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
With clock ticking, state asks High Court to delay Amona evacuation-Presenting petition just 4 days before deadline could be ‘problematic,’ leaving judges with little time to consider the request, court spokesperson says-By Raoul Wootliff December 20, 2016, 7:22 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The government officially asked the High Court of Justice for a one-month delay in the evacuation of the Amona on Tuesday evening, two days after it promised residents of the West Bank outpost to do so as part of a deal for them leave peacefully.The state asked the court for a 45-day delay of the evacuation, which currently has to be carried out by Saturday, in order to prepare temporary housing solutions for the families slated to be evicted, according to a statement from the State Attorney’s office.Residents of Amona voted Sunday to accept a proposal that would see 24 of the 41 families moved to an adjacent plot of land while the government worked towards building permanent homes for all residents and creating a new settlement in the area.But the state would not request a further delay even if the preparations for temporary homes were not completed, the statement read.If the request is accepted by the court, the new final date for the evacuation would be February 8, 2017.Amona is the largest of about 100 unauthorized outposts — erected without permission but generally tolerated by the government — that dot the West Bank. In December 2014, after multiple appeals and delays, the court accepted the claim that the settlement was built on privately-owned Palestinian land and ordered the outpost be evacuated within two years, or no later than December 25 of this year.While the court has already rejected a petition to postpone the dismantling of the settlement, the state hopes the court will accept the new petition based on the residents’ agreement to leave peacefully and the relatively shorter delay — the previous request was for eight months.“We are talking about a concrete request that would allow the willing and peaceful evacuation of Amona’s residents in a way that would drastically limit the possible damaging consequences of the event while providing an appropriate solution tot he families living there,” the 76-page request states.Authorities are hoping the deal can avoid a repeat of the violence that followed the destruction of several permanent buildings in the outpost in 2006.But presenting the petition just four days before until the current deadline for the court-imposed evacuation could be “problematic,” leaving judges with little time to properly consider the request, a spokesperson for the court told The Times of Israel earlier Tuesday.“It’s problematic because we are now expected to give an immediate response but not everyone will be available to give a response today or even tomorrow,” the spokesperson said. “But as usual, the state is in no rush.”Including the extension in the agreement appeared to have been used as bargaining chip by the government, with the immediate threat of evacuation looming if the deal was not signed.While government officials floated the idea of requesting an extension two weeks ago, a spokesman for the Justice Ministry said “political reasons” had held up the request.No court debate is required for judges to rule on the request but they are obligated to ask the anti-settlement group Yesh Din, who originally petitioned the court against Amona, for their response.A spokesman for the group told the Times of Israel that it will oppose the request.
Toronto students to commemorate Holocaust on campus-Resolution at Ryerson receives unanimous approval, despite pro-Palestinian boycott effort earlier this month-By Times of Israel staff and JTA December 20, 2016, 9:27 pm
TORONTO — Students at Ryerson University in Toronto voted unanimously on Tuesday to pass a resolution to commemorate Holocaust education week on campus, after it was contested earlier this month.Local members of Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Students Association reportedly staged a walkout during the semiannual general meeting of the Ryerson Student Union earlier this month, rather than vote on the resolution. The meeting lost its quorum, according to B’nai Brith Canada.The resolution, which was submitted by a member of the Ryerson Hillel Jewish students’ group, called on the Student Union to offer annual Holocaust education programs to emphasize “the value of pluralism and the acceptance of diversity.” There was no mention of Israel.Members of StandWithUs, a pro-Israel non-profit organization active on university campuses across North America, advocated for the resolution to be passed and believe that it will create a more inclusive atmosphere on campus.“I am very happy that the RSU made the right decision” Tamar Lyons, StandWithUs Canada Emerson Fellow at Ryerson University, said in a statement released by StandWithUs Canada.“This has been the second year in many that Jewish students can feel safer and included on campus. I am excited that my student union acknowledges the importance of education about the Holocaust and I could not be more proud” said Rebecca Katzman, president of Students Supporting Israel at Ryerson University and a StandWithUs Canada Emerson Fellow Alum.The Ryerson Student Union voted to join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel in April 2014. The resolution prohibits the student group from having ties with companies that do business in Israel, including Home Depot, Costco and Sears, and removed Sabra hummus from the campus cafeteria.“What starts with BDS does not end with BDS,” said Amanda Hohmann, national director of B’nai Brith’s League for Human Rights earlier this month. “More often than not, BDS is simply a gateway drug to more blatant forms of anti-Semitism.”
