JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER.
1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
LUKE 21:28-29
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
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,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
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)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
Iran lawyer arrested after claiming executed man innocent-Defense attorney Zeinab Taheri previously represented Iranian scholar sentenced to death for allegedly spying for Israel-By AFP-TOI-JUN 21,18
TEHRAN, Iran — An Iranian defense lawyer has been arrested after claiming a man executed this week for killing three policemen was innocent, Iran’s Fars news agency said Wednesday.Zeinab Taheri was taken into custody after an arrest warrant was issued against her for making “false statements” and because of “her lies propagated online claiming (the defendant) was not guilty,” the conservative-linked agency said.It did not specify the date of her arrest.“The female lawyer who recently claimed to be the defendant’s lawyer and who has gone hoarse saying he is innocent was basically not this person’s lawyer,” Tehran’s chief justice Gholamhossein Esmaili said, according to the agency.#BREAKING-One day after #MohammadSalas was executed, his lawyer, Zeinab Taheri, has reportedly been arrested by #Iran's authorities. pic.twitter.com/HdqF6dmfy6— Heshmat Alavi (@HeshmatAlavi) June 19, 2018-Mohammad Reza Salas was hanged on Monday for driving a bus into a group of police officers during February clashes with security forces, killing three of them.Salas belongs to the minority Sufi sect, a mystic branch of Islam tolerated in Iran but perceived as a “deviation” by many conservatives members of the Shiite community.Taheri’s name appears in a statement released on Monday by Human Rights Watch, which presents her as Salas’s lawyer.The statement, which addresses “serious allegations of torture to force confessions,” refers to an interview Taheri gave with another foreign-based NGO in which the lawyer claims that Salas was violently beaten in prison to the extent he nearly lost his eyesight.Taheri also represented Iranian scholar Ahmadreza Djalili, sentenced to death for spying for Israel in a trial rights group Amnesty International called a “secret and hasty procedure that did not allow arguments from the defense.”On the day of Salas’s execution, posts from a Twitter account bearing Taheri’s name said it would “reveal for public opinion all possible” evidence of his innocence — later stating it would not do so over requests from the family.The same account posted a tweet in favor of Salas’s “innocence” on Wednesday, after Taheri had been reportedly arrested.
Booby-trapped Gaza balloons land on trampoline; mom tells kids: They’re not toys-Mother of home where explosive device lands says her daughter, 7, now knows 'balloons that we don't recognize are suspicious'-By Judah Ari Gross-TOI-JUN 21,18
A cluster of balloons carrying a small explosive device that was launched at Israel from the Gaza Strip landed in a nearby community on Wednesday, getting stuck on a backyard trampoline.“Balloons on a trampoline in the backyard — that’s a decorative play area and beckons the most innocent ones, and yet our children have lost their innocence because of this phenomenon,” said Meirav Vidal, whose house it was.“These days it’s important to explain to kids that balloons are also a ‘suspicious object’ that they have to keep away from, to not touch and to call an adult,” Vidal said.She said her daughter had gotten the message: “Like my seven-year-old says: ‘Balloons that we don’t recognize are suspicious.'”The balloons that got stuck on the trampoline were one of at least three sets that landed in the Eshkol region on Wednesday.A second cluster of balloons got stuck in a tree in another backyard, and the third bunch landed in an agricultural field, a spokesperson for the region said.In all three cases, small explosives were attached to the balloons by a string, the official said.“No damage was caused,” she said.Vidal happens to serve as the head of the Eshkol region’s “resilience center,” a service offered by all the local governments in the Gaza periphery, which is meant to help the civilian population handle the stresses of the regular violence from the Gaza Strip and carry on living.Vidal said that although children have to be taught that balloons can be “suspicious,” she will continue to use them for festivities.“During the next birthdays, we will still decorate the trampoline with balloons and continue to celebrate,” she said.Since March 30, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have launched hundreds of kites and helium balloons bearing flammable materials, and occasionally explosives, sparking near-daily fires that have burned thousands of acres of land in southern Israel. At least three fires were reported in Israeli communities close to the Gaza border on Wednesday.Around midnight on Tuesday, Israeli jets bombed three Hamas positions in the Strip in response to numerous airborne arson attacks by Gazans earlier in the day.Minutes later, Palestinians in the Strip launched the first of many rocket and mortar barrages at southern Israel, triggering sirens throughout the area and sending thousands into bomb shelters.Over the course of the next four hours, some 45 rockets and mortar shells were fired at southern Israel, with at least six exploding inside communities, causing damage but no injuries.In response, the Israeli military carried out two more rounds of airstrikes in Gaza, hitting a total of approximately 25 targets on a number of Hamas compounds.
Condoms, kites, birthday balloons: ‘Silly’ Gaza weapons could lead to real war-Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are relentlessly flying a variety of airborne arson and explosive devices into Israel, causing hundreds of fires, millions of shekels in damage-By Judah Ari Gross-TOI-JUN 21,18
For over two months, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been flying kites, birthday balloons and inflated latex condoms into Israel, relying on the gentle Mediterranean coastal breeze to push them across the border.Silly as they may sound, these weapons are no joke.Most of them carry metal mesh pouches containing a burning piece of coal or oil-soaked rag, which have sparked hundreds of fires in southern Israel, destroying thousands of acres of land and causing millions of shekels in damage.A smaller number carry small explosive devices, which seem to have not yet caused injury because of repeated warnings by police and local government officials not to approach them.“They are not toys, they are weapons that are intended to kill and inflict damage,” IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told reporters on Wednesday.On Wednesday, a cluster of balloons carrying one such small explosive device landed in a backyard in the Eshkol region of southern Israel, getting stuck on a trampoline, a spokesperson for the local government said.“Balloons on a trampoline in the backyard — that’s a decorative play area and beckons the most innocent ones, and yet our children have lost their innocence because of this phenomenon,” said Meirav Vidal, the mother whose home it was.“These days it’s important to explain to kids that balloons are also a ‘suspicious object’ that they have to keep away from, to not touch and to call an adult,” Vidal said.The kites are almost all handmade. Three criss-crossing scraps of wood, bound in the middle with a piece of wire, form a hexagonal frame, which is covered in a piece of plastic sheeting. The tails are often made out of cut-up homework assignments.The balloons come in two main varieties: birthday and inflated latex condoms.Adding to the absurdity, many of the birthday balloons have printed on them endearing or celebratory lines turned ironic under the circumstances.“I LOVE (HEART HERE) you,” was written on one balloon to which a small explosive was attached that landed on a highway in southern Israel last week. It shut down traffic until a police sapper detonated it under controlled conditions.In at least two cases, balloons covered in hearts with the Arabic word habibi, or “my beloved,” touched down in fields in southern Israel — one in an empty lot, the other in the middle of a peanut field. In those cases as well, a police sapper had to be called in.The use of the latex condoms raises the question of where they are coming from.Condoms in Gaza have generally been supplied by either local Palestinian organizations or through international programs. (The United Nation’s World Health Organization does not supply or distribute condoms in the Gaza Strip, a spokesperson for the organization said.) Often, a single balloon is flown over the border, bearing an incendiary device or small explosive. However, there have also been cases of multiple balloons being tied together in order to carry larger and heavier payloads.These dead simple and dirt cheap methods have presented a significant challenge to the mighty Israel Defense Forces.The military has used drones and other high-tech solutions to some positive effect, but every day the kites and balloons keep coming.The Defense Ministry has also threatened to limit the supply of helium into the Gaza Strip, which is supposed to be used to help run magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines.Recently, the army has turned to deterrence — not stopping the airborne devices themselves, but trying to get the Palestinians to stop launching them.Over the past two weeks, the IDF has started firing warning shots at the kite- and balloon-flyers and at the tents and cars they use.After this tactic failed to yield results, the army shifted its focus to the Hamas terror group, which rules Gaza.The military does not believe that Hamas is behind all of these kites and balloons, but says the terrorist group supports the practice and certainly is not working to prevent it.“We see an effort made by Hamas to encourage and enhance the production and launching of these kites,” Conricus said.“It might have started spontaneously, but as Hamas saw the damage caused on the Israeli side, it has taken this offensive effort under its control and actively promotes it,” he said.On Monday and Wednesday, the Israeli Air Force conducted a series of predawn airstrikes on Hamas positions in the coastal enclave in an attempt to get the terrorist group to persuade Gazans to abandon the practice.It was not immediately clear if this new Israeli tactic will succeed.Terrorist groups in the Strip immediately responded to the early morning airstrikes on Monday by firing three rockets at southern Israel, though the rest of the day indeed saw a decrease in the number of arson devices flown into Israel. However, Palestinians were back at it again the next day.And Wednesday’s predawn strikes by the IDF met an even more forceful response, with Hamas and other Gaza-based groups launching almost 50 rockets and mortar shells at southern Israel.As of writing, it was too early to tell if Wednesday’s airstrikes would ultimately prove more effective, or if the back-and-forth between the IDF and Hamas would escalate into broader violence.In the meantime, Israeli politicians have begun to publicly debate the merits and legality of the IDF shooting the kite- and balloon-launchers, rather than firing warning shots near them.Former IDF general Yoav Galant, who is ordinarily more hawkish, spoke out against shooting the kite-flyers, many of whom are young.“A lack of experience in the use of force can lead to the intoxication of power. It is a very serious mistake to shoot at an eight-year-old child, certainly in a deliberate manner,” Housing Minister Galant, a member of Kulanu and a former IDF Southern Command chief, told the Ynet news site.Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) responded to Galant’s remarks on Twitter, saying that lethal force was justified in this case.“If someone shoots at your family, you shoot at him… if someone sends burning and exploding balloons, you shoot at him. It is so obvious that I find it hard to believe that I need to explain,” Bennett said.Bennett later posted photos to the social media platform of a group of Palestinians involved in the launching of incendiary balloons, captioning the pictures: “They are not eight-year-old children. They are trying to kill our eight-year-old children.”The military, meanwhile, kept up its tactic of firing warning shots at the people launching the kites and balloons.On Wednesday afternoon, Israeli aircraft fired at two groups of Palestinians launching airborne incendiary devices into Israel — aiming to warn, not to hit.
