Saturday, February 07, 2015

ABBAS THE LUNATIC ARAB MURDERER FORMS COMMITTEE TO OVERSEE ICC CASES.

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)

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

Abbas forms committee to oversee ICC cases-Former chief negotiator Saeb Erekat to lead new body, charged with gathering documents for war crimes allegations against Israel-By AFP and Times of Israel staff February 7, 2015, 4:33 pm 5

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday ordered the formation of a committee to oversee cases to lodge with the International Criminal Court, in a move likely to further anger the Israeli government.The Palestinians formally joined the ICC last month, enabling them to submit war crimes and crimes against humanity complaints against Israel.The new committee will be headed by chief negotiator Saeb Erakat and will include various figures from the Palestinian political scene, universities and human rights organizations, said the official Wafa news agency.The committee “will identify and prepare the documents and records that the state of Palestine will present to the ICC,” the agency said, citing Abbas.ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda opened a preliminary examination into the situation in Palestine, her office said in a statement last month, adding it may lead to a full-blown investigation.The probe would review “in full independence and impartiality” alleged crimes committed since June 13 last year, the beginning of tensions between Israel and the Palestinians that culminated in Operation Protective Edge — a 50-day conflict between Israel and terrorist groups in Gaza that resulted in the deaths of approximately 2,200 Palestinians, according to Hamas figures, and 72 people on the Israeli side.Israel says half of those killed in Gaza were Hamas and other gunmen, and that Hamas is to blame for all civilian fatalities since Hamas placed rocket launchers, cross-border tunnel entrances and other elements of its war machine in residential areas.Israel also maintains that Hamas and other groups operating within the Gaza Strip indiscriminately targeted civilian population centers with rocket fire and used Gaza’s populace as “human shields,” engaging the IDF from private homes, schools, hospitals, mosques and UN compounds, thereby drawing the scorn of the international community.The ICC probe may pave the way for alleged Palestinian war crimes to be investigated as well, including Hamas’s. Potential cases Bensouda could also take on include Israel’s settlement construction on land claimed by the Palestinians.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted angrily to the prosecutor’s decision to launch the probe, calling it “preposterous” and “absurd” since “the Palestinian Authority cooperates with Hamas, a terror group that commits war crimes, in contrast to Israel that fights terror while maintaining international law, and has an independent justice system.”The Palestinian Authority’s decision to press forward its suit in the ICC has cost it greatly, as Jerusalem suspended transferring over $120 million in tax revenue to Ramallah, and representatives within the US government have called on President Barack Obama to halt the $400 million of aid Washington supplies the PA annually. Abbas’s decision to go to the ICC came after failing to gain a majority for a statehood bid at the United Nations that called for a full Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and East Jerusalem by the end of 2017.The Palestinian Authority has indicated that it will likely file another bid with the Security Council after Israeli elections in March.

ISRAEL SATAN COMES AGAINST

1 CHRONICLES 21:1
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.

ISRAELS TROUBLE

JEREMIAH 30:7
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;(ISRAEL) but he shall be saved out of it.

DANIEL 12:1,4
1 And at that time shall Michael(ISRAELS WAR ANGEL) stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:(ISRAEL) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation(May 14,48) even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,(WORLD TRAVEL,IMMIGRATION) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS,CHIP IMPLANTS ETC)

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal to visit Iran next month-Trip seen as effort to boost ties with Islamic Republic following increased ‘aid’-By Stuart Winer and Times of Israel staff February 6, 2015, 10:54 pm