IDF raids ‘one of biggest gun factories ever found’ in West Bank-Dozens of weapons, manufacturing tools confiscated at Hebron facility, including M-16 parts and large amounts of ammunition-By Times of Israel staff December 19, 2016, 5:08 pm
IDF soldiers raided a gun-making workshop in the West Bank early Monday morning, which the army described as one of the largest weapons factories ever found there.The workshop was located in the underground basement of a residential building in the city of Hebron.IDF forces confiscated 15 lathes for producing guns, dozens of Carl Gustav-style guns, parts of M-16 rifles and large quantities of ammunition, according to an IDF colonel who took part in the raid.The owner of the factory and his son were arrested by the IDF.In the past year, Israeli security forces have shut down 40 gun-making workshops, which manufactured guns such as those used in the Sarona Market shooting attack in Tel Aviv in June, and which have became ubiquitous throughout the West Bank during the recent terror wave.Israeli security forces have also confiscated over 420 guns during this time, according to an IDF spokesperson.Since a nearly year-long wave of terrorist attacks began in October 2015, Israeli security forces have carried out nightly arrests of Palestinians in the West Bank possessing weapons and involved in gun manufacturing and smuggling.While many of the hundreds of weapons captured were army issue, others were improvised weapons built in illegal gun making workshops. Their street value is significantly less than higher quality guns such as a M-16 rifle, making them easier to acquire.
IDF shells Gaza after soldiers come under fire-Hamas position reported hit after troops targeted while working on border fence; no casualties reported on either side-By Times of Israel staff and AFP December 19, 2016, 5:25 pm
An Israel Defense Forces tank shelled a Hamas position in the Gaza Strip on Monday, after Israeli troops came under fire while carrying out routine repairs on the border fence.Shots were fired towards Israeli soldiers by the fence along the largely closed border by unknown assailants, the army said in a statement.“In response, tanks targeted a Hamas post,” the IDF said.Sources close to the Hamas-run interior ministry said the tanks targeted an observation tower near the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.According to Palestinian media reports quoted in the Hebrew-language media, the tank fired three shells at the Hamas post.No casualties were reported on either side.No group has yet to take responsibility for the attack on the troops. Hamas has controlled the entire Strip since ousting its rival Fatah in a bloody 2007 coup.Israeli farmers working within a mile of the Gaza border had been instructed to evacuate the area, according to the Hebrew-language news website Ynet.IDF soldiers have often been targeted while working on the border fence, which serves to prevent the infiltration of Gaza-based terror groups into Israel.Tensions between Israel and Gaza have ramped up following the killing of a Hamas drone expert in Tunisia on Thursday, which the terror blamed on Israel and vowed to avenge.Tunisia said Sunday that “foreign elements” were involved in the assassination, and on Monday, a court spokesperson in Sfax, Tunisia, said a Belgian and a Swede were sought in connection with the assassination.
