Many evangelical Christians are aware of Benjamin Netanyahu, the former Prime Minister of Israel. Polls in Israel reveal that the general population desires him to return to the position of Prime Minister and that a major change would occur in the present government of Israel. The issue continues to be terrorism and the survival of the State of Israel in the land which God promised to the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Recently, Mr. Netanyahu was interviewed about the current situation and what needs to be done.

INTERVIEW WITH BENJAMIN NETANYAHU
by James Taranto

NEW YORK — Benjamin Netanyahu runs a few minutes late for our Monday afternoon meeting. When he arrives in his midtown Manhattan hotel suite, he explains that he has just received word from home of the latest Palestinian war crime. “Hamas fired 15 rockets into Israel today. One of them hit a car, killed a woman,” says Mr. Netanyahu, the former Israeli prime minister and now leader of the opposition. The victim, 32-year-old Shirel Friedman, was on her way to see her mother.

For the 57-year-old Mr. Netanyahu, there is a sort of grim vindication in such attacks. He quit the government of then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in August 2005, objecting to Mr. Sharon’s plan for unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. “I had a very big argument with him on this,” Mr. Netanyahu recalls. “He thought that we would have the right of free action — that we would garner international support for any reaction. I thought that is a very thin sheet of ice — the international community can turn against you as quickly as it turns for you — but the overwhelming fact is that the Muslim militants and Iran will find a new base, a few miles from Tel Aviv, with the ability to cover the south of the country and the center of the country with rockets.”

Five years earlier, Ehud Barak, Mr. Netanyahu’s successor as prime minister, had similarly withdrawn from southern Lebanon, creating a safe haven for Hezbollah, which has periodically rocketed cities in Israel’s north. In both cases, Mr. Netanyahu says, Israel’s leaders were “captivated by a concept, and the concept was that we purchase security from retreat, from withdrawals — that is, that the way to stop the attacks on us is to placate our enemies by unilaterally withdrawing from territory under our control, thereby robbing them of the pretext to attack us. In fact, this was interpreted exactly in the opposite manner. . . . It was interpreted not as a sign of strength but as a show of weakness.”

“There is not much difference” between Hezbollah and Hamas, Mr. Netanyahu says. “They are both supported by Iran, supplied by Iran, inspired by Iran.” They share a common goal, “to get us to withdraw from more territory — of course this time not so-called occupied territory, but Israel proper. For them, any inch of Israel is occupied territory, and the ‘liberation’ will be culminated when Israel ceases to exist.”

Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, made that clear in 2005, when he declared that “Israel must be wiped off the map” — a particularly chilling pronouncement given that his regime is seeking weapons that would make it capable of doing just that. “This could be the rise of the first undeterrable, fanatical nuclear power in the world,” says Mr. Netanyahu. “It’s an apocalyptic, messianic sect that could possess nuclear weapons, to the detriment of all mankind.”

How to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat has proved a conundrum for America and the West, including Israel. Mr. Netanyahu acknowledges that military strikes would pose “complications and difficulties” and thus “should be a last resort.” But diplomacy has been tried for several years with scant results.

Mr. Netanyahu proposes a third way. The Iranian regime, he argues, is economically vulnerable. He is in America to urge state and local pension funds to divest from foreign companies that do business in Iran (U.S. law already keeps American firms out).

“This could be very effective,” he tells me, “because Iran is in desperate need of new investments for its sagging oil industry. It’s curtailed its oil production by 7%, I think, in each of the last three years. It’s running unemployment to a rate of close to 20%, and Ahmadinejad is continuously being criticized from rivals within the regime and outside the regime for failing to deliver on economic problems.”

Divestment “could stop Iran dead in its tracks,” Mr. Netanyahu argues. “We’re talking about several dozen companies . . . that are propping up the energy sector in Iran and a few other relevant sectors. They are eminently susceptible to stock prices. Their chief executives are compensated by stock prices. Divestment depresses stock prices and immediately forces reconsideration.” This in turn would squeeze “Iranian economic elites,” who Mr. Netanyahu says are motivated by money, not ideology. “That elite funds and finances a lot of politicians, and when they see their own holdings and their own businesses endangered, they’ll put pressure to either block the nuclear program or to change the regime.”

