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)
DEAD ANIMALS
HOSEA 4:1-3
1 Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land,(EARTH) because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.
3 Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.
ZEPHANIAH 1:2-3
2 I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD.
3 I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD.
Hundreds of seagulls found dead on Sea of Galilee beach-Birds believed to have died of botulism poisoning; vets trying to save lives of of another 78-By Sue Surkes January 28, 2016, 10:59 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Hundreds of seagulls have been found dead on the Sea of Galilee’s western shore, with an initial inquiry pointing to botulism poisoning.Another 78 injured birds were given emergency first aid at the Tel Afeq National Park veterinary hospital’s quarantine station in Tel Aviv, with some being tested to eliminate any suspicion that they may have contracted bird flu, the Walla website reported Thursday.The gulls were subsequently transferred to the wild animal hospital at the Ramat Gan Safari, some of them in serious condition.Botulism spores are commonly found in soil and water. They produce the botulinum toxin in conditions such as low oxygen and hot temperatures.“It’s not a sight that we are used to,” a spokesperson for the Safari said. There had been cases of 15 animals needing treatment, but 80 in one go was “a real mass attack.”The treatment would continue for several days in the hope that the gulls could be returned to nature as quickly as possible, the Safari added.Dr Roni King, chief veterinarian for the Nature and Parks Authority, said botulism poisoning was a known phenomenon. There had been cases in the US of hundreds of thousands of dead birds being found in lakes.Less than two months ago in Israel, a smaller number of gulls sustained poisoning in the Hadera area of the Mediterranean coast.A few years ago, 150 birds were picked up from the beach between Acre and the Krayot, north of Haifa, of which only 50 survived.In the current case, the poison was not from the Sea of Galilee, King said. The birds probably picked it up at their feeding site, only feeling the effects when they flew back to the lake.
FBI arrests man who plotted attacks on Israel, Masonic Temple-Samy Mohamed Hamzeh of Milwaukee planned to West Bank assault on soldiers, citizens, later abandoned it-By AP January 28, 2016, 9:54 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
MILWAUKEE — The mother of a man accused of planning a mass shooting at a Masonic temple in Milwaukee says her son was set up by the FBI.According to the authorities, Samy Mohamed Hamzeh also planned to attack Israelis, a plot he later abandoned.The Jordanian-born Khawla Hamzeh said that despite a criminal complaint describing her son as a Muslim extremist, her 23-year-old son is not very religious and was just trying to convince his friends he was tough.“He’s not mature. You know guys, they want to show they are brave,” she told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper.Samy Mohamed Hamzeh is charged with unlawfully possessing a machine gun and receiving and possessing improperly registered firearms. He is accused, but not indicted, of planning to attack the temple and kill 30 people.His mother said she wonders why the FBI watched Hamzeh for months without arresting him and then sold him guns.Wisconsin’s top federal defender said Hamzeh’s defense will likely focus on the accuracy of undercover recordings that were made in Arabic and translated into English.According to court documents, FBI agents were tipped off in September that Hamzeh planned to travel to Israel to attack Israeli soldiers and citizens in the West Bank. He abandoned those plans due to “family, financial and logistic reasons,” instead focusing his efforts on a domestic attack.Hamzeh was arrested Monday after he paid two undercover FBI agents for two automatic machine guns and a silencer.During his court appearance Tuesday, Hamzeh told US Magistrate Judge David Jones that he had read and understood the federal complaint filed against him, but that he doesn’t agree with it. The hearing was closed, but the newspaper obtained an audio recording and posted it online.Samy Hamzeh was supporting his family because his father was having trouble finding steady work since moving to the US last year, his mother said.The Associated Press.
