A massive system of frigid air will whip most of Israel late Thursday night and Friday morning and bring snow to areas that have not seen the white stuff for 20 years or more.

Arad, Dimona, Upper Haifa, Modi’in, Karnei-Ginot Shomron, Maaleh Gilboa, Nazareth, Kfar Saba and possibly Ben Gurion Airport will probably be covered in white Friday morning.

Snow is falling on the Hermon ski slopes and the northern Golan Heights at this time (early Thursday afternoon), and rain in other areas will turn to snow when temperatures plummet tonight. The airport in Haifa has been closed, and police probably will not allow cars to travel on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway.

Last December, heavy snow trapped motorists.

Snow will fall through the night, but by Friday afternoon it will turn back to rain in lower areas. Snow will continue falling on communities where the altitude is above 2,000 feet, and later in the day above 3,000 feet, which includes Hebron, Nevei Daniel in Gush Etzion, and Tzfat (Safed).

More than a foot of snow is likely to be dumped on Jerusalem, Gush Etzion, Hebron and the southern Hebron Hills.

Smaller accumulations will fall on Arad and Dimona in the northern Negev, and possibly on Be’er Sheva and Kiryat Gat.

There is a chance that Tel Aviv residents will see snow mixed with rain.

Anyone who does not want to lift a snow shovel, and who is not in a hurry, can wait around for a couple of days. The forecast for Sunday is freezing temperatures in the morning but significant warming in the afternoon.

On Monday and Tuesday, it will be warmer than usual. There is a chance for more rain – but no snow – later next week.

Meanwhile, the Kinneret continues to add an inch or so a day, and the entire country has received the amount of precipitation that usually falls for the entire year.

Missionaries have been exploiting the elections campaign and Israel’s frustration with unwanted candidates by distributing fake election ballots with the letters of a fictional party that translates into English as the “Savior,” meaning Jesus.

The anti-missionary organization Yad L’Achim said hundreds of complaints have poured in about Jehovah’s Witnesses and Messianic Jews who have arrived in Israel to “campaign” for JC.

Given the low-level campaign that has focused on no substantial issues other than how low below the belt candidates can slug each other, the missionaries know they have a waiting audience for someone who introduces a new candidate.

Since many voters are so sick of Bujie, Livni and Bibi, the missionaries are a big problem. They hand out brochures with the headline “The government has fallen again and we have elections again.”

The brochure continues:

Why elections again? Because corruption is rampant? No

Because violence is increasing? No.

The government has fallen again because everyone is only concerned with keeping his seat of power and does not care about us, the plain citizen.

After setting up the naïve voters, the brochure offers “hope” in the party of the Messiah, not to be confused with Bujie, Livni, and Bibi and let’s not forget the Haredi parties.

So what do the missionaries want from the Israeli voter? They want exactly the same thing that Bujie, Livni and Bibi want. Just believe them, and the brochure, like the political leaders, lie by insisting it is telling the truth, to wit:

Unlike all the politicians, the Messiah really does care about you. He invites you to place all your worries on him…

Therefore, all we have to do is to believe – vote – for Messiah.

The missionaries hand out fake ballots with the acronym for the “party” spelled with four Hebrew letters – Yud-Shin-Vav-Ayin- which spell Savior.

The election system in Israel features each party with an acronym of up to three letters. For example, the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) is known by the Hebrew letters Tet-Bet. The Herzog-Livni combo retains the former Labor party’s letters of Aleph-Mem-Tuf.

It is not enough that Herzog-Livni have called themselves the “Zionist Camp” but they also go by the Labor acronym, which in Hebrew reads “emet,” or “truth.”

It would be funny if it weren’t for the fact that there are enough gullible people who allow the party to give the Likud – Mem-Chet-Lamed – a good run for its money.

Perhaps President Barack Obama sent the missionaries in retaliation for Netanyahu’s speech in Congress next month on the Iran nuclear threat.

More likely, they were sent by the JC crowd, which is roaming around the streets of Jerusalem, metropolitan Tel Aviv, Be’er Sheva and other cities.

