VFI News Mar 29, 2022

Holocaust survivor killed in Ukraine & Zelensky criticizes Israel for not supplying weapons to Ukraine and more news! lets's watch Barry and hear what he has in this new episode!

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

• 00:48 - Nato estimates between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian soldiers dead
• 01:22 - Holocaust survivor killed in Ukraine
• 02:39 - Zeliensky criticizes Israel for not supplying weapons to Ukraine
• 04:58 - Over 5,000 immigrants have arrived in Israel from Eastern Europe since the start of the war
• 07:24 - Iran is the greatest threat to regional stability and security
• 08:54 - British Iranian accused of spying for Israel released after 5 years
• 10:07 - Inexplicable antisemitism still a worldwide problem
• 11:57 - Singapore to open embassy in Israel after 57 years of ties
• 13:13 - Knesset members welcomed in Indonesia

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Two Arab-Israeli terrorists who swore allegiance to ISIS shot and killed two Border Police officers and injured twelve others in Hadera on Sunday evening, March 27.

The two Border Police officers killed in the attack in Hadera were Yazan Fallah, 19, from Kasra Samia, and Shirel Aboukaret, 19, from Netanya.

Sheren Fallah Saab, a journalist at Haaretz, tweeted on Monday that Fallah is her relative, saying "this is one of the hardest nights for the Fallah family - my family."

"I have no words to describe to you how awful and painful the shock, crying and helplessness that struck the family is," wrote Saab. Yazan leaves behind his parents and two sisters.

The two terrorists, both residents of Umm el-Fahm, posted a video on Facebook before the attack swearing allegiance to ISIS. The terrorist movement's news agency published a statement on Sunday taking responsibility for the attack in Hadera, as well as for the deadly terrorist attack conducted by an ISIS-supporting Bedouin-Israeli in Beersheba last week. (JPost/VFI News)

“God, we ask that you comfort the families of Yazan Fallah and Shirel Aboukaret, and bring members of ISIS to justice.”

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.

Russian Ambassador to Syria Alexander Efimov warned Thursday, March 24, that Israeli strikes in Syria are “provoking” Russia to react, in one of the strongest Russian condemnations of Israeli operations in Syria.

Efimov additionally complained that Israeli strikes aim to “escalate tensions and allow the West to carry out military activities in Syria.”

The statement comes amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, which Israeli officials have condemned. Israel has also provided hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid to Ukraine and opened a field hospital in the country.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid stressed during a conference at Reichmann University on Thursday that Israel has had to balance its security interests in Syria, which are coordinated with Russia, with its moral obligation to Ukraine amid the Russian invasion.

"We condemned the invasion, sent a field hospital to Ukraine, but we must prevent the possibility that one Israeli pilot will be shot down in Syria and taken prisoner," said Lapid. "Think what this will do to Israeli society. What will this do to our national security?" (JPost / VFI News)

“God, we ask that you protect your people, and bring an end to this horrible war.”

A senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke at length about his own Jewish heritage during a conversation Thursday, March 24, with Israeli journalists.

Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff, conducted the hour-long briefing in Ukrainian, using an interpreter. Until, that is, he was asked about his Jewish heritage.

Yermak switched to English only for this response, speaking directly to the Israelis.

“My father is Jewish, he was born in Kyiv,” said the 50-year-old, dressed in the military fleece that Ukraine’s leadership has donned throughout the war with Russia.

“Some of my relatives were killed in Babyn Yar,” he stressed, referring to the ravine in Kyiv in which over 33,000 Jews were slaughtered by Nazi Germany and its local allies in September 1941.

“The Jewish people know all too well the threat of being eradicated,” he wrote. “Today, Ukraine is Israel.”

During the conversation, Yermak also spoke about Borys Romanchenko, the 96-year-old Holocaust survivor killed by a Russian airstrike in Kharkiv. “He managed to survive in this hell of Nazi concentration camps, and then died at 96 from a Russian bomb. This is a surreal reality. This has no justification.”

Yermak added that his family maintains contact with Jewish relatives in Israel, the US, and Belgium.

Zelensky, Yermak’s boss, is also Jewish and lost his great-grandparents in the Holocaust.

Throughout the briefing, Yermak sought to draw parallels between Ukraine and Israel, arguing that the kinship should make Jerusalem more firmly pro-Ukrainian.

Zelensky’s senior aide described the period before the Russian invasion as one of marked tolerance between ethnicities and religions.

