—MONovember 25, 1970NO.14—LTA

Haifa‚ Israel!—More About Israel and Prophecy of Blessing for Arabs

Copyrighted © November 1970 by The Children of God

P.O. Box 31, London WC2E 7LX, England or GPO Box 3141‚ San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936

DESCRIPTION OF SLIDES FROM ISRAEL

1. (1) VISITING A MOSHAV FAMILY—The young Egyptian Jews whom we met in the Arab restaurant (Eli, with his big dog, Alouf, meaning "General" in Hebrew—a rare sight in Israel, as dogs are not as common amongst Jews as cats—and his young wife‚ Monique‚ standing directly above him, beside Maria, both French-speaking Jews, political refugees, who fled the threat of persecution of Jews in Egypt, as have nearly 80,000 now, leaving only about 3,000 older folks who didn't want to move. They were the first Jewish couple to accept us in their home, a tiny apartment on the top floor of the Absorption Center for new immigrants, where they study Hebrew all day long for only a small fee‚ including room and board‚ under a government plan, subsidised by the government, called Ulpan, by which most new immigrants learn this old language—and everyone has to learn it‚ as it is no-one's native tongue, except the new young Sabras, native children now recently born in Israel. This was also the young couple who took us to visit a high-ranking Jewish military officer and his family in their home—7th generation Israelis, a rarity here!—(and much of what we have learned about official attitude here has come from these new friends). The lovely young Jewish Sabra, holding Eli and Monique's baby, Elana, is Elka a high school teacher, and a daughter in the home of the moshav family which we were visiting. The mother of the home is standing at the right, the very sweet and hospitable ruler of the family, who did not speak English, but everything was interpreted through the daughter. Very few of the older people speak English. Most of them came to Israel with some other native tongue, and had to try to learn Hebrew‚ and that, not too well, much less English. Elka let us know in no uncertain terms that Israel is a matriarchy ruled by the women. She explained that this came about through the men being so religious in the past that they were supposed to spend all of their time in prayer and study, leaving the governing of the home and family—and often its support!—to women. As the majority of the men are now no longer interested in religion, or religious, they have even lost their religious position in the home, and consequently the respect of the women, and have become little more than a handyman about the house, a labourer on the farm, or, at most, a breadwinner for the family—as in America. GOD'S WORD IS TRUE: AS THE MEN HAVE LOST THEIR FAITH, THEY HAVE BECOME DISOBEDIENT, THEY HAVE ALSO LOST THEIR AUTHORITY AND "WOMEN RULE OVER THEM," SAD TO SAY! Since Israel's population has increased by nearly two million in the past twenty years‚ and its school pupil population has quintupled‚ they have had to increase the number of teachers by seven times, so that most Israeli girls have become teachers, or plan to be, leaving the men to work on the farms or in industry. As you know‚ girls are required even to serve in the Army from 18 to 20, and even in this supposedly man's realm‚ they are counted as equals.—And, of course, they have the vote from the age of 18, and Israel has one of the world's only two top governmental women leaders, Prime Ministress Golda Meier (the other is Madam Gandhi of India). So today, modern Israel is definitely a matriarchy, ruled by the women, contrary to the Scriptures, and God's Divine Order, due to their rejection of Him, and His Son‚ Jesus!

2. (2) MAN, THE SLAVE!—Joshua, husband of the head of this moshav household, milking his cow with the most modern of milking equipment. His part of the moshav is almost entirely a dairy operation, with a special breed of Holsteins, crossed with the tough little Arab cattle to resist the heat and diseases of the Orient—good milk-givers‚ averaging about seven thousand liters each annually, which works out to between five and ten gallons a day. Since Joshua is a member of the moshav, a sort of voluntary co-op‚ he pools his milk in the co-op's cooler, and it is then sold through their agents. All of this is very carefully supervised and controlled by the government, as ISRAEL IS A SOCIALIST STATE, AND PRODUCTION IS REGULATED ACCORDING TO DEMAND. Extremely accurate records are kept and turned in to the government for the consumption of its computers from whom Joshua receives IBM cards scoring his individual cows, their progress, short-comings, needs, etc.—all very scientific and efficient!—They could hardly conceal their laughter when I described our little home made operation at the ranch, and when I told them how few cows we had, they really guffawed! Ha! But I explained we were just getting started. A moshav, as we have explained to you before‚ is not a kibbutz, but everyone lives separately in his own house, with his own family, owns his own equipment, furniture, cattle, etc.—except for major items such as storage warehouses, coolers, marketing trucks, etc., which are owned jointly by the moshav, which is actually what we would call a farmer's cooperative, except that in theirs, the members all live together in their individual homes in the same village, surrounded by their farm lands, which are also owned jointly by the moshav, so that in some respects‚ a moshavnic is somewhat similar to our sharecroppers in the States, since he does not own the land, and really farms it for the benefit of the land–owner, who in this case, is the moshav‚ actually, a corporation partly owned by him. We already sent you a picture—a real photo—of Israel's biggest moshav, Ovdin, beautifully planned in a giant circle of land with a village in the center. They live just like most independent farmers do in the U.S., and send their children off to the local government school totally different from the kibbutz. This is the latest and most popular form of agriculture in Israel, as they are getting away from the kibbutz, as they become more prosperous, comfortable, secure, and independent, and the need for close knit fellowship, togetherness‚ self-sacrifice, and protection is not felt as keenly as in pioneer days—sad to say! In other words, they are already backsliding and becoming more like America every day!

