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
Holy plea-Trump sends handwritten note for Western Wall-Candidate asks, ‘Lord. May you bless the United States, our armed forces and our allies’-By JTA and Times of Israel staff October 30, 2016, 10:57 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump wrote a note to be placed in the Western Wall.The note, which was handwritten, was given to one of Trump’s advisers to be delivered to the wall.The note, which was photographed by Trump’s staff and sent to the Israeli Hebrew-language daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, reads:”Lord. May you bless the United States, our armed forces and our allies. May your guiding hand protect and strengthen our great nation.”According to Ynet, Trump wrote the note following a conversation with his daughter, Ivanka, who is Jewish.Worshipers traditionally push notes into the crevices of the Western Wall, a former holding wall for the Second Temple and the last part of the Temple that still stands. The Temple Mount is Judaism’s holiest spot.
Original limestone bed’ on which Jesus was buried said uncovered-Research team claims extraordinary discovery was made as they completed first work in centuries in cave revered as Jesus’s tomb at Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre-By Ilan Ben Zion October 31, 2016, 2:35 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Conservationists working at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem claim to have found the original limestone bed on which Jesus was laid to rest.The dramatic discovery was reported by National Geographic, which has been partnering with a team of experts working at the church, the holiest place in Christendom as the traditional site of Jesus’s crucifixion and burial.Restoration work at the church has been ongoing since the spring, but from last Wednesday to Saturday, researchers from the National Technical University of Athens, leading a team of dozens of workers, were allowed by the various church authorities to do 60 hours of work in what is traditionally believed to be Jesus’s tomb.They removed the marble slab that has sat atop the tomb for centuries, and worked feverishly to expose what lay beneath.“When the marble cladding was first removed on the night of October 26, an initial inspection… showed only a layer of fill material underneath,” National Geographic reported. “However, as researchers continued their non-stop work over the course of 60 hours, another marble slab with a cross carved into its surface was exposed. By Friday night, just hours before the tomb was to be re-sealed, the original limestone burial bed was revealed intact.”Martin Biddle, an expert on the history of the tomb, said scholars would now have to carefully examine the data that was collected when the burial bed and cave walls were exposed to definitively establish a connection to Jesus. “The surfaces of the rock must be looked at with the greatest care, I mean minutely, for traces of graffiti,” Biddle told National Geographic. “Why did [the 4th century historian] Bishop Eusebius identify this tomb as the tomb of Christ? He doesn’t say, and we don’t know,” said Biddle. “I don’t myself think Eusebius got it wrong — he was a very good scholar — so there probably is evidence if only it is looked for.”The Greek team, which has now resealed the chamber, has said it collected considerable documentation at the site, and does indeed intend to conduct extensive tests on what it found there.The Greek team entered the revered spot last week as part of the project to renovate and preserve the 18th century Edicule, or small building, which contains the ancient tomb.Historians long believed the original remnants of the tomb had been destroyed over the centuries. The original church that sat atop the traditional site of Jesus’s burial was demolished in 1009, nearly a century before the commencement of the First Crusade in 1099.The Fatimid caliph of Egypt ordered the governor of Ramle to destroy the church, and a Christian chronicler from Antioch wrote that the Arabs “attempted to remove the Holy Sepulchre and to cause all trace of it to disappear… [and] broke and demolished the greater part of it.”But to what the archaeologists said was their surprise, they established that remnants of the cave survived.Moving aside the top marble slab above the tomb on Wednesday for the first time since the Edicule was built, they found a second slab, gray and featuring a small etching of a cross, said to date to the 12th century, the Associated Press’s Daniel Estrin reported on Thursday.After removing the gray marble slab, they exposed part of the cave wall.“This is the Holy Rock that has been revered for centuries, but only now can actually be seen,” Antonia Moropoulou, head of the conservation and restoration project, told the magazine.“I’m absolutely amazed. My knees are shaking a little bit because I wasn’t expecting this,” added Fredrik Hiebert, National Geographic’s archaeologist-in-residence. “We can’t say 100 percent, but it appears to be visible proof that the location of the tomb has not shifted through time, something that scientists and historians have wondered for decades.”The magazine noted that while it was impossible to establish with certainty whether the rock-hewn tomb was the burial site of Jesus, the discovery of at least six other rock-cut tombs around the church point to the area being a Jewish cemetery during the late Second Temple period — the time when Jesus the Jew from Nazareth lived.Dan Bahat, former city archaeologist of Jerusalem, told National Geographic: “We may not be absolutely certain that the site of the Holy Sepulchre Church is the site of Jesus burial, but we certainly have no other site that can lay a claim nearly as weighty, and we really have no reason to reject the authenticity of the site.”The restoration team has installed a window to showcase part of the area exposed by the researchers so that visitors can see into the limestone cave.————————–Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.Follow Ilan Ben Zion on Twitter and Facebook.
