Israel is given tremendous credit as a global leader in education, innovation, technology and entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, one-fourth of the country lives below the poverty line. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recently reported that Israel has the second highest poverty rate among its 34 member countries. When walking around the glittering streets of Tel Aviv, whose modern buildings and sophisticated, high-end restaurants boast prosperity, Israel seems far from a poor country. Like many other western nations, though, Israel faces a major pay gap, a phenomenon that is entirely consistent with being the "start-up nation." Additionally, various minorities, including Arabs and ultra-Orthodox Jews, present different cultural and religious challenges that contribute to broader economic problems. Also, Israel is a country built on immigrants, and it takes a significant amount of time for new citizens to integrate into an entirely different economic system. Some 18% of Israelis suffer from food insecurity. (J. Post) Pray according to scripture: "Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours.” Isa 61:7 [Comment]

Jewish-American Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman has been named to the USA women’s gymnastics team. Raisman, 22, will compete in her second Olympics when she heads to the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She earned two gold medals in the 2012 games in London: for floor exercise and one as part of the team competition. At 22, Raisman is the oldest member of the team, which reportedly has earned her the nickname "Grandma.” Following the London Olympics, Raisman took time off from gymnastics to enjoy opportunities that had come her way -performing on tour with her teammates, competing on "Dancing With The Stars,” and being a special guest at the 2013 Maccabiah Games in Israel, the global Jewish sporting event. (J.Post) [Comment]

An exhibit that is intended as a replica of the biblical Noah's ark has just opened in Kentucky. The exhibit, claiming to be the largest timber structure in the world, is part of a Christian theme park called Ark Encounter, whose purpose, according to founder Ken Ham, is to teach an evangelical Christian reading of the Bible. "I find some of the aggressive secularists try to shut down people talking about the Bible," Ham said. "So for us it's, 'How can we get a message out there about the Bible?'" 510 feet long, 85 feet wide, and 51 feet high, Ham claims that the ark's dimensions are based on those given in the Bible. He said that his exhibit will stand as a testament to the truth of the Biblical stories. (Arutz-7) May this exhibit be the delight and joy of many in the days to come. May it far exceed expectations in terms of lasting wonder and Biblical impact on both young and old who visit. [Comment]

Senior Egyptian official and former parliamentarian, Mohamed Kamal, claims Israel and Egypt are cooperating in the war on terrorism, working together closely to defeat the ISIS terror organization in the Sinai. "There is definitely a high level of cooperation that could be unprecedented, especially in the field of combating terrorism," Kamal told media sources. The report noted that Egyptian President El-Sisi has aggressively fought Islamic terrorists inside Egypt – including in the Sinai, where treaty limitations restrict Egyptian military deployments. Kamal's comments validate claims by IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan, who suggested Israel and Egypt were closer than ever before, sharing intelligence information and effectively operating in tandem in the Sinai. A senior Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity said Israel was operating armed airborne drones in the Sinai, with the full support of Egypt. (Arutz-7) Pray that governments throughout the world will be united against Islamist strategies to carry out acts of terror. Intercede also for increasing co-operation between Egypt and the Jewish state on military, trade and cultural issues. [Comment]

Jewish identification with the land of Israel goes back almost 4,000 years to the time when God told Abraham to leave his homeland of Ur and go "to the land that I will show you" (Gen 12:1). Israel became a nation 2,000 years before the rise of Islam in the seventh century A.D., and has had a continual presence in the Holy Land for many centuries. Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital since the time of King David, and the site of Solomon's Temple and later Herod's Temple is the holiest place in Judaism . Even when Jordan occupied Jerusalem, it never sought to make it their capital. Jerusalem is mentioned hundreds of times in the Hebrew Scriptures, but not once in the Koran. Mohammed never visited Jerusalem. (JNN) [Comment]

Dore Gold, Director of Israel's Foreign Ministry, blasted a draft resolution being considered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization committee (UNESCO) recognizing the Old City of Jerusalem's unique place in history - as a "Muslim site." In a letter publicized on 11 July 2016, Gold ridiculed the document as "a completely one-sided draft" that "deliberately ignores the historical connection between the Jewish people and their ancient capital." The resolution describes the Temple Mount, the site of Solomon's Temple and later Herod's Temple and the holiest place in Judaism, merely as a "Muslim holy site of worship. Gold slammed UNESCO's de-Judaization of the Temple Mount in its draft resolution as an "effort to distort history," one which is "totally disconnected from reality."

