JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER.
1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
LUKE 21:28-29
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
CANADA-EU TRADE-TODAYS OTHER NEWS
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2016/10/canada-european-union-trade-deal-almost.html
Despite defeat, Netanyahu hails progress for Israel at UNESCO-Prime minister’s statement notes that fewer countries supported resolution ignoring Jewish ties to Jerusalem than in previous years, more abstained-By Times of Israel staff October 26, 2016, 4:34 pm
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Wednesday said a second United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) vote ignoring Jewish ties to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem was actually a diplomatic achievement for the Jewish state.Convening its annual meeting in Paris, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee had earlier on Wednesday adopted Draft Resolution 40COM 7A.13, entitled “Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls,” by a large majority in a secret ballot, with 10 countries voting in favor, two opposing the text and eight abstaining. Eight “yes” votes were needed for the resolution to pass.Jamaica was absent and did not participate in the vote.A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said that “fewer nations were in favor of the resolution this year.”“More nations moved this year from support to abstentions,” the statement said, referring to similar resolutions previously passed by the committee. It attributed the progress to “intense efforts by the prime minister and the Foreign Ministry.”The resolution, which accuses Israel of various violations, echoed last week’s decision in referring to the Temple Mount compound solely by its Muslim names, “Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif,” and defined it only as “a Muslim holy site of worship.” As the site of the two Biblical temples, the mount is the holiest place in Judaism. But unlike last week’s resolution, the draft did not mention the importance of Jerusalem’s Old City for “the three monotheistic religions.”“Israel thanks Croatia and Tanzania who asked for the vote and for all the countries that voted for Israel and didn’t support the resolution,” the statement said.At the opening of Wednesday’s session, the chairperson of the World Heritage Committee, Turkish diplomat Lale Ülker, proposed that the resolution be adopted “by consensus,” which would have given the appearance of a unanimous decision. A majority of member states supported her proposal, but Tanzania and Croatia asked for a secret ballot. The committee’s legal adviser eventually ruled that a secret ballot would be held on the resolution, paving the way for the two “no” votes and the eight abstentions.This year’s member countries of the committee made things particularly difficult for Israeli diplomats battling the resolution. Germany, Colombia and Japan, all sympathetic nations to Israel, are no longer involved, and in their place are Tunisia, Kuwait, Lebanon and Indonesia, bringing to nine the total number of Muslim countries. Those nine and Vietnam were all assumed to have voted for the resolution. Poland, Finland, Croatia, Portugal, the four European countries, had indicated they would abstain.“This is yet another absurd resolution against the State of Israel, the Jewish people and historical truth,” Israel’s ambassador to UNESCO, Carmel Shama-Hacohen said after the vote.The resolution belongs on the garbage bin of history, the Israeli envoy added, and then lifted a black dustbin with the word “History” on it and placed a copy of the text into it.The decision came a week after a similar resolution was approved by the body and elicited angry responses from Israel, several world leaders and even the body’s own director-general.Also Wednesday, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein sent a letter to Pope Francis asking the pontiff to counter the UNESCO resolution, calling it “deeply offensive to both Christianity and Judaism.”“The outrageous repudiation of the millennia-old bond between Judaism and its holiest shrines in Jerusalem is a blatant attempt to rewrite history.”“The annals of both our religions cannot be erased by raised hands and counted votes,” he wrote and called for the international community to adopt another resolution that “reaffirms Jerusalem as a holy city for all monotheistic religions.”“In the name of the Land of the People and the Bible, we would urge the Holy See to use its best offices to prevent the recurrence of developments of this sort.”יו"ר הכנסת @YuliEdelstein על החלטות אונסק"ו: "שערוריה חסרת בסיס" https://t.co/IfmkYXfiwY pic.twitter.com/sE7DHKCekR— הכנסת (@KnessetIL) October 26, 2016-The Palestine Liberation Organization, the official representative of the Palestinian people at the UN, welcomed Wednesday the recent decisions and rejected the claims that it seeks to deny Jerusalem’s Jewish identity.Secretary-General of the PLO Saeb Erekat said in a statement that “contrary to what the Israeli government claims, the resolution that was voted by UNESCO aims at reaffirming the importance of Jerusalem for the three monotheistic religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It calls for respecting the status quo of its religious sites, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound that continues to be threatened by the systematic incitement and provocative actions of the Israeli government and extremist Jewish groups.”The 21 nations with voting rights on the World Heritage Committee were: Finland, Poland, Portugal, Croatia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Tunisia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Peru, Cuba, Jamaica, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Angola and Tanzania.
At UNESCO, Syria complains of Israeli archaeological digs – inside Syria-Cultural body asks Israel to answer claim it’s excavating Bir Ajam; Israeli envoy: That’s ‘Syrian territory,’ allegations ‘ludicrous’-By Raphael Ahren and Ilan Ben Zion October 27, 2016, 6:10 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The Syrian government on Thursday complained about alleged Israeli archaeological excavations at Bir Ajam on the Syrian Golan Heights, drawing an irate response from Israel’s ambassador to UNESCO.The complaint, which was formally forwarded by a senior UNESCO official with a request for an Israeli response, was dismissed by Israel as “ludicrous.”The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has been a venue at which Arab and Muslim states have promoted a series of anti-Israel resolutions, including a text approved at UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee this week that characterized the holy sites on and around Jerusalem’s Temple Mount as exclusively Muslim.In a letter to Israel’s envoy to the organization, Carmel Shama-Hacohen, UNESCO Assistant Director General for Culture Francesco Bandarin said the group had received a complaint from the Syrian government that “brought to our attention the fact that archaeological excavations in the village of Bir Ajam in the Governorate of Quneitra have been taking place since 11 July 2016.”Bandarin continued, “As you know, the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, to which both Israel and the Syrian Arab Republic are Party, asserts that necessary cultural property preservation measures shall be taken in close cooperation with the relevant national authorities.”He asked Shama-Hacohen to report back to the organization after consulting the “relevant Israeli authorities.”Shama-Hacohen appeared nonplussed.In an interview with The Times of Israel Thursday, he noted that Bir Ajam lies beyond the 1974 ceasefire line between Israel and Syria on the Golan, putting the site beyond the IDF’s defensive line.“This is in Syrian territory. There are no Israeli excavations going on there whatsoever,” Shama-Hacohen said.A public statement from the Israeli Permanent Mission to UNESCO in Paris did not mince words, calling the complaint “ludicrous.”Anyone who thought that the climax of absurdity at UNESCO took place yesterday [in the World Heritage Committee], or that Syria’s problem is the civil war that has claimed over 600,000 lives and millions of wounded and displaced, and anyone who thought the systematic destruction of culture and heritage by the Islamic State is Syria’s [major] archaeological problem, should read the letter sent by UNESCO today to the Israeli ambassador to the organization, Carmel Shama-Hacohen, in the wake of a complaint by the Syrian government about archaeological digs they claim are taking place in the Quneitra area.In the statement, Shama-Hacohen was quoted as saying: “This complaint is ludicrous, and demonstrates the inappropriate ways the organization is used by Arab states [in their campaign] against Israel.”He called the complaint “not surprising,” as Syria’s ambassador to the organization “goes out of her way to avoid sitting next to me at any forum. Their situation…deserves compassion on humanitarian grounds, especially if [Syrian leaders] have the free time to to engage in these frivolities.”Nevertheless, he said, Israel’s policy was to “check and respond substantively to any complaint, even if it is ludicrous.”The Israeli mission is currently attempting to determine whether the complaint might have been garbled by the Syrian diplomats or UNESCO officials, and was originally a warning to Israel against potential military strikes in the area.Israel has on occasion responded with artillery fire and airstrikes to cross-border stray fire from Syria. The Quneitra area has seen heavy fighting over the past five years between Syrian government forces and rebels.Even if Shama-Hacohen’s speculation that the complaint was a case of broken telephone is correct, it remains highly unlikely that Syrian archaeologists are carrying on a dig at Bir Ajam, so close to Israeli forces in an area long contested by rebel forces.Reached for comment, the Israel Antiquities Authority, which oversees Israeli archaeological digs, said there was no IAA-related activity in Bir Ajam.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Netanyahu: UNESCO remains a 'theater of the absurd'-UNESCO adopts another resolution ignoring Jewish link to Temple Mount-In secret ballot, cultural body’s World Heritage Committee approves text using only the site’s Muslim name; 10 states vote in favor, 2 oppose, 8 abstain-By Raphael Ahren October 26, 2016, 11:48 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