Mr. Netanyahu believes Americans across the political spectrum could unite behind the principle that “a regime that promotes genocide cannot receive American taxpayers’ savings . . . through European intermediaries.” And the idea is catching on.

Last year Missouri’s treasurer, Sarah Steelman, established a terror-free mutual fund and spearheaded a move to divest the $6.9 billion State Employees Retirement System from companies that do business in Iran and other terror-supporting nations. Earlier this month Florida’s Legislature unanimously approved a bill mandating divestment from companies with ties to Iran or Sudan. On Capitol Hill, Sens. Barack Obama (D., Ill.) and Sam Brownback (R., Kan.) have introduced the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act, which would create a federal list of investors in Iran and shield fund managers from lawsuits if they disinvest.

The big prize, of course, is California, whose $247 billion pension fund is the nation’s biggest. “I spoke to Gov. [Arnold] Schwarzenegger on this a few weeks ago,” Mr. Netanyahu says. “He said he’d look into it. I’m going to call him, possibly before I leave tonight.” On Tuesday an official from the Israeli Embassy in Washington emailed me that Mr. Netanyahu “did get in touch with Governor Schwarzenegger yesterday. . . . The Governor was aware of the divestment bill and said that it may get passed by the end of the summer.”

With Democrats seeking retreat from Iraq, bipartisanship is in short supply in America just now. Two days after Mr. Netanyahu and I spoke, a major presidential candidate for the first time announced that he no longer even believes there is a “global war on terror.” John Edwards, who voted for the Iraq war in 2002, now dismisses the entire war on terror as “a slogan designed only for politics . . . a bumper sticker, not a plan.”

I ask Mr. Netanyahu if the U.S. made a mistake in liberating Iraq. He says it did not: “I think it was right to bring down Saddam Hussein, who murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent people.” But he brings the discussion back to Iran. “It would have been prudent to use the rapidity of success of victory — that is, the fact that the U.S. had accomplished in three weeks what Iran couldn’t accomplish in 10 years and a million casualties — to deliver a stern warning to Iran to dismantle its nuclear program. In a way, this was achieved without design with Libya’s nuclear program that had been much more advanced than anyone understood. . . . That same leverage could have been used on Iran.”

If Mr. Netanyahu seems preoccupied with Iran, it is not because he is dismissive of other threats, including al Qaeda. “Of the two, Iran is more dangerous, because the Sunni militants so far have not gotten their hands on a nuclear weapons program. . . . If the Taliban were to topple the current regime in Pakistan and get their hands on nuclear weapons, I would say they’re more dangerous than Iran, or equally dangerous.”

He sees al Qaeda as existing on a continuum with Tehran’s Shiite fundamentalists: “They’re now competing with each other on the soil of Lebanon to gain paramountcy — al Qaeda in the north and Hezbollah in the south. But both of them practice suicide attacks, both of them have the cult of death, and both of them are absolutely uninhibited in the use of force against their chosen enemies. Now, is there a difference? Yeah, I suppose. I think one wants to send us back to the ninth century and one wants to send us back to the seventh century.” The Shiite extremists, Mr. Netanyahu quips, “give us two centuries extra.”

Yet he is careful to distinguish between “militant Islam” and the broader Muslim population. “Militant Islam condemns and intimidates and kills Muslims before anyone else. That’s what they’re about. The infidels are defined first as the renegades of Islam — that is, Muslims who do not practice some . . . pre-medieval religious creed that is hopelessly antiquated for most Muslims and most Arabs.”

Because of the militants’ power to intimidate and the weak civic institutions in Arab societies, Mr. Netanyahu is wary of pushing those societies too quickly toward electoral democracy. He thinks it was a mistake to allow Hamas to compete in last year’s Palestinian voting. “But I think that one element that should be expedited as rapidly as possible is the democratization of markets. I think that expanding economic freedom is just as important — in some cases more important — in moderating societies than accelerated moves to political freedoms without the proper democratic institutions.”

