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
Israelis gather in Jerusalem’s Old City after weeks of tensions over Temple Mount-Thousands pray at Western Wall to mark start of Tisha B’Av fasting and memorial day, commemorating destruction of ancient temples-By AFP and Times of Israel staff August 1, 2017, 1:41 am
Thousands of Jews attended prayers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem to observe the start of the Tisha B’Av fasting day on Monday night, days after violence shook the city.Prayer leaders read aloud from the Book of Lamentations, the prophet Jeremiah’s biblical account of the destruction of the First Jewish Temple by invading Babylonians in 586 BC.The Western Wall is a remnant of the Second Jewish Temple, built on the site of the first and destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.The wall is at the foot of the Temple Mount compound, known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, which houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the golden-topped Dome of the Rock in the heart of the Old City, the third-holiest site in Islam, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.It is the most sacred site for Jews, who revere it as the location of the two destroyed temples.Tisha B’Av commemorates the destruction of both temples, as well several other disasters in Jewish history.The event comes after relative calm returned to Jerusalem following nearly two weeks of Palestinian protests over security measures at the Temple Mount, installed after a July 14 terror attack in which three Israeli Arabs shot dead two Israeli Druze policemen with weapons they had smuggled onto the compound.Muslim worshipers had refused to enter the site until the security installations at entrances to the compound were removed and Palestinian protesters staged near-daily riots in and around East Jerusalem and the West Bank.The protests left six Palestinians dead. A week after the Temple Mount terror attack, a Palestinian terrorist broke into a home in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank and stabbed four Israelis to death while they were having Shabbat dinner, killing three. The terrorist cited the events surrounding the Temple Mount as a main motivator, in a Facebook post hours before his murderous spree.The crisis ended last week when Israeli authorities removed the newly installed measures, including metal detectors, following heavy pressure from Jordan, the custodian of the Temple Mount, and the Palestinians.The site has frequently been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Under a decades-old agreement, only Muslims are allowed to pray inside the compound, although non-Muslims are allowed access.Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said in a statement that extra units were being deployed in Jerusalem throughout the 24-hour period for Tisha B’Av.While many of the thousands of worshipers at the Western Wall on Monday evening were religious, recognizable by the men’s skullcaps and women’s long dresses, secular Jews also attended the ceremonies.“I’m not really religious but it’s important for me to come here for this commemoration, this day of mourning,” said 25-year-old Leora Kaufman.“Tisha B’Av is also a reminder of the need to stay united,” she said.
Police arrest 33 suspected of instigating Temple Mount riots-Overnight raids in East Jerusalem neighborhoods round up key figures who police say fueled violent protests-By Times of Israel staff July 31, 2017, 4:02 pm
Police arrested in raids overnight Sunday 33 men suspected of playing key roles in recent violent demonstrations against Israeli security measures at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City.Officers and border guards, equipped with arrest warrants, raided homes in East Jerusalem and detained the suspects for questioning, police said in a statement.Seven were minors aged between 13 and 17, police said.Raids took place in A Tur, the Shuafat refugee camp, Beit Hanina, Wadi Joz, Ras Al Amud, Issawiya, and the Old City.The detainees are suspected of taking part in riots and endangering lives, the statement said.Following questioning they will be brought before a court to have their detention extended.Police said that by using a combination of groundwork, intelligence-gathering, documentation, and “sophisticated use of technologies” they were able to identify major instigators of violent rioting.During the rioting dozens of suspects gathered in a number of locations and threw stones, glass bottles and Molotov cocktails, set dumpsters alight, blocked roads, and launched firecrackers at security forces.A number of officers were injured during the rioting, police said.“The Israel police takes a serious view of efforts to riot with the aim of shaping reality and to influence decision making, and will not allow it,” the statement said.Israel installed new security measures at the Temple Mount following a July 14 terror attack in which three Arab-Israelis shot dead two police officers using weapons smuggled into the site. The move led to almost two weeks of unrest from East Jerusalem and West Bank Palestinians in protest of the changes.Protesters boycotted prayer at the site until the metal detectors and other security measures were removed and held mass prayers daily outside the Old City, which sometimes devolved into violent clashes with security forces.The new security measures at the Temple Mount were also cited as the motivation in a pair of terror attacks, including a fatal stabbing in the West Bank settlement of Halamish.Israel rolled back the security measures last week in a bid to calm tensions under intense pressure from the Arab world and the international community.