An important panel at the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) on Wednesday morning approved a controversial resolution that ignores Jewish and Christian ties to the Temple Mount. The decision came a week after a similar resolution was approved by the body and elicited angry responses from Israel, several world leaders and even the body’s own director-general.Convening at its annual meeting in Paris, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee adopted Draft Resolution 40COM 7A.13, entitled “Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls,” by a large majority, with 10 countries voting in favor, eight abstaining and two opposing the text. Eight “yes” votes were needed for the resolution to pass.Jamaica was absent and did not participate in the vote.This year’s member countries of the committee made things particularly difficult for Israeli diplomats battling the resolution. Germany, Colombia and Japan, all sympathetic nations to Israel, are no longer involved, and in their place are Tunisia, Kuwait, Lebanon and Indonesia, bringing to nine the total number of Muslim countries. Those nine and Vietnam were all assumed to have voted for the resolution. Poland, Finland, Croatia, Portugal, the four European countries, had indicated they would abstain.The 21 nations with voting rights on the World Heritage Committee were: Finland, Poland, Portugal, Croatia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Tunisia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Peru, Cuba, Jamaica, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Angola and Tanzania.The resolution, which accuses Israel of various violations, echoed last week’s decision in referring to the Temple Mount compound solely by its Muslim names, “Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif,” and defined it only as “a Muslim holy site of worship.” As the site of the two Biblical temples, the mount is the holiest place in Judaism. But unlike last week’s resolution, the draft did not mention the importance of Jerusalem’s Old City for “the three monotheistic religions.”“This is yet another absurd resolution against the State of Israel, the Jewish people and historical truth,” Israel’s ambassador to UNESCO, Carmel Shama-Hacohen, said after the vote.The fate of the resolution would be no different from United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379, which equated Zionism with racism, he predicted, noting that that resolution was overturned 16 years after its adoption in 1975. Recalling that Israel’s ambassador to the UN at the time, Chaim Herzog, tore apart a copy of that resolution, he said that UNESCO’s resolution on Jerusalem belonged in the garbage bin of history.“I have no intention of doing this today — not because of your dignity, or the dignity of this organization, but because it is not even worthy of the energy needed for tearing it apart,” the Israeli envoy said, before proceeding to lift up a black dustbin with the word “History” on it and place a copy of the text inside.Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, also condemned the decision.“The absurdity continues, and UNESCO has adopted yet another ridiculous decision that is completely disconnected from reality,” he said in a statement. “UNESCO embarrassed itself by marching to the tune of the Palestinian pipers. All attempts to deny our heritage, distort history and disconnect the Jewish people from our capital and our homeland, are doomed to fail.”At the opening of Wednesday’s session, the chairperson of the World Heritage Committee, Turkish diplomat Lale Ülker, proposed that the resolution be adopted “by consensus,” which would have given the appearance of a unanimous decision. A majority of member states supported her proposal, but Tanzania and Croatia asked for a secret ballot. Despite vociferous opposition by Lebanon, Tunisia, Cuba and other states that pushed for “consensus,” the committee’s legal adviser eventually ruled that a secret ballot would be held on the resolution, paving the way for the two “no” votes and the eight abstentions.Despite frantic Israeli efforts to convince some of the committee’s member states to oppose the resolution, its eventual adoption did not come as a surprise to anyone in Jerusalem. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Tuesday night that UNESCO’s second vote on the matter within a few days showed the organization remains a “theater of the absurd.” He said that while “extremist Muslim forces are destroying mosques and churches, Israel is the only country in the region that protects them and allows freedom of worship.”According to Shama-Hacohen, Netanyahu instructed him to work to convince countries likely to abstain to go further and cast a vote against the resolution, arguing that an abstention would be akin to support. He described the resolution as “diplomatic jihad” against the Jewish people, Judaism and Christianity.“Israel respects Muslim and other faiths and their presence in our holiest of places, and it is tragic that the other side doesn’t have a leadership that will do the same, but rather one that is engaged only in doing the exact opposite,” Shama-Hacohen said Tuesday during a meeting with UNESCO’s director-general, Irina Bokova. “This is no longer an Israeli-Palestinian struggle, but an Arab struggle against the entire Jewish world. It is clear that Israel and the Jewish people will survive this, yet it remains unclear whether UNESCO will.”Shama-Hacohen and the heads of two Israeli advocacy groups, StandWithUs and the International Legal Forum, handed Bokova a petition signed by more than 77,000 Jews and Christians calling on UNESCO “to recognize the irrefutable deep historic, cultural and religious connection between the Jewish people and the land of Israel.”The earlier resolution, which was approved October 13 at the UNESCO committee stage with 24 “yes” votes, six “no” votes and 26 abstentions, and then formally confirmed by UNESCO’s executive on October 18, sparked vociferous condemnation in Israel, as well as from UNESCO’s own director, Irina Bokova, and several foreign leaders.Last week’s text referred to Israel as “the occupying power” at the holy sites. The resolution adopted Wednesday — sponsored by Kuwait, Lebanon and Tunisia — did not, which Israel considers a minor victory. In another significant divergence from the October 13 text, the new version did not put quotation marks around the designation “Western Wall,” a punctuation seen in Israel as bolstering the original resolution’s disdain for Judaism’s connection to its holiest site.The adoption of the resolution creates an absurd situation whereby the archaeological digs on and around the site of the Temple Mount, which have unearthed copious evidence of a Jewish connection to the site, may now be designated as destruction of the Muslim site.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
French Jews rally against silence on UNESCO Jerusalem votes-OCT 27,16-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
France’s main Jewish groups are urging members to rally in front of the headquarters of the country’s foreign ministry to protest its failure to oppose UNESCO resolutions that ignore Jewish ties to Jerusalem.CRIF, the political lobby group representing French Jewish communities, in a rare move is joined by the Consistoire, French Jewry’s organ responsible for religious services, in organizing a protest rally for today opposite the Quai d’Orsay in Paris in reaction to the passing of two resolutions on Jerusalem this month by UNESCO committees.France was among 26 countries that abstained from voting during the first resolution, which the Palestinians initiated and which was passed on October 13.— JTA
Jordan spokesman mocks Israel over UNESCO-OCT 27,16-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani has mocked Israel’s decision to recall its ambassador from UNESCO, local media reports.Momani says that if Israel continues its current polices it will end up having to recall all its ambassadors around the world, Channel 10 reports.Momani also calls on Israel to return its envoy to UNESCO.Jordan supported the UN culture body’s resolution that ignores Jewish ties to Jerusalem holy sites. Israel on Wednesday recalled Ambassador Carmel Shama-Hacohen in protest.
Predates the Dead Sea Scrolls by centuries-Oldest Hebrew mention of Jerusalem found on rare papyrus from 7th century BCE-Reference to consignment of wineskins ‘to Jerusalem’ appears on 2,700-year-old First Temple-era scrap believed plundered from Judean Desert cave-By Ilan Ben Zion October 26, 2016, 12:03 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
A rare, ancient papyrus dating to the First Temple Period — 2,700 years ago — has been found to bear the oldest known mention of Jerusalem in Hebrew.The fragile text, believed plundered from a cave in the Judean Desert cave, was apparently acquired by the Israel Antiquities Authority during a sting in 2012 when thieves attempted to sell it to a dealer. Radiocarbon dating has determined it is from the 7th century BCE, making it one of just three extant Hebrew papyri from that period, and predating the Dead Sea Scrolls by centuries.The IAA’s Eitan Klein said the dating of the papyrus had been confirmed by comparing the text’s orthography with other texts from the period.The slip of papyrus, which was formally unveiled by the Israel Antiquities Authority on Wednesday, measures 11 centimeters by 2.5 centimeters (4.3 inches by 1 inch). Its two lines of jagged black paleo-Hebrew script appear to have been a dispatch note recording the delivery of two wineskins “to Jerusalem,” the Judean Kingdom’s capital city. The full text of the inscription reads: “From the female servant of the king, from Naharata (place near Jericho) two wineskins to Jerusalem.”The fact that the note was written on papyrus, rather than cheaper clay ostraca, suggests the consignment of wineskins may have been sent to a person of high status.Speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem with IAA officials on Wednesday, Israel Prize-winning Biblical scholar Shmuel Ahituv said the mention of a “female servant of the king” sending the wineskins to “Yerushalem,” indicated that it was sent by a prominent woman to the capital.Ahituv also said it was significant that the text features the “Yerushalem” spelling of the city’s name that is more commonly found in the Bible. There are only four instances in the bible, he noted, of Jerusalem being spelled “Yerushalayim,” with an additional letter Yod, the way it is pronounced in modern Hebrew.Ahituv studied the papyrus after its acquisition by an individual who has requested anonymity.Amir Ganor, head of the IAA’s antiquity theft prevention division, said the papyrus was determined to have come from a cave in Nahal Hever in the Judean Desert. The arid, cool location near the Dead Sea enabled the fragment’s preservation over the millennia. Since the bust, 14 members of the ring of looters based near Hebron were arrested and sentenced to 18 years in prison.While there are more than a handful of ancient Hebrew texts etched into stone and scrawled on bits of pottery from this period, the only other known Hebrew papyrus texts from before the fall of the Judean Kingdom in 586 BCE were the Marzeah Papyrus, believed to be from mid-to-late 7th century BCE trans-Jordan, and a papyrus palimpsest found at Qumran.The Israel Antiquities Authority has moved to prevent antiquities thieves plundering the country’s archaeological heritage, with particular emphasis on the limestone caves dotting the cliffs leading down to the Dead Sea. Those remote caverns have yielded two of the most significant collections of ancient Hebrew texts: the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bar Kochba letters.Stings in recent years have busted treasure hunters and traders in the act in Judean Desert caverns and Jerusalem hotels, while archaeologists race to excavate the area’s remaining caves in the hopes of discovering scientific data and, possibly, more scrolls.