3. (3) THE SHEPHERDESS WITH HER LITTLE FLOCK—A group of Israeli kindergartners being led down the street by their lovely young teacher. As we have said before, most of the teachers here are very young women like this one, the majority of them only recently out of school themselves. Behind them is one of these beautiful, old, native‚ golden stoned buildings, typical of the Israel reconstruction of the 20's and 30's, in particular, intricately ornate, and obviously Oriental, with arched doorways‚ large shuttered windows, and huge spacious rooms, with high ceilings, and gorgeous tiled floors, such as the one in which this is being written, in which we live here in Israel, and from which we have the thrilling view from our window, of what we call "Heaven"!—the bright modern mansions of Mount Carmel, nearly all high-rise apartments‚ which you will see in No. 16.

4. (4) Again, THE SHEPHERDESS, leading her little flock with a tambourine a very useful instrument for attracting the attention of the children, and signaling their next move (you teachers take note!) Nothing was done without a signal from the tambourine, one of the most ancient of all Biblical instruments, now in good use again here in modern Israel, as you can see. Here she was lecturing them, obviously, about crossing this busy street, only with a little green pedestrian signal of a man walking, which appears on every busy corner. The stop signal is red, with a man standing still. She had a little difficulty keeping their attention, as they were all busily waving at us as they saw us taking their picture. As you can see by Picture 17 and 18, children here love to have their pictures taken, and it seems quite a novelty, as cameras are scarce and expensive. This was possibly a religious group, as all the boys seem to be wearing yarmulkes—or cepahs, as they're called here—a tiny little beanie or colourful skullcap, carefully fastened to their hair with a bobby pin, and even worn by the more religious businessmen downtown, on whom they really look funny, but you don't dare laugh!—and they don't dare pray without them, another of their traditions, making of none effect the Laws of God, and to let it be known that they are operating completely contrary to the rules of Christians, for the Apostle Paul said that he that covereth his head when he prayeth dishonoureth his head, and women are told to cover them only with their hair (1Cor.11:4–16). That's one thing the women here, by the way, usually have a lot of—beautiful, luxuriant, long, dark hair, often to the waist‚ hanging in natural waves, like the hippie girls of America, so they're getting back to at least one good Bible style on this score.

5. (7) A TYPICAL ARAB MARKET—The Arab version of our supermarket‚ with about half the goods, as you can see, however, spread out on the sidewalk in gunny sacks—the favourite form of packaging here, and somewhat self service, due to the fact that pedestrians frequently grab a handful as they pass. The sacks sit open‚ as you can see, exposing their contents, of all kinds of native beans, grains, and nuts, of which they eat a great deal here— natural‚ very healthful foods, and very economical. Sugar, salt, flour, and other common staples, sometimes even candy, are left open to public sampling and the flies, of which, strangely enough, there seem to be almost none here in Israel‚ along with any other kind of bugs or insects, so that the homes, restaurants‚ etc., are almost entirely unscreened, affording lots of fresh air, gorgeous views, and considerable "window hanging", one of the favourite sports in Israel: you hang half way out an upper-storey window to see what your neighbors are doing, or to carry on a conversation with someone on the sidewalk eight floors below, in their typically loud‚ boisterous voices, so you can imagine the din in the day time—no more sleeping! The only time it's quiet in Israel is at night, when everybody sleeps for the hard day's work ahead, and everything stops, even their loud mouths and loud trucks and busses, also‚ loud horns, I might add. They try to yell with their horns like they shout with their voices, lecturing each other on their driving, which is something else! To wind it up about the grocery store‚ they are extremely saving on their paper bags and wrappers, and you have to bring your own shopping bag, and everybody on the street seems to be carrying one, even the men‚ since nearly everybody walks and has no car handy to throw things into. Even the bread has no wrapper, but a hard crust, to which the price tag was glued directly, and you don't know how many others besides you, squeezed the same loaf with their bare hands, to see if it was fresh.—so you really have to trust the Lord about the germs! One thing they don't sell: that ridiculously wasteful and unnourishing‚ unnatural, breakfast cereal you find in the States; not an Arab could be fooled by that stuff—they prefer the natural whole-grain cereals—peas, beans, nuts, etc., exactly as they came out of the fields; in fact, it looks like in the same gunny sacks;—another great saving on packaging. However, Israel does make its own toilet paper—a sort of corrugated sand paper, of which you only need one sheet instead two, but their toothpaste is a bargain—a medium sized deliciously mint–flavoured tube of "shemen" for only $0.14. However, powdered milk is rather expensive, and only in cans, since regular milk is so cheap. Oh yes, the cookies are standing around in open cans too, like they were when I was a boy. The cheese is cut off a huge, monstrous ball or roll and weighed and sliced to your order, as with meats, sausages, etc.‚ and they're always happy to give you a sample first, if you request it. Sorry this picture was a little dark, but it was rather late in the day.