I ask if he can point to any positive examples in the Arab world. “How about Dubai? How about the Gulf states? What you see there is quite remarkable. It also tells you that Arabs and Muslims are not inherently or genetically programmed to oppose free markets. That’s just nonsense. With the right system of incentives and economic freedoms, you see this explosive growth that I, frankly, admire. . . . We always said that if we have peace, then we’ll have prosperity. It may be the other way around.”

In the aftermath of last summer’s war with Hezbollah, public confidence in Israel’s government has hit bottom. Recent opinion polls give Prime Minister Ehud Olmert a dismal 3% approval rating. Mr. Netanyahu is happy to pile on: “The right strategy . . . is to use superior force, come in from their rear, at their most vulnerable point, and use a lot of ground power to physically eliminate them. . . . None of this was done, and the people felt that this failure was too stinging to be left alone, so they want a change of government.” He faults the government for “lack of experience . . . lack of decisiveness, lack of leadership.” And he worries that Israel faces near-term threats on three fronts: Lebanon, Gaza and Syria, “which is arming feverishly.”

Is a political comeback in his future? “I hope that we can get to elections as soon as possible,” he says. “But that’s a decision for 61 out of 120 Knesset members to make, and they’re not going to readily part with their jobs.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Benjamin Netanyahu is keenly aware of the need of support from the evangelical community in America. He has spoken at many occasions where thousands of Christians have attended in support of Israel. We appreciate his knowledge of terrorism (wrote a textbook on the subject) and his willingness to confront the enemies of Israel (like David of old!). However, we do believe that the final answer lies in the hands of Almighty God, the LORD GOD of ISRAEL, Who is working His prophetic plan according to His timetable, not ours. Israel’s great need is to repent and return to the LORD GOD Himself, depending only upon Him for security and deliverance. The same thing is greatly needed in America – thanks for listening.)

RABBI REVEALS THE NAME OF THE MESSIAH!
(reported by Israel Today News)

A few months before he died, one of the nation’s most prominent rabbis, Yitzhak Kaduri, supposedly wrote the name of the Messiah on a small note which he requested would remain sealed until now. When the note was unsealed, it revealed what many have known for centuries: Yehoshua, or Yeshua (Jesus), is the Messiah.
With the biblical name of Jesus, the Rabbi and kabbalist described the Messiah using six words and hinting that the initial letters form the name of the Messiah. The secret note said:

Concerning the letter abbreviation of the Messiah’s name, He will lift the people and prove that his word and law are valid.

This is I have signed in the month of mercy,
Yitzhak Kaduri

The Hebrew sentence with the hidden name of the Messiah reads: Yarim Ha’Am Veyokhiakh Shedvaro Vetorato Omdim

The initials spell the Hebrew name of Jesus, Yehoshua. Yehoshua and Yeshua are respectively the same name, derived from the same Hebrew root of the word “salvation” as documented in Zechariah 6:11 and Ezra 3:2. The same priest writes in Ezra, “Yeshua son of Yozadak” while writing in Zechariah “Yehoshua son of Yohozadak.” The priest adds the holy abbreviation of God’s name, ho, in the father’s name Yozadak and in the name Yeshua.

With one of Israel’s most prominent rabbis indicating the name of the Messiah is Yeshua, it is understandable why his last wish was to wait one year after his death before revealing what he wrote.

When the name of Yehoshua appeared in Kaduri’s message, ultra-Orthodox Jews from his Nahalat Yitzhak Yeshiva (seminary) in Jerusalem argued that their master did not leave the exact solution for decoding the Messiah’s name.

The revelation received scant coverage in the Israeli media. Only the Hebrew websites News First Class (Nfc) and Kaduri.net mentioned the Messiah note, insisting it was authentic. The Hebrew daily Ma’ariv ran a story on the note but described it as a forgery.

Jewish readers responded on the websites’ forums with mixed feelings: “So this means Rabbi Kaduri was a Christian?” and “The Christians are dancing and celebrating,” were among the comments.

Israel Today spoke to two of Kaduri’s followers in Jerusalem who admitted that the note was authentic, but confusing for his followers as well. “We have no idea how the Rabbi got to this name of the Messiah,” one of them said.

