VFI News March 15, 2022

Russia is "very disappointed" with Israel in the UN vote & Israel preparing field hospital for Ukraine, lets's watch Barry and hear what he has in this new episode!

#Ukraine #Russia #Putin #Biden #Invation #Evacuate #Iran #UN #hospital #Israel

• 00:26 - Iran gets more than it expected in Nuclear talks
• 01:44 - Russia "very disappointed" with Israel in UN vote
• 02:50 President Zelensky thanks Bennet for mediation efforts
• 03:59 - Israel preparing field hospital for Ukraine

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Our team at Vision for Israel wishes you a very happy Purim! May this be a joyous time full of holy celebration, good food, and reflection for you and your family.

Russia has been open to holding negotiations with Ukraine in Jerusalem, a senior diplomatic source told JPost on Saturday, March 12, soon after Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke on the phone.

Zelenskyy had said earlier on Saturday that “at present, it's not constructive to hold meetings in Russia, Ukraine, or Belarus. These are not the places where we can agree to stop the war... Do I consider Israel, Jerusalem in particular, to be such a place? I think the answer is yes."

Russia has not rejected the idea of negotiations in Jerusalem, the diplomatic source said, but Israel is not sure it should host the talks.

“We know from our experience that negotiations that don’t have a chance lead to a worse situation on the ground,” the source told JPost, adding, “We have to see if we can really be helpful. If there can be a breakthrough, we’ll do anything.”

Bennett and Zelenskyy held a lengthy phone call on Saturday evening.

During the conversation, which lasted over an hour, the two also discussed possible options for ending the fighting in Ukraine, as well as Israel's efforts on the matter.

On Friday, Bennett had pushed Zelenskyy to take Putin’s proposal for ending the war. An official in the Prime Minister’s Office denied the claim.

Bennett, who has been trying to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, last Saturday made a surprise visit to Moscow, where he met Putin to discuss the crisis in Ukraine. From Moscow, Bennett flew to Berlin where he met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz before returning to Israel. He also spoke to Zelenskyy several times on Saturday.

On Sunday, March 13, Bennett spoke on the telephone with Zelenskyy, for the third time in the last 24 hours. Later in the day, Bennett held another telephone conversation with Putin. (INN / VFI News)

“God, we ask that you bring peace between Ukraine and Russia, and bring comfort to the victims of this war.”

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.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday, March 11, Russia was hiring “murderers” from Syria to fight in Ukraine after Moscow said fighters from the war-torn nation would be allowed to join its forces.

“It’s a war with a very stubborn enemy… who has decided to hire mercenaries against our citizens. Murderers from Syria, a country where everything has been destroyed… like they are doing here to us,” Zelensky said in a video statement on Telegram.

The Kremlin said Friday that fighters from Syria and the Middle East would be allowed to fight for Russia in Ukraine after Russian President Vladimir Putin backed a plan to send “volunteers” to battle there.

“If you see that there are these people who want of their own accord, not for money, to come to help the people living in Donbas, then we need to give them what they want and help them get to the conflict zone,” Putin said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “if the West is so enthusiastic about the arrival of mercenaries, then we also have volunteers who want to participate.”

According to Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, more than 16,000 volunteers — mostly from the Middle East — have applied to join the offensive in Ukraine.

In addition, a group of fighters in the Central African Republic have released a video in which they said they were also preparing to join Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

EU leaders have been meeting in France’s Versailles since Thursday to urgently address the fallout of the Russian invasion. On Friday, they sought to double financing for military aid to Ukraine by an extra 500 million euros (around $550 million). They also described Moscow’s attack on Ukraine as a wake-up call for the 27-nation bloc to take a more muscular approach in ensuring its security. (TOI / VFI News)

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. - Ephesians 6:11

Pope Francis continued his crusade against the Russian war on Ukraine Saturday, March 12, urging combatants to stop “in the name of God.”

“Never war!” the pontiff tweeted, attaching memes of himself with his text in Ukrainian as well as Russian.

“Think first about the children, about those who are deprived of the hope for a dignified life: dead or wounded children, orphans, children who play with the remnants of war… In the name of God, stop!” he declared.

On the same day, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, released an interview with Vatican News, in which he called the Russian war on Ukraine a “barbarity” and a “folly.”

The position of the Holy See is “a strong ‘no’ to war; war is madness, it must be stopped,” the cardinal declared. “We ask, appealing to the consciences of all, that the fighting cease immediately.”

Parolin also denounced Russian attacks on civilians, referencing the suffering of the innocent victims of the war.

“We have before our eyes the terrible images coming from Ukraine,” Parolin declared. “The victims among the civilians, women, elderly people, and defenseless children who have paid with their lives for the folly of war.”

“The anguish grows as we see cities with gutted houses, no electricity, sub-zero temperatures, lack of food and medicine, as well as millions of refugees, mostly women and children, fleeing the bombs,” he said. (BB / VFI News)

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

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tehran will not bow to pressure to reduce its “defensive power,” regional proxies, and progress in nuclear technology, he was cited as saying in Iranian state media on Thursday, March 10.

“Suggestions to reduce our defensive power so as to appease the enemy are nothing more than naive and ill-advised… Over time, these flawed proposals have been rebutted, but if they weren’t, Iran would have now faced great threats,” Khamenei was quoted as saying.

“Regional presence gives us strategic depth and more power. Why should we give it up? Scientific progress in the nuclear field is related to our future needs, and if we give that up, will anyone help us in the future?” he added.

Tehran is locked in negotiations with world powers to revive the nuclear deal that offered sanctions relief in return for curbs on its atomic program.

