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
GOOD LUCK TRUMP IF YOU THINK YOU CAN GO BACK ON YOUR PROMISE TO MOVE AMERICAS EMBASSY TO JERUSALEM. YOU THINK YOU GOT TROUBLE WITH THE LIBERAL-DEMOCRAT NUTCASES. IF YOU LIE TO THE CHRISTIANS. YOU JUST LOST THE MOST LOYAL ISRAEL SUPPORTERS. AND PHARES BETTER SHUT HIS MOUTH. BECAUSE AMERICA BETTER MOVE THE EMBASSY TO JERUSALEM. TO SAY ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM WILL NEVER BE DIVIDED AGAIN.WHY WOULD TRUMP HAVE A SENIOR ADVISER MUSLIM ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS ANYWAY IS MY QUESTION.AND WHILE YOUR AT IT TRUMP.TELL PHARES TO GET 2 NUKES READY ON JANUARY 21,17. BECAUSE ISIS IS GONNA GO TO HELL IN FIRE IMMEDIATELY. ONE ATOMIC WEAPON ON RAQQA. AND A 2ND ATOMIC WEAPON ON MOSUL.
Adviser says Trump won’t rip up Iran deal, signals he may not move embassy-Appearing to walk back statements made by president-elect and other advisers, Walid Phares says nuclear pact will be ‘renegotiated,’ US mission will only be moved to Jerusalem under ‘consensus,’ brokering Israeli-Palestinian peace deal will be top priority-By Joshua Davidovich and Times of Israel staff November 11, 2016, 3:41 am
A senior adviser to President-elect Donald Trump said the new US leader will “review” the Iran nuclear agreement, but will stop short of ripping up the landmark international pact.Walid Phares, one of Trump’s top foreign policy advisers, also signaled that Trump might not move the US Embassy to Jerusalem immediately and indicated he would make negotiating an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal a priority right off the bat.The comments appeared to represent a break with some comments made by other Trump advisers and the president-elect himself, and highlighted persisting confusion over what the contours of a Trump administration’s foreign policy may look like.Speaking to BBC Radio on Thursday, Phares said the nuclear deal, which Trump has railed against and vowed to dismantle, would instead be renegotiated with Tehran.“Ripping up is maybe a too strong of word, he’s gonna take that agreement, it’s been done before in international context, and then review it,” he said, according to a CNN recording of the interview.“He will take the agreement, review it, send it to Congress, demand from the Iranians to restore a few issues or change a few issues, and there will be a discussion,” Phares added. “It could be a tense discussion but the agreement as is right now — $750 billion to the Iranian regime without receiving much in return and increasing intervention in four countries — that is not going to be accepted by the Trump administration.”During the election campaign, Trump described the nuclear deal as “disastrous” and said it would be his “number one priority” to dismantle it.Yet he also sowed confusion when he said he would demand greater oversight over the deal and enforce it, at a speech to the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC in March. In that same speech, he also said he would dismantle the deal.“We must enforce the terms of the previous deal to hold Iran totally accountable. And we will enforce it like you’ve never seen a contract enforced before, folks, believe me,” he said then.On Thursday, State Department spokesman Mark Toner warned that nothing was stopping Trump from tearing up the agreement, rebuffing comments from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani that the pact was enshrined by the United Nations Security Council and could therefore not be canceled by one party.The agreement, reached in July 2014 to thwart suspected work toward an atomic weapon, requires Iran to curb its nuclear enrichment activities in exchange for sanctions relief.Israel was and remains the world’s leading critic of the deal, calling it a “historic mistake” and arguing that it falls woefully short of preventing Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons.Toner said if Trump pulls out of the agreement, it could fall apart and lead to Iran restarting work toward a bomb.It’s not clear if Iran, which remains deeply distrustful of the United States and has complained of receiving a raw deal under the nuclear pact, would be open to renegotiating the agreement, the hard-fought result of years of intensive diplomatic activity.-Will move embassy ‘under consensus’-Phares also told the BBC that while Trump was committed to moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as other presidential candidates have vowed, he would not do so unilaterally.“Many presidents of the United States have committed to do that, and he said as well that he will do that, but he will do it under consensus,” Phares said.Phares did not elaborate on what consensus would be sought for such a move, which would break with decades of precedent and put Washington at odds with nearly all United Nations member states.A number of Israeli politicians, including Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, have seized on Trump’s victory by asking him to make good on his promises to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital and move the embassy there, breaking with long-standing US policy to await a final status agreement on the city.During the campaign, Trump called Jerusalem “the eternal capital” of Israel and said he was “100 percent for” moving the embassy there.Earlier Thursday, Trump Israel adviser Jason Dov Greenblatt told Israel’s Army Radio that the president-elect would make good on his promise.“I think if he said it, he’s going to do it,” Greenblatt said. “He is different for Israel than any recent president there has been, and I think he’s a man who keeps his word. He recognizes the historical significance of the Jewish people to Jerusalem, unlike, say, UNESCO.”Congress passed a law in 1995 mandating the move of the embassy to Jerusalem, but allowed the president a waiver. Each president since then has routinely exercised the waiver, citing the national security interests of the United States, despite repeated campaign promises.Phares also indicated efforts for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal would be a top agenda item for Trump, casting doubt on a claim by Greenblatt that Trump would not necessarily prioritize trying to push the Israelis and Palestinians into peace negotiations.“He is ready and he will immediately move to try and solve the problem between Palestinian and Israelis,” Phares said. “He told me personally that, as the author of ‘The Art of the Deal,’ it’s not going to be impossible for him to broker a deal between the Israelis and Palestinians. At least he’s going to go in that direction and not waste eight years — four years for now — not doing something for the Palestinians and Israelis.”On Wednesday, Greenblatt told The Times of Israel that Trump would only prioritize solving the conflict if that’s what the sides wanted him to do.“He will make it a priority if the Israelis and Palestinians want to make it a priority,” Greenblatt said. “He’s not going to force peace upon them, it will have to come from them.”The gap in signals coming out of Trump’s camp is consistent with frustration some have pointed to in trying to demystify what Trump’s foreign policy will be.In comments published in German weekly Der Spiegel Thursday, Germany Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said it was urgent for the incoming US administration to set out its positions quickly since “very many questions are open” on its foreign policy.Steinmeier said he had spoken several times with former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger about what President-elect Donald Trump’s foreign policies might look like. But Steinmeier said even Kissinger had no insights to offer.“Many have already tried to read a foreign policy doctrine, or at least clear and coherent positions, out of Donald Trump’s comments. Without much success,” Steinmeier said.In Israel, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported Thursday that Israeli officials were viewing Trump as “a puzzle,” without a clear sense of whether he will match his words with actions or how he will manage ties with Jerusalem.Others close to the Israeli government, though, said the new US president will fall closer in line with their views than the current administration.Tzachi Hanegbi, a minister-without-portfolio who is a close confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Thursday that the Iran nuclear deal and construction over the Green Line — the two most contentious topics between the Obama administration and Netanyahu — will no longer be a source of tension between Israel and the United States under a Trump presidency.“On both of these issues, our view was much different than Obama’s, while it is likely much more similar to that of Trump,” Hanegbi told Army Radio.The Associated Press contributed to this report
Melania Trump promises Sara Netanyahu ‘wonderful relations between our countries, families’-In phone call publicized by PM, the two wives also discuss ‘challenge of raising children under spotlight that accompanies their fathers’-By Times of Israel staff November 12, 2016, 8:10 pm
Melania Trump told Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Israel’s prime minister, on Saturday that relations between the US and Israel, and between their two families, “will be wonderful,” and that she and President-elect Donald Trump are looking forward to hosting them in the United States “at the first opportunity.”Detailing the conversation in a Facebook post on Saturday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the evening’s phone conversation between the two wives as “heartfelt and warm.”“Mrs. Trump said that she looks forward to our visit at the first opportunity and that there will be wonderful relations between our countries and our families,” Netanyahu said.He wrote that Melania and Sara also “discussed the great challenge of raising children under the spotlight that accompanies their fathers who were elected as world leaders. Additionally, they discussed the great importance of emphasizing family time as part of their role as mothers in order to enable their children to grow up in a normal way like all their friends.”Sara Netanyahu and Melania Trump could find that they have much in common, as the wives of prominent and often divisive leaders who are themselves figures of controversy. Melania Trump made headlines during the campaign for plagiarizing parts of a speech by First Lady Michelle Obama, for having posed nude in her previous modeling career, and as she defended her husband against allegations relating to his treatment of women.Sara Netanyahu has faced court battles over the treatment of employees, and is at the center of an ongoing row about her professed intervention in her husband’s running of the country. A TV documentary on her controversial role last week prompted a response so bitter and lengthy from Netanyahu as to overshadow the documentary itself and prompt allegations that he was inciting against the media.On Friday, Trump told the Wall Street Journal that he hopes to orchestrate “the ultimate deal” between Israel and the Palestinians that would resolve “the war that never ends.” Days after winning the US presidential election, the Republican victor said that “as a deal maker, I’d like to do… the deal that can’t be made. And do it for humanity’s sake.”The telephone conversation between the two wives came three days after Trump spoke with Netanyahu and invited the Israeli leader to Washington at the “first opportunity.”Trump and Netanyahu, “who have known each other for many years, had a warm, heartfelt conversation,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.Netanyahu responded by saying that he and his wife Sara were looking forward to meeting Trump and Melania.Earlier on Wednesday, Netanyahu congratulated Trump on his election victory, saying the Republican is “a true friend of the State of Israel.”“We will work together to advance security, stability and peace in our region,” Netanyahu said in a statement.“The bond between the US and Israel is based on shared values, shared interests and a shared future. I am sure that President-elect Trump and I will continue to strengthen the special alliance between Israel and the US and we will bring them to new heights,” he added.Later Wednesday, Netanyahu released a video congratulating Trump.Netanyahu met with both Trump and rival Hillary Clinton in New York in September, but refrained from expressing support for a particular candidate. Following the September meetings, the prime minister said “it doesn’t matter which of them will be elected, US support of Israel will remain strong, our pact will remain strong and will even get stronger in the coming years.”The prime minister’s statement on Wednesday came on the heels of statements expressing a mix of optimism and wariness by Israeli politicians, many of whom joined Netanyahu in stressing the continued strengthening of the US-Israel ties.President Reuven Rivlin congratulated Trump on his victory, which he said demonstrated that the US is the “greatest democracy.”“There are many challenges that lie before you as president — at home and around the world. Israel, your greatest ally, stands by you as your friend and partner in turning those challenges into opportunities,” he said in a statement.
