By Aaron Klein
JERUSALEM – More than 200 people from a group of thousands in India that believes it is one of the "lost tribes" of Israel paid an emotional first visit to the Western Wall after arriving here last week, fulfilling for many a lifelong dream of returning to what they consider their homeland.
Members of 'lost tribe of Israel' arrive at the Western Wall in Jerusalem (courtesy Shavei Israel)
Shavei Israel, a Jerusalem-based organization led by American Michael Freund, hopes to bring to the Jewish state the remaining 7,000 Indian citizens who believe they are the Bnei Menashe, the descendants of Manasseh, one of biblical patriarch Joseph's two sons and a grandson of Jacob, the man whose name was changed to Israel.
The tribe lives in the two Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, to which they claim to have been exiled from Israel more than 2,700 years ago by the Assyrian empire.
Last week, WND reported 230 Bnei Menashe touched down in Israel and made their way to a Shavei Israel absorption center in northern Israel, where they will study Hebrew and Judaism.
A few days after arriving, Shavei sponsored the group on a tour of Jerusalem's ...   more »

Almost 76% of Israelis are Jews, 20% Arabs, and 4% are defined as others, according to situation report presented by Central Bureau of Statistics ahead of Jewish New Year. Population continues to grow at constant rate of 1.8%
Ynet
A special situation report presented by the Central Bureau of Statistics ahead of the Jewish New Year reveals that at the end of 2006, Israel had 7,116,700 million citizens living in its territory.  
According to the report, released on Monday, the state's current population is divided among 5,393,400 Jews (75.8% of the population), 1,413,300 Arabs (19.9 % of the population), and about 309,900 citizens who are defined as "others" and are not classified according to religion.
Data by Central Bureau of Statistics shows average age of Israeli brides and grooms rising steadily     
The rate at which the population grew last year was 1.8%, similar to previous years. The Jewish population growth rate was 1.5% in 2006, compared to 2.6% among Arabs, with the Muslim population having the highest growth rate at 2.9%.  
Compared to western countries, the Israeli population is considered relatively young with a 28% rate of children aged 0-14 in 2006, compared to an average 17% ...   more »

Bill Koenig
August 28, 2007, had very revealing headlines:
A Blood-Red Moon Rises over North America, Olmert Offers Temple Mount Sovereignty to the Palestinians, Olmert and Abbas Meet on Israel's Land and Jerusalem, Bush Says Iran's Actions Could Lead to a Shadow of a Nuclear Holocaust, and Bush Arrives in New Orleans for his 15th Post-Katrina Visit
These were the news headlines on the day of a total lunar eclipse that produced a "blood-red" moon, the second one in seven years with a connection to the Temple Mount.
A total lunar eclipse/"blood-red" moon occurred on July 16, 2000, while U.S. President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat were at the Middle East Summit at Camp David. The sticking point that caused the summit to fail had to do with who would have sovereignty over the Temple Mount — the Israelis or the Palestinian Arabs.
During this year's total lunar eclipse/"blood-red" moon of Aug. 28, 2007, that rose over North America, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered the Palestinians sovereignty over the Temple Mount. What was so incredible about the timing of this offer is that it didn't take place days, weeks or months after ...   more »

Opposition leader says military option should be used if Iran about to get nuclear weapons
Yaakov Lappin
Military action against Iran "should be used if we see that Iran's nuclear weapons program is about to come alive," opposition leader and Knesset Member Benjamin Netanyahu told a counter-terrorism conference in Herzliya on Monday.  
Addressing delegates at a conference organized by the Interdisciplinary Center's Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), Netanyahu said: "The military option should never be kept off the table." Some two and a half years remained until Iran would acquire nuclear weapons, Netanyahu said, adding: "That's 700 days, and today is another day."   
In the "intervening period," the Islamic Republic "should be squeezed" through a campaign of financial sanctions and divestment which would hopefully "make the Iranian leaders think twice," Netanyahu added.  
Netanyahu said he believed Iran would use nuclear weapons against Israel, adding that the Iranian leadership called for Israel to be wiped off the map. "But we are only the small Satan, the great Satan is somewhere else remember that," he said.  
The opposition leaders compared Iran's President Ahmadinejad to Adolf Hitler, saying, "A year ago, I said we are in 1938, and Iran is ...   more »

by Rabbi Shaul Rosenblatt
God is offering another year of life. What are we going to do with it?
"I have a dream..." -- a phrase immortalised by Martin Luther King. "...I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character...." It was a dream that he did not live to see realized; a dream that is still not realized. But a man who dreams is a man who cares. And a man who cares is a man who makes a difference.
We Jews also have a dream. A dream that we have dreamt for almost 3500 years. And Rosh Hashana is the day that we remind ourselves of that dream.
You would think that on the awesome Day of Judgment, -- "who will live and who will die, who by fire and who by sword..." -- you would think that we would pray for forgiveness, for health, for a year of life. But if you look at the essence of the prayer service, you will see that we ask for none of this.
What do ...   more »