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
In step toward annexation, ministers demand new laws include settlements-Ayelet Shaked announces directive as coalition lawmakers slam ‘inequality’ against settlements; Likud minister: Those saying we are applying ‘creeping annexation’ — we won’t argue-By Marissa Newman June 6, 2017, 2:36 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked announced Tuesday that all government legislation will henceforth explicitly mention applicability to residents of West Bank settlements, in an apparent step toward fully extending Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank.The Knesset held a series of committee meetings on Tuesday on improving the lives of Jews living in West Bank settlements — regarding education, immigration absorption, and housing — as Israel’s parliament celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Six Day War, when it captured the West Bank, along with the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem, Gaza and Sinai.“We are trying to change the reality of legislation in the Knesset,” Shaked, of the right-wing Jewish Home party, told the Knesset House Committee.“There is no doubt that the lives of residents of Judea and Samaria needs to be exactly the same as the lives” of other Israeli citizens, she said, using the biblical name for the West Bank.The directive by Shaked and Tourism Minister Yariv Levin applies strictly to government-backed laws from June 1 but not to private legislation presented by individual lawmakers. Shaked said she had instructed the ministers to comply with the new instructions, which require “a reference” to the West Bank residents on government bills. She said only half a dozen Israeli laws currently mentioned the settlers, including adoption laws and recent anti-discrimination laws.Laws will not be required to extend to settlements, but will need to explicitly state whether they do or do not, and an explanation will be needed if it only applies to one side of the Green Line.Levin (Likud) said the application of martial orders rather than Israeli law to West Bank residents in some cases was “discriminatory and unequal.”He said it was time to “liberate the residents of Judea and Samaria” from Israeli military orders, some 50 years after the war, by transferring the powers of the Civil Administration, the governing authority in the West Bank, to Israeli ministries.“I think the rule must be: The law applies [to the settlers], unless there is a good reason not to,” he said. “And not the opposite.”“We are not seeking ‘creeping annexation’; we are looking for justice for the residents,” he said.“And if there are those saying that through legislation we are advancing ‘creeping annexation’ — we won’t argue,” he added.Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben Dahan (Jewish Home) indicated he was seeking to change the law in the area to allow Jews to legally purchase land in the West Bank from Palestinians.“The Jews in Judea and Samaria are outsiders, they are not allowed to buy land,” lamented Ben Dahan, adding that he was working to change this by the end of the year.At the hearing, Jewish Home MK Shuli Moallem-Refaeli said she has “no desire to conceal” the government’s intention, which is the annexation of the West Bank. She added that this process must not be done in a “backdoor” fashion, but rather openly.There is “total inequality” between Israeli citizens and settlers, she said, as the latter “have same obligations, but they don’t have the same rights.”“We all know there is no sovereignty in the West Bank,” she said, adding that 50 years from the war “we are all working to fix that.”On housing, the Yesha Council settlement umbrella group presented a plan to another Knesset panel on Tuesday to build 67,000 housing units in the West Bank.The settler group outlined a plan to expand the Tel Aviv metropolitan area into the West Bank, in a bid to drive down housing prices in central Israel. In a presentation to the Knesset Interior Committee, the council proposed a building boom in the West Bank areas adjacent to the densely populated Gush Dan region, from the settlement of Alfei Menashe in the north to Modiin Illit in the south, and Ariel in the east — overall, a 40 percent increase of built-up territory.With tens of thousands of housing units in this eastern corridor, the cost of living in central Israel would drop considerably, the settlement council told lawmakers, in a session attended by Housing Minister Yoav Galant.Galant responded with a call to build in various settlements in those areas.“The entire expanse from Avnei Hefetz, Oranit, Nili, Naale, Gush Halamish, Talmonim, from Kfar Saba to Ben Gurion Airport, is essential for life in Gush Dan,” said Galant. “To settle this area offers a security, strategic solution.”Chairing the meeting, Likud MK David Amsalem implored Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to increase West Bank construction.“A city that does not go forward goes backward,” he said. “If there is no building in Maale Adumin and Jerusalem, they will turn into old age homes.”“Not building is a form of explusion,” he added. “A child who grew up somewhere and you are not allowing him to live there as an adult [because of lack of housing] — you are in effect removing him from that place.”The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee held a “festive” meeting celebrating the outcome of the war, though most of its lawmakers were in Washington.