Trump can dismantle Iran deal if he wants, US official says-State Department disputes Iranian contention that pact can’t be nixed, warns Tehran will start building bomb if new president scraps agreement as promised-By AFP November 11, 2016, 1:22 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
WASHINGTON — The Iran nuclear deal would fall apart if a US administration walked away from it, as President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to do, the State Department said Thursday.Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani had argued on Wednesday that the deal — which saw world powers lift sanctions on Tehran in return for controls on its nuclear program — has been enshrined in international law.The outgoing US administration is proud of the agreement and has no intention of dropping it, but Trump said several times during his campaign that moving away from it will be a priority once he takes power in January.“Any party — and I’m speaking very hypothetically here, because I don’t want in any way to attempt to hypothesize about what the incoming administration’s going to do — I’m just talking purely about an agreement that any party can walk away from,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.“And that will have profound consequences on the integrity of the agreement.”Toner said that the Iran deal was not a legally binding treaty, but that the current US administration believes it is in Washington’s interest to continue it.Asked whether if the US withdraws support for the deal whether Iran might start building a nuclear weapons program, Toner said: “Yes. That’s the reality of the situation.”“This is why we believe it to be in everyone’s interest, including the world’s interest, that if Iran abides by this agreement, and all the parties abide by the agreement, then we have shut-off Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon,” he said.During the election campaign, Trump described the deal as “disastrous” and said it would be his “number one priority” to dismantle it.But he also seemed to indicate that he would push for stricter oversight under the deal, leading to some confusion over his actual stance.“We must enforce the terms of the previous deal to hold Iran totally accountable. And we will enforce it like you’ve never seen a contract enforced before, folks, believe me,” Trump told the pro-Israel group AIPAC on March 21.On Wednesday, Rouhani said the nuclear deal, brokered between Tehran and six world powers after years of intense diplomatic efforts, could not be dismantled by any one country.“Iran’s understanding in the nuclear deal was that the accord was not concluded with one country or government but was approved by a resolution of the UN Security Council and there is no possibility that it can be changed by a single government.”After the deal came into force in January, Iran reduced by two-thirds the number of its uranium enrichment centrifuges, slashed its uranium stockpile and removed the core of the Arak reactor.Officials in Israel lobbied furiously against the nuclear deal and have argued that it does not keep Iran from being able to build a nuclear weapon, as the US maintains.On Wednesday, the United Nations agency monitoring the pact said Iran had made a small but significant violation of the deal by storing marginally more heavy water than the agreement allows.Heavy water is a concern because it is used to cool reactors that can produce substantial amounts of plutonium. That, in turn, can be applied to making the fissile core of nuclear warheads.The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency said in a confidential report obtained by The Associated Press that Iran had exceeded the heavy water allotment of 130 metric tons (143.3 tons) only slightly — by 100 kilograms (220 pounds.) The report also noted that Iran had served notice it would resolve the issue by exporting 5 metric tons, substantially over the excess amount.Wednesday’s report said the agency verified the overhang on Tuesday, just days after IAEA chief Yukiya Amano “expressed concerns” to top Iranian officials.With both sides closely watching for violations, the breach was sensitive even beyond the technical uses of heavy water, especially since it was the second such breach since implementation of the deal curbing Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.Times of Israel staff and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Trump aides said to warn Obama against 11th hour ‘new adventures’ on Palestinian issue-Outgoing administration urged to not ‘even think about’ pushing policies in its final weeks that are at odds with those of the president-elect, Politico reports-By Times of Israel staff and AFP November 12, 2016, 8:57 pm
Aides to US president-elect Donald Trump are reportedly warning President Barack Obama not to “even think about” trying to make a new push for progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the final weeks of his administration.The outgoing president and his team “shouldn’t go seeking new adventures or pushing through policies that clearly don’t match Trump’s positions,” the Politico website reported an unnamed Trump “national security adviser” as insisting.And that includes “efforts to bring peace to the Israelis and Palestinians — even if those initiatives are symbolic at best,” Politico wrote, noting that Trump “has made it very clear he will support Israel and its preferences.”The Thursday report, which was headlined “Trump team warns Obama not to make major moves on foreign policy,” quoted Obama administration officials wondering about how much influence they could have on the incoming president and his team. “We are asking ourselves: Are we going to be able to have some influence on the transition team or not? There is so much unknown. Nobody really knows these people,” a State Department official was quoted as saying. “I’m not sure I need to feel defensive about what we are working on, but I think it’s important to explain it, and explain options, and to be willing to explore alternatives.”Israeli leaders have frequently expressed concern that Obama, who has clashed repeatedly with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Palestinian issue, might support a UN resolution or push an initiative of his own that could discomfit the right-wing Israeli governing coalition.In an apparent message to Obama at last Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said he expects the “United States will remain true to its commitment for many years that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only be resolved through direct negotiations without pre-conditions, and of course not through decisions by the United Nations of other international bodies.”On the day after Trump’s victory, US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro declined to say whether the shock result increased the likelihood of the outgoing administration backing a Palestine-related resolution at the United Nations Security Council. “The president will, as he has been for many months, look for any way he and we as an administration might be able to advance our goal of making progress toward a two-state solution,” Shapiro said. Currently, “some disturbing trends on the ground” are pulling both Israelis and Palestinians in the opposite direction. “And so, any initiative that [Obama] might consider in these final months in office would be based on that motivation.”On Friday, Trump said he hopes to orchestrate “the ultimate deal” between Israel and the Palestinians that would resolve “the war that never ends.”The president-elect said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that “as a deal maker, I’d like to do… the deal that can’t be made. And do it for humanity’s sake.”Trump’s Friday comments on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict came quick on the heels of a message published in Israel Hayom in which the president-elect hailed the Jewish state as a “beacon of hope to countless people.”“Israel and America share so many of the same values, such as freedom of speech, freedom of worship and the importance of creating opportunities for all citizens to pursue their dreams,” Trump said in the message published by the Israel Hayom newspaper.“Israel is the one true democracy and defender of human rights in the Middle East and a beacon of hope to countless people.”He added that he hoped his administration would play a “significant role in helping the parties to achieve a just, lasting peace,” saying that any deal would have to be directly negotiated between the two sides.France is currently pushing for an international conference to discuss peace in the Middle East, but Israel says any talks should be bilateral ones between the two sides.The Palestinians have called for international involvement, accusing Israel of reneging on past agreements.Netanyahu was among the first leaders Trump spoke to after his election victory.Israeli right-wingers have hailed Trump’s win as an opportunity to consolidate control over the West Bank.Meir Turgeman, chairman of the Jerusalem municipality planning committee, told Israel Radio that it provided a green light to revive suspended permits for Israeli construction in East Jerusalem.He said the municipality intended to authorize thousands of housing units that had been frozen.Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who heads the Jewish Home party, said on Wednesday that the US election result meant the idea of a Palestinian state was over.
