Maybe The Whole Nation Should Do What These Clergymen Did

Ohio Clergymen Bless Israel and See Astounding Blessings in Return

By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz March 7, 2018 , 3:47 pm

“I will bless those who bless you And curse him that curses you; And all the families of the earth Shall bless themselves by you.” Genesis 12:3 (The Israel Bible™)

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A group of over 100 clergymen from North-Central Ohio who came together in a powerful expression of solidarity with Israel, received blessings in the manner described in the Bible promising that those who bless the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will be blessed in return.

The clergy, led by Benjamin Mutti and Reverend El Akuchie who are both coordinators of the Richland Community Prayer Network, stood with Israel when they sent a letter of solidarity to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in January 2017.

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Ohio pastors in support of Israel (Photo courtesy Benjamin Mutti)

In the letter, the clergyman apologized for the some of the actions of former President Barack Obama, particularly when he ordered his UN ambassador, Samantha Power to abstain instead of veto Security Council Resolution 2334. The resolution, which passed unanimously, declared Israel’s presence in “east Jerusalem,” Judea, and Samaria to be illegal.

“These actions of the Obama Administration do not represent the will of the governed,” the letter stated. “Furthermore, this Administration has now been deposed. Most assuredly, we believe that the GOD of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob gave all the land of Canaan to Israel as an everlasting covenant with Jerusalem as its eternal undivided capital.”

“Please be reminded Prime Minister Netanyahu, even though nations conspire against Israel, these people plot in vain. Even though the kings of the earth band together against you and your country, the One enthroned in the heavens laughs.”

Perhaps the most significant part of the letter was its conclusion in which the Ohio pastors bonded their fate with that of Israel, despite the geographic distance from the Jewish state.

“Since our destinies are intertwined together, you will always have friends in Ohio,” the letter said. “What affects your country affects our country. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, your GOD and His people are fighting and praying for you.”

The letter, signed by 103 Christian clergies from North-Central Ohio, was also sent to Rabbi Yehudah Glick, a long-time Temple Mount activist and Member of Knesset (MK) from Netanyahu’s Likud party. The clergymen were yearning to make up for the “crime” of the UN Security Council resolution.

“We believe the Jews should be a light unto the nations,” Benjamin Mutti told Breaking Israel News. “The UN resolution was a national crime. We wanted to bring reconciliation between our people and the Jews and also between us and the God of Israel.”

According to Mutti, that act of reconciliation starting bearing fruit right away.

“After sending the letter, we immediately began seeing signs of God’s favor. The economy rebounded and the ecology also responded almost immediately after we sent the letter.”

One of the ways the economy bounced back was the approval of a hotly contested the Rover Pipeline, a 713-mile natural $4 billion gas pipeline. Although the project would bring jobs and money to the region as well as facilitate the distribution of natural gas throughout the US and Canada, the pipeline was mired in several lawsuits. Its approval came ten days after the clergy sent the letter to Netanyahu. At the time, North-Central Ohio had a stagnant regional economy that was reported as the fifth worst in the country, and Mutti said that the project brought an enormous boost to the region.

“The pipeline company pays the landowners,” Mutti explained. “The employees who put in the pipeline also brought income to the region, and several local companies participated in the project.”

For many people in Ohio who live in rural communities, the land plays a powerful role in their lives.

“We follow the land,” Mutti said. “We watch nature for answers.” And the answers immediately came.

“According to Department of Agriculture numbers, the spring turkey harvest in Richland County saw a dramatic twenty-four percent increase from last year, whitetail deer harvested was the best in four years, and the cow herd in Richland County, which is estimated in late winter, is now at its largest number in over thirty years, which is amazing!” Mutti said.

Even with all that, the divine gratitude was not complete. In mid-March of 2017, winter storm Stella was poised to hit their region hard. At the last moment, however, the storm changed direction and dumped 30 inches of snow 70 miles away. The region that had participated in the pro-Israel initiative received just two inches.