Ex-defense chief: Erdogan is ‘deliberately Islamicizing’ Europe in bid for world domination-Moshe Ya’alon also says any Trump bid for permanent Israeli-Palestinian peace deal ‘guaranteed recipe for failure’-By Raphael Ahren June 6, 2017, 9:28 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
In a bid for world domination, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is deliberately flooding Europe with Muslims to “Islamicize” the continent, former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon charged.“Erdogan is intentionally Islamicizing Europe. People are ignoring it. It’s deliberate Islamization,” he told The Times of Israel.In a far-reaching interview, the former minister and ex-IDF chief of staff also addressed Donald Trump’s initiative to broker Israeli-Palestinian peace, urging the US president to “not even try” to reach a final status agreement between the two sides.Today, three different streams of Islamic extremism aspire to global hegemony, said Ya’alon, who announced he will compete for the Israel premiership in the next elections. “Iranian Shiite Islam, the Sunni Islamic caliphate and the Muslim Brotherhood, led by Erdogan.”The Turkish president for years allowed jihadists from across the world to come to Syria and Iraq and return to their countries as skilled fighters, the former minister charged. He cited the Greek defense minister as complaining to him last year about Turkey promoting illegal immigration to his country from Arab and Muslim states. The Greek official told Ya’alon about a young Moroccan, who on his way to Germany, arrived in Greece on a rubber boat after having flown to Turkey. Apparently, the man had paid only $50 for the ticket from Marrakech to Istanbul.“That was a subsidized flight. Who subsidized it? They’re being pushed to Europe,” Ya’alon said. The authorities in Athens gave Turkish intelligence a list of 1,224 Turks who were being smuggled to Europe, but Ankara denied any involvement, Ya’alon cited the Greek minister as saying.“Erdogan is acting like a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and he wants to Islamicize Europe,” Ya’alon said. “So when the Europeans demanded he stop this stream [of refugees], what did he ask them? To allow Turks to go to Europe without visas. And what did he tell Turks living in Europe three weeks ago? To increase their birth rates! That’s the Islamization of Europe.”In a rally in March, for instance, Erdogan urged his compatriots in Europe to have “not just three but five children.”In addition, Turkey is funding mosques and Islamic cultural centers all over Europe, especially in the Balkans, the former defense minister said. “He wants hegemony also in Europe.”Ya’alon — who had a falling out with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year, after which he quit the government and the Knesset — said the new US administration appears to be much closer to Israel’s position than that of Barack Obama.“After eight years of great gaps between Israel and US there is potential for change,” he said, lauding Netanyahu for standing up to Obama. Ya’alon also praised Trump for considering Iran as “the core of the problem in the Middle East, and not as part of the solution,” as the Obama administration did, he said.A dairy farmer-turned-general-turned-politician, Ya’alon accuses Netanyahu of corruption and of seeking to undermine Israel’s democracy, but agrees with him wholeheartedly on most, if not all, security and defense matters (though he said he was not happy about the June 2016 reconciliation deal Israel struck with Turkey).Ya’alon — who said former US secretary of State John Kerry was “messianic” and “obsessive” due to his belief he could broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace — was careful not to criticize Trump or his team. But he also did not hide his opinion that any attempt to broker Israeli-Palestinian peace was bound to fail — even if it was done by Trump.“If someone in the White House believes that he can bring about a permanent agreement, that’s a guaranteed recipe for failure,” said Ya’alon, who grew in the Labor movement but in the 1990s became more hawkish and eventually joined the Likud party.Trump has repeatedly said that he is not only determined to attempt to reach a peace agreement, but also that it may actually be easier to achieve than people believe.The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is more complicated than merely professing support for a one-state or a two-state solution, Ya’alon went on.“We have to be realistic. The gap between us and Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas], who is considered moderate compared to Hamas, is enormous,” Ya’alon added. “He is unwilling to agree even on an [interim] agreement with agreed borders that would end the conflict. He’s unwilling to recognize a Jewish state, which is the core of the conflict. It’s not about the settlements, but about their refusal to recognize the Jewish state.”When Palestinians speak about the “occupation” they refer to 1948 — Israel’s founding — and not to the 1967 Six Day War, in which Israel captured Gaza and the West Bank, Ya’alon told The Times of Israel in the Tel Aviv offices of his new political NGO, called “A Different Leadership.”“That is a gap that I don’t see even Trump being able to bridge.”Rather, Ya’alon suggests the White House aim for more modest goals, like strengthening the economy, infrastructure and security in the Palestinian territories, fighting incitement to violence and reforming the Palestinian education system, which preaches hatred for Jews and Israelis.Ya’alon, 66, said he supported the Oslo Accords at the time but his optimism for peace declined when, as head of military intelligence, he informed then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin that the Palestinian leadership was not preparing its people for peace. “The opposite is the case,” he recalled telling Rabin, citing Palestinian television programs for children and textbooks.“If today I were asked to give advice to the Trump administration it would be this: There is no chance to reach a permanent agreement. Don’t even try to reach a permanent agreement,” Ya’alon said.Ya’alon said he hopes that Trump, as an experienced businessman, will pursue a “realistic” Middle East policy. “Time will tell what President Trump intends to do. I don’t see him running yet toward a permanent agreement,” he said. “I think that he won’t be able to bridge the gaps between us and the Palestinians. Not because of us — because the Palestinian rejectionism is consistent.”Besides getting the Palestinians to end incitement and paying “salaries” to terrorists, the White House should also work on advancing a regional alignment between Israel and the Sunni Arab states who seen in Iran a common enemy.“At this point, the concept of an Israeli-Arab conflict is not relevant. There is no Arab-Israeli conflict. There is only an Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Ya’alon said. “I hope that the reports that President Trump heard from the Arabs, and accepted it, that the region cannot be stabilized before the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is solved, are false. I am sure he heard it.”The moderate Sunni Arab states are fairly enthusiastic about Trump’s effort to broker peace between Israelis and Palestinians, Ya’alon posited. “They have other worries,” he said, citing domestic issues and Iran as the most worrying external threat. “I can guarantee you: They don’t care about the Palestinians.”Ya’alon said he was not too worried that Trump, who got close to Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, would try to pressure Israel into accepting the Arab Peace Initiative, dismissing it as a “diktat” that Jerusalem could not possibly consider.During his time in government, Israel “tried to reach agreements” with the Arabs, urging them to present an updated peace proposal, “something that is not a diktat,” he recalled. “But they did not come. I don’t know if they will come now.”