ISRAEL SATAN COMES AGAINST
1 CHRONICLES 21:1
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
GENESIS 12:1-3
1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I (GOD) will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee,(ISRAELIS) and curse (DESTROY) him that curseth thee:(DESTROY THEM) and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
ISAIAH 41:11
11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee (ISRAEL) shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing;(DESTROYED) and they that strive with thee shall perish.(ISRAEL HATERS WILL BE TOTALLY DESTROYED)
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)
Rouhani in Paris mocks Europe’s reaction to migrants-During historic first trip to France, Iranian president says the continent is overreacting to Syrian refugee crisis-By AP and Times of Israel staff January 28, 2016, 10:50 pm
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Thursday that his country should be an example to Europe on migrant absorption, mocking complaints about the ongoing refugee crisis voiced in the continent in recent months.Speaking at a prominent French think tank during an historic visit to France, Rouhani highlighted Iran’s experience hosting three million people fleeing neighboring Afghanistan as an example for a Europe struggling to absorb migrants.In a speech to IFRI, the Institut Français des Relations Internationales, Rouhani said “our nation has shouldered such a heavy weight through all these years, accepting 3 million migrants without complaining.”As at least one million people fleeing war and poverty in Syria and elsewhere reached Europe last year, he said, “Europeans with all their economic power and resources were saying ‘100,000 migrants have arrived to our soil, what do we do now? 200,000 have swarmed (our borders), what do we do now?'”Rouhani also told the IFRI that the negotiations over his country’s nuclear conflict with the West should serve as an example for solving multiple regional crises in the Middle East.For such diplomacy to work, he said, both sides must “lower our pretensions.”Speaking through a translator, he said “that allowed us to reach accords” on curbing Iran’s nuclear program and lifting sanctions. “Each side must feel it is a win-win agreement.”Rouhani’s visit to Paris is focused on renewing trade ties, but France also wants to draw in Iran’s help in peacemaking in the region, notably in Syria and Yemen, and easing tensions with regional rival Saudi Arabia.The French government welcomed Rouhani on Thursday with promises of a new beginning in an old relationship, starting with investments to boost Iran’s flagging economy crippled by decades of sanctions over its nuclear activities.Rouhani, whose visit was also met with protests, decried the sanctions, saying history has shown that they “never worked” and said the nuclear deal that led to the lifting of sanctions this month can serve as a model for solutions in other crises, notably in the Middle East.“Today, we must use the positive atmosphere for a new elan,” he told a group of French business leaders.About 20 agreements will be signed after a meeting between Rouhani and President Francois Hollande. PSA Peugeot Citroen announced a joint venture with Iran Khodro to produce latest-generation vehicles in Tehran by the end of 2017.Rouhani’s trip was originally scheduled to visit Paris in November, but the trip was called off after Islamic extremists carried out attacks around Paris that killed 130 people.
Oberlin College president to discuss campus anti-Semitism with alumni-Former students say BDS movement has created an anti-Jewish climate at the Ohio liberal arts school-By JTA January 28, 2016, 9:48 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The president of Oberlin College will speak with members of an alumni group that has raised concerns about the anti-Semitic climate on campus.Marvin Krislov, who is Jewish, will conduct a phone conversation with former students of the Ohio liberal arts college on Friday.The phone call comes several weeks after 200 alumni wrote to the college administration to voice concern about the actions of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS, at Oberlin and a school culture they believe tolerates anti-Semitism.“Several student organizations at Oberlin have assumed the role as the mouthpiece of the BDS movement, which claims to be a defender of Palestinian rights, but whose inflammatory language falsely portraying Israel as an illegitimate, colonialist and murderous regime demonstrates that its primary goal is to demonize the Jewish state,” read the letter dated January 3.“Because participation in these groups requires denouncing Israel, the message to Jewish students can be summed up as follows: Either forfeit your allegiance to Israel and join us, or we will brand you as an enemy of justice and complicit in the oppression of the Palestinian people.”The letter mentioned several incidents at the school, including the expulsion of the Kosher Halal co-op from the Oberlin Student Cooperation Association and a protest against Israel on Rosh Hashanah that Jewish students had to pass through on their way to holiday services.Oberlin has a reputation as a particularly liberal and activist college, and in the wake of the January 3 letter, Jewish alumni have taken to Facebook to share examples of activities they witnessed that veered toward anti-Semitism.“The multiple times the Holocaust was referred to as ‘white on white crime’ by my POC peers and hip white Jewish peers,” Oberlin alumnus Isabel Sherrell wrote in a January 11 Facebook post listing numerous experiences that made her uncomfortable as a student.The group Oberlin Students for a Free Palestine responded to the alumni letter with a letter of its own rejecting the charges of anti-Semitism and vowing to continue its protest of Israel.“We see these accusations as a way to limit the free speech of students, silence political activism, and intimidate pro-Palestinian activists,” the group wrote. “We believe that solidarity with an oppressed people and demands to defend their human rights do not and will never constitute anti-Semitism. It is our conviction of self-determination and autonomy that will continue to drive us, no matter how many attempt to malign us, to call for a free Palestine.”