4 Iranian arms shipments to Yemen stopped: US admiral-OCT 27,16-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Warships from the US Navy and allied nations have intercepted four weapons shipments from Iran to war-ravaged Yemen since April 2015, a US admiral says.Yemen has been rocked by conflict since Iran-backed Houthi rebels overran the capital Sanaa and other large parts of the country in 2014, prompting military intervention by a Saudi-led coalition in March last year in support of the internationally recognized government.The United States and Saudi Arabia have accused Iran of arming the insurgents, and while Tehran denies the charges, the coalition has since enforced maritime and air controls over the Arabian Peninsula country.“Either US ships or coalition ships… intercepted four weapons shipments from Iran to Yemen,” says US Vice Admiral Kevin Donegan.“We know they came from Iran and we know the destination,” he tells reporters at an undisclosed military base in Southwest Asia.— AFP
East Jerusalem man charged with plotting shooting, backing Hamas-Resident of Ras al-Amoud allegedly tried to buy weapon to carry out assault in capital; security service says ‘serious attack’ thwarted-By Stuart Winer October 27, 2016, 2:26 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
An East Jerusalem resident was arrested for planning shooting attacks on Israeli security forces and civilians, Israeli officials said Thursday as charges were filed against the man.Muhammad Mussa Abbasi, 25, from the Ras al-Amoud neighborhood in the capital, was arrested three weeks ago, the Shin Bet security service said in a statement, clearing the case for publication.Over the past several months Abbasi made plans to carry out shooting attacks in East Jerusalem and unsuccessfully tried to obtain a weapon for that purpose. The suspect also tried to get information on making pipe bombs, although he did not put that idea into practice, according to the Shin Bet.Investigators also discovered that Abbasi had been involved in several attacks in which Molotov cocktails, stones and firecrackers were thrown at security forces and Israeli vehicles in the capital.He was charged in Jerusalem District Court with conspiracy to commit an attack in Jerusalem, destroying evidence, obstruction of justice, supporting a terror group, injury with grave intent, making and carrying weapons, and aggravated assault of a police officer., according to the prosecutor’s office.State prosecutors intend to ask that he be detained until the end of proceedings, the Shin Bet said.“The arrest of Abbasi, who, as an Israeli resident, had access to the whole city, prevented a serious attack in Jerusalem,” the Shin Bet said.Aside from his plans to shoot at security forces and civilians, Abbasi also posted messages on his Facebook page inciting violence, calling for terror attacks against Israel and supporting terror group Hamas.According to the officials, Abbasi voiced support for the suicide bomber who attacked the number 12 bus in the Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem last April and the shooters at the Sarona Market in Tel Aviv who killed four people in June.“Abbasi’s arrest, and the results of his questioning, demonstrate once again the high level of threat from acts by lone attackers who are influenced by incitement on the web by terror organizations, and in particular Hamas, and who themselves incite to carry out attacks,” the Shin Bet said.On April 18, West Bank resident Abed al-Hamid Abu Srour, 19, detonated a bomb on a bus in the capital, killing himself and injuring 21 people.On June 8, two West Bank Palestinians opened fire on people in a restaurant in the Sarona Market, killing four and wounding 41. The shooters fled the scene but were captured alive by private security guards and police a short time later.Both attacks came amid a months-long wave of stabbings and other assaults by Palestinians that has mostly subsided since the summer.On October 9, a gunman tied to Hamas opened fire near central Jerusalem, slaying two people before being killed by police.
Her uncle, Saher Habash, co-founded Fatah and was a leader of the Second Intifada-Niece of top Arafat aide so loves Israel she had it tattooed on her back-Ramallah-born Sandra Solomon, a convert to Christianity, says her dream is to come to Israel, salute the flag; she ‘grew up in a home that hated the Jews, hailed Hitler and praised the Holocaust’-By Times of Israel staff October 27, 2016, 6:55 am
The niece of a top official in the Palestinian Fatah party and a close confidant of the late leader Yasser Arafat says she loves the State of Israel so much, she had the word “Israel” in Hebrew tattooed across her shoulder blades.Sandra Solomon, 38, was born a Muslim in Ramallah under a different name, but grew up in Saudi Arabia before moving to Canada where she converted to Christianity.Solomon is the niece of Saher Habash, one of the founders of the Fatah party, a member of its Central Committee and a leader of the Second Intifada.“I grew up in a home that hated the Jews, hailed Hitler and praised the Holocaust,” she told Channel 2 in an interview Wednesday.Solomon, who wears a pendant of the Star of David around her neck, and has become a public advocate for Israel, said she hoped the Jewish people would forgive her for the insults and the demonization they underwent in her home and in her surroundings growing up.She has another tattoo on her arm of the word “Jesus” in Hebrew, above a menorah.Her family has denounced her for converting, she said, which “didn’t come overnight” and was mainly driven by her upbringing in Saudi Arabia.“The [forced wearing of the] hijab is the main reason I left Islam…and also because of the way of life under Islamic Sharia law,” she told Channel 2.Solomon said her “dream, one day, is to come to Israel, to fly the flag and salute it.”“The State of Israel was created not to be erased but to stay,” she added in the interview.Solomon said that were her uncle alive, he would have surely incited against her for her actions and her advocacy for Israel, as have other Muslims and Palestinians.“I stand behind what I say and I will tell the truth even if it leads to my death one day. I will at least know that I’ve had the honor to die for the truth,” she said.
Israel slams House of Lords event where audience applauded blaming Jews for Holocaust-Meeting organized by anti-Israel peer Jenny Tonge kicks off campaign to demand UK government apologize for Balfour Declaration-By Times of Israel staff October 27, 2016, 5:14 pm
Israel condemned a “shameful” meeting held at the House of Lords in London this week at which a member of the audience won applause for claiming that Jews were to blame for the Holocaust.The meeting on Tuesday kicked off a campaign by vehemently anti-Israel Baroness Jenny Tonge to demand that the UK government apologize for the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which affirmed the right of the Jewish people to a homeland in then-Palestine.The meeting, which reportedly began with comments from the organizers, soon opened the debate up to the floor. According to blogger David Collier who was present at the event, a member of the militantly anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Neturei Karta movement launched a diatribe against an American Zionist rabbi he said drove Hitler to carry out a mass extermination of Europe’s Jews.The Neturei Karta member began by comparing Israel to the Islamic State group, saying that, “ISIS is a perversion of Islam, just as Zionism is a perversion of Judaism.” He then went on to accuse Stephen Wise, an American Reform rabbi and Zionist leader who died in 1949, of both foreseeing the number of dead in the Holocaust three decades before its inception and of driving Hitler to commit the genocide.Man says Jews were responsible for the Holocaust; panel thanks man, BDS is mentioned, general applause pic.twitter.com/3FbBNoXUjm— Yiftah Curiel (@yiftahc) October 26, 2016-The man said: “One of the main Zionists in America, Rabbi Stephen Wise, a Reform, a heretic, so-called rabbi, he spoke in The New York Times in 1905, there are six million, note the number, bleeding and suffering reasons to justify Zionism.” Collier points out that this quote by Wise is commonly used among Holocaust deniers.The audience member then went on to accuse Wise of enraging Hitler by instigating an American economic boycott of Germany to the point that he wanted to “systematically kill Jews wherever he could find them.”The attendee said that Wise “made the boycott on Germany, the economic boycott on Germany which antagonized Hitler, over the edge, to then want to systematically kill Jews wherever he could find them. As opposed to just ‘Judenrein,’ to make Germany free of Jews, a Jew-free land. Which is enough, but that is noted by one of our rabbis, that is what pushed him over the edge.”The man continued by saying that Hitler “became a madman after this boycott, Judea declares war on Germany. In Manhattan they had 100,000 people marching in the economic boycott in 1935, it was the same heretic rabbi who caused that.”The comments drew praise from the panel and the audience.The audience member also claimed that “if anybody is anti-Semitic, it’s the Israelis themselves.” This comment also drew applause."If anybody is antisemitic, it's the Israelis themselves"; panel applauds; hard to believe, but this happened this week at House of Lords pic.twitter.com/L8v4cARnK8— Yiftah Curiel (@yiftahc) October 26, 2016-A spokesman for the Israeli embassy in London branded the meeting as “a shameful event, which gave voice to racist tropes against Jews and Israelis alike.”Tonge, a member of the Liberal Democrat Party, who sits as an independent peer in Parliament after resigning from the party’s parliamentary group over anti-Israel comments in 2012, last week claimed that growing anti-Semitism in Europe reflects the general public’s “disgust” over the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians.Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron on Tuesday told London’s LBC radio that the comments from Tonge were “intolerable” and that action had been taken, although he could not specify what that action was.A party spokesperson told the Jewish News that “Tonge does not take the party whip [does not accept party discipline] in the House of Lords and does not speak for the Liberal Democrats on Middle East issues.”“If a complaint is made, we will investigate it quickly and thoroughly.”Tonge resigned in 2012 from the position of party whip, a task equivalent in the United States to speaker, after she spoke about Israel’s demise at an event promoting the boycott of the Jewish state.“Beware Israel. Israel is not going to be there forever in its present form,” she said at the time. “One day, the United States of America will get sick of giving 70 billion [dollars] a year to Israel to support what I call America’s aircraft carrier in the Middle East – that is Israel. One day, the American people are going to say to the Israel lobby in the USA: enough is enough… Israel will lose its support and then they will reap what they have sown.”
