“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” —Isaiah 26:3

ous classes and talked to students about our Sum-mer Mission Team to New York and Israel. At the end of that week, I was at Ambassador Baptist Col-lege (Lattimore, NC), also to recruit and teach in a couple of classes. I closed the month by presenting the ministry for support to Maranatha Bible Church (Glenford, OH) and Falls Berean Bible Church (Cuyahoga Falls, OH).

In November, I pre-sented our ministry at An-chor Baptist Church (Millersville, MD), North Stonington Baptist Church (North Stonington, CT), Calvary Baptist Church of Gaines (Gaines, MI), and Dresserville Bible Baptist Church (Moravia, NY). I also gave ministry updates at two of our supporting churches, Beth Eden Bap-tist Church (Fitchburg, MA) and Trinity Baptist Church (Flushing, MI).

“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain” —Joel 2:1

The Newsletter of Craig Hartman and Shalom Ministries Inc. • Fourth Quarter 2015

Fall is always a busy time of travel for our min-istry, and this year was no exception. In early Octo-ber, I traveled to Baptist College of Ministry (Menomonee Falls, WI) to preach in chapel and re-cruit for our 2016 Summer Mission Team to New York and Israel.

While I was there, I also preached at Falls Bap-tist Church (Menomonee Falls, WI) for Wednesday evening service. The next day, I preached in chapel at Maranatha Baptist Uni-versity (Watertown, WI). I also talked to students and recruited for the Summer Mission Team.

Dr. Ernie Schmidt, Shalom’s Midwest Repre-sentative, joined me at a prophecy conference, hosted by one of our sup-porting churches, Family B a p t i s t C h u r c h (Kingsford, MI). Assisting with conference speaking is one of the ways Dr. Schmidt will help our min-

istry, and we are thankful he has begun to do so. The conference was a great experience, and with promotional efforts, there were folks from several local churches in attend-ance throughout the weekend. We covered many important and rele-vant subjects, and the Lord encouraged everyone in the midst of these trou-blesome times.

I was also able to preach in chapel at Appa-lachian Bible College (Mt. Hope, WV), and I also had time to recruit for the Summer Mission Team. The following Sunday, I gave ministry updates to two of our supporting churches: Agnew Road B a p t i s t C h u r c h (Greenville, SC) and Hampton Park Baptist Church (Greenville, SC).

I was then at Bob J o n e s U n i v e r s i t y (Greenville, SC) during Missions Emphasis Week, where I spoke in numer-

Contents

Road Report 1

Grant Moves to Israel 2

Watchman Report 2

Madeleine Update 3

Jerusalem Dinner

Evangelism

3

Report from Israel:

Catherine and Jenny

Duvall

4

Luke Report 5

“B” Update 5

News Affecting the Jewish

People

6

Road Report

Page 2 The Shalom Shofar

God was

evident through the whole process, and

all we can do is stand in awe of what He

has done. ”

“

Grant Moves to Israel

After months of planning and infor-mation gath-ering, Grant finally moved to Israel in D e c e m b e r . God was evi-dent through the whole process, and all we can do is stand in

awe of what He has done. He has made it abundantly clear throughout the pro-cess that this is the place where He wants Grant to be, and we couldn’t be more thankful.

G r a n t a r r i v e d on December 16, and just about three weeks after the day he arrived, the Lord provided both a job and an apartment. He will be

working for an accounting firm in Tel Aviv and living in Jerusalem. We look for-ward to seeing what God has planned for this new phase of Grant’s life as he transitions to living in Isra-el full-time. It is truly both a privilege and a responsi-bility to be a citizen of the State of Israel.

Please keep Grant in prayer as he continues to organize things and get totally set up in his new job, apartment, and coun-try. Grant’s desire is to search out ways to serve God every day, so please pray for the Lord to open up many more opportuni-ties as we continue to thank Him for all He has done thus far.

Thank you to many who have mentioned to us that they are praying for us

during this time of transi-tion. We will continue to keep our friends updated on what Grant is doing in Israel.

We also want to share with our friends that shortly before leav-ing for Israel, Grant be-came engaged to Ardis Chetta (her Israel testi-mony appeared in the last issue). We are planning a wedding for July 2016 and would appreciate your prayers for the hap-py couple and for their future together in the Holy Land. Lauri and I are thrilled about this union and have seen the Lord’s hand in it. Our God is great and mighty and worthy to be praised!

