contents road report

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

elements in the wedding, so I happily added them, and we all had a great time. (Just prior to writing this issue of the Shofar, our friend went home to be with the Lord, and the family is praising God for His goodness. In the brief time after his salvation, Ron was able to demon-strate the evident change that had taken place in his life and spoke of his trust in Jesus and his confidence in his home in heaven. We

“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. • Third Quarter 2016

In August, we traveled to Community Baptist Church (Davison, MI) for a weekend prophecy con-ference and ministry up-date. It was wonderful to visit once again with the folks at this supporting church. They have been supporting us since shortly after the ministry began, so the fellowship with these dear friends was es-pecially sweet. It was actu-ally through this church that we ultimately met my secretary, Kim, so there are a number of points of contact with this church, and we are very thankful for it.

In mid-September, I had the privilege of speak-ing at my home church, Bethel Baptist Fellowship (Brooklyn, NY) while Pas-tor Bickel and his wife, Nancy, left the country on a long-overdue vacation the church sent them on. We are thankful for the Bickels and their many years of faithful service not only to the church but also to Shalom. Pastor, a key board member of our ministry, has been instru-mental in helping to lead the work.

While they were away, I also had the honor of conducting the wedding for Jimmy Taylor and Maureen Rutter (our church clerk) at our church. It was a moving experience because the bride’s father (Ron Rut-ter), though suffering from advanced stages of cancer, was determined to walk his daughter down the aisle. He had been saved not long before, so it was an emotional time, to say the least. The cou-ple wanted some Jewish

Contents

Road Report 1

Grant and Ardis 2

China Update 3

West Bank Project 3

Giving Receipts Update 3

Duvalls Serving in Israel 4

Prayer Requests 4

Grant and Ardis Update 5

Madeleine Update 6

Watchman Report 7

News Affecting the Jewish

People

8

Road Report

Continued on page 2

Ron and Jeanne Rutter walk Maureen down the aisle.

The Shalom Shofar

Please continue

to pray for Grant and Ardis as they begin their lives in Israel

together. ”

“

Grant and Ardis

Perhaps a sub-theme in this i s s u e i s “ w e d d i n g s ” because, in addition to the Taylor-Rutter wedding cele-bration de-scribed earlier, the most im-portant event that occurred last quarter for our family was the marriage of our eldest son, Grant, to his fiancée, Ardis Chetta, in July. The wedding was held in G r e e n v i l l e ,

South Carolina, and a large crowd was on hand to wit-ness the blessed event,

including many unsaved family members and friends.

The bride and groom desired a wedding with many of the Jewish ele-ments, so the ceremony included most of the tradi-tional ones, and the cere-mony took place beneath a chuppah, a four-posted canopy Ardis’s father con-structed. In addition, an insert was provided to the attendees, explaining the New Testament signifi-cance of the wedding festi-val and the elements Jesus used to teach about his relationship with the church. The ceremony was God honoring, and the Gospel was clearly present-ed. The reception also had a Jewish flavor, and the crowd was invited to join

in the traditional hora celebration. This included the bride and groom be-ing carried around the room on chairs, with on-lookers clapping, singing, and shouting love and well-wishes to the couple. My son Luke and I each took a group to explain what to do, and then the celebration began. For many in attendance, this was something they had never seen before, so there was enthusiastic participation by all, and we all had a great time. Please continue to pray for Grant and Ardis as they begin their lives in Israel together. Grant will be providing updates in our newsletter, beginning with this issue.

Road Report (continued)

are all encouraged and remined of the sober reali-ty that where there is life there is hope. We must all remember never to give up on trying to reach our lost friends and family before it is too late.)

Later in the month, we headed to Burge Terrace B a p t i s t C h u r c h

(Indianapolis, IN) for a Passover Seder demonstra-tion, a short prophecy con-ference, and a ministry update to the folks at this supporting church. While we were in the Indianapo-lis area, we headed to an-other supporting church, Calvary Baptist Church (Huntingburg, IN), to give

a ministry update. At the end of September, I trav-eled to Keystone Baptist Church (Brandon, MB, Canada) and Heritage Baptist Church (Minot, ND) to present our min-istry for support. Please pray as these ministries consider partnering with us.