Israelis cry foul as UN leaders lament 50 years of ‘occupation’-UN envoy blasts António Guterres’ ‘preposterous’ statement as ‘Palestinian misinformation;’ deputy foreign minister urges him to ‘correct the distortion’-By Raphael Ahren June 6, 2017, 2:40 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israeli leaders on Tuesday attacked the secretary general of United Nations for a statement in which he decried the ongoing “occupation” of Palestinian territories.Marking the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War, António Guterres issued a statement lamenting the effects Of Israel’s subsequent occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza and the Syrian Golan, which he said caused the “displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and Syrians” and “fueled recurring cycles of violence and retribution.”Ending the occupation that began in 1967 by creating a Palestinian state was the only way to bring peace to the region, he argued.“This occupation has imposed a heavy humanitarian and development burden on the Palestinian people,” Guterres stated. “Among them are generation after generation of Palestinians who have been compelled to grow up and live in ever more crowded refugee camps, many in abject poverty, and with little or no prospect of a better life for their children.”Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, responded to the statement by saying that attacks on Israel by its neighbors did not begin in 1967.“Any attempt at a moral equivalency between killing innocent people and the building of homes is absurd,” he said.Instead of spreading “Palestinian misinformation” the UN should stick with the facts, Danon added.“It is preposterous to blame terror and violence in the Middle East on the one true democracy in the region,” he said. “The moment the Palestinian leadership abandons terror, ceases to incite against our people and finally returns to direct negotiations, then real progress can be made towards peace.”Later he also wagged a finger at UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein for starting off a session of the UN Hman Rights Council by lamenting Palestinian suffering.“It comes as no surprise that he chose to spread lies about Israel before he even mentioned the massacres in Syria. The Commissioner has forgotten that it is his job to care for human rights throughout the world, not to incite against Israel,” he said in a statement. He added that he hoped the US and Israel would work to reform the body.Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely called on Guterres to retract his comments and to “correct the distortion” promoted at the UN that claims Israel’s control over the Golan and the West Bank was an occupation.“On the day when the UN sticks to the facts and ceases the misguided use of the term ‘occupation’ it will restore its credibility as an organization founded to uphold justice and truth,” she said in a statement.Israel is celebrating the 50th anniversary of “the liberation of Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, and these are the facts,” she added.Also marking the Six Day War’s 50th anniversary, the UN coordinator for humanitarian aid and development activities condemned Israeli policies in the territories. “It should be obvious, but it bears repeating, that Occupation is ugly,” Robert Piper said in a statement released Tuesday.“Living under foreign military rule for years on end, generates despair, suffocates initiative and leaves generations in a kind of political and economic limbo.”The Israeli “occupation” is backed by an “ever-present security apparatus” that deliberately isolates isolated Palestinian communities from each other and hamstrings economic activity and deprives many Palestinians of basic rights, Piper charged. “In too many cases, these policies have violated international humanitarian law as well as the human rights instruments to which Israel is a party.”
UN rights czar: Nothing is like Holocaust, but Palestinians are suffering-Marking 50 years since 1967 war, Jordan’s Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein says Israelis and Palestinians both deserve different kinds of freedoms-By Times of Israel staff and AP June 6, 2017, 1:18 pm
The UN human rights chief on Tuesday decried 50 years of Israeli control of the West Bank, “which has denied the Palestinians many of their most fundamental freedoms,” invoking the Jewish Holocaust while simultaneously asserting that he was not comparing the experiences of the two peoples.In a statement marking the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Six Day War, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the Palestinians “deserve freedom, as all peoples do. They deserve to bring up their children safe in their homes, on their land, exercising their rights in their state, free from this long and bitter occupation.”He noted, however, that “Israelis also deserve freedom — a different sort of freedom, for they have long had their state, but they too have suffered grievously.”“The Israeli people have long endured unlawful attacks against their own civilian population,” he said, “attacks which are often vicious, in clear violation of international humanitarian law, and also worthy of condemnation. Israelis too need to be free from this violence, from any existential threat posed to them.”Zeid, who formerly served as Jordan’s representative to the UN, said Palestinian suffering should not be likened to the experiences of the Jews in the Holocaust, but began his speech by recalling his own contacts with Palestinian refugees and visits to sites of concentration camps.“Some will respond, mechanically almost, that the experiences of the two peoples are not equivalent, how could I mention them in one breath? Indeed, I agree — the Holocaust was so monstrous and so mathematically planned and executed it has no parallel, no modern equal,” he said.“Yet it is also undeniable that today, the Palestinian people mark a half-century of deep suffering under an occupation imposed by military force,” he added.This week marks 50 years since Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights during the 1967 war, which broke out after Egypt, Syria and Jordan mobilized to attack Israel.Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt after signing a peace treaty in 1979, de facto annexed the Golan Heights in 1981 and withdrew its troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Its current government maintains that its military control of the West Bank is not an occupation, though the international community and some Israeli leaders disagree.Zeid charged that Israel’s control of the West Bank was brutal and has denied “Palestinians many of their most fundamental freedoms,” and violations of international law were “systematic.”“The end of the occupation must now be brought about, and soon. Maintain the occupation, and for both peoples there will only be a prolongation of immense pain…the weeping by loved ones for loved ones, the prayers, the curses, the hatreds and vengeance, the impossibility of a secure life for all. This can be ended,” he said.On Monday UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres criticized Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and called for the establishment of a Palestinian state.The UN chief said Israel’s military control of Palestinian areas endangers both Israelis and Palestinians. He called for the establishment of a Palestinian state through “direct negotiations to resolve all final status issues on the basis of relevant UN resolutions, agreements and international law.”“This occupation has imposed a heavy humanitarian and development burden on the Palestinian people,” the statement said. “Its perpetuation is sending an unmistakable message to generations of Palestinians that their dream of statehood is destined to remain just that, a dream; and to Israelis that their desire for peace, security and regional recognition remains unattainable.”