The clergymen decided to take their blessing of Israel even further. In response to the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement that calls for a boycott on Israeli products, 42 Christian clergies petitioned the Richland County treasurer, Bart Hamilton, in May 2017 and requested that he invest community funds in Israel bonds. The standing county policy did not permit such international investments, but at the urging of the clergy, the treasurer looked into the possibility of doing so. They cited the strong performance of these bonds as an economic incentive.

After consulting with the treasurer, the county’s prosecutor rewrote the investment guidelines for the county, which had stood for 25 years. The treasurer then announced at a public county commissioner board meeting his intention to invest between $100,000 to $200,000 in Israel bonds. That very day, the county appeared to reap a Divinely-sponsored return on the investment.

“The day the County Treasurer announced that the county government would invest in Israeli bonds, was the same meeting that half a million dollars in unexpected revenue were reportedly discovered to alleviate a budget shortfall!” Mutti shared.

It is clear, at least to Mutti and the clergy of North Central Ohio, that blessing the Children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has its advantages.

“There is something about Ohio, but we here feel a close brotherhood to Israel,” Mutti said. “Maybe it is our closeness to nature that allows us to see God’s presence clearly.”

Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/103853/ohio-clergy-bless-israel-see-astounding-blessings-return/#mgKXswE8OEjEsuz0.99

The War Against Israel Orchestrated By Obama

Obama and Israel, Strike and Counter-Strike

By Caroline Glick January 2, 2017 , 10:00 am

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UN Security Council Resolution 2334 was the first prong of outgoing President Barack Obama’s lame duck campaign against Israel.

US Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech on Wednesday was the second.

On January 15, stage 3 will commence in Paris.

At France’s lame duck President François Hollande’s international conference, the foreign ministers of some 50 states are expected to adopt as their own Kerry’s anti-Israel principles.

The next day it will be Obama’s turn. Obama can be expected to use the occasion of Martin Luther King Jr. Day to present the Palestinian war to annihilate Israel as a natural progression from the American Civil Rights movement that King led 50 years ago.

Finally, sometime between January 17 and 19, Obama intends for the Security Council to reconvene and follow the gang at the Paris conference by adopting Kerry’s positions as a Security Council resolution. That follow-on resolution may also recognize “Palestine” and grant it full membership in the UN.

True, Kerry said the administration will not put forward another Security Council resolution.

But as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained in his response to Kerry’s address, there is ample reason to suspect that France or Sweden, or both, will put forth such a resolution. Since the draft will simply be a restatement of Kerry’s speech, Obama will not veto it.

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Whether or not Obama gets his second Security Council resolution remains to be seen. But whether he succeeds or fails, he’s already caused most of the damage. A follow-on resolution will only amplify the blow Israel absorbed with 2334.

Resolution 2334 harms Israel in two ways. First, it effectively abrogates Resolution 242 from 1967 which formed the basis of Israeli policy-making for the past 49 years. Second, 2334 gives a strategic boost to the international campaign to boycott the Jewish state.

Resolution 242 anchored the cease-fire between Israel and its neighbors at the end of the Six Day War. It stipulated that in exchange for Arab recognition of Israel’s right to exist in secure and defensible borders, Israel would cede some of the territories it took control over during the war.

Resolution 242 assumed that Israel has a right to hold these areas and that an Israeli decision to cede some of them to its neighbors in exchange for peace would constitute a major concession.

Resolution 242 is deliberately phrased to ensure that Israel would not be expected to cede all of the lands it took control over in the Six Day War. The resolution speaks of “territories,” rather than “the territories” or “all the territories” that Israel took control over during the war.

Resolution 2334 rejects 242’s founding assumptions.

Resolution 2334 asserts that Israel has no right to any of the lands it took control over during the war. From the Western Wall to Shiloh, from Hebron to Ariel, 2334 says all Israeli presence in the areas beyond the 1949 armistice lines is crime.