US blacklists two Hezbollah ‘money launderers’-Mohamad Noureddine and Hamdi Zaher El Dine of Trade Point International said to have moved funds around for Lebanese terror group-By AFP January 28, 2016, 10:48 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The US Treasury said Thursday that it has added two Lebanese men to its sanctions blacklist for laundering money for the Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah.The Treasury said Mohamad Noureddine and Hamdi Zaher El Dine worked through Noureddine’s Beirut company Trade Point International to move money for Hezbollah-linked businesses and individuals already on US blacklists.“Noureddine has utilized an extensive network across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East to provide money laundering, bulk cash shipment, black market currency exchange, and other financial services to a variety of clients, including Hezbollah members,” the Treasury said in a statement.Hamdi Zaher El Dine was an employee of Trade Point.Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group and political party, has been officially designated as a terrorist group by the United States since 1997.Being designated for sanctions allows the Treasury to freeze any assets on US territory tied to the individuals, and forbids any Americans or US institutions from doing business with them.In July, the US Treasury added three Hezbollah military officials and a businessman tied to the group to the blacklist, citing their support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.The Treasury named Mustafa Badr Al Din, said to be in charge of Hezbollah’s military operations in Syria; and Fu’ad Shukr and Ibrahim Aqil, both members of Hezbollah’s top military body, the Jihad Council, and both involved in the group’s military activities in Syria, in support of the Assad regime.Also named was Abd al Nur Shalan, which the US called the “point person for the procurement and transshipment of weapons and materiel for (Hezbollah) and its Syrian partners for at least 15 years.”
Sweden, Finland to deport tens of thousands of migrants-Stockholm could send back as many as 80,000 people; Helsinki to reject two-thirds of 32,000 aslyum seekers who arrived this year-By Pia OHLIN January 28, 2016, 10:56 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AFP) — Finland joined Sweden on Thursday in announcing plans to deport tens of thousands of failed asylum seekers in a bid to contain the migrant crisis, as at least 31 more people died trying to reach the European Union.The two Nordic countries are both struggling to cope with an influx of refugees and migrants fleeing misery in the Middle East and elsewhere — receiving among the highest numbers of arrivals per capita in the EU.The Finnish government expects to deport around two thirds of the 32,000 asylum seekers that arrived in 2015, Paivi Nerg, administrative director of the interior ministry, told AFP.“In principle we speak of about two-thirds, meaning approximately 65 percent of the 32,000 will get a negative decision (on their asylum applications),” he told AFP.In neighboring Sweden, Interior Minister Anders Ygeman said Wednesday that the government is planning over several years to deport up to 80,000 people whose asylum applications are set to be rejected.“We are talking about 60,000 people but the number could climb to 80,000,” he told Swedish media, adding that, as in Finland, the operation would require the use of specially chartered aircraft.He estimated that Sweden would reject around half of the 163,000 asylum requests received in 2015.Swedish Migration Minister Morgan Johansson said authorities faced a difficult task in deporting such large numbers, but insisted failed asylum seekers had to return home.“Otherwise we would basically have free immigration and we can’t manage that,” he told news agency TT.The clampdown came as 25 bodies, including those of 10 children, were discovered off the Greek island of Samos, in the latest tragedy to strike migrants risking the dangerous Mediterranean crossing in a bid to start new lives in Europe.The Italian navy meanwhile said it had recovered six bodies from a sinking dinghy off Libya — and in Bulgaria, the frozen bodies of two men, believed to be migrants, were found near the border with Serbia.