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Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Character Studies From The Bible Paul 14. At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed. 2. But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the other Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. 3. So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders. 4. The people of the city were divided; some sided with...

More than 3,200 years ago, life was abuzz in and around what is now this modern-day Israeli metropolis on the shimmering Mediterranean shore. To the north lay the mighty Hittite empire; to the south, Egypt was thriving under the reign of the great Pharaoh Ramses II. Cyprus was a copper emporium. Greece basked in the opulence of its elite Mycenaean culture, and Ugarit was a bustling port city on the Syrian coast. In the land of Canaan, city states like Hazor and Megiddo flourished under Egyptian hegemony. Vibrant trade along the coast of the eastern Mediterranean connected it all. Yet...

For the first time, Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas has admitted that he rejected "out of hand" an Israeli offer for a PA state on nearly 95% of Judea and Samaria. In 2008, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered to agree to the creation of an independent PA state including all of Gaza, nearly all of Judea/Samaria, and parts of Israel – a total area equal to 99.5% of the size of Judea and Samaria. In addition, a tunnel would connect Judea/Samaria to Gaza, and the PA state would have its capital in eastern Jerusalem. Not only that: Olmert...

Originally appeared at German Economic News. Translated by Susan Neumann. Hey, Muhammad Barack Obama Al-Husseini: My boots haven't been licked for awhile. Please bend down and start with the left boot Could it be any more clear who is on the right side, and who is on the wrong side of this conflict? The Islamist theocracy Saudi Arabia is getting heavy ammunition equaling billions of dollars from the United States. It remains to be seen whether this economic booster shot for the U.S. defense industry will lead to consequences in Syria. The Saudis are fighting covertly against the Russians. The...

UPDATE: 3:05 p.m. EST -- The FBI Saturday said in a statement it is aware of an alleged threat by the Islamic State group to stage an attack on a WWE event scheduled for Atlanta Sunday evening. However, FBI Special Agent in Charge J. Britt Johnson of the Atlanta office said the bureau did not have "specific or credible information of an attack." The FBI is aware of reports of an alleged threat that includes an Atlanta, Georgia, venue and event. ... We have ... made the proper notifications as we continue to work closely with our law-enforcement and private-sector...

First responders hurried to Kiryat Gat's King David Street after receiving a report of a stabbing attack. Five people were wounded in the attack. A 12-year-old girl was stabbed in the chest and lightly wounded in the liver. She is being treated in a pediatric emergency ward. A 58-year-old woman was stabbed in the stomach and hip, and underwent surgery. A 51-year-old man was stabbed in the chest and suffered internal bleeding and wounds to his liver. A 44-year-old woman was wounded in the chest and head, and a 43-year-old man was stabbed in the back and in the legs....

(Biden): And what my constant cry was that our biggest problem is our allies – our allies in the region were our largest problem in Syria. The Turks were great friends – and I have the greatest relationship with Erdogan, which I just spent a lot of time with – the Saudis, the Emiratis, etc. What were they doing? They were so determined to take down Assad and essentially have a proxy Sunni-Shia war, what did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens, thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad except...

Congressional Democrats are trying to build support for an effort to bar gun purchases by terror suspects, hoping to take advantage of the same public anxieties about security that gave Republicans a ringing House victory. The Democratic push seems likely to fall victim to opposition from the National Rifle Association and congressional gun-rights backers, chiefly Republicans, who have smothered firearms curbs for years. If the Republicans who control Congress block votes on the proposal, Democrats hope to profit politically by winning sympathy from angry voters. ...

ANKARA (AFP) - Turkish warplanes have carried out a new wave of air strikes on northern Iraq in the latest assault on suspected targets of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the army said Saturday. Shelters and supply points of the PKK in northern Iraq, including its Qandil mountain stronghold, in the raids late Friday, it said. The military did not give further details but the state-run Anatolia news agency said the operation involved 22 fighter jets and that 23 targets were hit. Turkey has for four months been waging a relentless campaign against the PKK in the country's southeast...

Thousands of paramilitary forces from the country's powerful Revolutionary Guard have held a war game simulating the capture of Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque from Israeli control. Iran's state media reported Saturday that the forces stormed and "liberated" a replica of the mosque in the exercise. They say that 120 brigades from the Basij, the paramilitary unit of the Guard, participated in Friday's exercise outside the holy city of Qom in central Iran. ...