Cabinet said to okay Palestinian construction in secret vote-Debate on building in Israeli-controlled Area C of the West Bank kept under wraps so as not to miff settler leadership — report-By Alexander Fulbright October 27, 2016, 6:48 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The security cabinet approved a series of Palestinian building plans in Area C in the West Bank, in a vote that was held in secret in order not to anger settlers and right-wing activists.According to a report in the Haaretz daily Thursday, the vote took place two weeks ago and was part of a “carrot and stick” plan first announced by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman in August. Liberman said that the purpose of the plan was to reward Palestinians who support coexistence while punishing those who support terrorism.A senior Israeli official was quoted in the report as saying that the vote was held in secret because it was a politically sensitive issue. The official noted that the leadership of the settlement movement has a lot of influence in the right-wing Likud and Jewish Home parties and is strongly against any construction for Palestinians in Area C.Area C is a portion of the West Bank that is fully administered by Israel. It comprises over 60% of the total territory in the West Bank and is where the Jewish settlements are located. Palestinians often complain that they are not granted permits to build there and allege that Israel is trying to push them out with an eye to future annexation.Responding to news of the vote, the heads of the Knesset Land of Israel Caucus Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) and Yoav Kish (Likud) called on the cabinet “to fix this embarrassing decision that allows for Palestinian construction during a time in which Jewish settlement is frozen and even destroyed,” according to the right-leaning site Israel National News. They added that the decision “is against the national interest, and we, as representatives of the public, will not accept it and will fight for its cancellation.”The Haaretz report said that the meeting took place on October 5, just after Rosh Hashanah, and was attended by only approximately half of the cabinet’s members. Prime Minister Netanyahu, Liberman, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas), Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud), Construction Minister Yoav Galant (Kulanu), and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) all reportedly voted in favor of the measure. Voting against were Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home).The plan was put together by the head of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COAT), Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, and was presented to the cabinet by Liberman. According to the report, it includes a plan for expanding Palestinian villages in the northern West Bank and the Palestinian city of Qalqilya, an economic corridor between Jericho and Jordan, the building of an industrial area near Nablus, the construction of a hospital in Beit Sahour near Bethlehem, and the construction of preschools and soccer fields in a number of Palestinian villages.The article also noted that a similar measure put forward last year by Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yaalon was thwarted due to fierce opposition from Jewish Home ministers, as well as several of the ministers from Likud. At the time, the Jewish Home ministers threatened to bolt the government and leave the coalition without a Knesset majority should the proposal be approved.
I see it like Buddhism. Satanism is something that can co-exist with being a Jew'-In haunted Salem, a Jewish church founder preaches the art of ‘Satanic’ social change-At a former funeral home in a town inextricably linked to witchcraft, secular Jew Malcolm Jarry opens a new heaquarters for his Satanic Temple, a controversial movement with up to 50,000 members worldwide-By Matt Lebovic October 26, 2016, 4:36 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
SALEM, Massachusetts — Just in time for Halloween, a controversial Satanic temple has set up its international headquarters in Massachusetts’ beloved Salem.Located one-mile from historic sites tied to Salem’s 1692 witchcraft hysteria, the building — a former funeral home — was inaugurated last month by activist Malcolm Jarry, a self-described “secular Jew” who co-founded The Satanic Temple (TST) in 2013. Jarry is a pseudonym, and he refuses to be photographed.The temple houses an art gallery in honor of Baphomet, a “sabbatic goat” representing the universe. Behind the two-story building, an eight-foot tall statue of Baphomet sits in a plain shed, where visitors can pay to view it.With up to 50,000 members in chapters around the world, TST has garnered colossal media attention in the last three years. Chief among Jarry’s causes are marriage equality and women’s reproductive freedom. Any issue related to the government using religion to restrict individual freedom is also likely to engage temple leaders, some of whom staged a 2014 “Black Mass” at Harvard University to push the envelope on religious freedom.Outside of New England, TST has taken legal action against the placement of edifices of the Ten Commandments in civic settings, including statehouses. To illustrate how such displays violate religious freedom, the temple has insisted it be allowed to erect goat-headed Baphomet statues in the same locations. TST is also planning to take on some schools’ use of isolation, denial of bathroom access, and corporal punishment of children.-unnamed-1-The Satanic Temple in Salem, Massachusetts, with a sign for its Satanic art gallery and rainbow flag, September 2016-For the 49-year-old Jarry, there is not much conflict between being Jewish and a Satanist. As a matter of fact, the two identities have come to inform each other, he said.“I see it like Buddhism,” said Jarry. “Satanism is something that can co-exist with being a Jew,” he said.In addition to Jarry’s belief that Judaism and Satanism can co-exist, there are parallels with how Judaism and Satanism have been branded by their detractors, he said.“The false accusations that have been thrown at Jews historically are similar to what some people say about Satanism,” said Jarry, mentioning accusations of blood libel and — more recently — fabricated allegations that Israel perpetrates genocide against Palestinian children.“I do not accept when people delegitimize Israel or use lies to marginalize Israel,” said Jarry. “I am an unwavering supporter of Israel, so long as it remains democratic, pluralistic, and protects human rights.”-‘Satanic Panic’-Satanists, for the record, do not believe that Satan exists. Derived from the Hebrew root for “adversary,” Satan is viewed as a symbol, not an idol or deity.-pre-lavey-coopting-it-the-symbol-had-s-and-l-The Church of Satan was founded by Jewish-born Anton LaVey in 1966. Known in his heyday as “the black pope,” LaVey seeded “grotto” churches around the country, and Hollywood figures including Sammy Davis Jr. joined the church. (Davis had converted to Judaism in 1961.)-As the “sigil” for his movement, LaVey adopted an inverted pentacle surrounded by the Hebrew letters for Leviathan, a sea monster featured in the Old Testament. From the center of the pentacle glares the half-human, half-animal Baphomet, both female and male, intending to symbolize the harmony of the universe.During the 1980s, “Satanic Panic” set in, and the church was accused of ritual abuse and criminal activity. LaVey was labelled a dangerous charlatan by critics, and many of his life stories were exposed as fraudulent after his 1997 death. Having once been called “the world’s most notorious religion,” the church’s last big hurrah was a Satanic High Mass, held in Los Angeles on 6/6/06 for its 40th anniversary.-church-of-satan-website-An early photo of Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey, who founded the movement in 1966 (Public domain)-Unlike the occultist LaVey and his Church of Satan, Jarry and his upstart Satanic movement do not associate with magic, he said. Like other religions and non-religions, Satanism has multiple off-shoots and — spoiler alert — Satanists are against submitting to centralized authority, which the pay-to-play cult of LaVey began to exemplify for some practitioners of so-called LaVeyan Satanism.‘We expect to be treated in the same manner as all other religions and will sue for all of the same rights’-In recent weeks, TST has been in the news for one member’s attempts to deliver a Satanist invocation at Boston City Hall. The opportunity to open meetings with prayers is by invitation only, and only mainstream religions have ever been asked, said Jarry.“If the decision is that only we cannot deliver an invocation, then we will sue and we will win,” said the veteran contrarian.“We expect to be treated in the same manner as all other religions and will sue for all of the same rights,” said Jarry, adding that TST’s campaigns are fueled by “the importance of standing for freedom of expression and against tyrannical authority.”-lead-According to Salem city officials, only a handful of citizens have expressed concern about the Satanic temple’s arrival in the bewitched seaport, one of New England’s top tourist destinations. Among Salem’s several thousand Jewish residents, those questioned by The Times of Israel had only positive things to say about their town’s newest faith — or faithless — based neighbor.“Honestly, for us, it is such a non-event,” said Liz Polay-Wettengel, a Salem resident for more than a decade.“We live with so many different types of beliefs here, including a very large Wiccan community, that having a satanic church open doesn’t even register for me and other Salem Jews I have spoken with,” said Polay-Wettengel, who directs marketing for InterfaithFamily.com.“As long as we can practice our Judaism freely, I have to extend those rights to them as well,” she said.
