New Knesset elections May the Lord lead you in prayer

Gideon Sa’ar

The fourth Israeli elections in two years are scheduled for March 23, 2021. The current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is running, however, new parties with rising leaders have been formed to oust Mr. Netanyahu. Tel Aviv’s Mayor Ron Huldai announced at the end of December 2020, about a new left-leaning political party named The Israelis. Also, a former Likud member, Gideon Sa’ar, has formed his New Hope Party to challenge Netanyahu in the prime ministerial race. Supporters joining him are hailing Sa’ar as the next prime minister of Israel. The Blue and White Party, led by Benny Gantz, seemed to have collapsed. Mr. Gantz was to rise to power after Netanyahu ends his 18-month term.
The March elections will end the planned rotating premiership.

Rising poverty numbers

One of the Israeli non-profit organizations, Latet, reported at the end of 2020, that some 268,000 families (about 3%) have found themselves in a situation of “extreme poverty” due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The organization provides welfare and meal services throughout Israel. “The surge in poverty rates confirms the most pessimistic economic forecasts, and highlights the weaknesses of the ecosystem in Israel,” said Latet founder Gilles Darmon. The rising number of bankrupted businesses and struggling families has caused nationwide demonstrations for months as Israelis accuse PM Netanyahu for their difficulties.

 For the children’s sake 

Approximately 8% of Israeli children cope with functional challenges or chronic diseases that require constant medical and/or non-medical care. Israel provides a variety of services to children and adults with special physical and mental needs. However, many essential needs are yet to be covered. Among many other laws, Israel passed in 1988 the Special Education Law that covers children and youth with specific needs. An integration of special-needs children into regular schools has taken its first steps. To help to improve the quality of their lives, overseas Christian and Jewish organizations are also critically important. Playtime helps child development, despite their challenges. We work with designated Israeli organizations to provide support for special-needs children. 

The list of greatest needs includes renovated classrooms, day-camp programs, surveillance cameras, and other improved security, renovated playgrounds, youth centers, and development new Biblical experiences for these children. All the improvements are being worked on in the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. Join us so that we may assist the youngest ones on their way to a productive and blessed life. 

 Hopeful new immigrants continue coming home 

Immigration to Israel still remains consistent, with new immigrants (olim) starting their new lives during a global pandemic. The Jewish Agency for Israel estimates that it assisted more than 20,000 new immigrants who made aliyah (moved) from 70 different countries by the end of 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Aliyah and Integration Ministry and the Interior Ministry helped in the effort the Jewish Agency reported. According to the Agency, making aliyah was a challenge for Jewish families worldwide all through the year. 

About 10,200 people arrived from the Commonwealth of Independent States in the former Soviet Union; 3,120 from Western Europe, including 2,220 from France; 2,850 from North America, including 2,550 from the US; 1,500 from Latin America; 280 from South Africa; and 90 from Australia and New Zealand. The total number of Jewish immigrants from Ethiopia was 1,200 in 2020. 

“A wonderful thing happened to us: Twenty thousand Jewish immigrants arrived in the State of Israel during this pandemic year,” said the Jewish Agency chairman Isaac Herzog in a meeting with children who immigrated to Israel from a variety of countries. Twenty thousand people─who were ready to leave everything behind in the challenging period of the global turmoil─came to build a new life in Israel. 

 The immigration numbers for the year coincided with a sharp increase in people showing interest in moving to Israel. Since January 2020, the Jewish Agency received some 160,000 immigration inquiries, and about 41,000 new applications, including 28,000 from Western countries, which is twice the number of 2019. There was also an increase of 41% of applications from western countries’ young adults, ages 18─35. 

The Jewish Agency estimates that Israel may expect an influx of about 250,000 new immigrants over the next three to five years, assuming that the government implements a national plan for such a large wave of newcomers and is able to absorb them. 

“These new immigrants landed straight into two-week isolation in a new country, unknown to everyone. There is nothing more exciting than seeing these wonderful children who made aliyah during this difficult year. I hope COVID-19 will soon be over for them and their friends; and that we will see the great wave of immigration that we are anticipating from all over the world; and that all the new immigrants will have a smooth integration and be received with much love,” said Isaac Herzog. 

In accordance with health regulations, thousands of immigrants were housed immediately in quarantine hotels set up for this purpose. The Jewish Agency has also instituted an emergency plan to breathe hope into Jewish communities worldwide, including interest-free loans created in partnership with the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) and Keren Hayesod in Israel. (Jerusalem Post online, Dec. 28, 2020) 

 “They will walk after the Lord, He will roar like a lion. Indeed He will roar, and His sons will come trembling from the West” (Hosea 11:10). 