6. (8) THIS ONE WAS A LITTLE LATER—in fact, it was quite dark, as you can see, and our flash wasn't working, I don't remember the subject, so since neither one of us knows what it is, let's go on to the next one.

THE DRAWBACK OF THE HEBREW LANGUAGE

7. (12) SCOTT DAVIDSON, AN AMERICAN JEWISH STUDENT STUDYING ONE OF OUR SCRAPBOOKS. A student at the Hebrew University in Tel Aviv, visiting in Haifa for the weekend‚ spent hours in our room, discussing everything from the imported, U.S. cactus‚ field breaks in the Negev, to BEN YEHUDA, FOREMOST ADVOCATE OF THE HEBREW LANGUAGE. This guy was such a fanatical Zionist he insisted on reviving Hebrew as the language of Israel, although most of them could much more easily have spoken English, and I fear it was a step backward as far as progress was concerned, since it's a very difficult and complicated language to learn, and there's a great deal of controversy over how it's to be pronounced. Divided into two major schools of thought and interpretation. The Ashkenaz, or European Hebrew, of the scholars, and the Sephardic‚ or Oriental Hebrew of the Rabbis, so you can guess who won!—the religious hierarchy of course!—Despite the fact that Sephardic, or Oriental Hebrew, is much more Arabic, and even sounds more Arabic, than the purer, scholarly, Biblical European variety, which I studied in college. In fact, Scott said that the only way he can tell the difference between Arabic and modern Israel's Arabian variety of Hebrew, is by listening to it for several moments and if he doesn't recognise any of the words, he knows it's Arabic, after having studied Hebrew for 3 months‚ now. Ben Yehuda, the first and foremost advocate of this type of Hebrew for Israel‚ even refused to permit his own family to speak anything else in their home, though it was not originally their native tongue, and he finally won!—So that now there are songs sung to his glory, as the first modern family to revive Hebrew as a living language, outside of the school or synagogue.

8. LINGUALLY, I FEEL IT WAS A REAL STEP BACKWARDS, for an otherwise modern and progressive Israel—in fact, almost a throwback to the Middle Ages! Giving the Oriental Jews and Arabs—or in other words, the natives, a distinct advantage over the more modern, Western and European Jews, since it meant not only the learning of an entirely new language, but a whole new alphabet of totally unfamiliar characters, utterly unlike the widely used alphabet of the European languages spoken throughout the world. In our travels from one European country to another, we could at least make a stab at reading a new language‚ its signs, and its menus, and though we may have butchered the pronunciation‚ the letters were the same, and their sound nearly identical, even if arranged differently and pronounced somewhat differently. Most European languages have a Latin and Greek base which is common to all and with many familiar roots, and basically similar meanings. Let's take the French word, "sortie," for example. We first ran into this in the French subways, and it was vital that we understood that it meant "exit," and which wasn't too hard to figure out, since we also have an English word which is spelled the same and means a "going out," but is usually applied to a military adventure. Many common words are very similar, or even identical from language to language throughout Europe‚ and knowing the same alphabet‚ together with its common pronunciation, it's very simple to pick these up and learn their meanings from country to country, so that you can at least manage to survive in a railway station‚ hotel, or restaurant. But in Israel all this is different!

9. ORIENTAL SEPHARDIC, ARABIAN HEBREW IS MADE UP, NOT ONLY OF TOTALLY DIFFERENT CHARACTERS, not even faintly resembling anything in the worldwide European alphabet, and even without vowels‚ so that the scholars themselves disagree over how the words should be pronounced! So that the fact of the matter is nobody really knows how to speak Hebrew, even the Hebrews themselves, since it hasn't been spoken for over 2000 years, as a common, everyday language, but was only somewhat preserved in the textbooks in the synagogues—varying‚ as it did‚ in separate Jewish communities, not only from nation to nation, but continent to continent. On top of it all‚ to make things even more difficult, and to completely "blow your mind", and to wrench you into an absolute about face, as though things weren't already bad enough‚ it's written backwards!—from right to left, and read that way too!

10. You may not think this is important, but as Scott demonstrated for us on a piece of paper I'm holding in my hand, writing Hebrew is such a complete breaking of your normal frame of reference, as a Westerner, and becomes such a psychological shock and transposition of custom, that after a few months of the continuous studying of Hebrew, when writing home to his parents in the States, he frequently caught himself writing the English words actually backwards, and it took a conscious effort to again reverse himself.

