Archaeologists believe they have found the city of Libnah, an ancient city mentioned multiple times in the Bible.
The scientists have been studying the remains of a ancient village since 2009 at a site 20 miles southwest of Jeruslaem. The site, Tel Burna, is on a strategic borer region between ancient Israel and the Philistines in the west.
“The identification of the site has been debated for more than a century,” Dr. Itzhaq Shai, director of the Tel Burna dig project, told Popular Archaeology. “There are scholars who have claimed that Tel Burna is biblical Libnah, which was mentioned several times in the Bible. This identification was based mainly on geographical and historical arguments.”
Libnah was visited by the Israelites as they fled Egypt according to Leviticus 33. Joshua and the Israelite army conquered the city as they went to the Promised Land (Joshua 10).
“The site of Tel Burna is located in the Shephelah region, which served as a border between the kingdoms of Judah and Philistia in the Iron Age,” explains The Tel Burna Excavation Project’s website. “A fertile area that supported agricultural production, the region became known as the breadbasket of the south. … Survey finds from the 2009 season indicate that the city was an important entity in the Bronze and Iron Ages.”
The study is the latest in discoveries in Israel that prove the Bible.
A group of Israeli divers are being hailed as heroes after uncovering what one government agency calls the “biggest ancient coin find in the nation’s history.”
The divers said they first found what looked like a toy coin from a children’s game on the ocean floor. Curious to see how it came to rest there, they discovered that the coin was part of a treasure trove of coins with Arabic writing.
The coins were dated to the 11th century when the Fatimid Islamic dynasty was the dominant power of the Middle East.
“(This is) a great treasure from a (vessel) that was probably taking the hoard, possibly tax revenue, to Cairo but sank in Caesarea harbour,” Jacob Sharvit of the Israel Antiquities Authority told Reuters during a visit to the site.
“Perhaps the treasure of coins was meant to pay the salaries of the Fatimid military garrison which was stationed in Caesarea and protected the city,” Sharvit added.
The value of the gold is around $240,000.
Archaeologists that have studied the coins say they have found tooth marks and bent edges that indicate the coins were tested as part of trading.
After the terrorist attack outside a Jewish synagogue in Copenhagen, Denmark, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is calling for Jews to move to Israel.
“Israel is your home. We are preparing and calling for the absorption of mass immigration from Europe,” Netanyahu said in a statement. Netanyahu made a similar statement to French Jews after the Charlie Hebdo and kosher deli attacks.
“Extremist Islamic terrorism has struck Europe again… Jews have been murdered again on European soil only because they were Jews,” Netanyahu said in the statement. “To the Jews of Europe and to the Jews of the world I say that Israel is waiting for you with open arms.”
Israel is working on a $45 million plan to “encourage he absorption of immigrants from France, Belgium and Ukraine.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman sent his condolences to his Danish counterpart saying Israel “appreciates Denmark’s cooperation in maintaining the security of Israelis and Jews in Denmark.”
An anonymous member of the White House has launched criticism of Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. to the New York Times.
The member of President Obama’s inner circle told the Times that Ambassador Ron Dermer is repeatedly placing Prime Minister Netanyahu’s political fortunes over their relationship with the United States.
The White House took issue with Ambassador Dormer working with House Speaker John Boehner to work out the arrangements on Netanyahu addressing a joint session of Congress.
Dermer said he had no regrets advancing his country’s interests.
“My understanding was that it was the speaker’s prerogative to do, and that he would be the one to inform the administration,” Mr. Dermer said to the Times. “The prime minister feels very strongly that he has to speak on this issue. That’s why he accepted the invitation, not to wade into your political debate or make this a partisan issue, and not to be disrespectful to the president.”
The White House says that Dermer should have told Secretary of State Kerry about the invitation during a meeting held before the announcement of the speech.
The Israel Air Force launched a strike against a Syrian army unit Tuesday night in response to a rocket attack on the Golan Heights and Mount Hermon.
“The IDF views the Syrian regime as responsible for what occurs in its territory, and will act at any time and any way it sees fit to protect the citizens of Israel,” the IDF said in a statement to Jerusalem Post.
The response from the IDF came after two rockets struck the northern Golan Heights Tuesday. Local residents and over a thousand visitors to the Mount Hermon ski site fleeing into shelters or other cover.
“The time has come to bring back Israelis’ sense of security – personal and social. One depends on the other,” Labor leader Isaac Herzog said while speaking to students at Sapir College in Sderot. “We need to be determined and enlist the world to Israel’s side for the good of our security interests, because we cannot make a living without security, and there is no security without being able to make a living The IDF has over the past several days been on alert across the north, deploying air defense, armored units, infantry, and artillery guns.”
