Featured Stories

With Friends Like That…

{image_1}There is an old saying, “With friends like that, who needs enemies?!” If it ever applied to anyone, it certainly does to Israel. Throughout the short history of this tiny nation, wars have been fought with precious few allies, international pressure handled with minimal partners, and an almost constant onslaught of terror endured with very few supporters. The international community has frequently refused to acknowledge Israel’s right to conduct its affairs in like manner to other sovereign nations, and often countries that seemed like friends one day, turned out to be foes the next. And it all began in 1947.

TORAH: The Center of Jewish Learning

{image_1}Torah is one of the pillars of Judaism: “The world stands on three things: on Torah, worship, and loving deeds of kindness” (Pirke Avot: Ethics of the Fathers 1:2). Studying Torah should be a pleasure and sweetens one's life. To emphasize this sweetness, Jewish children may begin their study of Hebrew with letters that have been written in honey. As they learn the letters and enjoy the honey, it is an object lesson to teach them that the study of Torah is sweet, which we read in Psalm 119:103: “How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”

Back on Track!

{image_1}Jerusalem’s historic railway station, which had fallen into a sad state of disrepair, has found a new calling as HaTakhana Rishona (Hebrew for “The First Station”), a colorful outdoor venue filled with food stalls, family entertainment, and an exhibition of historic photographs on display inside the old station house.

What Does the Lord Require?

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“Not a Title to Glory”—The Irena Sendler Story

By Kathy DeGagné, BFP Staff Writer

She was a mere whisp of a thing—barely five feet tall—but she was a woman who defied the powerful Nazi war machine—and triumphed.

Saving the Med—Israeli Leads International Effort

{image_1}By Karin Kloosterman, ISRAEL21c

Over the millennia, the Mediterranean Sea has become much more than a transport hub for empires that control the region—it links nations, feeds countries, and its shores hold some of the world’s most expensive real estate and natural beauty.

A Palestinian Crisis of Expectation

{image_1}Many nations considered the appointment of Rami Hamdallah as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA) a ray of hope for stability. Although he lacked any previous experience in government, he was lauded as a moderate. With some hope remaining that a national consensus government, comprised of both Fatah and Hamas loyalists, would be formed by the end of the year, many believed Hamdallah would create an interim atmosphere of cooperation that would make it possible for both the PA and Israel to deal with the many difficult issues facing Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) today. Remarkably, his term only lasted 18 days.

Hiking in the Desert! An Israeli Experience

{image_1}Did you know that there are thousands of amazing places to hike in Israel? Israel has been called “a trekker’s paradise” with its myriad of established trails. The Israel National Trail, which runs about 600 miles (1,000 km) from the green mountains of northern Galilee to the desert country of Eilat, won a place on National Geographic’s list of twenty of the world’s best hikes. In determining which trails were chosen, the National Geographic said, “We looked for walks that travel deeper into a location’s history and culture.”

An Abundance of Rain

{image_1}Israel is a land that drinks “the rain of heaven.” When the Lord described the Promised Land to Moses, He said: “For the land which you go to possess [is] not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered [it] by foot, as a vegetable garden, but the land which you cross over to possess [is] a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven” (Deut. 11:10–11).

How Does Israel Treat Its Arab Citizens?

{image_1}Israel’s war for independence was a particularly brutal conflict, with the avowed purpose of her attackers being to annihilate the Jewish population and secure the entire country for the Arab population. On May 15, 1948, the day after Israel’s declaration of statehood, the Secretary General of the Arab League declared in a BBC news broadcast: “This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre that will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades.”

The 19th Knesset

{image_1}Israel has a vibrant multi-party system democracy. In the 19th Knesset, 13 parties, ranging in size from 2 to 31 members, make up the 120-member Knesset