Removing Temple Mount security hard but necessary choice, PM says-Netanyahu vows NIS 100 million budget will see new measures introduced to replace metal detectors violently rejected by Muslims-By Stuart Winer July 30, 2017, 1:33 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday defended his decision to remove controversial security measures at the Temple Mount, saying it was not an easy choice and vowing to push ahead with a plan to boost other security measures at the sensitive holy site.In comments made before the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said he had ordered the measures rolled back over concern for Israel’s overall security, after weeks of violent protests by Palestinians boycotting the site.Polls showed much of the public did not support the decision to remove the measures, which were put in place after a deadly terrorist attack carried out with guns smuggled onto the Temple Mount, and many saw it as a “capitulation” to Muslim authorities seeking to exert control over the flashpoint Jerusalem compound.“I am attentive to public feeling,” Netanyahu said, referring to Israeli outrage over the removal of the detectors. “With that, as the prime minister of Israel, as the one who carries on his shoulders the responsibility for the security of Israel — I must make decisions coolly and judiciously. I do that out of a view of the big picture, a wide view of the challenges and threats that are facing us. Some of them are not known to the the public and as is the nature of things I can’t go into details.”While the arrangements at the Temple Mount have gone back to the way they were before the July 14 attack — as demanded by Palestinians and officials from Jordan’s Waqf Islamic trust, which administers the site — Netanyahu said that he had already ordered a boost in the security presence in the Old City and that the cabinet had approved a NIS 100 million budget to finance the new measures including the purchase of unspecified new equipment.“In recent days I ordered an increase in the security forces at the Temple Mount and in the Old City, in order to prevent terror attacks and rioting and also to act firmly against lawbreakers,” he said.The security cabinet said last Tuesday it would replace the metal detectors with “advanced technologies,” referring reportedly to cameras that can detect hidden objects, but said the process could take up to six months.Waqf officials have already said that they would not accept the installation of the new cameras.After thanking the security forces for their service, Netanyahu also issued a warning “to our enemies on all fronts: the IDF, the Shin Bet, and the Israel Police are ready to act with full force against all those who try to harm our citizens, our soldiers and and our police. That is how we have acted in the past and that is how we will act in the future.”
Palestinians see Temple Mount showdown as rare grassroots victory-Masses in the streets protesting security measures at the holy site credited with forcing Israel to back down, and many now want to keep ball rolling-By Joe Dyke July 30, 2017, 9:14 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
AFP — Though it was well past midnight, as news filtered through that Israeli police were removing the remaining new security measures from outside the Temple Mount compound, hundreds of Palestinians flooded the streets.When one youth started to taunt police warily watching the gathering crowds early on Thursday, others angrily remonstrated with him.This was a night for celebrating what the Palestinians saw as a rare victory.For Israelis, the situation grew out of a horrible terror attack on July 14, launched by three gun-wielding Arab Israelis from within the holy site who killed two policemen standing outside.But many of them also viewed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the crisis as inadequate.While Palestinians’ joy at the removal of the security measures was somewhat tarnished by clashes inside the compound — which houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque — later Thursday, Palestinians that night chanted and hugged each other, as car horns sounded incessantly.A huge Palestinian flag was carried by young men onto one of the Old City’s walls — an extremely rare act in a city that Israel considers its undivided capital.“We feel joyous. I live quite far away but I walked here for Al-Aqsa,” said Nisreen, a young woman in the crowd.“The Israelis think this is it. God willing this is just the beginning.”The celebrations came nearly two weeks after the attack near the Temple Mount compound, the most sacred site in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam, known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif.The three attackers used guns that they had smuggled into the site to shoot dead the two police officers standing at the nearby Lions Gate entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem. The gunmen then fled back inside the Temple Mount compound where they were shot by pursuing police.The site, which includes the revered Al-Aqsa Mosque and the golden-topped Dome of the Rock, serves as a key unification point for Palestinians. It is celebrated by Jews as the location of both the First and Second Temples.Israel responded to the terror attack by installing new security measures, particularly metal detectors and cameras at approach points and entrances to the holy site.Officials noted such measures were standard at major religious sites but Palestinians saw it as Israel trying to take further control of the compound, a charge that Israel adamantly denied.The Waqf, a Jordan-based Islamic endowments authority that runs the compound under a delicate status-quo agreement following the 1967 war, refused to enter until the measures were removed and instructed Muslims to stay away. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah political party as well as the Hamas terror group called for “Days of Rage” against the measures.Days of street protests followed, with thousands praying outside the compound as part of a boycott. On the first Friday with the new measures in place, protests hit a boiling point, with deadly violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and a terror attack in which a Palestinian sneaked into a West Bank home and stabbed three people to death.Early on Tuesday, the metal detectors were removed but railings and other new structures remained in place. The boycott continued.Two days later, police returned around 1 a.m. to remove the rest, sparking the joyous scenes. The Waqf instructed that the boycott continue until it had reviewed the situation on the ground and later declared the compound fit for worship as did the PA.But while the Palestinian protest movement was called to the streets by the Waqf, Palestinians have celebrated the Israeli move as a rare grassroots victory.“This cut across all lines — religious, not so religious, Muslim, Christian, rich or poor,” Diana Buttu, a former Palestinian official turned analyst, said.According to Buttu and others, the Palestinian political leadership of all factions, including the internationally recognized leadership of the Palestinian Authority, had been mostly irrelevant, with the movement led largely by protesters.“Palestinians have been very encouraged by what for them is one success within a sea of defeats,” Ofer Zalzberg from the International Crisis Group think tank told AFP.He put the victory down to an “Israeli inability to stop the movement because of the sheer size and because it was around Al-Aqsa.”Al-Aqsa is a rare unifying symbol for all Palestinians and there is a risk they could fall back into political infighting now that the immediate threat has been defeated, he added.But Zalzberg said the mostly young people who had taken part in the two weeks of protests will be keen to push their leaders.“The next time there is a major issue, will they not go back to the same religious authorities and tell them: ‘You were successful with the metal detectors. Why don’t we do something?'”In Israel, leaders are also under pressure from the opposite direction, with some 77 percent of Israeli Jews saying they thought the move constituted “capitulation.”Netanyahu, who heads what is seen as the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, has since called for the death penalty for the Palestinian who killed carried out the Halamish settlement attack in what some analysts saw as a move to please his right-wing base.“There is a strong sense of humiliation, especially among the right wing,” Zalzberg said.“They are pushing the government to reverse this humiliation by giving them something else.”Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Why more Israelis are moving to the US-The Israeli-American diaspora is real, growing and leaving its mark with nearly 150 Israeli startups in Silicon Valley-By Ben Sales August 1, 2017, 3:21 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
JTA — Six years ago, the Israeli government released a series of controversial ads to show its expatriates that they would never feel at home in the United States.But last year, Israeli cabinet members lined up to address a Washington DC, conference celebrating Israeli-American identity.The ad campaign, which was pulled following a backlash from Israelis and Jews abroad, represented Israel’s traditional attitude toward citizens who left its borders. Emphasizing its image as the Jewish national homeland — and ever concerned about its Jewish-Arab demographic balance — Israel’s government has long encouraged Jews not only to move to Israel but to stay there. In 2014, then-Finance Minister Yair Lapid called Israelis who moved to Berlin “anti-Zionists.”But the parade of Israeli ministers who spoke at the 2016 conference of the Israeli-American Council attested to a shifting reality: Whether the Israeli government likes it or not, the Israeli-American diaspora is real, growing and leaving its mark on the United States.Here are four things to know about the Israelis who live in the United States.No one knows how many Israelis live in the United States — but it could be a million.There’s no real way to know how many Israelis are living in the United States. Any first-generation child of Israelis is considered an Israeli citizen, and Israel can’t force its expatriates to register with their local consulate.Estimates of Israelis in America vary widely — from about 200,000 to as many as a million. According to statistics from the US Department of Homeland Security, some 250,000 Israelis acquired permanent residence in the United States between 1949 (when 98 Israelis left the infant state) to 2015 (which saw about 4,000 Israelis move stateside). But that number does not chart deaths or Israelis who moved back.The 2013 Pew Research Forum study on American Jews found a similar number: About 300,000 Jews in America were either born in Israel or born to an Israeli parent. In total, Pew found that first- or second-generation Israelis account for about 5 percent of American Jews.Even the Israeli government produces two different numbers. Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics reports that a little more than 500,000 Israelis in total moved abroad from 1990 to 2014 — and nearly 230,000 came back. But Israel’s US Embassy told JTA that between 750,000 and 1 million Israelis live in the country. Adam Milstein, chairman of the Israeli-American Council, an umbrella group for Israelis here, told JTA that includes 400,000 children born to an Israeli parent.In recent years, Israel has lost more people to the United States than it has gained. From 2012 to 2015, according to Homeland Security, 17,770 Israelis took up residence in the United States. During that span, fewer than 13,000 people made the move from the United States to Israel.They are centered in New York and Los Angeles.Israelis tend to go where the Jews are. Milstein estimates that about 250,000 Israelis each live in the Los Angeles and New York City metro areas, which also boast the two largest Jewish communities in the United States. Smaller concentrations of Israelis (and Jews) live in South Florida, Chicago and San Francisco.Those cities, in turn, have developed a range of services for their Israeli