Arab MK admits smuggling cell phones, messages to jailed terrorists-In police questioning, Basel Ghattas defends visits to terror convicts as ‘humanitarian’; Knesset panel votes to ban lawmakers from making such visits-By Times of Israel staff December 20, 2016, 8:26 pm
MK Basel Ghattas of the Joint (Arab) List faction admitted Tuesday he had smuggled cellphones and coded messages to terror convicts in an Israeli prison, but insisted his actions amounted to “humanitarian and moral activism.”“The prisoners issue is unbearably painful. My visits to the prisoners are part of my humanitarian and moral activism,” he said shortly after a three-hour police questioning at the national serious crimes unit of the Israel Police in Lod.“The prisoners are suffering under difficult conditions, and dealing with this issue is part of my public and parliamentary work, which I am carrying out responsibly. I have nothing to hide. We are entering and leaving these interrogations with our heads held high,” he said.After the allegations against Ghattas surfaced this week, lawmakers on Tuesday issued a blanket ban on Knesset members visiting prisoners serving time for terrorism and other security crimes. The vote to institute the ban took place at a Knesset House Committee meeting dealing with the suspicions that Ghattas, of the Arab Joint List faction, smuggled miniature phones and coded intelligence information to Palestinian prisoners serving time for terror acts at Ketziot Prison south of Beersheba.The admission, first reported by Channel 2, came after police reportedly showed Ghattas video footage of him delivering the phones and messages during a visit Sunday with two Palestinian security prisoners. One of the two prisoners, both of whom are members of Fatah, is serving a 37-year sentence for murder.The Shin Bet security service recommended the ban on MK visits, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told the Knesset House Committee Tuesday.Erdan said he had spoken to Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman and “as far as he is concerned, a blanket ban on all meetings between MKs and security prisoners should be instituted,” the minister informed the committee.The ban could only come from the Knesset itself as lawmakers enjoy parliamentary immunity from such restrictions by ordinary law enforcement bodies. The embargo applies to all prisoners held on security offenses, whether Palestinian or Israeli.Some coalition lawmakers have demanded that Ghattas, an MK from the Balad party, part of the Joint List faction, be stripped of the immunity he enjoys as a member of Knesset and put on trial.Asked about the case in a Tuesday interview on Army Radio, Erdan denounced Ghattas. “This is a member of Knesset who just three-four months ago held a moment of silence in memory of murderers in the recent terror wave in Jerusalem, who joins flotillas that identify with Gaza, who calls [former president] Shimon Peres the greatest of war criminals, who sneaks onto the Temple Mount just to provoke. It won’t be such a disaster if he isn’t in the Knesset — even if he isn’t convicted [in the current case],” the minister said.Earlier Tuesday, as he entered the headquarters of the Lahav 433 police unit in Lod, Ghattas told reporters, “I will come out with my head held high, and in the end it will turn out that they made a mountain out of a molehill.”Calling the accusations “a political witch hunt,” he added, “We have become accustomed to questioning like this — it is all just to harm our struggle [for the Palestinian cause].”
PLO will revoke Israel recognition if US moves embassy, top official warns-Saeb Erekat also predicts public anger over transferring mission to Jerusalem would force closure of all US embassies in Arab world; says Palestinians finalizing anti-settlement resolution for UNSC-By Times of Israel staff December 19, 2016, 8:25 pm
If the incoming Trump administration moves the US embassy to Jerusalem, the PLO will revoke its recognition of Israel, the prospect of a two-state solution will be over, and any hope of Israeli-Palestinian peace in the future will vanish, the top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat warned on Monday.Speaking on a conference call organized by the Wilson Center policy forum in Washington, DC regarding expectations from the Trump administration, Erekat reeled off a list of what he said would be the consequences of President-elect Donald Trump honoring his campaign pledge and relocating the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.Erekat said he would immediately resign as the chief Palestinian negotiator, and that “the PLO will revoke its recognition of Israel” as well as all previously signed agreements with Israel.Furthermore, said Erekat, all American embassies in the Arab world would be forced to close — not necessarily because Arab leaderships would want to close them, but because the infuriated public in the Arab world would not “allow” for the embassies to continue to operate.In a statement issued by the Trump transition team on Friday announcing David Friedman as Trump’s choice for ambassador to Israel, Friedman said he aimed to “strengthen the bond between our two countries and advance the cause of peace within the region,” and that he looked “forward to doing this from the US embassy in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem.”Asked about the prospect of Trump moving the embassy to the Israeli capital, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that this would be “great.”In Monday’s call, Erekat castigated the selection of Friedman, citing the intended ambassador’s stated desire to work from Jerusalem and his support of settlement expansion. Moving the US embassy to the holy city, as Trump has promised he will and Friedman has publicly anticipated, would symbolize American acceptance of what Erekat called “Israel’s illegal annexation of East Jerusalem,” and would plunge the region into turmoil. “Any hope of peace in the future will just vanish,” he said, adding that he was not making threats, but rather