The Newlyweds

Please pray that

we will be able to successfully navigate the additional hurdles

we face. ”

China Update

“

Unfortunately, due primarily to recent tighten-ing of regulations related to entry visas in China, we have had to postpone the China Project. We are in the process of regrouping and will keep you posted

on when we intend to re-schedule it. The date will be sometime in 2017, so if you gave financially to that project, please watch for a return of those funds. Please pray that we will be able to successfully navi-

gate the additional hurdles we face. We aren’t giving up on this opportunity, but we need to plan differently in light of the circumstanc-es.

West Bank Project

We are very pleased to announce a new project we are going to be doing in conjunction with Grace Dental and Medical Missions, based in Dracut, Massachusetts. Some of you may recall that this is the group my son Luke traveled with while doing medical missions. We are joining forces to send a medical and dental team into the West Bank to provide care for residents

in two refugee camps. We will be working with a church based there and pastored by a friend who is a believer and a Palestinian Israeli.

I will be sending another e-mail when we have completed the calculat ions of the expected cost for those who may wish to assist financially. For now, we request your prayers for all the details that need to be

worked out so the group will be able to engage in this very exciting ministry. Since I’m neither a doctor nor a dentist, and for obvious other reasons, I won’t personally be with this team. However, we are coordinating the initiative, and some of our workers/partners in Israel will be assisting us. We hope to send the group in early 2017.

Giving Receipts Update

patience, but we need your help.

If you have given to our ministry (especially individuals) in the past but are unsure whether you have ever given us your e-mail address, please con-tact our office at (718) 232-8233 to provide that or jus t e -mai l us a t [email protected] to let

Some of you may have noticed that we haven’t sent giving receipts in a couple of months. Please bear with us as we switch over to e-mail distribution of them. We are updating our system to be able to do that and expect to re-sume distribution within the next few weeks. Thank you very much for your

us know. The fact that you may have sent us e-mails in the past doesn’t neces-sarily mean we can auto-matically connect your specific address with you as a giver, so we would sincerely appreciate any help you can offer in put-ting all this together. Thank you very much for your help.

The Shalom Shofar

Duvalls Serving in Israel

efforts with several dear individuals. This year they went to Israel for most of the Sukkot season (Jewish Feast of Tabernacles), de-siring to reach out and minister among a number of Israelis with whom the Lord has given them very close relationships. They have witnessed to all these people before, and because of the relationships, they have liberty to speak in depth about the Gospel.

As many of you know from our previous prayer request earlier this fall, Jenny and Catherine Duvall are currently in Is-rael and will be returning to the States as this news-letter is sent out. This trip came together rather quickly, but we are thrilled they wanted to return. Last fall they did a tremendous job there while working on an olive farm and advancing the ministry

They are again using their vacation time to do this, and we are thankful for their sacrificial spirit. We wanted to take this oppor-tunity to request prayer that the Gospel seeds they have sown will bear fruit in the future; several of the people they spent time with are very tender. We look forward to updating you in our next newsletter on their time spent in Israel.

We wanted to take

this opportunity to request prayer that the Gospel seeds

they have sown will bear fruit in the

future. ”

“

Prayer Requests: “L” and “JR”

In our last report, we mentioned some of the encouraging interactions we had with people who attended our special day at Bethel Baptist Fellowship. In particular were two men we are calling “L” and “JR.” “L” continues to be friendly but immovable in his stand. Sometimes this resistance makes it hard to break through with people because of their politeness. At times we feel we would rather have an argument so there is something sub-stantive to grab. Please continue to pray for “L.”

The update regarding “JR” is very encouraging, however. Since he and I hit it off so well at the spe-cial event in April, I decid-ed to be a bit assertive and sent a message home to him, stating that I was holding him to his promise

of coming when I spoke and that I expected to see him at church on that day! I later found out he smiled when he received the mes-sage and understood what I was doing. Praise the Lord for that! He kept his word and did, in fact, come to the church and sat comfort-ably through the service.

When it was over, he and I again had a very long conversation. In it he opened up even more to me and shared some of his deeper thoughts on where he stands on the subject of religion and how he feels about what we and his fam-ily believe (his wife is a Christian but not Jewish; his daughter is also a believ-er). In the course of the discussion, we identified more similarities in our backgrounds. He admitted to me that he had sold his

business and acknowl-edged his prior agreement to meet with me regularly when that happened. I pressed him on that a bit, and he passively agreed to keep his word, but men-tioned that there is a tran-sition period for him to work through that could be an obstacle to meeting.

I decided that, since I had gained some standing with him, I should push back a little; and after a brief “negotiation,” he agreed to meet at least once each month, begin-ning in November, primar-ily to discuss the Bible. This is a huge praise to the Lord. Thank you for pray-ing and please continue to pray as we begin this jour-ney. Please pray that the scales will be removed from his eyes and that he will be born again.