Yet others completely deny any possibility that the note is authentic. Kaduri’s son, Rabbi David Kaduri, said that at the time the note was written (September 2005), his father’s physical condition made it impossible for him to write.

KADURI’S PORTRAYAL OF THE MESSIAH

A few months before Kaduri died at the age of 108, he surprised his followers when he told them that he met the Messiah. Kaduri gave a message in his synagogue on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, teaching how to recognize the Messiah. He also mentioned that the Messiah would appear to Israel after Ariel Sharon’s death. (The former prime minister is still in a coma after suffering a massive stroke more than a year ago.)

Other rabbis predict the same, including Rabbi Haim Cohen, kabbalist Nir Ben Artzi and the wife of Rabbi Haim Kneiveskzy.

Kaduri’s grandson, Rabbi Yosef Kaduri, said his grandfather spoke many times during his last days about the coming of the Messiah and redemption through the Messiah.

His spiritual portrayals of the Messiah-reminiscent of New Testament accounts-were published on the websites Kaduri.net and Nfc:

“It is hard for many good people in society to understand the person of the Messiah. The leadership and order of a Messiah of flesh and blood is hard to accept for many in the nation. As leader, the Messiah will not hold any office, but will be among the people and use the media to communicate. His reign will be pure and without personal or political desire. During his dominion, only righteousness and truth will reign.”

“Will all believe in the Messiah right away? No, in the beginning some of us will believe in him and some not. It will be easier for non-religious people to follow the Messiah than for Orthodox people.”

“The revelation of the Messiah will be fulfilled in two stages: First, he will actively confirm his position as Messiah without knowing himself that he is the Messiah. Then he will reveal himself to some Jews, not necessarily to wise Torah scholars. It can be even simple people. Only then he will reveal himself to the whole nation. The people will wonder and say: ‘What, that’s the Messiah?’ Many have known his name but have not believed that he is the Messiah.”

FAREWELL TO A ‘TSADIK’

Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri was known for his photographic memory and his memorization of the Bible, the Talmud, Rashi and other Jewish writings. He knew Jewish sages and celebrities of the last century and rabbis who lived in the Holy Land and kept the faith alive before the State of Israel was born.

Kaduri was not only highly esteemed because of his age of 108, He was charismatic and wise, and chief rabbis looked up to him as a Tsadik, a righteous man or saint. He would give advice and blessings to everyone who asked. Thousands visited him to ask for counsel or healing. His followers speak of many miracles and his students say that he predicted many disasters.

When he died, more than 200,000 people joined the funeral procession on the streets of Jerusalem to pay their respects as he was taken to his final resting place.

“When he comes, the Messiah will rescue Jerusalem from foreign religions that want to rule the city,” he said. “They will not succeed for they will fight against one another.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is indeed fascinating. But, the real evidence of the Messiah is far greater than any Rabbi (past or present) could ever reveal! The Bible itself is the ground upon which the Person and work of the Messiah is built and presented. The evidence is overwhelming – the Messiah of Israel is YESHUA HAMASHIACH!)

We are deeply concerned at the response of the United States to Israel’s 40th anniversary celebration of the Six-Day War of 1967 when the Old City of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount fell into Israel’s hands. What is going on? This is uncalled for and a violation of the United States’s long-standing support of Israel and the Congressional decision of 12 years ago to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Now, we learn the truth about the current Administration’s true feelings about ISRAEL! No decision has so violated the trust of the American people in this current Administration as this one! Here is the article direct from Israel – you be the judge!

AFTER 40 YEARS, U.S. AVOIDS JERUSALEM REUNIFICATION DAY
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

The United States will avoid Jerusalem Reunification Day festivities this week despite a 12-year-old Congressional bill calling for the American embassy to be located in the capital. Since then, every President has exercised a waiver in the bill allowing the move to be deferred for a renewable period of six months.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni insisted that the “connection between Israel and Jerusalem is inseparable” despite the boycott by the U.S. and most of the international community. Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski went further and declared, “Anyone who doesn’t recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel does not recognize the State of Israel.”