Though the circumstances are now far grimmer, that unity has persisted, Yermak maintained. “It doesn’t matter — Ukrainian Jews, Ukrainian Russians, original Ukrainians, other nations — everybody is together. Everybody is united around the president. Everyone is fighting every day.”

“[Ukraine] is a great nation in the center of Europe, and this is a great nation which wanted to be free, to be independent,” he continued. “And I’m sure that our history will be so great, as great as the history of Israel, and the relations between our countries, the relations between our people, will be stronger, and we can always say that we are real friends.” (TOI / VFI News)

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. - John 15:13

While providing humanitarian aid to Ukrainian refugees on the Moldovan border, as well as around the Moldovan capital of Chisinau at several refugee centers, United Hatzalah’s team and its volunteers have also undertaken a series of small-scale covert missions inside Ukraine itself.

United Hatzalah purchased four local ambulances last week in an effort to facilitate these rescue missions.

The group sent special teams inside Ukraine from Moldova and Slovakia with the purpose of distributing medical supplies to hospitals near the western border and to rescue and recover injured and ill people who wish to flee the war-torn country but are unable to do so due to medical conditions.

United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Yehiel Gurfein, who has been in Moldova continuously since Operation Orange Wings began on February 27, together with Vladimir, a local volunteer from the Jewish community of Moldova, departed Moldova to bring the much-needed medical supplies to the Ukrainian citizens.

The equipment included trauma bandages, tourniquets, medications, and food.

During one of these missions, which took place on Sunday morning, March 27, a group of Jewish Ukrainians who stayed back to protect property in their community, such as businesses and synagogues, contacted the organization and requested medical supplies and trauma care equipment.

These people are not trained soldiers nor do they have sufficient medical training. They are fathers who were not allowed to leave the country with their wives and children.

Ukraine has made military conscription mandatory following the Russian invasion and has barred all men of fighting age from leaving the country.

These men have since organized on their own and risked their lives to protect the lives and property of others in their communities.

After several hours of travel with constant barrages of rockets and explosions in the distance, Yechiel and Vladimir met up with personnel on the Ukrainian side and began instructing the men on how to properly use the newly received equipment. (JPost / VFI News)

Every school year, our team works hard to distribute school bags stuffed with supplies for children in need throughout the country. Together, we’re helping children from all backgrounds start off strong—and we’re so thankful for your support.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will host his counterparts from the US, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco for a “historic diplomatic summit” this week, the Foreign Ministry announced on Friday, March 25.

The summit is set to take place on Sunday and Monday, according to the statement, which said more details would follow.

The announcement came a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced his visit to Israel and the West Bank, a move that had taken some analysts by surprise as the top US diplomat had visited less than a year ago and is not expected to announce a major diplomatic initiative.

Blinken will be joined by the UAE’s Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Bahrain’s Abdullatif bin Rashid Al- Zayani, and Morocco’s Nasser Bourita in the latest gathering that would likely not have taken place if not for the signing of the Abraham Accords.

Israel has made strengthening the accords a top priority, scheduling regular diplomatic meetings with member countries. It also is looking to expand the agreements to include other countries as well.

Sunday’s meeting of foreign ministers took place less than a week after Bennett traveled to the Sinai resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh for the first-ever trilateral summit with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan — another development likely made possible by the Abraham Accords. (TOI / VFI News)

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

It’s not only among Israeli Jews that opinions are divided on how to view Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Top rabbis from both countries this month traded barbs in the media over the ongoing war and the role played by antisemitism and the Jews.

Back in December of last year, Russia tabled a resolution in the UN General Assembly that, unbeknownst at the time, was a prelude to the current war.

Resolution 76/149 is titled “Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance.”

Ukraine and the United States were the only two countries to vote against it.

US officials said that while they certainly oppose the glorification of Nazism, the wording of the Russian resolution impinged on America’s First Amendment. The reason for Ukraine voting against the resolution is less clear, but the implication, at least in Russia, has been that the country is among those experiencing a worrying rise in Nazism.

And that’s what Rabbi Alexander Boroda told Russia’s state-run Interfax news agency earlier this month.

“In recent years there has been a systematic glorification of Nazi criminals [in Ukraine], torchlight marches and the like,” charged Rabbi Boroda, chairman of the Board of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FJCR).

He explained that while Ukraine is home to “a fairly large and largely prosperous Jewish community, the glorification of criminals responsible for the death of the ancestors of those Jews is going on in parallel.”