-Pushing back the tide-More than one million people traveled to Europe in 2015 — the majority of them refugees fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan — in the continent’s worst migration crisis since World War II.Nearly 4,000 people died trying to reach Europe by sea last year, according to the International Organization for Migration.As Europe struggles to respond to the unprecedented influx, a top Dutch politician said the Netherlands was working with some EU members on a plan to send migrants back to Turkish soil.The proposal would see asylum granted to up to 250,000 others already hosted by Turkey, Diederik Samsom said.But rights group Amnesty International blasted the plan, saying it was “fundamentally flawed since it would hinge on illegally returning asylum seekers and refugees.”In Britain, the government said it would take in an unspecified number of migrant children who have been separated from their parents by conflict in Syria and elsewhere.Officials will work with the United Nations’ UNHCR refugee agency to identify youngsters eligible to take up residence in Britain, the interior ministry announced.Flimsy boats packed with migrants are still arriving on Greek beaches every day, undeterred by Europe’s wintry conditions.Athens is under increasing pressure to stem the influx, with the European Commission on Wednesday saying Greece had “seriously neglected” its duty to protect the bloc’s borders.Greece could face border controls with the EU’s passport-free Schengen zone if it does not protect the bloc’s frontiers, Brussels warned.With the influx showing little sign of abating, many countries — including Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and France — have tightened asylum rules in a bid to discourage new arrivals.Sweden has seen the number of new migrants entering the country plunge since it brought in systematic photo ID checks on travellers on January 4.Concerns have grown over conditions in Sweden’s overcrowded asylum facilities, however, and officials have called for greater security after an employee at a refugee center for unaccompanied youths was stabbed to death earlier this week.A 15-year-old boy is accused of attacking 22-year-old Alexandra Mezher at the centre in Molndal on Sweden’s west coast.Her death has led to questions about conditions inside some centres, with too few adults and employees to care for the children, many traumatised by war.Sweden took in around 35,400 unaccompanied minors in 2015.
HOSEA 4:1-3
1 Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land,(EARTH) because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.
3 Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.
ZEPHANIAH 1:2-3
2 I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD.
3 I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD.
Hundreds of seagulls found dead on Sea of Galilee beach-Birds believed to have died of botulism poisoning; vets trying to save lives of of another 78-By Sue Surkes January 28, 2016, 10:59 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Hundreds of seagulls have been found dead on the Sea of Galilee’s western shore, with an initial inquiry pointing to botulism poisoning.Another 78 injured birds were given emergency first aid at the Tel Afeq National Park veterinary hospital’s quarantine station in Tel Aviv, with some being tested to eliminate any suspicion that they may have contracted bird flu, the Walla website reported Thursday.The gulls were subsequently transferred to the wild animal hospital at the Ramat Gan Safari, some of them in serious condition.Botulism spores are commonly found in soil and water. They produce the botulinum toxin in conditions such as low oxygen and hot temperatures.“It’s not a sight that we are used to,” a spokesperson for the Safari said. There had been cases of 15 animals needing treatment, but 80 in one go was “a real mass attack.”The treatment would continue for several days in the hope that the gulls could be returned to nature as quickly as possible, the Safari added.Dr Roni King, chief veterinarian for the Nature and Parks Authority, said botulism poisoning was a known phenomenon. There had been cases in the US of hundreds of thousands of dead birds being found in lakes.Less than two months ago in Israel, a smaller number of gulls sustained poisoning in the Hadera area of the Mediterranean coast.A few years ago, 150 birds were picked up from the beach between Acre and the Krayot, north of Haifa, of which only 50 survived.In the current case, the poison was not from the Sea of Galilee, King said. The birds probably picked it up at their feeding site, only feeling the effects when they flew back to the lake.