Racially-charged incidents persist at US universities after Trump win-University of Oklahoma student temporarily suspended over ‘violent, racist’ chat; police investigating threat against Muslim student in Michigan-By AP November 13, 2016, 12:54 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
PHILADELPHIA — A student at the University of Oklahoma has been temporarily suspended and police are investigating a threat against a Muslim student near the University of Michigan amid racially charged outbursts at schools and universities across the country following Donald Trump’s presidential election.The Associated Press and other local media outlets identified several reports of racist incidents at schools since Tuesday, including a group chat that the Oklahoma student got involved with aimed at black freshmen at the University of Pennsylvania, Trump’s alma mater.The chat contained “violent, racist and thoroughly disgusting images and messages,” and Penn is “appalled” its students were added to the GroupMe account,” UPenn President Amy Gutmann said. Gutmann said UPenn police have been working with the FBI. She earlier said officials had increased campus safety and were “reaching out to support the affected students.”University of Oklahoma President David Boren in a statement said the student has been temporarily suspended as the school investigates further.“It would appear this matter did not originate at the University of Oklahoma, but started elsewhere,” Boren said in a statement.In Ann Arbor, Michigan, police are looking into a report of a man who threatened to set a Muslim student on fire with a lighter if she didn’t remove her hijab on Friday. The incident apparently happened near the University of Michigan campus, according to Ann Arbor police Sgt. Patrick Maguire. He added that the department is “investigating it actively … and soliciting information from anyone who may have witnessed anything.”A crime alert issued by the university said the woman took off her hijab and left the area. Witnesses told police the man was white with an “unkempt appearance” and “intoxicated with slurred speech.”A racial backlash also unfolded after the election of Barack Obama, America’s first black president, in 2008. At the time, police documented alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts were delivered by adults, college students and even children.Anti-Trump protests have happened for several days in cities including Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago and New York.
Sweden neo-Nazis pummeled by fireworks, snowballs at rally-10 counter-demonstrators arrested after clashing with police; 2 people injured-By Agencies November 13, 2016, 3:02 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Swedish police said 10 people were detained as a Swedish right-wing extremist group marched through central Stockholm while counter-demonstrators threw snowballs and fireworks at them.Police spokesman Lars Bystrom said those detained were taken when counter-demonstrators briefly clashed with officers in the capital’s picturesque old city as they tried to reach the rally by the Nordic Resistance Movement.A few hundred people, some with the movement’s green and white flags, walked in crisp, freezing weather.Up to six times as many people staged a counter-demonstration nearby and some eventually broke out to try to block the right-wing group from crossing a bridge on their route. Large police forces, including mounted officers, kept the sides apart.Two people were injured in the clashes between police and the anti-fascists.Spokesman Lars Bystroem told TT news agency that a policeman was hit by a demonstrator, and a second individual was injured in circumstances that were unclear.The NMR, set up in 1997, promotes an openly racist and anti-Semitic doctrine, and press commentators had questioned the wisdom of authorizing Saturday’s rally, given the likelihood of violence.
France’s Le Pen predicts rise of ‘new world’ after Trump win-Leader of nationalist party, eyeing presidency, says French voters will join ‘revolution’ against globalization-By AFP November 13, 2016, 4:27 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
LONDON — Donald Trump’s US election victory heralds the “building of a new world,” France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen said Sunday in a BBC television interview that sparked immediate criticism in Britain.Le Pen described the Republican’s win as a “victory of the people against the elite” and said she hoped a similar outcome could be achieved in French presidential elections in May.“Clearly, Donald Trump’s victory is an additional stone in the building of a new world, destined to replace the old one,” she told the BBC’s flagship Sunday politics program, “The Andrew Marr Show.”Trump “made possible what had previously been presented as impossible,” she said, predicting that the “global revolution” that resulted in his election, as well as in the vote for Brexit, will also see her elected as president.Hailing the rise of “patriotic movements” in Europe, Le Pen drew parallels between the US vote, Britain’s June 23 decision to leave the European Union, and France’s rejection of the European constitution in 2005.“All the elections are essentially referendums against the unfettered globalization that has been imposed on us… and which today has clearly shown its limits,” she claimed.She said the French election would throw up the choice between a “multi-cultural society… where fundamental Islam is progressing” and an “independent nation, with people able to control their own destiny.”VIDEO Marine Le Pen @BBC : "Donald #Trump a rendu possible ce qui était présenté comme totalement impossible"@realDonaldTrump @MLP_officiel pic.twitter.com/Cp505H7ZLx— lesecret ن 🐬 (@fandetv) November 13, 2016-The interview sparked a backlash on social media as it fell on Remembrance Sunday, marking the contribution of British and Commonwealth forces during the two world wars.“Some people are offended and upset that I have been to interview Marine Le Pen and that we’re showing this interview on Remembrance Sunday,” said Marr, defending the decision to run the piece.“I understand that but… Le Pen could, under some circumstances, become the next French president… I don’t think that the best way to honor the fallen is to fail to report on the next big challenge to western security.”
PA threatens to make US ‘miserable’ if embassy moved to Jerusalem-Envoy to UN says Ramallah will use any diplomatic means at its disposal at world body if Trump fulfills promise to relocate mission from Tel Aviv-By Dov Lieber November 13, 2016, 4:31 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations threatened to exact revenge on the US at the world body should President-elect Donald Trump make good on his promise to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.Boasting that the Palestinians have a variety of tools at their disposal at the UN against the United States, Riyad Mansour said he could make the life of US diplomats “miserable” in retaliation for the move.“If they try to attack us by moving the embassy to Jerusalem, which is a violation of Security Council resolutions and a violation of Resolution 181… it means they are showing belligerency against us,” Mansour said at an event sponsored by the Jerusalem Fund Foundation in the US capital Friday.“Maybe I cannot have resolutions in the Security Council” — likely due to a US veto — “but I can make their lives miserable every day by precipitating a veto on my admission as a member state,” he said.“Nobody should blame us for unleashing all of the weapons that we have in the UN to defend ourselves, and we have a lot of weapons in the UN,” Mansour added.While on the campaign trail, Trump and his surrogates said Jerusalem was Israel’s undivided capital and vowed to move the embassy there from Tel Aviv — a promise made by many US presidential candidates but never made good on.Since winning the election, the president-elect has begun to signal a possible walking back of his stances on Israel.On Thursday, a Trump adviser said he would only move the embassy “under consensus,” and the next day Trump himself told the Wall Street Journal he would prioritize solving the Israeli Palestinian conflict, defying predictions that he would take a more hands-off approach than the current administration.Mansour also cast doubt on whether Trump would follow through with the measure, noting that other US presidential candidates had in the past promised to move the US embassy to Jerusalem but did not follow through.“What you do when you are campaigning is one thing, but when you have to deal with the legal thing it is something else,” he said.Congress passed a law in 1995 mandating the move of the embassy to Jerusalem, but allowed the president a waiver. Each president since then has routinely exercised the waiver, citing the national security interests of the United States, despite repeated campaign promises.Referring to measures against Israel in the UN that the Palestinians have reportedly held back at US President Barack Obama’s urging in order to keep a negotiated solution viable, Mansour indicated Ramallah would take a more hard-line approach.“You show belligerency against me, then I will do all the things that I can. I can have emergency meetings in the Security Council, I can reopen the whole Pandora’s box of the ruling of the International Court of Justice over the wall,” he said, referring to Israel’s security barrier.Mansour argued that he was working via legal means while the next US administration would be breaking international law by acting against a number of UN Security Council resolutions that declared Israel’s annexation of the East Jerusalem illegal.In November, Trump told Netanyahu that if elected, “a Trump administration would finally accept the longstanding Congressional mandate to recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the State of Israel.”During the campaign, Trump called Jerusalem “the eternal capital” of Israel and said he was “100 percent for” moving the embassy there.A number of Israeli politicians, including Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, have seized on Trump’s victory by asking him to fulfill his pledges, which would break with longstanding US policy of awaiting a final status agreement on the city.However, Walid Phares, one of Trump’s top foreign policy advisers, signaled on Thursday that Trump might not move the US Embassy to Jerusalem immediately.Phares told the BBC that while Trump was committed to moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as other presidential candidates have vowed, he would not do so unilaterally.