11. This is a real problem, since although Israel is going forward with the rest of the world, in nearly everything else‚ she has definitely gone backwards linguistically, and this language problem is going to definitely retard her progress and her absorption into the world community, creating‚ as it does, an almost insurmountable linguistic barrier between Israel and the rest of the world, isolating Israel even from her neighbours and friends. They claim they did it because it's really their language‚ basic to their culture, distinguishing them from others, and making them definitely, distinctly, Jewish—nothing else!—thereby uniting them more solidly as a nation and as a people.

12. But after much thought and prayer about the matter, I am beginning to be convinced that it was a trick of their scribes and Pharisees to keep them rigidly under the control of their religious leaders and to definitely, even further separate them from world-wide Christianity.

13. Even Attaturk, determined dictator of post-war Turkey‚ seeking progress for his poor people, and greater communication with the rest of the world, saw that he would have to take the Turks off of that impossible Turkish writing in order to bring progress to his people—so instead of separating them from the rest of the world by their language, as Israel is now doing, Attaturk insisted that the Turks abandon their old, unintelligible‚ unwieldy and archaic Turkish characters, and transliterate verbal, spoken, Turkish into the literate, simple‚ world-wide, alphabet common to most of the world's languages. As a result‚ Turkey, in an unbelievably short time has caught up with the world-wide, civilised community of modern times and progress.

14. Our alphabet, the one with which you are familiar, and its sounds‚ are common to nearly all the major civilised languages of the world, including English, French, Spanish, German, etc., with a few rare and notable exceptions, such as Japan, China, and Russia, and you can see what these latter languages, Japanese, Chinese, and Russian, have done and are doing, to their people‚ separating and making them enemies of most of the rest of the world and each other. If you can't talk to a man, you can hardly understand him, so misunderstandings are bound to arise, and a complete lack of fellowship‚ with no common communication.

15. BUT THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT ISRAEL'S LEADERS HAVE DONE TO HER NOW, IN ORDER TO COMPLETELY SEPARATE ISRAEL FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD AND DOMINATE HER. Instead of letting the average Israeli immigrant retain at least the alphabetical basis of his language‚ shared in common with the rest of the world, Israel's leaders have insisted on a throwback into the dawn of history, with a language and characters which even the Israeli's are not sure of, much less the poor strangers in their strange land. Imagine, not even being able to read a street sign; strangers like us are not only unable to read Hebrew, but find difficulty even in deciphering or recognising the characters, much less their pronunciation‚ so that unless it is accompanied by an English translation, or even a French or German translation, we are at a total loss to read even the simplest of signs, even of danger, or a time-table, or even a menu, much less anything even more complicated‚ such as legal documents, receipts, bank statements, etc…. You've no idea how complicated life can become in a land where you can't read the characters of their alphabet‚ much less pronounce them! God help Israel! If anything's going to retard her progress, growth, and relationships with the rest of the world, it's going to be this communication problem which they've created for themselves! But like their religion, they say, "It helps keep us together, and remember we have this one thing in common; that we are Jews!"—Despite the fact that they are from a variety of totally different racial and cultural backgrounds. The feeble attempt which they are making to counteract the problems which this language difficulty raises in communications with others by compelling their children to learn English in the public schools has been only partially successful, as we have found that most of the younger children and older folks cannot speak a word of English‚ including the Arabs, and only the youth of high school and college age are even fairly proficient in it!

16. Personally, we have totally given it up as a hopelessly lost cause‚ as far as learning Hebrew is concerned, unless we had to live here for any length of time. For why should I spend the rest of my short life at my age learning such an extremely difficult and rare language spoken by so few people, in which I could not hope to attain even in a few years of study much more than the literate level of a little child!—particularly when I'm already an expert in my own language, which is more widely spoken and internationally used than any other in the world. Hebrew would be an interesting and fascinating study, like learning a new game, or the Morse Code, but I haven't got time to play games or spend months or years in learning the simplest form of communication when I'm already well versed in one that is common to hundreds of millions around the world, throughout Europe, the Americas, and even Africa, not to speak of Australia, New Zealand, and the Islands of the sea. Therefore, I suggest, we get a few Israeli's converted who already know the language, and let them do the job, unless we have to. I believe our example is going to speak more to them than our witnessing—"Not a Sermon, But a Sample!" Besides, as you may recall from a previous revelation we received on the ship, this so called Hebrew they are speaking today is not His language, not even original Hebrew. It's not a pure language, but perverted and adulterated … !

17. One thing Scott did say he learned from the original Hebrew in the Bible is that some expressions are made clearer in the original language‚ such as when it says, "Moses' natural force was not abated in his old age," it actually says he was still full of juices—in other words, still virile and potent—quite something for a man of 120, when I think I'm doing pretty well at 51!