diasporas. Israel’s Immigrant Absorption Ministry maintains Israeli Houses in nine American cities that host cultural events and political activism. The Israeli-American Council has chapters in 15 cities. And communities boast active Facebook groups: “Israelis in New York” includes 18,000 members.The cities also provide ample opportunities for Israeli culture. Israeli cuisine is a staple of New York’s restaurant scene, from chef Einat Admony’s mini empire of eateries, to Dizengoff, an Israeli restaurant with branches in Philadelphia and New York. Aroma, the iconic Israeli coffee chain, has branches in New York, New Jersey, Washington DC and Miami.And Israeli musicians — from Idan Raichel to Shlomo Artzi to Sarit Hadad — are never hard to find on New York’s concert scene. An adaptation of Israeli novelist David Grossman’s book “To the End of the Land” opened recently at the annual Lincoln Center Festival.They come for education and work.Neither the Israeli Embassy nor the Israeli-American Council tracks why Israelis move to the US, but Milstein suspects it’s for professional and academic reasons. Israel’s small size means Israelis with college or advanced degrees often seek to advance their careers in places with more opportunities abroad.Israelis “don’t have the roots [of] someone whose family lived in Italy for 20 generations, or who lived in America for the last 150 years,” Milstein said. “The Jewish people, the most valuable asset they have is their brain. They can take their brain[s] anywhere.”Israel, conversely, has begun to worry about its “brain drain” recently. A 2013 study by the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies found that for every 100 Israeli scholars who stayed in Israel, 29 left for positions abroad in 2008.The drain is happening in the tech industry, too: According to the Israeli Executives and Founders Forum, an Israeli tech association, there are nearly 150 Israeli startups in Silicon Valley.Israel still wants them back.Israel’s government may have recognized that it can’t bring back all the Israelis from the United States, but it’s still trying. The appeal is both emotional and economic.The 2011 ad campaign, for example, featured a series of shorts highlighting the Israeli-American cultural divide. In one, a child of Israelis in America, video chatting with Israeli grandparents, talks about the upcoming winter holiday of Christmas, not Hanukkah. In another, an Israeli woman comes home to commemorate Memorial Day in Israel with a candle — her American boyfriend mistakes it for romantic lighting.More recently, Israel has also laid out financial incentives to draw expatriates back, including a program set to launch later this year called “Returning at 70,” a reference to Israel’s 70th Independence Day in 2018. The Immigrant Absorption Ministry will provide returning Israelis with financial assistance for six months, and will even cover a portion of their salaries in order to ensure they can find work in their old-new home. The government is also offering free professional development courses and consulting.Israelis who have opened businesses stateside, meanwhile, will receive about $14,000 for the costs of relocating the business. And Israelis who move to the country’s underdeveloped northern and southern regions are eligible for grants as well as loans with low interest rates.But Milstein says that even with these programs, Israeli officials still understand that it’s better to embrace expatriates than shame them into coming home.“By trying to raise our guilt feeling, it backfired,” he said. “The State of Israel is getting to the realization that [our] being here, they can’t do too much about it. We can help the State of Israel a lot. They understand we can be their strategic asset.”
Police okays anti-gay protest during Jerusalem pride march-Ultra-nationalist Lehava group to stage demonstration against LGBT community during Thursday’s parade-By Times of Israel staff August 1, 2017, 2:24 am
Israel Police gave the final okay on Sunday for the ultra-nationalist Lehava group to hold a protest against Jerusalem’s annual LGBT pride march during the event on Thursday, against the wishes of a gay pride group for parents.Police will allow for 100 Lehava members to stage the protest, several hundred meters away from the marchers and under heavy guard from police officers.This year’s Lehava protest will be held under the banner “Don’t give them children,” a reference to the national debate about same-sex adoption in Israel.Lehava said it planned to hold a “humanitarian” demonstration against the pride parade, scheduled for Thursday evening. The march will run from the capital’s Independence Park to Liberty Bell Park-Lehava’s primary platform is opposition to relationships between Jews and non-Jews. Some of its members were convicted of setting fire to a bilingual Hebrew-Arabic school in Jerusalem in 2014. The group has also taken aim at the LGBTQ community whom it has accused of “defiling” the holy city.Police were bracing for this year’s march which comes two years after 16-year-old Shira Banki was stabbed to death by an ultra-Orthodox man during the 2015 parade. The assailant was the same attacker who 10 years prior had stabbed three pride participants, yelling that he was on a mission from God. The man, Yishai Schlissel, had completed his 10-year prison sentence and had been recently released prior to the 2015 murder. He is now serving a life sentence.Days before the 2015 stabbing, Schlissel penned a handwritten anti-gay manifesto in which he called the pride march “shameful” and “blasphemous,” and alluded to plans to perpetrate another attack.Some religious populations of the city consider homosexuality to be a sin.Police have issued warnings to some 50 individuals, including a number of settlers living in the West Bank, according to a Channel 2 report which added that a number of them were asked not to come within distance of Jerusalem on Thursday.Organizers anticipate that some 4,000 people will take part in this year’s parade.Last year’s Jerusalem Pride March was held in honor of Banki and drew some 30,000 people.