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
CANADA-EU TRADE-TODAYS OTHER NEWS
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2016/10/canada-european-union-trade-deal-almost.html
Despite defeat, Netanyahu hails progress for Israel at UNESCO-Prime minister’s statement notes that fewer countries supported resolution ignoring Jewish ties to Jerusalem than in previous years, more abstained-By Times of Israel staff October 26, 2016, 4:34 pm
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Wednesday said a second United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) vote ignoring Jewish ties to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem was actually a diplomatic achievement for the Jewish state.Convening its annual meeting in Paris, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee had earlier on Wednesday adopted Draft Resolution 40COM 7A.13, entitled “Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls,” by a large majority in a secret ballot, with 10 countries voting in favor, two opposing the text and eight abstaining. Eight “yes” votes were needed for the resolution to pass.Jamaica was absent and did not participate in the vote.A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said that “fewer nations were in favor of the resolution this year.”“More nations moved this year from support to abstentions,” the statement said, referring to similar resolutions previously passed by the committee. It attributed the progress to “intense efforts by the prime minister and the Foreign Ministry.”The resolution, which accuses Israel of various violations, echoed last week’s decision in referring to the Temple Mount compound solely by its Muslim names, “Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif,” and defined it only as “a Muslim holy site of worship.” As the site of the two Biblical temples, the mount is the holiest place in Judaism. But unlike last week’s resolution, the draft did not mention the importance of Jerusalem’s Old City for “the three monotheistic religions.”“Israel thanks Croatia and Tanzania who asked for the vote and for all the countries that voted for Israel and didn’t support the resolution,” the statement said.At the opening of Wednesday’s session, the chairperson of the World Heritage Committee, Turkish diplomat Lale Ülker, proposed that the resolution be adopted “by consensus,” which would have given the appearance of a unanimous decision. A majority of member states supported her proposal, but Tanzania and Croatia asked for a secret ballot. The committee’s legal adviser eventually ruled that a secret ballot would be held on the resolution, paving the way for the two “no” votes and the eight abstentions.This year’s member countries of the committee made things particularly difficult for Israeli diplomats battling the resolution. Germany, Colombia and Japan, all sympathetic nations to Israel, are no longer involved, and in their place are Tunisia, Kuwait, Lebanon and Indonesia, bringing to nine the total number of Muslim countries. Those nine and Vietnam were all assumed to have voted for the resolution. Poland, Finland, Croatia, Portugal, the four European countries, had indicated they would abstain.“This is yet another absurd resolution against the State of Israel, the Jewish people and historical truth,” Israel’s ambassador to UNESCO, Carmel Shama-Hacohen said after the vote.The resolution belongs on the garbage bin of history, the Israeli envoy added, and then lifted a black dustbin with the word “History” on it and placed a copy of the text into it.The decision came a week after a similar resolution was approved by the body and elicited angry responses from Israel, several world leaders and even the body’s own director-general.Also Wednesday, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein sent a letter to Pope Francis asking the pontiff to counter the UNESCO resolution, calling it “deeply offensive to both Christianity and Judaism.”“The outrageous repudiation of the millennia-old bond between Judaism and its holiest shrines in Jerusalem is a blatant attempt to rewrite history.”“The annals of both our religions cannot be erased by raised hands and counted votes,” he wrote and called for the international community to adopt another resolution that “reaffirms Jerusalem as a holy city for all monotheistic religions.”“In the name of the Land of the People and the Bible, we would urge the Holy See to use its best offices to prevent the recurrence of developments of this sort.”יו"ר הכנסת @YuliEdelstein על החלטות אונסק"ו: "שערוריה חסרת בסיס" https://t.co/IfmkYXfiwY pic.twitter.com/sE7DHKCekR— הכנסת (@KnessetIL) October 26, 2016-The Palestine Liberation Organization, the official representative of the Palestinian people at the UN, welcomed Wednesday the recent decisions and rejected the claims that it seeks to deny Jerusalem’s Jewish identity.Secretary-General of the PLO Saeb Erekat said in a statement that “contrary to what the Israeli government claims, the resolution that was voted by UNESCO aims at reaffirming the importance of Jerusalem for the three monotheistic religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It calls for respecting the status quo of its religious sites, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound that continues to be threatened by the systematic incitement and provocative actions of the Israeli government and extremist Jewish groups.”The 21 nations with voting rights on the World Heritage Committee were: Finland, Poland, Portugal, Croatia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Tunisia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Peru, Cuba, Jamaica, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Angola and Tanzania.
At UNESCO, Syria complains of Israeli archaeological digs – inside Syria-Cultural body asks Israel to answer claim it’s excavating Bir Ajam; Israeli envoy: That’s ‘Syrian territory,’ allegations ‘ludicrous’-By Raphael Ahren and Ilan Ben Zion October 27, 2016, 6:10 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The Syrian government on Thursday complained about alleged Israeli archaeological excavations at Bir Ajam on the Syrian Golan Heights, drawing an irate response from Israel’s ambassador to UNESCO.The complaint, which was formally forwarded by a senior UNESCO official with a request for an Israeli response, was dismissed by Israel as “ludicrous.”The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has been a venue at which Arab and Muslim states have promoted a series of anti-Israel resolutions, including a text approved at UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee this week that characterized the holy sites on and around Jerusalem’s Temple Mount as exclusively Muslim.In a letter to Israel’s envoy to the organization, Carmel Shama-Hacohen, UNESCO Assistant Director General for Culture Francesco Bandarin said the group had received a complaint from the Syrian government that “brought to our attention the fact that archaeological excavations in the village of Bir Ajam in the Governorate of Quneitra have been taking place since 11 July 2016.”Bandarin continued, “As you know, the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, to which both Israel and the Syrian Arab Republic are Party, asserts that necessary cultural property preservation measures shall be taken in close cooperation with the relevant national authorities.”He asked Shama-Hacohen to report back to the organization after consulting the “relevant Israeli authorities.”Shama-Hacohen appeared nonplussed.In an interview with The Times of Israel Thursday, he noted that Bir Ajam lies beyond the 1974 ceasefire line between Israel and Syria on the Golan, putting the site beyond the IDF’s defensive line.“This is in Syrian territory. There are no Israeli excavations going on there whatsoever,” Shama-Hacohen said.A public statement from the Israeli Permanent Mission to UNESCO in Paris did not mince words, calling the complaint “ludicrous.”Anyone who thought that the climax of absurdity at UNESCO took place yesterday [in the World Heritage Committee], or that Syria’s problem is the civil war that has claimed over 600,000 lives and millions of wounded and displaced, and anyone who thought the systematic destruction of culture and heritage by the Islamic State is Syria’s [major] archaeological problem, should read the letter sent by UNESCO today to the Israeli ambassador to the organization, Carmel Shama-Hacohen, in the wake of a complaint by the Syrian government about archaeological digs they claim are taking place in the Quneitra area.In the statement, Shama-Hacohen was quoted as saying: “This complaint is ludicrous, and demonstrates the inappropriate ways the organization is used by Arab states [in their campaign] against Israel.”He called the complaint “not surprising,” as Syria’s ambassador to the organization “goes out of her way to avoid sitting next to me at any forum. Their situation…deserves compassion on humanitarian grounds, especially if [Syrian leaders] have the free time to to engage in these frivolities.”Nevertheless, he said, Israel’s policy was to “check and respond substantively to any complaint, even if it is ludicrous.”The Israeli mission is currently attempting to determine whether the complaint might have been garbled by the Syrian diplomats or UNESCO officials, and was originally a warning to Israel against potential military strikes in the area.Israel has on occasion responded with artillery fire and airstrikes to cross-border stray fire from Syria. The Quneitra area has seen heavy fighting over the past five years between Syrian government forces and rebels.Even if Shama-Hacohen’s speculation that the complaint was a case of broken telephone is correct, it remains highly unlikely that Syrian archaeologists are carrying on a dig at Bir Ajam, so close to Israeli forces in an area long contested by rebel forces.Reached for comment, the Israel Antiquities Authority, which oversees Israeli archaeological digs, said there was no IAA-related activity in Bir Ajam.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Netanyahu: UNESCO remains a 'theater of the absurd'-UNESCO adopts another resolution ignoring Jewish link to Temple Mount-In secret ballot, cultural body’s World Heritage Committee approves text using only the site’s Muslim name; 10 states vote in favor, 2 oppose, 8 abstain-By Raphael Ahren October 26, 2016, 11:48 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