Islamic State claims deadly London attack as dozen arrested-News agency linked to group says ‘contingent of fighters’ carried out assault that killed 7, third attack claimed by IS in Britain in months-By Agencies June 5, 2017, 1:26 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the Saturday night London terror attack which left seven people dead, an online news agency affiliated with the jihadists said Monday.“A security detachment from Islamic state carried out London attacks yesterday” the Aamaq news agency said, referring to Saturday’s assault which saw three men in a van plow into pedestrians on London Bridge before going on a stabbing spree.The SITE Intelligence Group said in a statement Sunday that the Aamaq news service cited “a security source” in the Arabic-language posting claiming the attack.Islamic State has often made such claims not just when it has sent attackers, but when extremists carrying out deadly plots were inspired by the group’s ideology.However, SITE director Rita Katz said the claim indicated the attack had been coordinated by the terror group and not simply inspired by it.2) Amaq claim on #LondonAttacks: It was carried out by "a detachment of #ISIS fighters",ie. likely coordinated with #ISIS, not ISIS inspired— Rita Katz (@Rita_Katz) June 4, 2017-The London attack was the third this year that Islamic State has claimed in Britain, after a bombing in Manchester late last month and a similar attack in the heart of London in March.The three attackers in Saturday’s attack have not been identified.British police arrested a dozen people Sunday in a widening terrorism investigation after the attackers, using a van and large knives, turned a balmy evening of nightlife into a bloodbath and killed seven people in the heart of London.Although the attackers were also dead, authorities raced to determine whether others assisted them, and Prime Minister Theresa May warned that the country faced a new threat from copycat attacks.The county’s major political parties temporarily suspended campaigning with only days to go before the general election. May said the vote would take place as scheduled Thursday because “violence can never be allowed to disrupt the democratic process.”The assault unfolded over a few terrifying minutes late Saturday, starting when a rented van veered off the road and barreled into pedestrians on busy London Bridge. Three men then got out of the vehicle with large knives and attacked people at bars and restaurants in nearby Borough Market until they were shot dead by police.“They went ‘This is for Allah,’ and they had a woman on the floor. They were stabbing her,” witness Gerard Vowls said.Florin Morariu, a Romanian chef who works in the Bread Ahead bakery, said he saw people running and some fainting. Then two people approached another person and “began to stick the knife in … and then I froze and I didn’t know what to do.”He said he managed to get near one attacker and “hit him around the head” with a bread basket.“There was a car with a loudspeaker saying ‘go, go’ and they (police) threw a grenade. … and then I ran,” he said.London police said officers killed the attackers within eight minutes of arriving at the scene. Eight officers fired some 50 rounds, said Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, the force’s head of counterterrorism.The three attackers were wearing what appeared to be suicide belts, but the belts turned out to be fake. Investigators were working to determine whether others assisted them, Rowley said.A bystander was also wounded by the gunfire, but the civilian’s injuries were not believed to be critical.Forty-eight people, including two police officers, were treated at hospitals. Twenty-one remained in critical condition Sunday. Among the wounded were German, French and Spanish citizens, officials said.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a Canadian was among the dead. A French national was also confirmed dead.Counterterrorism officers raided several addresses in Barking, an east London suburb, and arrested 12 people there Sunday, police said.Neighbors at the site of one raid in Barking said a man who lived there resembled one of the attackers shown in news photographs.“He’s lived here for about three years,” Damien Pettit said. “He’s one of our neighbors. I’ve said hello in passing more than 50, 60 occasions. He has two young kids. He was a very nice guy.”Armed officers also conducted a raid in the East Ham area of the city. Video showed police shouting at someone: “Get on the balcony. Stand up and show us your hands!”The rampage was the third major attack in Britain in the past three months, including a similar vehicle and knife attack on Westminster Bridge in March that left five people dead.On May 22, a suicide bomber killed 22 people and injured dozens at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, in northwest England. Grande and other stars performed Sunday night at a benefit concert for victims under tight security in Manchester.“I don’t feel or smell or hear or see any fear in this building. All we feel here tonight is love, resilience, positivity,” said Pharrel Williams, who performed alongside Miley Cyrus.May said the attacks were not directly connected, “but we believe we are experiencing a new trend in the threat we face” as “terrorism breeds terrorism” and attackers copy one another. She said five credible plots have been disrupted since March.“It is time to say, enough is enough,” she said.Britain’s official terrorism threat level was raised from “severe” to “critical” after the Manchester attack, meaning an attack may be imminent. Several days later it was lowered again to “severe,” meaning an attack is highly likely.Home Secretary Amber Rudd said Sunday that the level would remain at severe because police believe there are no perpetrators still on the loose.London Bridge and a large area on the south bank of the River Thames remained cordoned off Sunday, and police told people to avoid the area.Hours earlier, the area packed with bars and restaurants around the foodie magnet of Borough Market had been a scene of panic, as people barricaded themselves in pubs and restaurants or fled through the streets.Medics treated the wounded near the market as shocked people cried and shouted around them. Police officers yelled at people to run from the area, and blasts were heard as officers performed a series of controlled explosions.Renan Marquese, a sous-chef at a tapas restaurant, said he was working when he heard chaotic sounds outside.“When I open the door I see three dead people on the floor,” he said. “People running everywhere, police shouting to run away.”He said that he helped a man and his partner, even taking the woman into his arms because she was too upset to walk properly. He said it took him 20 minutes to carry her across the bridge, stumbling all the way.“It was really scary,” he said.Amid the violence and fear were stories of compassion and heroism. The British Transport Police said one of their officers, among the first to arrive, took the attackers on armed only with his baton and was seriously wounded. He was later described as being in stable condition with injuries that were not life-threatening.Witnesses described how passers-by threw chairs and beer glasses at the attackers in an attempt to stop them.Richard Angell, who was in a restaurant, said he looked out and saw “a guy who is throwing a table at somebody, and it’s very unclear about what is happening. And it turns out to be a heroic guy who saw what was happening and just bombarded these terrible cowardly people with stuff.”Vowls also saw people striking back at the attackers and said he joined in.“I went ‘Oi, terrorists, cowards, Oi!'” he told The Associated Press. Then he picked up a chair.“I chucked it, but I think I missed one of them, and then I picked up a stool, and I threw it at him. And he looked at me. He started running towards me, and then he decided not to.“Then I was screaming at them, picking up bottles from a beer barrel. I was just throwing it at them, trying to get them to chase me so I could get them out into the main road where the police could see them and obviously take them down.”