Watchman Report

“A watchman unto the house of Israel.” — E z e k i e l 3 : 1 8

Alisa Rutgos (New York) has an update from her second meeting with the elderly Jewish lady (“S”) she met last fall. They were able to meet during Chanukkah, when

Alisa had a little party and taught the guests “MaOz Tsur” (“Rock of Ages”). In this song, Yeshua is clearly pr a i sed , and A l i s a mentioned that she loves this song because the Rock of Ages is Yeshua, and He is our Yeshua! “S” knew she was talking about Jesus and was visibly moved,

since this was her first exposure to Jewish litur-gy bearing witness to Yeshua being the “Rock of Ages” and the “salvation of God.” Please pray for “S” to come to a full under-standing of Messiah.

Grant and Ardis

Thank you to

those of you who have sacrificed to give Madeleine a

slight increase in her support. We pray the Lord will bless you as

a result. ”

Page 3

Madeleine Update

“

Jewish Dinner Evangelism

Madeleine Pirus

Madeleine appreciates the prayers for her safety, given the wave of violence in Israel of late. She can feel the tension around her in Jerusalem, with suspi-cions growing between people and the gaps wid-ening between various communities in the city. Security has increased in the city, and the people of Jerusalem are learning to live with this new state of pressure.

As Madeleine contin-ues to volunteer at the Bible Society, she is thank-ful for the opportunities the workers have to spread the Word of the Lord. The society is located very close to the Old City, so the tension is very high. They often hear the sirens of police cars in their area.

Classes resumed in October, and Madeleine

has found that each new level of Hebrew is more challenging—she would appreciate your prayers as her studies demand more hours. Please also contin-ue to pray for “D,” one of her teachers, with whom Madeleine has been able to share the gospel. As she goes about her day, Made-leine hears more and more French-speaking students, and the Jewish Agency (one of the organizations heavily involved in Israel immigration) announced a “historical aliyah” this past summer, with a record thirty-five hundred French Jewish people moving to Israel.

On Shabbat, Made-leine continues to teach the young children at the congregation, and two new girls have recently begun to attend the weekly

kids’ club. The neighbor-hood ladies’ meetings started up again, and one meeting took place in a succah (tent), according to the biblical Feast of Suk-kot. It was an encouraging time for them as they gave thanks and praise around the Word of God.

Thank you to those of you who have sacrificed to give Madeleine a slight increase in her support. We pray the Lord will bless you as a result. Living expenses have risen in Is-rael over the summer, since the country’s econo-my still suffers from the conflict in Gaza last sum-mer. Recent waves of ter-ror have affected it again, topped off by the boycott of Israeli goods in other countries.

We arrived in Israel just after Christmas to help Grant settle in and have been quite busy since arriving there. We need to venture out on occasion, however, and in one in-stance we had the great opportunity to witness to the waiter at a local restau-rant. We will refer to him as “L.” He is a very friend-ly young man, and in an attempt to be friendly with us as his customers, he made comments about the

meaning of life, God, and so forth.

This chitchat went on back and forth throughout the meal, and ultimately we were able to tell him about our backgrounds and faith. He was a little embarrassed but shared that he was raised ultra-Orthodox but rebelled; now he is open to all phi-losophies and reads the New Testament regularly. He even carries it to work with him! He said he has

issues with some of Jesus’s teachings but understands that he didn’t allow for the proper context.

In any event, we told him we would pray for him and that we would have people come back to fol-low up with him. Please pray that God will soften “L” and that he will be open to the truth, as Grant and our friends have op-portunities to continue sharing with him.

Page 4 The Shalom Shofar

Report from Israel: Catherine and Jenny Duvall

and Catherine worked hard in the hot sun, picking ol-ives, but due to lack of rain, the olives didn’t pro-duce the oil needed for picking. They couldn’t con-tinue until the olives soaked up more rain. While they had hoped to pick lots of olives, God had other plans, and the ladies worked in other ways, such as moving mountains of dirt around a new house, laying sod, trimming hedges, mowing lawns, weeding, catering, washing windows, scrub-bing bathrooms, doing dishes, babysitting, walking the dog, and doing numer-ous other jobs. This change in plans was actual-ly an answer to prayer, be-cause they had hoped for a lot of interaction with Is-raelis, but when they picked olives, they were alone.

