(Communicated by the President’s Spokesperson)

President Reuven Rivlin and First Lady Nechama Rivlin officially began their State Visit to Spain this morning, welcomed by King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain with an official welcoming ceremony at the Royal Palace in Madrid. Following a gun salute, the King and the President together reviewed a military guard of honor, and stood together with the Queen and First Lady for the national anthems of both countries.

President and First Lady Rivlin’s State Visit to Spain, at the invitation of the King, marked 30 years of diplomatic relations between Israel and Spain, and celebrated 100 years since the reestablishment of the Jewish community in Spain after the Expulsion of 1492. This is the first State Visit of an Israeli President to Spain for a quarter of a century, when then President Chaim Herzog visited for the symbolic and historic signing of the cancellation of the expulsion order of Jews from Spain.

(Communicated by the President’s Spokesperson)

President Reuven and First Lady Nechama Rivlin will make a State Visit to Spain next week from November 5th to  November 8th. The President will be accompanied by a business delegation of leading Israeli companies and trade figures, and an academic delegation including leading figures and Nobel Prize laureates.

The following is a schedule of their visit:

(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this morning (Thursday, 16 March 2017), at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, made the following remarks:

"This afternoon I will meet again with President Trump's envoy, Jason Greenblatt. We are in the midst of a process of dialogue with the White House and our intention is to reach an agreed-upon policy regarding settlement construction. Agreed-upon for us, of course, not just for the American side. Naturally, this will be good for the State of Israel since we have not been in these processes for many years. To the residents of Amona, I reiterate: I gave you a promise to build a new community and I will honor that commitment.

On Sunday I am going to China together with five ministers. The visit is at the invitation of the Chinese President and it marks 25 years of diplomatic relations between China and Israel. I will meet with the Chinese President and Prime Minister and, of course, the ministers will meet with their counterparts. I will also meet with the heads of the biggest corporations in China and today, when we say the biggest corporations in China, we sometimes say the biggest corporations in the world, or which are quickly becoming the biggest in the world. We will continue the talks on establishing a free trade agreement between China and Israel and we will hold the third joint Israel-China innovation conference. Of course we are continuing to develop new markets and to open new markets for the Israeli economy. I expect all ministers to cooperate on this, and they are doing so.

by Michal Navoth, April 6, 2014 (http://jcpa.org/article/israels-relationship-un-human-rights-council)

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and the Human Rights Council (HRC)

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a process under the auspices of the Human Rights Council (HRC). It was created through the UN General Assembly (GA) on March 15, 2006, by resolution A/RES/60/251, which established the HRC itself.1 It is a mechanism that involves a review of the human rights records of all 193 UN member states2 once every four and a half years.3 The UPR provides an opportunity for each state to declare what actions have been taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfill their human rights obligations. The ultimate goal of this evolving process is to improve human rights conditions around the globe and to address human rights violations wherever they occur.4 It is an innovative process that has no parallel.5

Dear Intercessors,

I want to briefly share with you some points and Scriptures the Lord has been highlighting to us in Succat Hallel that we feel need to be prayed for Israel this week:

1. THE MEETING BETWEEN PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU IN WASHINGTON DC ON FEBRUARY 15^TH.

Some key things to pray over this meeting and all the meetings surrounding this visit:

We break off any witchcraft, sorcery, or mind control from having any influence on these meetings and on any of the counsel coming to Prime Minister Netanyahu or President Trump.  We proclaim Numbers 23:23, that there is no witchcraft, sorcery, mind-control that can succeed against Israel.

January 30, 2017 7:56am

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Palestinian officials are demanding an apology from the new United Nations chief after he said it was  “completely clear that the Temple that the Romans destroyed in Jerusalem was a Jewish temple.”

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also told Israel Radio in an interview Friday with its New York correspondent that “no one can deny the fact that Jerusalem is holy to three religions today,” including Judaism.

On Sunday, Adnan al-Husseini, the Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Affairs minister, told the Chinese news service Xinhua that Guterres “ignored UNESCO’s decision that considered the Al-Aqsa mosque of pure Islamic heritage.” He also said Guterres “violated all legal, diplomatic and humanitarian customs and overstepped his role as secretary general … and must issue an apology to the Palestinian people.”

English translation from: Polska bez cenzury: “Sojusz dwóch lwów” 

September 2015: There was a great gala concert in the beautiful newly built Jerusalem Pays Arena. Ten thousand invited guests from Israel, including several thousand victims of the Holocaust, the heads of dozens of social organizations, representatives of the Israeli authorities, diplomats from dozens of countries were in attendance. The concert was directly broadcast on television by the RR-Sat reaching the TBN broadcasting TV network to over 600 million viewers in 180 countries around the world. I had the honor of being the producer of this event. Beautiful scenery, several hundred great artists, lights danced gracefully around. The Mayor of Jerusalem and several Knesset members spoke. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greeted the organizers, the guests and the audience all over the world from a large screen above the event.