Reagan once fired his communications director after 5 days – and not because he was a former Hitler youth-Unlike the hapless Anthony Scaramucci, John Koehler lost his job in a White House reorganization effort-By Ron Kampeas August 1, 2017, 2:38 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
JTA — Did Anthony Scaramucci, sent packing from the White House on Monday, set a record for the shortest stint as communication’s director? Scaramucci — The Mooch — was let go in part because of an obscenity-laden interview he gave to The New Yorker magazine last week. He wasn’t set to formally take the job for another two weeks (Aug. 15) but he clearly had started work as of Friday, July 21 — so that’s 11 days.But there was, in fact, a communications chief who was on the job for a shorter period. According to our archive, John Koehler lasted just five working days in 1987, under President Ronald Reagan.Why? Officially, Koehler was ousted as part of a reorganization. And yet our story notes that Koehler, an immigrant from Germany, had been in Hitler Youth.It turns out that the “reorganization” was more fact than spin. James Baker had taken over as Reagan’s chief of staff from Donald Regan — who had left suddenly because of his clashes with First Lady Nancy Reagan, and who had hired Koehler. Baker wanted his own guy, Tom Griscom, in the slot.The Hitler Youth reference, which kept coming up in the reporting at the time, clearly irked Koehler: He had never hidden his membership for six months when he was 10 years old. “Christ, it’s on every damn statement I’ve ever made,” the former Associated Press executive told UPI before he assumed the job. Two of his three wives were Jewish and, he said, he attended synagogue. As a teenager in Germany he worked as an interpreter for the US Army, and later, after he became a US citizen, served in army intelligence.He died in 2012 and was buried with military honors at Arlington Cemetery. Reagan, to whom Koehler had been close, kept him on staff at the US Information Agency.There’s another irony surrounding Koehler: The man who worked hard to shake off the stigma of belonging to Hitler Youth had replaced Pat Buchanan, an official who consistently displayed anti-Jewish bias, and who urged Reagan stick to his notorious decision to pay tribute at a German military cemetery.
Singing ‘hit, hit Zionists,’ thousands rally against Israel in Istanbul-Demonstrators wave Turkish and Palestinian flags; protest security measures around Temple Mount, removed by Israel last week-By Agencies and Times of Israel staff July 30, 2017, 9:42 pm
Thousands of supporters of a conservative Turkish party rallied in Istanbul on Sunday to protest security measures taken by Israel in Jerusalem — removed last week — and show solidarity with the Palestinians.Protesters waved Turkish and Palestinian flags Sunday at the “Great Jerusalem Meeting” in Istanbul. A jingle with the lyric “Hit, hit Zionists” played.Israel installed metal detectors and cameras around the Temple Mount compound following a deadly July 14 attack that saw three Arab Israeli gunmen kill two Israeli police officers at the holy site with weapons smuggled into the compound.The new security measures sparked mass protests by Muslim worshipers, who boycotted the compound for 12 days.Late last week, Israel removed the security measures.But tensions remain high in Turkey, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying the removal of the detectors was “not enough.”Sunday’s protest was called by the Saadet (Felicity) Party, which emerged from the same Islamic-rooted political movement as the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Erdogan, but is seen as more religiously conservative.The Islamist party’s leader, Temel Karamollaoglu, told the crowd that Muslims would not give up on Jerusalem.Under the slogan of “Israel understands a show of strength,” the rally was held at the vast Yenikapi Square by the Sea of Marmara which has been the scene of many of Erdogan’s biggest meetings.However there was no sign of any senior government official at the gathering.The mass of people also chanted slogans such as “Istanbul and Jerusalem are arm-in-arm.”“I hope that when they see how many people are here, then Israel will get the message,” said protester Sadik Sen. “We want to show to our Muslim brothers there that we are behind them.”Improbably, Karamollaoglu had sent a letter of invitation to football star Cristiano Ronaldo. There was no sign of the Real Madrid and Portugal player.Tensions between Israel and Turkey have been high since the showdown over the Temple Mount security measures. Erdogan had panned Israel for use of “excessive force” against Muslim worshipers during clashes in the area.“Israeli soldiers are defiling Al-Aqsa with their combat boots by using simple excuses to easily shed blood there,” he said at an AKP faction meeting last week, referring to the mosque that sits on the mount along with the Dome of the Rock.Hitting back, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday accused Erdogan of hypocrisy.“It would be interesting to see what Erdogan would say to the residents of northern Cyprus or to the Kurds. Erdogan is the last person who can preach to Israel,” a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said.