Peace ‘a strategic goal’ of Palestinians, says Abbas-Palestinian leader ‘wants to emphasize respect for Judaism,’ backs keeping Jerusalem open to all monotheistic faiths-By Times of Israel staff November 1, 2016, 5:25 pm
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday that peace is a strategic goal of the Palestinians, who are committed to a two-state solution.Abbas was speaking in the West Bank town of Bethlehem where he was meeting visiting Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who has also met with Israeli leaders and paid his respects at the grave of Shimon Peres.“We reiterate here that peace is our strategic goal and is in the interest of all parties,” Abbas said at a joint press conference, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.“The key to peace is in ending the Israeli occupation and in lifting the injustice faced by our people so that the two states, Palestine and Israel, can live in security, stability, peace and good neighborly relations,” he added.Abbas said he was ready for a two-state solution based on the Arab Peace Initiative and on United Nations resolutions. He also voiced support for an international peace conference proposed by France and due to be held before the end of the year.The peace process between Israel and the Palestinians has been dormant since the collapse of a US-led initiative in April 2014.Abbas added that recent decisions by UNESCO pertaining to Jerusalem were aimed at protecting the global human heritage and condemning Israel’s attempts to change the character and identity of Arab East Jerusalem.He asserted that Israeli claims confusing religion with heritage were inappropriate.“I want to emphasis here our respect for Judaism,” he said. “We have always called for keeping Jerusalem open for worship to followers of the three monotheistic religions – Christianity, Judaism and Islam.”“What we condemn is the Israeli violations and settler attacks against our people and their holy places,” he said.The United Nations’ cultural body passed two resolutions, a week apart, in which it referred 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.” It also accused Israel of various violations at the holy site.After the second resolution passed on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recalled Israeli Ambassador to UNESCO Carmel Shama-Hacohen to protest the fact that the resolutions ignore Jewish and Christian ties to Jerusalem’s holy sites.
East Jerusalem man indicted for raping new mother in hospital-Hazim Rishq, 30, accused of sexually assaulting 2 other maternity patients in Jerusalem, while impersonating doctor-By Times of Israel staff November 1, 2016, 5:41 pm
An East Jerusalem man was indicted on Tuesday for allegedly raping a maternity patient and sexually assaulting two others at a Jerusalem hospital last month, while impersonating a doctor.Hazim Rishq, 30, from Anata was also accused of stealing items valued at NIS 1,800 ($470) from a Jerusalem supermarket, as well as attempted theft from the hospital patients.According to the indictment, Rishq entered three maternity patients’ rooms at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in late October, presenting himself as a member of the hospital staff.He told one of the new mothers he needed to perform an “internal examination,” before proceeding to assault her, the indictment charged. Overall, Rishq was accused of raping one patient and sexually assaulting two others in the Jerusalem hospital maternity ward on October 22.Earlier in the day, Rishq robbed a Jerusalem grocery store, the legal documents said.Jerusalem prosecutors were seeking to keep Rishq in custody until the end of the proceedings.The hospital’s security officer reported the incident on October 22 to police who launched an investigation, ultimately leading to the man’s arrest.Contradicting the police, the hospital said at the time that the incident involved “an indecent act” and not rape. It said it was examining its security procedures to find out how the impostor managed to evade security and carry out the alleged attack.Stuart Winer contributed to this report.
