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What images come to mind when people think about the state of Israel? Israeli oppressors shooting at cherub faced Palestinians? Suicide bombings and exploded buses? Or maybe indifference reigns; why should we care about this faraway place that has no real bearing on our daily lives? Perhaps it is all of the above.

I was indifferent about Israel and the Middle East. However, last year when I visited Israel and the Palestinian territories for the first time, I was left with a very different impression of the place: Israel is a country misunderstood and misrepresented. Looking across the border with Lebanon and peering at Hizbullah strongholds, no more than 100 yards away from where I was standing, underlined the significance of Israel's strategic frailty in the face of constant threat.

Touring the security barrier I was surprised to hear that the architect of the barrier had appeared before the Israeli Supreme Court on countless occasions to defend his decisions regarding the route of the barrier. On occasion, when his planned route was ruled illegal, the barrier was removed and re-built according to the judgement. I also learnt that as a country with sparse natural resources Israel has had to develop alternative methods of productivity. The country leads the way in hi-tech, green and agri-techniques as well as in scientific development.

My travels around Israel surprised me completely. The people were full of get up and go, eager to live peacefully in the region; the towns and cities were energetic and cosmopolitan; and the deliverance of democracy never failed to impress upon me. So why is there such a discrepancy between what I experienced and public perception back in the UK? When was the last time you heard a good news story emanating from Israel on your TV screens or in the newspapers? And why has Israel become defined simply by its inability to solve the conflict when it is so much more than that?

I raised these questions when I returned to Israel again last week with colleagues from the UK and Australia for a dialogue with Israeli and Palestinian politicians, journalists, academics and commentators. This serious problem is not being effectively addressed and Israel's future is being undermined by its inability to promote itself both accurately and attractively. As an MP, I witness this difference between perception and reality, on a regular basis in the House of Commons. From Backbenchers through to Government Ministers and Shadow Ministers, colleagues suffer from a serial case of apathy where Israel is concerned. Seemingly no positive impression of the place has been determined in people's minds.

Israel has consistently perceived military might as the number one way to protect and defend the state. Although an important factor, this cannot be the only focus. The country's re-branding is now an issue of serious strategic importance. Israel must accept that engaging their critics, isolating and correcting their propaganda and successfully rebalancing the debate must be a priority in order to protect their future. All of us who see Israel as more than a conflict zone ought to play our part in this important task.

My challenge to anybody who feels strongly on Israel is to get on a plane and go and see the place for yourself. Visit Tel Aviv where you will see a modern liberal western society where most people are just getting on with their lives in peace. Chat to Israelis or to their politicians and you will be reminded that this is the only true democracy in the Middle East where political debate is passionate, diverse and vibrant. More vibrant than our own democracy perhaps. That is the true Israel, the real Israel.

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Israel has rightly accused UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg of "gratuitous bashing" after he said the country was doing "immense damage" to the Middle East peace process by continuing with "illegal" settlement-building which he said amounted to "an act of deliberate vandalism" that threatened a two-state solution.

This statement made with no reference to the long list of actions taken by the Palestinians that don't so much threaten the peace process as make the very idea of such a process into a joke. Their oft spoken intention of totally destroying the 'Zionist Entity', the constant barrage of rockets and mortar shells being fired into civilian communities, (680 mortars and Grad missiles in 2011), and worst of all, the educating of their children to hate Israel, to think of Jews as pigs and monkeys and instilling them with the desire to become suicide bombers and martyr themselves in the pursuit of spilling Jewish blood.

Such actions, in the eyes of British politicians, are presumably not a stumbling block in the effort to bring the two sides together in harmony while building homes is seen as rendering it impossible. Strange thinking which is repeated in the latest statement issued by Israel's British Embassy and so presumably also the thinking of the British Ambassador, Matthew Gould.

Among the many complaints contained in the Embassy's Human Rights Quarterly Update a great deal is written about what is seen as Israeli mistreatment of Arabs, regardless of whether many of the complaints have to do with protecting the Israeli population, again, absolutely no mention is made of Israeli civilian populations being targeted by rockets and mortar bombs from the Gaza Strip or terrorist attacks. Attempted or otherwise.