The head of Hamas’s political bureau, Khaled Mashaal, is set to visit Iran next month in a bid to strengthen ties between the terror group and the Islamic Republic, Iran’s Fars news agency reported Friday.“Mashaal will travel to Tehran in less than a month,” the it quoted Hamas official Ahmed Yousef as saying.The move was seen as further indication that Iran was willing to overlook Hamas’s unwillingness to side with Syrian President Bashar Assad, a staunch ally of Iran, against the rebels in the Syrian civil war. Hamas had raised Iran’s ire over the issue and reports surfaced of a distancing between the two.Mashaal was until 2013 based in Damascus.The relationship between Hamas and Iran was “positive,” an Iranian official said in December, reportedly stressing that his organization wished to improve its ties with the Islamic Republic.Last month, a Hamas representative in Lebanon told Palestinian news agency Wafa that Tehran has always supported the Palestinians.“Ever since the victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran the Palestinian crisis has been a major propriety for Iran, whose relations with the Palestinians are of strategic value for both sides,” said Ali al-Baraka-Also last month, Mahmoud a-Zahar, a senior Hamas official, asked Iran and Hezbollah to step up aid to the terror group, requesting more weapons and funding for its operations.“We [Hamas] stretch our hand of cooperation for materializing the Palestinian cause, because Palestine is an essential issue that needs more efforts,” al-Zahar told Al-Manar television, a network affiliated with Hezbollah.On Monday, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp’s missile division boasted that his country has provided short- and mid-range ballistic rocket technologies to its allies, including the Palestinians and Hezbollah in Lebanon.IRGC aerospace force commander Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said that information and skills to locally produce military rockets were also given to the governments of Syria and Iraq.“The IRGC’s Aerospace Force has developed to a stage in the field of missile industries that it can mass-produce different types of short- and mid-range missiles,” Hajizadeh said, according to a report by the semi-official FARS news agency.Israeli defense officials have often voiced concerns over the spread of mid-range missiles to Hezbollah and the Palestinians that put all of Israel within striking distance.“The Islamic Republic of Iran has helped Iraq, Syria, Palestine and the Lebanese Hezbollah by exporting the technology that it has for the production of missiles and other equipment, and they can now stand against the Zionist regime, the ISIL [Islamic State group] and other Takfiri [apostate] groups and cripple them,” Hajizadeh said.He also claimed that Iran was developing its own radar and drone technologies that were being exported to other countries.In 2013 Hajizadeh made various claims as to the improved accuracy of Iranian ballistic missiles, including a supersonic anti-ship missile, the so-called Persian Gulf missile, which has a range of over 250 kilometers. Israel has vowed to prevent what it terms “game-changing” technologies from falling into the hands of Hezbollah. Several airstrikes over the past three years, attributed to Israel and carried out amid the continuing civil war in Syria, were said to have targeted advanced weapons shipments heading to the Lebanese terror organization.Last month a helicopter attack on a convoy near the Syrian town of Quneitra on the Golan Heights, apparently carried out by the IDF, killed six Hezbollah members and and at least one Iranian, Mohammed Ali Allahdadi, a decorated Iranian general who was reportedly advising the Syrians on their war effort.Hezbollah, Syria and Iran have all vowed to strike at Israel in the wake of the attack, and last week a Hezbollah attack along Israel’s northern border killed two IDF soldiers. There have been conflicting reports as to whether Israel knew that Allahdadi was in the convoy hit during the airstrike.Along Israel’s southern border, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have steadily increased the range of their rocket attacks on Israeli towns and cities. During 2014’s Operation Protective Edge, in which the IDF battled Hamas, terrorists fired over 4,000 rockets at Israel including several that reached Tel Aviv and the outskirts of Haifa in the north, and threatened air traffic at Ben Gurion international airport.Last November Revolutionary Guard Brigadier General Sayed Majid Moussavi said that the Palestinians and Hezbollah had received Fateh-class missiles from Tehran. The Fateh-110 missile has a range of about 200 kilometers (120 miles) and can carry warheads of around 500 kilograms. Fired from southern Lebanon, the missiles could hit as far south as the Israeli city of Beersheba.

LAND FOR PEACE (THE FUTURE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH)

JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people(ISRAEL) and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.(UPROOTED ISRAELIS AND DIVIDED JERUSALEM)(THIS BRINGS ON WW3 BECAUSE JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED,WARNING TO ARABS-MUSLIMS AND THE WORLD).

THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS

Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week:(7 YEARS) and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.

DANIEL 11:21-23
21 And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
23 And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people.
24 He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.

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.