Egypt uncovers plot to attack Israeli soccer coach-Extremist fans planned to harass Avram Grant, Ghana’s national team coach, during upcoming match in Alexandria-By Times of Israel staff November 1, 2016, 5:54 pm
The Egypt Football Association uncovered a plan by extremist local fans to attack Israeli soccer coach Avram Grant during a November 13 FIFA World Cup qualifier match between Egypt and Ghana.Angry fans sent messages to the Egyptian regulatory body, threatening to harm Ghana’s Israeli coach during the match in Alexandria, Ghanaian media reported Sunday, citing Egyptian sources.According to the Egypt Football Association, fans plotted to harass and abuse Grant from the time he arrived at the airport until he left the country. They also demanded that Egyptian authorities block the 61-year-old coach, who also has Polish citizenship, from entering the country.“They plan to hurt and chant at him, and they want him not to enter Egyptian territory because people don’t want him around,” a source at the Egypt Football Association told Ghanaian online portal “Sports Obama”.Grant has recently voiced concerns that Alexandria will not be a safe place to hold the match, and called for it to be relocated to another country.Despite Israel and Egypt having signed a peace deal in 1979, many Egyptians are hostile toward Israel and oppose normalization.In 2011, thousands of Egyptian protesters broke into the Israeli embassy in Cairo. Following intervention by US President Barack Obama, Egyptian commando forces evacuated six Israeli diplomats who had been trapped in a “safe room” inside the embassy.Grant is a veteran soccer coach, having trained many major Israeli teams in a career that started in 1972, when he was just 18 years old.Grant coached the Israeli national team for four consecutive years until he announced he was moving to England in October 2005.After a year as technical director at Portsmouth, he replaced Jose Mourinho as manager of Chelsea in July 2007. Despite finishing in second place in the Premier League and advancing to the finals of the UEFA Champions League and the League Cup, Grant was fired from Chelsea after one year.After serving in several positions in Portsmouth, West Ham United and Partisan Belgrade, Grant was appointed at the end of 2014 as the new manager of the Ghana national soccer team.Grant led Ghana to the finals of the Africa Cup of Nations in 2015, but Ivory Coast prevailed in a penalty shootout to win that title.
FBI finds no clear link between Trump and Russia — report-Bureau does believe Moscow hacked Democratic Party emails in attempt to undermine American democracy-By Times of Israel staff November 1, 2016, 5:34 pm
The FBI found no clear link between Donald Trump and Russia, despite allegations by an intelligence agent that Moscow groomed the Republican presidential nominee for years as an asset and a report that computer scientists uncovered a private line of communication between the Trump Organization and a Moscow bank owned by a Russian-Israeli businessman.The New York Times revealed Monday that despite several investigations over many weeks into ties between Trump and Russia, the FBI found no conclusive evidence connecting Moscow to the Republican presidential nominee.According to the report, FBI experts do believe that Russia was responsible for hacking the email accounts of senior Democrats and passing on the information to WikiLeaks, but that the motive was to interfere with the election in general, as opposed to trying to elect Trump.The bureau also rejected the claims of various news agencies that published details on Monday of the alleged close ties between Trump and Russia.According to Slate, the computer experts uncovered a direct communication line between a server registered to the Trump Organization on Fifth Avenue in New York and two servers registered to Russia’s Alfa Bank, founded and owned by Russian-Israeli businessman Mikhail Fridman.Alfa is the largest private commercial bank in Russia, and has deep ties to the government and Putin. It is not known what information was sent between the two servers, but the intensity of communication increased at key points in the election campaign.Shortly after a reporter from The New York Times met with a representative of Alfa in September to ask about the communication, the Trump domain stopped working. However, four days later the Trump Organization reportedly created a new host name and once again began communicating with the two servers in Russia, Slate reported.Both Alfa Bank and the Trump Organization denied there has been any secret communication between the two.Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks told Slate: “To be clear, the Trump Organization is not sending or receiving any communications from this email server. The Trump Organization has no communication or relationship with this entity or any Russian entity.”The FBI, after investigating, accepted that there may be other explanations for the exchange of information between the servers and that there was no proven direct communication.But perhaps more significantly, the Mother Jones website reported Monday that Trump himself was cultivated as an asset by Russia. A former senior intelligence officer claimed that he contacted the FBI in early July to warn them of the influence Putin had over Trump.In his first memo, reviewed by Mother Jones, the agent wrote that the “Russian regime has been cultivating, supporting and assisting TRUMP for at least 5 years. Aim, endorsed by PUTIN, has been to encourage splits and divisions in western alliance.” The memo also claimed that Trump “and his