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
In step toward annexation, ministers demand new laws include settlements-Ayelet Shaked announces directive as coalition lawmakers slam ‘inequality’ against settlements; Likud minister: Those saying we are applying ‘creeping annexation’ — we won’t argue-By Marissa Newman June 6, 2017, 2:36 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked announced Tuesday that all government legislation will henceforth explicitly mention applicability to residents of West Bank settlements, in an apparent step toward fully extending Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank.The Knesset held a series of committee meetings on Tuesday on improving the lives of Jews living in West Bank settlements — regarding education, immigration absorption, and housing — as Israel’s parliament celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Six Day War, when it captured the West Bank, along with the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem, Gaza and Sinai.“We are trying to change the reality of legislation in the Knesset,” Shaked, of the right-wing Jewish Home party, told the Knesset House Committee.“There is no doubt that the lives of residents of Judea and Samaria needs to be exactly the same as the lives” of other Israeli citizens, she said, using the biblical name for the West Bank.The directive by Shaked and Tourism Minister Yariv Levin applies strictly to government-backed laws from June 1 but not to private legislation presented by individual lawmakers. Shaked said she had instructed the ministers to comply with the new instructions, which require “a reference” to the West Bank residents on government bills. She said only half a dozen Israeli laws currently mentioned the settlers, including adoption laws and recent anti-discrimination laws.Laws will not be required to extend to settlements, but will need to explicitly state whether they do or do not, and an explanation will be needed if it only applies to one side of the Green Line.Levin (Likud) said the application of martial orders rather than Israeli law to West Bank residents in some cases was “discriminatory and unequal.”He said it was time to “liberate the residents of Judea and Samaria” from Israeli military orders, some 50 years after the war, by transferring the powers of the Civil Administration, the governing authority in the West Bank, to Israeli ministries.“I think the rule must be: The law applies [to the settlers], unless there is a good reason not to,” he said. “And not the opposite.”“We are not seeking ‘creeping annexation’; we are looking for justice for the residents,” he said.“And if there are those saying that through legislation we are advancing ‘creeping annexation’ — we won’t argue,” he added.Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben Dahan (Jewish Home) indicated he was seeking to change the law in the area to allow Jews to legally purchase land in the West Bank from Palestinians.“The Jews in Judea and Samaria are outsiders, they are not allowed to buy land,” lamented Ben Dahan, adding that he was working to change this by the end of the year.At the hearing, Jewish Home MK Shuli Moallem-Refaeli said she has “no desire to conceal” the government’s intention, which is the annexation of the West Bank. She added that this process must not be done in a “backdoor” fashion, but rather openly.There is “total inequality” between Israeli citizens and settlers, she said, as the latter “have same obligations, but they don’t have the same rights.”“We all know there is no sovereignty in the West Bank,” she said, adding that 50 years from the war “we are all working to fix that.”On housing, the Yesha Council settlement umbrella group presented a plan to another Knesset panel on Tuesday to build 67,000 housing units in the West Bank.The settler group outlined a plan to expand the Tel Aviv metropolitan area into the West Bank, in a bid to drive down housing prices in central Israel. In a presentation to the Knesset Interior Committee, the council proposed a building boom in the West Bank areas adjacent to the densely populated Gush Dan region, from the settlement of Alfei Menashe in the north to Modiin Illit in the south, and Ariel in the east — overall, a 40 percent increase of built-up territory.With tens of thousands of housing units in this eastern corridor, the cost of living in central Israel would drop considerably, the settlement council told lawmakers, in a session attended by Housing Minister Yoav Galant.Galant responded with a call to build in various settlements in those areas.“The entire expanse from Avnei Hefetz, Oranit, Nili, Naale, Gush Halamish, Talmonim, from Kfar Saba to Ben Gurion Airport, is essential for life in Gush Dan,” said Galant. “To settle this area offers a security, strategic solution.”Chairing the meeting, Likud MK David Amsalem implored Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to increase West Bank construction.“A city that does not go forward goes backward,” he said. “If there is no building in Maale Adumin and Jerusalem, they will turn into old age homes.”“Not building is a form of explusion,” he added. “A child who grew up somewhere and you are not allowing him to live there as an adult [because of lack of housing] — you are in effect removing him from that place.”The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee held a “festive” meeting celebrating the outcome of the war, though most of its lawmakers were in Washington.
