Pope’s rabbi friend says Francis eyeing March Israel visit
Catholic leader reportedly says he wishes to realize a ‘lifelong dream’ of reaching the Holy Land, though he’s been here before
October 13, 2013, 11:08 pm
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Edelstein also asked the pope to help combat
anti-Semitism: “There is still anti-Semitism in the world; I ask you to
use your influence to combat it.”Pope Francis’s planned visit will mark the
50th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s visit to Jerusalem in 1964, which
took place before the Vatican recognized the State of Israel.
The future trip would mark Francis’s second
visit to the Holy Land. He arrived here in 1973, just as the Yom Kippur
War broke out. As The Times of Israel revealed in April,
Jorge Mario Bergoglio (as he was then) spent six days confined to his
Jerusalem hotel, studying the Letters of Saint Paul to the Corinthians.
President Shimon Peres first invited Francis
to Israel immediately after his election, calling on him to visit as a
spiritual — not a political — leader.The sooner you visit, the better;
in these
days, a new opportunity is being created for peace and your arrival
could contribute significantly to increasing the trust and belief in
peace,” Peres said.Francis would try to find time to come to Israel “in
the near future,” the President’s Office said in July.Both of the
pontiff’s immediate predecessors visited Israel — Benedict XVI in 2009,
and John Paul II in 2000.
EU accuses Palestinians of wasting €2 billion in aid
Leaked report alleges ‘significant shortcomings’ in PA’s fund management
October 13, 2013, 4:25 pm
15-The Times of Israel
The Palestinian Authority
squandered nearly €2 billion ($2.7 billion) in European aid through
corruption and mismanagement, a British newspaper claimed Sunday,
leaking the contents of a not-yet-published European document.According
to the article, in Britain’s Sunday Times, the European Court of
Auditors, an EU organ set up in 1975 to audit the EU’s income and
spending, found that Europe had little control over €1.95 billion ($2.64
billion) spent in the West Bank and Gaza between 2008 and 2012, noting
“significant shortcomings.”
EU investigators who visited Jerusalem, Gaza
and the West Bank reported their inability to address “high-level risks”
such as “corruption or funds not being used for their intended
purpose,” the newspaper said.No comment from ECA was available at time
of publication.Transparency International, a Berlin-based
watchdog monitoring corporate and political corruption, claimed that the
state of paralysis afflicting the Palestinian parliament since 2007 has
“given the executive unlimited management over public funds.”
Nepotism is also commonplace in the Palestinian public and private
sectors, the organization claimed.
A Palestinian opinion poll
conducted in July 2012 found that 71 percent of respondents believed
that corruption existed in PA institutions under the control of
President Mahmoud Abbas. Some 57% of respondents said the same of
Hamas-controlled institutions in the Gaza Strip.Similarly, a hearing held at the House of
Representative’s Committee on Foreign Affairs in July 2012 accused the
Palestinian political establishment of “chronic kleptocracy,” pointing
the finger directly at Mahmoud Abbas and members of his family.Azmi Shuaibi, head of Transparency Palestine,
the local chapter of Transparency International, said in April that his
organization was investigating 29 Palestinian officials on counts of
fraud and money laundering.
Vesuvius: Avenger of Jerusalem
October 11, 2013, 2:42 am
7-The Times of Israel
1st century Roman victims in Pompeii
Very few people have taken into consideration
the impact of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE/AD on the spread of
Christianity in the Roman empire. Nor have people realized the
connection made by people living in the 1st century between the eruption
and the destruction of Jerusalem. But consider this – the city of
Pompeii was named after a Roman general who desecrated the Jerusalem
Temple. It was also the play capital of the Roman elite. When it was
buried in ash, many people thought that the Romans had it coming, and
saw the eruption as divine retribution.Today, tourists wander around Pompeii’s ruins
overwhelmed by the feeling that they’ve gone through a time machine. I
remember, entering the Pompeii brothel and seeing the paintings of men
and women in various sexual positions. Everyone tittered as if they were
staring at an ancient version of Playboy. Ever the party pooper, I
pointed out that the “whores” in the brothel were probably nice Jewish
girls from Judea, forced into prostitution by their Roman masters.
Remember, Jerusalem fell in 70 CE, and the last of the Jewish resistance
fell at Masada in 73 CE. There were so many Jewish slaves on the
Italian peninsula that Roman’s were complaining about the collapse of
their savings, since the price of slaves had plummeted as a result of
the influx of the Judeans. The destruction of Judea was just six years
prior to the eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii.
Wall painting from the brothel
Among the Judean slaves were the original
followers of Jesus. Again, remember, Jesus was crucified around 32 CE.
His brother James was executed in 62 CE, just four years before the
Great Jewish Revolt. Meaning, some of the slaves in Pompeii must have
heard the Sermon on the Mount.In Pompeii, Hebrew names such as “Martha” have
been found etched on the walls. More than this, the words “Sodom and
Gomorrah” have been found written in graffiti. And someone even wrote
the word “Cherem” i.e., Hebrew for “marked for destruction”, on the
doorway of a house. The first archaeological attestation of the word
“Christian” is on a wall in Pompeii. What all this means is that the
Jews and the so-called Judeo-Christians warned their Roman masters that
the God of Israel would avenge them – that fire and brimstone would rain
from heaven and that, like Lot’s Biblical wife, they would turn into
human statues. Then, in August 79 CE, exactly nine years after the
destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, the Roman elite was buried by
the ash of Vesuvius, literally turning them into human statues.
The baker Terentius Neo and his wife
Some pagans became Jews. More became
Christians, the new religion out of Judea. In fact, we have the portrait
of a couple that owned a bakery that we know for certain were
Christians because they removed all the pagan symbols from the bakery,
and substituted them with a cross. Put differently, Vesuvius did more
for the spread of Christianity than the apostle Paul. I made a film
about this. Click here to watch it.Now, my friend and colleague Professor James
Tabor, has found a description of the eruption encoded in the Book of
Revelation – incredible! See: http://jamestabor.com/2013/10/09/the-destruction-of-pompei-and-the-new-testament-book-of-revelation/ - The history is there if we’re willing to open our eyes.