Grant and Ardis Update

ten to fifteen people at the study, but the last few weeks have been really full, with nearly twenty each time. Recently an unsaved Jewish girl, “A,” began attending the group and has been coming faithfully. She seems very open to hearing the Gospel and learning about the truths of Messiah.

Opportunities to share the Gospel at work are also very prevalent since my faith is quite an anoma-ly to Israelis. Recently a coworker asked me to get him a book about Jesus in English so he could learn English better. This was a pleasant surprise because I knew he wanted to im-prove his English skills, but I didn’t know he was ready to learn more about Jesus yet. Please pray for “Z” as he “reads” about Jesus.

At the beginning of September, Ardis began taking Hebrew classes at the same school where I am doing my studies in Tel Aviv. Our classes, though in different rooms, are at the same time, so we can travel back to Jerusalem

Greetings from Jerusa-lem! Thank you all for your prayers over the last few months as I (Grant) have been adjusting to life over here in the Land. This last quarter has been an exciting and eventful one. As you know, Ardis and I were married at the end of July. The Lord real-ly blessed since unsaved people, including unsaved Jewish people, were in at-tendance. After our honey-moon, we moved directly to Jerusalem to get our new lives started and to allow Ardis to begin the acclimation process.

The Lord has given us the opportunity to take part in the leadership of the young adult fellowship at our church here. We hold a weekly meeting, usually at the church build-ing, that includes dinner together and a Bible study. I have the privilege to teach this Bible study eve-ry three weeks, and Ardis makes the meal for the group on an almost-weekly basis. We were even blessed to have the study at our home not too long ago. We average between

together af-terward. Re-cently after class an of-ficer in the Israeli army overheard us talking and began to chat with us. He had moved to Israel from Miami not long ago and was looking for Americans to hang out with. We exchanged num-bers, and it turns out he works only a five-minute walk from where I work. This was clearly an ar-ranged meeting from the Lord, and we hope to get together with him soon. Please pray that we might make further contact with “D” with the goal of intro-ducing him to the truth.

Toward the end of September, Ardis and I went to the Ministry of the Interior to get her visa status resolved. As is cus-tomary, she entered the country on a tourist visa, which is good for only three months. Praise the

Opportunities

to share the Gospel at work are also very

prevalent since my faith is quite

an anomaly to Israelis. ”

“

Continued on page 6

Grant and Ardis Hartman

Madeleine Pirus

The Shalom Shofar

Madeleine Update

The Lord worked in Madeleine’s visa situation, and she received approval for another year, but due to her passport expiration date, she will need to re-new her passport and re-quest another visa before the end of the year. We are thankful to see how the Lord orchestrated these results so Madeleine may continue serving in her ministry in the Land. We greatly appreciate your faithful prayers and are grateful to see the way the Lord answered this im-portant prayer request since it was heavy on our hearts.

Now Madeleine will be volunteering more at the Bible Society, and due to the large influx of Jew-ish people from France making aliyah, she will be

translating outreach mate-rial into French. She is thankful for the variety of people she interacts with regularly, including a young Arab woman who gladly accepted a New Testament in Arabic and a Russian woman who was happy to receive a New Testament in her language.

It was a first for Made-leine to be in Israel for a summer without a war and terror attacks; this period of peace enabled the as-sembly she attends (the same one Grant does) to hold all the scheduled sum-mer camps. Madeleine worked as a nurse in one camp and as a nurse/counselor in a second camp, and she was thrilled to see the Lord work in the minds and hearts of the young people. Additional-

ly, it was good to see many in the assembly help in one way or anoth-er, and the Lord blessed these sacrificial efforts in different ways; one is the cont inued sp ir i tual growth she sees in the young people as fruit from their time at camp. At the assembly, Made-leine will again teach the youngest children during Shabbat and during the weekly kids’ club, which again started up recently.

Please continue to pray that the Holy Spirit will work in the hearts of those she and others reach out to at the Bible Society and in the lives of other friends and ac-quaintances with whom Madeleine has interacted in the past.

The Lord worked

in Madeleine’s visa situation, and she

received approval for another year. ”

“

Grant and Ardis Update (continued)

Lord that only two weeks after our first meeting there, we had her six-month work visa in hand. This is truly a miracle be-cause these things are quite complicated here in Israel and usually take much longer. Please continue to pray; we will need to re-turn in six months for an interview to get her an Israeli ID and a long-term visa. Please pray with us for the continued acclima-tion process both as a

newly married couple and as two people adjusting to the new culture.

