KING JESUS IS COMING FOR US ANY TIME NOW. THE RAPTURE. BE PREPARED TO GO.
ZECHARIAH 12:1-5 King James Bible
1 The burden
of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth
forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth
the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a
cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in
the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that
day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that
burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people
of the earth be gathered together against it.
4 In that day, saith
the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider
with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and
will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
5 And the
governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of
Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.
ISAIAH 31:5
5
As birds flying,(PLANES) so will the LORD of hosts defend
Jerusalem;(WITH PLANES) defending also he will deliver it; and passing
over he will preserve it.(NUKE OR BOMB ISRAELS ENEMIES)
JOEL 3:2
2
I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the
valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and
for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and
parted my land.(WW3 STARTS BECAUSE JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED AND ISRAELIS
UPROOTED FROM THEIR GOD GIVIN LAND)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12
And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the
people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume
away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away
in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
13
And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the
LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand
of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his
neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)
PSALMS 137:5-6
5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
6 If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.
ZECHARIAH 14:1-4 King James Bible
1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city
shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished;(RAPED)
and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of
the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4
And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is
before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in
the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall
be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the
north, and half of it toward the south.
LUKE 1:31-32
32
He (JESUS) shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest:
and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:(IN
JERUSALEM)
33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob (ISRAEL)
for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.(THATS RULING
FOREVER FROM JERUSALEM JESUS DOES)
ISAIAH 9:6-7
6
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:(JESUS 1ST COMING)
and the government shall be upon his shoulder:(JESUS 2ND COMING AS
RULING KING FROM JERUSALEM FOREVER AT THE END OF THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION)
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The
everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his
(JESUS) government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of
David,( IN JERUSALEM) and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to
establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for
ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
JERUSALEM DIVIDED
GENESIS 25:20-26
20 And Isaac was forty years old (A BIBLE GENERATION NUMBER=1967 + 40=2007+) when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
22 And the children (2 NATIONS IN HER-ISRAEL-ARABS) struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels;(ISRAEL AND THE ARABS) and the one people shall be stronger than the other people;(ISRAEL STRONGER THAN ARABS) and the elder shall serve the younger.(LITERALLY ISRAEL THE YOUNGER RULES (ISSAC)(JACOB-LATER NAME CHANGED TO ISRAEL) OVER THE OLDER ARABS (ISHMAEL)(ESAU)
24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
25 And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.(THE OLDER AN ARAB)
26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob:(THE YOUNGER-ISRAELI) and Isaac was threescore (60) years old when she bare them.(1967 + 60=2027)(COULD BE THE LAST GENERATION WHEN JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED AMOUNG THE 2 TWINS)(THE 2 TWINS WANT JERUSALEM-THE DIVISION OF JERUSALEM TODAY)(AND WHOS IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM TODAY-THE YOUNGER ISSAC-JACOB-ISRAEL)(AND WHO WANTS JERUSALEM DIVIDED-THE OLDER,ESAU-ISHMAEL (THE ARABS)
Fatah official: We demand clarity on Jerusalem
Azzam Al-Ahmad says proposals regarding ‘greater Jerusalem’ and refugees leave the US secretary ‘in a vicious circle’
US
Secretary of State John Kerry
has proposed designating “greater Jerusalem” as the capital of both
Israel and the Palestinian state, a Fatah official reported on Sunday,
claiming that Kerry is stuck in “a vicious circle” and will likely
achieve no progress in his current visit to the region.Azzam
Al-Ahmad, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee and its representative
to talks with Hamas, told the Jordanian daily Al-Ghad that Kerry was
“elusive” when speaking of the exclusion of East Jerusalem from the rest
of the West Bank.“An ambiguous term such as ‘greater Jerusalem’
in [Kerry's] proposal could reach the Dead Sea, and could [equally] not
include [the Palestinian village of] Abu Dis,” Al-Ahmad told the
Jordanian daily. ”This [ambiguity] destroys all American efforts to
reach a peace agreement.”Palestinian sources have reported “extremely
difficult” talks with Kerry over the weekend. According to a report by
Agence France Presse, Kerry has exerted immense pressure on PA President
Mahmoud Abbas to accept Israel as a Jewish state as part of a framework
agreement, a demand Abbas continues to adamantly oppose.The Palestinian
source quoted Kerry as saying
that the demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish state is not only an
Israeli demand, but one shared by the American administration as
well.But Al-Ahmad said that Kerry’s ambiguity on
Jerusalem and the settlements leave little chance for the Palestinian
side to accept his offers.“Kerry is stuck in a vicious circle. If he
continues to propose what he has [so far], he will achieve nothing,”
Al-Ahmad said.