THE RELIGIOUS FANATICS

18. Scott also told us one more bit of interesting information: most of the pioneer battlefront border kibbutzim are religious, and called the "Nahal‚" and their insignia is the sword and the sickle, showing they were both fighters as well as workers. The reason for this, he said, was that the most trusted and loyal soldiers are the deeply religious ones and they volunteer for this duty, not only for this reason, but because there is more time and incentive there for prayer and study—so they say. However, I doubt if they're any different from any other adherents of a hypocritical religious system, except that they are zealous fanatics determined to protect the anti-Christ religious state they have recreated. You know our sentiments against the hypocrisy of organised religion‚ and they haven't changed any here in Israel; in fact, if anything, it's a little worse here, since they have almost absolute control. I noticed last Sabbath eve at the 5 o'clock "witching" hour, some of these religious zealots of the most fanatical sects drive through the streets blowing their trumpets to try to show their authority to make everybody stop working. As they passed by I noticed their looks of jubilant satisfaction over their command of the situation. The fact of the matter was, instead of the stately dignity of the old patriarchs, even Jesus riding on an ass would have looked more genuine than these ridiculous little spooks all dressed in black whizzing along in a modern automobile with a modern jazz trumpet stuck out the window, instead of the ancient shofar, or ram's horn, and with their silly little beanies, beards, and side–curls flapping in the breeze, and evil little eyes gleaming with religious bigotry—worthy descendants of their fathers, the scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, loving the praise of men in the market place, murderers of the just—and I'm sure, ready to do it again, if they have the chance of whom the precious young people of this nation are helpless victims, "WOE UNTO YOU, SCRIBES, PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES"; they haven't changed since Jesus' day, and they still reject Him, and they still lay upon the backs of the people burdens which they themselves are unwilling to bear, extortioners of the poor, robbers of the widows and orphans; IT MAKES YOU SYMPATHISE WITH THE POOR ARABS, AMONGST WHOM WE SEEM TO HAVE MORE FRIENDS THAN THE JEWS!—MAYBE IT'S BECAUSE WE, TOO, ARE POOR AND THEREFORE BUY IN THEIR STORES‚ EAT IN THEIR CAFES WHERE THE PRICES ARE LOW—WHERE THEY SHOP AND WHERE THEY EAT—not with the ruling classes of the richer Jews who dine and shop in the better places. In fact, as we have said before, the only Christians we've found here so far are Arabs, a beautiful, humble‚ and friendly people, always helpful and hospitable.

THE MANY RESTRICTIONS IN ISRAEL

19. The Jewish youth‚ however‚ are a different story: they, too, are friendly, eager, and very open to hear your story, and have looked at your pictures with great interest and asked many questions about you, and the way you live, and expressed a desire to visit you—like Scott, here, if they should ever get out to the States—which is unlikely due to the "Israeli Wall" of travel taxes, which is almost as an effectual barrier to their leaving the country as the Berlin Wall is to the East Germans. For example, tourist air fair to London is $210.00, whereas an Israeli's air fare to London is almost exactly twice that, with a nearly—100% travel tax, which went into effect last September, which is probably why they do so much travelling within their own tiny country‚ which is only as long as a strip of California coast from Santa Barbara to San Diego‚ and only as wide as from Huntington Beach to Los Angeles! Beside, the train and bus fares within the country are so ridiculously low‚ almost anybody could afford them, although very few can afford automobiles, due to the high import duties which are several times the value of the cars themselves, as well as the extremely high gasoline prices. So since the busses and trains are run by the government, the people can't afford cars or to leave the country, the government has them pretty well under control, and they are virtually compelled to "see Israel first". Not only that, the Israeli pound is worth so little outside of Israel, it would be almost impossible to live on it, so the average Israeli is pretty much here to stay, except for the few who are sent out of the country all expenses paid by the government, the labour union, corporation or kibbutz, to study or travel or do business for the benefit of same. No wonder the poor Israeli is willing to sit and study Hebrew for days without end—there's no place to go and not much else to do. They are virtual prisoners of the State and their labourious language. The only fun they seem to have is socialising amongst themselves, which they do a lot of. The streets, theatres, cafes, and clubs are virtually packed with them at night, and they enjoy each other and their families. Where else could you see a mother and her teenage son walking down the street holding hands, or the whole family dancing, including the little children, as they do at a bar-mitzvah party? Therefore, of course‚ nothing delights the little black hearts of those religious spooks like the glee of closing up all of these places on the Sabbath, so that there's no place to go but the synagogue, in which very few are interested. They even stop the busses, so you can't go anywhere on your day off, and there's nothing to do but visit with your neighbours, or family, which maybe is good for them, after all. But personally, it makes me, a visitor, furious, at having my PERSONAL LIBERTIES RESTRICTED and governed by these hypocritical religious freaks—I JUST DON'T DIG IT!—and I'm afraid I'd be counted an enemy of the State over here with my uncompromising hatred of the dictatorial control of any hypocritical religious system. If this trip has done anything for me‚ it has at least helped me to appreciate what little freedom we have left in the States, and I'm looking forward to even a little more in England, God willing. No wonder the Lord's going to have to break open the Mount of Olives when He comes; it will take that to get Christianity into Israel! No wonder Israel is going to have to suffer the Antichrist reign and Tribulation first!—It'll take that to make them appreciate Jesus! I'm not discouraged; I can just see now more than ever that it's going to take a miracle!—but God's got lots of them! Hallelujah!