Israeli summers are long and hot. In fact, there is usually no rain between April and November. This is hard to believe since the average yearly rainfall in Jerusalem is comparable to London, where it rains all year long. Also, the sun is hotter here and more dan-gerous than in most other places. This makes the heat during the summer months

unbearable at times. How-ever, with no humidity, you have protection from the heat if you stand in the shade. It seems ten degrees cooler there. Even the wind is stronger in the shade. The shade is truly an oasis from the harsh summer, a condition I have never experienced before.

This fact brings my mind to Psalm 91:1. “He

Continued on page 7

Let Us Help You! Witnessing to your Jewish friends?

Call us at (718) 232-8233.

Watchman Report

able to share with this lady her love of studying the Bible. During a recent visit to her on Rosh Hashanah, Diane was happy to hear she was reading the He-brew Bible Diane had giv-en to this woman’s son so he could study for his Bar Mitzvah. She told Diane that reading the Bible brought back good memo-ries of her school days in Israel, when she had re-ceived instruction from the Scriptures as a child.

One of our friends, whom we’ve mentioned in the past, had another op-portunity to reach out to a Jewish acquaintance. This particular Jewish man and his wife are suffering the

“A watchman unto the house of Israel.” —Ezekiel 3:18

J o s h C r o m p t o n (Pennsylvania) had a dis-cussion with a Jewish man in an airplane and has since started e-mailing back and forth. Currently, they are in a conversation about the necessity of blood for atonement. Please pray for Josh as he reaches out to this Jewish man and that the Lord will work in this man’s heart as they continue their corre-spondence.

D i a n e M o r r e l l (Minnesota) requests pray-er for her Israeli neighbor, who is homebound with a serious illness. Diane was

loss of their son due to suicide. The Lord worked in our friend’s pastor, who was able to send a Tanakh in Hebrew and English, along with a note of sym-pathy, just days after the young man’s death. At Rosh Hashanah, our friend followed up with a gift basket of apples, honey, challah rolls, and another item or two to show the family they were still think-ing of them and remem-bering them in their pray-ers. Please pray that the Lord will comfort this couple and their family and that they would see Messiah in the love of the Christians around them.

Please pray that

the Lord will comfort this couple and their

family. ”

“

Rosh Hashanah Basket

Grant and Ardis Update (continued)

that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shad-ow of the Almighty.” An overseas move, with all the changes it brings, is daunt-ing. But there is comfort in the fact that being in the center of God’s will gives

refuge; this is an incredible encouragement to hang on to. When it seems as though the world is hot under the raging sun, be-ing in the shade of our kind God’s will is the only place to escape the heat. We are thankful for a God

who goes before us and gives us the assurance of His will each day. He truly is our refuge. Thank you all so much for your con-tinued prayers for us as we strive to serve Him here in Jerusalem.

The Shalom Shofar

News Affecting the Jewish People

Terror victims sue Facebook for $1 billion for hosting incitement July 11, 2016—An Israel-based human rights group has filed a $1 billion lawsuit in New York against Facebook for allow-ing online incitement, on behalf of five families of terror victims who were killed or wounded by Palestinian terrorists. The families of five Americans and Israelis with US citizen-ship who were killed or wounded by Palestinians terrorists in Israel have filed a suit against the social media giant Face-book, claiming one billion dollars in damages over its failure to combat Palestinian support for terrorism and incitement messages posted on it. The lawsuit was filed by the Shurat Hadin Law Center, an Israel-based human rights group, at the New York State District Court under the Anti-Terrorism Act on behalf of the five families on Monday. “Facebook has knowingly provided material support and resources to Hamas in the form of Facebook’s online social media net-work platform and communication services,” a press release issued by the plaintiffs said. “Hamas has used and relied on Facebook’s online social network platform and communica-tions services as among its most important tools to facilitate and carry out its terrorist activity.” The families filing the suit include the relatives of Taylor Force, an American Army veteran who was murdered in a stabbing attack in Tel Aviv in March, the family of Menachem Mendel Rivkin who was seriously wounded in a stabbing attack in Givat Zeev in Jan-uary; relatives of Richard Leikin, a 76-year old man who was killed by terrorists on a bus in Jerusalem last October; the family of 3-month-old Chaya Zissel Braun who was mur-dered by a Hamas terrorist in Jerusalem in October 2014, and relatives of Yaakov Naftali Frankel, one of the three youths kidnapped and murdered by Hamas in 2014. —World Israel News PA Monument for Murder July 13, 2016—Next week, the Palestinian Authority and the PLO will be dedicating a monument to Abu Sukkar, a terror-ist who murdered 15 by filling a refrigerator with explosives and detonating it on Jaffa Street in Jerusalem in 1975. The PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs posted an invitation to the event on Facebook, which stated that it is being held “under the auspices of the [PLO] Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, the Ramallah and El-Bireh district, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, the Turmus Ayya municipality, and the Su-preme Council for Monitoring Prisoners’ Affairs.” It also encouraged people to attend, stating that their presence would be “a sign of loyalty to the Martyrs and the prison-ers”: “We are honored to invite you to participate in the dedication of the monument to the Martyr (Shahid) fighter Ahmad Jabarah ‘Abu Sukkar’ On Sunday, July 17, 2016, at 5:00 p.m. at the village of Turmus Ayya. Your presence is a sign of loyalty to the Martyrs and the prisoners” [Facebook