The sisters were able to share the Gospel with several people, and they talked about Yeshua and showed His love to many folks. Many Israelis were moved when the ladies spoke about their love for Israel as their reason for coming to work for two

Catherine and Jenny D u v a l l wish to t h a n k everyone who gave financial-ly and p r a y e d for them d u r i n g their trip to Israel. God very graciously supplied n e e d s ,

answered prayers, and ex-ceeded expectations.

The sisters stayed with a family in Galilee for the majority of the time they were in Israel to help them with their olive harvest. The family was told that these two American young ladies loved Israel and wanted to experience Is-raeli culture and daily life for two weeks. Their goals were to work hard, to be a help and not a hindrance, to show love to any Israelis they met, to make con-tacts, and to share the Gospel.

From the day they arrived in Galilee, Jenny

weeks. Catherine and Jen-ny made tremendous strides in developing rela-tionships in the Land, and we are excited to see what the Lord will do and how He will work in the future. We are so thankful for them and for the testimo-ny of Messiah’s love they showed through their ac-tions and words.

As we mentioned pre-viously, some of the peo-ple Catherine and Jenny interacted with are con-tacts whom partners of ours in Israel have been witnessing to for a long time. Our primary hope was that this visit would enhance and advance the ministry there, and that is exactly what happened. We have followed up with our friends, and it seems that the ladies had a great impact and clearly helped the Gospel outreach to the many Israelis they met. Please pray with us that the precious Jewish people who spoke with the ladies would come to the realiza-tion that Yeshua is the true Messiah and that He longs to save them from their sin.

Our primary

hope was that this visit would enhance

and advance the ministry there, and that is exactly what

happened. ”

“

Harvesting the olives

Page 5

“B” Update

Luke Report

interesting chain of events, our son, Luke, was asked to sing and lead the an-them at this year’s ceremo-ny. This was an unex-pected surprise but one we believe the Lord worked out as Luke continues to be more and more known to the community there. He did a great job, and many attendees thanked him for his contribution.

As part of the typical first semester in medical school, a ceremony is held, and the students take the Hippocratic oath. In Isra-el, the Israeli national an-them, “Hatikvah” (“The Hope”), is commonly sung during the ceremony, and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is no exception.

As the result of an

We are thankful for this sweet token from the Lord and for the way Luke is developing relationships at school. Please continue to pray for him and the students he is meeting. Please pray especially for opportunities for him to witness and represent Christ.

Luke Hartman Thank you all for

praying for “B” over these months. We are pleased to announce that he did, in fact, reach out again to us after all this time. He ap-parently misplaced our number but is still as inter-ested as ever in talking about Jesus. It is difficult to communicate with him because of the lengths he must go to avoid being

discovered by his family, but we are thrilled to be back in contact.

Please pray that the communication will not be interrupted again and that I will have the wisdom of heaven in dealing with this searching young Orthodox man. He is open and sin-cere, and we would be privileged to play even a small part in his coming to

know his Messiah. The process will be difficult, and he would face tremen-dous difficulties from fam-ily if they found out. He is bravely seeking help, and we praise God for the op-portunity. Please continue to pray for “B” that his blindness will become sight.

We are thankful

for this sweet token from the Lord and for the way Luke is

developing relationships at

school.

”