Given that Israel has no right to hold territory under 2334, it naturally follows that the Palestinians have no incentive to give Israel peace. So they won’t. The peace process, like the two-state solution, ended last Friday night to the raucous applause of all Security Council members.

As for the boycott campaign, contrary to what has been widely argued, 2334 does not strengthen the boycott of “settlements.” It gives a strategic boost to the boycott of Israel as a whole.

It calls on states “to distinguish in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967.”

Since no Israeli firm makes that distinction, all Israeli economic activity is now threatened with boycott. Tnuva is an “occupation” dairy because it supplies communities beyond the 1949 lines.

Bank Hapoalim is an “occupation” bank because it operates ATM machines in post-1967 neighborhoods in Jerusalem. The Fox clothing chain is an “occupation” chain because it has a store in Gush Etzion. And so on and so forth.

Resolution 2334 gives Europe and its NGOs a green light to wage a complete trade and cultural boycott against all of Israel.

Obama is not using his final weeks in office to wage war on Israel because he hates Netanyahu.

He is not deliberately denying 3,500 years of Jewish history in the Land of Israel because the Knesset is set to pass the Regulations Law that will make it marginally easier for Jews to exercise property rights in Judea and Samaria, as Kerry and UN Ambassador Samantha Power claimed.

Obama’s onslaught against Israel is the natural endpoint of a policy he has followed since he first entered the White House. In June 2009, Obama denied the Jews’ 3,500 years of history in the Land of Israel in his speech in Cairo before an audience packed with members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

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Instead of the truth, Obama adopted the Islamist propaganda lie that Israel was established because Europe felt guilty about the Holocaust.

Throughout his presidency, Obama has rejected the guiding principle of Resolution 242. His antisemitic demand that Israel deny its Jewish citizens their civil and property rights in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria simply because they are Jews is just as antithetical to 242 as is Resolution 2334.

In his speech, Kerry repeatedly castigated the government while flattering the Israeli Left in yet another attempt to divide and polarize Israeli society. Kerry’s professed support for the Israeli Left is deeply ironic because Israeli leftists are the primary casualties of Obama’s anti-Israel assault.

In the post-242 world that Obama initiated, the UN makes no distinction between Jerusalem and Nablus, between Gush Etzion and Jenin, or between Ma’aleh Adumim and Ramallah. In this world, Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog’s plan to retain a mere 2-3% of Judea and Samaria is no more acceptable than Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett’s plan to apply Israeli law to 60% of the area or to other plans calling for Israeli law to be applied to all of Judea and Samaria. All are equally unlawful. All are equally unacceptable.

For the next three weeks, the government’s focus must be centered on Obama and minimizing the damage he is able to cause Israel. Since Israel cannot convince Hollande to cancel his conference or Obama not to give his speech, Israeli efforts must be concentrated on scuttling Obama’s plan to enact a follow-on resolution.

To scuttle another resolution, Israel needs to convince seven members of the Security Council not to support it. Only measures that secure the support of nine out of 15 Security Council members are permitted to come to a vote. The states that are most susceptible to Israeli lobbying are Italy, Ethiopia, Japan, Egypt, Uruguay, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Russia.

Netanyahu’s furious response to 2334 advance the goal of blocking a vote on a follow-on resolution in two ways. First, they create Israeli leverage in seeking to convince member states to oppose voting on an additional resolution before January 20.

Second, Netanyahu’s seemingly unrestrained response to the Obama administration’s onslaught enables Donald Trump to join him in pressuring Security Council members to oppose bringing a new resolution for a vote.

By taking an extreme position of total rejection of Obama’s actions, Netanyahu is enabling Trump to block a vote while striking a moderate tone.

In three weeks, Obama’s war with Israel will end. His final legacy – the destruction of the landfor- peace paradigm and the two-state policy-making model – obligate Israel, for the first time in 50 years, to determine by itself its long-term goals in relation to the international community, the Palestinians and Judea and Samaria.