PM orders demolition of EU-funded Palestinian ‘settlements’ in West Bank-European Union official defends unlicensed construction in Area C, says Palestinians have a right to build there-By Justin Jalil and JTA February 6, 2015, 9:18 pm 53-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon to move forward with a plan to demolish some 400 Palestinian structures built in the West Bank with European funding, Israeli media reported Friday.The prime minister’s order came shortly after a Thursday exposé in the Daily Mail claimed that the EU sank tens of millions of euros into homes which were not granted building permits by the Israeli government.Official EU documentation discovered by the newspaper stated that the buildings were intended to “pave the way for development and more authority of the PA over Area C,” raising concerns that the governmental organization was taking sides in the dispute by shaping the demographics of the Israeli-controlled territory.A portion of the homes, which largely resemble prefabricated caravans, were built in the E1 area between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim and near the Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus campus, according to Israeli news site NRG.According to the Daily Mail, the construction in 17 locations cost tens of millions in EU public funds.On Friday, a spokesman for the European Union defended its funding for the unlicensed construction, even as another EU official had denied wrongdoing.Shadi Othman, a communications officer at the Office of the European Union Representative in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, spoke to the Daily Mail Thursday about the union’s funding the construction of the 400 homes for Palestinians in the West Bank’s Area C, which according to the Oslo Accords remains under Israeli control until a negotiated final agreement.“This is part of the work done to build the future Palestinian state which will live side by side with Israel,” Othman said. “Palestinians have a right to live there, build schools there, have economic development.”Maja Kocijancic, a Brussels-based EU spokesperson, earlier denied any wrongdoing, insisting that construction had not taken place.“The EU’s funding will provide training and expertise, to help the relevant Palestinian Authority ministries to plan and build new infrastructure and enable people to reclaim and rebuild their land there,” she said. “To date, no construction has started yet under these programs. The EU is not funding illegal projects.”She later declined to comment on a series of photographs purporting the construction of the settlements and an EU-Oxfam sign that stated the main activities of the project was the “rehabilitation and reclamation” of land.Othman was interviewed about footage collected by the Israeli not-for-profit Regavim, which shows structures bearing plaques with the EU logo. Regavim says the structures were erected in recent months without license from Israeli authorities.The European Union has long complained to Israel about the thousands of homes built for Jewish settlers in Area C, rejecting Israeli claims that they are built in settlements likely to become part of Israel in a final deal.Michael Theurer, a German member of the European Parliament and its Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, told the Daily Mail he was “taking these allegations seriously and will thoroughly investigate them.Ari Briggs, the International Director of Regavim and the report’s principal author, insisted that the EU and Oxfam were using the project as a “Trojan horse” to undermine Israeli claims to the area.“Area C has been identified by the anti-Israel ‘humanitarian community’ as a hot spot to push Israel,” Briggs stated.“These organizations with EU funding are encouraging and actively aiding the illegal attempt to take over public land. This has nothing to do with human rights and everything to do with taking advantage of less privileged nomadic societies for political goals,” insisted Briggs.James Carver, a British MEP for the West Midlands region, wrote a letter this week to the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs condemning the “illegal” project: “The structures all bear the name and flag of the EU and official EU agents have been photographed participating in overseeing the construction, so the active involvement of the EU can hardly be denied.”“I kindly call upon you to do your utmost to bring an end to these illegal and destructive activities,” he wrote.Alan Baker, an international lawyer who took part in the creation of the Oslo Accords, accused the EU of interfering in the conflict.“The EU is a signatory to the Oslo Accords, so they cannot pick and choose when they recognize it,” he said. According to international law, all building in Area C must have permission from Israel, whether it is temporary or permanent.”“The same principle applies anywhere in the world. If you want to build, you need planning permission…The EU is ignoring international law and taking concrete steps to influence the facts on the ground,” Baker stated.An unnamed Israeli government source claimed the venture exemplified “the double standards of the EU”, which “deplores Israeli settlements in the West Bank while simultaneously funding its own for Palestinians: “If Israel started building houses in the middle of Hyde Park, the British government would immediately take them down…The EU is doing things that would never be acceptable in Europe.”MK Yariv Levin also accused the Europeans of double-speak.“It is hypocritical of the EU to criticize Israeli construction while at the same time actively supporting and practically taking part in illegal Palestinian settlement construction on Israeli land,” the Likud MK charged.The European Union is opposed to Jewish construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, maintaining it is counterproductive to the emergence of a Palestinian state.

