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.
DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he ( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant (PEACE TREATY) with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE ANIMAL SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
JEREMIAH 6:14
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
JEREMIAH 8:11
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
ISAIAH 33:8
8 The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant,(7 YR TREATY) he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.(THE WORLD LEADER-WAR MONGER CALLS HIMSELF GOD)
JERUSALEM DIVIDED
GENESIS 25:20-26
20 And Isaac was forty years old (A BIBLE GENERATION NUMBER=1967 + 40=2007+) when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
22 And the children (2 NATIONS IN HER-ISRAEL-ARABS) struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels;(ISRAEL AND THE ARABS) and the one people shall be stronger than the other people;(ISRAEL STRONGER THAN ARABS) and the elder shall serve the younger.(LITERALLY ISRAEL THE YOUNGER RULES (ISSAC)(JACOB-LATER NAME CHANGED TO ISRAEL) OVER THE OLDER ARABS (ISHMAEL)(ESAU)
24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
25 And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.(THE OLDER AN ARAB)
26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob:(THE YOUNGER-ISRAELI) and Isaac was threescore (60) years old when she bare them.(1967 + 60=2027)(COULD BE THE LAST GENERATION WHEN JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED AMOUNG THE 2 TWINS)(THE 2 TWINS WANT JERUSALEM-THE DIVISION OF JERUSALEM TODAY)(AND WHOS IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM TODAY-THE YOUNGER ISSAC-JACOB-ISRAEL)(AND WHO WANTS JERUSALEM DIVIDED-THE OLDER,ESAU-ISHMAEL (THE ARABS)
ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
Erekat: Israel wants annexation, to consolidate ‘apartheid’-Top Palestinian negotiator blames Jerusalem for collapse of peace negotiations, but leaves door open for extending talks-By Raphael Ahren April 29, 2014, 7:49 pm 14-The Times of Israel
As the nine-month period set for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks elapsed Tuesday, top Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat blamed Israel for the collapse of the negotiations, and urged the international community to pressure the Jewish state into making concessions.He accused Israel of consolidating an “apartheid regime” and suggested it seeks to annex the West Bank, or parts of it.Erekat also said the Palestinians have the right to unilaterally take steps toward statehood, for example by acceding to more international treaties, yet did not announce plans to do so in the coming days. He did not rule out that the negotiations could continue — if Israel respects its “commitments and obligations,” he said.“Everything Israel did during the past nine months aimed at sabotaging Palestinian and international efforts to achieve the two-state solution,” Erekat said in a statement. “To build settlements in occupied land, kill Palestinians and demolish hundreds of Palestinian homes is certainly not the behavior of a government that wants to end occupation but of a government that wants to turn occupation into annexation.“We believe that the international community must now do what is needed,” he continued, “in order to make clear to Israel that choosing settlements and apartheid over peace has a political, legal and economic cost.”According to Erekat, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “never gave the negotiations a chance to succeed,” arguing that the talks failed because of ongoing Israeli settlement expansion and Israel’s failure to release a last group of Palestinian security prisoners, as agreed when talks commenced.Israel delayed the release of the fourth batch of prisoners after the Palestinians refused to commit to extend the talks beyond the initial April 29 deadline, and over arguments as to the identity of those slated for release: While Palestinians have claimed that the US allowed for Israeli Arabs to be among the group, Israel denied that they were ever part of the agreement.After Israel refused to release the prisoners at the end of last month, the peace talks entered a serious crisis, with the Palestinians applying for membership to 15 international treaties and conventions.Jerusalem puts the blame for the collapse of peace talks squarely on the Palestinians, after Abbas’s Fatah last week surprisingly signed a reconciliation agreement with Hamas. The Israeli cabinet decided unanimously that it would not conduct peace negotiations with a Palestinian government backed by Hamas, a terrorist organization that calls for Israel’s destruction.Netanyahu’s government “has used every possible tool in order to consolidate its apartheid regime,” said Erekat, a member of the executive council of the Palestine Liberation Organization. “There is no other word to define this system of segregation and discrimination that has been imposed on our occupied country by the State of Israel.”According to a “special report” published Tuesday by the PLO’s Negotiations Affairs Department, Israel advanced the construction of housing units “for over 55,000 new settlers” over the last nine months. The six-page report listed a host of alleged Israeli “violations,” including the killings of 61 Palestinians and 675 incidents of “settler violence.”“Without being held accountable by the US and the international community, Israel will continue to behave as a country above the law. For a just peace to prevail, impunity must be replaced with accountability,” the report concluded.Erekat, too, called on the international community to pressure Israel through various avenues, and reaffirmed the Palestinians’ right to pursue an independent state through diplomatic means, such as by joining UN bodies. Still, he stopped short of announcing further concrete steps to do so.Earlier on Tuesday, Abbas laid down three conditions to continue the peace talks: freezing Israeli settlements beyond the pre-1967 lines, an additional release of Palestinian prisoners and an immediate, serious discussion of future borders.
Israel, Palestinians at U.N. accuse each other of sabotaging peace
By Mirjam Donath 3 hours ago-APR 29,14-YahooNews
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Israeli and Palestinian envoys on Tuesday took advantage of a U.N. Security Council meeting on the Middle East to publicly blame each other for the latest breakdown in the fragile peace negotiations as the deadline for a deal expired.Robert Serry, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told the 15-nation Security Council that Israeli and Palestinian leaders should "convince each other anew they are partners for peace."Both Israel's U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor and Palestinian U.N. observer Riyad Mansour expressed a commitment to peace. But they also accused each other of undermining the most recent attempt to secure a deal in U.S.-brokered talks."Israel has maintained its rejectionist stance and persisted with its grave breaches, constantly reaffirming its role as occupier and oppressor, not as peacemaker," Mansour told the council. "Once again, Israel has thwarted peace efforts." Israel's envoy pinned responsibility for the suspension of peace negotiations on the Palestinians."The Palestinians pledge dialogue while fermenting hatred," Prosor told the council. "They promise tolerance while celebrating terrorists. And they make commitments almost as quickly as they break them."Prosor accused the Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of abandoning a chance to "tango with Israel" in favor of "waltzing off with Hamas."Nine months ago the United States launched new negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians to end the decades-long conflict and help create a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The talks fell apart last week, with Washington blaming both sides for failing to compromise ahead of the April 29 deadline.U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power told the council Washington will continue to support negotiations between the two sides."We have clearly reached a difficult moment, but we continue to believe that there is only one real viable solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: two states living side by side in peace and security," she said. "If the parties are willing to go down the path - this path - we will be there to support them."Israel suspended the negotiations with the Palestinians in response to President Mahmoud Abbas's unexpected unity pact with the rival Islamist Hamas group, which Israel and the United States consider a terrorist organization.Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority is angered by Israel's expansion of settlements on land they intend to include in a future Palestinian state and its decision to postpone the release of the last tranche of prisoners in Israeli jails."The convergence of Israel's bad faith in the negotiations, including its reneging on the prisoner release agreement, and its unlawful actions on the ground, particularly its intensification of settlement activities and incessant aggressions in Occupied East Jerusalem, seriously undermined the peace process," said Mansour.Prosor made clear that Israel would not budge in its refusal to talk with Hamas."Anyone who wonders why Israel won't negotiate with Hamas may as well be wondering why nobody shows up to dinner parties thrown by Hannibal Lector," Prosor said, referring to a serial killer made popular in a series of Hollywood films.U.N. envoy Serry said both sides must compromise."If Israel is serious about the two-state solution, it must recognize the negative impact of continued illegal settlement activity," he said. "Palestinians in turn should be reflective of their actions in international fora."Earlier this month Abbas signed more than a dozen international conventions, citing anger at Israel's delay of a prisoner release in a decision that jeopardized U.S. efforts to salvage fragile peace talks.The Palestinians were eligible to sign on to the treaties and conventions after the U.N. General Assembly upgraded the Palestinians' status at the United Nations in 2012 from "observer entity" to "non- member state," a move widely seen as de facto recognition of an independent Palestinian state.(Editing by Louis Charbonneau and Andrew Hay)
With Mideast talks over, Palestinians seek unity
By KARIN LAUB 3 hours ago-APR 29,14-YahooNews
JERUSALEM (AP) — Tuesday was to have been the day to seal a deal on a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Instead, it became another missed deadline in two decades of negotiating failures. The gaps between Israeli and Palestinian positions remain vast after nine months of talks launched by Secretary of State John Kerry. He hasn't given up, but there's a sense the U.S. may have to change its traditional approach to brokering talks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas now face risky paths that could lead to a new conflagration.