 Understanding the times 

Today together with our Distribution Center in Jerusalem, your prayers, and your kind donations from afar, the Streams of Blessing Project has paid sensitive care to the needs of the Jewish people during this season of scarcity and famine. We have helped parents to clothe newborn babies, Children ready to attend Gan (Kindergarten) and School, as some parents had decided not to enroll them for a new year of studies due to the lack of funds. We have been honored to understand their need, as we keep believing in God’s provision; and moreover, we have had the privilege to clothe them properly for the occasion, as we also pray that God holds their future in His hands. It is time for unity and cares for one another, regardless of their religious creeds or cultural backgrounds. Report by Streams of Blessing Project Supervisor Karen Tohon, CFI Jerusalem. Thank you, Karen!) 

“No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84: 11). 

 The fourth election in two years? 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on December 1, 2020, that efforts are being made constantly to keep the current government together. However, the government’s dispersal bill which Yair Lapid (the opposition leader) had introduced for the Knesset passed in the reading on December 2. The Prime Minister called upon Benny Gantz, who shares the premiership with Netanyahu, not to fail the 23rd government. Other ministers informed Benjamin Netanyahu that they are ready for a new election during the first months of 2021. 

The writing on the wall 

Israel’s COVIS-19 infections are steadily rising. It appears that a third lockdown will take place. On December 1, 2020, the Jerusalem Post online news said that “The writing is on the wall, and everywhere you care to look.” Through a combination of inconsistent government policy, disregard of regulations among segments of the population, and the outcome of opening more of the country, the situation is rapidly worsening. 

Country of innovations 

Six Israeli products on the TIME magazine’s “Best Inventions of 2020─Innovations Changing How We Live” were listed as inventions “making the world better, smarter and even a bit more fun.” One of the best innovations is a folding electric car, a two-seater that is still in the prototype phase. It was chosen for its ability to retract its wheels by pulling them closer to achieve a one-meter width for narrow city streets and small parking spaces. (World Israel Online News) 

 Memories from the Land 

As travelers to Israel are facing some new demands in the era of the current pandemic, tour pictures are now more precious than ever. Tour organizers require a health certificate from a doctor, travel insurance also covering the COVID-19 treatment in Israel; and airlines are expected to accept only customers who have taken the vaccine for the corona virus. 

 Historic visits and acknowledgments 

The U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Israel in late November. As the first senior U.S. diplomat ever to do so, he toured the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria; and visited the Golan Heights along the Syrian border in the first official visit since 2019 when the U.S. recognized Israeli sovereignty over the plateau. 

“You cannot stand here and stare out at what is across the border [Syria] and deny the central thing that President Donald Trump recognized─what the previous presidents have refused to do. Imagine with [Syrian President Bashar] Assad in control of this place, the risk of the harm to the West and to Israel.” Pompeo said. He was referring to the European leaders and the elite institutions in America who want Israel to return the Israel side of the Golan Height to Syria, which area the Jewish state captured in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed. 

Secretary Pompeo’s visit came only days after military engineers discovered and disarmed explosives in Israeli territory along the border. The explosives were linked to Iran and Syria. 

On his way to the Golan Heights, Pompeo visited with Israeli officials the Psagot Winery in the Jewish community of Sha’ar Binyamin. The winery had named one of its wines after Pompeo as a salute to his announcement in 2019 that the Trump administration no longer sees Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria as contrary to international law. Secretary Pompeo’s visit to the Jewish community and its winery was the first by an American diplomat. During his time in Israel, Pompeo announced another policy, as well. 

 He stated that the U.S. is designating as “anti-Semitic” the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which seeks to isolate Israel over its falsely claimed poor treatment of the Palestinians. In 2017, Israel passed a law for banning foreign activists with links to BDS from entering the country. “We want to stand with all other nations that recognize the BDS movement for cancer that it is,” said Pompeo. 

In addition, Secretary Pompeo said, that “All producers within areas where Israel exercises the relevant authority will be required to mark goods as Israel or Made in Israel.” Soon after Secretary Pompeo’s visit, the U.S. State Department confirmed the policy. Secretary Pompeo had no meetings with the Palestinian leaders. They have strongly rejected the Trump Administration’s stand on the decades-old conflict, including the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital in 2017, and the move of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem in 2018. (Resources: Online news posts from Israel) 

Renewed agreements signed

On October 28, 2020, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman signed new versions of three agreements on research cooperation between the two countries. All three agreements were originally formed and signed in the 1970s and had large endowments that provided grants to American and Israeli academics and companies for research and technology. The timing of the agreements was right as the Trump Administration no longer views Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria as being illegal, per se. Ambassador Friedman said that removing territorial restrictions in the agreements fits with the spirit of the Abraham Accords as the region is continuously advancing the cause of peace. (Jerusalem Post, October 29, 2020)

Personal ties

For years, CFI-USA has formed friendships with the people of Israel. We have planted trees in Judea, Samaria, and the Golan Heights; assisted communities’ security; and helped to provide care and education for special-needs children. We thank you for partnering with us for Israel’s future.

Planting trees and visiting with the Mayor of Efrat in Judea

Prayer needs for the Lord’s people