page of the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, July 13, 2016] The Director of the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Issa Karake and District Governor of Ramallah and El-Bireh Laila Ghannam have honored this murderer be-fore. Last year, Palestinian Media Watch documented that the two officials called the murderer of 15 “a great fighter,” promised to “follow his path,” and praised him as “setting an example.” In 1975 Ahmad Jabarah Abu Sukkar planned the bombing attack in which a refrigerator filled with explo-sives was detonated in Jerusalem. 15 people were killed and over 60 people were wounded. He was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years, but was released from prison after 28 years as part of a goodwill gesture from Israel to the PA in 2003. He was a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council and an advisor to Arafat on prisoners' affairs. He died of a heart attack in 2013 in the PA. —Palestinian Media Watch PA: “Death [of a teenager] as a Martyr is the path to excellence and greatness” July 14, 2016—Since fear of death is a natural inhibiting factor to participating in violence and terror, to mitigate this fear, the Palestinian Authority educates its children that death as a Martyr should not be feared. Martyrdom, the PA teaches, is the highest achievement and is more valuable and more rewarded than life itself. The Palestinian Authority reminded its people of this principle following this week's matriculation exams. The announcement of the official PA news agency WAFA, focused on those teenagers who had been killed in the recent terror wave, most of whom were killed while committing terror attacks. The PA glorified the teenage terrorists who missed their exams, and instead of criticizing their terror, put them on a pedestal saying that their teenage Martyrdom was "the path to excellence" and "the great victory": "The day of the publication of high school matriculation exam results is known as a day of long expectation, and as a first step in the realization of the aspi-rations... Some of them are disappointed because they did not receive the grade they hoped for or did not succeed. Some of them view this day as the day of their birth and the start of their path in life, work, and building. However, the families of the Martyrs (Shahids) and their relatives find themselves proud of the Martyrdom (Shahada, note play on words, also means "certificate") that their children achieved with the Creator and in the homeland... Sixteen [students] succeeded [in achieving] the Martyrdom (Shahada) of the homeland and withstanding its difficult tests, for death as a Martyr is the path to excellence and greatness, and the path of those who know how to reach the great victo-ry..." [WAFA (official PA news agency), July 11, 2016; offi-cial PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 12, 2016] Palestinian teenagers' willingness to go out on what are probably suicide missions, is in all likelihood the result of years of PA educa-tion presenting Martyrdom death as the Palestinian ideal.

