Anglican Friends of Israel has produced a short booklet - written by our membership director, Fran Waddams - to mark Israel's 60 years of independence.

Anthony Julius has written a foreword, as follows: 

“I am delighted to have been asked to contribute a foreword to this pamphlet, written to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Israel, the Jewish State. There is a long and honourable history of Anglican involvement in the Zionist project. From the 17th to the 20th centuries, English advocates of the Jews' restoration in the Holy Land worked tirelessly to realise Jewish dreams – often, in more practical ways than by the Jews themselves. It became their mission to restore the land to its lawful owners, and thereby assist in fulfilling Biblical prophecy. The pamphlet, in its own sober and factual way, is but the most recent instance of this centuries-long endeavour. I welcome it.”

Download a PDF copy of the booklet here .

We hope you will enjoy reading it. Please feel free to download it and share it with your friends, church or synagogue. 

UPDATE: Abbas withdraws award to honor female terrorists

During a telephone conversation on Wednesday, Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas informed Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik that he had decided against bestowing the prestigious Al Kuds Mark of Honor medal to honor two Palestinian women who assisted in terrorist attacks that killed Israelis. Instead the awards - the highest medal granted by the PLO - will be given to the families of the terrorists on Thursday. Abbas told Itzik that awards for any Palestinians prisoners have been retracted. Israeli leaders and citizens were furious over the plan to honor the female terrorists, said Itzik, who added that it would not have been beneficial to peace talks. The imprisoned women to be honored were Ahlam Tamim, a Hamas loyalist who drove a suicide bomber to the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem in summer 2001 where he blew himself and killed eight people. The other female was Amra Muna, who enticed Israeli teenager Ophir Rahum through an Internet chat room to meet her in Ramallah where he was killed by Palestinians. 

AFI COMMENT: By giving these honours to the families of the terrorists, instead of the terrorists themselves, Abbas is still condoning their actions even while trying to assauge international outrage. 

Abbas: A "Moderate" Honoring Terrorists

From HonestReporting :

Why does the media continue to refer to the Palestinian leadership as "moderate"? 

On the eve of the anniversary of the horrific 2002 Passover massacre in Netanya's Park Hotel, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas has delivered a stinging reminder that "moderacy" on the Palestinian side is a relative term.

The Jerusalem Post reports that the Al Quds Mark of Honor, the PLO's highest medal, will be given to two female terrorists who helped kill Israelis.

From the Jerusalem Post :

"The PLO is the sole legitimate representative [of the Palestinian people], and it has not changed its platform even one iota."

That's what the PLO's ambassador to Lebanon, Abbas Zaki, told Lebanon's NBN TV in an interview that aired last Wednesday and was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

"In light of the weakness of the Arab nation and the lack of values, and in light of the American control over the world, the PLO proceeds through phases, without changing its strategy. Let me tell you, when the ideology of Israel collapses, and we take, at least, Jerusalem, the Israeli ideology will collapse in its entirety, and we will begin to progress with our own ideology, Allah willing, and drive them out of all of Palestine," added Zaki.

The clip can be viewed at http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1738.htm .

And in a sermon televised on Friday, Yunis al-Astal, a Hamas MP and cleric, told worshipers that Islam would soon conquer Rome, "the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital, which has declared its hostility to Islam, and which has planted the brothers of apes and pigs in Palestine in order to prevent the reawakening of Islam," just as Constantinople was.

Rome, he said, would become "an advanced post for the Islamic conquests which will spread through Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, and even Eastern Europe."

In his address aired on Hamas's Al-Aksa TV and also translated by MEMRI, Astal told his audience: "Allah has chosen you for himself and for his religion, so that you will serve as the engine pulling this nation to the phase of succession, security, and consolidation of power, and even to conquests through da'wa [preaching] and military conquests of the capitals of the entire world."

"I believe that our children or our grandchildren will inherit our jihad and our sacrifices, and Allah willing, the commanders of the conquest will come from among them. Today, we instill these good tidings in their souls, and by means of the mosques and the Koran books, and the history of our prophet, his companions, and the great leaders, we prepare them for the mission of saving humanity from the hellfire on the brink of which they stand."

The clip can be viewed at http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1739.htm  

Nes Ammim Village is an international Christian community that promotes a better understanding of Jews, Judaism and Israel in the church, primarily in Europe where the Holocaust occurred.

Though small, the community has wide-ranging aims:

• To develop a Christian theology that is free from Anti-Judaism and that advocates a non-missionary approach to Jews.
• To show practical solidarity with the Jewish People by living as a real community in the country and sharing the troubles of the region (in
• 2006, Hezbollah rockets fell on its land.)
• To learn about the origins of Christian faith by studying Jewish tradition.
• To recognise that the Nazi Holocaust was facilitated by a centuries-long negative image of Jews & Judaism, promoted by numerous church leaders.
• To contribute - in a modest way - to peace-making, by organising seminars of encounter and dialogue between Israeli Arabs and Jews.

It owns agricultural land and operates a guesthouse and study centre, striving to be economically self-sufficient and to be a living part of Israel. The community is a working village and has a limited number of vacancies for short-term staff who live and work in a way similar to "kibbutz volunteers".

We are pleased to support the work of this community. 

You can contact the community as follows:
Nes Ammim, D.N. Asherat, Israel 25225.
Email for work applications: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Links:

• Nes Ammim: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nes_Ammim
• Hebrew - official website: http://www.nesammim.com/
• Dutch - NA office: http://www.nesammim.nl/

Anglican Friends of Israel is proud to endorse the work of this excellent organization, which needs and deserves your support:

Shevet Achim was founded in 1994 with the purpose of helping non-Israeli children receive lifesaving medical care in Israel. Our name is taken from the Hebrew of Psalm 133, which promises that unity between brothers leads to life; we believe this to be true of the troubled relationship between Isaac and Ishmael (Jews and Muslims) in the Middle East. To live this out we seek to "go and do likewise" as the Good Samaritan, who crossed lines of division to show that an enemy is in fact a neighbor also loved by God.

We work from the historic building in Jerusalem which housed the first children's hospital in the Middle East, and are registered in both Israel and the US as a non-profit organization, overseen by a board which includes Chuck Kopp, pastor of the Narkis Street International Congregation in Jerusalem; Jonathan Miles, international coordinator of Shevet Achim; David Pileggi, director of Shoresh Study Tours in Jerusalem; and Jim Schutz, local congregations liaison with the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem.

Our mailing address in Jerusalem is Shevet Achim, POB 32296, Jerusalem, Israel 91000 and our office telephone is 972-2-6245053. In the United States, our address is Shevet Achim, POB 1006, Rocky Face, GA 30740 and our toll-free telephone number is 877-474-3838.

Published in the Church of England Newspaper: 

Sir, The Bishop of Exeter's moving account of the work of The Spafford Children's Centre, Helen Keller Centre and St John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem is inspirational.

It is distressing that Israel's security fence has made the vital work of these organisations so much more difficult to accomplish effectively. But how much more distressing that Palestinian terrorism rendered such security measures necessary in the first place; the people most damaged by that terrorism turn out to be the Palestinians themselves.

The decline in numbers of the Palestinian Christian community is sad but unsurprising, given the hard economic conditions and the persecution they encounter from jihadists. However, it is not all bad news in the Holy Land. The Church in Israel is flourishing due to the State of Israel's commitment to freedom of worship for all its citizens, Arab and Jewish.

Frances Waddams

Anglican Friends of Israel