20. WE TALKED TO THIS BOY SCOTT UNTIL 3:00 IN THE MORNING, but like so many others, he had been ruined by the sophistry of education, and insulated by intellectualism, so that although he admitted that we really had something he didn't have, in joy and happiness‚ and he thought what we were doing is great, it was not for him. He was still determined to be a biologist, a protagonist of the most diabolical evolutionary, and anti-Christ of all sciences! BUT SCOTT WILL FOREVER REMEMBER THE LOVE OF GOD THAT HE SAW IN US THAT NIGHT, and God knows, maybe someday he'll need His help, and cry out for it! (As there was no 10 or 11, neither is there any 13, 14 or 15—all blank due to flash failures; so our next picture is:)

MORE DESCRIPTION OF SLIDES

21. (16) "THAT'S WHAT I CALL HEAVEN!"—As the old song goes.—The beautiful side of Mt. Carmel from our window, so clear and bright in the sunshine, with blue sky and fleecy, white, clouds, and lovely white, buildings‚ and so beautifully lighted at night‚ in this delightfully balmy, climate! All is so peaceful now, and so civilised, it's almost hard to visualise Elijah's confrontation with the prophets of Baal there on its summit, and the ensuing slaughter which followed! All is quiet there today, but I do not doubt that if our modern prophets of God of today should challenge these black-robed sons of Belial, of Israel's present day Scribes and Pharisees on that famous summit—I do not doubt that they would try to turn the slaughter the other way, if sufficiently provoked to jealousy, and the whorish Jezebel of their religious system would be after our scalps!

22. (17) AN ISRAELI HIGH SCHOOL GYM CLASS—Eager to pose for their picture with their teacher‚ glad to oblige, who also made sure we got his address, so we'd send him a copy, so please make us one for this purpose, just a black and white print of this positive, on positive paper would do; as in the next one.

23. (18) A BEVY OF ISRAELI BEAUTIES—As with this group of eager young high school girls, the young Sabras are always forward, bold‚ friendly, and eager to have their picture taken. We started to take a picture of only two of them, but nothing would do, but that they should call in their friends, the others insisting on having theirs taken, too!

24. (19) AGAIN, SHOWS YOU HOW TO TAKE PICTURES AT NIGHT WITHOUT A FLASH! Well, it was almost night, but if you look closely, you can see the head and shoulder and face of an old Persian Bahai working in his garden in the rays of the setting sun—Achsan was his name‚ and we met him while admiring his lovely garden on the long climb toward the Bahai temple. He said his father was from Persia, driven here by the persecution of the Bahais, and murdered in 1922 by the Arabs, but that he himself (Achsan) was born here; a cantor at the age of seven for the prophet Abdul Bahai, he said he could remember the prophet looking out across Haifa Bay and predicting that someday it would be full of ships surrounded by a great city, and lighted with electricity, as it is today. He predicted the coming trouble between Arabs and Jews and warned the Bahai's to leave Israel, which nearly all of them did so that there are virtually very few of them here today—only a handful who operate the Temple and minister to the needs of pilgrims, still fearful of reprisals from the Jews. In the next one you see

25. (20) THE BEAUTIFUL BAHAI TEMPLE PERSIAN GARDENS—After our experience in the shrine itself, related elsewhere, I was still too stoned in the Spirit to get a picture of the temple itself, but we took this one an hour or two later overlooking Haifa Bay‚ toward Mt. Hermon and the hills of Galilee.

MORE ABOUT ISRAEL

Dear Family:

26. Today we visited with Sobhi in his garage—the garage owner to whom Afif introduced us. He told us he had to fire Afif because he talked too much and didn't work hard enough, and wasn't honest. He said about himself: I learned my trade for years under the German man here before me. He taught me to be honest and straight and to do good work, and I've always done that, and I've been here 13 years.

27. I had a funny feeling about Afif, that he and that guy working down in Sinai had some kind of racket going. I warned the other day that his name rhymed too much with "a thief," but at least he introduced us to some very interesting people.

28. Sobhi said there used to be a large colony of Germans here before World War II, but the English deported them because of the war. We also asked him how come nearly all Arabs we met here were Christians. He told us many of the Arabs in Haifa have been Christians for hundreds of years, like in Lebanon.

29. He asked us if we liked Haifa and we assured him that we did, very much. He said the beautiful, old, natural stone buildings here were nearly all built by the Arabs, back when the English had Israel. This was the only building material they had. He said an apartment in one of these, if you pay by the month, would cost 100 to 150 Israeli pounds a month, which is about 30 to 40 dollars, which he considered high; but if you pay what they call "keymoney," which is like a lease guarantee or deposit, or about 12,000 Israeli pounds on such an apartment, which is a little over $300.00‚ then the apartment is yours as long as you want to keep it for only 30 or 35 Israeli pounds a month, which is $10.00 or less per month!