“

Page 6 The Shalom Shofar

News Affecting the Jewish People

Full Transcript of Netanyahu’s Address to UN General Assembly October 2, 2015—Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you greet-ings from Jerusalem. The city in which the Jewish People's hopes and prayers for peace for all of humanity have echoed throughout the ages. Thirty-one years ago, as Israel’s Am-bassador to the United Nations, I stood at this podium for the first time. I spoke that day against a resolution sponsored by Iran to expel Israel from the United Nations. Then as now, the UN was obsessively hostile towards Israel, the one true democracy in the Middle East. Then as now, some sought to deny the one and only Jewish state a place among the nations. I ended that first speech by saying: Gentlemen, check your fanaticism at the door. More than three decades later, as the Prime Minister of Israel, I am again privileged to speak from this podium. And for me, that privilege has al-ways come with a moral responsibility to speak the truth. So after three days of listening to world leaders praise the nucle-ar deal with Iran, I begin my speech today by saying: Ladies and Gentlemen, check your enthusiasm at the door. You see, this deal doesn't make peace more likely. By fueling Iran’s aggressions with billions of dollars in sanctions relief, it makes war more likely. Just look at what Iran has done in the last six months alone, since the framework agreement was announced in Lausanne. Iran boosted its supply of dev-astating weapons to Syria. Iran sent more soldiers of its Rev-olutionary Guard into Syria. Iran sent thousands of Afghani and Pakistani Shi’ite fighters to Syria. Iran did all this to prop up Assad's brutal regime. Iran also shipped tons of weapons and ammunitions to the Houthi rebels in Yemen, including another shipment just two days ago. Iran threatened to top-ple Jordan. Iran’s proxy Hezbollah smuggled into Lebanon SA-22 missiles to down our planes, and Yakhont cruise mis-siles to sink our ships. Iran supplied Hezbollah with preci-sion-guided surface-to-surface missiles and attack drones so it can accurately hit any target in Israel. Iran aided Hamas and Islamic Jihad in building armed drones in Gaza. Iran also made clear its plans to open two new terror fronts against Israel, promising to arm Palestinians in the West Bank and sending its Revolutionary Guard generals to the Golan Heights, from which its operatives recently fired rockets on northern Israel. —Haaretz.com Sisi calls on Arab countries to expand peace with Israel October 7, 2015—Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi recently called for expanding the 40-year-old peace pro-cess between Egypt and Israel to include more Arab coun-tries. In a Sept. 26 interview with the Associated Press, Sisi said peace between Egypt and Israel was achieved despite great doubt. He added that solving the Palestinian crisis would change the face of the region. Israeli Prime Minis-ter Benjamin Netanyahu saw Sisi’s call as an opportunity and

welcomed it on the same day. Netanyahu called on Palestini-an President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) to return to the negotiating table to resume the peace process and move forward. Abbas surprised almost every-one when he announced in his Sept. 30 speech to the United Nations that the PA "cannot continue to be bound" by the Oslo Accords, a set of peace agreements signed by Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1993 and 1995 in Washington, D.C., and Taba, Egypt, respectively. Abbas said the statement came in response to Israel's failure to fulfill its commitments toward ending the Israeli occupa-tion. Sisi’s call has sparked controversy between two oppos-ing viewpoints. The first viewpoint sees this as a call for normalization despite repeated infringements by Israel of Al-Aqsa Mosque and its legislation of racist laws directly tar-geting the resistance, including the act of throwing stones. The Israeli government on Sept. 21 had passed a draft bill prepared by the Israeli police command, and agreed to by Israeli Attorney General Judea Feinstein, allowing police to open live fire against anyone throwing stones and Molo-tov cocktails in occupied Jerusalem. —Al-Monitor Several wounded as attacks continue across Israel October 9, 2015—The recent wave of attacks continued across Israel on Friday, when a 15-year-old Haredi Jew was stabbed on Shaul Hanavi Street in Jerusalem by and was lightly wounded. The attacker was neutralized by security forces at the scene. The victim originally reported that the attacker had punched him, but stab wounds were later found on the teen. Just minutes after, a 47-year-old police officer was wounded in Kiryat Arba when a suspect tried to steal his rifle and was shot by other police officers. The incident occurred during a routine security check. The perpetrator was said to be in critical condition. One of the policemen was lightly wounded. Just a short while after the incident in Kiryat Arba, a female attacker was shot and seriously wounded after trying to stab a security guard at the entrance to the central bus station the northern city of Afula. The perpetrator, an Israeli citizen herself, was evacuated to a local hospital. Friday's attacks came after a long string of incidents that have wounded dozens across Israel in the past week, that have also led to violence against Arabs. This is a developing story. —Ynetnews.com Obama’s ex-pastor: Israel is apartheid state, ‘Jesus was a Palestinian’ October 11, 2015—Jeremiah Wright, President Barack Obama’s former pastor, called Israel an apartheid state and said “Jesus was a Palestinian” at a rally in Washington host-ed by the Rev. Louis Farrakhan. At an hours-long event Saturday on the National Mall titled “Justice or Else,” Wright said that African-Americans, Native Americans and