FBI arrests man who plotted attacks on Israel, Masonic Temple-Samy Mohamed Hamzeh of Milwaukee planned to West Bank assault on soldiers, citizens, later abandoned it-By AP January 28, 2016, 9:54 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
MILWAUKEE — The mother of a man accused of planning a mass shooting at a Masonic temple in Milwaukee says her son was set up by the FBI.According to the authorities, Samy Mohamed Hamzeh also planned to attack Israelis, a plot he later abandoned.The Jordanian-born Khawla Hamzeh said that despite a criminal complaint describing her son as a Muslim extremist, her 23-year-old son is not very religious and was just trying to convince his friends he was tough.“He’s not mature. You know guys, they want to show they are brave,” she told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper.Samy Mohamed Hamzeh is charged with unlawfully possessing a machine gun and receiving and possessing improperly registered firearms. He is accused, but not indicted, of planning to attack the temple and kill 30 people.His mother said she wonders why the FBI watched Hamzeh for months without arresting him and then sold him guns.Wisconsin’s top federal defender said Hamzeh’s defense will likely focus on the accuracy of undercover recordings that were made in Arabic and translated into English.According to court documents, FBI agents were tipped off in September that Hamzeh planned to travel to Israel to attack Israeli soldiers and citizens in the West Bank. He abandoned those plans due to “family, financial and logistic reasons,” instead focusing his efforts on a domestic attack.Hamzeh was arrested Monday after he paid two undercover FBI agents for two automatic machine guns and a silencer.During his court appearance Tuesday, Hamzeh told US Magistrate Judge David Jones that he had read and understood the federal complaint filed against him, but that he doesn’t agree with it. The hearing was closed, but the newspaper obtained an audio recording and posted it online.Samy Hamzeh was supporting his family because his father was having trouble finding steady work since moving to the US last year, his mother said.The Associated Press.
ISRAEL SATAN COMES AGAINST
1 CHRONICLES 21:1
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
GENESIS 12:1-3
1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I (GOD) will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee,(ISRAELIS) and curse (DESTROY) him that curseth thee:(DESTROY THEM) and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
ISAIAH 41:11
11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee (ISRAEL) shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing;(DESTROYED) and they that strive with thee shall perish.(ISRAEL HATERS WILL BE TOTALLY DESTROYED)
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)
Rouhani in Paris mocks Europe’s reaction to migrants-During historic first trip to France, Iranian president says the continent is overreacting to Syrian refugee crisis-By AP and Times of Israel staff January 28, 2016, 10:50 pm
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Thursday that his country should be an example to Europe on migrant absorption, mocking complaints about the ongoing refugee crisis voiced in the continent in recent months.Speaking at a prominent French think tank during an historic visit to France, Rouhani highlighted Iran’s experience hosting three million people fleeing neighboring Afghanistan as an example for a Europe struggling to absorb migrants.In a speech to IFRI, the Institut Français des Relations Internationales, Rouhani said “our nation has shouldered such a heavy weight through all these years, accepting 3 million migrants without complaining.”As at least one million people fleeing war and poverty in Syria and elsewhere reached Europe last year, he said, “Europeans with all their economic power and resources were saying ‘100,000 migrants have arrived to our soil, what do we do now? 200,000 have swarmed (our borders), what do we do now?'”Rouhani also told the IFRI that the negotiations over his country’s nuclear conflict with the West should serve as an example for solving multiple regional crises in the Middle East.For such diplomacy to work, he said, both sides must “lower our pretensions.”Speaking through a translator, he said “that allowed us to reach accords” on curbing Iran’s nuclear program and lifting sanctions. “Each side must feel it is a win-win agreement.”Rouhani’s visit to Paris is focused on renewing trade ties, but France also wants to draw in Iran’s help in peacemaking in the region, notably in Syria and Yemen, and easing tensions with regional rival Saudi Arabia.The French government welcomed Rouhani on Thursday with promises of a new beginning in an old relationship, starting with investments to boost Iran’s flagging economy crippled by decades of sanctions over its nuclear activities.Rouhani, whose visit was also met with protests, decried the sanctions, saying history has shown that they “never worked” and said the nuclear deal that led to the lifting of sanctions this month can serve as a model for solutions in other crises, notably in the Middle East.“Today, we must use the positive atmosphere for a new elan,” he told a group of French business leaders.About 20 agreements will be signed after a meeting between Rouhani and President Francois Hollande. PSA Peugeot Citroen announced a joint venture with Iran Khodro to produce latest-generation vehicles in Tehran by the end of 2017.Rouhani’s trip was originally scheduled to visit Paris in November, but the trip was called off after Islamic extremists carried out attacks around Paris that killed 130 people.
