It marked the first deployment of armored brigade combat teams and armor to Europe after a long drawdown from the continent. For decades, Poland had asked for help in keeping Moscow at bay, but at the same time, President-elect Donald Trump has signaled he could try to pursue a friendly relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Still, the president-elect said Wednesday nothing was off the table. "I don't know that I'm going to get along with Vladimir Putin. I hope I do. But there's a good chance I won't."
Russia clearly wasn't happy with the deployment. "We perceive it as a threat," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. "These actions threaten our interests, our security, especially as it concerns a third party building up its military presence near our borders."
Moscow also announced it deployed anti-aircraft missile systems around the city. Russia had already been using the s-400 Triumph air defense system, capable of hitting moving targets including missiles and planes, in Syria, The Sun reported.
“And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy your old men shall dream dreams your young men shall see visions.” Joel 3:1 (The Israel Bible™)
On the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 45th president of the United States, Rabbi Nir Ben Artzi, a prominent mystic and spiritual leader, made several startling predictions this week concerning the impending transfer of power and the changes in store for America, Israel, and the world.
“The media will discover that outgoing President Barack Obama is a traitor,” Rabbi Ben Artzi told Kikar HaShabbat, a Hebrew language news service for Orthodox Jews. “Obama, like an injured beast, helped Hillary Clinton whose sole intention was to continue his agenda.”
Rabbi Nir Ben Artzi (Photo: תאיר נרי בנשיאות הרב ניר בן ארצי שליטא” Official Facebook Page of Rabbi Nir Ben Artzi)
The spiritual leader, who has a dedicated following in Israel, said that while Obama will attempt to thwart Trump, it won’t work.
“Before he leaves, Obama wants to destroy everyone and everything Trump loves, so that when Trump does take power, it will be difficult for him to cope with everything that Obama ruined,” Rabbi Ben Artzi predicted. “This is Obama’s revenge on Trump.”
Indeed, Trump and Obama disagree on many major issues, and the incoming president has vowed to roll back several of the his predecessor’s policies, including the nuclear deal Obama brokered with Iran. In response, the White House announced this week that it had approved the sale of 130 tons of Russian uranium to Iran, enough to make ten nuclear bombs. This, along with several other last-minute moves by the outgoing president, may make it seem like Trump’s efforts will be futile, but Rabbi Ben Artzi said that Trump will have an ace card hard to beat.
“When Trump takes office, he will receive help directly from Heaven that will enable him overcome these obstacles, and bring peace to the world,” Rabbi Ben Artzi declared. “And for this reason, Trump will succeed greatly.”
The rabbi also addressed the recent UN resolution passed on December 23, the eve of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Resolution 2334 declared it illegal for Jews to live in Judea, Samaria, the Golan, Hebron, and East Jerusalem. But while it has been US policy for over 30 years to veto anti-Israel resolutions in the UN, President Obama abstained from voting, thereby allowing the resolution to pass.
Rabbi Ben Artzi believes that the timing of the resolution was divinely significant, mirroring the conditions of the Maccabees, whose oppression by the Greeks 2,000 years ago led to the miracle of Hanukkah and the restoration of the Temple.
“God arranged it that the United Nations Security Council decision, advanced by Obama, would fall on the first candle of Hanukkah,” the rabbi explained. “This was in order for the Jews to receive it in the same spirit as the Jews thousands of years ago when evil decrees were placed on Israel.”
Like many other modern political thinkers, the rabbi dismissed the UN as irrelevant. “Every decision the UN has made is meaningless. They will all be cancelled out and are already erased in Heaven. The resolution will fall, just as the United Nations itself will fall.”
Rabbi Ben Artzi also addressed the international conference that will take place in Paris on Sunday, where it is expected that the 70 nations gathered will vote to create a Palestinian State in Judea and Samaria. Rabbi Ben Artzi predicted that the resolution would have disastrous repercussions for the countries that support it.
“Every nation that tries to take away parts of Israel, the nation and the people will be destroyed,” he warned, citing Psalms.
Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. Psalms 37:15
Rabbi Ben Artzi explained that the motivation behind the anti-Israel conference was for the European nations to curry favor with Islam, but this attempt was doomed.
“Europe and all the other nations believe that if they hate Israel, all of the Muslims will become their allies and cease attacking them from within,” the rabbi explained. “They are wrong about that. Muslims will continue to fill up Europe by the millions. At this point, whether they help or hurt Israel, Europe will be ashes.
“This is the last period of suffering for the Jews. From now on, it will only get better and better,” the rabbi assured his followers.
Credit to breakingisraelnews.com Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/81931/famous-rabbi-predicts-trumps-divine-mandate-will-bring-peace-undo-obamas-betrayals/#G5vZSldUUWHSKjw2.99
One of the caves found beneath the Tomb of the Patriarchs. (Courtesy Noam Arnon)
Thirty-five years ago, a small group of Jews set out on a difficult and dangerous mission: to prove that the Biblical account of a cave in Hebron was true. One of those men tells of what they found: a secret chamber under the site, evidence that refutes the United Nations version of history supported by most of the nations of the world.
Of all the holy sites in Israel, the Machpela (Cave of the Patriarchs) in Hebron has special significance as being the oldest. A burial site for the three patriarchs and three of the matriarchs – Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah – it marks the origins of all three Abrahamic religions.
The Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.
Dominated by a large, aboveground stone structure, visitors to Hebron are left wondering about the cave described in the Bible. A cave does exist, and even though its entrance is in plain sight, very few people have ever been inside.
Noam Arnon, spokesman for the Jewish community in Hebron, has been studying the Machpela for decades. His passion for the site began about 35 years ago when, risking imprisonment and the ire of the Muslims, he pried open the stone covering the entrance to the burial site and ventured into the chambers underneath the building.
Arnn explained his motives. 35 year ago, Jews were just beginning to resettle Hebron after a long absence following the massacre of 69 Jews in 1929. The Arabs were trying to distance them from their ancestral city and the site that lay at the heart of Judaism.
“At the time, we were beginning to hear opinions in politics and even academia that the entire story of the Machpela and Abraham was a myth and not based on fact,” Arnon explained to Breaking Israel News. “We needed to prove that the Biblical account was accurate.”
12-year-old Michal descends into the shaft. (Courtesy Noam Arnon)
The Waqf, the Muslim authority, was trying to restrict Jewish access to the site. Arnon and five friends decided to find the cave and prove its historical authenticity.
But no one was permitted to explore the site. Arnon had heard rumors of a lower chamber. After Hebron was conquered in 1967, Moshe Dayan, then Secretary of Defense and an amateur archaeologist, lowered a young girl down a covered shaft that tradition said led to the cave. When she came back, she described a small chamber and stone steps leading back up to the hall.
Based on a crude map drawn by the young girl, Arnon determined that the stairs led up to the Hall of Isaac, a section of the complex normally forbidden to Jews. The group decided to make their
The stone steps leading to the caves. (Courtesy Noam Arnon)
attempt in the month of Elul, when Jews were permitted into the hall at night in order to pray Selichot, a special service asking for forgiveness said in the days preceding Yom Kippur.
“Selichot prayers are very loud and are accompanied by many shofarot (rams’ horns), so it provided a good distraction and cover,” Arnon told Breaking Israel News. “After some searching, we found the opening. It was covered by a flagstone in the middle of the floor in the public area. We had brought in some tools and at a point when the shofarot were the loudest, we pried the stone open.”
In front of their eyes were revealed the stairs the young girl had described, carved into the bedrock.
“We descended to the bottom where there was a long and narrow tunnel, sloping even further down, that opened into a chamber with a roughly tiled floor,” Arnon said. But there was still no sign of the cave as described in Genesis.
“I felt a slight wind and realized there had to be another opening,” Arnon said. “We followed the airflow and and tracked it to an opening in the floor covered by a stone. We pried it open and crawled down into a cave carved into the bedrock.”
The opening into the first cave. (Courtesy Noam Arnon)
The word “Machpela” comes from the root meaning ‘double’. Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, a prominent medieval French commentator on the Bible known by the acronym Rashi, explained that this is due to the cave being doubled. This was exactly what the group found: two caves, one behind the other.
“In the back of the cave was another opening into a second cave with a low roof,” Arnon said. “At one point, I found myself crawling among human bones.”
Their friends who were covering for them up above called down, warning them to come back. The prayer service was coming to an end, and in fact, they had prayed the selichot service twice in order to give them additional time to explore.
In the morning, the Arabs discovered that the stone floor had been opened. The Waqf made a formal complaint to the Israeli government and the Arab residents of Hebron rioted.
The second cave. (Courtesy Noam Arnon)
Arnon had taken some clay shards from the cave, which he brought to a laboratory for testing. They were found to be from the period of the First Temple. Archaeologists could not pass up this rare opportunity. Seev Jevin, the former director of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), followed in the footsteps of Arnon and his intrepid companions. The IAA acknowledged that it was indeed a burial cave from the Bronze Age, which includes the age of the Patriarchs and the First Temple. This infuriated the Waqf and they intensified their complaints to the Israeli government. The Israeli government sealed the opening with concrete.
As a resident of the holy city, Arnon is deeply distressed at the United Nations and UNESCO resolutions that try to refute the Jewish nature of the site, something he has seen with his own eyes.
“All of the archaeological evidence shows the site is historically Jewish, dating back 3,000 years,” Arnon said. “I did carbon-14 dating on the structure itself and it dates back to before the first century CE. The Muslims can’t cope with the facts and the actual history of the site, so they don’t even make an attempt,” Arnon said. “They simply object to Jews entering the site, as they did throughout the Ottoman Empire.”
A map of the Cave of Patriarchs. (Courtesy Noam Arnon)
During the Ottoman rule, Jews were forbidden from visiting their holy sites. The stone structure over the cave was built by Herod over 2,000 years ago as a shrine to the Jewish patriarchs, using the same distinctive stones used to build the Western Wall, but was converted into a mosque in the seventh century.
“[The resolutions are] anti-Semitism and racist, plain and simple,” Arnon stated emphatically to Breaking Israel News. “When the United Nations supported the claim, it was not based on fact or any semblance of truth. It was pure anti-Semitism.”
Credit to breakingisraelnews.com Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/81859/secret-hidden-chambers-hebrons-cave-patriarchs-finally-revealed-photos/#eIBPojGvWEIq9kXP.99