Page 7

Palestinians have suffered under the “three-headed demon” of “racism, militarism and capitalism.” “The same issue is being fought today and has been fought since 1948, and historians are carried back to the 19th century … when the original people, the Palestinians — and please remember, Jesus was a Palestinian — the Palestinian people had the Europeans come and take their country,” Wright said, The Hill reported. “The youth in Ferguson and the youth in Pal-estine have united together to remind us that the dots need to be connected,” Wright also said. “And what Dr. King said, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, has implications for us as we stand beside our Palestinian broth-ers and sisters, who have been done one of the most egre-gious injustices in the 20th and 21st centuries.” The rally marked the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March, a mass gathering of black men spearheaded by Farrakhan, who has a long history of anti-Semitic remarks. Wright, who re-tired in 2008 as pastor of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, which Obama attended from 1988 to 2008, also called Israel an apartheid state. —JTA Iran Tests Long-Range Missile, Possibly Violating Un-clear Accord October 11, 2015—Iran tested a new guided long-range ballistic missile on Sunday, hours before Parliament, in a rowdy session, approved the generalities of the nuclear agreement reached in July between Iran and world powers, the state news agency IRNA reported. The missile launch may have violated the terms of the agreement, reached in Vienna with six world powers. According to some readings of the deal, it placed restrictions on Iran’s ambitious missile program. Experts have been debating the interpretation of a United Nations Security Council resolution, adopted a few days after the accord was agreed upon, that bars Iran from developing missiles “designed to carry nuclear warheads.” Hard-line Iranian officials had for months been demanding new missile tests, a common practice before the negotiations over the country’s nuclear program began in 2013. The mis-sile — named Emad, or pillar — is a step up from Iran’s Shahab-3 missiles because it can be guided toward its target, the Iranian defense minister, Hossein Dehghan, told the semiofficial Fars news agency. In recent decades, with Iran’s air force plagued by economic sanctions and other re-strictions, the country has invested heavily in its nuclear pro-gram and has produced missiles that can reach as far as Eu-rope. “We don’t seek permission from anyone to strengthen our defense and missile capabilities,” Mr. Dehghan said. Also on Sunday, members of Parliament voted in favor of a bill approving the generalities of the nuclear agreement, but they had been denied information on its details. State televi-sion broadcast the session using only audio and archived images of Parliament. The head of the Atomic Energy Or-ganization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, who had gone to Parlia-

ment to defend the deal, said in a speech that a member had threatened to kill him and bury his body “in the cement of the Arak heavy-water reactor.” —New York Times Abbas: Israel responsible for current wave of violence October 11, 2015—Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday that Israel was responsible for the current wave of violence because of its “violations against our holy sites” in Jerusalem. Abbas, who speaking during a meeting with scores of Fatah activists from the West Bank, accused the Israeli government of protecting settlers who attack Palestinians and failing to honor signed agreements with the Palestinians. “The Israeli government is allowing its settlers to attack our holy sites and people,” Ab-bas said. “Fatah will remain the spinal column of the Pales-tinian revolution and lead the struggle of liberation through peaceful resistance.” —Jerusalem Post 369 House Members Call on President Abbas to End Incitement and Violence November 5, 2015—AIPAC applauds the bipartisan group of 369 representatives who publicly called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to repudiate violence and end incitement against innocent Israeli citizens. The House members signed a letter initiated by Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and Ranking Mem-ber Eliot Engel (D-NY). Inflammatory and baseless remarks about the Temple Mount made by President Abbas and other Palestinian leaders have helped create an incendiary atmosphere resulting in death and injuries to scores of Israe-lis. The letter to President Abbas reads, “Unless immediate action is taken to end incitement and bring the situation under control, this escalating violence – including stabbings, shootings and other terrorist acts – will undermine the pro-spects of a two-state solution.” It specifically urges President Abbas to take concrete steps to avoid further violence, in-cluding ending incitement, continuing security cooperation with Israel and agreeing to unconditionally renew direct talks with the Israelis. —AIPAC US, allies conduct 23 more air strikes against ISIS in Syria, Iraq November 6, 2015—The United States and its allies targeted Islamic State in Iraq with 14 air strikes on Thursday, and also hit the militant group with nine air strikes in Syria, the US military said on Friday. Six of the strikes in Iraq were staged near Sinjar, hitting tactical and fighting units, bunkers