Oberlin College president to discuss campus anti-Semitism with alumni-Former students say BDS movement has created an anti-Jewish climate at the Ohio liberal arts school-By JTA January 28, 2016, 9:48 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The president of Oberlin College will speak with members of an alumni group that has raised concerns about the anti-Semitic climate on campus.Marvin Krislov, who is Jewish, will conduct a phone conversation with former students of the Ohio liberal arts college on Friday.The phone call comes several weeks after 200 alumni wrote to the college administration to voice concern about the actions of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS, at Oberlin and a school culture they believe tolerates anti-Semitism.“Several student organizations at Oberlin have assumed the role as the mouthpiece of the BDS movement, which claims to be a defender of Palestinian rights, but whose inflammatory language falsely portraying Israel as an illegitimate, colonialist and murderous regime demonstrates that its primary goal is to demonize the Jewish state,” read the letter dated January 3.“Because participation in these groups requires denouncing Israel, the message to Jewish students can be summed up as follows: Either forfeit your allegiance to Israel and join us, or we will brand you as an enemy of justice and complicit in the oppression of the Palestinian people.”The letter mentioned several incidents at the school, including the expulsion of the Kosher Halal co-op from the Oberlin Student Cooperation Association and a protest against Israel on Rosh Hashanah that Jewish students had to pass through on their way to holiday services.Oberlin has a reputation as a particularly liberal and activist college, and in the wake of the January 3 letter, Jewish alumni have taken to Facebook to share examples of activities they witnessed that veered toward anti-Semitism.“The multiple times the Holocaust was referred to as ‘white on white crime’ by my POC peers and hip white Jewish peers,” Oberlin alumnus Isabel Sherrell wrote in a January 11 Facebook post listing numerous experiences that made her uncomfortable as a student.The group Oberlin Students for a Free Palestine responded to the alumni letter with a letter of its own rejecting the charges of anti-Semitism and vowing to continue its protest of Israel.“We see these accusations as a way to limit the free speech of students, silence political activism, and intimidate pro-Palestinian activists,” the group wrote. “We believe that solidarity with an oppressed people and demands to defend their human rights do not and will never constitute anti-Semitism. It is our conviction of self-determination and autonomy that will continue to drive us, no matter how many attempt to malign us, to call for a free Palestine.”
US blacklists two Hezbollah ‘money launderers’-Mohamad Noureddine and Hamdi Zaher El Dine of Trade Point International said to have moved funds around for Lebanese terror group-By AFP January 28, 2016, 10:48 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The US Treasury said Thursday that it has added two Lebanese men to its sanctions blacklist for laundering money for the Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah.The Treasury said Mohamad Noureddine and Hamdi Zaher El Dine worked through Noureddine’s Beirut company Trade Point International to move money for Hezbollah-linked businesses and individuals already on US blacklists.“Noureddine has utilized an extensive network across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East to provide money laundering, bulk cash shipment, black market currency exchange, and other financial services to a variety of clients, including Hezbollah members,” the Treasury said in a statement.Hamdi Zaher El Dine was an employee of Trade Point.Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group and political party, has been officially designated as a terrorist group by the United States since 1997.Being designated for sanctions allows the Treasury to freeze any assets on US territory tied to the individuals, and forbids any Americans or US institutions from doing business with them.In July, the US Treasury added three Hezbollah military officials and a businessman tied to the group to the blacklist, citing their support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.The Treasury named Mustafa Badr Al Din, said to be in charge of Hezbollah’s military operations in Syria; and Fu’ad Shukr and Ibrahim Aqil, both members of Hezbollah’s top military body, the Jihad Council, and both involved in the group’s military activities in Syria, in support of the Assad regime.Also named was Abd al Nur Shalan, which the US called the “point person for the procurement and transshipment of weapons and materiel for (Hezbollah) and its Syrian partners for at least 15 years.”