An important panel at the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) on Wednesday morning approved a controversial resolution that ignores Jewish and Christian ties to the Temple Mount. The decision came a week after a similar resolution was approved by the body and elicited angry responses from Israel, several world leaders and even the body’s own director-general.Convening at its annual meeting in Paris, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee adopted Draft Resolution 40COM 7A.13, entitled “Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls,” by a large majority, with 10 countries voting in favor, eight abstaining and two opposing the text. Eight “yes” votes were needed for the resolution to pass.Jamaica was absent and did not participate in the vote.This year’s member countries of the committee made things particularly difficult for Israeli diplomats battling the resolution. Germany, Colombia and Japan, all sympathetic nations to Israel, are no longer involved, and in their place are Tunisia, Kuwait, Lebanon and Indonesia, bringing to nine the total number of Muslim countries. Those nine and Vietnam were all assumed to have voted for the resolution. Poland, Finland, Croatia, Portugal, the four European countries, had indicated they would abstain.The 21 nations with voting rights on the World Heritage Committee were: Finland, Poland, Portugal, Croatia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Tunisia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Peru, Cuba, Jamaica, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Angola and Tanzania.The resolution, which accuses Israel of various violations, echoed last week’s decision in referring to the Temple Mount compound solely by its Muslim names, “Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif,” and defined it only as “a Muslim holy site of worship.” As the site of the two Biblical temples, the mount is the holiest place in Judaism. But unlike last week’s resolution, the draft did not mention the importance of Jerusalem’s Old City for “the three monotheistic religions.”“This is yet another absurd resolution against the State of Israel, the Jewish people and historical truth,” Israel’s ambassador to UNESCO, Carmel Shama-Hacohen, said after the vote.The fate of the resolution would be no different from United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379, which equated Zionism with racism, he predicted, noting that that resolution was overturned 16 years after its adoption in 1975. Recalling that Israel’s ambassador to the UN at the time, Chaim Herzog, tore apart a copy of that resolution, he said that UNESCO’s resolution on Jerusalem belonged in the garbage bin of history.“I have no intention of doing this today — not because of your dignity, or the dignity of this organization, but because it is not even worthy of the energy needed for tearing it apart,” the Israeli envoy said, before proceeding to lift up a black dustbin with the word “History” on it and place a copy of the text inside.Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, also condemned the decision.“The absurdity continues, and UNESCO has adopted yet another ridiculous decision that is completely disconnected from reality,” he said in a statement. “UNESCO embarrassed itself by marching to the tune of the Palestinian pipers. All attempts to deny our heritage, distort history and disconnect the Jewish people from our capital and our homeland, are doomed to fail.”At the opening of Wednesday’s session, the chairperson of the World Heritage Committee, Turkish diplomat Lale Ülker, proposed that the resolution be adopted “by consensus,” which would have given the appearance of a unanimous decision. A majority of member states supported her proposal, but Tanzania and Croatia asked for a secret ballot. Despite vociferous opposition by Lebanon, Tunisia, Cuba and other states that pushed for “consensus,” the committee’s legal adviser eventually ruled that a secret ballot would be held on the resolution, paving the way for the two “no” votes and the eight abstentions.Despite frantic Israeli efforts to convince some of the committee’s member states to oppose the resolution, its eventual adoption did not come as a surprise to anyone in Jerusalem. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Tuesday night that UNESCO’s second vote on the matter within a few days showed the organization remains a “theater of the absurd.” He said that while “extremist Muslim forces are destroying mosques and churches, Israel is the only country in the region that protects them and allows freedom of worship.”According to Shama-Hacohen, Netanyahu instructed him to work to convince countries likely to abstain to go further and cast a vote against the resolution, arguing that an abstention would be akin to support. He described the resolution as “diplomatic jihad” against the Jewish people, Judaism and Christianity.“Israel respects Muslim and other faiths and their presence in our holiest of places, and it is tragic that the other side doesn’t have a leadership that will do the same, but rather one that is engaged only in doing the exact opposite,” Shama-Hacohen said Tuesday during a meeting with UNESCO’s director-general, Irina Bokova. “This is no longer an Israeli-Palestinian struggle, but an Arab struggle against the entire Jewish world. It is clear that Israel and the Jewish people will survive this, yet it remains unclear whether UNESCO will.”Shama-Hacohen and the heads of two Israeli advocacy groups, StandWithUs and the International Legal Forum, handed Bokova a petition signed by more than 77,000 Jews and Christians calling on UNESCO “to recognize the irrefutable deep historic, cultural and religious connection between the Jewish people and the land of Israel.”The earlier resolution, which was approved October 13 at the UNESCO committee stage with 24 “yes” votes, six “no” votes and 26 abstentions, and then formally confirmed by UNESCO’s executive on October 18, sparked vociferous condemnation in Israel, as well as from UNESCO’s own director, Irina Bokova, and several foreign leaders.Last week’s text referred to Israel as “the occupying power” at the holy sites. The resolution adopted Wednesday — sponsored by Kuwait, Lebanon and Tunisia — did not, which Israel considers a minor victory. In another significant divergence from the October 13 text, the new version did not put quotation marks around the designation “Western Wall,” a punctuation seen in Israel as bolstering the original resolution’s disdain for Judaism’s connection to its holiest site.The adoption of the resolution creates an absurd situation whereby the archaeological digs on and around the site of the Temple Mount, which have unearthed copious evidence of a Jewish connection to the site, may now be designated as destruction of the Muslim site.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
French Jews rally against silence on UNESCO Jerusalem votes-OCT 27,16-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
France’s main Jewish groups are urging members to rally in front of the headquarters of the country’s foreign ministry to protest its failure to oppose UNESCO resolutions that ignore Jewish ties to Jerusalem.CRIF, the political lobby group representing French Jewish communities, in a rare move is joined by the Consistoire, French Jewry’s organ responsible for religious services, in organizing a protest rally for today opposite the Quai d’Orsay in Paris in reaction to the passing of two resolutions on Jerusalem this month by UNESCO committees.France was among 26 countries that abstained from voting during the first resolution, which the Palestinians initiated and which was passed on October 13.— JTA
Jordan spokesman mocks Israel over UNESCO-OCT 27,16-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani has mocked Israel’s decision to recall its ambassador from UNESCO, local media reports.Momani says that if Israel continues its current polices it will end up having to recall all its ambassadors around the world, Channel 10 reports.Momani also calls on Israel to return its envoy to UNESCO.Jordan supported the UN culture body’s resolution that ignores Jewish ties to Jerusalem holy sites. Israel on Wednesday recalled Ambassador Carmel Shama-Hacohen in protest.
Predates the Dead Sea Scrolls by centuries-Oldest Hebrew mention of Jerusalem found on rare papyrus from 7th century BCE-Reference to consignment of wineskins ‘to Jerusalem’ appears on 2,700-year-old First Temple-era scrap believed plundered from Judean Desert cave-By Ilan Ben Zion October 26, 2016, 12:03 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
A rare, ancient papyrus dating to the First Temple Period — 2,700 years ago — has been found to bear the oldest known mention of Jerusalem in Hebrew.The fragile text, believed plundered from a cave in the Judean Desert cave, was apparently acquired by the Israel Antiquities Authority during a sting in 2012 when thieves attempted to sell it to a dealer. Radiocarbon dating has determined it is from the 7th century BCE, making it one of just three extant Hebrew papyri from that period, and predating the Dead Sea Scrolls by centuries.The IAA’s Eitan Klein said the dating of the papyrus had been confirmed by comparing the text’s orthography with other texts from the period.The slip of papyrus, which was formally unveiled by the Israel Antiquities Authority on Wednesday, measures 11 centimeters by 2.5 centimeters (4.3 inches by 1 inch). Its two lines of jagged black paleo-Hebrew script appear to have been a dispatch note recording the delivery of two wineskins “to Jerusalem,” the Judean Kingdom’s capital city. The full text of the inscription reads: “From the female servant of the king, from Naharata (place near Jericho) two wineskins to Jerusalem.”The fact that the note was written on papyrus, rather than cheaper clay ostraca, suggests the consignment of wineskins may have been sent to a person of high status.Speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem with IAA officials on Wednesday, Israel Prize-winning Biblical scholar Shmuel Ahituv said the mention of a “female servant of the king” sending the wineskins to “Yerushalem,” indicated that it was sent by a prominent woman to the capital.Ahituv also said it was significant that the text features the “Yerushalem” spelling of the city’s name that is more commonly found in the Bible. There are only four instances in the bible, he noted, of Jerusalem being spelled “Yerushalayim,” with an additional letter Yod, the way it is pronounced in modern Hebrew.Ahituv studied the papyrus after its acquisition by an individual who has requested anonymity.Amir Ganor, head of the IAA’s antiquity theft prevention division, said the papyrus was determined to have come from a cave in Nahal Hever in the Judean Desert. The arid, cool location near the Dead Sea enabled the fragment’s preservation over the millennia. Since the bust, 14 members of the ring of looters based near Hebron were arrested and sentenced to 18 years in prison.While there are more than a handful of ancient Hebrew texts etched into stone and scrawled on bits of pottery from this period, the only other known Hebrew papyrus texts from before the fall of the Judean Kingdom in 586 BCE were the Marzeah Papyrus, believed to be from mid-to-late 7th century BCE trans-Jordan, and a papyrus palimpsest found at Qumran.The Israel Antiquities Authority has moved to prevent antiquities thieves plundering the country’s archaeological heritage, with particular emphasis on the limestone caves dotting the cliffs leading down to the Dead Sea. Those remote caverns have yielded two of the most significant collections of ancient Hebrew texts: the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bar Kochba letters.Stings in recent years have busted treasure hunters and traders in the act in Judean Desert caverns and Jerusalem hotels, while archaeologists race to excavate the area’s remaining caves in the hopes of discovering scientific data and, possibly, more scrolls.