Continued on page 8

Page 8 The Shalom Shofar

and an assembly area, according to a military statement. Four strikes near Ramadi also hit tactical units while destroying sniper positions, weapons, bunkers and a building, it added. The attacks in Syria, near Al Hawl, Al Hasaka and Abu Kamal, struck crude oil collection points and tactical units as well as fighting positions, the statement said. —Jerusalem Post Four Israelis wounded in three attacks November 6, 2015—Four Israelis were wounded in three separate West Bank terror attacks on Friday, while another attack was averted when the perpetrator was shot dead. An Israeli was stabbed near Sha'ar Binyamin, two were shot near Hebron's Cave of the Patriarchs, another was shot near Hebron, and a Palestinian 72-year-old widow was shot dead when she tried to run soldiers over with a car. In the latest attack, an Israeli was shot and seriously wounded at Beit Einun junction north of Hebron on Friday evening. Two Israelis were shot and wounded by gunfire near Hebron's Cave of the Patriarchs less than two hours earlier. The vic-tims included a 16-year-old who was moderately wounded. It was the third security incident of the day. IDF troops en-tered Palestinian neighborhoods surrounding the city's Jew-ish enclave in search of the cell that committed the shooting. The two teenagers, aged 16 and 18, were at the Cave of the Patriarchs compound on their way to Shabbat prayers at the tomb. They were there because the weekend was part of the special ten days a year in which the entire site is open to Jewish worshipers and only to them. (The site is normally divided into sections for Muslim and Jewish worshipers, and is also open only to Muslim worshipers on ten other days.) At least 4,000 Jews arrived on Friday, more than four times the number of Jews who live in Hebron's Jewish enclave. According to a preliminarily report, the incident involved sniper fire from a Palestinian neighborhood overlooking the holy site. —Ynetnews.com Israeli father and son shot dead in West Bank terror attack November 13, 2015—An Israeli man and his teenage son were killed and five others wounded Friday when a Palestini-an fired on their vehicle south of the West Bank city of Heb-ron. Just before 3 p.m. on Friday, the Magen David Adom rescue service received a report of gunshots fired at a car near Otniel Junction in the southern West Bank. Paramedics arrived to find two Israelis critically injured and a third light-ly hurt. They pronounced the two who had been critically hurt dead at the scene. The two were later identified as a man in his 40s and a youth of about 18. Initial reports mis-takenly said the fatalities were a couple in their 50s. The JNS news agency said that the man had been driving with five relatives to a family event in the southern town of Meitar

when the attack happened. The lightly injured victim, a 16-year-old boy, was taken to Soroka Medical Center in Beer-sheba for treatment. Four others were also sent to Soroka for treatment for shock. Channel 2 television said that three of those treated for shock were children. According to an initial report, a Palestinian terrorist exited his vehicle and fired on the Israeli car, then fled the scene. IDF troops were searching the area for the suspect, the army said. Noam Bar, a senior Magen David Adom paramedic, said: “When we arrived at the scene we saw seven passengers outside the vehicle, two of them — a man of about 40 and a youth of about 18 — lying unconscious with bullet wounds to the upper body. They displayed no signs of life and we were forced to pronounce them dead at the scene. In addition, we administered first aid treatment and evacuated to Soroka hospital a youth of about 16 with light bullet wounds to his limbs and four people suffering from shock.” —Times of Israel German Protestant church denounces anti-Semitism of founder Martin Luther November 13, 2015—Germany’s main Protestant body distanced itself from the anti-Semitism of its founder, Mar-tin Luther, and pledged to confront the dark side of its roots. In a unanimous decision Wednesday by its 120 mem-bers, the EKD Synod, the decision making body of the Evangelical Church in Germany, renounced the 16th-century theologian’s calls to persecute and banish Jews. Lu-ther had wanted Jews disenfranchised and expelled from Germany. “We cannot ignore this history of guilt,” given the approaching 500th anniversary of the Protestant Refor-mation, the statement read. The EKD, an umbrella body for German Lutheran, Reformed and United churches, will mark its Jubilee in 2017. The statement came several days after Josef Schuster, who heads of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, in an address to the Synod raised the issue of Luther’s teachings. According to the Protestant online news site Jesus.de, Schuster — who last June said he hoped for a clear sign from the church on the matter — said he was disappointed that the topic seemed to be dealt with only vaguely at the Synod’s annual meeting, where wide-ranging themes are discussed. The EKD expressed in a statement Wednesday its “sorrow and shame” for the Protestant Church’s failure to respect and protect Jews. It said that the Church has a special responsibility to oppose all forms of anti-Semitism and to confront its own past. —JTA Israel Opening Diplomatic Mission in United Arab Emirates November 29, 2015—Israel is set to establish its first diplo-matic presence in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), albeit not with the UAE itself. The Israeli

