VFI News November 26, 2021

Record number of hate crimes against Jews and Christians in Europe, and a WARNING to America Barry's got the latest!

#israel #themiddleast #israelipolitics #iran #proisrael #antisemitism #borisjohnson #history

• 03:18 Hodu La’adonai - Barry & Batya Music
• 03:48 Herzog meets with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson
• 05:49 Record number of hate crimes against Jews and Christians in Europe (edited)
• 07:38 Israeli Squash team could be banned from World Championships in Malaysia
• 08:06 Israeli 11-year-old girl finds coin dating back to the 1st Century
• 09:55 A warning to America

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President Isaac Herzog called on the UK to be tough in the upcoming nuclear negotiations with Iran, in his meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at Downing Street on Tuesday, November 23.

Johnson said that Israel’s point was “well-made, and we see a situation in which the world doesn’t have much time.”

Herzog said that Israel expects its allies to be tough with Iran since it does not believe that Iran can be trusted, and is using the talks to continue its pursuit of an illicit nuclear capability. The way to do that, he said, was to make sure that all options are on the table, implying a military option.

“As you enter your negotiations with the P5+1 on the Iranian nuclear situation, we are looking forward for our allies in the P5+1 to be as tough as possible, because we do not believe that they are operating in a bona fide manner, and only if all options are on the table may things move in the right direction,” Herzog said.

The president also thanked Johnson for the UK’s recent decision to label all of Hamas as a terrorist organization.

“This is a very important message to terror organizations and global radicals trying to undermine the situation in the Middle East,” said Herzog.

Johnson concurred, saying “it was a difficult and controversial decision but I think the right thing, and by the way, a decision that I think was almost immediately vindicated by the appalling incident that we saw in Israel. Terrible, terrible thing.” (JPost / VFI News)

“God, we thank you for continuing to build and strengthen alliances and ask that you keep us safe from nuclear 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.

Israel will not be bound by a new nuclear deal with Iran, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Tuesday, November 23.

"We hope the world does not blink, but if it does, we do not intend to. We stand at the outset of a complex period," Bennett added.

The remarks came ahead of talks next week in Vienna, Austria, with the parties to the 2015 nuclear deal. Tuesday was the first time Bennett laid out his policy toward Iran since taking office earlier this year.

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz echoed the statements this week, reiterating that the Jewish state will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.

In an interview with Fox News earlier this year, Gantz said his country has been updating plans to strike Iranian nuclear facilities.

Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi was in Iran on Tuesday for talks. His goal: to get greater access from Iran to inspect nuclear sites. The inspectors have not had access to surveillance cameras in Iran’s declared nuclear facilities.

"I hope to establish a fruitful and cooperative channel of direct dialogue so the (IAEA) can resume essential verification activities in the country," Grossi tweeted. (Fox News / VFI News)

He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. - Isaiah 2:4

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) released a report on how hate crimes against Christians and Jews have increased dramatically. Compared to the previous year (578), it means a 70 percent increase in crimes against Christians. The number of anti-Semitic hate crimes also increased, from 600 to 2,316.

"The massive increase in the number of hate crimes should open the eyes of political and cultural elites", warned Madeleine Enzlberger, director of the Observatory on intolerance and discrimination: "In the media and politically, hatred for Christians it is hardly noticed”. And the actual number of hate crimes is significantly higher than reported. Only eleven countries submitted data on crimes. But the Council of Europe is engaged in progressive advertising in favor of the hijab...

In Germany, a creeping war is underway against everything that symbolizes Christianity: attacks on crosses placed on top of the mountains, sacred statues on the street, churches and recently also cemeteries. A local newspaper reports that in Dülmen, a city with fewer than 50,000 inhabitants, "not a day goes by without religious statues being attacked in the urban center and in the immediate vicinity". In France, on average two churches are vandalized every day.

Meanwhile, a poll by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee of leaders of Jewish communities in Europe found that 23% are considering emigrating. More than two-thirds said they expected an increase in anti-Semitism in Europe over the next decade, and 22% said they didn't feel safe in their cities, up from 7% in 2008.

Speaking to Le Point, Pinchas Goldschmidt, the president of the Conference of European Rabbis, when asked if he feels safer on the street, in Moscow, where he lives, or in Paris or Brussels where he goes regularly, replied: "I feel much safer in Moscow. Especially since I was personally attacked in Brussels. Three months ago I met Jews in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, who moved there because they feel safer than in Paris or Brussels. In an Arab country!".