“Many presidents of the United States have committed to do that, and he said as well that he will do that, but he will do it under consensus,” Phares said.Phares did not elaborate on what consensus would be sought for such a move, which would break with decades of precedent and put Washington at odds with nearly all United Nations member states.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Netanyahu backs bill to silence mosque prayer calls-Arab lawmakers say proposal to lower volume of muezzins is an attack on Muslim freedom of religion-By Stuart Winer and Raoul Wootliff November 13, 2016, 3:18 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he supports a bill to bar mosques from using loudspeaker systems for the Muslim call to prayer, and pointed to similar restrictions in European and even some Muslim countries as justification for the move.The prayer calls, traditionally announced through minarets five times a day and often amplified with loudspeakers, have been a frequent target of right-wing ire, with some claiming they are an unnecessarily loud nuisance that echoes in Jewish towns and neighborhoods.Arab lawmakers attacked the proposal as a hate-fueled assault on Muslim freedom of religion.Speaking ahead of a vote on the bill in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, the prime minister said that the blared prayer calls are a public nuisance that cuts across all religious denominations.“The Muslims, the Jews, and the Christian are all suffering from this,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many times people have approached me, from all walks of Israeli society, who are crying out about the suffering that is caused by excessive noise reaching them from prayer house announcements.”Legislative efforts to stymie the calls have always failed to garner large-scale support, though, and it’s unclear whether this newest bid will find more backing. The bill, penned by Jewish Home MK Moti Yogev, was set to be voted on by the committee in March but was removed from agenda hours before the scheduled meeting.“Israel is a country that respects freedom of religion for all,” Netanyahu continued. “Israel is committed to protect anyone who suffers from the excessively loud calls. That is the custom in many European cities. That is the custom also in various places in the Muslim world, where they limited the volume of the calls out of consideration for the general public.”Supporters of the bill say freedom of religion should take a backseat to quality of life in this case.Joint (Arab) List leader MK Aymen Odeh slammed the legislation, calling it “another bill, in a series of populist bills, whose objective is to create an atmosphere of hate and incitement against the Arab population.“There are noise laws and regulations that also apply to mosques, so it’s clear that the sole purpose of the bill is to mark the mosques as a problem source. It is a clear attack on Muslim freedom of religion and the continuation of a wave of persecution that the prime minister is leading.”His fellow party lawmaker Hanin Zoabi suggested that those who are bothered by the calls to prayer should find somewhere else to live.“Those who suffer from the sounds of the muezzins are specifically those who chose to settle near the the mosques, and… they are invited to leave if they are suffering so much,” she said. “This isn’t Europe here. Anyone who feels like he is in Europe, and thinks this is Europe, should consider going there.”Likud MKs Miki Zohar and Nurit Koren, Jewish Home MKs Bezalel Smotrich and Shuli Muallem-Refaeli, and Kulanu MK Merav Ben-Ari have also endorsed the legislation.The bill would aim to prevent both loud calls to prayer and “conveying religious or nationalist messages, or even words of incitement,” and seeks to ban sound systems at all houses of prayer in the country, not just mosques.“Hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens — in the Galilee, Negev, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv-Jaffa and other places in central Israel — suffer regularly and daily from the noise caused by the call of the muezzin from mosques,” reads the proposed legislation.“The noise made by these public calls disturbs the rest of the citizens several times a day, including in the early mornings and at nighttime,” it says.Some 20 percent of Israel’s population are Arab, most of them Muslim, making the calls to prayer a familiar sound in many parts of the country.The issue of muezzin loudspeakers have been a source of friction in areas where Jews and Arabs live in close quarters. In 2014, the Yisrael Beytenu party revived a proposal that would ban electronic amplification of the calls to prayer.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
At memorial, Netanyahu compares own peace efforts to Rabin’s-Prime minister says slain leader who signed landmark Oslo Accords ‘strove for peace’ yet ‘never took his eyes off the dangers we face’; hails ties with Trump-By Tamar Pileggi November 13, 2016, 6:04 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday hailed the legacy of slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, and likened the landmark 1995 peace deal Rabin brokered with the Palestinians to his own government’s efforts to renew deadlocked peace talks.Addressing the state memorial marking the 21st Hebrew anniversary of Rabin’s murder, Netanyahu noticeably avoided the partisan, political controversy surrounding the 1995 assassination, including claims his own rhetoric led to the murder, and instead focused the bulk of his remarks on the late prime minister’s “fierce” pursuit of peace and the global threat of Islamic extremism.“Rabin strove for peace, but he also recognized the unwillingness of many Palestinians to make peace,” Netanyahu said, adding that the late prime minister “never for a moment took his eyes off the dangers we face.”“He understood early on that security was the cornerstone of our existence, and often spoke of the threat of radical Islam faced by Israel and the rest of the free world,” Netanyahu said. “Today we still face that same threat, but it is even greater now than during Rabin’s time.”Despite these regional threats, Netanyahu said Rabin “fiercely” continued to extend his hand in peace.“I have also extended my hand in peace, but time after time the Palestinians refuse to engage in peace talks or recognize a Jewish state within any borders,” he said.During the speech, Rabin’s daughter Dalia Rabin could be seen openly rolling her eyes.The 1995 Oslo Accords, signed by Rabin’s government and seen as a major steppingstone toward an eventual peace deal, created the Palestinian Authority, for the first time giving the Palestinians autonomy and creating a pathway toward eventual statehood.The groundbreaking agreement was seen as dangerous by the Israeli right, including Netanyahu, and Rabin eventually paid with his life when far-right extremist Yigal Amir shot and killed him at a peace rally in Tel Aviv on November 4, 1995.During Netanyahu’s last seven years in office, at least two attempts at peace talks have fallen apart without an agreement, though the Israeli leader maintains he is open and willing to engage in talks without preconditions.However, many critics see his right-wing dominated government as an impediment to peace talks and view Netanyahu as not only the polar opposite of Rabin, but partially responsible for his murder.After Rabin’s murder, some castigated Netanyahu and other right-wing leaders for contributing to the incendiary political climate that led to the assassination.In the weeks before his assassination, Netanyahu and other senior Likud members attended a right-wing political rally in Jerusalem where protesters branded Rabin a “traitor,” “murderer” and “Nazi” for signing a peace agreement with the Palestinians earlier that year.Critics say Netanyahu — who can be seen in photographs standing on a balcony above Zion Square as the protesters carried a black-draped coffin bearing Rabin’s name through the crowds — ignored inflammatory rhetoric that incited to Rabin’s murder.On Saturday, Netanyahu rebuffed allegations that he contributed to the anti-Rabin incitement in a video posted to his Facebook page.In the post, Netanyahu denounced the “shocking political assassination” of his former political rival, and said he was the victim of “attempts to distort the historical truth and attribute the incitement that preceded his murder.”Last week, Netanyahu came under fire from left-wing and centrist lawmakers after he failed to condemn a claim by fellow Likud MK and coalition chairman David Bitan that Rabin’s assassination was “not political.”At the memorial event, the prime minister said Rabin’s legacy must focus on his lifetime of accomplishments for Israel, and not just on his murder.“I am concerned about that the story of Yitzhak’s life will always stand the under the shadow of its tragic final moments,” Netanyahu said. “But that’s not the whole story. Every boy and girl, even those born after his death, need to know of all of the accomplishments of Yitzhak Rabin.”“The scar that remains from the murder of Yitzhak Rabin will remain for generations, and will not be erased,” he said. “It is an event that is etched in the hearts of our people.”At a later memorial event at the Knesset, Netanyahu spoke of Rabin’s role in forging strong ties with the US, which he said would continue under Donald Trump after he takes office as the next US president.“I thank President Obama and look toward the future,” he said. “Donald Trump is a true friend of Israel. I look forward to visiting Washington and working together with him to strengthen both countries.”