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
Israelis gather in Jerusalem’s Old City after weeks of tensions over Temple Mount-Thousands pray at Western Wall to mark start of Tisha B’Av fasting and memorial day, commemorating destruction of ancient temples-By AFP and Times of Israel staff August 1, 2017, 1:41 am
Thousands of Jews attended prayers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem to observe the start of the Tisha B’Av fasting day on Monday night, days after violence shook the city.Prayer leaders read aloud from the Book of Lamentations, the prophet Jeremiah’s biblical account of the destruction of the First Jewish Temple by invading Babylonians in 586 BC.The Western Wall is a remnant of the Second Jewish Temple, built on the site of the first and destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.The wall is at the foot of the Temple Mount compound, known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, which houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the golden-topped Dome of the Rock in the heart of the Old City, the third-holiest site in Islam, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.It is the most sacred site for Jews, who revere it as the location of the two destroyed temples.Tisha B’Av commemorates the destruction of both temples, as well several other disasters in Jewish history.The event comes after relative calm returned to Jerusalem following nearly two weeks of Palestinian protests over security measures at the Temple Mount, installed after a July 14 terror attack in which three Israeli Arabs shot dead two Israeli Druze policemen with weapons they had smuggled onto the compound.Muslim worshipers had refused to enter the site until the security installations at entrances to the compound were removed and Palestinian protesters staged near-daily riots in and around East Jerusalem and the West Bank.The protests left six Palestinians dead. A week after the Temple Mount terror attack, a Palestinian terrorist broke into a home in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank and stabbed four Israelis to death while they were having Shabbat dinner, killing three. The terrorist cited the events surrounding the Temple Mount as a main motivator, in a Facebook post hours before his murderous spree.The crisis ended last week when Israeli authorities removed the newly installed measures, including metal detectors, following heavy pressure from Jordan, the custodian of the Temple Mount, and the Palestinians.The site has frequently been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Under a decades-old agreement, only Muslims are allowed to pray inside the compound, although non-Muslims are allowed access.Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said in a statement that extra units were being deployed in Jerusalem throughout the 24-hour period for Tisha B’Av.While many of the thousands of worshipers at the Western Wall on Monday evening were religious, recognizable by the men’s skullcaps and women’s long dresses, secular Jews also attended the ceremonies.“I’m not really religious but it’s important for me to come here for this commemoration, this day of mourning,” said 25-year-old Leora Kaufman.“Tisha B’Av is also a reminder of the need to stay united,” she said.
Police arrest 33 suspected of instigating Temple Mount riots-Overnight raids in East Jerusalem neighborhoods round up key figures who police say fueled violent protests-By Times of Israel staff July 31, 2017, 4:02 pm
Police arrested in raids overnight Sunday 33 men suspected of playing key roles in recent violent demonstrations against Israeli security measures at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City.Officers and border guards, equipped with arrest warrants, raided homes in East Jerusalem and detained the suspects for questioning, police said in a statement.Seven were minors aged between 13 and 17, police said.Raids took place in A Tur, the Shuafat refugee camp, Beit Hanina, Wadi Joz, Ras Al Amud, Issawiya, and the Old City.The detainees are suspected of taking part in riots and endangering lives, the statement said.Following questioning they will be brought before a court to have their detention extended.Police said that by using a combination of groundwork, intelligence-gathering, documentation, and “sophisticated use of technologies” they were able to identify major instigators of violent rioting.During the rioting dozens of suspects gathered in a number of locations and threw stones, glass bottles and Molotov cocktails, set dumpsters alight, blocked roads, and launched firecrackers at security forces.A number of officers were injured during the rioting, police said.“The Israel police takes a serious view of efforts to riot with the aim of shaping reality and to influence decision making, and will not allow it,” the statement said.Israel installed new security measures at the Temple Mount following a July 14 terror attack in which three Arab-Israelis shot dead two police officers using weapons smuggled into the site. The move led to almost two weeks of unrest from East Jerusalem and West Bank Palestinians in protest of the changes.Protesters boycotted prayer at the site until the metal detectors and other security measures were removed and held mass prayers daily outside the Old City, which sometimes devolved into violent clashes with security forces.The new security measures at the Temple Mount were also cited as the motivation in a pair of terror attacks, including a fatal stabbing in the West Bank settlement of Halamish.Israel rolled back the security measures last week in a bid to calm tensions under intense pressure from the Arab world and the international community.