Then Goldschmidt gets out impressive numbers: "A few years ago, there were 1.6 million Jews left in Europe. Today that number has dropped by at least 300,000." (INN / VFI News)

“Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.” - Proverbs 10:12

The Israel Squash Association (ISA) plans to take the World Squash Federation (WSF) to the Court of Arbitration for Sport if it does not ensure Israeli players can participate in the world championship in Malaysia next month.

The Men’s World Team Squash Championship, set for December 7, was moved from New Zealand to Malaysia in May, due to COVID-19 restrictions in the original location.

However, Israelis are not able to visit Malaysia, and the Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia (SRAM) ignored the ISA when it inquired about the possibility of receiving special visas so its players could attend.

When WSF president Zena Wooldridge followed up on the matter, the Malaysian association responded on September 27 that the Israelis would not be allowed to participate.

“As you may be aware, there are, sadly, long-standing sensitivities surrounding the Israel-Palestine conflict,” SRAM president Gerard Monteiro wrote, adding that Malaysia “would not be able to guarantee [Israeli players’] safety and well-being.”

“As is encountered across the world, there are sympathizers of the conflict who will not hesitate to take extreme measures to display their displeasure toward the nation of Israel and her people.”

Wooldridge told the Israelis that she had not yet found a way to enable them to attend the championship in Kuala Lumpur.

On October 5, ISA chairman Aviv Bushinsky wrote to WSF CEO William Louis-Marie to express the Israeli team’s disappointment.

“On the one hand, we are explicitly being discriminated against, and therefore, unable to participate,” Bushinsky wrote. “Yet on the other hand, if we insist on realizing our basic rights” – to inclusiveness, according to the WSF’s by-laws – “a state that is far from being a squash superpower would lead to the cancellation of the event that is so important for the sport worldwide.”

As such, he suggested moving this year’s World Team Squash Championship to Israel, where all competitors from all nations would be guaranteed equal participation, or to award Israel the opportunity to host a future championship in the next two years.

Sport and Culture Minister Chili Tropper appealed to Wooldridge, calling the situation “particularly absurd” in light of the fact that the Israeli Squash Association was invited by the World Squash Federation to participate and paid all fees and dues.

“I find it impossible to believe that in this modern era, there is still a place for discrimination, as well as the mixing of political considerations and sport,” Tropper wrote.

The minister pointed out that in 2019, the International Paralympic Committee canceled the International Swimming Championship due to Malaysia’s refusal to allow Israeli athletes to enter the country. That same year, the International Olympic Committee issued sanctions on the Iranian judo association for not allowing Israelis to participate in the competition that they hosted. And Qatar has guaranteed that Israeli players and spectators will be able to attend the FIFA World Cup even though the countries don’t have diplomatic relations.

On Friday, November 19, Wooldridge wrote to Tropper that it “welcomes Israel’s entry to this championship,” the barrier to Israel’s entry “does not sit with WSF,” and “the door is not yet closed on this.”

“We agree that politics should not interfere to prevent any nations’ players from participating,” she wrote, adding that the WSF did not anticipate the difficulty in obtaining visas for the Israeli team.

However, Wooldridge said that in light of the tournament already being moved once, it would be too difficult to move it again on such short notice, so she will continue working to try to get visas for the Israeli players. (JPost / VFI News)

“God, we ask that you eliminate antisemitism, and provide the opportunity for the Israeli squash team to compete.”

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. - Psalm 136:1

The Israeli start-up company GEOX has developed technology that can predict floods and build dams, which will protect residents in Ghana from flooding disasters.

The project, worth more than $200 million and funded by the World Bank, uses three-dimensional mapping of routes, areas, and buildings, which then helps estimate in advance which areas will be flooded during heavy rain and quickly alerts local residents.

Furthermore, the technology can be used to design a dam system and protect river tides to reduce the risk of floods. Many Ghanans have suffered enormous property damage as a result of repeated floods.

GEOX's mapping is based on work by Ofek Aerial Photography, which is processed and analyzed using AI so that specific predictions about each building can be made – such as whether it will be flooded and to what extent – and warnings can be issued accordingly to residents.

Simultaneously, the technology helps optimal planning of investments in infrastructure and protection systems. This is done by examining scenarios and models of rainwater and its impact on buildings.

"With the help of proper planning based on information, it is possible to provide protection [and] save lives and property from the climate crisis and the rapidly changing world," according to GEOX CEO Itzik Levy. "In addition, we want to provide solutions anywhere in the world for all types of damage as a result of strong winds, fires, earthquakes, etc."

