A nascent Jewish community was officially born in Madagascar last month when 121 men, women and children underwent Orthodox conversions on the remote Indian Ocean island nation better known for lemurs, chameleons, dense rain forests and vanilla. The conversion took place over a 10-day period, were the climax of a process that arose organically five to six years ago when the community began to study Torah. Through self-study and with guidance from Jewish internet sources and correspondence with rabbis in Israel, they now pray in Sephardic-accented Hebrew and strictly observe the Sabbath and holidays. The conversions were facilitated by Kulanu, a New York-based organization that specializes in supporting isolated and emerging Jewish communities, but were initiated by the residents. "Now that we’ve re-established the State of Israel, it is time to re-establish the Jewish people, especially in the Diaspora,” said Bonita Sussman, vice president of Kulanu. (JTA) [Comment]

Western media on 8 June 2016, continued to distort their coverage of the shooting attack in Tel Aviv in which four Israelis were killed. The Russia Today news website was quick to publish a misleading headline that the terrorists who carried out the attack were "ultra-Orthodox Jews”. The Russian site headlined its report on the attack, in which three people were killed, with "Two ‘ultra-Orthodox Jewish’ gunmen kill three in central Tel Aviv.” While the content of the report clarified that the two terrorists responsible for the attack were dressed like haredi Jews, the headline itself remained misleading until it was later corrected. CNN, similarly, angered internet users when it published an update on its Facebook page in which it wrote that two terrorists were captured but putting the word "terrorists” in quotation marks. In this case, too, the update was edited and corrected. The incident is the latest example of an ongoing trend whereby global media outlets distort reports on terrorist assaults in Israel. With the almost daily attacks against Israelis over the past months, readers have been able to see continual trends of media outlets refusing to portray Palestinians as anything other than the victims of Israeli violence. (INN) [Comment]

PM Netanyahu met with Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot to discuss Israel’s response to the terror attack in Tel Aviv’s Sarona Market which left four dead and several wounded. In the wake of the attack, the Defense Ministry has frozen work entry visas for some 204 members of the attackers’ extended family. Israel has also rescinded some 83,000 entry permits given to Arabs from Judea and Samaria for Ramadan. Goodwill gestures to Gaza Arabs, including travel permits to Jerusalem to participate in Ramadan prayers on the Temple Mount, have also been rescinded. (Arutz-7) "The trouble they cause recoils on them; their violence comes down on their own heads.” Ps 7:16 [Comment]

Iran on Sunday 5 June 2016 rejected the USA State Department annual report which concluded that the Islamic Republic remains the world's leading sponsor of terrorism. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said the report is "false" and further evidence of the "lack of credibility of reports by the USA State Department." The report identified Iran as the world's "foremost state sponsor of terrorism in 2015" through its financing, training and equipping of various terrorist groups, notably Lebanon's Hezbollah. Ansari in his rebuttal said the USA provides "unconditional" support for Israel as it deprives the Palestinians of basic rights and that Washington ignores the role of allies like Saudi Arabia in supporting extremist groups. The report said that despite reaching a landmark agreement with world powers on its nuclear program, Iran continues to use the Quds Force of its Revolutionary Guard to create instability throughout the Middle East. (INN) [Comment]

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wed. night 8 June 2016, condemned the terrorist attack in Tel Aviv in which four Israelis were murdered. Ban also criticized the Hamas terrorist group for praising the attack. "The Secretary-General condemns tonight’s terrorist attack in Tel Aviv in which at least four Israelis were killed by Palestinian assailants and another four injured. He [UN Secretary-General Ban] conveys his condolences to the families of the victims and the Government of Israel. There is no justification for terrorism nor for the glorification of those who commit such heinous acts,” added the UN statement. "The Secretary-General is shocked that the leaders of Hamas have chosen to welcome this attack and some have chosen to celebrate it. He calls upon the Palestinian leadership to live up to their responsibility to stand firmly against violence and the incitement that fuels it.” Palestinian Arabs took to the streets and celebrated the Tel Aviv assault. Palestinians in Tulkarem were seen handing out candy to passing cars in celebration of the attack, while senior Hamas terrorist and the deputy leader of the group, Ismail Haniyeh, praised the murderous attack and called the terrorists "heroes" on his Twitter account. Hamas later wrote on Twitter that the terrorist attack was a "heroic operation” and added, "This is the first surprise in store for the Zionist enemy during Ramadan.” (INN) Intercede against all terrorist attack that vicious Islamist groups have planned against Israel during the month-long observance of Ramadan. [Comment]

