OPINION (BIN) – While people on both the Arab and the Israeli side are still considering the possible implications of President Trump’ ‘Deal of the Century’ revealed on Tuesday, one insightful Israeli declared it to be “the declaration of Cyrus in our time.” Politics, Israel, and Torah are all important to Dr. Rafael Minnes. A former member of the Zehut Political Party, he joined with a group of like-minded Israelis to form the New Liberal Party after Zehut’s leader, Moshe Feiglin, chose a position in Netanyahu’s government rather than run against Likud in the elections.

Dr. Minnes served in the IDF Intelligence Corps and the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service also known as the Shabak. He is a professor of physics as well. Dr. Minnes hears echoes of Persian King Cyrus’’ decree that paved the way for the Jews to build the Second Temple almost 2,000 years ago.

“The Trump statement is the declaration of Cyrus of our days,” he wrote on his Facebook page, raising more than a few eyebrows. This provocative statement from such a well-educated source demanded further investigation. “The first thing that is similar between Trump’s Deal of the Century and King Cyrus’ proclamation is that both of them are non-Jewish political figures who are coming in the name of the God of Israel in order to advance the divine plan incumbent upon the Jewish nation,” Dr. Minnes explained to Breaking Israel News. READ MORE