issuing a warning.Explaining why he would immediately quit as Palestinian negotiator, Erekat said he would not want to “fool my people” that there were any prospects of peace, and that moving the embassy would mean that all those, like himself, who had believed in the possibility of a two-state solution had been wrong.Rather than take this path, Erekat urged the incoming president to declare Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem to be “null and void,” and revive negotiations on all core issues, including Jerusalem, with the goal of establishing a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines alongside the State of Israel. He said the Palestinians had agreed to land swaps and to demilitarization.Also in the call — which was moderated by the Wilson Center’s vice president Aaron David Miller and with a second speaker, The Times of Israel’s editor David Horovitz — Erekat noted that he held meetings last week in Washington with State Department officials, but failed to secure meetings he had sought with incoming Trump administration officials. “I don’t know any of them,” he said of Trump’s personnel.Erekat also said that Palestinian and other Arab diplomats were meeting Monday evening in Cairo to finalize the text of an anti-settlement resolution to be submitted to the UN Security Council. He said the intention was to introduce the resolution “by the end of the year.”Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly expressed concern that the Obama administration might not use its veto to block such a resolution. Last Wednesday, Netanyahu said Israel remains concerned that Washington could back a Palestine-related resolution at the Security Council before January 20. “With every passing day that possibility becomes less likely, but, until then, it’s still there,” Netanyahu said.Friedman, 57, an Orthodox Jew and a Hebrew speaker, has been an outspoken and active supporter of the settlement movement, and has argued that Israel doesn’t face a “demographic threat” to its Jewish character if it fails to separate from the Palestinians. Friedman serves as president of American Friends of Bet El Institutions, an organization that supports that settlement near Ramallah.Last week, it was reported that Trump’s team was already planning the embassy relocation, including undertaking advance work on the project, after his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said it was “a very big priority for him.”Eric Cortellessa 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
With clock ticking, state asks High Court to delay Amona evacuation-Presenting petition just 4 days before deadline could be ‘problematic,’ leaving judges with little time to consider the request, court spokesperson says-By Raoul Wootliff December 20, 2016, 7:22 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The government officially asked the High Court of Justice for a one-month delay in the evacuation of the Amona on Tuesday evening, two days after it promised residents of the West Bank outpost to do so as part of a deal for them leave peacefully.The state asked the court for a 45-day delay of the evacuation, which currently has to be carried out by Saturday, in order to prepare temporary housing solutions for the families slated to be evicted, according to a statement from the State Attorney’s office.Residents of Amona voted Sunday to accept a proposal that would see 24 of the 41 families moved to an adjacent plot of land while the government worked towards building permanent homes for all residents and creating a new settlement in the area.But the state would not request a further delay even if the preparations for temporary homes were not completed, the statement read.If the request is accepted by the court, the new final date for the evacuation would be February 8, 2017.Amona is the largest of about 100 unauthorized outposts — erected without permission but generally tolerated by the government — that dot the West Bank. In December 2014, after multiple appeals and delays, the court accepted the claim that the settlement was built on privately-owned Palestinian land and ordered the outpost be evacuated within two years, or no later than December 25 of this year.While the court has already rejected a petition to postpone the dismantling of the settlement, the state hopes the court will accept the new petition based on the residents’ agreement to leave peacefully and the relatively shorter delay — the previous request was for eight months.“We are talking about a concrete request that would allow the willing and peaceful evacuation of Amona’s residents in a way that would drastically limit the possible damaging consequences of the event while providing an appropriate solution tot he families living there,” the 76-page request states.Authorities are hoping the deal can avoid a repeat of the violence that followed the destruction of several permanent buildings in the outpost in 2006.But presenting the petition just four days before until the current deadline for the court-imposed evacuation could be “problematic,” leaving judges with little time to properly consider the request, a spokesperson for the court told The Times of Israel earlier Tuesday.“It’s problematic because we are now expected to give an immediate response but not everyone will be available to give a response today or even tomorrow,” the spokesperson said. “But as usual, the state is in no rush.”Including the extension in the agreement appeared to have been used as bargaining chip by the government, with the immediate threat of evacuation looming if the deal was not signed.While government officials floated the idea of requesting an extension two weeks ago, a spokesman for the Justice Ministry said “political reasons” had held up the request.No court debate is required for judges to rule on the request but they are obligated to ask the anti-settlement group Yesh Din, who originally petitioned the court against Amona, for their response.A spokesman for the group told the Times of Israel that it will oppose the request.