spokesmen and PA-controlled media outlets also have also repeatedly been telling Palestinians that Israel is committing “war crimes” and “summary executions” of innocent Pales-tinians. This is, as Abbas knows, exactly the type of incite-ment that prompts Palestinian teenagers to grab a knife, run out into the street and murder the first Jew they see. Those young Palestinians are also tragic victims of the poisonous campaign of the inflammatory anti-Israeli language emanat-ing from Palestinian leaders such as Abbas, mosque preach-ers, news outlets and social media. Contrary to Abbas’s out-rage, no one has yet found even one terrorist who claimed to have attacked a Jew out of “despair and frustration” at the “lack of a political horizon.” If you look through the social media accounts of these young terrorists, many have said that they set out to kill Jews to “defend” Al-Aqsa Mosque. They seem to have been influenced by the roman-tic notion of Abbas’s repeated fictitious claims that Jews were plotting to destroy the mosque, followed by high-flown fantasies of themselves as heroes charging forth to rescue it. —United with Israel Mahmoud Abbas: Murdering Israelis is “popular peaceful uprising” December 1, 2015—A statement by PA Chairman Abbas explains why he has not yet condemned even one of the 22 murders of Israelis during the past two months of terror, even though he tells the international community he is against terror. Referring to the current Palestinian terror uprising, which at the time of Abbas’ statement had already murdered 14 Israelis and wounded 167 in 65 stabbings and 8 shootings, Abbas announced on PA TV that it is a “peaceful uprising.” [Figures from http://mfa.gov.il] Abbas: “No one called for this uprising and no one asked for it. It stemmed from the hearts of the young... We said to everyone that we want peaceful popular uprising, and that’s what this is. That’s what this is. However, the aggression of firing bullets has come from the Israelis.” [Official PA TV, Nov. 16, 2015] According to Abbas, when Palestinians kill young Israeli parents in front of their children, kill Israeli teens, or kill Israeli fathers with their sons, it is not to be condemned as terror because it is an expression of “peace.” And there-fore, when Israelis kill the stabbers and shooters who are trying to peacefully kill Israelis - it is the Israelis who are the “aggressors.” Significantly, Abbas openly admitted that he called “to everyone” for this violence. —Palestinian Media Watch

office will not formally constitute an Israeli diplomatic rep-resentation to the United Arab Emirates, but instead to the United Nations International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), which has its headquarters in the Gulf state. Dore Gold, director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, visited Abu Dhabi earlier last week for three days to discuss the office’s future activities and to finalize the opening of the mission, including meeting with IRENA Director-General Adnan Amin, Israel’s Haaretz reported. The opening of the mission follows a several-year process by Israel to establish a presence in the UAE. In 2009, Israel supported the UAE’s bid to host the headquarters of IRENA with the under-standing that it would eventually allow Israel to have a diplo-matic presence in the Gulf State. The 2010 assassination of Hamas member Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in Dubai, which the UAE blamed on Israel, set back the process. In January 2010, Israel’s Minister of National Infrastructure Uzi Landau attended a renewable energy conference in Abu Dhabi. He was the first Israeli minister to ever visit UAE. Israel will be the only country in the 145-member IRENA that will have its diplomatic mission in Abu Dhabi accredited solely to IRENA. Israel will not fly its flag, but inside its offices it will display the state’s symbols. Israel and the United Arab Emir-ates do not have diplomatic relations. The UAE does not recognize Israel as a state. At the same time, the Palestinian Authority (PA) maintains a consulate general in Dubai and an embassy in Abu Dhabi. —United with Israel Poll Shows Majority of Palestinians Seek the Destruc-tion of Israel November 30, 2015—As the current Palestinian campaign of terrorism against Israel is about to enter its third month, it is still not clear to many what the Palestinians are trying to achieve. The Palestinians cannot even agree on a name for their campaign. Some are referring to it as an “intifada,” while others are describing it as a “Habba Jamahiri-ya” [“popular puff,” or “flurry”]. The Palestinians also have not been able to agree on the motives behind the stabbing, shooting, firebombing and car-ramming attacks. Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly claimed during the past few weeks that the terrorists are setting out to kill Jews out of “despair and frustration” and the lack of a “political horizon.” But Abbas seems intention-ally to be ignoring that it is he and his Palestinian Authority who are responsible — together with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian factions — for the violence, as a result of their daily incitement against Israel. This is yet another instance in which anyone could have predicted what was going to happen. Throughout the past year, Abbas has been telling his people that Israel was planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and “change the Arab and Islamic character and identity” of Jerusalem. He condemned Jews for “defiling the Aqsa Mosque with their filthy feet.” Abbas, his

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