During the week covered by this review, we received 8 articles on the following subjects:
Political Issues
Jewish-Christian Relations
Anti-missionary Activities
Israeli/Jewish Attitudes concerning Christians/Christianity
Book Reviews
Political Issues
Makor Rishon, September 9, 2022
This was an interview with Mosab Hassan Yousef, eldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yosef – one of the founders of Hamas – from his bungalow on an island in Southeast Asia, where he has lived for several years. For more than a decade during the second intifada, Mosab a.k.a. “The Green Prince” was a Shin Bet agent. His position as the Sheikh’s son allowed him to provide Israel with the highest quality intelligence, leading to the capture of senior terrorists and preventing dozens of terrorist attacks. Mosab immigrated to the USA, and in 2009, published his story in a book titled, Son of Hamas. He is now publishing a new book, My Journey to Freedom, which describes his life since he stopped working for Israel’s security services. According to the article, “the double life that Mosab Hassan led as a Shin Bet agent merged into a whirlwind of identities. In 1999, he discovered Christianity… And if that was not enough, even after he… moved to the USA, Mosab continued to declare ‘I love my country, Israel.’ ” When asked to define his identity, Mosab replied: “All these identities – Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Zionism, Americanism – today I think that they are false. I mean, of course people have a need to be part of a community, a society, a culture, but for me this need has not existed for many years… I know all these communities, I have lived among them, but I’ve always yearned to be me – to achieve my freedom, even if it meant being homeless, stateless, rejected again and again by humans and society. Muslims will quickly and forcefully disown you if you disagree with their view, but the same is true of some Christians, and they can be even more brutal at times. For a long time, I tried to make everyone happy – the Palestinians, the Israelis, the Americans – but you can’t be loved by all people… The truth is that the Christianity chapter in my life was a short encounter whose main focus was understanding the basics of Christian theology. It is based on a man who goes against the flow in his society, and is not afraid to be crucified for standing up for the truth. My admiration for this model is not related to a particular branch of Christianity… Obviously, some of the Christians who helped me had political or religious agendas. When the US authorities wanted to deport me to Jordan, I gladly accepted any help, regardless of the intention behind it. It was a matter of life and death for me. Most of the people I received help from were Evangelicals, so … I was also recognized as an Evangelical, and I had no problem with it. But is this my identity? The answer is no.”
Jewish-Christian Relations
Israel Hayom, September 11, 2022
“Life was not very kind to the one who became King Charles III of Great Britain last weekend,” stated this article. “He went through a long path of suffering, before he married the love of his life, Camilla, as a second wife… For seven long decades, he waited for… the throne – longer than any other Crown Prince in British history.” King Charles III is considered a good friend of the Jewish community in Britain and is committed to the fight against anti-Semitism. According to the article, he received the inspiration for this from his paternal grandmother, Alice, Princess of Greece and Denmark, who saved Jews from the Nazis during the Holocaust. Princess Alice of Battenberg, buried at the Church of Mary Magdalene on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, was recognized by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial as a member of the Righteous Among the Nations.
Anti-missionary Activities
Various articles
As mentioned in our previous review, Yad L’Achim has released a video warning IDF soldiers of “missionary soldiers and officers wearing a mask of deceit and lies to conceal their true identity” who were “drafted after receiving special training on how to preach Christianity in the army.” According to Yad L’Achim, the need for the cautionary film became evident after they revealed the existence of an “evangelical combat order for the messianic soldier,” put out by the Tzofen organization, that “explains to members of the Messianic Jews cult how to preach Christianity to soldiers.”
Israeli/Jewish Attitudes concerning Christians/Christianity
Mizkar, September 13, 2022
The author of this article, Itamar Levin, considered the world’s leading journalist in exploring and uncovering Holocaust victims’ assets, claimed to have written this article for the purpose of fighting misinformation regarding the Holocaust. Levin also claimed that “the fanatical and murderous anti-Semitic ideology of the Nazis was not original in its concepts… Anti-Semitism – which was created and developed outside of Germany – is hatred of Jews simply because they are Jews. One of its significant foundations (hatred of Israel) lies in Christian religious concepts, according to which the Jews must pay with their suffering for the crucifixion of Jesus. Later, anti-Semitism took on a political-economic character…”
Book Reviews
Makor Rishon, September 16, 2022
This was a review of the book The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron. The book tells the story of Stefania Podgórska, a Christian teenager who finds herself in an apartment in Poland at the beginning of WWII. Her moral values did not allow her to abandon Jews to their fate, and for many months she hid thirteen Jews in her attic, risking her own life daily. It is a true story that reads like a thriller, according to the review. Stefania was twelve years old when she came to Przemyśl from a distant farm to work as an assistant in a grocery store owned by a Jewish lady. The two became very close, and Stefania was accepted as one of the family. When the war broke out, after all the Jews around her were sent to the ghetto, Stefania was left alone with her young sister. She began smuggling food into the ghetto, and continued to do so despite the immense risks, as well as assisting Jewish fugitives and providing them with shelter. “The book is written fluently, maintaining the tension and rhythm of an action film, and presenting a gallery of powerful characters, and above all, of course, the character of a young girl, who turns out to be larger than life, thanks to the immensity of her soul… This is one of the most fascinating fiction books on the subject of the Holocaust that I have read in the last decade.”