Sweden, Finland to deport tens of thousands of migrants-Stockholm could send back as many as 80,000 people; Helsinki to reject two-thirds of 32,000 aslyum seekers who arrived this year-By Pia OHLIN January 28, 2016, 10:56 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AFP) — Finland joined Sweden on Thursday in announcing plans to deport tens of thousands of failed asylum seekers in a bid to contain the migrant crisis, as at least 31 more people died trying to reach the European Union.The two Nordic countries are both struggling to cope with an influx of refugees and migrants fleeing misery in the Middle East and elsewhere — receiving among the highest numbers of arrivals per capita in the EU.The Finnish government expects to deport around two thirds of the 32,000 asylum seekers that arrived in 2015, Paivi Nerg, administrative director of the interior ministry, told AFP.“In principle we speak of about two-thirds, meaning approximately 65 percent of the 32,000 will get a negative decision (on their asylum applications),” he told AFP.In neighboring Sweden, Interior Minister Anders Ygeman said Wednesday that the government is planning over several years to deport up to 80,000 people whose asylum applications are set to be rejected.“We are talking about 60,000 people but the number could climb to 80,000,” he told Swedish media, adding that, as in Finland, the operation would require the use of specially chartered aircraft.He estimated that Sweden would reject around half of the 163,000 asylum requests received in 2015.Swedish Migration Minister Morgan Johansson said authorities faced a difficult task in deporting such large numbers, but insisted failed asylum seekers had to return home.“Otherwise we would basically have free immigration and we can’t manage that,” he told news agency TT.The clampdown came as 25 bodies, including those of 10 children, were discovered off the Greek island of Samos, in the latest tragedy to strike migrants risking the dangerous Mediterranean crossing in a bid to start new lives in Europe.The Italian navy meanwhile said it had recovered six bodies from a sinking dinghy off Libya — and in Bulgaria, the frozen bodies of two men, believed to be migrants, were found near the border with Serbia.-Pushing back the tide-More than one million people traveled to Europe in 2015 — the majority of them refugees fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan — in the continent’s worst migration crisis since World War II.Nearly 4,000 people died trying to reach Europe by sea last year, according to the International Organization for Migration.As Europe struggles to respond to the unprecedented influx, a top Dutch politician said the Netherlands was working with some EU members on a plan to send migrants back to Turkish soil.The proposal would see asylum granted to up to 250,000 others already hosted by Turkey, Diederik Samsom said.But rights group Amnesty International blasted the plan, saying it was “fundamentally flawed since it would hinge on illegally returning asylum seekers and refugees.”In Britain, the government said it would take in an unspecified number of migrant children who have been separated from their parents by conflict in Syria and elsewhere.Officials will work with the United Nations’ UNHCR refugee agency to identify youngsters eligible to take up residence in Britain, the interior ministry announced.Flimsy boats packed with migrants are still arriving on Greek beaches every day, undeterred by Europe’s wintry conditions.Athens is under increasing pressure to stem the influx, with the European Commission on Wednesday saying Greece had “seriously neglected” its duty to protect the bloc’s borders.Greece could face border controls with the EU’s passport-free Schengen zone if it does not protect the bloc’s frontiers, Brussels warned.With the influx showing little sign of abating, many countries — including Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and France — have tightened asylum rules in a bid to discourage new arrivals.Sweden has seen the number of new migrants entering the country plunge since it brought in systematic photo ID checks on travellers on January 4.Concerns have grown over conditions in Sweden’s overcrowded asylum facilities, however, and officials have called for greater security after an employee at a refugee center for unaccompanied youths was stabbed to death earlier this week.A 15-year-old boy is accused of attacking 22-year-old Alexandra Mezher at the centre in Molndal on Sweden’s west coast.Her death has led to questions about conditions inside some centres, with too few adults and employees to care for the children, many traumatised by war.Sweden took in around 35,400 unaccompanied minors in 2015.