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
GOOD LUCK TRUMP IF YOU THINK YOU CAN GO BACK ON YOUR PROMISE TO MOVE AMERICAS EMBASSY TO JERUSALEM. YOU THINK YOU GOT TROUBLE WITH THE LIBERAL-DEMOCRAT NUTCASES. IF YOU LIE TO THE CHRISTIANS. YOU JUST LOST THE MOST LOYAL ISRAEL SUPPORTERS. AND PHARES BETTER SHUT HIS MOUTH. BECAUSE AMERICA BETTER MOVE THE EMBASSY TO JERUSALEM. TO SAY ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM WILL NEVER BE DIVIDED AGAIN.WHY WOULD TRUMP HAVE A SENIOR ADVISER MUSLIM ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS ANYWAY IS MY QUESTION.AND WHILE YOUR AT IT TRUMP.TELL PHARES TO GET 2 NUKES READY ON JANUARY 21,17. BECAUSE ISIS IS GONNA GO TO HELL IN FIRE IMMEDIATELY. ONE ATOMIC WEAPON ON RAQQA. AND A 2ND ATOMIC WEAPON ON MOSUL.
Adviser says Trump won’t rip up Iran deal, signals he may not move embassy-Appearing to walk back statements made by president-elect and other advisers, Walid Phares says nuclear pact will be ‘renegotiated,’ US mission will only be moved to Jerusalem under ‘consensus,’ brokering Israeli-Palestinian peace deal will be top priority-By Joshua Davidovich and Times of Israel staff November 11, 2016, 3:41 am
A senior adviser to President-elect Donald Trump said the new US leader will “review” the Iran nuclear agreement, but will stop short of ripping up the landmark international pact.Walid Phares, one of Trump’s top foreign policy advisers, also signaled that Trump might not move the US Embassy to Jerusalem immediately and indicated he would make negotiating an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal a priority right off the bat.The comments appeared to represent a break with some comments made by other Trump advisers and the president-elect himself, and highlighted persisting confusion over what the contours of a Trump administration’s foreign policy may look like.Speaking to BBC Radio on Thursday, Phares said the nuclear deal, which Trump has railed against and vowed to dismantle, would instead be renegotiated with Tehran.“Ripping up is maybe a too strong of word, he’s gonna take that agreement, it’s been done before in international context, and then review it,” he said, according to a CNN recording of the interview.“He will take the agreement, review it, send it to Congress, demand from the Iranians to restore a few issues or change a few issues, and there will be a discussion,” Phares added. “It could be a tense discussion but the agreement as is right now — $750 billion to the Iranian regime without receiving much in return and increasing intervention in four countries — that is not going to be accepted by the Trump administration.”During the election campaign, Trump described the nuclear deal as “disastrous” and said it would be his “number one priority” to dismantle it.Yet he also sowed confusion when he said he would demand greater oversight over the deal and enforce it, at a speech to the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC in March. In that same speech, he also said he would dismantle the deal.“We must enforce the terms of the previous deal to hold Iran totally accountable. And we will enforce it like you’ve never seen a contract enforced before, folks, believe me,” he said then.On Thursday, State Department spokesman Mark Toner warned that nothing was stopping Trump from tearing up the agreement, rebuffing comments from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani that the pact was enshrined by the United Nations Security Council and could therefore not be canceled by one party.The agreement, reached in July 2014 to thwart suspected work toward an atomic weapon, requires Iran to curb its nuclear enrichment activities in exchange for sanctions relief.Israel was and remains the world’s leading critic of the deal, calling it a “historic mistake” and arguing that it falls woefully short of preventing Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons.Toner said if Trump pulls out of the agreement, it could fall apart and lead to Iran restarting work toward a bomb.It’s not clear if Iran, which remains deeply distrustful of the United States and has complained of receiving a raw deal under the nuclear pact, would be open to renegotiating the agreement, the hard-fought result of years of intensive diplomatic activity.-Will move embassy ‘under consensus’-Phares also told the BBC that while Trump was committed to moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as other presidential candidates have vowed, he would not do so unilaterally.“Many presidents of the United States have committed to do that, and he said as well that he will do that, but he will do it under consensus,” Phares said.Phares did not elaborate on what consensus would be sought for such a move, which would break with decades of precedent and put Washington at odds with nearly all United Nations member states.A number of Israeli politicians, including Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, have seized on Trump’s victory by asking him to make good on his promises to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital and move the embassy there, breaking with long-standing US policy to await a final status agreement on the city.During the campaign, Trump called Jerusalem “the eternal capital” of Israel and said he was “100 percent for” moving the embassy there.Earlier Thursday, Trump Israel adviser Jason Dov Greenblatt told Israel’s Army Radio that the president-elect would make good on his promise.“I think if he said it, he’s going to do it,” Greenblatt said. “He is different for Israel than any recent president there has been, and I think he’s a man who keeps his word. He recognizes the historical significance of the Jewish people to Jerusalem, unlike, say, UNESCO.”Congress passed a law in 1995 mandating the move of the embassy to Jerusalem, but allowed the president a waiver. Each president since then has routinely exercised the waiver, citing the national security interests of the United States, despite repeated campaign promises.Phares also indicated efforts for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal would be a top agenda item for Trump, casting doubt on a claim by Greenblatt that Trump would not necessarily prioritize trying to push the Israelis and Palestinians into peace negotiations.“He is ready and he will immediately move to try and solve the problem between Palestinian and Israelis,” Phares said. “He told me personally that, as the author of ‘The Art of the Deal,’ it’s not going to be impossible for him to broker a deal between the Israelis and Palestinians. At least he’s going to go in that direction and not waste eight years — four years for now — not doing something for the Palestinians and Israelis.”On Wednesday, Greenblatt told The Times of Israel that Trump would only prioritize solving the conflict if that’s what the sides wanted him to do.“He will make it a priority if the Israelis and Palestinians want to make it a priority,” Greenblatt said. “He’s not going to force peace upon them, it will have to come from them.”The gap in signals coming out of Trump’s camp is consistent with frustration some have pointed to in trying to demystify what Trump’s foreign policy will be.In comments published in German weekly Der Spiegel Thursday, Germany Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said it was urgent for the incoming US administration to set out its positions quickly since “very many questions are open” on its foreign policy.Steinmeier said he had spoken several times with former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger about what President-elect Donald Trump’s foreign policies might look like. But Steinmeier said even Kissinger had no insights to offer.“Many have already tried to read a foreign policy doctrine, or at least clear and coherent positions, out of Donald Trump’s comments. Without much success,” Steinmeier said.In Israel, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported Thursday that Israeli officials were viewing Trump as “a puzzle,” without a clear sense of whether he will match his words with actions or how he will manage ties with Jerusalem.Others close to the Israeli government, though, said the new US president will fall closer in line with their views than the current administration.Tzachi Hanegbi, a minister-without-portfolio who is a close confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Thursday that the Iran nuclear deal and construction over the Green Line — the two most contentious topics between the Obama administration and Netanyahu — will no longer be a source of tension between Israel and the United States under a Trump presidency.“On both of these issues, our view was much different than Obama’s, while it is likely much more similar to that of Trump,” Hanegbi told Army Radio.The Associated Press contributed to this report
Melania Trump promises Sara Netanyahu ‘wonderful relations between our countries, families’-In phone call publicized by PM, the two wives also discuss ‘challenge of raising children under spotlight that accompanies their fathers’-By Times of Israel staff November 12, 2016, 8:10 pm
Melania Trump told Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Israel’s prime minister, on Saturday that relations between the US and Israel, and between their two families, “will be wonderful,” and that she and President-elect Donald Trump are looking forward to hosting them in the United States “at the first opportunity.”Detailing the conversation in a Facebook post on Saturday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the evening’s phone conversation between the two wives as “heartfelt and warm.”“Mrs. Trump said that she looks forward to our visit at the first opportunity and that there will be wonderful relations between our countries and our families,” Netanyahu said.He wrote that Melania and Sara also “discussed the great challenge of raising children under the spotlight that accompanies their fathers who were elected as world leaders. Additionally, they discussed the great importance of emphasizing family time as part of their role as mothers in order to enable their children to grow up in a normal way like all their friends.”Sara Netanyahu and Melania Trump could find that they have much in common, as the wives of prominent and often divisive leaders who are themselves figures of controversy. Melania Trump made headlines during the campaign for plagiarizing parts of a speech by First Lady Michelle Obama, for having posed nude in her previous modeling career, and as she defended her husband against allegations relating to his treatment of women.Sara Netanyahu has faced court battles over the treatment of employees, and is at the center of an ongoing row about her professed intervention in her husband’s running of the country. A TV documentary on her controversial role last week prompted a response so bitter and lengthy from Netanyahu as to overshadow the documentary itself and prompt allegations that he was inciting against the media.On Friday, Trump told the Wall Street Journal that he hopes to orchestrate “the ultimate deal” between Israel and the Palestinians that would resolve “the war that never ends.” Days after winning the US presidential election, the Republican victor said that “as a deal maker, I’d like to do… the deal that can’t be made. And do it for humanity’s sake.”The telephone conversation between the two wives came three days after Trump spoke with Netanyahu and invited the Israeli leader to Washington at the “first opportunity.”Trump and Netanyahu, “who have known each other for many years, had a warm, heartfelt conversation,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.Netanyahu responded by saying that he and his wife Sara were looking forward to meeting Trump and Melania.Earlier on Wednesday, Netanyahu congratulated Trump on his election victory, saying the Republican is “a true friend of the State of Israel.”“We will work together to advance security, stability and peace in our region,” Netanyahu said in a statement.“The bond between the US and Israel is based on shared values, shared interests and a shared future. I am sure that President-elect Trump and I will continue to strengthen the special alliance between Israel and the US and we will bring them to new heights,” he added.Later Wednesday, Netanyahu released a video congratulating Trump.Netanyahu met with both Trump and rival Hillary Clinton in New York in September, but refrained from expressing support for a particular candidate. Following the September meetings, the prime minister said “it doesn’t matter which of them will be elected, US support of Israel will remain strong, our pact will remain strong and will even get stronger in the coming years.”The prime minister’s statement on Wednesday came on the heels of statements expressing a mix of optimism and wariness by Israeli politicians, many of whom joined Netanyahu in stressing the continued strengthening of the US-Israel ties.President Reuven Rivlin congratulated Trump on his victory, which he said demonstrated that the US is the “greatest democracy.”“There are many challenges that lie before you as president — at home and around the world. Israel, your greatest ally, stands by you as your friend and partner in turning those challenges into opportunities,” he said in a statement.