Much is being said and written these days about the UNESCO decision to disconnect the temple mount from its 4.000 year old Jewish history (starting with Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son of promise, Isaak, on mount Moriah, which is the temple mount). I want to add my part to the discussion – but from a somewhat different, primarily biblical perspective.

Modern history of the nations and Israel in a nutshell

If we look back, let us say over the past 120 years, we can discern a certain development.  To put it in fairly simple terms, it looks like this:

• 120 years ago, it began with Zionism: do the Jewish people have a moral, historical, legal and spiritual right to return to their (at that time mostly desolate and uninhabited) ancient homeland, which they had inhabited for about 1.500 years, as the Bible foresees?
• 100 years ago, after World War I, the League of Nations answered this question affirmatively and gave the UK the mandate to establish a Jewish homeland in their historical / Biblical land. Almost immediately there was a radical negative reaction in the Moslem world against this decision which has been growing ever since.
• Almost 70 years ago, after the Shoah, with the UN vote of November 29, 1947, the promise of Lord Balfour and the consequent decision of the League of Nations became a political reality, though militarily contested by seven Arab armies one day after the re-establishment of the Jewish state of Israel. Israel’s battle for survival began on the very day of its re-birth.
• Almost 50 years ago, with the victory of yet another defensive war, the 6-day-war, Jerusalem was reunited under mostly Jewish sovereignty. The battle for the status of Jerusalem went into a next stage. A mass-exodus of national embassies, moving away from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, was one of the sad consequences.
• For the last 50 years, Nathan Sharansky's 3D plumb line was the point of decision and division for many nations: Who contributed to the demonization, de-legitimation and double standard talk and policy? And who did not?
• And today – 2016/17 – almost exactly 50 years after the reunification of Jewish Jerusalem – we witness the next phase of escalation of a UN-body, moving against the Jewish state of Israel: The dis-attachment of the temple mount from Jewish history, faith and prophecy.

Could the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union serve to remind the peoples of Europe and the Christian Church of their Judaeo-Christian roots?

A biblical impulse from Harald Eckert

Theodor Heuss, the first President of the Federal Republic of Germany, had a clear vision for Europe. He saw the continent built on three hills: the Acropolis in Athens, Golgotha in Jerusalem and the Capitoline Hill in Rome. In spiritual terms, there is much truth in this observation. But can these three sources of European spiritual history really be reconciled with one another? The crisis currently facing the peoples of Europe (and also the Church in Europe) has entered a new dimension with the withdrawal of the United Kingdom, making this issue even more explosive and topical.

Are Athens (Hellenism) and Jerusalem (Judaism) really compatible? Is Rome (Vatican) influenced to a greater extent by “Athens” or by “Jerusalem”? From a biblical perspective – taking Genesis as the starting point in the history of biblical revelation and the Book of Revelation as its culmination – the same question can be formulated slightly differently: what is the relationship between Jerusalem and Babylon?

By Joe Nam, Media Specialist Christians for Israel Uganda.. It’s June 2016. I am entering a coffee café in Uganda’s capital city Kampala. I frequent this place during the evening social hour to catch up on news of the latest happenings in the city. Here, in between sips of coffee and tea, patrons get to discuss the hottest topics of the day. I am just in time to catch animated conversation going on about the Entebbe Rescue. So I sit to listen.

In Uganda, this epic event is referred to as the Entebbe Raid or Operation Thunderbolt. This was when, on the night of 4 July 1976, Israel landed over 200 commandos and soldiers at Entebbe Airport in Uganda, East Africa, to rescue 105 hostages held by terrorists of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). 

The story is widely known. Air France flight 139 leaves Tel Aviv Airport on 27 June 1976 en-route to Paris. The plane lands in Athens to pick up more passengers. This is when terrorists enter the plane using forged passports. Half an hour into the flight, the terrorists jump up with weapons and hold up the passengers and crew. The pilot is ordered to divert the plane and fly south. After refuelling in Bengazi, Libya, the plane is commandeered further south, landing in Entebbe on 28 June.

Reminiscent of the Holocaust days, Jewish passengers are separated from non-Jewish passengers. Non-Jews are released while Jewish passengers and crew of Air France remain as hostages. The State of Israel is in a dilemma - should they meet the terrorist demands?