Bill to criminalize some filming of IDF soldiers clears first Knesset hurdle-Legislation's proponent says it's needed to protect IDF troops from 'hostile elements'; opposition MKs decry attempt to 'legitimize' alleged abuses-By Alexander Fulbright-TOI-JUN 21,18
Legislation criminalizing the filming of Israeli soldiers engaged in some military activities cleared its first hurdle in the Knesset Wednesday ahead of expected revisions meant to give it legal backing.The bill, which passed its first reading in a 45-42 vote, would outlaw the recording of soldiers carrying out their duties with the aim of demoralizing them or harming Israel’s security.The draft legislation will now head to committee before coming up for the second and third plenum readings it must clear to become law.“For many years already the state of Israel has witnessed the troubling phenomenon of the documenting IDF soldiers… by anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups,” an explanation of the bill states.“In many cases the organizations spend whole days near IDF troops and impatiently wait for activity that be documented in a misleading and biased way and by which cast shame on IDF soldiers,” it adds.Yisrael Beytenu MK Robert Ilatov, who proposed the bill with backing from Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, said ahead of the vote the legislation is necessary to prevent soldiers from “hostile elements” who seek to interfere with their duties and disgrace them.“The soldiers we dispatch should not be at the front lines of the BDS organizations, and to not allow you, those who support these organizations, to slander the state of Israel,” he told the Knesset.Ilatov said the bill is not meant to limit free speech, but “freedom of speech isn’t anarchy.”The passage of the legislation in its first reading was hailed by right-wing lawmakers and NGOs, such as the Im Tirzu organization, though Arab and left-wing lawmakers criticized the bill as an effort to hide alleged abuses.“For 35 years I proudly wore the IDF uniform. I never felt a need to hide behind cameras except for security needs,” said Zionist Union MK Eyal Ben-Reuven, a former major-general in the army.“The whole purpose of the law is to incite against human rights organizations and to challenge the basis principles of Israeli democracy,” said MK Tamar Zandberg, head of the left-wing Meretz party.“The pictures will be taken. The reality is what we must correct and not try and silence,” she added.Joint (Arab) List leader Ayman Odeh said, “This law is first and foremost an attempt to legitimize the injustices of the occupation, but no less than this it part of the attempt to dismantle democracy and harm freedom of the press.”While the bill passed Wednesday includes a punishment of up to five years in prison for anyone who films or publishes military activities harming “soldiers’ morale,” Likud Minister Tzachi Hanegbi said the legislation would be revised before advancing further as agreed by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation.Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has said he cannot defend the bill in its current version from a petition to the court, claiming it contradicts Israel’s Basic Laws.Proponents of the bill agreed to compromise on its much-criticized restrictions during Sunday’s cabinet meeting so that the prohibition on filming soldiers will only fall on those actively clashing with troops and attempting to obstruct their activities.The yet-to-be revised version of the bill is expected to include a maximum penalty of three years for interfering with a soldier’s duty, though releasing footage with the intention of “harming state security” could result in a punishment of 10 years in prison.Supporters of the legislation say it is necessary to prevent interference in IDF military activities and the harming of the IDF’s image.“The documentation [of soldiers] is biased and edited in a one-sided way with one purpose: To undermine the morale of IDF troops and residents of Israel,” the explanation of the bill says.Several incidents in recent years in which soldiers were filmed using excessive force or abusing power have become a PR nightmare for Israel, while NGOs say the footage is vital to keeping the military accountable.Cases include the 2016 killing of a disarmed and wounded Palestinian attacker by soldier Elor Azaria, who was convicted of manslaughter and jailed, and an incident in 2012 in which a soldier hit a Danish activist in the face with his gun.Raoul Wootliff contributed to this report.
Saudi Arabia arrests two women’s rights activists-Nouf Abdelaziz and Mayaa al-Zahrani are being held incommunicado, and were arrested earlier this month following the detention of at least 14 other campaigners-By AFP-TOI-JUN 21,18
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia has arrested two more women’s rights activists, in an “unrelenting crackdown” just days before the kingdom ends a decades-long ban on female motorists, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.The New York-based watchdog said activists Nouf Abdelaziz and Mayaa al-Zahrani were arrested earlier this month following the detention of at least 14 other women’s rights campaigners and supporters.“Saudi authorities have arrested two more women’s rights activists… in what appears to be an unrelenting crackdown on the women’s rights movement,” HRW said.“Saudi activists have reported that the authorities have placed travel bans on numerous others since May 15.”Saudi officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The government said earlier this month that it detained 17 people for “undermining” the kingdom’s security, without disclosing their names.Rights groups have identified many of the detainees as campaigners for women’s right to drive and an end to the conservative Islamic kingdom’s male guardianship system.Activist and writer Abdelaziz was arrested after she publicly expressed solidarity with the detained activists, and her friend Zahrani was apprehended days later, HRW said, adding that both women are being held incommunicado.Zahrani’s arrest came after she posted a letter Abdelaziz asked her to make public in case of her arrest, the watchdog said.“The Saudi government appears determined to leave its citizens without any space to show even rhetorical support for activists jailed in this unforgiving crackdown on dissent,” said HRW’s Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson.“Nouf Abdelaziz and Mayaa al-Zahrani’s only ‘crime’ seems to be expressing solidarity with their fellow imprisoned activists.”Authorities have said that eight of the 17 detainees had been provisionally released until their investigation is completed.Nine suspects, including four women, remain in custody after they “confessed” to a slew of charges such as suspicious contact with “hostile” organizations and recruiting people in sensitive government positions, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.Previous reports in state-backed media branded some of the detainees traitors and “agents of embassies.”Campaigners have dismissed the reports as a “smear” campaign and the crackdown has sparked a torrent of international criticism.Saudi Arabia, the only country in the world where women are not allowed drive, is set to lift its decades-long ban on female drivers on June 24.
UN: State, rebels committed war crimes in Syria’s Ghouta-Report calls on all parties to desist from sieges in the future, concluding they are characterized by war crimes-By Agencies-TOI-JUN 21,18
BEIRUT — The United Nations says that during a five-year government siege and two months of fighting earlier this year in which government forces captured eastern suburbs of the capital Damascus from rebels, both sides committed war crimes.The UN Commission of Inquiry in a report released Wednesday in Geneva condemned the government siege on the suburbs known as eastern Ghouta, saying at least 265,000 individuals lived in the area during the “longest running siege in modern history.”The Syrian government siege ended in April when government forces and their allies launched a crushing offensive to capture the area leaving hundreds of people dead.The 23-page report urged all parties to the conflict in Syria to desist from resorting to sieges in the future, concluding they are characterized by war crimes.At the start of the year Eastern Ghouta was a sprawling semi-rural area just east of Damascus, home to almost 400,000 inhabitants, which had already endured several years under a government siege that slashed access to food, medicine and other goods.The Syrian government and allied forces launched a massive assault on February 18 to retake the enclave, which had been out of regime control since 2012.The intense bombardment killed some 1,700 civilians according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, and pulverized the area, reducing many neighborhoods to rubble.Damascus has been accused of carrying out an April 7 chemical weapons attack on Douma, the final part of the enclave where rebels were balking at a Russian-brokered deal to evacuate them to northern Syria.