inner circle have accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin, including on his Democratic and other political rivals.”The memo stated that Trump had been “compromised” by Russian intelligence on his visits to Moscow, making him susceptible to blackmail.In August, the FBI reportedly asked the agent for all his information and sources. The agent told Mother Jones that “it’s quite clear there was or is a pretty substantial inquiry going on.”The Times said that FBI officials declined to comment on the matter. But in the past six weeks, the bureau opened a broad investigation into ties between Moscow and the Republican Party. The officials stressed that Trump himself has not been the focus of the investigation, and, according to the Times, there is no evidence linking him or anyone in his inner circle directly to the Kremlin.Trump has repeatedly denied any connection to Putin. However, he has often praised the Russian leader, and even encouraged the Russians to hack into Clinton’s servers.“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said at a press conference in July. “I think you’ll be rewarded mightily by our press!”The area where the bureau does see Russia’s hand is in the hacking of the Democratic Party emails, which were then passed on to WikiLeaks.But while the Clinton campaign has charged that the Kremlin is trying to tilt the election in favor of Donald Trump, the FBI claims that the hacking is intended to undermine America’s democracy and its standing in the world.“It isn’t about the election,” a senior intelligence official told the New York Times, discussing Russia’s goal. “It’s about a threat to democracy.”The Obama administration delayed formally blaming the hacking on Russia for weeks because of sensitive negotiations about the Syrian ceasefire that were taking place with Moscow, according to people familiar with the investigation. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the hackings, which were investigated as counterintelligence cases.Even hawkish officials within the Justice Department who were urging an announcement blaming Russia did not object to waiting for those negotiations to conclude. When the Syria talks collapsed in failure, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Homeland Security Department released a joint statement accusing Russia of the hacking.NBC also reported on Monday that the FBI was conducting a preliminary investigation into Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and his business dealings with Russia. Manafort denied any knowledge of the investigation and denied any connections to Russia’s Vladimir Putin.The Associated Press and AFP contributed to this report.
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
Holy plea-Trump sends handwritten note for Western Wall-Candidate asks, ‘Lord. May you bless the United States, our armed forces and our allies’-By JTA and Times of Israel staff October 30, 2016, 10:57 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump wrote a note to be placed in the Western Wall.The note, which was handwritten, was given to one of Trump’s advisers to be delivered to the wall.The note, which was photographed by Trump’s staff and sent to the Israeli Hebrew-language daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, reads:”Lord. May you bless the United States, our armed forces and our allies. May your guiding hand protect and strengthen our great nation.”According to Ynet, Trump wrote the note following a conversation with his daughter, Ivanka, who is Jewish.Worshipers traditionally push notes into the crevices of the Western Wall, a former holding wall for the Second Temple and the last part of the Temple that still stands. The Temple Mount is Judaism’s holiest spot.
Original limestone bed’ on which Jesus was buried said uncovered-Research team claims extraordinary discovery was made as they completed first work in centuries in cave revered as Jesus’s tomb at Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre-By Ilan Ben Zion October 31, 2016, 2:35 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Conservationists working at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem claim to have found the original limestone bed on which Jesus was laid to rest.The dramatic discovery was reported by National Geographic, which has been partnering with a team of experts working at the church, the holiest place in Christendom as the traditional site of Jesus’s crucifixion and burial.Restoration work at the church has been ongoing since the spring, but from last Wednesday to Saturday, researchers from the National Technical University of Athens, leading a team of dozens of workers, were allowed by the various church authorities to do 60 hours of work in what is traditionally believed to be Jesus’s tomb.They removed the marble slab that has sat atop the tomb for centuries, and worked feverishly to expose what lay beneath.