When UNESCO’s 58-member Executive Board met in April 2016 it adopted a resolution whose language ignored Jewish ties to the Temple Mount. The resolution now before the World Heritage Committee, "also fails to acknowledge Christianity’s ties to Jerusalem,” Gold said. "Since Jews returned to the Old City they have defended the rights of all three faiths. We urge you to oppose this effort to distort history, which will offend the members of the Jewish and Christian faiths, and undermine the credibility of UNESCO in the future,” Gold wrote. The resolution is due to be voted on shortly by the 21-members of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee now meeting in Istanbul. (INN/J. Post) Pray that yet another underhanded scheme backed by the Palestinians to erase the Biblical and historical connection of the Jewish people and the Christian faith to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount will meet with outrage and a veto from world leaders.

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau visited the Auschwitz memorial, wiping away tears several times. Among those joining Trudeau on his tour,10 July 2016, of the World War ll Nazi death camp was Nate Leipciger, a former prisoner there who immigrated to Canada from his native Poland in 1948 at the age of 18. Members of the delegation visited much of the museum exhibition, including one block showing photographs documenting the arrival of a transport of Jews from Hungary. They also saw the room devoted to sorted looted property - shoes, bags, glasses and brushes - that in the camp jargon was called "Canada,” and visited the building of the first gas chamber and crematorium at Auschwitz I. Later, Trudeau and his group visited the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau and walked along the railway ramp where the Germans carried out the selection of the Jews. They also saw the ruins of the gas chamber and crematorium III. "Today we saw the possibilities of deliberate human cruelty and evil. Let us remember always this painful truth about ourselves,” Trudeau wrote in the guest book of the museum. Canada is among the 36 countries that supported the Perpetual Fund of Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, which finances the maintenance of authentic remains of the concentration camp. (J.Post)

American attempts to broker a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians are like "forcing a square peg into a round hole," one of Donald Trump's two top Israel advisers, David Friedman, wrote in a letter last week, in which he repeatedly questioned the viability of the effort. Responding to a note from Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, Friedman said that "the numerous proposals and initiatives for a two-state solution over the years have brought neither peace nor security to the State of Israel." Jacobs' letter expressed alarm at the Trump campaign's apparent willingness to entertain a permanent Israeli presence, or perhaps annexation of, Judea & Samaria. "Both peoples are entitled to live in peace and dignity," Friedman said, "and both peoples are being deprived of those fundamental rights because of one thing and one thing only– radical Islamic jihadism, a cancer that infects Israel and much of the rest of the world. No re-allocation of land will cure this scourge, and, indeed, Israel knew no peace from 1948 to 1967 when it did not even control Judea and Samaria," he added. (J.Post) [Comment]

The Palestinian Authority (PA)'s official Fatah TV broadcasted an inciting cartoon series for children in honor of Ramadan. The cartoon teaches young children that Jews are the helpers of several devils or "satans" who spread evil in the world. Satans, the program explains, are scheming to destroy Muhammad so they use the Jews in order to fight their battle. While the PA continually claims that their conflict with Israel is purely territorial, their religious ideology proclaims that Jews are agents of the Satans who do evil on earth. Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Mahmoud Abbas' adviser on Religious and Islamic Affairs, recently emphasized that the PA ideology must view the struggle with Israel as a battle with Satan. "The conflict here in Palestine is between us and the criminal occupation and its criminal ýleaders. This is a conflict ýbetween two entities, good and evil, between two projects: Allah's project vs. Satan's ýproject,” said Al-Habbash on official PA TV. (PMW/Arutz-7) "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” Isa 5:20 [Comment]