April 20, 2009
Israeli Religious Newspapers Continue to
Distort the Facts Behind My Comments
Implying that I am Claiming PM Benjamin Netanyahu
has made promises to the Christian Community in 2009
NOT to back promises he made to the Shas Party - namely
that the next government would "examine the claims
of an increase in illegal missionary activity in Israel.”
For the Record
Here are the comments made by PM Netanyahu in 1997
that I referred to in my comments as carried by CNN:
Statement from Prime Minister Netanyahu:
July 9, 1997
Web posted at: 2:02 p.m. EDT (1802 GMT)
"It has come to my attention that a bill before the Israeli parliament concerning possession of missionary literature has created a stir among our many Christian friends.
"I would like to assure you that this bill does not have the support of the Israeli Government. It was introduced as a private member bill by Mr. Nissim Zvilli of the Opposition Labor Party and Rabi Moshe Gafni of the Yahadut HaTorah Party. With fewer than thirty Knesset members present at the session, the bill succeeded in passing a preliminary reading in the Knesset. But to become law, it must pass three additional readings. The government strenuously objects to this bill and will act to ensure that it does not pass."
To date, several religious newspapers have carried reports about my comments including HaModia, Kol Ha'Ir and Dati Dromi and Yeshiva World News website.
These kinds of distortions lay a foundation for stirring the religious to apply more pressure to the Prime Minister when the "examinations" are made into the claims of increased illegal missionary activites in Israel.
Take note of the truth, for the time it will be needed by believers in Israel
coming under false accusation and undue persecution.
April 1, 2009
Israeli Ultra-Orthodox Newspaper
Misrepresents My Comments
On Monday I sent out a Prayer Priority for Arrows of Zion writing, “After my first trip to Israel in 2003 – one of three visits I’ve been able to make – I determined that if it ever came to a choice between me being able to visit Israel OR my continued association with the indigenous believers of Israel that I would not bat an eyelash that the priority was the Israeli Body of Messiah. I figured the time would come and it looks like that day is starting to arrive.”
Uncanny.
On Tuesday reviewing the latest issue of the Caspari Media Review – a sort of clipping service that gleans the Israel Hebrew media for all references regarding the believers of Israel, Christians, anti-missionary activities, views of Christianity, and so forth, I ran across some quotes that almost sounded like my writing…but not quite.
The latest weekly issue summarized an article in the ultra-Orthodox Haredi daily newspaper, Hamodia, or “The Informer”, translating quotes from the Hebrew:
HaModia (March 26) reported that that the "missionary" bulletin "Prayer for Israel" stated recently that "'[Binyamin] Netanyahu has promised us that he won't support any attempt on the part of the religious parties to pass a law stopping the activities of Israeli missionaries which is liable to prevent them from sharing their faith.'" Citing the "typical commentary" given by the bulletin, the article further cited it as saying, "'A radical right-wing government is a double-edged sword: while it safeguards Israel's national security, it doesn't protect the missionary organizations within the country. Our priority is naturally the protection of our fellow believers.'"
At first I didn’t recognize the writing as mine because the facts were misrepresented and words were used that I would never use, like referring to the “Israeli Jewish believers” as “missionaries,” a word freighted with evil connotation in the Israeli psyche.
What Hamodia, The Informer – or shall we rather say, The Accuser – quoted is a misrepresentation of what I actually wrote in a prayer request forum on the message board of Francis Frangipane Ministries. This is to clarify.
First of all: I am not surprised that opposers of the gospel and of the indigenous Israeli believers have taken note of what I write. Nor am I concerned that ‘my cover is blown’ – that I may never again be able to clear entry to Israel at the Ben Gurion airport.
The thing I am concerned about is the false impression they are proposing to their own faithful readers that newly installed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made promises to Christians that he would not support any attempt of the religious parties to curtail the freedom of Israeli believers to share their faith.
My reference was to promises Netanyahu had made and broken in the past – the last time he was Prime Minister, in 1996-99, as I actually wrote on the Frangipane message board:
“Netanyahu in the past promised Christians worldwide that he would not back the religious parties' efforts to pass legislation that could lock up Israeli Jewish believers for sharing their faith....and then he crumbled when he needed the religious parties support. Soon after he was removed from office before his term was up. I believe it was the intervention of God on behalf of the believers because bills were being introduced relentlessly by religious parties during the Netanyahu administration.”