Kerry, for his part, acknowledged the
difficulties experienced by both sides, but insisted that progress has
been achieved.“Mistrust obviously exists at a very high level. So we
have to work through that and around that and over that,”
he said.
The secretary of state was traveling to Jordan and Saudi Arabia on
Sunday before returning to Israel Sunday evening to continue talks.With
regards to the Jordan Valley, Al-Ahmad
said the Palestinians rejected any Israeli presence under a final status
agreement, but agreed to international forces patrolling the border,
including, for example, a joint Jordanian-American contingent. He added
that former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert had already agreed to
forgo the Israeli military presence in the Jordan Valley during talks
with Abbas. (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists on an ongoing IDF
presence to secure the eastern border.)Palestinian officials continued
to voice their
opposition to provisional or framework agreements as an alternative to
the original nine-month timetable agreed upon with the US, which ends in
April.On Saturday, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb
Erekat said that Kerry was not engaged in working on a “transitional
agreement” but rather was discussing “all core issues.”Al-Ahmad
articulated the Palestinian position differently.“The framework
agreement is being used to
blackmail the Palestinians and reshuffle the cards, or lengthen the
negotiation period beyond nine months,” he said.
IS IT A ACCIDENT THAT AMERICA IS FREEZING COLD AND STORMS.WHEN AMERICA IS REALLY PRESSURING ISRAEL TO GIVE UP GODS LAND ISRAEL AND GODS HOLY CITY JERUSALEM.WHEN WILL THESE POLITICIANS EVER LEARN-YOU TOUCH ISRAEL OR JERUSALEM-YOU TOUCH GOD HIMSELF.AND YOU WANNA DIVIDE JERUSALEM.YOUR COUNTRY WILL BE DIVIDED WITH QUAKES.AND YOU WANNA FORCE ISRAELIS OFF THEIR GOD GIVIN LAND.YOU GET TORNADOES-TSUNAMIS-HURRICANES THAT FORCE YOUR COUNTRIES CITIZENS OFF THEIR LAND.AND IF YOU STILL INSIST ON DIVIDING JERUSALEM.THEN GOD WILL SEND RUSSIA AGAINST YOU TO NUKE YOUR WORSHIP CITY OF NEW YORK.THEN MAYBE THE POLITICIANS IN AMERICA WILL TAKE THE HINT.YOU TOUCH ISRAEL OR JERUSALEM.YOU GET TOUCHED BY GOD BY JUDGEMENTS.AMERICA ITS TIME TO GET OUTTA THE PEACE PROCESS.AND LET ISRAEL BUILD WERE IT WANTS.PRAY ON THE MOUNT 24 HOURS A DAY-7 DAYS A WEEK.AND LET ISRAEL REBUILD THEIR 3RD TEMPLE.SO THEY CAN HAVE SACRIFICES IMPLIMENTED TO WORSHUP THEIR ONE GOD KING JESUS THEIR JEWISH MESSIAH.
Kerry gains Arab backing for framework peace plan
US secretary of state returning to Jerusalem with key support in pocket after meetings in Amman and Riyadh
US Secretary of State John Kerry
spent Sunday jetting around the Middle East and attempting to shore up
support for a US framework plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace, calling
the endeavor a challenge that could still fall apart.Kerry, meeting in Saudi Arabia with King Abdullah, said Riyadh would back American efforts to reach a deal between the sides.“I am grateful that the Arab League as a whole
and Saudi Arabia individually will be significantly involved in helping
build support for this effort,” Kerry said at the Riyadh airport prior
to his departure. “Today his majesty was not just encouraging, but
supported our efforts in the hopes that we can be successful in the days
ahead.”Kerry said after his meeting with the Saudi
leader that Abdullah’s 2002 initiative “has been part of the framework
that we’ve been piecing together — both in inspiration and substance.”The Saudi leader developed an initiative in
2002 in which the Arab world offered comprehensive peace with Israel in
exchange for a full pullout from all territories it captured in the 1967
Mideast war.The initiative, revolutionary when it was introduced, has been endorsed by the Arab League and, technically, remains in effect.“Saudi Arabia’s initiative holds out the
prospect that if the parties could arrive at a peaceful resolution, you
could instantaneously have peace between the 22 Arab nations and 35
Muslim nations, all of whom have said they will recognize Israel if
peace is achieved,” Kerry said.