Toronto students to commemorate Holocaust on campus-Resolution at Ryerson receives unanimous approval, despite pro-Palestinian boycott effort earlier this month-By Times of Israel staff and JTA December 20, 2016, 9:27 pm
TORONTO — Students at Ryerson University in Toronto voted unanimously on Tuesday to pass a resolution to commemorate Holocaust education week on campus, after it was contested earlier this month.Local members of Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Students Association reportedly staged a walkout during the semiannual general meeting of the Ryerson Student Union earlier this month, rather than vote on the resolution. The meeting lost its quorum, according to B’nai Brith Canada.The resolution, which was submitted by a member of the Ryerson Hillel Jewish students’ group, called on the Student Union to offer annual Holocaust education programs to emphasize “the value of pluralism and the acceptance of diversity.” There was no mention of Israel.Members of StandWithUs, a pro-Israel non-profit organization active on university campuses across North America, advocated for the resolution to be passed and believe that it will create a more inclusive atmosphere on campus.“I am very happy that the RSU made the right decision” Tamar Lyons, StandWithUs Canada Emerson Fellow at Ryerson University, said in a statement released by StandWithUs Canada.“This has been the second year in many that Jewish students can feel safer and included on campus. I am excited that my student union acknowledges the importance of education about the Holocaust and I could not be more proud” said Rebecca Katzman, president of Students Supporting Israel at Ryerson University and a StandWithUs Canada Emerson Fellow Alum.The Ryerson Student Union voted to join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel in April 2014. The resolution prohibits the student group from having ties with companies that do business in Israel, including Home Depot, Costco and Sears, and removed Sabra hummus from the campus cafeteria.“What starts with BDS does not end with BDS,” said Amanda Hohmann, national director of B’nai Brith’s League for Human Rights earlier this month. “More often than not, BDS is simply a gateway drug to more blatant forms of anti-Semitism.”
IDF raids ‘one of biggest gun factories ever found’ in West Bank-Dozens of weapons, manufacturing tools confiscated at Hebron facility, including M-16 parts and large amounts of ammunition-By Times of Israel staff December 19, 2016, 5:08 pm
IDF soldiers raided a gun-making workshop in the West Bank early Monday morning, which the army described as one of the largest weapons factories ever found there.The workshop was located in the underground basement of a residential building in the city of Hebron.IDF forces confiscated 15 lathes for producing guns, dozens of Carl Gustav-style guns, parts of M-16 rifles and large quantities of ammunition, according to an IDF colonel who took part in the raid.The owner of the factory and his son were arrested by the IDF.In the past year, Israeli security forces have shut down 40 gun-making workshops, which manufactured guns such as those used in the Sarona Market shooting attack in Tel Aviv in June, and which have became ubiquitous throughout the West Bank during the recent terror wave.Israeli security forces have also confiscated over 420 guns during this time, according to an IDF spokesperson.Since a nearly year-long wave of terrorist attacks began in October 2015, Israeli security forces have carried out nightly arrests of Palestinians in the West Bank possessing weapons and involved in gun manufacturing and smuggling.While many of the hundreds of weapons captured were army issue, others were improvised weapons built in illegal gun making workshops. Their street value is significantly less than higher quality guns such as a M-16 rifle, making them easier to acquire.