Part of the current deal Netanyahu struck with the Haredi party Shas to get them into his coalition government, is that his Likud party guaranteed Shas that the next government would "examine the claims of an increase in illegal missionary activity in Israel.”
This is the open door agreement Netanyahu struck as he handed control of critical Knesset Ministries over to the direction of the ultra-Orthodox, Shas.
This is the same party that launched many attempts to criminalize the gospel in Israel during the last Netanyahu administration.
It is not that Netanyahu himself has no respect for religious liberty, but that his natural allies in the national security issues of Israel – those he needs to hold his government stable – are deeply anti-gospel, anti-Jewish believers in Jesus. Push comes to shove, Netanyahu will sacrifice the believers in his reach for national security. Make no mistake, however, there will be no safety for an Israel that mistreats the Body of the Lord within it. All the peace for Israel is tied up in the ambassadors of the Prince of Peace in Israel.
To What Purpose?
I suspect the purpose of misrepresenting my comments to the religious Haredim (ultra-Orthodox), is to cause them to be more demanding of Netanyahu to fulfill his promises to let Shas pursue and persecute the indigenous believers in Israel, and the Christians who support them.
The misrepresentation is being spread in the Haredi world. I found this entry on the web at another ultra-Orthodox news site (“Tefilat Yisrael missionary site” is a reference to my prayer request here):
Report: Netanyahu Will Not Work to Halt Missionaries
March 25, 2009
Premier-designate Binyamin Netanyahu has promised not to support a bill by religious parties to further limit the activities of missionaries in Eretz Yisrael the Chadrei Chareidim website reports.
The report quotes the Tefilat Yisrael missionary site, which states the incoming prime minister has promised he would not lend support to a move to further limit activities of organizations such as theirs.
The organization praises Netanyahu’s commitment which they view as further distancing chareidi influence in national government. They express the hope the incoming prime minister will be strong enough to stand to his word against the pressures that will face his decision.
Furthermore
In a bold demonstration of the intent of the increased religious muscle in Israel, last week an evangelical family from Hong Kong was arrested at Ben Gurion airport, put in jail and told they would be sent back to Hong Kong on the next available flight. They were told by a Ministry of Interior clerk at the entrance terminal that they were suspected of "illegal missionary activity".
The main “anti-missionary” organization in Israel, Yad L’Achim, which pursues and persecutes the believers in Israel in a multitude of ways, recently was invited by the Chinese authorities to come teach in a conference Yad L’Achims’s anti-missionary techniques for fighting “destructive sects.”
In reports from two Israeli religious newspapers, the Yad L’Achim director is quoted as saying, "'If the Israeli authorities would only learn from the Chinese authorities how to struggle mightily against these dubious and dangerous sects, the missionaries would not dare lift their heads. Unfortunately, the Chinese have understood what people in Israel do not want to understand.'"
Therefore
This is a wake-up call to Christians and Messianic Jews throughout the world to AWAKEN to the dangerous season our spiritual brothers and sisters in Israel have entered into. The Book of Acts never closed, and now that there are 10 to 15,000 indigenous Jewish believers in Jesus in Israel again, Acts is a continuing chapter being written in the pages of biblical history.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be an effective guardian of Israel’s right to exist, but he has failed in the past to protect the Israeli followers of Jesus right to exist. That should be of much greater concern to the Christian community than has ever been in manifest evidence.
Please stand in support of the believers in Israel, for their right to exist in the Jewish State and to worship according to their own conscience and faith.
Israel supporting Christians have turned a blind eye to the believers in Israel long enough – let us throw that compromise and indifference off and stand as we would have stood in the first century by the Israeli Jewish believers, Stephen, James, Peter, John, Philip, Barnabas, Paul and all the other saints of the kingdom of His Son.
