During the week covered by this review, we received 9 articles on the following subjects:
Christians in Israel
Jewish-Christian Relations
Christian Zionism
Christian Organizations
Israel
Archaeology
Christians in Israel
The Jerusalem Post, March 10, 2016
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) and the Israeli Christians Recruitment Forum are to award academic scholarships to forty Christians who have served in the IDF or performed national service. The aim of the program is to further encourage young members of the Christian community to integrate into Israeli society. “We believe that every Israeli citizen deserves equal rights and opportunities in all areas of life, while on their part they provide an active share and contribute to Israeli society,” said Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder and president of the IFCJ.
The scholarship will be awarded to the recipients on Thursday, March 17, at the Greek Orthodox Church in Yafa Inman-Naseriyye near Nazareth.
The Jerusalem Post, March 11, 2016
MK Yoav Kisch (Likud) has presented a bill to the Knesset in response to the rise in incitement against Christians who volunteer for service in the IDF. The bill proposes that the penalty for incitement against volunteering for IDF service be equal to the penalty for incitement against performing mandatory IDF service, five years in prison. Father Gabriel Naddaf, founder of the Israeli Christians Recruitment Forum, praised the bill, calling it “a warning to those inciting against Christian and other minority soldiers.”
The bill passed the preliminary reading in the Knesset on March 9.
Jewish-Christian Relations
The Jerusalem Post, March 10, 2016
This article analyzes further data that have now come to light regarding the decision of the United Methodist pension board to divest from five Israeli banks (see previous reviews). When complaints “poured in” from pension holders once the decision was finalized, the pension board responded that they had made their decision based on independent, objective third party analysis. However, as this third party, Sustainalytics, profits from the sale of an Occupied Territories Involvement Report that gives a controversy score to companies involved in the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights, the article states that Sustainalytics is therefore neither independent nor objective. Rhys Read, controller and treasurer of the Methodist pension who is working to reverse the decision, points out that as less than 1% of the five banks’ revenue comes from what the Methodists call “objectionable sources”—far less than the 10% of such profit that the Methodists’ guidelines require divestment from—“we are thus inconsistently applying our principles.” The article points out, as well, that a further inconsistency arises from the fact that although the pension board has divested from the five Israeli banks, it continues to hold investments in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and China.
Christian Zionism
The Jerusalem Post, March 11, 2016
This article analyzes the strong support to be found for Israel among the evangelical Christian community in the US in general, and in South Carolina in particular, in light of the progressing US presidential campaign. The general reason cited for this strong support is the biblical connection between Christianity and Israel. However, an intriguing factor at play in South Carolina appears to be the fact that many residents of the state are not only self-identifying believers but belong to military families or work for the state’s defense industry—which relies on sizable Israeli defense contracts—and are therefore more conscious of national security.
However, Brant Frost IV, a Republican leader in Georgia, acknowledged that the issue of support for Israel is complex. He said that since support for Israel is a way for political candidates to court the evangelical community, “blanket statements are not sufficient, but rather it is actions and policies that matter.”
Despite the wave of Israel-bashing sweeping over the international community, the large number of supporters in the US serves to underscore the message that “Americans stand with Israel.”
Christian Organizations
Maariv Mekomonim, March 4, 2016
This article is an interview with Rev. Juha Ketola, who recently replaced Dr. Jürgen Bühler as international director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ). Most of the interview was dedicated to various aspects of international support for Israel, such as a recent event in Brazil where 100,000 people expressed their solidarity, and the symposium at the European Union Parliament on marking settlement products, called by Israel-loving Christian EU MPs and where Bühler spoke, and which Ketola holds to have had a significant part in many countries’ decision not to mark settlement products. When asked if he was optimistic about Israel’s future, Ketola replied, “Absolutely, because you are special people and because of God’s promises. I don’t know any other country that would behave so responsibly and morally as you do toward the Palestinians. This is because of the high morality and the compassion you show.”
The ICEJ was founded in 1980 by a coalition of Christian organizations in response to international embassies moving out of Jerusalem. Today, the ICEJ operates branches in more than 80 countries, and has support in some 150 countries.
Israel
HaMevaser, March 9, 2016
A recent Pew survey on religious fragmentation in Israeli society states that 48% of Jewish Israelis think that the Arabs should be deported or leave Israel; 79% of Israeli Arabs think that there is discrimination against Muslims in Israeli society; 74% of Jews think there is no significant discrimination against Muslims; 40% of the Arab society in Israel and 40% of the Jewish society in Israel think the Israeli and the Palestinian leadership are not doing enough in order to reach a peace agreement; and that while most Jews in Israel think it is theoretically possible for the country to be both democratic and Jewish, 89% of secular Jews think democratic values should take precedence over Jewish law, and 89% of religious Jews think that Jewish religious law should take precedence.
Archaeology
Haaretz, March 7, 2016
Some 100 graves, carved in soft limestone, have been found at Khalet al-Jam’a near Bethlehem, and have been dated to between 2200 and 650 CE. The oldest graves show Canaanite features, and that residents of the nearby settlement were farmers and shepherds. The later graves show that the deceased were buried in a kneeling position. “The findings show the existence of a Canaanite city at Bethlehem, something that had not previously been proven,” said excavation head Prof. Lorenzo Nigro of the Sapienza University of Rome.
Israel Hayom; Haaretz, March 8, 2016
A 2,500-year-old signet ring, made of semi-precious stones and bearing the name “Elihana bat Gael,” has been found in the vestiges of a First Temple-era structure at Jerusalem’s City of David. Archaeologists state that this signet is particularly rare, as it not only bears a Hebrew name from the First Temple period, but it is the name of a woman. They surmise that Elihana was of relatively high status, since the signet bears her father’s name, rather than that of her husband.