Hamas’s goal: To convince Israel that tolerating fire kites is preferable to war-Gaza's Islamist rulers know Israel's government is deeply wary of entering another major conflict, but each new round of hostility brings such conflict closer-By Avi Issacharoff-TOI-JUN 21,18
The face-off between Hamas and Israel surrounding the “fire kites” and incendiary balloons flown from Gaza into Israel is intensifying. After what has become another routine day, Tuesday, of these incendiary weapons sparking fires in southern Israel, Israel shortly after midnight staged airstrikes on Hamas positions west of Rafah. Barely an hour later Hamas began a barrage of responses — firing rockets into residential areas close to Gaza — and the back-and-forth hostilities continued for hours predawn Wednesday.The two sides are determined to lay down new ground rules. Israel is endeavoring to make it clear that it cannot tolerate the ongoing airborne attacks from Gaza — the kites and balloons carrying flammable materials and explosives and causing immense damage. And thus its reprisal attacks on Hamas facilities.And Hamas, which on Wednesday morning was hailing its achievement in launching at least 45 rockets at Israel, is seeking to make plain that it will not tolerate attacks on its positions as a response to the kites. Hamas wants to assert that it considers the fire kites to be an entirely legitimate tool and that Israeli airstrikes in response are not acceptable.What this adds up to is a case of each side trying to constrain the operations of the other, via an escalation. As of this writing, this escalation could be defined as calibrated. The problem is that with each new round of hostility, the potential for far greater conflict grows.What we’ve seen repeatedly now are attacks, counter-attacks, pauses, and then further and more serious hostilities.Hamas’s broader goal at the moment is to seek to impress upon Israel that the price of the next war would be so devastating that it is better either to reconcile itself to the fire kites or to permit substantial economic relief for Gaza at the earliest opportunity.Hamas is well aware of how wary Israel is of entering another major conflict, and it hears the voices in Israel urging the government to improve conditions in Gaza. Only last week the security cabinet held a discussion about possible solutions to the situation in the Strip. But it appears that Hamas doesn’t quite understand all the political considerations that led the cabinet to decide not to decide: At the end of the special session, it became clear that the Israeli government was not in a hurry to take dramatic decisions of one kind or another — to escalate military activity or to accelerate economic relief — because of a variety of political considerations.Even the idea of targeting those who are launching the fire kites is not being implemented for now, because of the concern in the IDF that this could lead to war and because of the legal implications of such a step. Government minister Tzachi Hanegbi said on Tuesday, indeed, that Israel would emphatically not target the young Gazans who launch the kites, that those ministers who demand such action are “populists,” and that the address for a military response is the cynical Hamas leaders who instigate the attacks.The problem is that the reliance on strikes at Hamas facilities is itself part of a recipe for escalation. Overnight, the dozens of Israeli strikes at Hamas targets caused almost no injuries, with the exception of two Hamas activists who were very lightly hurt. Plainly the Israeli strikes were intended to convey a message and nothing more. And yet, Hamas responded with relatively heavy rocket and mortar fire on the south — here too without injury to Israelis.Self-evidently, if this continues, sooner or later people will be injured on one or both sides, and the era of calibration will be over.In response to over 45 rockets launched by Hamas towards southern Israeli communities, the IDF targeted military objectives in the Gaza Strip belonging to Hamas pic.twitter.com/1UvzPK9JAm— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) June 20, 2018-The kites and balloons themselves are being organized by Hamas. Though hardly a glorious feat of creativity by the Hamas military wing, or a particularly subtle move, it is nonetheless effective. Hamas is not only utilizing condoms with flammable material but also sometimes more sophisticated means — including some kites carrying explosives that explode above the heads of soldiers and civilians, and others carrying fragmentation grenades.On Sunday, the IDF did strike the car of one of those responsible for these attacks, but even this strike was intended merely to hit the vehicle, not the terrorist. His car was in fact destroyed — a total write-off, to use the insurers’ term. The man himself is still with us.
Hungary to push ahead with 'Stop Soros' law on NGOs-By Eszter Zalan-EUOBSERVER-JUN 20,18
BRUSSELS, Today, 07:50-Hungary will proceed with a parliamentary vote on Wednesday (20 June) on the government's so-called 'Stop Soros' bill - without waiting for the opinion of a European body of legal experts.The Council of Europe's 'Venice Commission', a panel of constitutional law experts from the human rights' body, is due to issue its opinion on the bill, but only on Friday.Its president, Gianni Buquicchio, asked the Hungarian authorities to halt the adoption of the law until Friday or "at least to take into account the commission's recommendations" in its draft opinion.However, Gergely Gulyas, Hungary's minister of the prime minister's office, told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday (19 June) that Hungary took note of the commission's opinions, but said that the bill is an adequate response to the migration challenges.Under the package, people who help migrants not entitled to protection to submit requests for asylum, or who help illegal migrants stay legally in Hungary, will be liable for jail.NGOs dealing with migration describe the move as an attempt to silence the government's critics and to crack down on civil society.The bill is seen as part of Hungary premier Viktor Orban's efforts to tighten his grip on power by continuing a campaign against the EU's migration policies, and against Hungarian-born US billionaire George Soros.The bill, submitted only a few weeks after Orban's ruling Fidesz party won elections by a landslide, also rules out asylum for those migrants who arrived in Hungary via a safe third country, in which they were not directly exposed to persecution.Gulyas said the Venice Commission's draft opinion did not question the right for Hungary to apply the criminal code in migration issues, but only disagreed with the proportionality of the government's measures."We do not agree with this, but we thank them for the advice," Gulyas said, adding that the publication of the opinion on Friday was merely a formality.Prime Minister Viktor Orban told a reporter in Budapest on Tuesday that the vote will go ahead."We have the majority, so we will adopt it [the bill]," he said. Orban's Fidesz party has a two-thirds majority in parliament.The UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, urged Hungary previously to scrap the draft law, saying it would deprive refugees and asylum-seekers of vital services and critical aid, and encourage "rising xenophobic attitudes".Soros, who is Jewish, was vilified in the election campaign by Fidesz, and some of the targeted NGOs are financed by the billionaire's Open Society Foundationpromoting human rights and liberal values.In a separate tax bill, Hungary's government is also proposing a 25 percent special migration tax on organisations dealing with migration.
FBI agent escorted from office after text messages critical of Trump-[Reuters]-By Sarah N. Lynch=YAHOONEWS-June 21, 2018
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An FBI agent who criticized then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in text messages in 2016 was taken to task by Republicans at a U.S. Congress hearing on Tuesday, while his lawyer said he was recently escorted out of the FBI building.Peter Strzok, who once worked on the FBI investigation into the handling of classified information by former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, has become a target for Republicans trying to show the FBI is biased against Trump."On February and March of 2016, Peter Strzok said Trump's abysmal, Trump's an idiot," Republican Representative Jim Jordan, a Trump ally, said at the hearing. "Hillary should win 100 million to zero. It sounds like he hates the president."Democrats accused Republicans of cherry-picking parts of a recent report to attack the FBI.Strzok's lawyer Aitan Goelman said on Tuesday that Strzok was removed from the FBI building, at an unspecified date, as part of disciplinary proceedings related to the texts.Goelman said Strzok "remains a proud FBI agent" who wants to continue working for the law enforcement agency."Pete has steadfastly played by the rules and respected the process, and yet he continues to be the target of unfounded personal attacks," Goelman said in a statement."All of this seriously calls into question the impartiality of the disciplinary process, which now appears tainted by political influence."An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment.The Justice Department's inspector general, Michael Horowitz, released a report last week describing missteps by the FBI in its handling of the investigation of Clinton's private email server use while she was secretary of state.The report found there was no political bias at the FBI in decisions made in the Clinton probe.But the inspector general's report criticized Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page. The two were having an extramarital affair and exchanged thousands of politically charged texts. In one, Page asked Strzok if Trump was going to be president. Strzok responded: "No, he's not. We'll stop it."After the probe of Clinton's use of her private email server for sensitive information, Strzok worked on Special Counsel Robert Mueller's inquiry into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. He was removed from the probe and reassigned.Both Trump and Russia have denied any collusion or wrongdoing.(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Bill Trott)
WORLD POWERS IN THE LAST DAYS (END OF AGE OF GRACE NOT THE WORLD)
EUROPEAN UNION-KING OF WEST-DAN 9:26-27,DAN 7:23-24,DAN 11:40,REV 13:1-10
EGYPT-KING OF THE SOUTH-DAN 11:40
RUSSIA-KING OF THE NORTH-EZEK 38:1-2,EZEK 39:1-3
CHINA-KING OF THE EAST-DAN 11:44,REV 9:16,18
VATICAN-RELIGIOUS LEADER-REV 13:11-18,REV 17:4-5,9,18
WORLD TERRORISM
OH BY THE WAY WHEN THE MEDIA SAYS ALLU-AK-BAR MEANS GOD IS GREAT LIE. IN ISLAM ALLU-AK-BAR MEANS OUR GOD IS GREATER OR GREATEST. THIS IS HOW THE MEDIA SUCK HOLES UP TO ISLAMIC-QURANIC-MUSLIMS. BY WATERING DOWN THE REAL MEANING OF THE SEX FOR MURDER DEATH CULT ISLAM. TO MAKE IT SOUND LIKE A PEACEFUL RELIGION (CULT OF DEATH AND WORLD DOMINATION).