The State Department in Washington on Wed. night 8 June 2016, strongly condemned the shooting attack in Tel Aviv in which four people were murdered. "The United States condemns today’s horrific terrorist attack in Tel Aviv in the strongest possible terms. We extend our deepest condolences to the families of those killed and our hopes for a quick recovery for those wounded,” said State Department spokesman Mark Toner. "These cowardly attacks against innocent civilians can never be justified. We are in touch with Israeli authorities to express our support and concern,” he added. (Arutz-7) [Comment]

A Hamas operative captured by Israeli forces when he crossed the border from the Gaza Strip into Israel, who was assigned to the unit responsible for building terror tunnels, has provided Israeli intelligence with a wealth of detailed information regarding plans and uses for the massive tunnel-building operations. According to information cleared for release on Sunday 5 June 2016, the 17-year old confirmed that the tunnels are under control of the Hamas Special Forces Naqba Unit which intends to use them to launch suicide attacks on Israeli targets, as a base for kidnapping Israeli soldiers and for staging a variety of planned large scale attacks on Israeli towns along the Gaza border. The planned tunnel infrastructure is so vast that Hamas terrorists will be able to travel virtually anywhere beneath the Gaza Strip without surfacing and so elaborate that there are underground rooms to be used for a variety of designated purposes. The detainee – the second 17-year old in a month to be captured and provide information about the tunnel enterprise – also confirmed that Hamas is again using the Gaza population as human shields by placing the entrances to the tunnels near civilian homes, schools and mosques. (Medialine) [Comment]

The two terrorists, who wearing suits, white shirts, and ties, and sitting in the popular dessert restaurant ‘Max Brenner’ at the Sarona Market in Tel Aviv, never raised anyone’s suspicion. 

Dozens of diners in the restaurant, who never gave them a second glance, were shocked when the two terrorists suddenly got up from their tables and opened fire, shooting in all directions, claiming four lives and wounding 16. 

The two attackers, cousins from Yatta in the Hebron area, were shot and neutralized at the scene. Both are in custody, with one being treated in the hospital in moderate condition.

"I was sitting in the restaurant and they were acting like regular customers,” recalled the Max Brenner branch manager. "They had bags and they ordered something to eat. Suddenly they pulled guns out and started firing. They didn’t shout anything. The two of them simply took the guns out and opened fire.” 

 

Idan Ben-Ari, 42, from Ramat Gan; Ilana Nave, 39, from Tel Aviv; Dr. Michael Feige, 58 from Ramat Gan; and Mila Mishayev, 32, from Rishon Lezion.

 

 

Dr. Michael Feige, left, and Idan Ben-Ari (Photos: Ben-Gurion University, Danny Machlis)

 

 

Initial reports indicated that the two were dressed as ultra-Orthodox Jews. However, eye-witnesses said that the terrorists were dressed formally, wearing suits, ties, white shirts and black pants. "They didn’t look like ultra-Orthodox people, more like lawyers,” recalled Yosef Jibrin, who works as a barman in Max Brenner. 

 

 

"When the shooting began people tried to flee into our kitchen. I also fled and then I returned to the restaurant to see if there were any more people. I saw wounded people on the floor and helped one of them until a paramedic arrived.” 

 

 

Anna, who witnessed the attack also recounted the macabre turmoil: "They simply left the restaurant and started firing in all directions, inside the restaurant and outside.” 

 

 

 

Photo: Motti Kimchi

 

 

"There was blood on the floor. I saw wounded people and also the terrorist. I ran from the scene and hid. I found a shop and went into it. Everyone was on the floor.” 