WHAT WILL THE U.S. DO?
Kerry has hit the pause button. His point man left the region and the State Department says it will wait to see what the two sides decide in coming weeks and months.
WHAT IS THE NEXT DECISIVE DATE?
By the end of May, Abbas and the Islamic militant Hamas hope to establish a unity government of technocrats that is to prepare for general elections by 2015. It's the latest in a series of reconciliation attempts since Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from Abbas in 2007, leaving him with parts of the West Bank. Abbas says the new government will be bound by his political program of seeking peace with Israel. This way, he hopes to allay U.S. concerns about a partnership with militants who refuse to recognize Israel or renounce violence.
HOW LIKELY IS A UNITY GOVERNMENT?
Hamas, a branch of the pan-Arab Muslim Brotherhood, might be more open to compromise with Abbas than in the past because it's struggling financially and has lost regional backing. Hamas' troubles stem from unprecedented border sanctions on Gaza by the Egyptian military which ousted a Brotherhood government in Egypt last year. Hamas can't meet its government payroll and is eager to have Abbas take over those responsibilities. However, Hamas might balk at relinquishing authority in Gaza or deferring to Abbas' political platform.
WHY DOES ABBAS WANT A PARTNERSHIP WITH HAMAS NOW?
Last year, Abbas reluctantly agreed to negotiations with Netanyahu because he didn't want to be blamed for sabotaging Kerry's efforts. With talks formally over on April 29 and Hamas on the ropes, Abbas believes he can regain a foothold in Gaza, mend the political split and strengthen the Palestinian hand in future dealings with Israel.
WOULD THE U.S. AND ISRAEL DEAL WITH A UNITY GOVERNMENT?
The State Department says it will assess any Palestinian unity government according to its policies and actions. Key questions include who would assume command of thousands of Hamas fighters, and whether a new government will recognize Israel.Netanyahu says he won't negotiate with any government backed by Hamas, which seeks Israel's eventual destruction and has killed hundreds of Israelis in attacks over the years. Last week, Israel broke off negotiations with Abbas because of his unity efforts.
COULD ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATIONS RESUME IF THERE IS NO UNITY GOVERNMENT?
Kerry might keep trying or present his own "take it or leave it" plan to the sides.Abbas and Netanyahu say they are still interested in negotiations. Israel, in particular, benefits from ongoing talks as a way of deflecting criticism of its policies, including settlement construction on occupied lands.However, Kerry would have a harder time than last year to restart negotiations because gaps on the ground rules have grown. Abbas has said Israel first needs to freeze settlement building and make good on a promise to release more veteran prisoners, demands Israel rejected.Over the weekend, the Palestinian leadership also withdrew a previous concession of agreeing to a land swap that would enable Israel to annex some "settlement blocs." It also insisted that Netanyahu recognize Israel's pre-1967 war frontier, before its capture of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, as a baseline for border talks.
WHAT MIGHT ABBAS DO NOW?
Abbas hasn't yet reached the point of abandoning negotiations and instead challenging Israeli politically and legally in the international arena. Such a dramatic shift is fraught with risk, including tensions with the West and greater economic hardship for the Palestinians, who stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars a year in foreign aid.As part of a post-negotiations strategy, Abbas could seek further international recognition of a "state of Palestine," accepted by the U.N. General Assembly as an observer in 2012. Palestine could join dozens of international bodies and press war crimes charges against Israel over its settlement building before the international criminal court.
WHAT MIGHT NETANYAHU DO NOW?
Netanyahu said this week he won't accept a stalemate and will "seek other ways" to deal with the conflict with the Palestinians, but there's no sign he will deviate dramatically from his current policies. Various ideas have been floated by Israeli politicians over the years, including withdrawing unilaterally from or annexing large parts of the West Bank, but Netanyahu hasn't endorsed any of them.Settlement expansion is likely to continue even though further settlement sprawl steadily closes the door to a partition deal. The anti-settlement group Peace Now says that in nine months of negotiations, Israel promoted plans for close to 14,000 settlement apartments, with the number of construction tenders up fourfold from previous years.
IS A NEW CONFRONTATION IMMINENT?
Neither side seems eager for an escalation, but any step could have unintended consequences.
Abbas has ruled out violence as a tactic and says he will continue security coordination with Israel in the West Bank, but could face Israeli retaliation if he succeeds in forming a unity government, for example. Netanyahu threatened unspecified sanctions after last week's Palestinian unity deal, but hasn't acted so far. He could freeze the monthly transfer of $100 million in taxes Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians, as he has done in the past. The next transfer is due next week. However, Israel also has an interest in the survival of Abbas' self-rule government. Its collapse would force Israel, as the occupier, to take responsibility for millions of Palestinians.
WHAT ARE THE LONG-TERM TRENDS?
If neither side adopts a radical shift in strategy, the U.S. could return to trying to manage the conflict. Israel will likely face growing international isolation and warnings — most recently from Kerry, although he later retracted the language — that it could turn into an "apartheid state" if there's no partition deal. The Palestinians' push for a united strategy is being hampered by entrenched factionalism and an intensifying leadership battle in Fatah, the party of the 79-year-old Abbas.___Associated Press writers Lara Jakes in Washington and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed reporting.