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her,(HAGAR) Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael;(FATHER OF THE ARAB/MUSLIMS) because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he (ISHMAEL-FATHER OF THE ARAB-MUSLIMS) will be a wild (DONKEY-JACKASS) man;(ISLAM IS A FAKE AND DANGEROUS SEX FOR MURDER CULT) his hand will be against every man,(ISLAM HATES EVERYONE) and every man's hand against him;(PROTECTING THEMSELVES FROM BEING BEHEADED) and he (ISHMAEL ARAB/MUSLIM) shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.(LITERAL-THE ARABS LIVE WITH THEIR BRETHERN JEWS)
ISAIAH 14:12-14
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,(SATAN) son of the morning!(HEBREW-CRECENT MOON-ISLAM) how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I (SATAN HAS EYE TROUBLES) will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.(AND 1/3RD OF THE ANGELS OF HEAVEN FELL WITH SATAN AND BECAME DEMONS)
JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.(ISLAM MURDERS IN THE NAME OF MOON GOD ALLAH OF ISLAM)
Obama's lack of response may have emboldened Russia election meddling: former officials-[Reuters]-By Patricia Zengerle-YAHOONEWS-June 20, 2018
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia may have stepped up efforts to meddle in the 2016 U.S. election after President Barack Obama's administration did not retaliate strongly to reports of its activities, former aides to the Democratic president told U.S. senators on Wednesday.Victoria Nuland, a top State Department official dealing with Russia under Obama, told the Senate intelligence committee that Moscow seemed to have slowed its influence campaign after Obama made "a stern and personal warning" to Russian President Vladimir Putin in September 2016.But she said the campaign seemed to accelerate during October, using social media platforms to spread false narratives as the Nov. 8 Election Day approached."I think it's probably the case that the Russians expected deterrent measures and didn't see them, and so felt they could keep pushing," Nuland said.The panel held the hearing as part of its investigation that began after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Moscow sought to influence the presidential campaign to boost Republican Donald Trump's chances of winning the White House.Russia denies seeking to influence the election. Trump has repeatedly dismissed investigations of Russian meddling as a "witch hunt."The committee's Republican chairman, Senator Richard Burr, said he plans more hearings with Obama's national security advisor, Susan Rice, and the former heads of the FBI and Department of Justice.Nuland and Michael Daniel, who was Obama's cybersecurity coordinator, said U.S. agencies and technology companies did not share enough information to effectively combat foreign election hacking."We didn't have sufficient integration of information to understand how their campaign was structured," Nuland said.They said the threat from Russia to November's U.S. mid-term elections and the 2020 presidential campaign remains.Daniel said the administration was focused in 2016 on activity aimed at state and local election systems, and did not become fully aware until later of the extent of the foreign influence operations.Nuland said the Obama administration held back from a strong response for reasons including a reluctance to seem to be influencing the contest between the Republican Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, Obama's former secretary of state."There was already by late July and early August accusations by candidate Trump that the election would be rigged. And I think there was a concern that if this wasn't handled properly, any move publicly would be seen as President Obama playing into those accusations," she said.(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
German finance minister defends euro reforms against conservative attack-[Reuters]-By Tom Körkemeier and Gernot Heller-YAHOONEWS-June 21, 2018
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's finance minister on Wednesday defended a euro zone reform blueprint agreed with France against criticism by Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives that it could undermine monetary stability.Members of Merkel's conservative bloc opposed to larger financial contributions to the euro zone criticized her agreement with French President Emmanuel Macron to create a common budget for the currency bloc. They said they were not briefed on the plan ahead of time and threatened not to back it.Merkel and Macron hailed a "new chapter" for the euro zone after talks at the Meseberg retreat outside Berlin on Tuesday where they praised the budget as a tool to strengthen economic competitiveness in the currency union. But details were scant.Merkel's conservative bloc is divided over immigration and stiff resistance to the euro zone plans could further erode her authority and threaten to unravel her coalition government three months after it took office.Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, whose Social Democrats (SPD) are Merkel's junior coalition partners, said in a speech at a banking event that the euro zone budget was only a small component of the reform package agreed with France."We are standing at a crossroads and we have decided to go down a well-paved street called the European Union," he said.He also defended a proposal to create a Europe-wide unemployment insurance system, saying it would make the euro zone more resilient to economic shocks.Conservative lawmakers, especially from the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), are not convinced."The CSU will not be part of any attempt to join a transfer union," Markus Blume, the Bavarian party's general secretary, told the Ausburger Allgemeine newspaper. "Financial robustness and monetary stability are non-negotiable for the CSU."CSU leader Horst Seehofer criticized Merkel for not briefing the CSU ahead of the agreement with Macron."It's not good style when such important agreements are made and the CSU is not included," he told the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper. "That's not okay."He said his party would not back the agreement until it had received a detailed accounting of its projected costs at a special meeting of the coalition parties on Tuesday.Merkel said on Tuesday the new budget would be used to strengthen economic convergence within the euro zone, which was almost torn apart by a debt crisis that took hold in 2009.-'SHADOW BUDGET'-Macron said the euro zone budget would be operational by 2021 with annual revenues and spending.The two leaders had decided to focus on broad issues to leave more room for negotiations with the other 17 euro members, which leaves scope for the plans to be watered down.National contributions and European resources would be used to fund the budget, the leaders said in their declaration."The European Union will have a shadow budget for the euro zone," CSU lawmaker Hans Michelbach told Reuters."For us this is more like splitting Europe because countries that are not using the euro will be excluded. I am stunned by the promise that was given to Macron," he added, referring to Merkel's support for a euro zone budget.Scholz said however that differences over plans to introduce an EU-wide deposit guarantee scheme were still to be bridged. Germany and eight other EU members say euro zone banks must first reduce exposure to risks before the project can start.Deposit insurance for the euro zone is one element still missing from an EU banking union. It would bolster the confidence of savers and protect deposits of up to 100,000 euros in any euro zone bank."Much remains unclear and should be made public, including the size of the new euro budget and the level of German contributions," said CDU lawmaker Eckhardt Rehberg, parliamentary speaker on budget policy for the CDU/CSU.He said the conservatives would not lend Merkel and Scholz support for the creation of a Europe-wide unemployment insurance system nor for a euro tax to fund additional spending plans.Under the system, a euro zone member facing an economic crisis that leads to massive job losses and a heavy burden on its social-security system could borrow from a joint reinsurance fund.(Writing by Joseph Nasr; Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Edmund Blair)
Italy, Austria signal new hard-line axis on migration-[Associated Press]-COLLEEN BARRY-YAHOONEWS-June 21, 2018
MILAN (AP) — A meeting of Italy's anti-migrant interior minister with like-minded Austrian populist leaders on Wednesday in Rome heralded a new hard-line axis forming in Europe on migration issues with pledges to more firmly protect Europe's southern border.Italy's interior minister, Matteo Salvini, leveraged on his recent refusal to allow landfall in Sicily to a ship carrying some 630 migrants rescued at sea off the Libyan coast. The new Socialist government in Spain agreed to take them in, acknowledging Europe had abandoned Italy, after the tiny island nation of Malta also balked."It is a historic moment because Europe has never had the possibility to change like in these days. We think it can change for the better on the topics of immigration, security and the fight against terrorism. Finally there is a decision to protect the exterior border," Salvini said.Salvini and his Austrian counterparts — vice chancellor Heinz Christian Strache and interior minister Herbert Kickl — signaled their common approach to reinforcing the exterior border while deferring specifics to Austria's EU presidency, and other forums, including an upcoming EU summit. Salvini said he was briefing Premier Conte and vice premier Luigi Di Maio on his proposals later in the day.But Salvini made clear that he would continue to press neighbors to do more. While welcoming Spain's acceptance of the migrants, he noted that Spain has only taken 235 of an agreed-upon EU quota of 3,265. "They can take the next four boats that arrive," he said. He also slammed France, which has only taken 640 of the 9,800 migrants it has pledged to receive.Salvini said he had trust in the Austrian EU presidency to make a difference in discussions about changing the Dublin accords, noting "the mood has changed," but also hinting that Italy would be willing to play hardball, and hold back payments to the EU, if significant changes were not made.Salvini said he wanted to see EU funds better spent, and said he would travel to Libya, the main departure point for migrants heading to Italy, in the coming days to work on stemming the migrant tide as well as economic development issues.While more than 640,000 migrants have arrived in Italy since 2014, the number of arrivals in Italy this year is down over 80 percent, to over 14,500.Austria's interior minister, Kickl, said the message had to go out "that those who rely on traffickers have given up all chances of asylum in Europe."Kickl said they were examining the possibility of setting up centers in the Balkans for asylum-seekers whose applications have been rejected, saying "if they stay in the country, there is no difference between a negative and a positive response."