Its arch-foe the United States, under former US President Donald Trump, unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from the accord known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Negotiators have signaled that talks had progressed into a “final phase,” but pending issues were still unresolved.

Israel has warned that funds from an economy freed from sanctions will enable Iran to step up support for its proxies across the Middle East, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group. (TOI / VFI News)

“God, we ask that you bring peace between Israel and the rest of the region, and bring Iran to a place of peace and kindness.”

This beautiful hymn is a prayer from Deuteronomy 26:15, expressing a great desire that God would look upon us with an eye of love, complacency, and delight—and to grant the promises that He has made to us for abundance and prosperity. Enjoy this warm, personal communication with God, set to serene scenes and timeless tones from the Land.

Saudi Arabia said Saturday, March 12; it executed 81 people in one day on a variety of terrorism-related offenses, exceeding the total number of executions in the kingdom in the whole of last year.

All had been “found guilty of committing multiple heinous crimes,” the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported, saying they included convicts linked to the Islamic State group, or to al-Qaeda, Yemen’s Houthi rebel forces, or “other terrorist organizations.”

They had been plotting attacks on vital economic sites, or had targeted or had killed members of the security forces, or had smuggled weapons into the country, the SPA added.

Of the 81 people, 73 were Saudi citizens, seven were Yemeni and one was a Syrian national.

“The accused were provided with the right to an attorney and were guaranteed their full rights under Saudi law during the judicial process, which found them guilty of committing multiple heinous crimes that left a large number of civilians and law enforcement officers dead,” SPA said.

Of the 81 people, 73 were Saudi citizens, seven were Yemeni and one was a Syrian national.

“The accused were provided with the right to an attorney and were guaranteed their full rights under Saudi law during the judicial process, which found them guilty of committing multiple heinous crimes that left a large number of civilians and law enforcement officers dead,” SPA said. (TOI / VFI News)

Islamic State confirmed on Thursday, March 10, the death of its leader Abu Ibrahim Al-hashemi Al-Quraishi and its spokesperson Abu Hamza Al-Quraishi, and announced Abu Al-Hassan Al-hashemi Al-Quraishi as its new chief.

Quraishi, a religious scholar and soldier in former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s army who led IS from the shadows for a little over two years, died in a US special forces raid in northern Syria in February when he detonated a bomb that killed him and family members, the US administration said.

The death of Quraishi, 45, was another crushing blow to IS two years after the violent Sunni Muslim group lost longtime leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a similar raid in 2019.

The group did not deny or confirm the US narrative and the new IS spokesman, Abu Umar al Muhajir, said in a recorded speech on Thursday that Quraishi's last battle was at Ghuwayran prison in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasaka.

At least 200 prison inmates and militants as well as 30 security forces died in an Islamic State attack on the jail in January in a bid to free their members, officials have said. (TOI / VFI News)

Iran’s Fars News, which is a pro-government media outlet linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, ran a long article bashing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and using antisemitic tropes.

In the March 10 article that appears on its website's homepage, Zelensky is accused of being a hedonist who seeks to “gain power and pleasure, using any kind of moral and financial corruption being committed.” It accuses him of having made obscene works in his film career and supporting “marijuana, gambling and prostitution.”

The article openly refers to him as a Jew with “deep ties to Jewish officials and the rich, such as George Soros.” It accuses him of being a Zionist, saying that “Zionist behavior” is duplicitous and that Israel had tossed Ukraine aside “like a handkerchief.”

Overall, the article is full of slander against Zelensky. What is important here is how Iranian media tries to hint at various conspiracies and takes from Turkish and other sources to weave a tale of negative stereotypes against him.

This is clearly part of the Iranian regime's agenda to attack and tarnish the Ukrainian leader as part of Tehran's desire to have some closer relations with Russia.

Iran’s media doesn’t go the full distance of claiming more wild antisemitic conspiracies such as the Elders of Zion, but this media dog-whistling is part of the worldview linked to the far-right Islamists that push ideologies similar to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Hamas and others in the Brotherhood have long pushed anti-Jewish conspiracies, such as linking Jews to the French revolution and sex crimes. In addition, those like Malaysia’s former leader Mahathir Mohammed have often pushed antisemitic conspiracies about Jews being behind the world’s conflicts. (JPost / VFI News)

Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight. - Proverbs 12:22

Light snowfall is expected in Jerusalem and other mountainous areas in Israel on Tuesday, March 15, when many children are set to celebrate at school ahead of Purim. This would be the first time snow fell around Purim since the 1980's.

Purim is on Wednesday night and Thursday during the day in most of Israel and on Thursday night and Friday during the day in Jerusalem this year. Many schools throughout Israel conducted celebrations and encouraged students to come in costume a few days before the holiday.

Temperatures on Tuesday will range between 33°F (1°C) to 36°F (2°C) in Jerusalem.

Light snowfall is expected from Tuesday morning through the evening, with a very thin accumulation forecasted.

Due to the expected winter weather on Tuesday, the Jerusalem Municipality, Har Hebron Regional Council and Binyamin Regional Council decided they will conduct Purim celebrations in schools on Monday instead.

The Jerusalem Municipality is activating its emergency headquarters and municipal emergency services and they will be ready to respond to any scenario. The municipality will salt the roads on the night between Monday and Tuesday and on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday.

As of Sunday evening, March 13, a regular school day is expected on Tuesday. A situation assessment will be held on Monday. The municipality advised residents to avoid driving or hazardous activities. (JPost / VFI News)

Therefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. And because of the instructions in this letter, both what they had seen in this regard and what had happened to them. - Esther 9:26

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

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