Yad L’Achim reported that one of those who protested the missionaries’ presence was none other than the deputy mayor of Haifa, Rabbi Aryeh Blitental, who wrote, “Missionaries in Haifa are acting in a very conniving way Its dubious activities include placing Hebrew flyers in residents’ mail boxes. They take advantage of innocent Jews, who are not knowledgeable about Jewish practices, to preach to them about abandoning their religion. They act with cunning and deceit, and, to our great sorrow, have seen no little success.”

He asked for Yad L’Achim to help counter the missionaries, and the organization promptly launched a PR counteroffensive.

It sent out teams of activists who distributed material that exposed the lies of the missionaries and announced plans to expand the activities of its Haifa branch in order to serve as a counterbalance to the mounting missionary presence in the city.

Missionaries are a disease in Israel. Unlike politicians, nothing discourages them. They accept failure as the test of JC to suffer.

Snow will begin to fall on Thursday evening, and Israelis in Jerusalem and even on the hills of Carmel overlooking Haifa will see a winter wonderland Friday morning.

Up to a foot may fall on Jerusalem, Gush Etzion and Hebron.

The unusually late snowstorm will be accompanied by high winds and freezing temperatures that will bring snow to areas as low as 200 meters (1,000 feet), which includes Karnei-Ginot Shomron in Samaria, Nazareth, Upper Haifa, Modi’in and Arad and possibly even on Ben Gurion Airport and as far south as Be’er Sheva in the Negev Desert.

There is a chance that snow also will fall on Maaleh Adumim, a rarity. Rain and hail will fall on Tel Aviv.

Rain will fall Thursday morning and turn to snow by evening and continue through the night. Snow will be occasional on Friday and will resume at higher levels at night and Saturday morning before ending.

The storm will bring approximately 4 inches of precipitation to the Hermon and higher hills in northern Israel. Using the usual equation that one inch of rain equals 10 inches of snow, accumulations will reach three feet on the upper slopes of the Hermon.

At least 2 inches of rain is expected to fall on the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret), which along with run-off from mountain streams next week will raise the level of the lake significantly.

Even the Jordan Valley will be blessed with an unusually large amount of rain, possibly more than in inch, and half an inch will fall in the Arava, north of Eilat.

As usual, the snow will not stay on the ground for long. The thermometer will rise on Sunday and by Monday, it will be pleasant and warmer than usual, with lots of slush.

However, winter can’t be over because Purim is two weeks away. The holiday usually is wet.

Half of Israel will be buried under snow by Friday if weather models are confirmed by the real stuff on Thursday, Friday and Shabbat.

First, the excuses.

Weather models are not forecasts, the difference being a matter of time. As we have written before, weather, politics and everything in Israel is unpredictable, except for the eternal faith that the Jewish state will survive.

It is unusual that different weather models reach the same conclusion four days before the due date of a weather system to arrive, but that is what has happened this time around.

Weather forecasters have had their fingers burned several times by relying on weather models that were a “sure bet,” only to stare at the maps in shock 24 hours before the “due date” and watch the clouds take a U-turn, or depending on your political viewpoint when looking at the maps, a left or right turn.

One weather buff wrote on the Tapuz forum in Israel, “There is agreement among all the models for this to happen. The expectation is so extreme that even if it becomes more moderate and temperatures are one degree or so warmer than expected, snow will fall at levels of 800 meters,” which would include Jerusalem.

According to current models, snow will accumulate as low as 300 meters, which would include the Lower Galilee and western Samaria, including Karnei-Ginot Shomron. Snow might fall, without accumulation, in lower areas.

Danny Roop, Israel’s premier snow forecaster, wrote on Facebook, “All models show clear signs of serious snow that will accumulate Thursday night through Shabbat, including Jerusalem and all lower places.”

For the time being, we are talking about 4-10 inches of snow.

Remember, these are weather models and not a forecast, but this time around, it would be well-advised to stock up ahead of time – and keep praying for “rain,” the word in the prayer liturgy that we can dare includes snow.

As for today through Wednesday, it will be mostly cloudy and cold, with a possibility of very light rain in the north tonight and Tuesday.