Explosion rocks Gaza in apparent assassination attempt-Vehicle of senior Hamas official blown up by Palestinian assailants in sign of increasing instability in the Strip-By Times of Israel staff February 7, 2015, 6:45 am 3

The vehicle of a senior Hamas official exploded Friday in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, injuring a civilian. The official, Sami al-Hams, was not wounded in the incident, the Palestinian al-Quds news station reported.Initial reports suggested that Palestinian assailants deliberately targeted al-Hams and that they placed explosive charges beneath his car.In late January, unidentified assailants blew up the car of a Hamas security official in Gaza, in a sign of increasing instability in the Palestinian enclave. Witnesses said the car belonged to Helmi Khalaf, administrative and financial manager of the Hamas-run military police. It was unclear who carried out that alleged attack.A series of explosions in November targeted officials from Fatah, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s own political party, but caused no injuries.Observers have warned of the dangers of Hamas losing control inside Gaza to more radical Islamists including Salafists with whom it has clashed in the past.

Sweden to urge Abbas to boost role of women-Stockholm to press visiting Palestinian leader on democracy, human rights and gender equality in future state-By Karl Ritter February 7, 2015, 5:19 am -the times of israel

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is set to get a taste of Sweden’s feminist foreign policy next week when he visits the Nordic country known for its egalitarianism.Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström, who wants a bigger role for women in global peace and security affairs, said Friday she will press Abbas to include women in efforts to build a viable Palestinian state.After Sweden in October became the first European Union member to recognize Palestinian statehood, “we will have their ear,” Wallström told The Associated Press in a phone interview.“We want them to refrain from violence, to seek cooperation in all possible ways. And above all to defend democracy, human rights and the position of women in what’s going to be nation-building for Palestine from now on,” Wallström said.World reaction to the move, although criticized by Israel and called “premature” by the US, has been overwhelmingly positive, Wallström said, adding that it wasn’t about “being against Israel, it is about being for peace.”Lawmakers in Britain, Spain, France and Ireland have approved non-binding motions urging recognition of Palestinian statehood, but Sweden is the only EU member to actually do it. Eight other EU members, including former communist countries, have recognized Palestine but they did so long before they joined the bloc.The decision reflects how Sweden’s new left-leaning government is seeking a role in promoting peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, though Israeli officials called the move counter-productive. Wallström canceled a trip to Israel after government officials there refused to meet her.“If anything, the Swedish recognition is a tail wind to the ongoing Palestinian efforts not to hold direct negotiations with Israel,” said Israel’s ambassador to Sweden, Isaac Bachman, who was briefly recalled after the decision.Israel says Palestinians can gain independence only through peace negotiations, and that recognition of Palestine at the UN or by individual countries undermines the negotiating process. Palestinians say Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has continued to settle Israelis in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, isn’t serious about the peace negotiations.“Israel has some things to do, too, to show that they want to negotiate. Then they can’t continue with settlements,” said Wallström, a 60-year-old Social Democrat who has served as EU commissioner and special UN envoy on sexual violence in conflicts.More than 550,000 Israelis now live in the two areas, greatly complicating hopes of partitioning the area under a future peace deal. The two territories and the Gaza Strip are claimed by Palestinians for a future state.In addition to recognition, Sweden increased its aid to Palestinians to 1.5 billion kronor ($180 million) over five years. Wallström said gender equality is a key pillar of its aid strategy.“It’s important in our talks with Abbas to hear how women are represented in peace negotiations, how Palestine views the position of women and how resources are distributed,” she said.

THE ISRAEL HATERS IN AMERICA ARE LINING UP TO AVOID NETANYAHUS IRAN SPEECH TO CONGRESS.

Biden will not attend Netanyahu’s Congress speech-US official says vice president will be ‘traveling abroad'; 40 Democrats also expected to skip March 3 address on Iran-By Times of Israel staff, AP and AFP February 6, 2015, 9:36 pm