04/29/2014 - THE VATICAN INSIDER-“Keep searching” says family of Fr. Dall’Oglio, who went missing nine months ago-Fr. Dall'Oglio-Rebels say the Jesuit priest who was abducted in Syria last 29 July is in the hands of radical Islamist group ISIS-vatican insider staff
Turin-The 59-year-old Roman Jesuit priest Paolo Dall’Oglio went missing in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa and according to rebel sources is apparently alive and being held by radical Islamist group ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). “We ask those who are holding Paolo captive to set him free so that he can return to his loved ones and we ask all institutions to continue working towards this,” Fr. Dall’Oglio’s family said in an appeal sent out to mark the anniversary of his abduction nine months ago. The priest was abducted in Syria on 29 July 2013. All sources have confirmed that Fr. Dall’Oglio is alive and is being held in one of ISIS’ prisons. ISIS is an al-Qaeda inspired faction and a rival of the al-Nusra Front, another al-Qaeda inspired group. ISIS took control of large swaths of territory in northern and north-eastern Syria over a year ago.The Italian Foreign Ministry’s Crisis Unit is handling the Dall’Oglio case with utmost confidentiatily. Sources close to the ongoing negotiations report that there have been talks at various levels for months now to try to negotiate his release.Dall’Oglio had lived in Syria for over 30 years and was deeply engaged in promoting Islamic-Cristian dialogue, when he was expelled from the country in June 2012 after he supported the UN peace plan presented by the former special envoy Kofi Annan. His work was especially focused around the monastic community he founded in north Damascus. From abroad, the Jesuit made even bolder criticisms against government repression and last summer he entered northern Syria.
Ukraine signs gas deal with Slovakia-28.04.14 @ 20:51-By Nikolaj Nielsen-EUOBSERVER
BRUSSELS - Slovakia is set to pump reserve natural gas to Ukraine in a reverse-flow deal signed on Monday (28 April).Russia has almost doubled the price of gas in Ukraine (Photo: Naftogaz of Ukraine)The gas will run through the unused Vojany pipeline on the Slovakian side, managed by Slovak gas pipeline operator EUstream, to Uzhgorod in Ukraine.EUstream, along with its Ukraine counterpart Ukrtransgaz, aim to start pumping the gas sometime in autumn. The European Commission says it could amount to around 8 billion cubic metres (bcm) per year.Despite around two years of negotiations, the move is in part framed by the escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine.Russia supplied 30 percent of gas to Europe last year, with a significant amount transited through Ukraine.At the signing ceremony in the Slovak capital Bratislava, EU commission president Jose Barroso, described the deal as one that "contributes to greater energy security in Eastern Europe and the EU as a whole".Around half of Ukraine's 50 bcm of gas consumed annually is sourced from Russia.With Monday's agreement, Slovakia becomes the third and largest contributor of reverse-flow gas to Ukraine in the EU after Hungary and Poland."Gas via Slovakia will bring a considerable addition to the volumes that Ukraine can already import from Hungary and Poland," noted EU energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger.Ukraine had stopped the Hungary and Poland imports after Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom slashed prices in December.The cut was part of a larger $15 billion loan and a 33 percent discount on natural gas offered by Russia to Ukraine's Yanukovich-led government. The discounted $270 per 1,000 cubic metres price has since almost doubled with flows now picking up again from Hungary and Poland.Russia cancelled its 2010 Kharkov Agreement after it annexed Crimea.The agreement had given Ukraine a gas rebate in exchange for hosting Russia's naval fleet in Sevastopol port. Moscow says the port is no longer a part of Ukraine.Gazprom also issued an ultimatum for Kiev to pay $3.5 billion in unpaid bills by 7 May or risk getting cut off, sparking fears many in Ukraine may be without heating next winter. Industry sources told Reuters last month that Ukraine has enough gas stored up to last at least four months should Gazprom stop the flows.At 31 bcm, Ukraine has the largest gas storage capacity volume in Europe with most of the facilities found in the west of the country.The EU is pushing to increase the volume of Slovak flows.EUstream, for its part, has not completely ruled out upping the volume by using another larger transit gas pipeline but said it may run into legal problems.The larger transit line carries Russian gas to the European Union and is partly managed by Gazprom Export.The Slovak company, which describes itself as the largest single carrier of Russian gas in the European Union, said it would first have to reach an agreement with its Russian counterpart.
ISAIAH 17:1,11-14
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
11 In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
12 Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations,(USELESS U.N) that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13 The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14 And behold at evening tide trouble; and before the morning he is not.(ASSAD KILLED IN OVERNIGHT RAID) This is the portion of them that spoil us,(ISRAEL) and the lot of them that rob us.
AMOS 1:5
5 I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden:(IRAQ) and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir,(JORDAN) saith the LORD.
JEREMEIAH 49:23-27
23 Concerning Damascus.(SYRIA) Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea;(WAR SHIPS WITH NUKES COMING ON SYRIA) it cannot be quiet.
24 Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27 And I will kindle a fire (NUKES OR BOMBS) in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.(ASSADS PALACES POSSIBLY IN DAMASCUS)
PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
Chemical watchdog to investigate Syria chlorine gas claims
By Thomas Escritt and Mariam Karouny 9 hours ago-APR 29,14
AMSTERDAM/BEIRUT (Reuters) - The global chemical weapons watchdog overseeing the destruction of Syria's toxic stockpile will send a fact-finding mission to Syria to investigate allegations by rebels and activists of chlorine gas attacks, the organization said on Tuesday.The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said President Bashar al-Assad's government had agreed to accept the mission and had promised to provide security in areas under its control."The mission will carry out its work in the most challenging circumstances," the OPCW said, referring to the three-year-old conflict between Assad's forces and rebels. It gave no exact date for the mission but said it would take place soon. Accusations by rebels and Syrian activist of at least three separate chlorine gas attacks by Assad's forces in the last month have exposed the limits of a deal which Assad agreed last year for the destruction of his chemical arsenal.The accord followed a sarin gas attack on rebel-held outskirts of Damascus last August in which hundreds of people were killed. Washington and its allies blamed Assad's forces for the attack, but Damascus authorities said rebels carried it out to try to force Western military intervention.Damascus has now shipped out or destroyed 92 percent of the chemicals it pledged to eliminate. However chlorine, which also has many industrial uses, was never included in the list submitted to the OPCW.Videos released by activists of chlorine gas canisters they said were dropped in barrel bombs from Syrian military helicopters could not be verified by Reuters but analysts say the pattern of attacks suggest a coordinated campaign with growing evidence of government responsibility.The U.S. State Department said last week that if Syrian authorities used chlorine gas with the intent to kill or harm this would violate the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which it joined as part of last year's agreement.In addition to the possible chlorine use, diplomats say Western powers believe Syria may have not have declared all of its chemical stockpiles - an accusation which Syria has denied.One Western diplomat said a separate OPCW mission arrived in Syria last week to discuss discrepancies between Syria's original declaration and the quantities which have been shipped out so far.