Palestinian education starts inculcating this message when children are very young. One example: The PA funded youth magazine Zayzafuna published a poem that defines the essence of being a Palestinian as being a Martyr, three times in recent years. —Palestinian Media Watch German government agency involved in violation of Iran sanctions July 14, 2016—A German government quality control agen-cy and a private certification agency that works with it both violated EU sanctions and the federal agency’s policy by providing certificates to Iranian banks, constructions compa-nies and energy firms, a joint investigation by The Jerusalem Post and the Federal Republic’s largest daily, Bild, reveals. The quality control certificates make it easier for the Iranian firms to conduct business, because of Germany’s reputation for high industrial standards. The violations occurred be-tween late October 2012 and January 2016, when the Iran nuclear agreement was implemented. After accusations of sanctions violations emerged in 2012, Kurt Lindenblatt, the head of certification for the Bonn-based TÜV InterCert SAAR private agency, wrote, in an email obtained by the Post and Bild: “The list of the companies that are under an embargo was briefly scrolled through... there are several Ira-nian companies... that possess certificates from us.” TÜV InterCert SAAR issues management systems quality control certifications to companies, as does the German Accredita-tion Council, the country’s national accreditation body. The Federal Economic Affairs and Energy Ministry oversees the council, which is a government agency. According to a 2013 email from Peter Hissnauer, an Accreditation Council em-ployee, “Apparently TÜV InterCert GmbH Saar did not comply with the [sanctions] requirements and continued to issue certificates. We must assume that the embargo regula-tions were possibly not observed here and used as a compet-itive advantage.” Hissnauer also references in his email a policy established on October 25, 2012, in which “DAkkS [the German Accreditation Council] completely discontin-ued its activity in Iran.” The policy states that all private cer-tification agencies that work with DAkkS are barred from issuing “certificates with the DAkkS indication of accredita-tion.” German Accreditation Council accreditation logos appeared on the quality control certificates of Iranian com-panies such as the Bushehr Province Gas Company, Bank Saderat Iran, the ILAM Gas Co., and the Oil Industries En-gineering and Construction Co. —Jerusalem Post 2 Americans, 10 children among at least 84 killed in Bastille Day terror attack in Nice July 15, 2016—A father and son from Texas and 10 children are among the 84 people murdered Thursday night when a terrorist plowed an explosives- and weapons-laden truck into

a crowd of thousands gathered along a seaside promenade in Nice, France, to watch the city's Bastille Day fireworks. The driver, who sources identified to Fox News as a 31-year-old Tunisian national, left a mile-long swath of carnage along the seaside walkway before police killed him in a shootout. One witness told the AFP that the driver drove in a zig zag during at least part of the attack. French authorities did not hesitate to pronounce the attack, which began at 10:40 p.m. local time, an act of terrorism. "Such a monstrosity," French President Francois Hollande said Friday morning. "France is deeply saddened, but it is also very strong. I can assure you we will always be stronger than the fanatics who are trying to attack us." There was no immediate claim of responsibil-ity, but two sources, including a U.S. counterterrorism source who collects and monitors jihadist social media, told Fox News that accounts linked to ISIS were “celebratory” and their followers were told to use the hashtag “Nice.” The Americans were identified by a relative as Sean Copeland, 51, and his 11-year-old son Brodie. They were from the Aus-tin area and were vacationing with other family members, according to relatives. Hill Country Baseball, an Austin-area Little League where the boy played, also mourned their deaths on its Facebook page. "Nobody deserves this type of fate, especially not such a wonderful family," a memorial passage stated. "You are in our hearts, thoughts, and prayers. Rest in peace, Brodie and Sean, you will be remembered by many." Initial reports said the man, identified as Nice resi-dent Mohamed Bouhlel, was driving alone in a rented truck. Bouhlel, who shot at revelers after driving through the crowd and was then killed by police, was reportedly known to police prior to the attack. The death toll was confirmed by French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve early Friday morning. A source told Fox News that two Americans – a father and his son – were among the dead in the attack. —Fox News Palestinians punish Arab who rescued Jewish terror victims August 9, 2016—In early July, Palestinian terrorists mur-dered Rabbi Michael Mark, a 48-year-old father of 10 who was driving with his wife and two teenage children along route 60 in the South Hebron Hills. It was later discovered, to the dismay of the bereaved family, that the terrorist who shot Mark to death, Mohammed Pakia, was a member of the Palestinian Authority security forces. A Palestinian man who helped the surviving victims at the scene of attack, however, has lost his job for the “crime” of helping Israeli Jews, and some Israelis, upon hearing about it, are urging their govern-ment to give him a work permit and help him find employ-ment. In a Facebook post on Sunday, Yochai Damri, head of the Mount Hebron Regional Council, wrote, “I met with