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said that Iran is seeking to attack Israel through any means possible including using Syrian forces.
President Obama will not meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he comes to Washington to address a joint session of Congress.
The White House stated that it is due to the close proximity of the Israeli elections.
“As a matter of long-standing practice and principle, we do not see heads of state or candidates in close proximity to their elections, so as to avoid the appearance of influencing a democratic election in a foreign country,” National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan stated.
House Speaker John Boehner exercised his right at Speaker of the House to invite a foreign leader to address Congress. In this case, Boehner wants Netanyahu to speak to the Congress about problems with Iran and the need for stronger sanctions against that nation.
President Obama is working to ease sanctions against Iran.
Netanyahu will speak to Congress on March 3rd and being asked to appear in January. The Israeli leader had previously planned to be in the U.S. for a conference in Washington on the March date so the speech was rescheduled to fit that trip.
Boehner said that he wants to move forward quickly on sanctions against Iran and that the speech from Netanyahu will allow members of Congress to understand what’s at stake in the region.
“Let’s send a clear message to the White House — and the world — about our commitment to Israel and our allies,” he said.
Iran threatened Israel on Monday after an Israeli unit killed six Iranian agents during a raid on a Hezbollah terrorist cell.
Iran promised a “crushing response” against the Jewish nation.
“The experience of the past shows that the resistance current will give a crushing response to the Zionist regime’s terrorist moves with revolutionary determination and in due time and place,” Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), told reporters.
The incident comes a week after Iranian officials said they were operating missile sites in Syria and possibly control a nuclear facility.
“If the highest level of Hezbollah commanders were in the Golan Heights and the high level of Iranians, it means that their idea, [what] they’re planning could be a kind of operation, an act against Israel on a high level,” Major General Eyal Ben Reuven of the IDF said during a conference call Monday organized by the Israel Project (TIP). “It’s significant, the high level of this meeting, of this reconnaissance of the Iranians and Hezbollah.”
“It says something about what they plan, what kind of operation they planned,” he added. “If Israel has intelligence that says there is a kind of operation on the way to act against Israel, I think Israel would have a legitimate [reason] to do all we can to prevent it.”
Hezbollah has said they are preparing for war in northern Israel.
Seeking the Lord for a word for the new year is always a very serious pursuit and this year is even more crucial as we see the “red lights of prophecy” flashing all around us and God’s plan unfolding at breakneck speed. The Lord began to speak to me while we were in Israel, and the word that I give to you I sincerely pray will resonate with your spirit and cause you to be more prepared for these times we see looming on the horizon. Remember that in the midst of all the turmoil there is a promise of His Return and that is cause for great rejoicing! Continue reading →
The murder of 17 in Paris by Islamic terrorists? It’s Israel’s fault.
That’s the view of former President Jimmy Carter.
Carter appeared on the left-wing comedy show “The Daily Show” and told host Jon Stewart that you had to place the blame for the origin of the terror attack on Israel.
“Well, one of the origins for it is the Palestinian problem,” Carter said. “And this aggravates people who are affiliated in any way with the Arab people who live in the West Bank and Gaza, what they are doing now — what’s being done to them. So I think that’s part of it.”
Carter didn’t elaborate how the end of Israeli-Palestinian conflict would somehow stop the anti-Semitism by Muslims throughout the world. He did go on to say that the attack was a “new development” in Islamic terrorism.
“But I think this is a new evolutionary development in terrorism, where people go into Syria, they get trained there, they have a passport from France, from Great Britain or from the United States,” he added. “They stay there for a few months and learn how to be a terrorist and then they come back through Turkey and you know they have been there and you know who they are. And I think this event in Paris is going to waken up the people in charge of security to watch those people more closely than they have in the past — and not single out all of the Muslims in the country.”
The head of the UN has taken an anti-Israeli action in stating that Palestine will join the International Criminal Court on April 1.
The move will allow Palestinians to harass Israel repeatedly with false accusations before the ICC.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed documents to join the ICC a day after the UN Security Council rejected their resolution for a three year deadline to establish a Palestinian state on Israeli occupied lands.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon posted on the UN’s treaty website that he was acting in the “capacity as depositary” for the ICC’s documents of ratification when allowed Palestine to enter April 1, 2015.
The move is part of an Palestinian campaign to attack Israel following the 50-day war started by Palestinians kidnapping and killing Israeli teenagers. The move has seen blow back for the Palestinians, as Israel has withheld $100 million in tax funds and the Obama administration said they are reviewing the $440 million per year they have been sending to Palestine.