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Listen to this week's Middle East Report here. Stories include: Netanyahu maintains control over his party in early elections, Syrian forces gain control of Damascus, New campaign launched to combat Anti-Semitism and Israeli company has successfully produced rare oil from trees grown in Morocco.

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11 million.

That was the number of Jews sentenced to death a brief 90-minute lunch meeting at a beautiful lakeside villa near Berlin 70 years ago.

Two weeks ago the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem hosted a high-ranking delegation of German and Austrian Christian leaders for a series of events marking the 70th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference, the infamous meeting of Nazi officials which decided upon the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question.”

Held on January 20, 1942 and attended by 15 high-ranking Nazi bureaucrats, the Wannsee Conference set in motion the implementation of a plan to for the systematic, industrial murder of all the Jews within Germany’s reach in Europe and north-west Africa.

The fate of 11 million Jews, followed by a glass of Cognac. It is important that we remember that the Nazi officials who deliberated at Villa Wannsee over their ghastly plans for exterminating European Jewry were all well-educated, with at least half of them holding doctorate degrees. Some were also the sons of Protestant ministers, yet not one of them raised any moral objections to this heinous plot.

The passing of 70 years since Wannsee comes at a time when Germany has been shocked by news of the arrest of a militant neo-Nazi terror cell which is suspected of a string of racist murders and bank robberies across the country over the past decade. Chancellor Angela Merkel has described the exposure of the radical right-wing gang as a “disgrace” which has brought “shame” on the nation.

In this context, German Christian leaders went to Jerusalem to deliver a critical message to the world that the abhorrent evil of Nazism represented by the Wannsee Conference must never be allowed to rise again.

The high-level delegation from Germany and Austria represented some ten million Germans and Austrians from the Protestant, Evangelical, Charismatic and Pentecostal streams of Christianity.

More here

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Before the Lord returns, Jerusalem must be firmly in the hands of the Jewish people.

Jesus said: "And they (the Jews) will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles [i.e., nations] until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." (Luke 21:24) 

Jerusalem, from where one day the Son of David will reign over the earth.

This Scripture conveys several obvious facts. For Jerusalem to no longer be in the hands of the nations, Israel will have to repossess the Holy City. In order to do that, the Jewish people have to be living in the Holy Land and have an army in order to secure Jerusalem as their capital.

Over the last forty some years, this is exactly what has happened.

Today ancient Jerusalem is a city in deep conflict. Israel claims both east and west Jerusalem as its capital. The Palestinians claim that the Old City on the east side is theirs. Not a single country in the world recognizes either side of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital! Yet today Israel physically possesses the entire city.

Around the beginning of the 1900’s, many Jews began to immigrate to Israel from Europe, joining the destitute community of Jews who had lived in the Holy Land for countless generations.

In 1948, Israel, by a miracle, was accepted by the UN as a sovereign state, and in 1967, Israel conquered the Old City of Jerusalem, taking it away from Jordan whose army attacked Israel. (Jordan had taken possession of the Old City 19 years before.)

Many Christians who have been taught to believe the Church has replaced Israel in God’s global plans clearly do not comprehend this incredible miracle that points to the time of the end of the Gentile nations.

They do not see the fulfilling of prophecy because they do not understand the faithfulness of the God of Israel in keeping His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Scores of Scriptures both in the Old and New Testaments confirm God’s sure covenant promise to Abraham.

Nevertheless, the UN, under the control of the Muslim core of nations, is doing everything in its power to seize the ancient city of Jerusalem and give it to the Muslims. Why? Because Satan, the god of this world, and therefore the overriding force in the UN, will fight with all his power to wrench Jerusalem out of Israel’s control. The prophet Zechariah wrote that Jerusalem will be the flash point that precipitates a world war.

But our point here is that today, according to a prophecy 2000 years old, we see Jerusalem back in the hands of the Jewish people. No matter how fragile the ownership, we know we are at this moment seeing the culmination of the times of the nations and will soon see the King of the Jews ruling from Jerusalem.

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click on the leaflet to download it.

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