Trump can dismantle Iran deal if he wants, US official says-State Department disputes Iranian contention that pact can’t be nixed, warns Tehran will start building bomb if new president scraps agreement as promised-By AFP November 11, 2016, 1:22 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
WASHINGTON — The Iran nuclear deal would fall apart if a US administration walked away from it, as President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to do, the State Department said Thursday.Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani had argued on Wednesday that the deal — which saw world powers lift sanctions on Tehran in return for controls on its nuclear program — has been enshrined in international law.The outgoing US administration is proud of the agreement and has no intention of dropping it, but Trump said several times during his campaign that moving away from it will be a priority once he takes power in January.“Any party — and I’m speaking very hypothetically here, because I don’t want in any way to attempt to hypothesize about what the incoming administration’s going to do — I’m just talking purely about an agreement that any party can walk away from,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.“And that will have profound consequences on the integrity of the agreement.”Toner said that the Iran deal was not a legally binding treaty, but that the current US administration believes it is in Washington’s interest to continue it.Asked whether if the US withdraws support for the deal whether Iran might start building a nuclear weapons program, Toner said: “Yes. That’s the reality of the situation.”“This is why we believe it to be in everyone’s interest, including the world’s interest, that if Iran abides by this agreement, and all the parties abide by the agreement, then we have shut-off Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon,” he said.During the election campaign, Trump described the deal as “disastrous” and said it would be his “number one priority” to dismantle it.But he also seemed to indicate that he would push for stricter oversight under the deal, leading to some confusion over his actual stance.“We must enforce the terms of the previous deal to hold Iran totally accountable. And we will enforce it like you’ve never seen a contract enforced before, folks, believe me,” Trump told the pro-Israel group AIPAC on March 21.On Wednesday, Rouhani said the nuclear deal, brokered between Tehran and six world powers after years of intense diplomatic efforts, could not be dismantled by any one country.“Iran’s understanding in the nuclear deal was that the accord was not concluded with one country or government but was approved by a resolution of the UN Security Council and there is no possibility that it can be changed by a single government.”After the deal came into force in January, Iran reduced by two-thirds the number of its uranium enrichment centrifuges, slashed its uranium stockpile and removed the core of the Arak reactor.Officials in Israel lobbied furiously against the nuclear deal and have argued that it does not keep Iran from being able to build a nuclear weapon, as the US maintains.On Wednesday, the United Nations agency monitoring the pact said Iran had made a small but significant violation of the deal by storing marginally more heavy water than the agreement allows.Heavy water is a concern because it is used to cool reactors that can produce substantial amounts of plutonium. That, in turn, can be applied to making the fissile core of nuclear warheads.The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency said in a confidential report obtained by The Associated Press that Iran had exceeded the heavy water allotment of 130 metric tons (143.3 tons) only slightly — by 100 kilograms (220 pounds.) The report also noted that Iran had served notice it would resolve the issue by exporting 5 metric tons, substantially over the excess amount.Wednesday’s report said the agency verified the overhang on Tuesday, just days after IAEA chief Yukiya Amano “expressed concerns” to top Iranian officials.With both sides closely watching for violations, the breach was sensitive even beyond the technical uses of heavy water, especially since it was the second such breach since implementation of the deal curbing Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.Times of Israel staff and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Trump aides said to warn Obama against 11th hour ‘new adventures’ on Palestinian issue-Outgoing administration urged to not ‘even think about’ pushing policies in its final weeks that are at odds with those of the president-elect, Politico reports-By Times of Israel staff and AFP November 12, 2016, 8:57 pm
Aides to US president-elect Donald Trump are reportedly warning President Barack Obama not to “even think about” trying to make a new push for progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the final weeks of his administration.The outgoing president and his team “shouldn’t go seeking new adventures or pushing through policies that clearly don’t match Trump’s positions,” the Politico website reported an unnamed Trump “national security adviser” as insisting.And that includes “efforts to bring peace to the Israelis and Palestinians — even if those initiatives are symbolic at best,” Politico wrote, noting that Trump “has made it very clear he will support Israel and its preferences.”The Thursday report, which was headlined “Trump team warns Obama not to make major moves on foreign policy,” quoted Obama administration officials wondering about how much influence they could have on the incoming president and his team. “We are asking ourselves: Are we going to be able to have some influence on the transition team or not? There is so much unknown. Nobody really knows these people,” a State Department official was quoted as saying. “I’m not sure I need to feel defensive about what we are working on, but I think it’s important to explain it, and explain options, and to be willing to explore alternatives.”Israeli leaders have frequently expressed concern that Obama, who has clashed repeatedly with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Palestinian issue, might support a UN resolution or push an initiative of his own that could discomfit the right-wing Israeli governing coalition.In an apparent message to Obama at last Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said he expects the “United States will remain true to its commitment for many years that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only be resolved through direct negotiations without pre-conditions, and of course not through decisions by the United Nations of other international bodies.”On the day after Trump’s victory, US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro declined to say whether the shock result increased the likelihood of the outgoing administration backing a Palestine-related resolution at the United Nations Security Council. “The president will, as he has been for many months, look for any way he and we as an administration might be able to advance our goal of making progress toward a two-state solution,” Shapiro said. Currently, “some disturbing trends on the ground” are pulling both Israelis and Palestinians in the opposite direction. “And so, any initiative that [Obama] might consider in these final months in office would be based on that motivation.”On Friday, Trump said he hopes to orchestrate “the ultimate deal” between Israel and the Palestinians that would resolve “the war that never ends.”The president-elect said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that “as a deal maker, I’d like to do… the deal that can’t be made. And do it for humanity’s sake.”Trump’s Friday comments on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict came quick on the heels of a message published in Israel Hayom in which the president-elect hailed the Jewish state as a “beacon of hope to countless people.”“Israel and America share so many of the same values, such as freedom of speech, freedom of worship and the importance of creating opportunities for all citizens to pursue their dreams,” Trump said in the message published by the Israel Hayom newspaper.“Israel is the one true democracy and defender of human rights in the Middle East and a beacon of hope to countless people.”He added that he hoped his administration would play a “significant role in helping the parties to achieve a just, lasting peace,” saying that any deal would have to be directly negotiated between the two sides.France is currently pushing for an international conference to discuss peace in the Middle East, but Israel says any talks should be bilateral ones between the two sides.The Palestinians have called for international involvement, accusing Israel of reneging on past agreements.Netanyahu was among the first leaders Trump spoke to after his election victory.Israeli right-wingers have hailed Trump’s win as an opportunity to consolidate control over the West Bank.Meir Turgeman, chairman of the Jerusalem municipality planning committee, told Israel Radio that it provided a green light to revive suspended permits for Israeli construction in East Jerusalem.He said the municipality intended to authorize thousands of housing units that had been frozen.Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who heads the Jewish Home party, said on Wednesday that the US election result meant the idea of a Palestinian state was over.