30. Sobhi has an apartment of three rooms, for which, as initial "keymoney"‚ he paid 16,000 pounds and now pays 32 Israeli pounds a month. The new modern high-rise apartment buildings constructed by the government—in fact, most of them seem to be built by Shikun–Ovdin, a sort of government construction workers labour union—of concrete and steel, on the sides of Mount Carmel, with gorgeous views of the harbour, he said were very expensive, but he didn't say how much. He said he'd keep an eye out for a place for us, and he agreed that Haifa was the most beautiful place in Israel.

31. Even in the back of his garage he served us the traditional Turkish coffee, a small demitasse of mud, strong enough to make you turn flips! But a sign of their hospitality you dare not refuse. They have a saying amongst the Arabs of the Mid-East that, if even your enemy serves you coffee, you're safe—at least while you're drinking it! But if you refuse it‚ he may be so insulted as to put a knife in your back.

32. Apparently wages are not too high—at least not those of garage mechanics, which he said, for a good one, he was willing to pay 25 Israeli pounds a day, which is not quite $8.00 a day—about one third or one fourth what American mechanics earn. But with rents this low, and native foods as reasonable as they are‚ it's probably not too bad‚ particularly since the climate is ideal, and not much food, clothing, or heat is needed, and especially since very few can afford an automobile—the biggest expense of the average American. Mass transportation here is almost ridiculously cheap—a little over five cents bus fare—only one dollar or two to some of the most distant cities of Israel—and train fare is even lower—about $1.50 all the way from here to Jerusalem and less than $1.00 to Tel Aviv, with frequent, fast, schedules—anywhere and everywhere, so that nearly everybody goes by bus or train, or walks or hitchhikes—a very acceptable practice in Israel particularly with the soldiers of the world's most beautiful army, with whom you are expected to share your transportation—this mini-skirted army! However you better watch out for their boyfriends in the same army. Israeli soldiers carry their machine guns with them everywhere—on the street, buses, in the restaurants, in stores, even when home on leave, as they say they never know when there may be trouble, and they don't want to be caught without them, as the trouble may arise, anywhere, anytime.

33. Here, you can't tell the difference between Jews and Arabs—they all look alike—dark, swarthy, mustached, sometimes bearded—but no long hair except the girls, whose hair is almost always long‚ dark, and luxuriant, frequently clear to the waist, hanging naturally straight or in waves down their backs—sometimes wound up in a kind of horn on top of their heads—the girl soldiers wear theirs long, too, but in a cute kind of pinned–up flip or pony tail.

34. This is the youngest nation we've ever seen—it seems to be nearly all young people—they're certainly in the vast majority—handsome and beautiful, and very friendly, and most of them speak some English, which they learn in school. They pack the stores, the buses, the theatres, the streets and cafes—everywhere!—and the only older people seem to be the shopkeepers, businessmen, housewives—definitely in the minority! Maybe this is one reason why Israel has the world's highest traffic accident and divorce rate outside of the U.S., we've been told—they drive like mad here—like they're hell-bent for Kingdom Come; and some of them arrive there all to soon because of it! We'd better get 'em saved quick‚ because if the Arabs don't get them, their vehicles will—or their cigarettes—the way they smoke!

35. They don't need roller coasters in Israel: all you need to do is take one of these buses‚ or sheiruts, over the local hills, and you'll wind up with your heart in your mouth and your stomach upside down, hanging onto your seat for dear life, thinking every minute may be your last one.

36. Everybody who isn't a soldier seems to be a salesman in Israel, operating out of everything from a portable, sidewalk shop, to a shopping bag! And believe it or not today we stopped at one of these sidewalk centers of eyeglasses, where he gave me an "on the spot" eye check, with the simplest kind of equipment—a pair of frames with interchangeable lenses—and‚ in no time at all—pronto!—we had a new pair of reading glasses for studying maps‚ reading time tables, and deciphering your microscopic notes and letters. Somebody must have told you to write small to save postage—but I note that one of these microscopic letter forms arrived finely inscribed on the inside like the Lord's Prayer on the head of a pin—but you failed to note that you are also permitted to write on the other side of the folding flaps and on the back, so while squeezing several letters onto the inside page, you had left nearly half the form—almost the entire other side—completely blank. Remember, you can write on every part of those international airmail letter forms except the face side for the address. I used to print like that, but now my eyes are getting old, and, like the Apostle Paul, "behold in what large characters I write unto you!" But now, with my new reading glasses, which cost less than half what you'd pay in the States, thank the Lord, I can now read your microscopic mail, so keep it coming!

37. P.S. We ran across an interesting paperback book published last year—a Signet Book from New American Library, entitled Up Against the Law (The Legal Rights of People Under 21)‚ by Jean Strouse, published in the U.S. on drugs, marriage and what rights you have if problems arise in these areas—about 95 cents. You might be interested in picking up a copy.