BOMBINGS FOLLOW ASSAD'S NOMINATION
Last year's chemical deal helped avert the threat of U.S. air strikes against Assad's forces. Since then the 48-year-old president has consolidated his control around Damascus and central Syria and now appears determined to match those military advances with political gains.On Monday he declared he will run in a June 3 election - dismissed in advance by his opponents as a charade - which is widely expected to deliver him a third term in office.Ten other hopefuls have also put their names forward, but Syria's election law requires candidates to have lived in Syria for 10 years and to win the endorsement of 35 members of the pro-Assad parliament, ruling out members of Syria's opposition in exile or any other dissenting voices.A day after Assad's formal nomination, more than 50 people were killed in car bombs and mortar attacks targeting government-controlled areas of Damascus and Homs.In Homs, at least 37 people including children were killed by two car bombs near a busy roundabout in Zahraa, a neighborhood where the population is mainly from Assad's Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.A local security source put the death toll at 42.In central Damascus, two mortar shells struck an education complex in the mainly Shi'ite district of Shaghour, killing at least 14 people and wounding dozens.(Reporting by Dominic Evans; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Ukraine separatists seize second provincial capital, fire on police
By Vasily Fedosenko 4 hours ago-APR 29,14-YahooNews
LUHANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Hundreds of pro-Moscow separatists stormed government buildings in one of Ukraine's provincial capitals on Tuesday and fired on police holed up in a regional headquarters, a major escalation of their revolt despite new Western sanctions on Russia.New U.S. and EU sanctions packages, announced with fanfare, were seen as so mild that Russian share prices rose in relief. A small number of names were added to existing blacklists, while threats to take more serious measures were put on hold.Nevertheless, Russian President Vladimir Putin responded by threatening to reconsider Western participation in energy deals in Russia, the world's biggest oil producer, where most major U.S. and European oil companies have extensive projects.Demonstrators smashed their way into the provincial government headquarters in Luhansk, Ukraine's easternmost province, which abuts the Russian border, and raised separatist flags over the building, while police did nothing to interfere.As night fell, about 20 rebel gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons and threw stun grenades at the headquarters of the region's police, trying to force those inside to surrender their weapons, a Reuters photographer at the scene said."The regional leadership does not control its police force," said Stanislav Rechynsky, an aide to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, referring to events in Luhansk. "The local police did nothing."The rebels also seized the prosecutor's office and the television center.The separatist operation in Luhansk appears to give the pro-Moscow rebels control of a second provincial capital. They already control much of neighboring Donetsk province, where they have proclaimed an independent "People's Republic of Donetsk" and declared a referendum on secession for May 11.The rebels include local youths armed with clubs and chains, as well as "green men" - heavily armed masked men in military uniforms without insignia.Adding control of Luhansk would give them sway over the entire Donbass coalfield - an unbroken swath of territory adjacent to Russia - where giant steel smelters and heavy plants account for around a third of Ukraine's industrial output.It is the heart of a region that Putin described earlier this month as "New Russia", reviving a term from when the tsars conquered it in the 18th and 19th centuries. Most people who live in the area now identify themselves as Ukrainians but speak Russian as their first language.
MOSCOW ACCUSED
Ukraine, a country of 45 million people the size of France, has a thousand-year history as a state but has spent much of the last few centuries under the shadow of its larger neighbor. It emerged as a modern independent nation after the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, with borders drawn up by Bolshevik commissars from territory previously ruled by Russia, Poland and Austria.Its current crisis erupted after a pro-Russian president was toppled in February in a popular uprising. Within days, Putin had declared the right to use military force and dispatched his undercover troops to seize Crimea.The United States and European Union accuse Moscow of directing the uprising with the intent of dismembering Ukraine."Today, Russia seeks to change the security landscape of eastern and central Europe," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a speech on Tuesday. "Whatever path Russia chooses, the United States and our allies will stand together in our defense of Ukraine."Nevertheless, U.S. and European officials have repeatedly made clear they will not consider military action.The U.S. embassy in Kiev described the behavior of pro-Russian activists - who also attacked a rally of Kiev supporters on Monday with clubs and iron bars, and are holding dozens of hostages including seven unarmed European military monitors - as "terrorism, pure and simple". U.S. President Barack Obama, announcing new sanctions on Monday, said they were intended to change Putin's "calculus".But so far they have shown no sign of restraining the Kremlin leader, who overturned decades of post-Cold War diplomacy last month to seize and annex Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula and has since massed tens of thousands of troops on the frontier. Russia has openly threatened to invade to protect Russian speakers, though it denies that it plans to do so.Putin threatened on Tuesday to review the role of Western firms in Russian energy deals."We would very much wish not to resort to any measures in response. I hope we won't get to that point," Putin told reporters after meeting leaders of Belarus and Kazakhstan."But if something like that continues, we will of course have to think about who is working in the key sectors of the Russian economy, including the energy sector, and how."Russia's RTS stock index rose 1.23 percent on Tuesday in relief that the latest EU and U.S. sanctions were so modest.
BLACKLISTS
After Russia took Crimea in March, Washington and Brussels each drew up sanctions blacklists that ban travel by and freeze the assets of individuals and firms deemed to have played a role in threatening Ukraine. The EU added 15 Russians and pro-Russian Ukrainians to its blacklist on Tuesday, a day after Washington added seven individuals and 17 firms to its own list.But neither list includes any of Russia's major firms.The latest U.S. list names Igor Sechin, a long-time Putin ally who now heads Russia's biggest oil company, Rosneft. But the firm said the blacklisting of its boss would not affect its operations, including plans to buy the oil trading arm of Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley.Sechin's name was conspicuously left off the EU list. European countries do more than 10 times as much trade with Russia as the United States, buying a quarter of their natural gas from Moscow. They have been slower than Washington to embrace sanctions that might jeopardize trade.Moscow has shrugged off the blacklists as pointless, though Washington and Brussels say they have had an indirect economic impact by scaring investors into withdrawing capital."You have to look over the period of time Russia went into Crimea; since we've imposed sanctions, there has been a quite substantial deterioration in Russia's already weak economy," U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told congressional hearings."We see it in their stock exchange, we see it in their exchange rate, we see it in a number of important economic indicators."Lew said Washington could also impose wider sanctions on Russian industry. Obama said on Monday Western countries were keeping that option "in reserve" in case of further escalation.A hostage drama has kept the issue on the boil in European capitals. On Friday, rebels captured eight unarmed European military monitors. A Swede was freed three days later, but four Germans, a Dane, a Czech and a Pole are still held in Slaviansk, a town rebels have turned into a heavily fortified redoubt.The self-declared "people's mayor" of the town, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, said on Tuesday he would discuss their release only if the EU dropped sanctions against rebel leaders."If they fail to remove the sanctions, then we will block access for EU representatives, and they won't be able to get to us. I will remind my guests from the OSCE about this," he said, referring to the European hostages. Nevertheless, he later met OSCE representatives and said they had made "good progress" in discussions on the release of the captives.Ukraine's authorities are struggling to find a way to evict the separatists, who also took a small town hall in Pervomaisk in the Luhansk region on Tuesday and a number of buildings in another city on Monday. Kiev launched an "anti-terrorist" operation in early April, but it has yielded little so far.The Russian Foreign Ministry said the EU sanctions would not ease tensions in Ukraine."Instead of forcing the Kiev clique to sit at the table with southeastern Ukraine to negotiate the future structure of the country, our partners are doing Washington's bidding with new unfriendly gestures aimed at Russia," the ministry said.Gennady Kernes, the mayor of eastern Ukraine's biggest city, Kharkiv, was in a stable condition on Tuesday in a hospital in Israel, where he was flown after an assassination attempt. Kernes was shot in the back on Monday.(Additional reporting by John O'Donnell in Brussels, Pavel Polityuk and Matt Robinson in Kiev, Darya Korsunskaya in Minsk, Steve Gutterman, Elizabeth Piper, Oksana Kobzeva, Megan Davies, Olesya Astakhova and Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Will Waterman/Mark Heinrich)
DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he ( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant (PEACE TREATY) with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE ANIMAL SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
JEREMIAH 6:14
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
JEREMIAH 8:11
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
ISAIAH 33:8