Suicide bomber kills four east Libyan security force members: spokesman-[Reuters]-YAHOONEWS-June 21, 2018
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Four members of east Libyan security forces were killed in the city of Derna on Wednesday by a suicide bomber bearing a white flag as he drove toward a group of soldiers, a military spokesman said.Ahmed al-Mismari, a spokesman for Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA), said the white Chevrolet approached the troops in central Derna asking to leave the combat zone, but the suicide bomber detonated explosives packed into the vehicle when he got close.The LNA is fighting to take Derna, the last city in eastern Libya outside its control, after launching a ground offensive against a coalition of local forces and Islamist militants last month.(This story has been corrected to add word "eastern" in paragraph 3)(Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli; Writing by Aidan Lewis; editing by John Stonestreet)
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
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,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
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)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
Iran lawyer arrested after claiming executed man innocent-Defense attorney Zeinab Taheri previously represented Iranian scholar sentenced to death for allegedly spying for Israel-By AFP-TOI-JUN 21,18
TEHRAN, Iran — An Iranian defense lawyer has been arrested after claiming a man executed this week for killing three policemen was innocent, Iran’s Fars news agency said Wednesday.Zeinab Taheri was taken into custody after an arrest warrant was issued against her for making “false statements” and because of “her lies propagated online claiming (the defendant) was not guilty,” the conservative-linked agency said.It did not specify the date of her arrest.“The female lawyer who recently claimed to be the defendant’s lawyer and who has gone hoarse saying he is innocent was basically not this person’s lawyer,” Tehran’s chief justice Gholamhossein Esmaili said, according to the agency.#BREAKING-One day after #MohammadSalas was executed, his lawyer, Zeinab Taheri, has reportedly been arrested by #Iran's authorities. pic.twitter.com/HdqF6dmfy6— Heshmat Alavi (@HeshmatAlavi) June 19, 2018-Mohammad Reza Salas was hanged on Monday for driving a bus into a group of police officers during February clashes with security forces, killing three of them.Salas belongs to the minority Sufi sect, a mystic branch of Islam tolerated in Iran but perceived as a “deviation” by many conservatives members of the Shiite community.Taheri’s name appears in a statement released on Monday by Human Rights Watch, which presents her as Salas’s lawyer.The statement, which addresses “serious allegations of torture to force confessions,” refers to an interview Taheri gave with another foreign-based NGO in which the lawyer claims that Salas was violently beaten in prison to the extent he nearly lost his eyesight.Taheri also represented Iranian scholar Ahmadreza Djalili, sentenced to death for spying for Israel in a trial rights group Amnesty International called a “secret and hasty procedure that did not allow arguments from the defense.”On the day of Salas’s execution, posts from a Twitter account bearing Taheri’s name said it would “reveal for public opinion all possible” evidence of his innocence — later stating it would not do so over requests from the family.The same account posted a tweet in favor of Salas’s “innocence” on Wednesday, after Taheri had been reportedly arrested.
Booby-trapped Gaza balloons land on trampoline; mom tells kids: They’re not toys-Mother of home where explosive device lands says her daughter, 7, now knows 'balloons that we don't recognize are suspicious'-By Judah Ari Gross-TOI-JUN 21,18
A cluster of balloons carrying a small explosive device that was launched at Israel from the Gaza Strip landed in a nearby community on Wednesday, getting stuck on a backyard trampoline.“Balloons on a trampoline in the backyard — that’s a decorative play area and beckons the most innocent ones, and yet our children have lost their innocence because of this phenomenon,” said Meirav Vidal, whose house it was.“These days it’s important to explain to kids that balloons are also a ‘suspicious object’ that they have to keep away from, to not touch and to call an adult,” Vidal said.She said her daughter had gotten the message: “Like my seven-year-old says: ‘Balloons that we don’t recognize are suspicious.'”The balloons that got stuck on the trampoline were one of at least three sets that landed in the Eshkol region on Wednesday.A second cluster of balloons got stuck in a tree in another backyard, and the third bunch landed in an agricultural field, a spokesperson for the region said.In all three cases, small explosives were attached to the balloons by a string, the official said.“No damage was caused,” she said.Vidal happens to serve as the head of the Eshkol region’s “resilience center,” a service offered by all the local governments in the Gaza periphery, which is meant to help the civilian population handle the stresses of the regular violence from the Gaza Strip and carry on living.Vidal said that although children have to be taught that balloons can be “suspicious,” she will continue to use them for festivities.“During the next birthdays, we will still decorate the trampoline with balloons and continue to celebrate,” she said.Since March 30, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have launched hundreds of kites and helium balloons bearing flammable materials, and occasionally explosives, sparking near-daily fires that have burned thousands of acres of land in southern Israel. At least three fires were reported in Israeli communities close to the Gaza border on Wednesday.Around midnight on Tuesday, Israeli jets bombed three Hamas positions in the Strip in response to numerous airborne arson attacks by Gazans earlier in the day.Minutes later, Palestinians in the Strip launched the first of many rocket and mortar barrages at southern Israel, triggering sirens throughout the area and sending thousands into bomb shelters.Over the course of the next four hours, some 45 rockets and mortar shells were fired at southern Israel, with at least six exploding inside communities, causing damage but no injuries.In response, the Israeli military carried out two more rounds of airstrikes in Gaza, hitting a total of approximately 25 targets on a number of Hamas compounds.
Condoms, kites, birthday balloons: ‘Silly’ Gaza weapons could lead to real war-Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are relentlessly flying a variety of airborne arson and explosive devices into Israel, causing hundreds of fires, millions of shekels in damage-By Judah Ari Gross-TOI-JUN 21,18
For over two months, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been flying kites, birthday balloons and inflated latex condoms into Israel, relying on the gentle Mediterranean coastal breeze to push them across the border.Silly as they may sound, these weapons are no joke.Most of them carry metal mesh pouches containing a burning piece of coal or oil-soaked rag, which have sparked hundreds of fires in southern Israel, destroying thousands of acres of land and causing millions of shekels in damage.A smaller number carry small explosive devices, which seem to have not yet caused injury because of repeated warnings by police and local government officials not to approach them.“They are not toys, they are weapons that are intended to kill and inflict damage,” IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told reporters on Wednesday.On Wednesday, a cluster of balloons carrying one such small explosive device landed in a backyard in the Eshkol region of southern Israel, getting stuck on a trampoline, a spokesperson for the local government said.“Balloons on a trampoline in the backyard — that’s a decorative play area and beckons the most innocent ones, and yet our children have lost their innocence because of this phenomenon,” said Meirav Vidal, the mother whose home it was.“These days it’s important to explain to kids that balloons are also a ‘suspicious object’ that they have to keep away from, to not touch and to call an adult,” Vidal said.The kites are almost all handmade. Three criss-crossing scraps of wood, bound in the middle with a piece of wire, form a hexagonal frame, which is covered in a piece of plastic sheeting. The tails are often made out of cut-up homework assignments.The balloons come in two main varieties: birthday and inflated latex condoms.Adding to the absurdity, many of the birthday balloons have printed on them endearing or celebratory lines turned ironic under the circumstances.“I LOVE (HEART HERE) you,” was written on one balloon to which a small explosive was attached that landed on a highway in southern Israel last week. It shut down traffic until a police sapper detonated it under controlled conditions.In at least two cases, balloons covered in hearts with the Arabic word habibi, or “my beloved,” touched down in fields in southern Israel — one in an empty lot, the other in the middle of a peanut field. In those cases as well, a police sapper had to be called in.The use of the latex condoms raises the question of where they are coming from.Condoms in Gaza have generally been supplied by either local Palestinian organizations or through international programs. (The United Nation’s World Health Organization does not supply or distribute condoms in the Gaza Strip, a spokesperson for the organization said.) Often, a single balloon is flown over the border, bearing an incendiary device or small explosive. However, there have also been cases of multiple balloons being tied together in order to carry larger and heavier payloads.These dead simple and dirt cheap methods have presented a significant challenge to the mighty Israel Defense Forces.The military has used drones and other high-tech solutions to some positive effect, but every day the kites and balloons keep coming.The Defense Ministry has also threatened to limit the supply of helium into the Gaza Strip, which is supposed to be used to help run magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines.Recently, the army has turned to deterrence — not stopping the airborne devices themselves, but trying to get the Palestinians to stop launching them.Over the past two weeks, the IDF has started firing warning shots at the kite- and balloon-flyers and at the tents and cars they use.After this tactic failed to yield results, the army shifted its focus to the Hamas terror group, which rules Gaza.The military does not believe that Hamas is behind all of these kites and balloons, but says the terrorist group supports the practice and certainly is not working to prevent it.“We see an effort made by Hamas to encourage and enhance the production and launching of these kites,” Conricus said.“It might have started spontaneously, but as Hamas saw the damage caused on the Israeli side, it has taken this offensive effort under its control and actively promotes it,” he said.On Monday and Wednesday, the Israeli Air Force conducted a series of predawn airstrikes on Hamas positions in the coastal enclave in an attempt to get the terrorist group to persuade Gazans to abandon the practice.It was not immediately clear if this new Israeli tactic will succeed.Terrorist groups in the Strip immediately responded to the early morning airstrikes on Monday by firing three rockets at southern Israel, though the rest of the day indeed saw a decrease in the number of arson devices flown into Israel. However, Palestinians were back at it again the next day.And Wednesday’s predawn strikes by the IDF met an even more forceful response, with Hamas and other Gaza-based groups launching almost 50 rockets and mortar shells at southern Israel.As of writing, it was too early to tell if Wednesday’s airstrikes would ultimately prove more effective, or if the back-and-forth between the IDF and Hamas would escalate into broader violence.In the meantime, Israeli politicians have begun to publicly debate the merits and legality of the IDF shooting the kite- and balloon-launchers, rather than firing warning shots near them.Former IDF general Yoav Galant, who is ordinarily more hawkish, spoke out against shooting the kite-flyers, many of whom are young.“A lack of experience in the use of force can lead to the intoxication of power. It is a very serious mistake to shoot at an eight-year-old child, certainly in a deliberate manner,” Housing Minister Galant, a member of Kulanu and a former IDF Southern Command chief, told the Ynet news site.Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) responded to Galant’s remarks on Twitter, saying that lethal force was justified in this case.“If someone shoots at your family, you shoot at him… if someone sends burning and exploding balloons, you shoot at him. It is so obvious that I find it hard to believe that I need to explain,” Bennett said.Bennett later posted photos to the social media platform of a group of Palestinians involved in the launching of incendiary balloons, captioning the pictures: “They are not eight-year-old children. They are trying to kill our eight-year-old children.”The military, meanwhile, kept up its tactic of firing warning shots at the people launching the kites and balloons.On Wednesday afternoon, Israeli aircraft fired at two groups of Palestinians launching airborne incendiary devices into Israel — aiming to warn, not to hit.