Continued on page 10

The Shalom Shofar

him and he asked me to help remove any obstacle prevent-ing him from receiving a work permit [in Israel].” “This week I wrote a letter to the defense minister [Avigdor Liber-man], requesting help in getting a work permit for the two of them,” he continued, according to Times of Israel. “I met with them, I am aware of the difficulties, but I think that in cases like this it is our obligation as the Jewish nation to show our thanks to people who behave as upstanding people and act in a way expected of them in situations like this.” “In this dark attack, two Arab residents acted to help and rescue the family until the Israeli teams arrived. These actions were extremely important in preventing much more serious dam-age,” Yochai said, Ynet reported. Laura Ben-David, a writer and photographer from the community of Neve Daniel in Gush Etzion, told World Israel News that when Mark’s fam-ily was helped by a Palestinian Arab couple, she initially ad-mired them, but she “didn’t think it was anything extraordi-nary because I do not expect all Palestinians to be terrorists.” The piece of information she was missing, she now acknowl-edges, was that the Arab man “was fired for daring to help pull terrified and injured children out of a car that had flipped over after being hit by bullets. For daring to try to save the life of a father. For daring to help protect innocent people from more would-be terrorists. —World Israel News German students wearing Nazi costumes attack Jews in Argentina August 29, 2016—Students attending a German school in Buenos Aires are being punished for attacking Jews. The Germans students were dressed in Nazi costume. Jewish students from ORT High School in Buenos Aires, Argentina were attacked at a nightclub by students from Lanús Ger-man School. The assailants were dressed as Nazis, wearing fake moustaches and armbands with swastikas. The anti-Semitic attack occurred last week at the Andes resort in San Carlos de Bariloche, where, “at a certain point in the night, young people came wearing swastikas and had painted-on Hitler moustaches,” a victim’s mother told Spanish-language media. “My son and his friends complained and asked that they be taken out, but all the club management did was de-mand that the moustaches be washed off and that the swas-tikas be removed. They all ended up fighting, and everyone was kicked out of the club – not just the aggressors,” she said. “Some of them were in leathers with swastikas painted on their chests and backs,” said one of the students who was attacked. Families of the Jewish students are asking why the club management had allowed students dressed as Nazis into the club in the first place. Gustavo Genusso, manager of the Bariloche club, later told media that the incident was a “worrying development” and that the students from the German high school were “no longer allowed in the clubs.” The head of the Delegation of Argentine Jewish Associa-tions, Ariel Cohen Sabban, said that he would meet with the

club’s manager. It’s not a joke, said Ariel Cohen Sabban, head of the Delegation of Argentine Jewish Associations. “These symbols reflect an ideology which culminated in the assassination of six million Jews at the hands of the Nazis. If these kids are older than 16, then these kids could be sen-tenced to between a month to three years in prison for their actions, as this is a crime in Argentina.” Silvia Fazio, princi-pal of the German school, said that the incident was “absolutely indefensible” and that the children involved will be punished. “They will have to make some act of atone-ment for the damage caused,” said Fazio, starting with a visit to Buenos Aires’s Holocaust museum alongside students from the Jewish school. Several Nazi war criminals – includ-ing the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele, Auschwitz’s sadistic “Angel of Death” had been living in Buenos Aires for dec-ades after the Second World War. —World Israel News Netanyahu Slams UN Special Envoy’s ‘Absurd’ State-ment on ‘Illegality of Settlements’ August 30, 2016—After UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov made ridicu-lous statements slamming Israeli construction in Judea, Sa-maria and east Jerusalem, Prime Minister Netanyahu fired back, calling his remarks “absurd” and a distortion of histo-ry. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded on Tues-day to the statements made by United Nations Special Coor-dinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mlade-nov that the Israeli presence in Judea, Samaria, and east Jeru-salem constitutes an impediment to peace. “The UN envoy to the Middle East’s remarks to the Security Council distort history and international law and drive peace even further away,” Netanyahu claimed in a statement. “Jews have been in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria for thousands of years and their presence there is not an obstacle to peace,” the prime minister stated. “The obstacle to peace is the unending at-tempt to deny the Jewish people’s connection to parts of their historic land and the obdurate refusal to recognize that they are not foreigners there.” “The claim that Jewish con-struction in Jerusalem is illegal is as absurd as the claim that American construction in Washington or French construc-tion in Paris is illegal,” Netanyahu continued. “The Palestini-an demand that a future Palestinian state be ethnically cleansed of Jews is outrageous, and the UN must condemn it instead of adopting it.” Mladenov had called upon Israel and the Palestinian Authority on Monday in a video briefing to the United Nations Security Council from his office in Jerusalem to “reverse the negative trajectory” of the peace process. Mladenov also claimed that the recent recommen-dations by the Middle East Quartet report in July, 2016 had been grossly ignored. The report had listed continued vio-lence, terrorist attacks against civilians, incitement to vio-lence, settlement construction and expansion, and the Pales-tinian Authority’s lack of control in Gaza as the main threats