8 The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant,(7 YR TREATY) he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.(THE WORLD LEADER-WAR MONGER CALLS HIMSELF GOD)
JERUSALEM DIVIDED
GENESIS 25:20-26
20 And Isaac was forty years old (A BIBLE GENERATION NUMBER=1967 + 40=2007+) when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
22 And the children (2 NATIONS IN HER-ISRAEL-ARABS) struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels;(ISRAEL AND THE ARABS) and the one people shall be stronger than the other people;(ISRAEL STRONGER THAN ARABS) and the elder shall serve the younger.(LITERALLY ISRAEL THE YOUNGER RULES (ISSAC)(JACOB-LATER NAME CHANGED TO ISRAEL) OVER THE OLDER ARABS (ISHMAEL)(ESAU)
24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
25 And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.(THE OLDER AN ARAB)
26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob:(THE YOUNGER-ISRAELI) and Isaac was threescore (60) years old when she bare them.(1967 + 60=2027)(COULD BE THE LAST GENERATION WHEN JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED AMOUNG THE 2 TWINS)(THE 2 TWINS WANT JERUSALEM-THE DIVISION OF JERUSALEM TODAY)(AND WHOS IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM TODAY-THE YOUNGER ISSAC-JACOB-ISRAEL)(AND WHO WANTS JERUSALEM DIVIDED-THE OLDER,ESAU-ISHMAEL (THE ARABS)
ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
Erekat: Israel wants annexation, to consolidate ‘apartheid’-Top Palestinian negotiator blames Jerusalem for collapse of peace negotiations, but leaves door open for extending talks-By Raphael Ahren April 29, 2014, 7:49 pm 14-The Times of Israel
As the nine-month period set for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks elapsed Tuesday, top Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat blamed Israel for the collapse of the negotiations, and urged the international community to pressure the Jewish state into making concessions.He accused Israel of consolidating an “apartheid regime” and suggested it seeks to annex the West Bank, or parts of it.Erekat also said the Palestinians have the right to unilaterally take steps toward statehood, for example by acceding to more international treaties, yet did not announce plans to do so in the coming days. He did not rule out that the negotiations could continue — if Israel respects its “commitments and obligations,” he said.“Everything Israel did during the past nine months aimed at sabotaging Palestinian and international efforts to achieve the two-state solution,” Erekat said in a statement. “To build settlements in occupied land, kill Palestinians and demolish hundreds of Palestinian homes is certainly not the behavior of a government that wants to end occupation but of a government that wants to turn occupation into annexation.“We believe that the international community must now do what is needed,” he continued, “in order to make clear to Israel that choosing settlements and apartheid over peace has a political, legal and economic cost.”According to Erekat, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “never gave the negotiations a chance to succeed,” arguing that the talks failed because of ongoing Israeli settlement expansion and Israel’s failure to release a last group of Palestinian security prisoners, as agreed when talks commenced.Israel delayed the release of the fourth batch of prisoners after the Palestinians refused to commit to extend the talks beyond the initial April 29 deadline, and over arguments as to the identity of those slated for release: While Palestinians have claimed that the US allowed for Israeli Arabs to be among the group, Israel denied that they were ever part of the agreement.After Israel refused to release the prisoners at the end of last month, the peace talks entered a serious crisis, with the Palestinians applying for membership to 15 international treaties and conventions.Jerusalem puts the blame for the collapse of peace talks squarely on the Palestinians, after Abbas’s Fatah last week surprisingly signed a reconciliation agreement with Hamas. The Israeli cabinet decided unanimously that it would not conduct peace negotiations with a Palestinian government backed by Hamas, a terrorist organization that calls for Israel’s destruction.Netanyahu’s government “has used every possible tool in order to consolidate its apartheid regime,” said Erekat, a member of the executive council of the Palestine Liberation Organization. “There is no other word to define this system of segregation and discrimination that has been imposed on our occupied country by the State of Israel.”According to a “special report” published Tuesday by the PLO’s Negotiations Affairs Department, Israel advanced the construction of housing units “for over 55,000 new settlers” over the last nine months. The six-page report listed a host of alleged Israeli “violations,” including the killings of 61 Palestinians and 675 incidents of “settler violence.”“Without being held accountable by the US and the international community, Israel will continue to behave as a country above the law. For a just peace to prevail, impunity must be replaced with accountability,” the report concluded.Erekat, too, called on the international community to pressure Israel through various avenues, and reaffirmed the Palestinians’ right to pursue an independent state through diplomatic means, such as by joining UN bodies. Still, he stopped short of announcing further concrete steps to do so.Earlier on Tuesday, Abbas laid down three conditions to continue the peace talks: freezing Israeli settlements beyond the pre-1967 lines, an additional release of Palestinian prisoners and an immediate, serious discussion of future borders.
Israel, Palestinians at U.N. accuse each other of sabotaging peace
By Mirjam Donath 3 hours ago-APR 29,14-YahooNews
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Israeli and Palestinian envoys on Tuesday took advantage of a U.N. Security Council meeting on the Middle East to publicly blame each other for the latest breakdown in the fragile peace negotiations as the deadline for a deal expired.Robert Serry, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told the 15-nation Security Council that Israeli and Palestinian leaders should "convince each other anew they are partners for peace."Both Israel's U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor and Palestinian U.N. observer Riyad Mansour expressed a commitment to peace. But they also accused each other of undermining the most recent attempt to secure a deal in U.S.-brokered talks."Israel has maintained its rejectionist stance and persisted with its grave breaches, constantly reaffirming its role as occupier and oppressor, not as peacemaker," Mansour told the council. "Once again, Israel has thwarted peace efforts." Israel's envoy pinned responsibility for the suspension of peace negotiations on the Palestinians."The Palestinians pledge dialogue while fermenting hatred," Prosor told the council. "They promise tolerance while celebrating terrorists. And they make commitments almost as quickly as they break them."Prosor accused the Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of abandoning a chance to "tango with Israel" in favor of "waltzing off with Hamas."Nine months ago the United States launched new negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians to end the decades-long conflict and help create a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The talks fell apart last week, with Washington blaming both sides for failing to compromise ahead of the April 29 deadline.U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power told the council Washington will continue to support negotiations between the two sides."We have clearly reached a difficult moment, but we continue to believe that there is only one real viable solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: two states living side by side in peace and security," she said. "If the parties are willing to go down the path - this path - we will be there to support them."Israel suspended the negotiations with the Palestinians in response to President Mahmoud Abbas's unexpected unity pact with the rival Islamist Hamas group, which Israel and the United States consider a terrorist organization.Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority is angered by Israel's expansion of settlements on land they intend to include in a future Palestinian state and its decision to postpone the release of the last tranche of prisoners in Israeli jails."The convergence of Israel's bad faith in the negotiations, including its reneging on the prisoner release agreement, and its unlawful actions on the ground, particularly its intensification of settlement activities and incessant aggressions in Occupied East Jerusalem, seriously undermined the peace process," said Mansour.Prosor made clear that Israel would not budge in its refusal to talk with Hamas."Anyone who wonders why Israel won't negotiate with Hamas may as well be wondering why nobody shows up to dinner parties thrown by Hannibal Lector," Prosor said, referring to a serial killer made popular in a series of Hollywood films.U.N. envoy Serry said both sides must compromise."If Israel is serious about the two-state solution, it must recognize the negative impact of continued illegal settlement activity," he said. "Palestinians in turn should be reflective of their actions in international fora."Earlier this month Abbas signed more than a dozen international conventions, citing anger at Israel's delay of a prisoner release in a decision that jeopardized U.S. efforts to salvage fragile peace talks.The Palestinians were eligible to sign on to the treaties and conventions after the U.N. General Assembly upgraded the Palestinians' status at the United Nations in 2012 from "observer entity" to "non- member state," a move widely seen as de facto recognition of an independent Palestinian state.(Editing by Louis Charbonneau and Andrew Hay)
With Mideast talks over, Palestinians seek unity
By KARIN LAUB 3 hours ago-APR 29,14-YahooNews
JERUSALEM (AP) — Tuesday was to have been the day to seal a deal on a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Instead, it became another missed deadline in two decades of negotiating failures. The gaps between Israeli and Palestinian positions remain vast after nine months of talks launched by Secretary of State John Kerry. He hasn't given up, but there's a sense the U.S. may have to change its traditional approach to brokering talks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas now face risky paths that could lead to a new conflagration.