Bill to criminalize some filming of IDF soldiers clears first Knesset hurdle-Legislation's proponent says it's needed to protect IDF troops from 'hostile elements'; opposition MKs decry attempt to 'legitimize' alleged abuses-By Alexander Fulbright-TOI-JUN 21,18
Legislation criminalizing the filming of Israeli soldiers engaged in some military activities cleared its first hurdle in the Knesset Wednesday ahead of expected revisions meant to give it legal backing.The bill, which passed its first reading in a 45-42 vote, would outlaw the recording of soldiers carrying out their duties with the aim of demoralizing them or harming Israel’s security.The draft legislation will now head to committee before coming up for the second and third plenum readings it must clear to become law.“For many years already the state of Israel has witnessed the troubling phenomenon of the documenting IDF soldiers… by anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups,” an explanation of the bill states.“In many cases the organizations spend whole days near IDF troops and impatiently wait for activity that be documented in a misleading and biased way and by which cast shame on IDF soldiers,” it adds.Yisrael Beytenu MK Robert Ilatov, who proposed the bill with backing from Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, said ahead of the vote the legislation is necessary to prevent soldiers from “hostile elements” who seek to interfere with their duties and disgrace them.“The soldiers we dispatch should not be at the front lines of the BDS organizations, and to not allow you, those who support these organizations, to slander the state of Israel,” he told the Knesset.Ilatov said the bill is not meant to limit free speech, but “freedom of speech isn’t anarchy.”The passage of the legislation in its first reading was hailed by right-wing lawmakers and NGOs, such as the Im Tirzu organization, though Arab and left-wing lawmakers criticized the bill as an effort to hide alleged abuses.“For 35 years I proudly wore the IDF uniform. I never felt a need to hide behind cameras except for security needs,” said Zionist Union MK Eyal Ben-Reuven, a former major-general in the army.“The whole purpose of the law is to incite against human rights organizations and to challenge the basis principles of Israeli democracy,” said MK Tamar Zandberg, head of the left-wing Meretz party.“The pictures will be taken. The reality is what we must correct and not try and silence,” she added.Joint (Arab) List leader Ayman Odeh said, “This law is first and foremost an attempt to legitimize the injustices of the occupation, but no less than this it part of the attempt to dismantle democracy and harm freedom of the press.”While the bill passed Wednesday includes a punishment of up to five years in prison for anyone who films or publishes military activities harming “soldiers’ morale,” Likud Minister Tzachi Hanegbi said the legislation would be revised before advancing further as agreed by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation.Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has said he cannot defend the bill in its current version from a petition to the court, claiming it contradicts Israel’s Basic Laws.Proponents of the bill agreed to compromise on its much-criticized restrictions during Sunday’s cabinet meeting so that the prohibition on filming soldiers will only fall on those actively clashing with troops and attempting to obstruct their activities.The yet-to-be revised version of the bill is expected to include a maximum penalty of three years for interfering with a soldier’s duty, though releasing footage with the intention of “harming state security” could result in a punishment of 10 years in prison.Supporters of the legislation say it is necessary to prevent interference in IDF military activities and the harming of the IDF’s image.“The documentation [of soldiers] is biased and edited in a one-sided way with one purpose: To undermine the morale of IDF troops and residents of Israel,” the explanation of the bill says.Several incidents in recent years in which soldiers were filmed using excessive force or abusing power have become a PR nightmare for Israel, while NGOs say the footage is vital to keeping the military accountable.Cases include the 2016 killing of a disarmed and wounded Palestinian attacker by soldier Elor Azaria, who was convicted of manslaughter and jailed, and an incident in 2012 in which a soldier hit a Danish activist in the face with his gun.Raoul Wootliff contributed to this report.
Saudi Arabia arrests two women’s rights activists-Nouf Abdelaziz and Mayaa al-Zahrani are being held incommunicado, and were arrested earlier this month following the detention of at least 14 other campaigners-By AFP-TOI-JUN 21,18
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia has arrested two more women’s rights activists, in an “unrelenting crackdown” just days before the kingdom ends a decades-long ban on female motorists, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.The New York-based watchdog said activists Nouf Abdelaziz and Mayaa al-Zahrani were arrested earlier this month following the detention of at least 14 other women’s rights campaigners and supporters.“Saudi authorities have arrested two more women’s rights activists… in what appears to be an unrelenting crackdown on the women’s rights movement,” HRW said.“Saudi activists have reported that the authorities have placed travel bans on numerous others since May 15.”Saudi officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The government said earlier this month that it detained 17 people for “undermining” the kingdom’s security, without disclosing their names.Rights groups have identified many of the detainees as campaigners for women’s right to drive and an end to the conservative Islamic kingdom’s male guardianship system.Activist and writer Abdelaziz was arrested after she publicly expressed solidarity with the detained activists, and her friend Zahrani was apprehended days later, HRW said, adding that both women are being held incommunicado.Zahrani’s arrest came after she posted a letter Abdelaziz asked her to make public in case of her arrest, the watchdog said.“The Saudi government appears determined to leave its citizens without any space to show even rhetorical support for activists jailed in this unforgiving crackdown on dissent,” said HRW’s Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson.“Nouf Abdelaziz and Mayaa al-Zahrani’s only ‘crime’ seems to be expressing solidarity with their fellow imprisoned activists.”Authorities have said that eight of the 17 detainees had been provisionally released until their investigation is completed.Nine suspects, including four women, remain in custody after they “confessed” to a slew of charges such as suspicious contact with “hostile” organizations and recruiting people in sensitive government positions, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.Previous reports in state-backed media branded some of the detainees traitors and “agents of embassies.”Campaigners have dismissed the reports as a “smear” campaign and the crackdown has sparked a torrent of international criticism.Saudi Arabia, the only country in the world where women are not allowed drive, is set to lift its decades-long ban on female drivers on June 24.
UN: State, rebels committed war crimes in Syria’s Ghouta-Report calls on all parties to desist from sieges in the future, concluding they are characterized by war crimes-By Agencies-TOI-JUN 21,18
BEIRUT — The United Nations says that during a five-year government siege and two months of fighting earlier this year in which government forces captured eastern suburbs of the capital Damascus from rebels, both sides committed war crimes.The UN Commission of Inquiry in a report released Wednesday in Geneva condemned the government siege on the suburbs known as eastern Ghouta, saying at least 265,000 individuals lived in the area during the “longest running siege in modern history.”The Syrian government siege ended in April when government forces and their allies launched a crushing offensive to capture the area leaving hundreds of people dead.The 23-page report urged all parties to the conflict in Syria to desist from resorting to sieges in the future, concluding they are characterized by war crimes.At the start of the year Eastern Ghouta was a sprawling semi-rural area just east of Damascus, home to almost 400,000 inhabitants, which had already endured several years under a government siege that slashed access to food, medicine and other goods.The Syrian government and allied forces launched a massive assault on February 18 to retake the enclave, which had been out of regime control since 2012.The intense bombardment killed some 1,700 civilians according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, and pulverized the area, reducing many neighborhoods to rubble.Damascus has been accused of carrying out an April 7 chemical weapons attack on Douma, the final part of the enclave where rebels were balking at a Russian-brokered deal to evacuate them to northern Syria.