Removing Temple Mount security hard but necessary choice, PM says-Netanyahu vows NIS 100 million budget will see new measures introduced to replace metal detectors violently rejected by Muslims-By Stuart Winer July 30, 2017, 1:33 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday defended his decision to remove controversial security measures at the Temple Mount, saying it was not an easy choice and vowing to push ahead with a plan to boost other security measures at the sensitive holy site.In comments made before the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said he had ordered the measures rolled back over concern for Israel’s overall security, after weeks of violent protests by Palestinians boycotting the site.Polls showed much of the public did not support the decision to remove the measures, which were put in place after a deadly terrorist attack carried out with guns smuggled onto the Temple Mount, and many saw it as a “capitulation” to Muslim authorities seeking to exert control over the flashpoint Jerusalem compound.“I am attentive to public feeling,” Netanyahu said, referring to Israeli outrage over the removal of the detectors. “With that, as the prime minister of Israel, as the one who carries on his shoulders the responsibility for the security of Israel — I must make decisions coolly and judiciously. I do that out of a view of the big picture, a wide view of the challenges and threats that are facing us. Some of them are not known to the the public and as is the nature of things I can’t go into details.”While the arrangements at the Temple Mount have gone back to the way they were before the July 14 attack — as demanded by Palestinians and officials from Jordan’s Waqf Islamic trust, which administers the site — Netanyahu said that he had already ordered a boost in the security presence in the Old City and that the cabinet had approved a NIS 100 million budget to finance the new measures including the purchase of unspecified new equipment.“In recent days I ordered an increase in the security forces at the Temple Mount and in the Old City, in order to prevent terror attacks and rioting and also to act firmly against lawbreakers,” he said.The security cabinet said last Tuesday it would replace the metal detectors with “advanced technologies,” referring reportedly to cameras that can detect hidden objects, but said the process could take up to six months.Waqf officials have already said that they would not accept the installation of the new cameras.After thanking the security forces for their service, Netanyahu also issued a warning “to our enemies on all fronts: the IDF, the Shin Bet, and the Israel Police are ready to act with full force against all those who try to harm our citizens, our soldiers and and our police. That is how we have acted in the past and that is how we will act in the future.”
Palestinians see Temple Mount showdown as rare grassroots victory-Masses in the streets protesting security measures at the holy site credited with forcing Israel to back down, and many now want to keep ball rolling-By Joe Dyke July 30, 2017, 9:14 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
AFP — Though it was well past midnight, as news filtered through that Israeli police were removing the remaining new security measures from outside the Temple Mount compound, hundreds of Palestinians flooded the streets.When one youth started to taunt police warily watching the gathering crowds early on Thursday, others angrily remonstrated with him.This was a night for celebrating what the Palestinians saw as a rare victory.For Israelis, the situation grew out of a horrible terror attack on July 14, launched by three gun-wielding Arab Israelis from within the holy site who killed two policemen standing outside.But many of them also viewed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the crisis as inadequate.While Palestinians’ joy at the removal of the security measures was somewhat tarnished by clashes inside the compound — which houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque — later Thursday, Palestinians that night chanted and hugged each other, as car horns sounded incessantly.A huge Palestinian flag was carried by young men onto one of the Old City’s walls — an extremely rare act in a city that Israel considers its undivided capital.“We feel joyous. I live quite far away but I walked here for Al-Aqsa,” said Nisreen, a young woman in the crowd.“The Israelis think this is it. God willing this is just the beginning.”The celebrations came nearly two weeks after the attack near the Temple Mount compound, the most sacred site in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam, known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif.The three attackers used guns that they had smuggled into the site to shoot dead the two police officers standing at the nearby Lions Gate entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem. The gunmen then fled back inside the Temple Mount compound where they were shot by pursuing police.The site, which includes the revered Al-Aqsa Mosque and the golden-topped Dome of the Rock, serves as a key unification point for Palestinians. It is celebrated by Jews as the location of both the First and Second Temples.Israel responded to the terror attack by installing new security measures, particularly metal detectors and cameras at approach points and entrances to the holy site.Officials noted such measures were standard at major religious sites but Palestinians saw it as Israel trying to take further control of the compound, a charge that Israel adamantly denied.The Waqf, a Jordan-based Islamic endowments authority that runs the compound under a delicate status-quo agreement following the 1967 war, refused to enter until the measures were removed and instructed Muslims to stay away. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah political party as well as the Hamas terror group called for “Days of Rage” against the measures.Days of street protests followed, with thousands praying outside the compound as part of a boycott. On the first Friday with the new measures in place, protests hit a boiling point, with deadly violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and a terror attack in which a Palestinian sneaked into a West Bank home and stabbed three people to death.Early on Tuesday, the metal detectors were removed but railings and other new structures remained in place. The boycott continued.Two days later, police returned around 1 a.m. to remove the rest, sparking the joyous scenes. The Waqf instructed that the boycott continue until it had reviewed the situation on the ground and later declared the compound fit for worship as did the PA.But while the Palestinian protest movement was called to the streets by the Waqf, Palestinians have celebrated the Israeli move as a rare grassroots victory.