The technology by GEOX, founded in 2018, is currently used by insurance companies, banks, and local authorities in Israel, the US, Europe, and Australia to perform in-depth analyses of buildings. (JPost / VFI News)

Four Israeli universities were listed in PitchBook’s 2021 ranking of 50 leading undergraduate programs that produce the most VC-backed entrepreneurs, including Tel Aviv University, which ranked in the top 10.

The annual PitchBook study ranks programs across categories such as top 50 undergraduate programs, top 25 MBA programs, top 25 undergrad programs for female founders, and top 25 MBA programs for female founders. The 2021 study was released last week.

PitchBook Data is a company that delivers data and research covering mergers and acquisitions, VC, and private equity funds.

In the ranking, Tel Aviv University came in at 8th place, for the fourth consecutive year; Technion-Israel Institute of Technology placed 12th, for the second consecutive year; Hebrew University of Jerusalem moved up one spot from last year to 31st; and the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev placed 44th, up two spots from 2020.

Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard University nabbed first, second and third place respectively, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and University of Pennsylvania rounded out the top five. Harvard took over the third spot in 2021 from MIT, which moved down to the fourth place. (TOI / VFI News)

“God, we thank You for blessing Your children with talent, drive, and a pursuit of excellence in Your name.”

The only Jewish kicker in the NFL for years now, Greg Joseph is used to how mentally taxing the position can be. On Sunday, November 21, he found himself in another one of its do-or-die situations.

With two seconds left to go in a tied game against the division-leading Green Bay Packers on Sunday, Joseph kicked his Minnesota Vikings to victory with a 29-yard field goal, keeping the team’s playoff hopes alive. He was carried off the field by his teammates.

Joseph, who attended Jewish schools in Florida after immigrating from South Africa, said he deals with the pressure of being a kicker by working on having “confidence and faith in my abilities.”

Joseph’s kick Sunday night harkened back to a similar moment three years ago, when he kicked a game-winner for the Cleveland Browns in only his third game as a pro — hours after affixing a mezuzah to the doorpost of his apartment.

The 27-year-old’s career as one of the league’s handful of Jewish players has been a rollercoaster ride, ranging from the lows of being released by multiple teams in a year to the highs of a steady starting role. This season, he is the starting kicker for the Minnesota Vikings, making 84% of field goal attempts so far on a team trying to claw its way to a playoff spot.

Through it all — five teams in three years — he has remained engaged in the local Jewish communities of the cities he has traveled through. In Cleveland, he showed up to a 5-year-old’s birthday party at a Jewish school and put up his mezuzah with the help of a local Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi. Last year on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he joked, “I think we had a league-leading three Jews on one team” — himself, quarterback Josh Rosen and offensive lineman Ali Marpet.

“That sense of community, no matter where I’ve been, you have people reach out and offer their support — Shabbat dinners, anything you need, home-cooked meals. … Just all because they hear I’m Jewish, which is pretty crazy because they don’t even know me that well, and I don’t even know them at all,” he told JTA. “I’ve always thought that’s a cool aspect of the community and support system that it brings.” (JPost / VFI News)

A rare silver coin from the first century was found by an 11-year-old girl volunteering in an archaeological project, the Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced on Tuesday, November 23. The coin was likely minted by a priest who joined the Jewish rebels against the Romans, which would make it one of the very few remains coming directly from the Temple.

“This is a rare find since out of many thousands of coins discovered to date in archaeological excavations, only about 30 are coins made of silver from the period of the Great Revolt,” said Dr. Robert Kool, head of the Coin Department at the IAA.

The coin, made of pure silver, weighs 14 grams. On one side it features a cup and the inscription: “Israeli shekel” and “second year,” referring to the second year of the revolt (67-68 CE).

On the other side, another inscription reads “Holy Jerusalem” in ancient Hebrew script, accompanied by another word that according to the experts refers to the headquarters of the High Priest in the Temple.

Archaeologist Ari Levy, who lead the excavation on behalf of the IAA, said the street where it was found, “which connected the Shiloah Pool in the south of the City of David to the Temple Mount in the north, was Jerusalem’s main street during the Second Temple period, where thousands of pilgrims marched on their way to the Temple. There is no doubt that there would have been extensive trading here. This is evidenced by the many weights and bronze coins we have found here. But to find a rebel coin made of pure silver is definitely very special and exciting.” (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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