Hamas’s goal: To convince Israel that tolerating fire kites is preferable to war-Gaza's Islamist rulers know Israel's government is deeply wary of entering another major conflict, but each new round of hostility brings such conflict closer-By Avi Issacharoff-TOI-JUN 21,18
The face-off between Hamas and Israel surrounding the “fire kites” and incendiary balloons flown from Gaza into Israel is intensifying. After what has become another routine day, Tuesday, of these incendiary weapons sparking fires in southern Israel, Israel shortly after midnight staged airstrikes on Hamas positions west of Rafah. Barely an hour later Hamas began a barrage of responses — firing rockets into residential areas close to Gaza — and the back-and-forth hostilities continued for hours predawn Wednesday.The two sides are determined to lay down new ground rules. Israel is endeavoring to make it clear that it cannot tolerate the ongoing airborne attacks from Gaza — the kites and balloons carrying flammable materials and explosives and causing immense damage. And thus its reprisal attacks on Hamas facilities.And Hamas, which on Wednesday morning was hailing its achievement in launching at least 45 rockets at Israel, is seeking to make plain that it will not tolerate attacks on its positions as a response to the kites. Hamas wants to assert that it considers the fire kites to be an entirely legitimate tool and that Israeli airstrikes in response are not acceptable.What this adds up to is a case of each side trying to constrain the operations of the other, via an escalation. As of this writing, this escalation could be defined as calibrated. The problem is that with each new round of hostility, the potential for far greater conflict grows.What we’ve seen repeatedly now are attacks, counter-attacks, pauses, and then further and more serious hostilities.Hamas’s broader goal at the moment is to seek to impress upon Israel that the price of the next war would be so devastating that it is better either to reconcile itself to the fire kites or to permit substantial economic relief for Gaza at the earliest opportunity.Hamas is well aware of how wary Israel is of entering another major conflict, and it hears the voices in Israel urging the government to improve conditions in Gaza. Only last week the security cabinet held a discussion about possible solutions to the situation in the Strip. But it appears that Hamas doesn’t quite understand all the political considerations that led the cabinet to decide not to decide: At the end of the special session, it became clear that the Israeli government was not in a hurry to take dramatic decisions of one kind or another — to escalate military activity or to accelerate economic relief — because of a variety of political considerations.Even the idea of targeting those who are launching the fire kites is not being implemented for now, because of the concern in the IDF that this could lead to war and because of the legal implications of such a step. Government minister Tzachi Hanegbi said on Tuesday, indeed, that Israel would emphatically not target the young Gazans who launch the kites, that those ministers who demand such action are “populists,” and that the address for a military response is the cynical Hamas leaders who instigate the attacks.The problem is that the reliance on strikes at Hamas facilities is itself part of a recipe for escalation. Overnight, the dozens of Israeli strikes at Hamas targets caused almost no injuries, with the exception of two Hamas activists who were very lightly hurt. Plainly the Israeli strikes were intended to convey a message and nothing more. And yet, Hamas responded with relatively heavy rocket and mortar fire on the south — here too without injury to Israelis.Self-evidently, if this continues, sooner or later people will be injured on one or both sides, and the era of calibration will be over.In response to over 45 rockets launched by Hamas towards southern Israeli communities, the IDF targeted military objectives in the Gaza Strip belonging to Hamas pic.twitter.com/1UvzPK9JAm— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) June 20, 2018-The kites and balloons themselves are being organized by Hamas. Though hardly a glorious feat of creativity by the Hamas military wing, or a particularly subtle move, it is nonetheless effective. Hamas is not only utilizing condoms with flammable material but also sometimes more sophisticated means — including some kites carrying explosives that explode above the heads of soldiers and civilians, and others carrying fragmentation grenades.On Sunday, the IDF did strike the car of one of those responsible for these attacks, but even this strike was intended merely to hit the vehicle, not the terrorist. His car was in fact destroyed — a total write-off, to use the insurers’ term. The man himself is still with us.
Hungary to push ahead with 'Stop Soros' law on NGOs-By Eszter Zalan-EUOBSERVER-JUN 20,18
BRUSSELS, Today, 07:50-Hungary will proceed with a parliamentary vote on Wednesday (20 June) on the government's so-called 'Stop Soros' bill - without waiting for the opinion of a European body of legal experts.The Council of Europe's 'Venice Commission', a panel of constitutional law experts from the human rights' body, is due to issue its opinion on the bill, but only on Friday.Its president, Gianni Buquicchio, asked the Hungarian authorities to halt the adoption of the law until Friday or "at least to take into account the commission's recommendations" in its draft opinion.However, Gergely Gulyas, Hungary's minister of the prime minister's office, told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday (19 June) that Hungary took note of the commission's opinions, but said that the bill is an adequate response to the migration challenges.Under the package, people who help migrants not entitled to protection to submit requests for asylum, or who help illegal migrants stay legally in Hungary, will be liable for jail.NGOs dealing with migration describe the move as an attempt to silence the government's critics and to crack down on civil society.The bill is seen as part of Hungary premier Viktor Orban's efforts to tighten his grip on power by continuing a campaign against the EU's migration policies, and against Hungarian-born US billionaire George Soros.The bill, submitted only a few weeks after Orban's ruling Fidesz party won elections by a landslide, also rules out asylum for those migrants who arrived in Hungary via a safe third country, in which they were not directly exposed to persecution.Gulyas said the Venice Commission's draft opinion did not question the right for Hungary to apply the criminal code in migration issues, but only disagreed with the proportionality of the government's measures."We do not agree with this, but we thank them for the advice," Gulyas said, adding that the publication of the opinion on Friday was merely a formality.Prime Minister Viktor Orban told a reporter in Budapest on Tuesday that the vote will go ahead."We have the majority, so we will adopt it [the bill]," he said. Orban's Fidesz party has a two-thirds majority in parliament.The UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, urged Hungary previously to scrap the draft law, saying it would deprive refugees and asylum-seekers of vital services and critical aid, and encourage "rising xenophobic attitudes".Soros, who is Jewish, was vilified in the election campaign by Fidesz, and some of the targeted NGOs are financed by the billionaire's Open Society Foundationpromoting human rights and liberal values.In a separate tax bill, Hungary's government is also proposing a 25 percent special migration tax on organisations dealing with migration.
FBI agent escorted from office after text messages critical of Trump-[Reuters]-By Sarah N. Lynch=YAHOONEWS-June 21, 2018
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An FBI agent who criticized then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in text messages in 2016 was taken to task by Republicans at a U.S. Congress hearing on Tuesday, while his lawyer said he was recently escorted out of the FBI building.Peter Strzok, who once worked on the FBI investigation into the handling of classified information by former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, has become a target for Republicans trying to show the FBI is biased against Trump."On February and March of 2016, Peter Strzok said Trump's abysmal, Trump's an idiot," Republican Representative Jim Jordan, a Trump ally, said at the hearing. "Hillary should win 100 million to zero. It sounds like he hates the president."Democrats accused Republicans of cherry-picking parts of a recent report to attack the FBI.Strzok's lawyer Aitan Goelman said on Tuesday that Strzok was removed from the FBI building, at an unspecified date, as part of disciplinary proceedings related to the texts.Goelman said Strzok "remains a proud FBI agent" who wants to continue working for the law enforcement agency."Pete has steadfastly played by the rules and respected the process, and yet he continues to be the target of unfounded personal attacks," Goelman said in a statement."All of this seriously calls into question the impartiality of the disciplinary process, which now appears tainted by political influence."An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment.The Justice Department's inspector general, Michael Horowitz, released a report last week describing missteps by the FBI in its handling of the investigation of Clinton's private email server use while she was secretary of state.The report found there was no political bias at the FBI in decisions made in the Clinton probe.But the inspector general's report criticized Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page. The two were having an extramarital affair and exchanged thousands of politically charged texts. In one, Page asked Strzok if Trump was going to be president. Strzok responded: "No, he's not. We'll stop it."After the probe of Clinton's use of her private email server for sensitive information, Strzok worked on Special Counsel Robert Mueller's inquiry into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. He was removed from the probe and reassigned.Both Trump and Russia have denied any collusion or wrongdoing.(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Bill Trott)
WORLD POWERS IN THE LAST DAYS (END OF AGE OF GRACE NOT THE WORLD)
EUROPEAN UNION-KING OF WEST-DAN 9:26-27,DAN 7:23-24,DAN 11:40,REV 13:1-10
EGYPT-KING OF THE SOUTH-DAN 11:40
RUSSIA-KING OF THE NORTH-EZEK 38:1-2,EZEK 39:1-3
CHINA-KING OF THE EAST-DAN 11:44,REV 9:16,18
VATICAN-RELIGIOUS LEADER-REV 13:11-18,REV 17:4-5,9,18
WORLD TERRORISM
OH BY THE WAY WHEN THE MEDIA SAYS ALLU-AK-BAR MEANS GOD IS GREAT LIE. IN ISLAM ALLU-AK-BAR MEANS OUR GOD IS GREATER OR GREATEST. THIS IS HOW THE MEDIA SUCK HOLES UP TO ISLAMIC-QURANIC-MUSLIMS. BY WATERING DOWN THE REAL MEANING OF THE SEX FOR MURDER DEATH CULT ISLAM. TO MAKE IT SOUND LIKE A PEACEFUL RELIGION (CULT OF DEATH AND WORLD DOMINATION).