American officials, including former Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk, have stated that moving the embassy is not likely to happen until there is a final peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority (PA). (EDITOR’S NOTE: What kind of nonsense is that? Are we more interested in what the world thinks (especially the world of Islam!) than what God thinks? What has happened to the moral integrity and credibility of this country? We need to repent and to call upon the only God there is – THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL!)

The U.S. did not issue an official statement explaining why the current Ambassador, Richard Jones will not be attending the ceremonies, but Ambassador Dr. Harald Kindermann from Germany, which heads the European Union (EU) this year, specifically said EU countries will not participate because of Arab claims of sovereignty over eastern Jerusalem, which includes the Old City.

The Foreign Ministry said Sunday it is “unhappy and disappointed” that most delegations announced they were not coming to the festivities but added that officials from several embassies will attend.

Two American lawmakers have launched an effort to put a stop to the continuing deferral of the Congressional bill to move the embassy from Tel Aviv. Republican House of Representatives members Joe Wilson and Mike Pence recently introduced a resolution stating that Jerusalem “must remain an undivided city in which the rights of every ethnic and religious group are protected as they have been by Israel during the past 40 years.”
Jerusalem must remain an undivided city in which the rights of every ethnic and religious group are protected as they have been by Israel during the past 40 years.

The new resolution “strongly urges” American President George W. Bush to stop exercising the waiver to delay the move of the embassy. It also calls on him and American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to “repeatedly affirm publicly, as a matter of United States policy, that Jerusalem must remain the undivided capital of the State of Israel.”

The congressmen also noted that the 2003 Foreign Relations Authorization Act directs that the birth of any U.S. citizen born in Jerusalem should be recorded as “Jerusalem, Israel” upon the request of the citizen or his or her guardian. That requirement has never been implemented, and the city is listed without its being designated that it is in Israel.

Israel officially incorporated all of Jerusalem into the municipality in 1980, a move that caused virtually all of the embassies that had been located in Jerusalem to move away. The last holdouts were El Salvador and Costa Rica, which pulled out several months ago.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Please call our offices at 1-800-75-BIBLE and voice your support of Israel and its right to the city of Jerusalem – also, ask for David’s tape on “THE TRUTH ABOUT JERUSALEM.”)

The Tabernacle was in Shiloh for 350 years and housed the Ark of the Covenant. Recently, archaeologists working at the site have uncovered the remains of a Christian church.

(reported by Israel Today on Monday, April 30, 2007)

ARK OF THE COVENANT CHURCH IN SHILOH
An excavation team has uncovered one of the oldest churches in the world—dating to the late fourth century AD —where it is believed that the Ark of the Covenant once stood in biblical times.

The team, led by Yitzhak Magen and Yevgeny Aharonovitch, unearthed the church not far from the Jewish settlement of Shiloh in Samaria.

The floor of the worship sanctuary is decorated with brightly colored mosaics and many of the inscriptions refer to Yeshua (Jesus). The original church was built in 380 AD. It was probably destroyed by a flood and later replaced by a new building, based on information gleaned from the inscriptions.

Aharonovitch says one of the inscriptions is particularly unusual as it mentions the name Shiloh: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on Seilun [Shiloh] and its inhabitants, Amen.”

“This is very rare and indicates that the early Christians revered this place as a holy shrine,” Aharonovitch said.

(Editor’s Note: A replica of the Tabernacle can be found at Timna (about 20 miles north of the gulf city of Eilat) in the desert of Sinai. It has been our pleasure to visit this site and hear a Jewish Messianic Lecture about the Tabernacle and its significance to the Person and work of the Messiah, our blessed Lord Yeshua. That is always a highlight of our tours to Israel. Jewish Rabbinical scholars have long wanted to place such a replica at the city where it was placed when the Jews came into the land under Joshua – that place was Shiloh.)

Jewish group devoted to rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem to send letters to all world leaders, including Arab ones, inviting them to take part in project, attend conference on Temple Mount in Israel.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has been gearing up for an Israeli offensive in recent months, is bound to be surprised by the peace feelers he is set to receive from Jerusalem soon.