Rabbi Boroda works hand-in-hand with Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, and both are close confidants of Vladimir Putin. At the start of his invasion of Ukraine, Putin insisted that among his motivations was “de-nazifying” the country.

Responding to Rabbi Boroda was one of Ukraine’s chief rabbis, Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman, who told The Jerusalem Post that “Jews on the Russian side who support this war are supporting the massacre of Jews.”

“The Russian military is committing war crimes in Ukraine,” he added. “They are killing women and children. No one asked them to ‘de-Nazify’ us as a country.”

Rabbi Azman noted that he knows Rabbi Boroda well, and suggested that perhaps he felt compelled or even was forced to speak out in support of Putin’s war: “I understand that the rabbis in Russia may have no choice because the ‘iron curtains’ are setting in again.”

It is notable that while Ukraine has a stained past in regards to the Holocaust and ties to Nazi Germany, the country is today led by a Jewish president who enjoys wide popularity. (IT/ VFI News)

“God, we pray that Your peace that surpasses all understanding will guide the leaders of the countries and that hate and antisemitism will be uprooted from the world.”

Israel is the second-most expensive country to buy property in the world, new research has revealed.

A study examined average property prices per square meter in addition to the average disposable household income in each country, to calculate the cost per square meter as a percentage of annual income.

Israel came in second place as the least affordable country in which to buy property, behind only South Korea, which took the No. 1 spot. Luxembourg came in third.

Although Israel has a relatively low property price of $7,600 per square meter, it has an average disposable income of $24,863, meaning the affordability ratio came out to 30.6%.

“Trying to buy a property right now is harder than it’s ever been, largely thanks to the pandemic in particular,” said Stephen Zeller, general manager of Home and Contents Insurance at Compare the Market. “While property prices, costs of living, and property shortages are reaching new highs, wages and disposable income have struggled to keep up, which means that for some, the property buying process may at times feel impossible.

“However, annual incomes and property prices vary a lot from one country to the next, and so it is not bad news for everyone, especially for the countries that rank in the topmost affordable places to buy property.”

In Israel, it is not only housing prices that are skyrocketing but also the general cost of living. Late last year, The Economist named Tel Aviv as the world’s most expensive city for everything from shopping to cappuccinos. (JPost / VFI News)

Archaeologist Dr. Scott Stripling and a team of international scholars held a press conference on Thursday, March 24, in Houston, Texas, unveiling what he claims is the earliest proto-alphabetic Hebrew text — including the name of God, “YHWH” — ever discovered in ancient Israel. It was found at Mount Ebal, known from Deuteronomy 11:29 as a place of curses.

If the Late Bronze Age (circa 1200 BCE) date is verified, this tiny, 2-centimeter x 2-centimeter folded-lead “curse tablet” may be one of the greatest archaeological discoveries ever. It would be the first attested use of the name of God in the Land of Israel and would set the clock back on proven Israelite literacy by several centuries — showing that the Israelites were literate when they entered the Holy Land and therefore could have written the Bible as some of the events it documents took place.

“This is a text you find only every 1,000 years,” Haifa University Prof. Gershon Galil told The Times of Israel on Thursday. Galil helped decipher the hidden internal text of the folded lead tablet based on high-tech scans carried out in Prague at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

Based on epigraphical analysis of the scans and lead analysis of the artifact, Stripling and his team date the curse tablet (or defixio) to the Late Bronze Age, before or around 1200 BCE. If this dating is verified, it would make the text centuries older than the previous record-holder for the oldest Hebrew text in Israel and 500 years older than the previously attested use of the tetragrammaton YHWH, according to Galil. Writing in a similar alphabet was discovered in the Sinai Peninsula dating to the beginning of the 16th century BCE.

However, the researchers have not yet published the find in a peer-reviewed academic journal. Likewise, they are not yet releasing clear images and scans of the inscription for other academics to weigh in on.

Also challenging the secure dating of the object is the fact that the tablet was not discovered during a carefully excavated stratified context. Rather, it was found during a 2019 re-examination of earth from a dump pile formed during 1980s excavations at Mount Ebal that were held under Prof. Adam Zertal. The earth had been dry-sifted then, and in 2019 Stripling’s team resifted it using a wet sifting technique that was developed at the Temple Mount Sifting Project, where Stripling once worked. Stripling currently heads ongoing excavations at biblical Shiloh. (i365 / VFI News)

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. - Romans 15:4

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

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