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her,(HAGAR) Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael;(FATHER OF THE ARAB/MUSLIMS) because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he (ISHMAEL-FATHER OF THE ARAB-MUSLIMS) will be a wild (DONKEY-JACKASS) man;(ISLAM IS A FAKE AND DANGEROUS SEX FOR MURDER CULT) his hand will be against every man,(ISLAM HATES EVERYONE) and every man's hand against him;(PROTECTING THEMSELVES FROM BEING BEHEADED) and he (ISHMAEL ARAB/MUSLIM) shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.(LITERAL-THE ARABS LIVE WITH THEIR BRETHERN JEWS)
ISAIAH 14:12-14
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,(SATAN) son of the morning!(HEBREW-CRECENT MOON-ISLAM) how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I (SATAN HAS EYE TROUBLES) will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.(AND 1/3RD OF THE ANGELS OF HEAVEN FELL WITH SATAN AND BECAME DEMONS)
JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.(ISLAM MURDERS IN THE NAME OF MOON GOD ALLAH OF ISLAM)
Obama's lack of response may have emboldened Russia election meddling: former officials-[Reuters]-By Patricia Zengerle-YAHOONEWS-June 20, 2018
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia may have stepped up efforts to meddle in the 2016 U.S. election after President Barack Obama's administration did not retaliate strongly to reports of its activities, former aides to the Democratic president told U.S. senators on Wednesday.Victoria Nuland, a top State Department official dealing with Russia under Obama, told the Senate intelligence committee that Moscow seemed to have slowed its influence campaign after Obama made "a stern and personal warning" to Russian President Vladimir Putin in September 2016.But she said the campaign seemed to accelerate during October, using social media platforms to spread false narratives as the Nov. 8 Election Day approached."I think it's probably the case that the Russians expected deterrent measures and didn't see them, and so felt they could keep pushing," Nuland said.The panel held the hearing as part of its investigation that began after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Moscow sought to influence the presidential campaign to boost Republican Donald Trump's chances of winning the White House.Russia denies seeking to influence the election. Trump has repeatedly dismissed investigations of Russian meddling as a "witch hunt."The committee's Republican chairman, Senator Richard Burr, said he plans more hearings with Obama's national security advisor, Susan Rice, and the former heads of the FBI and Department of Justice.Nuland and Michael Daniel, who was Obama's cybersecurity coordinator, said U.S. agencies and technology companies did not share enough information to effectively combat foreign election hacking."We didn't have sufficient integration of information to understand how their campaign was structured," Nuland said.They said the threat from Russia to November's U.S. mid-term elections and the 2020 presidential campaign remains.Daniel said the administration was focused in 2016 on activity aimed at state and local election systems, and did not become fully aware until later of the extent of the foreign influence operations.Nuland said the Obama administration held back from a strong response for reasons including a reluctance to seem to be influencing the contest between the Republican Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, Obama's former secretary of state."There was already by late July and early August accusations by candidate Trump that the election would be rigged. And I think there was a concern that if this wasn't handled properly, any move publicly would be seen as President Obama playing into those accusations," she said.(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
German finance minister defends euro reforms against conservative attack-[Reuters]-By Tom Körkemeier and Gernot Heller-YAHOONEWS-June 21, 2018
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's finance minister on Wednesday defended a euro zone reform blueprint agreed with France against criticism by Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives that it could undermine monetary stability.Members of Merkel's conservative bloc opposed to larger financial contributions to the euro zone criticized her agreement with French President Emmanuel Macron to create a common budget for the currency bloc. They said they were not briefed on the plan ahead of time and threatened not to back it.Merkel and Macron hailed a "new chapter" for the euro zone after talks at the Meseberg retreat outside Berlin on Tuesday where they praised the budget as a tool to strengthen economic competitiveness in the currency union. But details were scant.Merkel's conservative bloc is divided over immigration and stiff resistance to the euro zone plans could further erode her authority and threaten to unravel her coalition government three months after it took office.Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, whose Social Democrats (SPD) are Merkel's junior coalition partners, said in a speech at a banking event that the euro zone budget was only a small component of the reform package agreed with France."We are standing at a crossroads and we have decided to go down a well-paved street called the European Union," he said.He also defended a proposal to create a Europe-wide unemployment insurance system, saying it would make the euro zone more resilient to economic shocks.Conservative lawmakers, especially from the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), are not convinced."The CSU will not be part of any attempt to join a transfer union," Markus Blume, the Bavarian party's general secretary, told the Ausburger Allgemeine newspaper. "Financial robustness and monetary stability are non-negotiable for the CSU."CSU leader Horst Seehofer criticized Merkel for not briefing the CSU ahead of the agreement with Macron."It's not good style when such important agreements are made and the CSU is not included," he told the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper. "That's not okay."He said his party would not back the agreement until it had received a detailed accounting of its projected costs at a special meeting of the coalition parties on Tuesday.Merkel said on Tuesday the new budget would be used to strengthen economic convergence within the euro zone, which was almost torn apart by a debt crisis that took hold in 2009.-'SHADOW BUDGET'-Macron said the euro zone budget would be operational by 2021 with annual revenues and spending.The two leaders had decided to focus on broad issues to leave more room for negotiations with the other 17 euro members, which leaves scope for the plans to be watered down.National contributions and European resources would be used to fund the budget, the leaders said in their declaration."The European Union will have a shadow budget for the euro zone," CSU lawmaker Hans Michelbach told Reuters."For us this is more like splitting Europe because countries that are not using the euro will be excluded. I am stunned by the promise that was given to Macron," he added, referring to Merkel's support for a euro zone budget.Scholz said however that differences over plans to introduce an EU-wide deposit guarantee scheme were still to be bridged. Germany and eight other EU members say euro zone banks must first reduce exposure to risks before the project can start.Deposit insurance for the euro zone is one element still missing from an EU banking union. It would bolster the confidence of savers and protect deposits of up to 100,000 euros in any euro zone bank."Much remains unclear and should be made public, including the size of the new euro budget and the level of German contributions," said CDU lawmaker Eckhardt Rehberg, parliamentary speaker on budget policy for the CDU/CSU.He said the conservatives would not lend Merkel and Scholz support for the creation of a Europe-wide unemployment insurance system nor for a euro tax to fund additional spending plans.Under the system, a euro zone member facing an economic crisis that leads to massive job losses and a heavy burden on its social-security system could borrow from a joint reinsurance fund.(Writing by Joseph Nasr; Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Edmund Blair)
Italy, Austria signal new hard-line axis on migration-[Associated Press]-COLLEEN BARRY-YAHOONEWS-June 21, 2018
MILAN (AP) — A meeting of Italy's anti-migrant interior minister with like-minded Austrian populist leaders on Wednesday in Rome heralded a new hard-line axis forming in Europe on migration issues with pledges to more firmly protect Europe's southern border.Italy's interior minister, Matteo Salvini, leveraged on his recent refusal to allow landfall in Sicily to a ship carrying some 630 migrants rescued at sea off the Libyan coast. The new Socialist government in Spain agreed to take them in, acknowledging Europe had abandoned Italy, after the tiny island nation of Malta also balked."It is a historic moment because Europe has never had the possibility to change like in these days. We think it can change for the better on the topics of immigration, security and the fight against terrorism. Finally there is a decision to protect the exterior border," Salvini said.Salvini and his Austrian counterparts — vice chancellor Heinz Christian Strache and interior minister Herbert Kickl — signaled their common approach to reinforcing the exterior border while deferring specifics to Austria's EU presidency, and other forums, including an upcoming EU summit. Salvini said he was briefing Premier Conte and vice premier Luigi Di Maio on his proposals later in the day.But Salvini made clear that he would continue to press neighbors to do more. While welcoming Spain's acceptance of the migrants, he noted that Spain has only taken 235 of an agreed-upon EU quota of 3,265. "They can take the next four boats that arrive," he said. He also slammed France, which has only taken 640 of the 9,800 migrants it has pledged to receive.Salvini said he had trust in the Austrian EU presidency to make a difference in discussions about changing the Dublin accords, noting "the mood has changed," but also hinting that Italy would be willing to play hardball, and hold back payments to the EU, if significant changes were not made.Salvini said he wanted to see EU funds better spent, and said he would travel to Libya, the main departure point for migrants heading to Italy, in the coming days to work on stemming the migrant tide as well as economic development issues.While more than 640,000 migrants have arrived in Italy since 2014, the number of arrivals in Italy this year is down over 80 percent, to over 14,500.Austria's interior minister, Kickl, said the message had to go out "that those who rely on traffickers have given up all chances of asylum in Europe."Kickl said they were examining the possibility of setting up centers in the Balkans for asylum-seekers whose applications have been rejected, saying "if they stay in the country, there is no difference between a negative and a positive response."
Suicide bomber kills four east Libyan security force members: spokesman-[Reuters]-YAHOONEWS-June 21, 2018
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Four members of east Libyan security forces were killed in the city of Derna on Wednesday by a suicide bomber bearing a white flag as he drove toward a group of soldiers, a military spokesman said.Ahmed al-Mismari, a spokesman for Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA), said the white Chevrolet approached the troops in central Derna asking to leave the combat zone, but the suicide bomber detonated explosives packed into the vehicle when he got close.The LNA is fighting to take Derna, the last city in eastern Libya outside its control, after launching a ground offensive against a coalition of local forces and Islamist militants last month.(This story has been corrected to add word "eastern" in paragraph 3)(Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli; Writing by Aidan Lewis; editing by John Stonestreet)