 

 

Josian Tobias Will, 66, was sitting with her friends at the Fushun coffee shop adjacent to the scene of the attack. "I saw through the window people running in panic,” she recalled. "I didn’t understand what happened and then I heard the shooting. We threw ourselves onto the floor in panic. After a few seconds someone said ‘come into the kitchen,’ so my friends and I went in. People started calling (their friends and family) like crazy and in panic. Ten minutes later the manager of the place took us out and said that they thought the terrorists were in the building. We went into the yard and waited another hour for the police. It was chaotic and there a lot of rumors.” 

 

Palestinians in Tulkarem handing out cakes and cookies to celebrate the terror attack in Tel Aviv

 

Another eyewitness nearby described the relentless shooting and how she narrowly escaped a deadly encounter. "I ran to Super-Pharm (pharmacy) and the terrorist began running in my direction,” she said. "They told us to hide and I tried to escape. I saw someone who had been shot in the chest lying on the ground and next to him was a woman who woman screaming. I tried to calm her down and then the police and paramedics arrived."

 

Meanwhile, Palestinians barely waited an hour to begin their celebrations of the terror attack on Sarona Market. 

 

 

In the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Palestinians were handing out Baklava, cookies, and other sweets while in Hebron, Palestinian residents set off fireworks to celebrate the attack. 

 

Hamas sent a message Wednesday night saying "these acts of bravery in Tel Aviv are the first signs of Ramadan, and the first surprise waiting in store for the Zionist enemy this Ramadan." 

 

 

A high ranking Hamas official in Gaza, Mushir al-Masri, said that the attack was "a natural reaction to Israeli crimes."

Senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's controversial statements on Friday 3 June 2016, describing life in the Gaza Strip as "wonderful" aroused mayhem on Palestinian social media networks over the weekend, where a group of Gazan activists launched a campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group. "Gaza is more stable and secure than the West Bank [Judea & Samaria]. Life in Gaza is wonderful and we are happy with it. Gaza is the city of security, the land of Islam and peace and the land of resistance. There are neither oppressors nor oppressed people in Gaza," Haniyeh said. To many Gazans who are suffering from growing economic distress and dire humanitarian conditions, Haniyeh's description of life in Gaza sounded like a pipe dream. A Twitter user named Hussein from Gaza wrote: "Wonderful is a planet Haniyeh and his people are living on, disconnected from the Palestinian people." Another Gazan citizen, Tareq Farra, posted to social media saying: "Ismail Haniyeh said that life in Gaza is wonderful, ignoring all the problems of poverty and unemployment." (J.Post) Continue to intercede that there will be growing numbers of Palestinians who weary of terrorist leaders and their focus on the destruction of Israel, rather than on building better lives for their own citizens. Pray that they will be equipped to make positive changes. [Comment]

Archaeological evidence has long disproved any historical claims of Palestinian peoplehood, but the facts did not deter Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas from spuriously claiming Palestinians were in Israel from before the Biblical Abraham. Palestinian Media Watch on Monday 6 June 2016, exposed repeated statements by Abbas and his religious adviser on official PA TV in recent months airing the ahistorical claims, according to which the Palestinians have been in Israel for "5,000" or "6,000" years. On PA TV Abbas said, "our narrative says that we were in this land since before Abraham. I am not saying it. The Bible says it. The Bible says, in these words, that the Palestinians existed before Abraham. So why don't you recognize my right?" In exposing Abbas' assertions, PMW clarified that his statement about the Bible is false.

The only Biblical reference Abbas could be talking about is the text that Abraham dwelt 'many days in the land of the Philistines.' (Gen 21: 34) However, the Philistines have no connection to today's Palestinian Arabs. The Philistines were a people of Greek origin who settled in the land of Canaan and lived beside the Israelite tribes. The Palestinians who are Arabs could not have had ancestors in the land from biblical times predating Israelite and Judean statehood because Arabs only arrived in the land in 637 A.D. with the Muslim invasion. The 'Palestinians' are not mentioned in the Bible," explained PMW. Significantly Abbas in his comments based the Palestinian "right" to the land on his historical lies, showing how the attempts at revisionist history on the part of the PA are part of an intentional political campaign to legitimize its claims. The lack of actual Palestinian history was recently laid bare when the PA in May 2016 opened its Palestinian Museum of art, history and culture - with absolutely nothing inside it. (Arutz-7) Pray according to God’s promises in scripture: "The scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous." Ps 125: 3