priving the Palestinian Authority of a significant portion of its revenues could cause it to collapse, which would under-mine several decades of U.S. foreign policy, add a new desta-bilizing factor to the region and compromise national securi-ty. —United with Israel Israeli football team greeted with Nazi salutes in Italy September 8, 2016—Jews watching a football match in Italy were treated with raw anti-Semitism by fans of the Italian team, which was competing with Israel. Italian football fed-eration President Carlo Tavecchio has “strongly con-demned” a group of traveling Italy fans who gave fascist salutes before Monday’s 3-1 win against Israel in Haifa. In a telephone call with the Israeli ambassador to Italy, Frances-co Maria Talo, Italian football federation President Carlo Tavecchio said “we hope the relevant authorities can deter-mine as soon as possible what happened and identify those responsible.” Fans of the Italian team were also recorded booing during the Israeli national anthem, giving a Nazi salute and spitting on visibly religious Jews. Police removed the culprits but did not arrest them, the Jerusalem Post re-ported. The incident occurred during the national anthems of the 2018 World Cup qualifier and was reported on the Moked website, run by Italian Jews. “The Israeli Football Association (IFA) will send the photos to the Italian federa-tion with which we have a warm and brave relationship so that it can find and prosecute the sickening minority that wanted to tarnish the visiting fans, their team and their country,” the IFA said in a statement. —World Israel News Trump Tells Netanyahu He Will Recognize Jerusalem as Capital of Israel if Elected September 25, 2016—Meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday morning at the Trump Towers in New York, the Republican presidential candidate said that, if elected, there would be “extraordinary strategic, tech-nological, military and intelligence cooperation between the two countries.” According to a press release from the Don-ald Trump presidential campaign, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump discussed with the Israeli leader “the special relationship between America and Israel and the unbreakable bond between the two countries. The topics of military assistance, security and regional stability were ad-dressed.” Also in attendance at the closed-door meeting were Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the US, and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. The discussion focused not only on Israel’s needs, but on issues that are important to Washington. Trump acknowledged, for instance, that the military assistance provided to Israel and missile defense cooperation with Israel are an excellent investment for America. —United with Israel

at present to a negotiated peace. The UN envoy declared that according to UN Resolution 446 of March, 1979, Israeli “settlements” in “occupied territory” have no legal validity and have since then constituted an obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace in the Middle East. —United with Israel ‘Free Pass for Terrorists’ as US Court Cancels $654 Mil-lion Verdict Against PLO September 1, 2016—The decision to cancel the verdict against the PLO provides “a free pass for terrorists” to kill Americans overseas, said an attorney for families of victims. A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday tossed out a $654 mil-lion jury verdict against the Palestine Liberation Organiza-tion for terrorist attacks in the early 2000s in Israel that killed or wounded Americans, saying the U.S. courts lack jurisdiction because the attacks were random and not aimed at the United States. The United States government had said last year that the case threatened to financially destabilize the Palestinian government and harm the region. Wednesday’s written decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the attacks in 2002 and 2004 that killed 33 people and wounded hundreds more were “unquestionably horrific.” But the three-judge panel said they were fortuitous and “not expressly aimed at the United States.” The deci-sion, written by U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl, who was sitting on the court temporarily, said offices maintained by the PLO and Palestinian Authority in Washington were used to promote the Palestinian cause in speeches and media ap-pearances and to retain a lobbying firm. It said those pur-poses were insufficient to give U.S. courts jurisdiction over the groups for random attacks abroad. “It’s a very surprising ruling,” said Robert Tolchin, an attorney for families of Americans killed or injured in the attacks. He said the deci-sion provides “a free pass for terrorists” to kill Americans overseas. Lawyers, he added, were considering appeals op-tions. Gassan A. Baloul, an attorney for the Palestinian Au-thority and the Palestine Liberation Organization, said: “We are very gratified that the court fully accepted our clients’ consistent position that the PA and the PLO are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States courts in these mat-ters.” The ruling pertained to a February 2015 jury award of $218 million to Americans in a case that relied on the Anti-Terrorism Act, which allows victims of U.S.-designated for-eign terrorist organizations to seek compensation for pain and suffering, loss of earnings and other hardship. The award was automatically tripled under the law. In court pa-pers after the jury verdict, a U.S. government official urged a judge to consider the impact of a bond requirement in the case, saying the United States has provided billions of dollars to strengthen Palestinian institutions, promote security in the West Bank, expand Palestinian economic growth and help create conditions for peace. The official wrote that de-

contents road report

Documents