IDF shells Gaza after soldiers come under fire-Hamas position reported hit after troops targeted while working on border fence; no casualties reported on either side-By Times of Israel staff and AFP December 19, 2016, 5:25 pm
An Israel Defense Forces tank shelled a Hamas position in the Gaza Strip on Monday, after Israeli troops came under fire while carrying out routine repairs on the border fence.Shots were fired towards Israeli soldiers by the fence along the largely closed border by unknown assailants, the army said in a statement.“In response, tanks targeted a Hamas post,” the IDF said.Sources close to the Hamas-run interior ministry said the tanks targeted an observation tower near the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.According to Palestinian media reports quoted in the Hebrew-language media, the tank fired three shells at the Hamas post.No casualties were reported on either side.No group has yet to take responsibility for the attack on the troops. Hamas has controlled the entire Strip since ousting its rival Fatah in a bloody 2007 coup.Israeli farmers working within a mile of the Gaza border had been instructed to evacuate the area, according to the Hebrew-language news website Ynet.IDF soldiers have often been targeted while working on the border fence, which serves to prevent the infiltration of Gaza-based terror groups into Israel.Tensions between Israel and Gaza have ramped up following the killing of a Hamas drone expert in Tunisia on Thursday, which the terror blamed on Israel and vowed to avenge.Tunisia said Sunday that “foreign elements” were involved in the assassination, and on Monday, a court spokesperson in Sfax, Tunisia, said a Belgian and a Swede were sought in connection with the assassination.
Arab MK admits smuggling cell phones, messages to jailed terrorists-In police questioning, Basel Ghattas defends visits to terror convicts as ‘humanitarian’; Knesset panel votes to ban lawmakers from making such visits-By Times of Israel staff December 20, 2016, 8:26 pm
MK Basel Ghattas of the Joint (Arab) List faction admitted Tuesday he had smuggled cellphones and coded messages to terror convicts in an Israeli prison, but insisted his actions amounted to “humanitarian and moral activism.”“The prisoners issue is unbearably painful. My visits to the prisoners are part of my humanitarian and moral activism,” he said shortly after a three-hour police questioning at the national serious crimes unit of the Israel Police in Lod.“The prisoners are suffering under difficult conditions, and dealing with this issue is part of my public and parliamentary work, which I am carrying out responsibly. I have nothing to hide. We are entering and leaving these interrogations with our heads held high,” he said.After the allegations against Ghattas surfaced this week, lawmakers on Tuesday issued a blanket ban on Knesset members visiting prisoners serving time for terrorism and other security crimes. The vote to institute the ban took place at a Knesset House Committee meeting dealing with the suspicions that Ghattas, of the Arab Joint List faction, smuggled miniature phones and coded intelligence information to Palestinian prisoners serving time for terror acts at Ketziot Prison south of Beersheba.The admission, first reported by Channel 2, came after police reportedly showed Ghattas video footage of him delivering the phones and messages during a visit Sunday with two Palestinian security prisoners. One of the two prisoners, both of whom are members of Fatah, is serving a 37-year sentence for murder.The Shin Bet security service recommended the ban on MK visits, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told the Knesset House Committee Tuesday.Erdan said he had spoken to Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman and “as far as he is concerned, a blanket ban on all meetings between MKs and security prisoners should be instituted,” the minister informed the committee.The ban could only come from the Knesset itself as lawmakers enjoy parliamentary immunity from such restrictions by ordinary law enforcement bodies. The embargo applies to all prisoners held on security offenses, whether Palestinian or Israeli.Some coalition lawmakers have demanded that Ghattas, an MK from the Balad party, part of the Joint List faction, be stripped of the immunity he enjoys as a member of Knesset and put on trial.Asked about the case in a Tuesday interview on Army Radio, Erdan denounced Ghattas. “This is a member of Knesset who just three-four months ago held a moment of silence in memory of murderers in the recent terror wave in Jerusalem, who joins flotillas that identify with Gaza, who calls [former president] Shimon Peres the greatest of war criminals, who sneaks onto the Temple Mount just to provoke. It won’t be such a disaster if he isn’t in the Knesset — even if he isn’t convicted [in the current case],” the minister said.Earlier Tuesday, as he entered the headquarters of the Lahav 433 police unit in Lod, Ghattas told reporters, “I will come out with my head held high, and in the end it will turn out that they made a mountain out of a molehill.”Calling the accusations “a political witch hunt,” he added, “We have become accustomed to questioning like this — it is all just to harm our struggle [for the Palestinian cause].”
