JN-1155

Jerusalem News (16 June, 2015, 29 Sivan, 5775)

Contents:
1. Orjan Svensson: (a) Crown Prince of Sweden Gets Hitched. (b) New Birth in Royal Family
2. Arnold Roth: US-Israel "mistrust, mistakes and missed opportunities"
3. Alex Zephyr: Why Christians Support Israel
4. Steven Shamrak:  Palestinians Want to Leave the Promised Land
5. Steven Shamrak: Luxembourg Apologizes for WW2 Collaboration with the Nazis!
6. Steven Shamrak: UN Mainly Targets Israel
7. RARE INSCRIPTION FROM DAVIDIC TIMES FOUND
by Eliran Aharon
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1. Orjan Svensson: (a) Crown Prince of Sweden Gets Hitched. (b) New Birth in Royal Family

(a) Shalom,
Prince Carl Philip of Sweden has now married. There were big celebrations in Stockholm on Saturday,
see: Prins Carl Philip och Sofia sade ja till varandra
http://www.expressen.se/tv/nyheter/kungligt/prins-carl-philip-och-sofia-sade-ja-till-varandra/

(b) princess-madeleine-of-sweden-has-given-birth-to-a-son:
http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/kungligt/princess-madeleine-of-sweden-has-given-birth-to-a-son/
Orjan

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2. Arnold Roth: US-Israel "mistrust, mistakes and missed opportunities"
This Ongoing War: A Blog

15-Jun-15: Trust us! Some stunning insights into an evolving alliance
http://thisongoingwar.blogspot.co.il/2015/06/15-jun-15-trust-us-some-stunning.html

Extracts:

An important new book, a memoir by Prof. Michael Oren who served as Israel's ambassador to the US between May 2009 and September 2013, is getting media coverage this week. His insider's vantage point at a time of huge importance is an invaluable one.


He calls "Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide", to be published next Tuesday, a book written "with love,  and fear." He's not kidding.
http://www.amazon.com/Ally-Journey-Across-American-Israeli-Divide/dp/0812996410

We have not read it (it's not yet available in the stores) but were struck some things said by the author and his reviewer in an article by Gary Rosenblatt in the current issue of The Jewish Week NY. Under the title "No Way To Treat An Ally", it's (in the newspaper's words) a "devastating insider's account of White House distancing from Israel." Some selected verbatim quotes:

As he notes in his foreword, 'ally' is a simple, beautiful word, that evokes 'warmth,' fitting for the 'special relationship,' said to exist between Israel and the U.S. But that relationship also includes 'bitter differences,' he reminds us at the outset. And much of the next 375 pages is a carefully recalled, detailed and riveting first-hand account of how the Washington-Jerusalem ties have unraveled,  undone by mistrust, mistakes and missed opportunities,  with Obama in the role of bully-in-chief.

 Repeatedly, he describes how Israel is blamed for the lack of progress on the peace front while the Palestinians are given a pass.

 He has a clear message for American Jews, particularly in light of the proposed nuclear agreement with Iran: 'Remember that American Jewry once had a chance to save six million Jews,' Oren said somberly. 'And there are six million today [in Israel]. So think very hard,  and understand that 'this is about our survival as a people. It's about our children and grandchildren.'

'Oren doesn't say that the president is anti-Israel. Rather, 'Obama is pro-Israel' but his is a certain mythical, pre-1967 Israel that never really existed,'  he said, a time when the state was 'less democratic, less open, less respectful of minorities.'

' [Israel] in the eyes of the administration... is a country out of step with American interests. Oren writes that the president's foreign policy priorities included, 'creating a Palestinian state, reconciling with Islam, and preventing nuclear proliferation. "All three," he noted, "intersected with Israel's interests, and in potentially abrasive ways."

' [Oren] cited Obama's 'credibility problem'  in the Mideast, noting America's lack of success throughout the region, including Iraq, Syria and Yemen. 'But on this one vital issue,'  the nuclear agreement with Iran, 'they're saying 'trust us,'' he said. 'First they [the administration] told us all options are on the table,' he continued, 'and now they're saying there never was a military option. This deal is not just a bad one, it is singularly dangerous, and it is our duty and right to speak out. And as an IDF war veteran whose son [in the IDF] was wounded, I am deeply offended when we are cast as warmongers.'