Ex-defense chief: Erdogan is ‘deliberately Islamicizing’ Europe in bid for world domination-Moshe Ya’alon also says any Trump bid for permanent Israeli-Palestinian peace deal ‘guaranteed recipe for failure’-By Raphael Ahren June 6, 2017, 9:28 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
In a bid for world domination, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is deliberately flooding Europe with Muslims to “Islamicize” the continent, former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon charged.“Erdogan is intentionally Islamicizing Europe. People are ignoring it. It’s deliberate Islamization,” he told The Times of Israel.In a far-reaching interview, the former minister and ex-IDF chief of staff also addressed Donald Trump’s initiative to broker Israeli-Palestinian peace, urging the US president to “not even try” to reach a final status agreement between the two sides.Today, three different streams of Islamic extremism aspire to global hegemony, said Ya’alon, who announced he will compete for the Israel premiership in the next elections. “Iranian Shiite Islam, the Sunni Islamic caliphate and the Muslim Brotherhood, led by Erdogan.”The Turkish president for years allowed jihadists from across the world to come to Syria and Iraq and return to their countries as skilled fighters, the former minister charged. He cited the Greek defense minister as complaining to him last year about Turkey promoting illegal immigration to his country from Arab and Muslim states. The Greek official told Ya’alon about a young Moroccan, who on his way to Germany, arrived in Greece on a rubber boat after having flown to Turkey. Apparently, the man had paid only $50 for the ticket from Marrakech to Istanbul.“That was a subsidized flight. Who subsidized it? They’re being pushed to Europe,” Ya’alon said. The authorities in Athens gave Turkish intelligence a list of 1,224 Turks who were being smuggled to Europe, but Ankara denied any involvement, Ya’alon cited the Greek minister as saying.“Erdogan is acting like a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and he wants to Islamicize Europe,” Ya’alon said. “So when the Europeans demanded he stop this stream [of refugees], what did he ask them? To allow Turks to go to Europe without visas. And what did he tell Turks living in Europe three weeks ago? To increase their birth rates! That’s the Islamization of Europe.”In a rally in March, for instance, Erdogan urged his compatriots in Europe to have “not just three but five children.”In addition, Turkey is funding mosques and Islamic cultural centers all over Europe, especially in the Balkans, the former defense minister said. “He wants hegemony also in Europe.”Ya’alon — who had a falling out with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year, after which he quit the government and the Knesset — said the new US administration appears to be much closer to Israel’s position than that of Barack Obama.“After eight years of great gaps between Israel and US there is potential for change,” he said, lauding Netanyahu for standing up to Obama. Ya’alon also praised Trump for considering Iran as “the core of the problem in the Middle East, and not as part of the solution,” as the Obama administration did, he said.A dairy farmer-turned-general-turned-politician, Ya’alon accuses Netanyahu of corruption and of seeking to undermine Israel’s democracy, but agrees with him wholeheartedly on most, if not all, security and defense matters (though he said he was not happy about the June 2016 reconciliation deal Israel struck with Turkey).Ya’alon — who said former US secretary of State John Kerry was “messianic” and “obsessive” due to his belief he could broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace — was careful not to criticize Trump or his team. But he also did not hide his opinion that any attempt to broker Israeli-Palestinian peace was bound to fail — even if it was done by Trump.“If someone in the White House believes that he can bring about a permanent agreement, that’s a guaranteed recipe for failure,” said Ya’alon, who grew in the Labor movement but in the 1990s became more hawkish and eventually joined the Likud party.Trump has repeatedly said that he is not only determined to attempt to reach a peace agreement, but also that it may actually be easier to achieve than people believe.The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is more complicated than merely professing support for a one-state or a two-state solution, Ya’alon went on.“We have to be realistic. The gap between us and Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas], who is considered moderate compared to Hamas, is enormous,” Ya’alon added. “He is unwilling to agree even on an [interim] agreement with agreed borders that would end the conflict. He’s unwilling to recognize a Jewish state, which is the core of the conflict. It’s not about the settlements, but about their refusal to recognize the Jewish state.”When Palestinians speak about the “occupation” they refer to 1948 — Israel’s founding — and not to the 1967 Six Day War, in which Israel captured Gaza and the West Bank, Ya’alon told The Times of Israel in the Tel Aviv offices of his new political NGO, called “A Different Leadership.”“That is a gap that I don’t see even Trump being able to bridge.”Rather, Ya’alon suggests the White House aim for more modest goals, like strengthening the economy, infrastructure and security in the Palestinian territories, fighting incitement to violence and reforming the Palestinian education system, which preaches hatred for Jews and Israelis.Ya’alon, 66, said he supported the Oslo Accords at the time but his optimism for peace declined when, as head of military intelligence, he informed then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin that the Palestinian leadership was not preparing its people for peace. “The opposite is the case,” he recalled telling Rabin, citing Palestinian television programs for children and textbooks.“If today I were asked to give advice to the Trump administration it would be this: There is no chance to reach a permanent agreement. Don’t even try to reach a permanent agreement,” Ya’alon said.Ya’alon said he hopes that Trump, as an experienced businessman, will pursue a “realistic” Middle East policy. “Time will tell what President Trump intends to do. I don’t see him running yet toward a permanent agreement,” he said. “I think that he won’t be able to bridge the gaps between us and the Palestinians. Not because of us — because the Palestinian rejectionism is consistent.”Besides getting the Palestinians to end incitement and paying “salaries” to terrorists, the White House should also work on advancing a regional alignment between Israel and the Sunni Arab states who seen in Iran a common enemy.“At this point, the concept of an Israeli-Arab conflict is not relevant. There is no Arab-Israeli conflict. There is only an Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Ya’alon said. “I hope that the reports that President Trump heard from the Arabs, and accepted it, that the region cannot be stabilized before the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is solved, are false. I am sure he heard it.”The moderate Sunni Arab states are fairly enthusiastic about Trump’s effort to broker peace between Israelis and Palestinians, Ya’alon posited. “They have other worries,” he said, citing domestic issues and Iran as the most worrying external threat. “I can guarantee you: They don’t care about the Palestinians.”Ya’alon said he was not too worried that Trump, who got close to Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, would try to pressure Israel into accepting the Arab Peace Initiative, dismissing it as a “diktat” that Jerusalem could not possibly consider.During his time in government, Israel “tried to reach agreements” with the Arabs, urging them to present an updated peace proposal, “something that is not a diktat,” he recalled. “But they did not come. I don’t know if they will come now.”