Racially-charged incidents persist at US universities after Trump win-University of Oklahoma student temporarily suspended over ‘violent, racist’ chat; police investigating threat against Muslim student in Michigan-By AP November 13, 2016, 12:54 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
PHILADELPHIA — A student at the University of Oklahoma has been temporarily suspended and police are investigating a threat against a Muslim student near the University of Michigan amid racially charged outbursts at schools and universities across the country following Donald Trump’s presidential election.The Associated Press and other local media outlets identified several reports of racist incidents at schools since Tuesday, including a group chat that the Oklahoma student got involved with aimed at black freshmen at the University of Pennsylvania, Trump’s alma mater.The chat contained “violent, racist and thoroughly disgusting images and messages,” and Penn is “appalled” its students were added to the GroupMe account,” UPenn President Amy Gutmann said. Gutmann said UPenn police have been working with the FBI. She earlier said officials had increased campus safety and were “reaching out to support the affected students.”University of Oklahoma President David Boren in a statement said the student has been temporarily suspended as the school investigates further.“It would appear this matter did not originate at the University of Oklahoma, but started elsewhere,” Boren said in a statement.In Ann Arbor, Michigan, police are looking into a report of a man who threatened to set a Muslim student on fire with a lighter if she didn’t remove her hijab on Friday. The incident apparently happened near the University of Michigan campus, according to Ann Arbor police Sgt. Patrick Maguire. He added that the department is “investigating it actively … and soliciting information from anyone who may have witnessed anything.”A crime alert issued by the university said the woman took off her hijab and left the area. Witnesses told police the man was white with an “unkempt appearance” and “intoxicated with slurred speech.”A racial backlash also unfolded after the election of Barack Obama, America’s first black president, in 2008. At the time, police documented alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts were delivered by adults, college students and even children.Anti-Trump protests have happened for several days in cities including Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago and New York.
Sweden neo-Nazis pummeled by fireworks, snowballs at rally-10 counter-demonstrators arrested after clashing with police; 2 people injured-By Agencies November 13, 2016, 3:02 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Swedish police said 10 people were detained as a Swedish right-wing extremist group marched through central Stockholm while counter-demonstrators threw snowballs and fireworks at them.Police spokesman Lars Bystrom said those detained were taken when counter-demonstrators briefly clashed with officers in the capital’s picturesque old city as they tried to reach the rally by the Nordic Resistance Movement.A few hundred people, some with the movement’s green and white flags, walked in crisp, freezing weather.Up to six times as many people staged a counter-demonstration nearby and some eventually broke out to try to block the right-wing group from crossing a bridge on their route. Large police forces, including mounted officers, kept the sides apart.Two people were injured in the clashes between police and the anti-fascists.Spokesman Lars Bystroem told TT news agency that a policeman was hit by a demonstrator, and a second individual was injured in circumstances that were unclear.The NMR, set up in 1997, promotes an openly racist and anti-Semitic doctrine, and press commentators had questioned the wisdom of authorizing Saturday’s rally, given the likelihood of violence.
France’s Le Pen predicts rise of ‘new world’ after Trump win-Leader of nationalist party, eyeing presidency, says French voters will join ‘revolution’ against globalization-By AFP November 13, 2016, 4:27 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
LONDON — Donald Trump’s US election victory heralds the “building of a new world,” France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen said Sunday in a BBC television interview that sparked immediate criticism in Britain.Le Pen described the Republican’s win as a “victory of the people against the elite” and said she hoped a similar outcome could be achieved in French presidential elections in May.“Clearly, Donald Trump’s victory is an additional stone in the building of a new world, destined to replace the old one,” she told the BBC’s flagship Sunday politics program, “The Andrew Marr Show.”Trump “made possible what had previously been presented as impossible,” she said, predicting that the “global revolution” that resulted in his election, as well as in the vote for Brexit, will also see her elected as president.Hailing the rise of “patriotic movements” in Europe, Le Pen drew parallels between the US vote, Britain’s June 23 decision to leave the European Union, and France’s rejection of the European constitution in 2005.“All the elections are essentially referendums against the unfettered globalization that has been imposed on us… and which today has clearly shown its limits,” she claimed.She said the French election would throw up the choice between a “multi-cultural society… where fundamental Islam is progressing” and an “independent nation, with people able to control their own destiny.”VIDEO Marine Le Pen @BBC : "Donald #Trump a rendu possible ce qui était présenté comme totalement impossible"@realDonaldTrump @MLP_officiel pic.twitter.com/Cp505H7ZLx— lesecret ن 🐬 (@fandetv) November 13, 2016-The interview sparked a backlash on social media as it fell on Remembrance Sunday, marking the contribution of British and Commonwealth forces during the two world wars.“Some people are offended and upset that I have been to interview Marine Le Pen and that we’re showing this interview on Remembrance Sunday,” said Marr, defending the decision to run the piece.“I understand that but… Le Pen could, under some circumstances, become the next French president… I don’t think that the best way to honor the fallen is to fail to report on the next big challenge to western security.”
PA threatens to make US ‘miserable’ if embassy moved to Jerusalem-Envoy to UN says Ramallah will use any diplomatic means at its disposal at world body if Trump fulfills promise to relocate mission from Tel Aviv-By Dov Lieber November 13, 2016, 4:31 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations threatened to exact revenge on the US at the world body should President-elect Donald Trump make good on his promise to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.Boasting that the Palestinians have a variety of tools at their disposal at the UN against the United States, Riyad Mansour said he could make the life of US diplomats “miserable” in retaliation for the move.“If they try to attack us by moving the embassy to Jerusalem, which is a violation of Security Council resolutions and a violation of Resolution 181… it means they are showing belligerency against us,” Mansour said at an event sponsored by the Jerusalem Fund Foundation in the US capital Friday.“Maybe I cannot have resolutions in the Security Council” — likely due to a US veto — “but I can make their lives miserable every day by precipitating a veto on my admission as a member state,” he said.“Nobody should blame us for unleashing all of the weapons that we have in the UN to defend ourselves, and we have a lot of weapons in the UN,” Mansour added.While on the campaign trail, Trump and his surrogates said Jerusalem was Israel’s undivided capital and vowed to move the embassy there from Tel Aviv — a promise made by many US presidential candidates but never made good on.Since winning the election, the president-elect has begun to signal a possible walking back of his stances on Israel.On Thursday, a Trump adviser said he would only move the embassy “under consensus,” and the next day Trump himself told the Wall Street Journal he would prioritize solving the Israeli Palestinian conflict, defying predictions that he would take a more hands-off approach than the current administration.Mansour also cast doubt on whether Trump would follow through with the measure, noting that other US presidential candidates had in the past promised to move the US embassy to Jerusalem but did not follow through.“What you do when you are campaigning is one thing, but when you have to deal with the legal thing it is something else,” he said.Congress passed a law in 1995 mandating the move of the embassy to Jerusalem, but allowed the president a waiver. Each president since then has routinely exercised the waiver, citing the national security interests of the United States, despite repeated campaign promises.Referring to measures against Israel in the UN that the Palestinians have reportedly held back at US President Barack Obama’s urging in order to keep a negotiated solution viable, Mansour indicated Ramallah would take a more hard-line approach.“You show belligerency against me, then I will do all the things that I can. I can have emergency meetings in the Security Council, I can reopen the whole Pandora’s box of the ruling of the International Court of Justice over the wall,” he said, referring to Israel’s security barrier.Mansour argued that he was working via legal means while the next US administration would be breaking international law by acting against a number of UN Security Council resolutions that declared Israel’s annexation of the East Jerusalem illegal.In November, Trump told Netanyahu that if elected, “a Trump administration would finally accept the longstanding Congressional mandate to recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the State of Israel.”During the campaign, Trump called Jerusalem “the eternal capital” of Israel and said he was “100 percent for” moving the embassy there.A number of Israeli politicians, including Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, have seized on Trump’s victory by asking him to fulfill his pledges, which would break with longstanding US policy of awaiting a final status agreement on the city.However, Walid Phares, one of Trump’s top foreign policy advisers, signaled on Thursday that Trump might not move the US Embassy to Jerusalem immediately.Phares told the BBC that while Trump was committed to moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as other presidential candidates have vowed, he would not do so unilaterally.