Regarding the international community, the Security Council opened the door for its members to boycott Israel. As a result, Israel should show the UN and its factotums the door. Israel should work to de-internationalize the Palestinian conflict by expelling UN personnel from its territory.

The same is the case with the EU. Once Britain exits the EU, Israel should end the EU’s illegal operations in Judea and Samaria and declare EU personnel acting illegally persona non grata.

As for the Palestinians, Resolution 2334 obligates Israel to reconsider its recognition of the PLO. Since 1993, Israel has recognized the PLO despite its deep and continuous engagement in terrorism. Israel legitimized the PLO because the terrorist group was ostensibly its partner in peace. Now, after the PLO successfully killed the peace process by getting the Security Council to abrogate 242, Israel’s continued recognition of the PLO makes little sense. Neither PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas nor his deputies in Fatah – convicted, imprisoned mass murderer and terrorism master Marwan Barghouti, and Jibril Rajoub who said he wishes he had a nuclear bomb so he could drop it on Israel and who tried to get Israel expelled from FIFA – has any interest in recognizing Israel, let alone making peace with it. The same of course can be said for the PLO’s coalition partner Hamas.

An Israeli decision to stop recognizing the PLO will also have implications for the Trump administration.

In the aftermath of 2334, calls are steadily mounting in Congress for the US cancel its recognition of the PLO and end US financial support for the Palestinian Authority. If Israel has already ended its recognition of the PLO, chances will rise that the US will follow suit. Such a US move will have positive strategic implications for Israel.

There is also the question of the Palestinian militias that are deployed to Judea and Samaria as part of the peace process that Obama and the PLO officially ended last Friday. In the coming months, Israel will need to decide what to do about these hostile militias that take their orders from leaders who reject peaceful coexistence with Israel.

Finally, there are the territories themselves. For 50 years, Israel has used the land-for-peace paradigm as a way not to decide what to do with Judea and Samaria. Now that 242 has been effectively abrogated, Israel has to decide what it wants.

The no-brainer is to allow Jews to build wherever they have the legal right to build. If the UN says Israel has no rights to Jerusalem, then Israel has no reason to distinguish between Jerusalem and Elon Moreh.

More broadly, given that for the foreseeable future, there will be no Palestinian Authority interested in making peace with Israel, Israel needs to think about the best way to administer Judea and Samaria going forward. The obvious step of applying Israeli law to Area C now becomes almost inarguable.

Shortly before Obama took office eight years ago, he promised to “fundamentally transform” America. Trump’s election scuttled any chance he had of doing so.

But by enabling Resolution 2334 to pass in the Security Council, Obama has succeeded in fundamentally transforming the nature of the Palestinian conflict with Israel. Israel’s actions in the coming weeks will determine whether it is fundamentally transformed for better or for worse.

Reprinted with author’s permission from FrontPage Mag

Read more at https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/265313/obama-and-israel-strike-and-counter-strike-caroline-glick#84xYCyY9AHzYr2lQ.99

Obama Hates America And Israel For The Same Reason--They Are The Light To The World!

Watch: John Bolton explains why Obama didn’t veto anti-Israel UN resolution

Chris Enloe 7 hours

Former Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

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John Bolton, former United States ambassador to the United Nations, said on Fox News late Tuesday that he believes President Barack Obama’s actions toward Israel in the latter stages of his presidency are a “deep reflection” of his ideology.

Obama has caused outrage in recent days after he told the American U.N. delegation to abstain from voting on U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334, which ultimately passed and condemned Israel. Given that the U.S. is a permanent member of the security council, a veto from the U.S. would have killed the resolution for good.

“I think this is a deep reflection of Obama’s ideology,” Bolton said on Fox. “He sees Israel in much the same way he sees the United States.”

“[Obama] dislikes American exceptionalism, he dislikes Israeli exceptionalism, and I think he sees this as his way to ‘set it straight,'” he added.

Bolton went on to predict that in Obama’s 23 remaining days in office, America will continue to see his disdain for Israel and American exceptionalism.