[Postscript: If you are going to order the Oren book, or anything else, from Amazon, please know that if you do that via AmazonSmile, Amazon donates 0.5% of the purchase price to The Malki Foundation.
http://www.kerenmalki.org/

Bookmark this link and support this worthwhile, efficient and constructive cause every time you shop.]
https://smile.amazon.com/ch/26-2251751

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3. Alex Zephyr: Why Christians Support Israel
 
http://www.torahcafe.com/governor-mike-huckabee/why-christians-support-israel-video_059858e47.html
 
Governor Mike Huckabee, speaking at the Gush Katif Museum dinner, refers to his 40 years of visits to Israel. He exhorts Americans to give the message to the President that until the Palestinians recognize the G-d given right of Israel to exist, there should be no discussion about peace. - See more at:
http://www.torahcafe.com/governor-mike-huckabee/why-christians-support-israel-video_059858e47.html#sthash.dJLEH8by.dpuf
 
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4. Palestinians Want to Leave the Promised Land

Steven Shamrak <shamrakreport@gmail.com>
Let Those People Go!
http://www.shamrak.com/
A new poll conducted by the Ramallah-based PCPSR in Judea, Samaria and Gaza found that 50% of respondents in Gaza are considering emigrating from the area. Among Arab residents of Judea and Samaria that figure was not too far behind, with 25% saying they want to leave and not live under the PA rule.
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5. Luxembourg Apologizes for WW2 Collaboration with the Nazis!

Steven Shamrak <shamrakreport@gmail.com>
It Took Them 70 Years to Apologize to Jews!
http://www.shamrak.com/
Luxembourg apologized to the Jewish community for its suffering" during the Nazi occupation in World War II, in the first such gesture since the conflict ended 70 years ago. The government acknowledged that "certain representatives" of the Luxembourg authorities had been complicit. Out of 3,700 Jews living in Luxembourg before the war, 1,200 were killed from May 1940 until September 1944, the period of Nazi occupation
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6. UN Mainly Targets Israel

Steven Shamrak <shamrakreport@gmail.com>
Quotes of the Week:
"Open your eyes and ears. In 2012, the UN General Assembly approved 22 resolutions against Israel compared to four against the rest of the world countries..." - Ayelet Shaked, Israeli Justice Minister
http://www.shamrak.com/
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7. RARE INSCRIPTION FROM DAVIDIC TIMES FOUND
by Eliran Aharon
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/196807#.VYAYe_mqpBc

Extracts:

A rare inscription from the time of King David was discovered at Khirbet Qeiyafain, in the Valley of Elah, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) revealed Tuesday.

A ceramic jar c. 3,000 years old that was broken into numerous sherds was discovered in 2012 in excavations carried out there by Prof. Yosef Garfinkel of the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University (HUJI) and Saar Ganor of the IAA.

Letters written in ancient Canaanite script could be discerned on several of the shards, sparking the curiosity of researchers.
Intensive restoration work conducted in the laboratories of the Israel Antiquities Authority Artifacts Treatment Department, during which hundreds of pottery shards were glued together to form a whole jar, solved the riddle - the  jar bears the inscription: Eshbaal Ben Bada'.

Dr. Mitka Golub and Dr. Haggai Misgav were among the team of researchers involved in deciphering the text.

"This is the first time that the name Eshba'al has appeared on an ancient inscription in the country. Eshba'al Ben Shaul, who ruled over Israel at the same time as David, is known from the Bible. Eshba'al was murdered by assassins and decapitated and his head was brought to David in Hebron (II Samuel, Chaps. 3-4)," Professor Yosef Garfinkel of the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University and Saar Ganor of the IAA stated. "It is interesting to note that the name Eshba'al appears in the Bible, and now also in the archaeological record, only during the reign of King David, in the first half of the tenth century BCE."

"This name was not used later in the First Temple period.The correlation between the biblical tradition and the archaeological finds indicates this was a common name only during that period. The name Beda is unique and does not occur in ancient inscriptions or in the biblical tradition."

Researchers suggest that Eshba'al was important, due to his prominence enough to be inscribed on the pottery. He was apparently the owner of a large agricultural estate and the produce collected there was packed and transported in jars that bore his name. This is clear evidence of social stratification and the creation of an established economic class that occurred at the time of the formation of the Kingdom of Judah.

"In II Samuel there was apparently reluctance to use the name Eshbaal, which was reminiscent of the Canaanite storm god Baal, and the original name was therefore changed to Ish-Bashat [MAN OF SHAME], but the original name of Eshbaal was preserved in the Book of Chronicles," Garfinkel and Ganor added. "Thus, for example, the name of the warlord Gideon Ben Joash was also changed from Jerrubaal to Jeru-besheth."

[Baal -lord- connoting a pagan god was changed to Boshet, i.e. shame, Brit-Am editor]

Khirbet Qeiyafa is identified with the biblical city Shaarayim. During several seasons of excavations directed by Prof. Yosef Garfinkel and Saar Ganor, a fortified city, two gates, a palace and storerooms, dwellings and cultic rooms were exposed there. The city dates from the time of David, that is, the late eleventh and early tenth centuries BCE.