Israelis cry foul as UN leaders lament 50 years of ‘occupation’-UN envoy blasts António Guterres’ ‘preposterous’ statement as ‘Palestinian misinformation;’ deputy foreign minister urges him to ‘correct the distortion’-By Raphael Ahren June 6, 2017, 2:40 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israeli leaders on Tuesday attacked the secretary general of United Nations for a statement in which he decried the ongoing “occupation” of Palestinian territories.Marking the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War, António Guterres issued a statement lamenting the effects Of Israel’s subsequent occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza and the Syrian Golan, which he said caused the “displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and Syrians” and “fueled recurring cycles of violence and retribution.”Ending the occupation that began in 1967 by creating a Palestinian state was the only way to bring peace to the region, he argued.“This occupation has imposed a heavy humanitarian and development burden on the Palestinian people,” Guterres stated. “Among them are generation after generation of Palestinians who have been compelled to grow up and live in ever more crowded refugee camps, many in abject poverty, and with little or no prospect of a better life for their children.”Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, responded to the statement by saying that attacks on Israel by its neighbors did not begin in 1967.“Any attempt at a moral equivalency between killing innocent people and the building of homes is absurd,” he said.Instead of spreading “Palestinian misinformation” the UN should stick with the facts, Danon added.“It is preposterous to blame terror and violence in the Middle East on the one true democracy in the region,” he said. “The moment the Palestinian leadership abandons terror, ceases to incite against our people and finally returns to direct negotiations, then real progress can be made towards peace.”Later he also wagged a finger at UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein for starting off a session of the UN Hman Rights Council by lamenting Palestinian suffering.“It comes as no surprise that he chose to spread lies about Israel before he even mentioned the massacres in Syria. The Commissioner has forgotten that it is his job to care for human rights throughout the world, not to incite against Israel,” he said in a statement. He added that he hoped the US and Israel would work to reform the body.Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely called on Guterres to retract his comments and to “correct the distortion” promoted at the UN that claims Israel’s control over the Golan and the West Bank was an occupation.“On the day when the UN sticks to the facts and ceases the misguided use of the term ‘occupation’ it will restore its credibility as an organization founded to uphold justice and truth,” she said in a statement.Israel is celebrating the 50th anniversary of “the liberation of Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, and these are the facts,” she added.Also marking the Six Day War’s 50th anniversary, the UN coordinator for humanitarian aid and development activities condemned Israeli policies in the territories. “It should be obvious, but it bears repeating, that Occupation is ugly,” Robert Piper said in a statement released Tuesday.“Living under foreign military rule for years on end, generates despair, suffocates initiative and leaves generations in a kind of political and economic limbo.”The Israeli “occupation” is backed by an “ever-present security apparatus” that deliberately isolates isolated Palestinian communities from each other and hamstrings economic activity and deprives many Palestinians of basic rights, Piper charged. “In too many cases, these policies have violated international humanitarian law as well as the human rights instruments to which Israel is a party.”
UN rights czar: Nothing is like Holocaust, but Palestinians are suffering-Marking 50 years since 1967 war, Jordan’s Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein says Israelis and Palestinians both deserve different kinds of freedoms-By Times of Israel staff and AP June 6, 2017, 1:18 pm
The UN human rights chief on Tuesday decried 50 years of Israeli control of the West Bank, “which has denied the Palestinians many of their most fundamental freedoms,” invoking the Jewish Holocaust while simultaneously asserting that he was not comparing the experiences of the two peoples.In a statement marking the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Six Day War, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the Palestinians “deserve freedom, as all peoples do. They deserve to bring up their children safe in their homes, on their land, exercising their rights in their state, free from this long and bitter occupation.”He noted, however, that “Israelis also deserve freedom — a different sort of freedom, for they have long had their state, but they too have suffered grievously.”“The Israeli people have long endured unlawful attacks against their own civilian population,” he said, “attacks which are often vicious, in clear violation of international humanitarian law, and also worthy of condemnation. Israelis too need to be free from this violence, from any existential threat posed to them.”Zeid, who formerly served as Jordan’s representative to the UN, said Palestinian suffering should not be likened to the experiences of the Jews in the Holocaust, but began his speech by recalling his own contacts with Palestinian refugees and visits to sites of concentration camps.“Some will respond, mechanically almost, that the experiences of the two peoples are not equivalent, how could I mention them in one breath? Indeed, I agree — the Holocaust was so monstrous and so mathematically planned and executed it has no parallel, no modern equal,” he said.“Yet it is also undeniable that today, the Palestinian people mark a half-century of deep suffering under an occupation imposed by military force,” he added.This week marks 50 years since Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights during the 1967 war, which broke out after Egypt, Syria and Jordan mobilized to attack Israel.Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt after signing a peace treaty in 1979, de facto annexed the Golan Heights in 1981 and withdrew its troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Its current government maintains that its military control of the West Bank is not an occupation, though the international community and some Israeli leaders disagree.Zeid charged that Israel’s control of the West Bank was brutal and has denied “Palestinians many of their most fundamental freedoms,” and violations of international law were “systematic.”“The end of the occupation must now be brought about, and soon. Maintain the occupation, and for both peoples there will only be a prolongation of immense pain…the weeping by loved ones for loved ones, the prayers, the curses, the hatreds and vengeance, the impossibility of a secure life for all. This can be ended,” he said.On Monday UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres criticized Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and called for the establishment of a Palestinian state.The UN chief said Israel’s military control of Palestinian areas endangers both Israelis and Palestinians. He called for the establishment of a Palestinian state through “direct negotiations to resolve all final status issues on the basis of relevant UN resolutions, agreements and international law.”“This occupation has imposed a heavy humanitarian and development burden on the Palestinian people,” the statement said. “Its perpetuation is sending an unmistakable message to generations of Palestinians that their dream of statehood is destined to remain just that, a dream; and to Israelis that their desire for peace, security and regional recognition remains unattainable.”
