges that were either not finished, or at a very early stage of installation according to the last quarterly International Atomic Energy Agency report issued on September 7.

Iran has also informed the IAEA that it plans to add an extra three cascades of IR-2m machines at the FEP, on top of the 12 already announced and now installed, the report showed. Of those three extra IR-2m cascades, installation has already started on two of them, the report said. (JPost / VFI News)

“God, we ask that you protect us from nuclear war, and that you help allies around the world realize that Iranian plans in regards to nuclear weapons are not benevolent and will possibly end up in tragedy.”

At a Red Cross center in Moscow, a dark-haired woman nervously held a phone to her ear, trying to dig out details about her Jewish roots to help her son flee President Vladimir Putin’s drive to mobilize troops to fight in Ukraine.

“Mum, your grandfather Moishe was born in 1870, like Lenin, right?” she asked. “Getting an Israeli passport is the only way for my son not to go to fight in Ukraine,” the exhausted woman, who declined to give her name for security reasons, explained. 

Tens of thousands of Russians have fled the country since Putin sent troops to Ukraine in February and then announced a nationwide military call-up in September. 

Many have scrambled to find their Jewish roots to open up the doors to Israel. Under Israel’s Law of Return, anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent is eligible for Israeli citizenship, as are people who convert to Judaism. 

More than one million of Israel’s 9.4 million residents have roots in the former Soviet Union. Israel has said immigration applications from Russia and Ukraine have tripled since the conflict started. The Central Bureau of Statistics counted 20,000 arrivals from Russia and more than 12,000 from Ukraine, since the end of February. (TOI / VFI News)

“In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.” - Psalm 4:8

The cabinet approved the principles of the Lebanon maritime delineation agreement with a "large majority" and Prime Minister Yair Lapid's proposal to bring it to the Knesset floor for review, but not for a vote. 

The principles of the agreement and its influences on Israel's national security and regional stability were presented to the cabinet, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said in a statement.

 In addition to the Knesset floor, the agreement will also be presented in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, according to the statement. In twelve days, it will be brought before the cabinet for final ratification, pending the Attorney-General's approval throughout.

Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked voted against the proposal, arguing that it needed to be voted on in the Knesset. 

Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel said that although he also believed that the deal needed to be voted on in the Knesset, he held "ministerial responsibility" for the agreement.

The proposal not to put the agreement up for a vote in the Knesset countered Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara's preferred option. However, according to the A-G, the law did not require this. 

The Security Cabinet called to approve the US-mediated maritime boundary agreement between Israel and Lebanon as soon as possible earlier on Wednesday, October 12. (JPost / VFI News)

The lips of the righteous know what finds favor, but the mouth of the wicked only what is perverse. - Proverbs 10:32

The Energean company announced to the Tel Aviv and London stock exchanges Thursday, October 6, that its Hermes exploration well in Israeli maritime waters has yielded a new commercial gas discovery of 7-15 billion cubic meters, according to estimates. 

Hermes is located southeast of the Karish field, to which the UK-Greek company holds the production rights. The Stena IceMax drilling rig has now moved to the so-called Olympus area, located between Energean’s Karish and Tanin fields. 

The company hopes that exploration will enable it to further refine estimates of natural gas there, which currently stand at a theoretical 58 billion cubic meters, according to Energean’s notice. 

The company said that the Hermes discovery had lowered the risk of exploring other nearby areas, such as the Poseidon and Orpheus structures. Energean has exercised its option to drill a sixth well with Stena Drilling Limited, targeting the Hercules prospect, located on block 23, between Hermes and Israel’s coast.

For the sake of comparison, the Karish and Tanin fields contain a total of around 75 billion cubic meters of natural gas. About 12 billion cubic meters are consumed annually in Israel. (TOI / VFI News)

“However, there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you” - Deuteronomy 15:4

A groundbreaking new Israeli study has revealed that two biological factors could be the key to preventing high-risk individuals from developing heart disease.

Conducted by the Assuta Ashdod Public Hospital in collaboration with the Rabin Medical Center, the research found that endothelial progenitor cells – which help repair the inner lining of a blood vessel following vascular injury – as well as telomere length, may play a critical role in preventing heart disease. The results of the study were recently published in the Coronary Artery Disease medical journal. 

Led by Dr. Einat Shaked and Prof. Eli Lev of Assuta Ashdod’s Cardiology Department, the research set out to uncover why some people never develop heart disease despite having high-risk profiles (diabetes, smoking, excess cholesterol, etc.), while others do. 

Researchers found that patients with a high risk for coronary artery disease, but with healthy arteries had greater endothelial progenitor cell function than patients with existing heart disease. In addition, they also discovered that these cells had longer telomeres (which indicate a cell’s lifespan) in individuals with normal arteries. Telomere length has previously been shown to be correlated with overall cell health. 

The findings indicate that these two factors could serve as a protective mechanism against atherosclerosis, which results from the buildup of fats and cholesterol on the artery walls. (JPost / VFI News)

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

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