“Imagine how that changes the dynamics of
travel, of business, of education, of opportunity in this region, of
stability. Imagine what peace could mean for trade and tourism, what it
could mean for developing technology and talent, for job opportunities
for the younger generation, for generations in all of these countries,”
Kerry said.Earlier on Sunday, Kerry flew to Amman,
Jordan, and held more than an hour of talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah
II and Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh. In addition to discussing the
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Kerry reportedly raised other regional
issues, including the civil war in Syria, increasing unrest in Iraq, and
the Iranian nuclear program.In a press conference held in Jerusalem on
Sunday morning, Kerry called his trip “a productive couple of days with
very, very intensive talks.” He also said that both Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
had made “important… and courageous decisions, difficult decisions,” but
declined comment on the content of those decisions.Speaking before taking off from Jerusalem,
Kerry likened the bid, to reach a historic deal between Israel and the
Palestinians, to an enigma.“In the end, all of these core issues fit together like a mosaic, like a
puzzle and you can’t separate out one piece or another,” he said, adding
that “the last pieces may decide to fall into place, or may fall on the
floor, and leave the puzzle unfinished.”As of yet, no confirmed concrete details of the framework agreement proposed by the US have come to light.Kerry will return to Israel Sunday night and is expected to stay for a few days before returning to Washington.
Kerry praises ‘intensive’ talks, to return Sunday night
US secretary of state en route to Jordan and Saudia Arabia to brief regional leaders on Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations
After three days of lengthy
meetings with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and Ramallah, US
Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Jordan and Saudi Arabia on
Sunday to discuss his efforts to reach Israeli-Palestinian peace, as
well as other regional issues.Kerry
said he would return to Jerusalem Sunday evening, and may stay for
several days before flying back to Washington later in the week, he told
reporters in Jerusalem on Sunday morning.
“This
has been a productive couple of days with very, very intensive talks,”
he said.Addressing skepticism on both sides about the
probability for reaching a final agreement, he added, “These issues are
not easy. If it was easy it would have been resolved a long time ago.
These are complicated issues that involve…the survival of peoples. This
conflict has gone on too long, so positions have hardened. Mistrust
obviously exists at a very high level. So we have to work through that
and around that and over that.”He urged leaders to avoid the spate of
criticism each side has leveled at the other in recent weeks, with
Netanyahu accusing the Palestinian leadership of anti-Jewish incitement,
and Palestinians threatening repeatedly to walk away from the talks
over settlement construction.“Now is not the time to get trapped in the
sort of up-and-down of the day-to-day challenges,” Kerry said. “This
does not lend itself to a daily tick-tock. We don’t have the luxury of
dwelling on the obstacles that we all know could distract us from our
goal. What we need to do is lift our sights and look ahead and keep in
mind the vision of what can come and if we can move forward.“I know
there are those out there on both
sides who question whether peace is possible. I know there is a high
level of cynicism, reservations about the possibilities. But it is clear
to me that we can work to bridge the remaining gaps that do exist,” he
insisted.Kerry said both Abbas and Netanyahu “have
already made important… and courageous decisions, difficult decisions”
in the negotiations.“The path is becoming clearer,” he added, “the
puzzle is becoming more defined, and it is becoming much more apparent
to everybody what the remaining tough choices are, and what the options
are with respect to those choices. But it takes time to work through
these things.A US official told Haaretz over the weekend
that one of the main obstacles holding up the framework deal is each
side’s demand that their reservations over the framework appear as a
separate appendix in the final text, rather than as part of the main
text which details the areas of common ground in the talks.“It is
essential that if there are
reservations, they will be part of the framework, not a separate part.