WHAT WILL THE U.S. DO?
Kerry has hit the pause button. His point man left the region and the State Department says it will wait to see what the two sides decide in coming weeks and months.
WHAT IS THE NEXT DECISIVE DATE?
By the end of May, Abbas and the Islamic militant Hamas hope to establish a unity government of technocrats that is to prepare for general elections by 2015. It's the latest in a series of reconciliation attempts since Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from Abbas in 2007, leaving him with parts of the West Bank. Abbas says the new government will be bound by his political program of seeking peace with Israel. This way, he hopes to allay U.S. concerns about a partnership with militants who refuse to recognize Israel or renounce violence.
HOW LIKELY IS A UNITY GOVERNMENT?
Hamas, a branch of the pan-Arab Muslim Brotherhood, might be more open to compromise with Abbas than in the past because it's struggling financially and has lost regional backing. Hamas' troubles stem from unprecedented border sanctions on Gaza by the Egyptian military which ousted a Brotherhood government in Egypt last year. Hamas can't meet its government payroll and is eager to have Abbas take over those responsibilities. However, Hamas might balk at relinquishing authority in Gaza or deferring to Abbas' political platform.
WHY DOES ABBAS WANT A PARTNERSHIP WITH HAMAS NOW?
Last year, Abbas reluctantly agreed to negotiations with Netanyahu because he didn't want to be blamed for sabotaging Kerry's efforts. With talks formally over on April 29 and Hamas on the ropes, Abbas believes he can regain a foothold in Gaza, mend the political split and strengthen the Palestinian hand in future dealings with Israel.
WOULD THE U.S. AND ISRAEL DEAL WITH A UNITY GOVERNMENT?
The State Department says it will assess any Palestinian unity government according to its policies and actions. Key questions include who would assume command of thousands of Hamas fighters, and whether a new government will recognize Israel.Netanyahu says he won't negotiate with any government backed by Hamas, which seeks Israel's eventual destruction and has killed hundreds of Israelis in attacks over the years. Last week, Israel broke off negotiations with Abbas because of his unity efforts.
COULD ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATIONS RESUME IF THERE IS NO UNITY GOVERNMENT?
Kerry might keep trying or present his own "take it or leave it" plan to the sides.Abbas and Netanyahu say they are still interested in negotiations. Israel, in particular, benefits from ongoing talks as a way of deflecting criticism of its policies, including settlement construction on occupied lands.However, Kerry would have a harder time than last year to restart negotiations because gaps on the ground rules have grown. Abbas has said Israel first needs to freeze settlement building and make good on a promise to release more veteran prisoners, demands Israel rejected.Over the weekend, the Palestinian leadership also withdrew a previous concession of agreeing to a land swap that would enable Israel to annex some "settlement blocs." It also insisted that Netanyahu recognize Israel's pre-1967 war frontier, before its capture of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, as a baseline for border talks.
WHAT MIGHT ABBAS DO NOW?
Abbas hasn't yet reached the point of abandoning negotiations and instead challenging Israeli politically and legally in the international arena. Such a dramatic shift is fraught with risk, including tensions with the West and greater economic hardship for the Palestinians, who stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars a year in foreign aid.As part of a post-negotiations strategy, Abbas could seek further international recognition of a "state of Palestine," accepted by the U.N. General Assembly as an observer in 2012. Palestine could join dozens of international bodies and press war crimes charges against Israel over its settlement building before the international criminal court.
WHAT MIGHT NETANYAHU DO NOW?
Netanyahu said this week he won't accept a stalemate and will "seek other ways" to deal with the conflict with the Palestinians, but there's no sign he will deviate dramatically from his current policies. Various ideas have been floated by Israeli politicians over the years, including withdrawing unilaterally from or annexing large parts of the West Bank, but Netanyahu hasn't endorsed any of them.Settlement expansion is likely to continue even though further settlement sprawl steadily closes the door to a partition deal. The anti-settlement group Peace Now says that in nine months of negotiations, Israel promoted plans for close to 14,000 settlement apartments, with the number of construction tenders up fourfold from previous years.
IS A NEW CONFRONTATION IMMINENT?
Neither side seems eager for an escalation, but any step could have unintended consequences.
Abbas has ruled out violence as a tactic and says he will continue security coordination with Israel in the West Bank, but could face Israeli retaliation if he succeeds in forming a unity government, for example. Netanyahu threatened unspecified sanctions after last week's Palestinian unity deal, but hasn't acted so far. He could freeze the monthly transfer of $100 million in taxes Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians, as he has done in the past. The next transfer is due next week. However, Israel also has an interest in the survival of Abbas' self-rule government. Its collapse would force Israel, as the occupier, to take responsibility for millions of Palestinians.
WHAT ARE THE LONG-TERM TRENDS?
If neither side adopts a radical shift in strategy, the U.S. could return to trying to manage the conflict. Israel will likely face growing international isolation and warnings — most recently from Kerry, although he later retracted the language — that it could turn into an "apartheid state" if there's no partition deal. The Palestinians' push for a united strategy is being hampered by entrenched factionalism and an intensifying leadership battle in Fatah, the party of the 79-year-old Abbas.___Associated Press writers Lara Jakes in Washington and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed reporting.