Thank you for praying for our brothers and sisters in Israel according to Acts 4: 29-30:
Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants
that with all boldness they may speak Your word,
by stretching out Your hand to heal,
and that signs and wonders may be done
through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.”
The time to take a stand with the believers in Israel has come. Please forward this to believers who love and support Israel. It is important for them to know the intent to harm that is being set in motion against the gospel and the believers in Israel.
Donna Diorio
Arrows from Zion
www.israelprayer.com
To sign up to receive the weekly Arrows from Zion prayer points, and also (attached in a Word document) an extended version, Summary of Prayer Requests of Israeli Ministries, please hit REPLY to this email. Also please provide your full name, location and the name of your church or congregation you attend.
New Prayer Points
for Mid-February 2009
Arrows from Zion
Israeli Messianic Youth Magazine
Interview and Story with Ami Ortiz
One Year After the Terror Bomb Explosion
This is the English translation of an article
witten by an Israeli Youth, Liel
Ami's mother, Leah writes: The first part is a pretty accurate account of what happened on March 20, 2008, but the second part is an interview with Ami. So far, you've been reading about him, but now - Ami speaks for himself!
Religious Persecution:
Coming to a town near you!
August 11, 2008: According to an article in Israeli religious newspaper Arutz Sheva, "US State Department Accuses Yad L'Achim", there is "no significance on practical level" to the U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Report citing them for abuses.
Yad L'Achim's Joel Rebibo is quoted saying, "We've been asked to come to America and set up shop there, to help American Jews fight missionaries.... We're concerned that if the State Department has us down as troublemakers, they might get in the way of allowing us to set up operations there."
For the fifth time since 1999 the 2007 International Religious Freedom Report issued by the US State Department has cited abuses by Israel's Yad L'Achim, an anti-"missionary" group.
The organization targets any person or group which they consider "missionaries" including Messianic Believers, Christians who support Messianic Believers, and organizations or individuals who support Messianic Believers in sharing their faith. Yad L'Achim raises most of the funding for its activities in the United States, and based on its successes in Israel, plans to expand its activities to the States.
The "anti-missionary" organization conducts a relentless campaign to harass, terrorize and assault believers of Yeshua/Jesus in Israel through various acts such as: blacklisting believers from employment opportunities, intimidating believers and their children by phone, posting flyers and advertising against believers, preaching hate and inciting violence against believers, vandalizing believers' properties, vandalizing ministries' properties, disturbing believers' meetings, and placing pressure on politicians against believers.
Yad L'Achim has deep roots within the law making and political infrastructure of Israel, leaving little recourse for justice to the victims of the organization's religious persecution. Attempted murder, arson and other terroristic activities against Messianic Jewish and Christian ministries languish in lackluster investigations. Cases filed in the courts against them are pushed to the back burner on judicial dockets.
In one case, the court ordered the believers who have the pictures of Yad L'Achim members who committed acts of violence against them to find out who these people are on their own with limited time.
In the case of the bombing of Ami Ortiz, the police did not move the investigation forward until international pressure was brought to bear months after the murder attempt. Even so, the case is moving at a snail's pace and police report "no progress" in the case.
Police also do not follow up on behalf of the believers to defend them from the on-going victimization and violence.
In an appeal this article is based on from David and Leah Ortiz of Ariel, Israel, they write:
"We feel it's important for believers to contact the US State Department or your country's American embassy to enforce actions based on their findings. This is needed in order to halt most of Yad L'Achim's funding which comes from the US. "
The State Department 2007 International Religious Freedom Report is at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2007/90212.htm
Contact the State Department at
http://contact-us.state.gov/cgi-bin/state.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php?p_sid=TlnC
Also, you can view two parts to a video on the persecution of believers in Arad, Israel:
PART I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EII5Km3jN3U
PART II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J7iqMO4EaQ
Taped
in Jerusalem April 11, 2008
Hear the testimony of Ami's dad, David Ortiz
of God's miraculous grace
when every Israeli parent's nightmare
unfolded in his own family and his own home.
http://blip.tv/file/815590
Messianic
Jewish Teenager
Severely Wounded in Terror Bomb Attack
by Religious Persecutors
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15-year old Amiel "Ami" Ortiz
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