Otherwise, it would damage the agreement. For example, if the framework
includes a clause stating that the negotiations will be based on the
1967 borders, we cannot agree to a reservation stating that one of the
sides opposes this,” the official said.Any agreed framework would not be
a signed
document, but would address all core issues, including the borders
between Israel and a future Palestine, security, Palestinian refugees,
and conflicting claims to Jerusalem, the official said. The official
also said if the parties agreed on a framework for negotiating a final
peace deal, it might not be made public to avoid exposing the leaders to
political pressures at home.But those pressures are already ramping
up.Jewish Home Knesset faction chair MK Ayelet
Shaked said Sunday morning that her party would not remain in the
coalition if the government adopts a framework agreement “based on the
’67 lines.”“A government that accepts the ’67 lines is a government of
national suicide,” she said.Kerry reiterated long-standing Obama
administration commitments to Israel’s security and Palestinian
independence.“The security of Israel is always paramount in
my mind, in our mind. For 29 years, I had the privilege of serving in
the United States Senate, and I’m proud to say I had a 100% voting
record with respect to those issues concerning Israel. And I don’t
intend to change that now. Israel’s security is critical and the United
States’ relationship is ironclad.”But, he added, “so is our concern for
the
people of Palestine, for the Palestinians and their future. And I can
guarantee all parties that President [Barack] Obama and I are committed
to putting forward ideas that are fair, that are balanced and that
improve the security of all of the people of this region.”He declined to
give details about what
difficult decisions the leaders had made, saying, “We are not going to
negotiate this in public. But I can tell everybody all of the core
issues are on the table.”Kerry’s talks on Sunday with Jordan’s King
Abdullah II and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah are likely to also touch on
the civil war in Syria, rising violence in Iraq, and Iran’s nuclear
program. Kerry is reportedly to meet next week with Arab League
representatives and discuss the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and
other regional issues.
Times of Israel staff and AP contributed to this report.
Migrants march on embassies in second day of protests
Asylum seekers call on US, UN, EU and other diplomatic offices to pressure Israel to soften refugee policies
day after the UN’s refugee
agency backed their claims, thousands of African asylum seekers rallied
Monday morning at a handful of foreign embassies in Israel, stepping up a
two-day-old protest against Israeli policies.
The
migrants, who are also taking part in a three-day strike, are angry at
the government’s incarceration rules, which have seen tens of thousands
of them held for long periods in prison facilities in the Negev, and
long delays in processing their refugee applications.“We don’t want to live here for the rest of
our lives. We want basic rights until we can return,” Dawit, an Eritrean
who is one of the leaders of the protest, told Channel 2 on Monday
morning.“I love my country, the land I grew up in. My
family is in Eritrea. But I can’t live there now,” he said, citing his
home country’s political turmoil and repression, including a policy of
forced lifelong military service. “Until I can, I only want Israel to
treat me like a human being.”The migrants, mainly from Sudan and Eritrea,
demonstrated Monday morning in front of embassies and diplomatic offices
of the United States, European Union, France, Canada, Sweden, Britain,
Germany, Italy, the African Union and the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees. The main demonstration took place in front of the American
embassy on Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Street, where thousands of migrants had
gathered by mid-morning.According to spokespeople for the
demonstrators, they had delivered a letter to US ambassador Dan Shapiro
asking him to use his influence on the Israeli government to bring about
the cancellation of the law allowing their incarceration in the Negev.Israel’s regulations on employing or providing
aid to African migrants can be confusing. The migrants are generally
forbidden from working until they are registered as asylum seekers, but
getting that far in the process can be onerous, critics say.Tel Aviv’s Mayor Ron Huldai urged the
government to face up to the problem, and to allow the migrants to work.
He warned that the friction in his city would lead to violence if the
asylum-seekers’ complaints were not dealt with properly. The government
is “not merely ignoring them, it’s branding them criminals,” the mayor
protested in an Army Radio interview.