38. REMEMBER HOW WE TOLD YOU ABOUT THE CORINTH CANAL we passed through early in the morning on our way from Venice to Haifa, and what a magnificent sight it was rising many feet above us on either side: how it had taken 12‚000 workmen to carve this manmade "miracle" out of the rock? THE FOLLOWING IS A LITTLE SOMETHING I GOT FROM THE LORD as we were out on deck that night watching the ship, pulled by a little tugboat make its way through the canal. I was thinking how these two great land masses had been connected all those thousands of years by that little, tiny, neck of land that the canal was now cutting through; how the nations had risen and striven around it and on both sides of it, and that land bridge had been a passage from one to another, but it had resulted in the rise of various peoples and variations of history; and how the position and even the shape of these countries had influenced their history, and IT CAME TO ME CLEARLY THAT WAS WHY THE LORD DESIGNED THEM THAT WAY—THAT HE MADE, CREATED‚ AND DESIGNED THEM—THEIR VARIOUS SHAPES AND POSITIONS AND TERRAIN—MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS AND RIVERS AND LAKES AND SURROUNDING AREAS PURPOSELY TO INFLUENCE THEIR HISTORY—THEIR PEOPLES TO COME!

PROPHECY OF BLESSING ARABS

39. I even read in one of the past prophecies the other day something about it: THE LORD SAID, "I WILL MAKE OF THEM A PEOPLE WHICH ARE NO PEOPLE," and at first I thought it was talking about the Jews, but then IT CAME TO ME VERY STRONGLY, MAYBE IT WAS THE ARABS GOD WAS TALKING ABOUT.

40. WE'VE HAD MORE DEFINITE INTEREST FROM THE ARABS THAN ANYBODY—more responsive interest, including this school teacher‚ Sucrella, who just came to our door, from Nazareth, and Afif, who has been here many times! Please pray for them! God really loves them, and wants them in the Revolution for Jesus!

REACHING THE ARABS, 12-12-70

41. Incidentally, it might interest you to know that we have been anything but idle in our exploration of the situation here, and we have almost REACHED THE RATHER SURPRISING CONCLUSION THAT WE MAY HAVE TO REACH THE JEWS THROUGH THE ARABS—believe it or not!

42. THE ARABS ARE MORE OPEN THAN THE JEWS. They're the underdogs now! They're humble and receptive.

43. They're sort of like American kids! At least they have the Christian background. They don't hate Christ, but they've got the same system church here—hollow and empty‚ and nothing there. THE ARAB KIDS ARE HUNGRY AND LOOKING FOR REALITY‚ AND THEY ARE NOW IN A HUMBLE POSITION—UNDERDOGS IN A WAY, at least in this country, and they've been humiliated, lost their country and home and superiority! It used to be the Jews were their guests and they could afford to be magnanimous and friendly—AND THEY WERE! They helped the Jews, and now the Jews have turned around and taken the country away from them—and now they're the guests of the Jews!

44. I remember Bro. Copp saying something about they were having more success with the Arab young people than the Jews, for the Arabs were very open and responsive! It's also legal—the Arabs are Christians! It's literally against the law to proselytise and evangelise—against the law to even teach kids under fourteen any other religion than that of their parents. (See footnote.) It looks to me like the Lord is trying to open the door toward the Arabs! We've had only two prominent Jewish contacts—Eli and Ariye, besides those on the boat, of course; and not only that, but after we had given them the treatment, it's sufficient proof that they failed to respond in that, a month or so later‚ they've made no further effort to contact us. Ariye is System! Eli (Ay'lee), though hungry, is determined to be a Jew—and he's also a great admirer of Ariye. Eli was hardening the last time we saw them—he left before we were through talking, and Ariye and Kalanit got scared when they saw what an interest their young teenage daughter was taking. She wanted to take off immediately for the ranch in Texas!—So they took us off their guest list!

45. JEWS RIGHT NOW ARE KIND OF COCKY AND IN A SUPERIOR POSITION, and not too needy or hungry. But Arabs here in Israel, from Moussa, Afif and Avi, Habib‚ his family and friends, Nami, Sucrella, Suphi—all have been extremely friendly, hospitable, and some even insisting on us coming to their homes, and practically offended because we don't! They are the poor now!

46. IF JESUS WERE HERE NOW, WHO WOULD HE GO TO? It looks to me like they're about our only immediate open door! Not only that, there is a measure of fellowship and brotherhood between the Christian Arabs and the Jews, whereas the Jews and Moslem Arabs hate each other bitterly!

47. Maybe if the Jews are ever evangelised, it will have to be through the Arabs. Especially since THE ARABS ARE PROBABLY GOING TO TAKE THEM OVER NEXT TIME.

48. Footnote: Israel even has separate religious courts for each of the three major faiths—Moslem, Christian‚ and Jew, to prosecute and decide these matters.

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family