PLO will revoke Israel recognition if US moves embassy, top official warns-Saeb Erekat also predicts public anger over transferring mission to Jerusalem would force closure of all US embassies in Arab world; says Palestinians finalizing anti-settlement resolution for UNSC-By Times of Israel staff December 19, 2016, 8:25 pm
If the incoming Trump administration moves the US embassy to Jerusalem, the PLO will revoke its recognition of Israel, the prospect of a two-state solution will be over, and any hope of Israeli-Palestinian peace in the future will vanish, the top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat warned on Monday.Speaking on a conference call organized by the Wilson Center policy forum in Washington, DC regarding expectations from the Trump administration, Erekat reeled off a list of what he said would be the consequences of President-elect Donald Trump honoring his campaign pledge and relocating the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.Erekat said he would immediately resign as the chief Palestinian negotiator, and that “the PLO will revoke its recognition of Israel” as well as all previously signed agreements with Israel.Furthermore, said Erekat, all American embassies in the Arab world would be forced to close — not necessarily because Arab leaderships would want to close them, but because the infuriated public in the Arab world would not “allow” for the embassies to continue to operate.In a statement issued by the Trump transition team on Friday announcing David Friedman as Trump’s choice for ambassador to Israel, Friedman said he aimed to “strengthen the bond between our two countries and advance the cause of peace within the region,” and that he looked “forward to doing this from the US embassy in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem.”Asked about the prospect of Trump moving the embassy to the Israeli capital, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that this would be “great.”In Monday’s call, Erekat castigated the selection of Friedman, citing the intended ambassador’s stated desire to work from Jerusalem and his support of settlement expansion. Moving the US embassy to the holy city, as Trump has promised he will and Friedman has publicly anticipated, would symbolize American acceptance of what Erekat called “Israel’s illegal annexation of East Jerusalem,” and would plunge the region into turmoil. “Any hope of peace in the future will just vanish,” he said, adding that he was not making threats, but rather issuing a warning.Explaining why he would immediately quit as Palestinian negotiator, Erekat said he would not want to “fool my people” that there were any prospects of peace, and that moving the embassy would mean that all those, like himself, who had believed in the possibility of a two-state solution had been wrong.Rather than take this path, Erekat urged the incoming president to declare Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem to be “null and void,” and revive negotiations on all core issues, including Jerusalem, with the goal of establishing a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines alongside the State of Israel. He said the Palestinians had agreed to land swaps and to demilitarization.Also in the call — which was moderated by the Wilson Center’s vice president Aaron David Miller and with a second speaker, The Times of Israel’s editor David Horovitz — Erekat noted that he held meetings last week in Washington with State Department officials, but failed to secure meetings he had sought with incoming Trump administration officials. “I don’t know any of them,” he said of Trump’s personnel.Erekat also said that Palestinian and other Arab diplomats were meeting Monday evening in Cairo to finalize the text of an anti-settlement resolution to be submitted to the UN Security Council. He said the intention was to introduce the resolution “by the end of the year.”Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly expressed concern that the Obama administration might not use its veto to block such a resolution. Last Wednesday, Netanyahu said Israel remains concerned that Washington could back a Palestine-related resolution at the Security Council before January 20. “With every passing day that possibility becomes less likely, but, until then, it’s still there,” Netanyahu said.Friedman, 57, an Orthodox Jew and a Hebrew speaker, has been an outspoken and active supporter of the settlement movement, and has argued that Israel doesn’t face a “demographic threat” to its Jewish character if it fails to separate from the Palestinians. Friedman serves as president of American Friends of Bet El Institutions, an organization that supports that settlement near Ramallah.Last week, it was reported that Trump’s team was already planning the embassy relocation, including undertaking advance work on the project, after his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said it was “a very big priority for him.”Eric Cortellessa contributed to this report.