Israel’s government says most of the 50-60,000
migrants are not refugees but rather economic migrants, and that they
will not be allowed to stay in Israel.“A small minority of these people are really
refugees,” Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Ofir Akunis
(Likud) insisted on Monday afternoon.“Other countries, including those they’re
turning to, America and European countries, don’t recognize them as
refugees either,” he insisted in a Channel 2 interview.Some 3,000 people marched from Levinsky Park
in South Tel Aviv toward the center of city on Monday morning, before
dispersing to the embassies. Orit Marom, an activist in Assaf, the Aid
Organization for Refugees, said thousands had been expected at the
protests.The protesters called on the world “to help us
in the face of Israel’s harsh policies against us,” according to a
statement released by the protesters.“We will call on the international community
to support our struggle against Israel’s violations of basic human
rights,” the statement added.On Sunday, an estimated 30,000 migrants
participated in a march that began in Tel Aviv’s Levinsky Park and ended
with a demonstration in Rabin Square at which the crowd chanted “No
more prison, no more deportation. We are refugees, we need asylum.”“We know the situation isn’t ideal in any
country,” the protesters wrote in a statement announcing Monday’s
protests. “It’s clear to us that all nations have difficulty absorbing
masses of people, survivors of genocide and war, but with that, the
nations of the world must honor international conventions and respect
human rights.”In Israel, they added, “we don’t get a proper
examination of our asylum requests or recognition of our basic rights
that will allow us to live in dignity. Instead, the Israeli government
sees us as a threat that must be removed quickly. It arrests us in the
streets as though we are criminals, incarcerates us for indefinite
periods, leaves us on the fringes of society without access to basic
rights, and continues to incite against us repeatedly.”
Interior Minister Gideon Saar responded to the
ongoing protest on Monday, repeating the government’s position that
most of the migrants were not refugees.“They are demanding collective recognition as
refugees in order to plant roots in Israel,” he told Army Radio. The
state was checking their requests on a case-by-case basis, he added, and
its work was “showing results. We’re seeing a sharp rise in the number
of infiltrators who are leaving Israel. They understand that the
government is serious, that we are serious.”
Most of the asylum seekers, he concluded, “are labor migrants, and the state of Israel is not their home.”
But the protests were being heard
internationally this week. The UN’s refugee agency called on Sunday for
Israel to reform its policies toward African asylum seekers, saying the
involuntary detentions and rules treat them as criminals.In a statement, the UNHCR, the UN Refugee
Agency, criticized the conditions at the Holot detention center in the
Negev and appealed to policy makers to consider alternative measures to
deal with the asylum seekers.The statement said Israel’s policies were
sowing fear, and Jerusalem should stop defining the refugees as ‘asylum
seekers’ and grant them protection.In their statement Monday, the protesters
called for “the direct involvement [of UNHCR] in examining asylum
requests,” and for “the nations of the world [to] verify that the
government of Israel respects its international commitment, to tell
[Israel] that it is possible to [behave] otherwise, that it is only
right to treat refugees as human beings, that international laws
establish the standards for dealing with refugees. Don’t allow the
government of Israel to repeatedly violate our basic human rights, its
own commitment under international law, and basic standards of human
decency.”
Marissa Newman contributed to this report.
Hateful anti-Israel education shows PA’s true colors, minister charges
Palestinians
accused of preaching anti-Semitism, including ‘elements of admiration
for Hitler’; PM says true peace requires ending incitement
Israel’s
government accused the
Palestinian Authority Sunday of educating children to seek the
destruction of Israel and look to Adolf Hitler as a role model.At
the same time Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu connected Palestinian
refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state to what he said was
continuing Palestinian incitement.“True peace cannot exist without
stopping the
incitement against Israel, and educating for peace,” Netanyahu said in a
statement. “The refusal of the Palestinians to recognize Israel as the
state of the Jewish people and declare the end of national demands –
this is the root of the conflict.”Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval
Steinitz
pointed to a number of cases of anti-Israel statements as proof that
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was not trying to make
peace.“As it talks of peace in the United Nations,
and in the international forums, it teaches for the destruction of the
State of Israel and the expulsion or destruction of the Jewish people,”
Steinitz told Israel Radio. “It is an entire system of hatred and one
that shows elements of admiration of Adolf Hitler as someone who knew
how to deal with the Jewish people.”Steinitz, whose ministry publishes
an “incitement index” meant to track Palestinian statements against
Israel, presented new findings on the subject to the cabinet Sunday.Steinitz’s
presentation focused on denials of
Israel’s right to exist; emphasis on Israel’s inevitable disappearance;
depiction of Jews as subhuman; and statements that all forms of
resistance — including terror — are legitimate.Among presented findings
were posts on Abbas’s
Presidential Guards’ Facebook page that showed maps of Israel labeled
as Palestine.Another post used as evidence, taken from the
official Fatah Facebook page and the website of its military wing from
November 2013, threatens to kidnap soldiers and fire rockets at
Israel.“We are talking about very serious things and it is about time
that we stopped burying our heads in the sand,” Steinitz said.During the
cabinet meeting, Netanyahu backed up Steinitz’s assertions.“To my
regret, this incitement is continuing,”
Netanyahu said. “Opposition to recognizing the Jewish state and our
right to be here is continuing. We are not foreigners in Jerusalem, Beit
El or Hebron. I reiterate that in my view, this is the root of both the
conflict and the incitement: the nonrecognition of this basic
fact.”Speaking at the same cabinet meeting, Justice
Minister Tzipi Livni, who also serves as Israel’s chief peace
negotiator, emphasized that the high levels of incitement must not be
used as a pretext to terminate the peace process with the Palestinian
leadership. Instead, the justice minister said, Israel must work toward
reaching an agreement in order to ensure it stays both a Jewish and a
democratic state.The incitement against Israel taking place
within Palestinian society, and especially within the Palestinian
education system, may result in extreme consequences and should serve as
an incentive for the Jewish state to advance a two-state solution in
order to separate from the Palestinian people, Livni said.