US Vice President Joe Biden will not attend a speech Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give before Congress on March 3, in a perceived new snub of the Israeli leader.“The Vice President’s office expects that the vice president will be traveling abroad during the joint session of Congress,” a US official said.The announcement was the latest blow to the PM, who has been under increasing pressure to cancel the speech.As president of the Senate, Biden would typically attend a joint meeting of Congress, putting the White House in a bind because of its irritation about Netanyahu’s visit. The White House has accused Netanyahu and congressional Republicans of breaching diplomatic protocol by arranging the address without coordinating with the administration.Biden’s overseas trip allows the White House to avoid the awkwardness of having the vice president sit behind Netanyahu during the address. It’s unclear where the vice president plans to travel, though his office said the unspecified trip was in the works before the prime minister’s trip was announced.Biden’s office insisted the unspecified trip had been in the works before the prime minister’s speech was announced. Biden has only missed one prior joint meeting of Congress: a 2011 address to lawmakers by former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, whose speech coincided with another overseas trip by the vice president.Biden had a tense run-in with Netanyahu in 2010, when Israel announced new settlement construction in East Jerusalem while the vice president was in the country for meetings with the prime minister and other officials. The move infuriated the US, and then-secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton called the timing of the Israeli announcement “insulting.”Earlier Friday, an Israel Channel 10 TV report said that some 40 Democratic legislators were currently expected to stay away from the address, and that Netanyahu was anxious to avoid that spreading to a wider “second wave” of legislators.The report also said that Netanyahu has conveyed messages to the Americans to the effect that “he didn’t know” the invitation extended to him to speak before the US Congress was anything but genuinely bi-partisan. Netanyahu remains determined to go ahead with the address, to highlight the dangers of a deal that would leave Iran as a nuclear threshold state, but is making an effort “to soften” the Obama administration’s anger, and that of many Democrats, over the March 3 speech, the TV report said.Early Friday, a senior Israeli politician who is close to Netanyahu suggested that the prime minister had been misled into believing both Republicans and Democrats wanted him to speak, and that he had accepted the contentious invitation from House Speaker John Boehner because he understood the offer enjoyed bipartisan support.Deputy Foreign Minister Tzachi Hanegbi (Likud) said Netanyahu “hoped and believed” the invitation was “bi-partisan, as the invite letter said — ‘a bi-partisan initiative’ — but because of the tensions between Congress and the [Obama] administration, [and] between Republicans and Democrats, a problem erupted.”Speaking to 102 FM Tel Aviv Radio, Hanegbi, who is a close confidant of the PM, acknowledged that the row that has flared up between Israel and the Obama administration following the announcement that Netanyahu would speak to Congress about the Iranian nuclear threat presented a “dilemma.”Boehner’s January 21 invitation to Netanyahu, indeed, stated: “It is my honor, on behalf of the bipartisan leadership of the US House of Representatives and the US Senate, to extend to you an invitation to appear before and address a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday, February 11, 2015″ — the originally scheduled date.The announcement infuriated the White House, which charged that the planned speech — subsequently moved to March 3 — breached protocol as it was not coordinated with the administration. The incident set off an ugly, ongoing public dispute between the Netanyahu government and the Obama administration, with senior US officials charging that the Israeli leader had “spat” in Obama’s face and could not be trusted.There has been considerable vocal Democratic opposition, too, with Jewish House Democrats meeting privately with Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer to castigate him over the affair. At least three Democrats have said they will skip the speech and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said she hopes it will not go ahead. Netanyahu has been an outspoken critic of the international efforts to negotiate a deal with Iran. He is set to warn strongly in his speech against a bad deal with Tehran. Initially, it had been suggested that he would also urge US lawmakers to pass a new sanctions bill against Tehran to force it to comply with international demands that it curb its nuclear program — a bill Obama strongly opposes and has vowed to veto because such a move would hinder the P5+1 negotiations under way to secure a deal. But officials in Jerusalem said last week that Netanyahu would focus less on sanctions and more on the dangers of a deal that allows Iran to become a threshold nuclear state.“The dilemma is, how much can Israel insist and disagree and oppose this policy [of the international community seeking a deal with Iran] while simultaneously preserving our wonderful, intimate relationship with the US,” Hanegbi said, adding that “the question was if Netanyahu should pass up this unique opportunity, so necessary in terms of timing, before the deadline [for a deal between the P5+1 and Tehran].”Hanegbi said Netanyahu was “investing a lot of effort in order to clarify to Democrats that this [planned address] is not an act of defiance against Obama,” and denied charges that the move was political, meant to boost Netanyahu’s image ahead of Israeli national elections set for March 17, two weeks after the speech.Netanyahu indicated Thursday that he intended to go ahead with this speech, saying it was “my obligation as the prime minister of Israel to speak out against the danger of a nuclear agreement with Iran, and to do everything I can to prevent it.”

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