Rain will begin to fall Wednesday morning in the north and spread to the center, accompanied by a sharp drop in temperatures that will prelude the white stuff at night and during the next three days,

The run-off from mountain streams to the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret) is increasing, and assuming this week’s forecast will be realized, most of the 12-foot gap between current levels and flood levels will be erased before the end of the winter.

The current cold spell is expected to continue this week, weather forecasters said Sunday. There may be snowfall in Jerusalem on Thursday.

Sunday evening is expected to be rainy throughout the country. Rain could cause flooding in southern Israel.

Intermittent rain is expected throughout the week. An anticipated drop in temperatures on Thursday could turn rain to snow in the Golan, the Galilee and the Jerusalem region.

The Jewish welfare organization Colel Chabad this week hosted a Bat Mitzvah celebration  in Jerusalem for 36 girls who have lost a parent.

Most of the parents died from illness or terror attacks, and one Bat Mitzvah girl’s father was the first Israel Defense Forces casualty during last summer’s war between Israel and Hamas.

“Family milestones can be much more stressful and difficult, both financially and emotionally, without a parent,” said Rabbi Amram Blau, director of Colel Chabad’s bar and bat mitzvah program for bereaved youths, known as Chesed Menachem Mendel. “It’s heartwarming to see the joy on the faces of these young women and their families in reaching this momentous occasion.”

“The world gains strength from you young women,” said Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi, a popular Torah scholar who spoke at the bat mitzvah event.

“When we see your beautiful smiling faces, glowing from this special celebration, and we know all the hardships you have been through, we can’t help but feel that we must smile and be happy as well,” she added.

A Jerusalem Arab family has confirmed that the young man whom the Islamic State says it has taken as hostage is their son but vehemently denied the ISIS claim that he is a spy.

The Jewish Press reported here Thursday night that the ISIS’ English magazine published an “interview” with Mohammed Musallem, originally identified as Mohammed Ismail, who the terrorist organization claimed was a  spy.

His brother Ahmed told the Yediot Acharonot newspaper that Mohammed told his family he was going  to a firefighting course but remained out of contact until he called from Syria, after crossing the border from Turkey last October.

His father Sayid said that his son called to say he had been abducted and told him, “Dad, I need $200 or $300 so they will let me go.”

Before he was able to send the money, another man called to say that ISIS terrorists had taken him hostage.

The story sounds strange, especially since the ISIS interview claimed that Mohammed was trained by the Mossad for a month before traveling to Syria. There is no way that the Mossad would train someone for only a month and then ship him off as a spy.

The Jewish Press suggested it is more likely that Mohammed joined the ISIS and was being used by the terrorist organization as a tool for propaganda, or that he was kidnapped after having fought with a rival jihadist group.

Either way, his family is dumbstruck. “It can’t be. He’s a man that has no connections to these things,” Ahmed said

The ISIS claimed that it was suspicious of Mohammed’s behavior and suspected him of being a spy, which he allegedly admitted.

“When I saw his picture today I was shocked,” Ahmed told Yediot. “I saw how he looks with a beard and hair.”

After the family members learned that Mohammed had traveled to Turkey, they figured he had gone on vacation.

The last contact with Ahmed was made a month ago through Facebook, where he posted that he was feeling good and was traveling in Syria.,

Israeli police informed the family that Mohammed has joined ISIS.

“In one of the last conversations we had, he said his passports were taken and he has no way to come back,” Ahmed said,

His family did not know of any inclinations of Mohammed to join the radical Islamic movement.

At a Congressional hearing this week in Washington, Congressmen learned that ISIS is exploiting social media to recruit members, and Mohammed may have been attracted by Islamic State propaganda.

“Now that we’ve seen the images of horror with the Jordanian pilot, we don’t know what to do. I don’t think he’ll return to us,” Ahmed said.

Several Arabs from Israel have traveled to Turkey to join the ISIS, and one of them returned on his own last year and was promptly sentenced to 22 months in jail for aiding an enemy. He escaped a heavier sentence by promising to cooperate with Israeli authorities by supplying information, presumably about the Islamic State.