“When the marble cladding was first removed on the night of October 26, an initial inspection… showed only a layer of fill material underneath,” National Geographic reported. “However, as researchers continued their non-stop work over the course of 60 hours, another marble slab with a cross carved into its surface was exposed. By Friday night, just hours before the tomb was to be re-sealed, the original limestone burial bed was revealed intact.”Martin Biddle, an expert on the history of the tomb, said scholars would now have to carefully examine the data that was collected when the burial bed and cave walls were exposed to definitively establish a connection to Jesus. “The surfaces of the rock must be looked at with the greatest care, I mean minutely, for traces of graffiti,” Biddle told National Geographic. “Why did [the 4th century historian] Bishop Eusebius identify this tomb as the tomb of Christ? He doesn’t say, and we don’t know,” said Biddle. “I don’t myself think Eusebius got it wrong — he was a very good scholar — so there probably is evidence if only it is looked for.”The Greek team, which has now resealed the chamber, has said it collected considerable documentation at the site, and does indeed intend to conduct extensive tests on what it found there.The Greek team entered the revered spot last week as part of the project to renovate and preserve the 18th century Edicule, or small building, which contains the ancient tomb.Historians long believed the original remnants of the tomb had been destroyed over the centuries. The original church that sat atop the traditional site of Jesus’s burial was demolished in 1009, nearly a century before the commencement of the First Crusade in 1099.The Fatimid caliph of Egypt ordered the governor of Ramle to destroy the church, and a Christian chronicler from Antioch wrote that the Arabs “attempted to remove the Holy Sepulchre and to cause all trace of it to disappear… [and] broke and demolished the greater part of it.”But to what the archaeologists said was their surprise, they established that remnants of the cave survived.Moving aside the top marble slab above the tomb on Wednesday for the first time since the Edicule was built, they found a second slab, gray and featuring a small etching of a cross, said to date to the 12th century, the Associated Press’s Daniel Estrin reported on Thursday.After removing the gray marble slab, they exposed part of the cave wall.“This is the Holy Rock that has been revered for centuries, but only now can actually be seen,” Antonia Moropoulou, head of the conservation and restoration project, told the magazine.“I’m absolutely amazed. My knees are shaking a little bit because I wasn’t expecting this,” added Fredrik Hiebert, National Geographic’s archaeologist-in-residence. “We can’t say 100 percent, but it appears to be visible proof that the location of the tomb has not shifted through time, something that scientists and historians have wondered for decades.”The magazine noted that while it was impossible to establish with certainty whether the rock-hewn tomb was the burial site of Jesus, the discovery of at least six other rock-cut tombs around the church point to the area being a Jewish cemetery during the late Second Temple period — the time when Jesus the Jew from Nazareth lived.Dan Bahat, former city archaeologist of Jerusalem, told National Geographic: “We may not be absolutely certain that the site of the Holy Sepulchre Church is the site of Jesus burial, but we certainly have no other site that can lay a claim nearly as weighty, and we really have no reason to reject the authenticity of the site.”The restoration team has installed a window to showcase part of the area exposed by the researchers so that visitors can see into the limestone cave.————————–Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.Follow Ilan Ben Zion on Twitter and Facebook.
Peace ‘a strategic goal’ of Palestinians, says Abbas-Palestinian leader ‘wants to emphasize respect for Judaism,’ backs keeping Jerusalem open to all monotheistic faiths-By Times of Israel staff November 1, 2016, 5:25 pm
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday that peace is a strategic goal of the Palestinians, who are committed to a two-state solution.Abbas was speaking in the West Bank town of Bethlehem where he was meeting visiting Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who has also met with Israeli leaders and paid his respects at the grave of Shimon Peres.“We reiterate here that peace is our strategic goal and is in the interest of all parties,” Abbas said at a joint press conference, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.“The key to peace is in ending the Israeli occupation and in lifting the injustice faced by our people so that the two states, Palestine and Israel, can live in security, stability, peace and good neighborly relations,” he added.Abbas said he was ready for a two-state solution based on the Arab Peace Initiative and on United Nations resolutions. He also voiced support for an international peace conference proposed by France and due to be held before the end of the year.The peace process between Israel and the Palestinians has been dormant since the collapse of a US-led initiative in April 2014.Abbas added that recent decisions by UNESCO pertaining to Jerusalem were aimed at protecting the global human heritage and condemning Israel’s attempts to change the character and identity of Arab East Jerusalem.He asserted that Israeli claims confusing religion with heritage were inappropriate.“I want to emphasis here our respect for Judaism,” he said. “We have always called for keeping Jerusalem open for worship to followers of the three monotheistic religions – Christianity, Judaism and Islam.”“What we condemn is the Israeli violations and settler attacks against our people and their holy places,” he said.The United Nations’ cultural body passed two resolutions, a week apart, in which it referred 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.” It also accused Israel of various violations at the holy site.After the second resolution passed on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recalled Israeli Ambassador to UNESCO Carmel Shama-Hacohen to protest the fact that the resolutions ignore Jewish and Christian ties to Jerusalem’s holy sites.
