The Temple Institute’s crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for the modern architectural plans for the Third Holy Temple in Jerusalem came to a close on Rosh Hashanah after surpassing its $100,000 goal in 60 days. The initiative began on the first day of the month of Av, when Jews commemorate the destruction of the ancient Holy Temples. Almost 900 pledges have come in from more than 30 countries worldwide.
The ancient principle of the “Shemitah” goes back 3,000 years to the time of Moses, but a rabbi from New Jersey is warning Americans to pull out their Bibles and take note. The year of the Shemitah, also called the Sabbath year, begins at sundown Wednesday with the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and continues through Sept. 13, 2015.
A public opinion poll published on Tuesday showed that half of the Palestinian public supports an armed intifada against Israel. The poll, published by the Nablus-based An-Najah University, included 1,360 Palestinians (860 from the West Bank and 500 from the Gaza Strip) above the age of 18, was conducted during the period from 11-13 September. It has a margin of error of three percent.
Hundreds of people attended the Monday funeral of 16-year-old Mohammed Sinokrot, who died of his wounds sustained during a protest over a week ago in the Wadi Joz neighborhood of East Jerusalem. His death sparked street violence in the area and masked rioters threw stones at police during the funeral as well, leading to the arrest of three. The even that wounded and eventually led to the death of Sinokrot occurred on the 31st of August.
Israeli officials on Monday enthusiastically embraced reports that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi recently offered the Palestinians an independent state in the Sinai Peninsula in return for dropping claims to the pre–1967 borders. According to the offer, which was reported by the Arab media and by Israel’s Army Radio, Egypt would give the Palestinians land in the Sinai that would effectively expand the territory of the Gaza Strip fivefold. This “Greater Gaza” would be a fully independent state under the sovereignty of the Palestinian Authority, and would serve as a homeland for all Palestinians “refugees.
A Nigerian health worker visiting Israel has been hospitalized in Jerusalem in fear that she might be infected with the Ebola virus. The woman was admitted to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center with a high fever and other symptoms that possibly indicate that she contracted the deadly strain. The hospital was conducting tests to determine if the quarantined tourist was carrying the first-seen case of Ebola in Israel.
The British government on Monday said it “deplores” an announcement made by Israel on Sunday, in which the Jewish state declared 4,000 dunams (988 acres) of land in Judea as state land. “The UK deplores the Israeli government’s expropriation of 988 acres of land around the settlement of Etzion,” British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said in a statement. Hammond further threatened “this is a particularly ill-judged decision that comes at a time when the priority must be to build on the ceasefire in Gaza.
Children dressed as Hamas militants and armed with mock weapons were among the Palestinians celebrating what they described as Hamas’ “victory of the resistance” over Israel after seven weeks of violence and bloodshed. While the mainstream media neglected to publish photos of Hamas fighters as they launched more than 4,480 rockets at Israel in July and August, there are nevertheless news service photos of children in Gaza and the West Bank cities decked out in full Hamas regalia, celebrating the group classified by the U.S.
The organization calling itself the Islamic State has risen from the fog of war in Syria and Iraq in recent months and drawn the attention of the world with major victories on both sides of the Euphrates River that have claimed swaths of territory for its declared caliphate, or Islamic State. Now in the organization’s new English language publication, Dabiq, aimed at young Muslims in western states, the extremist organization declared, “Islamic State will do everything within its means to continue striking down every apostate who stands as an obstacle on its path towards Palestine.” Denouncing the ineffectiveness of other Arab states and organizations in carrying out the “will of Allah,” the magazine vows that, “Its [Islamic State’s] actions speak louder than its words and it is only a matter of time and patience before it reaches Palestine to fight the barbaric Jews and kill those of them hiding behind the gharqad trees – the trees of the jews.
Hamas’s true objective in Operation Protective Edge – and negotiations that may follow – is in “liberating” Jerusalem from the Jews, a Hamas spokesman stated earlier this week. “The time has come for us to say that the true war is not aimed at opening border crossings,” Sami Abu Zuhri said. “Our true war is aimed at the liberation of Jerusalem, Allah willing.
Palestinian officials have said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is planning to ask the UN to set a timetable for the end of the Israeli occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian state along the 1967 lines, with its capital in East Jerusalem. The official told the Associated Press that Abbas would present his proposal as part of a “day after” plan following the end of the current war in the Gaza Strip. According to the Qatari News Agency, an agreement over the matter was reached in Abbas’ meeting with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and Hamas’ political chief Khaled Meshal, in Doha on Friday.
Tarek Fahmi, the head of the Israeli Unit at the Egyptian National Center for Middle East Studies, said that “the goal of the talks today is to neutralize the main crisis points, particularly [the question of] the Gaza airport and Israeli concessions regarding the sea, as well as the issue of the tunnels.” Fahmi said that the negotiating sessions that took place on Monday were “critical.” “Israel insists on demilitarizing the Gaza Strip from rockets and missiles, and the declaration of a cease-fire that would last between five and seven years,” he said.
In the 12-story apartment tower, the target was a fourth-floor apartment where Hamas ran an operations center, according to Israeli media. In the past, Israel has carried out pinpoint strikes, targeting apartments in high-rises with missiles, while leaving the buildings standing. However, this time a decision was made to bring down the entire tower, according to Channel 10, an Israeli TV station.
Since the collapse of the cease-fire, Palestinians in Gaza have launched dozens of rockets and mortars at Israel, pounding the western Negev. Ashkelon, Ashdod, and the smaller communities within just a few kilometers of the Gaza border have absorbed the worst barrages since before dawn on Wednesday. On Wednesday the IDF struck two terror operatives in Gaza who were responsible for earlier rocket fire on Ashkelon and Gaza frontier communities.