4 Iranian arms shipments to Yemen stopped: US admiral-OCT 27,16-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Warships from the US Navy and allied nations have intercepted four weapons shipments from Iran to war-ravaged Yemen since April 2015, a US admiral says.Yemen has been rocked by conflict since Iran-backed Houthi rebels overran the capital Sanaa and other large parts of the country in 2014, prompting military intervention by a Saudi-led coalition in March last year in support of the internationally recognized government.The United States and Saudi Arabia have accused Iran of arming the insurgents, and while Tehran denies the charges, the coalition has since enforced maritime and air controls over the Arabian Peninsula country.“Either US ships or coalition ships… intercepted four weapons shipments from Iran to Yemen,” says US Vice Admiral Kevin Donegan.“We know they came from Iran and we know the destination,” he tells reporters at an undisclosed military base in Southwest Asia.— AFP
East Jerusalem man charged with plotting shooting, backing Hamas-Resident of Ras al-Amoud allegedly tried to buy weapon to carry out assault in capital; security service says ‘serious attack’ thwarted-By Stuart Winer October 27, 2016, 2:26 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
An East Jerusalem resident was arrested for planning shooting attacks on Israeli security forces and civilians, Israeli officials said Thursday as charges were filed against the man.Muhammad Mussa Abbasi, 25, from the Ras al-Amoud neighborhood in the capital, was arrested three weeks ago, the Shin Bet security service said in a statement, clearing the case for publication.Over the past several months Abbasi made plans to carry out shooting attacks in East Jerusalem and unsuccessfully tried to obtain a weapon for that purpose. The suspect also tried to get information on making pipe bombs, although he did not put that idea into practice, according to the Shin Bet.Investigators also discovered that Abbasi had been involved in several attacks in which Molotov cocktails, stones and firecrackers were thrown at security forces and Israeli vehicles in the capital.He was charged in Jerusalem District Court with conspiracy to commit an attack in Jerusalem, destroying evidence, obstruction of justice, supporting a terror group, injury with grave intent, making and carrying weapons, and aggravated assault of a police officer., according to the prosecutor’s office.State prosecutors intend to ask that he be detained until the end of proceedings, the Shin Bet said.“The arrest of Abbasi, who, as an Israeli resident, had access to the whole city, prevented a serious attack in Jerusalem,” the Shin Bet said.Aside from his plans to shoot at security forces and civilians, Abbasi also posted messages on his Facebook page inciting violence, calling for terror attacks against Israel and supporting terror group Hamas.According to the officials, Abbasi voiced support for the suicide bomber who attacked the number 12 bus in the Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem last April and the shooters at the Sarona Market in Tel Aviv who killed four people in June.“Abbasi’s arrest, and the results of his questioning, demonstrate once again the high level of threat from acts by lone attackers who are influenced by incitement on the web by terror organizations, and in particular Hamas, and who themselves incite to carry out attacks,” the Shin Bet said.On April 18, West Bank resident Abed al-Hamid Abu Srour, 19, detonated a bomb on a bus in the capital, killing himself and injuring 21 people.On June 8, two West Bank Palestinians opened fire on people in a restaurant in the Sarona Market, killing four and wounding 41. The shooters fled the scene but were captured alive by private security guards and police a short time later.Both attacks came amid a months-long wave of stabbings and other assaults by Palestinians that has mostly subsided since the summer.On October 9, a gunman tied to Hamas opened fire near central Jerusalem, slaying two people before being killed by police.
Her uncle, Saher Habash, co-founded Fatah and was a leader of the Second Intifada-Niece of top Arafat aide so loves Israel she had it tattooed on her back-Ramallah-born Sandra Solomon, a convert to Christianity, says her dream is to come to Israel, salute the flag; she ‘grew up in a home that hated the Jews, hailed Hitler and praised the Holocaust’-By Times of Israel staff October 27, 2016, 6:55 am
The niece of a top official in the Palestinian Fatah party and a close confidant of the late leader Yasser Arafat says she loves the State of Israel so much, she had the word “Israel” in Hebrew tattooed across her shoulder blades.Sandra Solomon, 38, was born a Muslim in Ramallah under a different name, but grew up in Saudi Arabia before moving to Canada where she converted to Christianity.Solomon is the niece of Saher Habash, one of the founders of the Fatah party, a member of its Central Committee and a leader of the Second Intifada.“I grew up in a home that hated the Jews, hailed Hitler and praised the Holocaust,” she told Channel 2 in an interview Wednesday.Solomon, who wears a pendant of the Star of David around her neck, and has become a public advocate for Israel, said she hoped the Jewish people would forgive her for the insults and the demonization they underwent in her home and in her surroundings growing up.She has another tattoo on her arm of the word “Jesus” in Hebrew, above a menorah.Her family has denounced her for converting, she said, which “didn’t come overnight” and was mainly driven by her upbringing in Saudi Arabia.“The [forced wearing of the] hijab is the main reason I left Islam…and also because of the way of life under Islamic Sharia law,” she told Channel 2.Solomon said her “dream, one day, is to come to Israel, to fly the flag and salute it.”“The State of Israel was created not to be erased but to stay,” she added in the interview.Solomon said that were her uncle alive, he would have surely incited against her for her actions and her advocacy for Israel, as have other Muslims and Palestinians.“I stand behind what I say and I will tell the truth even if it leads to my death one day. I will at least know that I’ve had the honor to die for the truth,” she said.
Israel slams House of Lords event where audience applauded blaming Jews for Holocaust-Meeting organized by anti-Israel peer Jenny Tonge kicks off campaign to demand UK government apologize for Balfour Declaration-By Times of Israel staff October 27, 2016, 5:14 pm
Israel condemned a “shameful” meeting held at the House of Lords in London this week at which a member of the audience won applause for claiming that Jews were to blame for the Holocaust.The meeting on Tuesday kicked off a campaign by vehemently anti-Israel Baroness Jenny Tonge to demand that the UK government apologize for the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which affirmed the right of the Jewish people to a homeland in then-Palestine.The meeting, which reportedly began with comments from the organizers, soon opened the debate up to the floor. According to blogger David Collier who was present at the event, a member of the militantly anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Neturei Karta movement launched a diatribe against an American Zionist rabbi he said drove Hitler to carry out a mass extermination of Europe’s Jews.The Neturei Karta member began by comparing Israel to the Islamic State group, saying that, “ISIS is a perversion of Islam, just as Zionism is a perversion of Judaism.” He then went on to accuse Stephen Wise, an American Reform rabbi and Zionist leader who died in 1949, of both foreseeing the number of dead in the Holocaust three decades before its inception and of driving Hitler to commit the genocide.Man says Jews were responsible for the Holocaust; panel thanks man, BDS is mentioned, general applause pic.twitter.com/3FbBNoXUjm— Yiftah Curiel (@yiftahc) October 26, 2016-The man said: “One of the main Zionists in America, Rabbi Stephen Wise, a Reform, a heretic, so-called rabbi, he spoke in The New York Times in 1905, there are six million, note the number, bleeding and suffering reasons to justify Zionism.” Collier points out that this quote by Wise is commonly used among Holocaust deniers.The audience member then went on to accuse Wise of enraging Hitler by instigating an American economic boycott of Germany to the point that he wanted to “systematically kill Jews wherever he could find them.”The attendee said that Wise “made the boycott on Germany, the economic boycott on Germany which antagonized Hitler, over the edge, to then want to systematically kill Jews wherever he could find them. As opposed to just ‘Judenrein,’ to make Germany free of Jews, a Jew-free land. Which is enough, but that is noted by one of our rabbis, that is what pushed him over the edge.”The man continued by saying that Hitler “became a madman after this boycott, Judea declares war on Germany. In Manhattan they had 100,000 people marching in the economic boycott in 1935, it was the same heretic rabbi who caused that.”The comments drew praise from the panel and the audience.The audience member also claimed that “if anybody is anti-Semitic, it’s the Israelis themselves.” This comment also drew applause."If anybody is antisemitic, it's the Israelis themselves"; panel applauds; hard to believe, but this happened this week at House of Lords pic.twitter.com/L8v4cARnK8— Yiftah Curiel (@yiftahc) October 26, 2016-A spokesman for the Israeli embassy in London branded the meeting as “a shameful event, which gave voice to racist tropes against Jews and Israelis alike.”Tonge, a member of the Liberal Democrat Party, who sits as an independent peer in Parliament after resigning from the party’s parliamentary group over anti-Israel comments in 2012, last week claimed that growing anti-Semitism in Europe reflects the general public’s “disgust” over the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians.Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron on Tuesday told London’s LBC radio that the comments from Tonge were “intolerable” and that action had been taken, although he could not specify what that action was.A party spokesperson told the Jewish News that “Tonge does not take the party whip [does not accept party discipline] in the House of Lords and does not speak for the Liberal Democrats on Middle East issues.”“If a complaint is made, we will investigate it quickly and thoroughly.”Tonge resigned in 2012 from the position of party whip, a task equivalent in the United States to speaker, after she spoke about Israel’s demise at an event promoting the boycott of the Jewish state.“Beware Israel. Israel is not going to be there forever in its present form,” she said at the time. “One day, the United States of America will get sick of giving 70 billion [dollars] a year to Israel to support what I call America’s aircraft carrier in the Middle East – that is Israel. One day, the American people are going to say to the Israel lobby in the USA: enough is enough… Israel will lose its support and then they will reap what they have sown.”