“Many presidents of the United States have committed to do that, and he said as well that he will do that, but he will do it under consensus,” Phares said.Phares did not elaborate on what consensus would be sought for such a move, which would break with decades of precedent and put Washington at odds with nearly all United Nations member states.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Netanyahu backs bill to silence mosque prayer calls-Arab lawmakers say proposal to lower volume of muezzins is an attack on Muslim freedom of religion-By Stuart Winer and Raoul Wootliff November 13, 2016, 3:18 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he supports a bill to bar mosques from using loudspeaker systems for the Muslim call to prayer, and pointed to similar restrictions in European and even some Muslim countries as justification for the move.The prayer calls, traditionally announced through minarets five times a day and often amplified with loudspeakers, have been a frequent target of right-wing ire, with some claiming they are an unnecessarily loud nuisance that echoes in Jewish towns and neighborhoods.Arab lawmakers attacked the proposal as a hate-fueled assault on Muslim freedom of religion.Speaking ahead of a vote on the bill in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, the prime minister said that the blared prayer calls are a public nuisance that cuts across all religious denominations.“The Muslims, the Jews, and the Christian are all suffering from this,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many times people have approached me, from all walks of Israeli society, who are crying out about the suffering that is caused by excessive noise reaching them from prayer house announcements.”Legislative efforts to stymie the calls have always failed to garner large-scale support, though, and it’s unclear whether this newest bid will find more backing. The bill, penned by Jewish Home MK Moti Yogev, was set to be voted on by the committee in March but was removed from agenda hours before the scheduled meeting.“Israel is a country that respects freedom of religion for all,” Netanyahu continued. “Israel is committed to protect anyone who suffers from the excessively loud calls. That is the custom in many European cities. That is the custom also in various places in the Muslim world, where they limited the volume of the calls out of consideration for the general public.”Supporters of the bill say freedom of religion should take a backseat to quality of life in this case.Joint (Arab) List leader MK Aymen Odeh slammed the legislation, calling it “another bill, in a series of populist bills, whose objective is to create an atmosphere of hate and incitement against the Arab population.“There are noise laws and regulations that also apply to mosques, so it’s clear that the sole purpose of the bill is to mark the mosques as a problem source. It is a clear attack on Muslim freedom of religion and the continuation of a wave of persecution that the prime minister is leading.”His fellow party lawmaker Hanin Zoabi suggested that those who are bothered by the calls to prayer should find somewhere else to live.“Those who suffer from the sounds of the muezzins are specifically those who chose to settle near the the mosques, and… they are invited to leave if they are suffering so much,” she said. “This isn’t Europe here. Anyone who feels like he is in Europe, and thinks this is Europe, should consider going there.”Likud MKs Miki Zohar and Nurit Koren, Jewish Home MKs Bezalel Smotrich and Shuli Muallem-Refaeli, and Kulanu MK Merav Ben-Ari have also endorsed the legislation.The bill would aim to prevent both loud calls to prayer and “conveying religious or nationalist messages, or even words of incitement,” and seeks to ban sound systems at all houses of prayer in the country, not just mosques.“Hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens — in the Galilee, Negev, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv-Jaffa and other places in central Israel — suffer regularly and daily from the noise caused by the call of the muezzin from mosques,” reads the proposed legislation.“The noise made by these public calls disturbs the rest of the citizens several times a day, including in the early mornings and at nighttime,” it says.Some 20 percent of Israel’s population are Arab, most of them Muslim, making the calls to prayer a familiar sound in many parts of the country.The issue of muezzin loudspeakers have been a source of friction in areas where Jews and Arabs live in close quarters. In 2014, the Yisrael Beytenu party revived a proposal that would ban electronic amplification of the calls to prayer.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
At memorial, Netanyahu compares own peace efforts to Rabin’s-Prime minister says slain leader who signed landmark Oslo Accords ‘strove for peace’ yet ‘never took his eyes off the dangers we face’; hails ties with Trump-By Tamar Pileggi November 13, 2016, 6:04 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday hailed the legacy of slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, and likened the landmark 1995 peace deal Rabin brokered with the Palestinians to his own government’s efforts to renew deadlocked peace talks.Addressing the state memorial marking the 21st Hebrew anniversary of Rabin’s murder, Netanyahu noticeably avoided the partisan, political controversy surrounding the 1995 assassination, including claims his own rhetoric led to the murder, and instead focused the bulk of his remarks on the late prime minister’s “fierce” pursuit of peace and the global threat of Islamic extremism.“Rabin strove for peace, but he also recognized the unwillingness of many Palestinians to make peace,” Netanyahu said, adding that the late prime minister “never for a moment took his eyes off the dangers we face.”“He understood early on that security was the cornerstone of our existence, and often spoke of the threat of radical Islam faced by Israel and the rest of the free world,” Netanyahu said. “Today we still face that same threat, but it is even greater now than during Rabin’s time.”Despite these regional threats, Netanyahu said Rabin “fiercely” continued to extend his hand in peace.“I have also extended my hand in peace, but time after time the Palestinians refuse to engage in peace talks or recognize a Jewish state within any borders,” he said.During the speech, Rabin’s daughter Dalia Rabin could be seen openly rolling her eyes.The 1995 Oslo Accords, signed by Rabin’s government and seen as a major steppingstone toward an eventual peace deal, created the Palestinian Authority, for the first time giving the Palestinians autonomy and creating a pathway toward eventual statehood.The groundbreaking agreement was seen as dangerous by the Israeli right, including Netanyahu, and Rabin eventually paid with his life when far-right extremist Yigal Amir shot and killed him at a peace rally in Tel Aviv on November 4, 1995.During Netanyahu’s last seven years in office, at least two attempts at peace talks have fallen apart without an agreement, though the Israeli leader maintains he is open and willing to engage in talks without preconditions.However, many critics see his right-wing dominated government as an impediment to peace talks and view Netanyahu as not only the polar opposite of Rabin, but partially responsible for his murder.After Rabin’s murder, some castigated Netanyahu and other right-wing leaders for contributing to the incendiary political climate that led to the assassination.In the weeks before his assassination, Netanyahu and other senior Likud members attended a right-wing political rally in Jerusalem where protesters branded Rabin a “traitor,” “murderer” and “Nazi” for signing a peace agreement with the Palestinians earlier that year.Critics say Netanyahu — who can be seen in photographs standing on a balcony above Zion Square as the protesters carried a black-draped coffin bearing Rabin’s name through the crowds — ignored inflammatory rhetoric that incited to Rabin’s murder.On Saturday, Netanyahu rebuffed allegations that he contributed to the anti-Rabin incitement in a video posted to his Facebook page.In the post, Netanyahu denounced the “shocking political assassination” of his former political rival, and said he was the victim of “attempts to distort the historical truth and attribute the incitement that preceded his murder.”Last week, Netanyahu came under fire from left-wing and centrist lawmakers after he failed to condemn a claim by fellow Likud MK and coalition chairman David Bitan that Rabin’s assassination was “not political.”At the memorial event, the prime minister said Rabin’s legacy must focus on his lifetime of accomplishments for Israel, and not just on his murder.“I am concerned about that the story of Yitzhak’s life will always stand the under the shadow of its tragic final moments,” Netanyahu said. “But that’s not the whole story. Every boy and girl, even those born after his death, need to know of all of the accomplishments of Yitzhak Rabin.”“The scar that remains from the murder of Yitzhak Rabin will remain for generations, and will not be erased,” he said. “It is an event that is etched in the hearts of our people.”At a later memorial event at the Knesset, Netanyahu spoke of Rabin’s role in forging strong ties with the US, which he said would continue under Donald Trump after he takes office as the next US president.“I thank President Obama and look toward the future,” he said. “Donald Trump is a true friend of Israel. I look forward to visiting Washington and working together with him to strengthen both countries.”