04/29/2014 - THE VATICAN INSIDER-“Keep searching” says family of Fr. Dall’Oglio, who went missing nine months ago-Fr. Dall'Oglio-Rebels say the Jesuit priest who was abducted in Syria last 29 July is in the hands of radical Islamist group ISIS-vatican insider staff
Turin-The 59-year-old Roman Jesuit priest Paolo Dall’Oglio went missing in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa and according to rebel sources is apparently alive and being held by radical Islamist group ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). “We ask those who are holding Paolo captive to set him free so that he can return to his loved ones and we ask all institutions to continue working towards this,” Fr. Dall’Oglio’s family said in an appeal sent out to mark the anniversary of his abduction nine months ago. The priest was abducted in Syria on 29 July 2013. All sources have confirmed that Fr. Dall’Oglio is alive and is being held in one of ISIS’ prisons. ISIS is an al-Qaeda inspired faction and a rival of the al-Nusra Front, another al-Qaeda inspired group. ISIS took control of large swaths of territory in northern and north-eastern Syria over a year ago.The Italian Foreign Ministry’s Crisis Unit is handling the Dall’Oglio case with utmost confidentiatily. Sources close to the ongoing negotiations report that there have been talks at various levels for months now to try to negotiate his release.Dall’Oglio had lived in Syria for over 30 years and was deeply engaged in promoting Islamic-Cristian dialogue, when he was expelled from the country in June 2012 after he supported the UN peace plan presented by the former special envoy Kofi Annan. His work was especially focused around the monastic community he founded in north Damascus. From abroad, the Jesuit made even bolder criticisms against government repression and last summer he entered northern Syria.
Ukraine signs gas deal with Slovakia-28.04.14 @ 20:51-By Nikolaj Nielsen-EUOBSERVER
BRUSSELS - Slovakia is set to pump reserve natural gas to Ukraine in a reverse-flow deal signed on Monday (28 April).Russia has almost doubled the price of gas in Ukraine (Photo: Naftogaz of Ukraine)The gas will run through the unused Vojany pipeline on the Slovakian side, managed by Slovak gas pipeline operator EUstream, to Uzhgorod in Ukraine.EUstream, along with its Ukraine counterpart Ukrtransgaz, aim to start pumping the gas sometime in autumn. The European Commission says it could amount to around 8 billion cubic metres (bcm) per year.Despite around two years of negotiations, the move is in part framed by the escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine.Russia supplied 30 percent of gas to Europe last year, with a significant amount transited through Ukraine.At the signing ceremony in the Slovak capital Bratislava, EU commission president Jose Barroso, described the deal as one that "contributes to greater energy security in Eastern Europe and the EU as a whole".Around half of Ukraine's 50 bcm of gas consumed annually is sourced from Russia.With Monday's agreement, Slovakia becomes the third and largest contributor of reverse-flow gas to Ukraine in the EU after Hungary and Poland."Gas via Slovakia will bring a considerable addition to the volumes that Ukraine can already import from Hungary and Poland," noted EU energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger.Ukraine had stopped the Hungary and Poland imports after Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom slashed prices in December.The cut was part of a larger $15 billion loan and a 33 percent discount on natural gas offered by Russia to Ukraine's Yanukovich-led government. The discounted $270 per 1,000 cubic metres price has since almost doubled with flows now picking up again from Hungary and Poland.Russia cancelled its 2010 Kharkov Agreement after it annexed Crimea.The agreement had given Ukraine a gas rebate in exchange for hosting Russia's naval fleet in Sevastopol port. Moscow says the port is no longer a part of Ukraine.Gazprom also issued an ultimatum for Kiev to pay $3.5 billion in unpaid bills by 7 May or risk getting cut off, sparking fears many in Ukraine may be without heating next winter. Industry sources told Reuters last month that Ukraine has enough gas stored up to last at least four months should Gazprom stop the flows.At 31 bcm, Ukraine has the largest gas storage capacity volume in Europe with most of the facilities found in the west of the country.The EU is pushing to increase the volume of Slovak flows.EUstream, for its part, has not completely ruled out upping the volume by using another larger transit gas pipeline but said it may run into legal problems.The larger transit line carries Russian gas to the European Union and is partly managed by Gazprom Export.The Slovak company, which describes itself as the largest single carrier of Russian gas in the European Union, said it would first have to reach an agreement with its Russian counterpart.
ISAIAH 17:1,11-14
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
11 In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
12 Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations,(USELESS U.N) that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13 The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14 And behold at evening tide trouble; and before the morning he is not.(ASSAD KILLED IN OVERNIGHT RAID) This is the portion of them that spoil us,(ISRAEL) and the lot of them that rob us.
AMOS 1:5
5 I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden:(IRAQ) and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir,(JORDAN) saith the LORD.
JEREMEIAH 49:23-27
23 Concerning Damascus.(SYRIA) Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea;(WAR SHIPS WITH NUKES COMING ON SYRIA) it cannot be quiet.
24 Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27 And I will kindle a fire (NUKES OR BOMBS) in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.(ASSADS PALACES POSSIBLY IN DAMASCUS)
PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
Chemical watchdog to investigate Syria chlorine gas claims
By Thomas Escritt and Mariam Karouny 9 hours ago-APR 29,14
AMSTERDAM/BEIRUT (Reuters) - The global chemical weapons watchdog overseeing the destruction of Syria's toxic stockpile will send a fact-finding mission to Syria to investigate allegations by rebels and activists of chlorine gas attacks, the organization said on Tuesday.The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said President Bashar al-Assad's government had agreed to accept the mission and had promised to provide security in areas under its control."The mission will carry out its work in the most challenging circumstances," the OPCW said, referring to the three-year-old conflict between Assad's forces and rebels. It gave no exact date for the mission but said it would take place soon. Accusations by rebels and Syrian activist of at least three separate chlorine gas attacks by Assad's forces in the last month have exposed the limits of a deal which Assad agreed last year for the destruction of his chemical arsenal.The accord followed a sarin gas attack on rebel-held outskirts of Damascus last August in which hundreds of people were killed. Washington and its allies blamed Assad's forces for the attack, but Damascus authorities said rebels carried it out to try to force Western military intervention.Damascus has now shipped out or destroyed 92 percent of the chemicals it pledged to eliminate. However chlorine, which also has many industrial uses, was never included in the list submitted to the OPCW.Videos released by activists of chlorine gas canisters they said were dropped in barrel bombs from Syrian military helicopters could not be verified by Reuters but analysts say the pattern of attacks suggest a coordinated campaign with growing evidence of government responsibility.The U.S. State Department said last week that if Syrian authorities used chlorine gas with the intent to kill or harm this would violate the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which it joined as part of last year's agreement.In addition to the possible chlorine use, diplomats say Western powers believe Syria may have not have declared all of its chemical stockpiles - an accusation which Syria has denied.One Western diplomat said a separate OPCW mission arrived in Syria last week to discuss discrepancies between Syria's original declaration and the quantities which have been shipped out so far.