Islamic State claims deadly London attack as dozen arrested-News agency linked to group says ‘contingent of fighters’ carried out assault that killed 7, third attack claimed by IS in Britain in months-By Agencies June 5, 2017, 1:26 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the Saturday night London terror attack which left seven people dead, an online news agency affiliated with the jihadists said Monday.“A security detachment from Islamic state carried out London attacks yesterday” the Aamaq news agency said, referring to Saturday’s assault which saw three men in a van plow into pedestrians on London Bridge before going on a stabbing spree.The SITE Intelligence Group said in a statement Sunday that the Aamaq news service cited “a security source” in the Arabic-language posting claiming the attack.Islamic State has often made such claims not just when it has sent attackers, but when extremists carrying out deadly plots were inspired by the group’s ideology.However, SITE director Rita Katz said the claim indicated the attack had been coordinated by the terror group and not simply inspired by it.2) Amaq claim on #LondonAttacks: It was carried out by "a detachment of #ISIS fighters",ie. likely coordinated with #ISIS, not ISIS inspired— Rita Katz (@Rita_Katz) June 4, 2017-The London attack was the third this year that Islamic State has claimed in Britain, after a bombing in Manchester late last month and a similar attack in the heart of London in March.The three attackers in Saturday’s attack have not been identified.British police arrested a dozen people Sunday in a widening terrorism investigation after the attackers, using a van and large knives, turned a balmy evening of nightlife into a bloodbath and killed seven people in the heart of London.Although the attackers were also dead, authorities raced to determine whether others assisted them, and Prime Minister Theresa May warned that the country faced a new threat from copycat attacks.The county’s major political parties temporarily suspended campaigning with only days to go before the general election. May said the vote would take place as scheduled Thursday because “violence can never be allowed to disrupt the democratic process.”The assault unfolded over a few terrifying minutes late Saturday, starting when a rented van veered off the road and barreled into pedestrians on busy London Bridge. Three men then got out of the vehicle with large knives and attacked people at bars and restaurants in nearby Borough Market until they were shot dead by police.“They went ‘This is for Allah,’ and they had a woman on the floor. They were stabbing her,” witness Gerard Vowls said.Florin Morariu, a Romanian chef who works in the Bread Ahead bakery, said he saw people running and some fainting. Then two people approached another person and “began to stick the knife in … and then I froze and I didn’t know what to do.”He said he managed to get near one attacker and “hit him around the head” with a bread basket.“There was a car with a loudspeaker saying ‘go, go’ and they (police) threw a grenade. … and then I ran,” he said.London police said officers killed the attackers within eight minutes of arriving at the scene. Eight officers fired some 50 rounds, said Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, the force’s head of counterterrorism.The three attackers were wearing what appeared to be suicide belts, but the belts turned out to be fake. Investigators were working to determine whether others assisted them, Rowley said.A bystander was also wounded by the gunfire, but the civilian’s injuries were not believed to be critical.Forty-eight people, including two police officers, were treated at hospitals. Twenty-one remained in critical condition Sunday. Among the wounded were German, French and Spanish citizens, officials said.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a Canadian was among the dead. A French national was also confirmed dead.Counterterrorism officers raided several addresses in Barking, an east London suburb, and arrested 12 people there Sunday, police said.Neighbors at the site of one raid in Barking said a man who lived there resembled one of the attackers shown in news photographs.“He’s lived here for about three years,” Damien Pettit said. “He’s one of our neighbors. I’ve said hello in passing more than 50, 60 occasions. He has two young kids. He was a very nice guy.”Armed officers also conducted a raid in the East Ham area of the city. Video showed police shouting at someone: “Get on the balcony. Stand up and show us your hands!”The rampage was the third major attack in Britain in the past three months, including a similar vehicle and knife attack on Westminster Bridge in March that left five people dead.On May 22, a suicide bomber killed 22 people and injured dozens at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, in northwest England. Grande and other stars performed Sunday night at a benefit concert for victims under tight security in Manchester.“I don’t feel or smell or hear or see any fear in this building. All we feel here tonight is love, resilience, positivity,” said Pharrel Williams, who performed alongside Miley Cyrus.May said the attacks were not directly connected, “but we believe we are experiencing a new trend in the threat we face” as “terrorism breeds terrorism” and attackers copy one another. She said five credible plots have been disrupted since March.“It is time to say, enough is enough,” she said.Britain’s official terrorism threat level was raised from “severe” to “critical” after the Manchester attack, meaning an attack may be imminent. Several days later it was lowered again to “severe,” meaning an attack is highly likely.Home Secretary Amber Rudd said Sunday that the level would remain at severe because police believe there are no perpetrators still on the loose.London Bridge and a large area on the south bank of the River Thames remained cordoned off Sunday, and police told people to avoid the area.Hours earlier, the area packed with bars and restaurants around the foodie magnet of Borough Market had been a scene of panic, as people barricaded themselves in pubs and restaurants or fled through the streets.Medics treated the wounded near the market as shocked people cried and shouted around them. Police officers yelled at people to run from the area, and blasts were heard as officers performed a series of controlled explosions.Renan Marquese, a sous-chef at a tapas restaurant, said he was working when he heard chaotic sounds outside.“When I open the door I see three dead people on the floor,” he said. “People running everywhere, police shouting to run away.”He said that he helped a man and his partner, even taking the woman into his arms because she was too upset to walk properly. He said it took him 20 minutes to carry her across the bridge, stumbling all the way.“It was really scary,” he said.Amid the violence and fear were stories of compassion and heroism. The British Transport Police said one of their officers, among the first to arrive, took the attackers on armed only with his baton and was seriously wounded. He was later described as being in stable condition with injuries that were not life-threatening.Witnesses described how passers-by threw chairs and beer glasses at the attackers in an attempt to stop them.Richard Angell, who was in a restaurant, said he looked out and saw “a guy who is throwing a table at somebody, and it’s very unclear about what is happening. And it turns out to be a heroic guy who saw what was happening and just bombarded these terrible cowardly people with stuff.”Vowls also saw people striking back at the attackers and said he joined in.“I went ‘Oi, terrorists, cowards, Oi!'” he told The Associated Press. Then he picked up a chair.“I chucked it, but I think I missed one of them, and then I picked up a stool, and I threw it at him. And he looked at me. He started running towards me, and then he decided not to.“Then I was screaming at them, picking up bottles from a beer barrel. I was just throwing it at them, trying to get them to chase me so I could get them out into the main road where the police could see them and obviously take them down.”