East Jerusalem man indicted for raping new mother in hospital-Hazim Rishq, 30, accused of sexually assaulting 2 other maternity patients in Jerusalem, while impersonating doctor-By Times of Israel staff November 1, 2016, 5:41 pm
An East Jerusalem man was indicted on Tuesday for allegedly raping a maternity patient and sexually assaulting two others at a Jerusalem hospital last month, while impersonating a doctor.Hazim Rishq, 30, from Anata was also accused of stealing items valued at NIS 1,800 ($470) from a Jerusalem supermarket, as well as attempted theft from the hospital patients.According to the indictment, Rishq entered three maternity patients’ rooms at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in late October, presenting himself as a member of the hospital staff.He told one of the new mothers he needed to perform an “internal examination,” before proceeding to assault her, the indictment charged. Overall, Rishq was accused of raping one patient and sexually assaulting two others in the Jerusalem hospital maternity ward on October 22.Earlier in the day, Rishq robbed a Jerusalem grocery store, the legal documents said.Jerusalem prosecutors were seeking to keep Rishq in custody until the end of the proceedings.The hospital’s security officer reported the incident on October 22 to police who launched an investigation, ultimately leading to the man’s arrest.Contradicting the police, the hospital said at the time that the incident involved “an indecent act” and not rape. It said it was examining its security procedures to find out how the impostor managed to evade security and carry out the alleged attack.Stuart Winer contributed to this report.
Egypt uncovers plot to attack Israeli soccer coach-Extremist fans planned to harass Avram Grant, Ghana’s national team coach, during upcoming match in Alexandria-By Times of Israel staff November 1, 2016, 5:54 pm
The Egypt Football Association uncovered a plan by extremist local fans to attack Israeli soccer coach Avram Grant during a November 13 FIFA World Cup qualifier match between Egypt and Ghana.Angry fans sent messages to the Egyptian regulatory body, threatening to harm Ghana’s Israeli coach during the match in Alexandria, Ghanaian media reported Sunday, citing Egyptian sources.According to the Egypt Football Association, fans plotted to harass and abuse Grant from the time he arrived at the airport until he left the country. They also demanded that Egyptian authorities block the 61-year-old coach, who also has Polish citizenship, from entering the country.“They plan to hurt and chant at him, and they want him not to enter Egyptian territory because people don’t want him around,” a source at the Egypt Football Association told Ghanaian online portal “Sports Obama”.Grant has recently voiced concerns that Alexandria will not be a safe place to hold the match, and called for it to be relocated to another country.Despite Israel and Egypt having signed a peace deal in 1979, many Egyptians are hostile toward Israel and oppose normalization.In 2011, thousands of Egyptian protesters broke into the Israeli embassy in Cairo. Following intervention by US President Barack Obama, Egyptian commando forces evacuated six Israeli diplomats who had been trapped in a “safe room” inside the embassy.Grant is a veteran soccer coach, having trained many major Israeli teams in a career that started in 1972, when he was just 18 years old.Grant coached the Israeli national team for four consecutive years until he announced he was moving to England in October 2005.After a year as technical director at Portsmouth, he replaced Jose Mourinho as manager of Chelsea in July 2007. Despite finishing in second place in the Premier League and advancing to the finals of the UEFA Champions League and the League Cup, Grant was fired from Chelsea after one year.After serving in several positions in Portsmouth, West Ham United and Partisan Belgrade, Grant was appointed at the end of 2014 as the new manager of the Ghana national soccer team.Grant led Ghana to the finals of the Africa Cup of Nations in 2015, but Ivory Coast prevailed in a penalty shootout to win that title.