BOMBINGS FOLLOW ASSAD'S NOMINATION
Last year's chemical deal helped avert the threat of U.S. air strikes against Assad's forces. Since then the 48-year-old president has consolidated his control around Damascus and central Syria and now appears determined to match those military advances with political gains.On Monday he declared he will run in a June 3 election - dismissed in advance by his opponents as a charade - which is widely expected to deliver him a third term in office.Ten other hopefuls have also put their names forward, but Syria's election law requires candidates to have lived in Syria for 10 years and to win the endorsement of 35 members of the pro-Assad parliament, ruling out members of Syria's opposition in exile or any other dissenting voices.A day after Assad's formal nomination, more than 50 people were killed in car bombs and mortar attacks targeting government-controlled areas of Damascus and Homs.In Homs, at least 37 people including children were killed by two car bombs near a busy roundabout in Zahraa, a neighborhood where the population is mainly from Assad's Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.A local security source put the death toll at 42.In central Damascus, two mortar shells struck an education complex in the mainly Shi'ite district of Shaghour, killing at least 14 people and wounding dozens.(Reporting by Dominic Evans; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Ukraine separatists seize second provincial capital, fire on police
By Vasily Fedosenko 4 hours ago-APR 29,14-YahooNews
LUHANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Hundreds of pro-Moscow separatists stormed government buildings in one of Ukraine's provincial capitals on Tuesday and fired on police holed up in a regional headquarters, a major escalation of their revolt despite new Western sanctions on Russia.New U.S. and EU sanctions packages, announced with fanfare, were seen as so mild that Russian share prices rose in relief. A small number of names were added to existing blacklists, while threats to take more serious measures were put on hold.Nevertheless, Russian President Vladimir Putin responded by threatening to reconsider Western participation in energy deals in Russia, the world's biggest oil producer, where most major U.S. and European oil companies have extensive projects.Demonstrators smashed their way into the provincial government headquarters in Luhansk, Ukraine's easternmost province, which abuts the Russian border, and raised separatist flags over the building, while police did nothing to interfere.As night fell, about 20 rebel gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons and threw stun grenades at the headquarters of the region's police, trying to force those inside to surrender their weapons, a Reuters photographer at the scene said."The regional leadership does not control its police force," said Stanislav Rechynsky, an aide to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, referring to events in Luhansk. "The local police did nothing."The rebels also seized the prosecutor's office and the television center.The separatist operation in Luhansk appears to give the pro-Moscow rebels control of a second provincial capital. They already control much of neighboring Donetsk province, where they have proclaimed an independent "People's Republic of Donetsk" and declared a referendum on secession for May 11.The rebels include local youths armed with clubs and chains, as well as "green men" - heavily armed masked men in military uniforms without insignia.Adding control of Luhansk would give them sway over the entire Donbass coalfield - an unbroken swath of territory adjacent to Russia - where giant steel smelters and heavy plants account for around a third of Ukraine's industrial output.It is the heart of a region that Putin described earlier this month as "New Russia", reviving a term from when the tsars conquered it in the 18th and 19th centuries. Most people who live in the area now identify themselves as Ukrainians but speak Russian as their first language.
MOSCOW ACCUSED
Ukraine, a country of 45 million people the size of France, has a thousand-year history as a state but has spent much of the last few centuries under the shadow of its larger neighbor. It emerged as a modern independent nation after the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, with borders drawn up by Bolshevik commissars from territory previously ruled by Russia, Poland and Austria.Its current crisis erupted after a pro-Russian president was toppled in February in a popular uprising. Within days, Putin had declared the right to use military force and dispatched his undercover troops to seize Crimea.The United States and European Union accuse Moscow of directing the uprising with the intent of dismembering Ukraine."Today, Russia seeks to change the security landscape of eastern and central Europe," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a speech on Tuesday. "Whatever path Russia chooses, the United States and our allies will stand together in our defense of Ukraine."Nevertheless, U.S. and European officials have repeatedly made clear they will not consider military action.The U.S. embassy in Kiev described the behavior of pro-Russian activists - who also attacked a rally of Kiev supporters on Monday with clubs and iron bars, and are holding dozens of hostages including seven unarmed European military monitors - as "terrorism, pure and simple". U.S. President Barack Obama, announcing new sanctions on Monday, said they were intended to change Putin's "calculus".But so far they have shown no sign of restraining the Kremlin leader, who overturned decades of post-Cold War diplomacy last month to seize and annex Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula and has since massed tens of thousands of troops on the frontier. Russia has openly threatened to invade to protect Russian speakers, though it denies that it plans to do so.Putin threatened on Tuesday to review the role of Western firms in Russian energy deals."We would very much wish not to resort to any measures in response. I hope we won't get to that point," Putin told reporters after meeting leaders of Belarus and Kazakhstan."But if something like that continues, we will of course have to think about who is working in the key sectors of the Russian economy, including the energy sector, and how."Russia's RTS stock index rose 1.23 percent on Tuesday in relief that the latest EU and U.S. sanctions were so modest.
BLACKLISTS
After Russia took Crimea in March, Washington and Brussels each drew up sanctions blacklists that ban travel by and freeze the assets of individuals and firms deemed to have played a role in threatening Ukraine. The EU added 15 Russians and pro-Russian Ukrainians to its blacklist on Tuesday, a day after Washington added seven individuals and 17 firms to its own list.But neither list includes any of Russia's major firms.The latest U.S. list names Igor Sechin, a long-time Putin ally who now heads Russia's biggest oil company, Rosneft. But the firm said the blacklisting of its boss would not affect its operations, including plans to buy the oil trading arm of Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley.Sechin's name was conspicuously left off the EU list. European countries do more than 10 times as much trade with Russia as the United States, buying a quarter of their natural gas from Moscow. They have been slower than Washington to embrace sanctions that might jeopardize trade.Moscow has shrugged off the blacklists as pointless, though Washington and Brussels say they have had an indirect economic impact by scaring investors into withdrawing capital."You have to look over the period of time Russia went into Crimea; since we've imposed sanctions, there has been a quite substantial deterioration in Russia's already weak economy," U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told congressional hearings."We see it in their stock exchange, we see it in their exchange rate, we see it in a number of important economic indicators."Lew said Washington could also impose wider sanctions on Russian industry. Obama said on Monday Western countries were keeping that option "in reserve" in case of further escalation.A hostage drama has kept the issue on the boil in European capitals. On Friday, rebels captured eight unarmed European military monitors. A Swede was freed three days later, but four Germans, a Dane, a Czech and a Pole are still held in Slaviansk, a town rebels have turned into a heavily fortified redoubt.The self-declared "people's mayor" of the town, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, said on Tuesday he would discuss their release only if the EU dropped sanctions against rebel leaders."If they fail to remove the sanctions, then we will block access for EU representatives, and they won't be able to get to us. I will remind my guests from the OSCE about this," he said, referring to the European hostages. Nevertheless, he later met OSCE representatives and said they had made "good progress" in discussions on the release of the captives.Ukraine's authorities are struggling to find a way to evict the separatists, who also took a small town hall in Pervomaisk in the Luhansk region on Tuesday and a number of buildings in another city on Monday. Kiev launched an "anti-terrorist" operation in early April, but it has yielded little so far.The Russian Foreign Ministry said the EU sanctions would not ease tensions in Ukraine."Instead of forcing the Kiev clique to sit at the table with southeastern Ukraine to negotiate the future structure of the country, our partners are doing Washington's bidding with new unfriendly gestures aimed at Russia," the ministry said.Gennady Kernes, the mayor of eastern Ukraine's biggest city, Kharkiv, was in a stable condition on Tuesday in a hospital in Israel, where he was flown after an assassination attempt. Kernes was shot in the back on Monday.(Additional reporting by John O'Donnell in Brussels, Pavel Polityuk and Matt Robinson in Kiev, Darya Korsunskaya in Minsk, Steve Gutterman, Elizabeth Piper, Oksana Kobzeva, Megan Davies, Olesya Astakhova and Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Will Waterman/Mark Heinrich)