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Labor) told
Israel Radio on Sunday that while he doesn’t take the incitement
lightly, he rejects the notion that the hateful speech reflects the
Palestinian Authority’s point of view.Herzog called on the prime minister to make
historic decisions and noted that he wouldn’t be surprised if a final
agreement sees Palestinian government buildings located in East
Jerusalem neighborhoods.
Some Israeli leaders have long pointed to
Palestinian incitement, in education and the media, as evidence that
there is no peace partner.Last week Netanyahu, recalling
Palestinian celebrations over a prisoner release
earlier in the week, told Kerry he was skeptical over Ramallah’s
commitment to peace.“I know that you are committed to peace; I
know that I am committed to peace; but, unfortunately, given the actions
and words of Palestinian leaders, there’s growing doubt in Israel that
the Palestinians are committed to peace,” Netanyahu said during a joint
press conference on Thursday.On Monday, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon
said terror attacks were rooted in Palestinian indoctrination and Abbas
was not actually seeking peace.“They are only trying to get what they
can and
then they will continue,” he said, charging that the biggest problem
preventing reconciliation is the continued education supporting
anti-Israel terrorism within Palestinian society.“It all begins with
education,” Ya’alon said.
Catalonia urges EU leaders to endorse 'legal' referendum
03.01.14 @ 09:29-EUOBSERVER
By
Benjamin Fox
BRUSSELS - Catalonia's President, Artur
Mas, has written to EU leaders and world powers seeking their support
for a vote on independence from Spain.The appeal comes amid strong resistance to his plan to hold a referendum in November.Spain's governing centre-right Partido Popular and the opposition PSOE have both said it would breach the Spanish constitution.When Mas told media last month that separatist parties had agreed on
the referendum questions and on its "consultative" rather than legally
binding nature, the Spanish justice minister, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon,
said: "The poll will not be held."In an interview published on Wednesday (1 January), Spain's economy
minister, Luis de Guindos, added: "There is no national investor who
considers that there may be a secessionist process in Catalonia at this
time."But for his part, Mas believes he has both the mandate and the legal means to secure a vote.Separatist parties dominated snap elections in Catalonia in November,
with politicians who favour the region's “right to decide” taking some
two thirds of the 135 seats in the Catalan parliament."Contrary to some reports, there are a number of legal and
constitutional options which allow this referendum to take place in
Catalonia," Mas said in a letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
which was sent in December, but made public on Thursday."I am confident I can rely on you to encourage the peaceful,
democratic, transparent, and European process to which I and a vast
majority of the Catalan people are fully committed," he added.He also said that Catalonia - which accounts for more than 20 percent
of Spain's GDP - is wealthy enough to be a net contributor to the EU
budget.He sent similar notes to the EU's 26 other capitals and to 45 leaders of non-EU states.The Catalan referendum, if it happens, is to take place less than two
months after Scottish voters say whether they want to leave the UK.As with Scotland, it is unclear whether an independent Catalonia would be required to re-apply for EU membership.If it does, it might make Catalans more reluctant to pursue independence.Currently, opinion polls indicate that around 55 percent of Catalans want to leave Spain.
EU leaders have so far remained silent on whether they would endorse the move.But Mas did not send letters to the EU institutions, which have already taken sides.In responses to parliamentary questions by MEPs, the European
Commission has said Catalonia would have to leave the EU before trying
to get back in.