The Russian Defense Ministry on Friday released multiple videos showing Moscow’s continued air and sea operations against targets in Syria. In one of the videos, Iranian F-14 fighter jets appear to escort Russia’s long-range bombers as they fly toward Syria to strike areas held by the Islamic State, the terror group that claimed responsibility for downing a Russian passenger jet in Egypt and killing all 224 people aboard at the end of October. The video purports to show “combat sorties of the long-range aviation of the Russian Air Force against terrorists in Syria,” according to its the caption. Boris Zilberman,...

Something really interesting details have been exposed by the material released by Russia’s MoD lately. Indeed, as you can see in the video below, IRIAF (Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force) F-14 Tomcat interceptors escorted Russian Air Force Tu-95 Bear bombers flying in Iranian airspace during their 9h 30mins missions (from Engels airbase and back, along the Iraq-Iran-Caspian Sea 6,500 km-long corridor) against terrorist targets in Syria. With the U.S. Navy retiring the legendary F-14 in September 2006, nowadays the IRIAF is the only operator of the Tomcat, a type of aircraft that Tehran has kept airworthy throughout the years...

Astudy conducted by the US based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) estimated that Israel had 115 nuclear bombs in its possession in 2014. The study was composed by the institute's founder David Albright, and was part of a more comprehensive study on the worldwide inventory of plutonium. The study estimated that Israel produced plutonium at a rapid pace in the past 50 years since the inception of its nuclear reactor in Dimona, acquiring 660 kilograms of plutonium, taking into account an estimation error of 150 kilograms. A single nuclear bomb requires 3-5 kg of plutonium, the study estimated....

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Character Studies From The Bible Paul 1. Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. 3. So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. On Cyprus 4. The two of them, sent on...

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released a new report on Wednesday detailing a significant increase in anti-Israel activity on American university campuses over the 2014-2015 academic year. No fewer than 150 explicitly anti-Israel events were held in Fall 2015 alone, marking a noted increase from the 105 such events that took place in the same period during the previous year. Universities were themselves complicit in the anti-Israel events, with at least 15 of the events being sponsored or co-sponsored by university departments at institutions including the University of California-Berkley, Drew University, and John Jay College of Criminal Justice. ...

PARIS (AP) -- Riding the Paris Metro to the city's Grand Mosque for prayers, Samia Mahfoudia says people shoot sideways looks at her 'almost as if they were saying 'Get off.' Ahmed El Mziouzi, a Moroccan who has called France home for 42 years, says he's seen people staring at Muslims like him "a bit bizarrely" since attackers claiming to be acting in the name of Islam massacred 130 people, traumatizing the city.

Sen. Marco Rubio called out Sen. Ted Cruz by name Monday night for voting to "weaken U.S. intelligence programs," escalating their increasingly intense rivalry for the Republican presidential nomination. Calling it a distinctive issue in the campaign for the White House, the Florida senator said, "At least two of my colleagues in the Senate aspiring to the presidency, Sen. Cruz in particular, have voted to weaken the U.S. intelligence programs just in the last month and a half. And a weakening of our intelligence gathering capabilities leaves America vulnerable." Rubio, speaking before The Wall Street Journal CEO Council at the...

Have you ever been in a discussion with a skeptic about God and morality? Perhaps you've admirably made the case that God's good character is the basis for human dignity and worth. Maybe you've shown how objective moral values and duties can't be explained naturalistically. Then someone takes the wind out of your sails by asking, "Well, if God is so good, why would He command Israel to engage in ethnic cleansing and genocidal warfare against the Canaanites? After all, doesn't Deuteronomy 20:16-17 plainly state this? 'Only in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving...

Earlier this month, Israel’s Knesset enacted a minimum prison term for minors who throw stones and firebombs at vehicles. An outraged Palestinian Authority called the measure “punitive and racist.” Stoning attacks in Israel go largely unreported, but on average there are several such incidents every day. The perpetrators are usually Palestinian Arab youth, and their victims are almost always Israeli Jewish motorists. A number of these attacks have resulted in severe injuries and deaths, including Jewish children. There are certain areas of Jerusalem that the police, ambulances and other public services simply won’t enter for fear of being stoned. But...

Convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard is to be released from US prison on Friday after serving 30 years.   Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter  Attempts to get Pollard freed over the years have failed, as have requests to ease the terms of his release. He is to be released by the federal parole board but remain under strict conditions. Among other things, Pollard will be banned from flying to Israel and forbidden from accessing the internet.   Jonathan Pollard (Photo: AP)  Pollard, 61, will also have to live and work in New York and regularly report to a parole officer....