Cabinet said to okay Palestinian construction in secret vote-Debate on building in Israeli-controlled Area C of the West Bank kept under wraps so as not to miff settler leadership — report-By Alexander Fulbright October 27, 2016, 6:48 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The security cabinet approved a series of Palestinian building plans in Area C in the West Bank, in a vote that was held in secret in order not to anger settlers and right-wing activists.According to a report in the Haaretz daily Thursday, the vote took place two weeks ago and was part of a “carrot and stick” plan first announced by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman in August. Liberman said that the purpose of the plan was to reward Palestinians who support coexistence while punishing those who support terrorism.A senior Israeli official was quoted in the report as saying that the vote was held in secret because it was a politically sensitive issue. The official noted that the leadership of the settlement movement has a lot of influence in the right-wing Likud and Jewish Home parties and is strongly against any construction for Palestinians in Area C.Area C is a portion of the West Bank that is fully administered by Israel. It comprises over 60% of the total territory in the West Bank and is where the Jewish settlements are located. Palestinians often complain that they are not granted permits to build there and allege that Israel is trying to push them out with an eye to future annexation.Responding to news of the vote, the heads of the Knesset Land of Israel Caucus Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) and Yoav Kish (Likud) called on the cabinet “to fix this embarrassing decision that allows for Palestinian construction during a time in which Jewish settlement is frozen and even destroyed,” according to the right-leaning site Israel National News. They added that the decision “is against the national interest, and we, as representatives of the public, will not accept it and will fight for its cancellation.”The Haaretz report said that the meeting took place on October 5, just after Rosh Hashanah, and was attended by only approximately half of the cabinet’s members. Prime Minister Netanyahu, Liberman, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas), Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud), Construction Minister Yoav Galant (Kulanu), and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) all reportedly voted in favor of the measure. Voting against were Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home).The plan was put together by the head of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COAT), Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, and was presented to the cabinet by Liberman. According to the report, it includes a plan for expanding Palestinian villages in the northern West Bank and the Palestinian city of Qalqilya, an economic corridor between Jericho and Jordan, the building of an industrial area near Nablus, the construction of a hospital in Beit Sahour near Bethlehem, and the construction of preschools and soccer fields in a number of Palestinian villages.The article also noted that a similar measure put forward last year by Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yaalon was thwarted due to fierce opposition from Jewish Home ministers, as well as several of the ministers from Likud. At the time, the Jewish Home ministers threatened to bolt the government and leave the coalition without a Knesset majority should the proposal be approved.
I see it like Buddhism. Satanism is something that can co-exist with being a Jew'-In haunted Salem, a Jewish church founder preaches the art of ‘Satanic’ social change-At a former funeral home in a town inextricably linked to witchcraft, secular Jew Malcolm Jarry opens a new heaquarters for his Satanic Temple, a controversial movement with up to 50,000 members worldwide-By Matt Lebovic October 26, 2016, 4:36 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
SALEM, Massachusetts — Just in time for Halloween, a controversial Satanic temple has set up its international headquarters in Massachusetts’ beloved Salem.Located one-mile from historic sites tied to Salem’s 1692 witchcraft hysteria, the building — a former funeral home — was inaugurated last month by activist Malcolm Jarry, a self-described “secular Jew” who co-founded The Satanic Temple (TST) in 2013. Jarry is a pseudonym, and he refuses to be photographed.The temple houses an art gallery in honor of Baphomet, a “sabbatic goat” representing the universe. Behind the two-story building, an eight-foot tall statue of Baphomet sits in a plain shed, where visitors can pay to view it.With up to 50,000 members in chapters around the world, TST has garnered colossal media attention in the last three years. Chief among Jarry’s causes are marriage equality and women’s reproductive freedom. Any issue related to the government using religion to restrict individual freedom is also likely to engage temple leaders, some of whom staged a 2014 “Black Mass” at Harvard University to push the envelope on religious freedom.Outside of New England, TST has taken legal action against the placement of edifices of the Ten Commandments in civic settings, including statehouses. To illustrate how such displays violate religious freedom, the temple has insisted it be allowed to erect goat-headed Baphomet statues in the same locations. TST is also planning to take on some schools’ use of isolation, denial of bathroom access, and corporal punishment of children.-unnamed-1-The Satanic Temple in Salem, Massachusetts, with a sign for its Satanic art gallery and rainbow flag, September 2016-For the 49-year-old Jarry, there is not much conflict between being Jewish and a Satanist. As a matter of fact, the two identities have come to inform each other, he said.“I see it like Buddhism,” said Jarry. “Satanism is something that can co-exist with being a Jew,” he said.In addition to Jarry’s belief that Judaism and Satanism can co-exist, there are parallels with how Judaism and Satanism have been branded by their detractors, he said.“The false accusations that have been thrown at Jews historically are similar to what some people say about Satanism,” said Jarry, mentioning accusations of blood libel and — more recently — fabricated allegations that Israel perpetrates genocide against Palestinian children.“I do not accept when people delegitimize Israel or use lies to marginalize Israel,” said Jarry. “I am an unwavering supporter of Israel, so long as it remains democratic, pluralistic, and protects human rights.”-‘Satanic Panic’-Satanists, for the record, do not believe that Satan exists. Derived from the Hebrew root for “adversary,” Satan is viewed as a symbol, not an idol or deity.-pre-lavey-coopting-it-the-symbol-had-s-and-l-The Church of Satan was founded by Jewish-born Anton LaVey in 1966. Known in his heyday as “the black pope,” LaVey seeded “grotto” churches around the country, and Hollywood figures including Sammy Davis Jr. joined the church. (Davis had converted to Judaism in 1961.)-As the “sigil” for his movement, LaVey adopted an inverted pentacle surrounded by the Hebrew letters for Leviathan, a sea monster featured in the Old Testament. From the center of the pentacle glares the half-human, half-animal Baphomet, both female and male, intending to symbolize the harmony of the universe.During the 1980s, “Satanic Panic” set in, and the church was accused of ritual abuse and criminal activity. LaVey was labelled a dangerous charlatan by critics, and many of his life stories were exposed as fraudulent after his 1997 death. Having once been called “the world’s most notorious religion,” the church’s last big hurrah was a Satanic High Mass, held in Los Angeles on 6/6/06 for its 40th anniversary.-church-of-satan-website-An early photo of Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey, who founded the movement in 1966 (Public domain)-Unlike the occultist LaVey and his Church of Satan, Jarry and his upstart Satanic movement do not associate with magic, he said. Like other religions and non-religions, Satanism has multiple off-shoots and — spoiler alert — Satanists are against submitting to centralized authority, which the pay-to-play cult of LaVey began to exemplify for some practitioners of so-called LaVeyan Satanism.‘We expect to be treated in the same manner as all other religions and will sue for all of the same rights’-In recent weeks, TST has been in the news for one member’s attempts to deliver a Satanist invocation at Boston City Hall. The opportunity to open meetings with prayers is by invitation only, and only mainstream religions have ever been asked, said Jarry.“If the decision is that only we cannot deliver an invocation, then we will sue and we will win,” said the veteran contrarian.“We expect to be treated in the same manner as all other religions and will sue for all of the same rights,” said Jarry, adding that TST’s campaigns are fueled by “the importance of standing for freedom of expression and against tyrannical authority.”-lead-According to Salem city officials, only a handful of citizens have expressed concern about the Satanic temple’s arrival in the bewitched seaport, one of New England’s top tourist destinations. Among Salem’s several thousand Jewish residents, those questioned by The Times of Israel had only positive things to say about their town’s newest faith — or faithless — based neighbor.“Honestly, for us, it is such a non-event,” said Liz Polay-Wettengel, a Salem resident for more than a decade.“We live with so many different types of beliefs here, including a very large Wiccan community, that having a satanic church open doesn’t even register for me and other Salem Jews I have spoken with,” said Polay-Wettengel, who directs marketing for InterfaithFamily.com.“As long as we can practice our Judaism freely, I have to extend those rights to them as well,” she said.