Member of Sanhedrin says sacrifices “were not possible when the people of Israel were in the Diaspora, but now they are.” He said that the Jerusalem Temple should be rebuilt, but the Israeli government has been standing in the way.

Without Saudi mediation or diplomatic procedures, the President of Iran will get a “Letter of Love and Peace”, accompanied by a historic invitation to visit Jerusalem, from The Supreme Judicial Court of the Jewish People, better known as the Sanhedrin.

After having tried their luck with the High Court of Justice and the government, the members of the Jewish group have set out on a new track in their struggle for the Temple Mount, aimed at rebuilding the Temple in the Jewish capital.

In recent days, the group members have drafted a letter that will be translated into 70 languages and sent to all government institutions in the world, including “the sons of Esau and Ishmael” who do not hold diplomatic ties with Israel.

In the letter, the rabbis of the self-proclaimed Sanhedrin warn that the world is nearing a catastrophe, and write that the only way to bring peace among nations, states, and religions is by building a house for God, where Jews will worship, pray and offer up sacrifice, according to the vision of the prophets.

The rabbis also call on the non-Jews to help the people of Israel fulfill their destiny and build the Temple, in order to prevent bloodshed across the globe.

The letter will initially be translated into English, Spanish, Arabic, French and Farsi, and later also into Russian, Chinese and Japanese, and will include an invitation to world leaders to attend a conference dedicated to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem five months from now, during Succot.

Prof Hillel Weiss of the Sanhedrin explained that the Torah and the prophets have tasked the Jewish people with the responsibility for world peace. He stressed that the group’s project was to rebuild the Temple, not a “church for all nations,” but added, “We have all descended from the same father, this is not another primitive and racist approach.”

Reported by FOX NEWS
Tuesday, May 08, 2007

JERUSALEM — An Israeli archaeologist on Tuesday said he has found the tomb of King Herod the Great, the legendary builder of ancient Jerusalem and the Holy Land.

Hebrew University archaeologist Ehud Netzer said the tomb was found at Herodium, a flattened hilltop in the Judean Desert where Herod the Great built a palace compound. Netzer has been working at the site since the 1970s.

Netzer said the tomb was discovered when a team of researchers found pieces of a limestone sarcophagus believed to belong to the ancient king. Although there were no bones in the container, he said the sarcophagus’ location and ornate appearance indicated it is Herod’s. “It’s a sarcophagus we don’t just see anywhere,” Netzer said at a news conference. “It is something very special.”

Netzer led the team, though he said he was not on the site when the sarcophagus was found.

Stephen Pfann, an expert in the Second Temple period at the University of the Holy Land, called the find a “major discovery by all means,” but cautioned further research is needed.

He said all signs indicate the tomb belongs to Herod, but said ruins with an inscription on it were needed for full verification.

“We’re moving in the right direction. It will be clinched once we have an inscription that bears his name,” said Pfann, a textual scholar who did not participate in Netzer’s dig.

The fragments of carved limestone found at the sandy site are decorated with floral motives, but do not include any inscriptions.

Herod became the ruler of the Holy Land under the Romans around 4 B.C. The wall he built around the Old City of Jerusalem during the time of the Jewish Second Temple is the one that can be seen today.

He also undertook massive construction projects in Caesarea Maritina, Jericho, the hilltop fortress of Masada and other locations.

Herod the Great is also blamed in the New Testament’s Gospel of Matthew for having ordered the massacre of the innocents, the execution of all male Jewish infants in Bethlehem, after having been told that the new King of the Jews had been born there.

It has long been assumed that Herod was buried at Herodium, but decades of excavations failed to turn up the site until now. The first century historian Josephus Flavius described the tomb and Herod’s funeral procession.

Herodium was one of the last strong points held by Jewish rebels fighting against the Romans, and it was conquered and destroyed by Roman forces in A.D. 71, a year after they destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

Hebrew University had hoped to keep the “find” a secret until Netzer’s news conference on Tuesday. But the university announced the “find” in a brief statement late Monday after the Haaretz daily newspaper found out about the discovery and published an article on its Web site.