FBI finds no clear link between Trump and Russia — report-Bureau does believe Moscow hacked Democratic Party emails in attempt to undermine American democracy-By Times of Israel staff November 1, 2016, 5:34 pm
The FBI found no clear link between Donald Trump and Russia, despite allegations by an intelligence agent that Moscow groomed the Republican presidential nominee for years as an asset and a report that computer scientists uncovered a private line of communication between the Trump Organization and a Moscow bank owned by a Russian-Israeli businessman.The New York Times revealed Monday that despite several investigations over many weeks into ties between Trump and Russia, the FBI found no conclusive evidence connecting Moscow to the Republican presidential nominee.According to the report, FBI experts do believe that Russia was responsible for hacking the email accounts of senior Democrats and passing on the information to WikiLeaks, but that the motive was to interfere with the election in general, as opposed to trying to elect Trump.The bureau also rejected the claims of various news agencies that published details on Monday of the alleged close ties between Trump and Russia.According to Slate, the computer experts uncovered a direct communication line between a server registered to the Trump Organization on Fifth Avenue in New York and two servers registered to Russia’s Alfa Bank, founded and owned by Russian-Israeli businessman Mikhail Fridman.Alfa is the largest private commercial bank in Russia, and has deep ties to the government and Putin. It is not known what information was sent between the two servers, but the intensity of communication increased at key points in the election campaign.Shortly after a reporter from The New York Times met with a representative of Alfa in September to ask about the communication, the Trump domain stopped working. However, four days later the Trump Organization reportedly created a new host name and once again began communicating with the two servers in Russia, Slate reported.Both Alfa Bank and the Trump Organization denied there has been any secret communication between the two.Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks told Slate: “To be clear, the Trump Organization is not sending or receiving any communications from this email server. The Trump Organization has no communication or relationship with this entity or any Russian entity.”The FBI, after investigating, accepted that there may be other explanations for the exchange of information between the servers and that there was no proven direct communication.But perhaps more significantly, the Mother Jones website reported Monday that Trump himself was cultivated as an asset by Russia. A former senior intelligence officer claimed that he contacted the FBI in early July to warn them of the influence Putin had over Trump.In his first memo, reviewed by Mother Jones, the agent wrote that the “Russian regime has been cultivating, supporting and assisting TRUMP for at least 5 years. Aim, endorsed by PUTIN, has been to encourage splits and divisions in western alliance.” The memo also claimed that Trump “and his inner circle have accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin, including on his Democratic and other political rivals.”The memo stated that Trump had been “compromised” by Russian intelligence on his visits to Moscow, making him susceptible to blackmail.In August, the FBI reportedly asked the agent for all his information and sources. The agent told Mother Jones that “it’s quite clear there was or is a pretty substantial inquiry going on.”The Times said that FBI officials declined to comment on the matter. But in the past six weeks, the bureau opened a broad investigation into ties between Moscow and the Republican Party. The officials stressed that Trump himself has not been the focus of the investigation, and, according to the Times, there is no evidence linking him or anyone in his inner circle directly to the Kremlin.Trump has repeatedly denied any connection to Putin. However, he has often praised the Russian leader, and even encouraged the Russians to hack into Clinton’s servers.“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said at a press conference in July. “I think you’ll be rewarded mightily by our press!”The area where the bureau does see Russia’s hand is in the hacking of the Democratic Party emails, which were then passed on to WikiLeaks.But while the Clinton campaign has charged that the Kremlin is trying to tilt the election in favor of Donald Trump, the FBI claims that the hacking is intended to undermine America’s democracy and its standing in the world.“It isn’t about the election,” a senior intelligence official told the New York Times, discussing Russia’s goal. “It’s about a threat to democracy.”The Obama administration delayed formally blaming the hacking on Russia for weeks because of sensitive negotiations about the Syrian ceasefire that were taking place with Moscow, according to people familiar with the investigation. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the hackings, which were investigated as counterintelligence cases.Even hawkish officials within the Justice Department who were urging an announcement blaming Russia did not object to waiting for those negotiations to conclude. When the Syria talks collapsed in failure, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Homeland Security Department released a joint statement accusing Russia of the hacking.NBC also reported on Monday that the FBI was conducting a preliminary investigation into Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and his business dealings with Russia. Manafort denied any knowledge of the investigation and denied any connections to Russia’s Vladimir Putin.The Associated Press and AFP contributed to this report.