“This cut across all lines — religious, not so religious, Muslim, Christian, rich or poor,” Diana Buttu, a former Palestinian official turned analyst, said.According to Buttu and others, the Palestinian political leadership of all factions, including the internationally recognized leadership of the Palestinian Authority, had been mostly irrelevant, with the movement led largely by protesters.“Palestinians have been very encouraged by what for them is one success within a sea of defeats,” Ofer Zalzberg from the International Crisis Group think tank told AFP.He put the victory down to an “Israeli inability to stop the movement because of the sheer size and because it was around Al-Aqsa.”Al-Aqsa is a rare unifying symbol for all Palestinians and there is a risk they could fall back into political infighting now that the immediate threat has been defeated, he added.But Zalzberg said the mostly young people who had taken part in the two weeks of protests will be keen to push their leaders.“The next time there is a major issue, will they not go back to the same religious authorities and tell them: ‘You were successful with the metal detectors. Why don’t we do something?'”In Israel, leaders are also under pressure from the opposite direction, with some 77 percent of Israeli Jews saying they thought the move constituted “capitulation.”Netanyahu, who heads what is seen as the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, has since called for the death penalty for the Palestinian who killed carried out the Halamish settlement attack in what some analysts saw as a move to please his right-wing base.“There is a strong sense of humiliation, especially among the right wing,” Zalzberg said.“They are pushing the government to reverse this humiliation by giving them something else.”Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Why more Israelis are moving to the US-The Israeli-American diaspora is real, growing and leaving its mark with nearly 150 Israeli startups in Silicon Valley-By Ben Sales August 1, 2017, 3:21 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
JTA — Six years ago, the Israeli government released a series of controversial ads to show its expatriates that they would never feel at home in the United States.But last year, Israeli cabinet members lined up to address a Washington DC, conference celebrating Israeli-American identity.The ad campaign, which was pulled following a backlash from Israelis and Jews abroad, represented Israel’s traditional attitude toward citizens who left its borders. Emphasizing its image as the Jewish national homeland — and ever concerned about its Jewish-Arab demographic balance — Israel’s government has long encouraged Jews not only to move to Israel but to stay there. In 2014, then-Finance Minister Yair Lapid called Israelis who moved to Berlin “anti-Zionists.”But the parade of Israeli ministers who spoke at the 2016 conference of the Israeli-American Council attested to a shifting reality: Whether the Israeli government likes it or not, the Israeli-American diaspora is real, growing and leaving its mark on the United States.Here are four things to know about the Israelis who live in the United States.No one knows how many Israelis live in the United States — but it could be a million.There’s no real way to know how many Israelis are living in the United States. Any first-generation child of Israelis is considered an Israeli citizen, and Israel can’t force its expatriates to register with their local consulate.Estimates of Israelis in America vary widely — from about 200,000 to as many as a million. According to statistics from the US Department of Homeland Security, some 250,000 Israelis acquired permanent residence in the United States between 1949 (when 98 Israelis left the infant state) to 2015 (which saw about 4,000 Israelis move stateside). But that number does not chart deaths or Israelis who moved back.The 2013 Pew Research Forum study on American Jews found a similar number: About 300,000 Jews in America were either born in Israel or born to an Israeli parent. In total, Pew found that first- or second-generation Israelis account for about 5 percent of American Jews.Even the Israeli government produces two different numbers. Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics reports that a little more than 500,000 Israelis in total moved abroad from 1990 to 2014 — and nearly 230,000 came back. But Israel’s US Embassy told JTA that between 750,000 and 1 million Israelis live in the country. Adam Milstein, chairman of the Israeli-American Council, an umbrella group for Israelis here, told JTA that includes 400,000 children born to an Israeli parent.In recent years, Israel has lost more people to the United States than it has gained. From 2012 to 2015, according to Homeland Security, 17,770 Israelis took up residence in the United States. During that span, fewer than 13,000 people made the move from the United States to Israel.They are centered in New York and Los Angeles.Israelis tend to go where the Jews are. Milstein estimates that about 250,000 Israelis each live in the Los Angeles and New York City metro areas, which also boast the two largest Jewish communities in the United States. Smaller concentrations of Israelis (and Jews) live in South Florida, Chicago and San Francisco.Those cities, in turn, have developed a range of services for their Israeli diasporas. Israel’s Immigrant Absorption Ministry maintains Israeli Houses in nine American cities that host cultural events and political activism. The Israeli-American Council has chapters in 15 cities. And communities boast active Facebook groups: “Israelis in New York” includes 18,000 members.The cities also provide ample opportunities for Israeli culture. Israeli cuisine is a staple of New York’s restaurant scene, from chef Einat Admony’s mini empire of eateries, to Dizengoff, an Israeli restaurant with branches in Philadelphia and New York. Aroma, the iconic Israeli coffee chain, has branches in New York, New Jersey, Washington DC and Miami.And Israeli musicians — from Idan Raichel to Shlomo Artzi to Sarit Hadad — are never hard to find on New York’s concert scene. An adaptation of Israeli novelist David Grossman’s book “To the End of the Land” opened recently at the annual Lincoln Center Festival.They come for education and work.Neither the Israeli Embassy nor the Israeli-American Council tracks why Israelis move to the US, but Milstein suspects it’s for professional and academic reasons. Israel’s small size means Israelis with college or advanced degrees often seek to advance their careers in places with more opportunities abroad.Israelis “don’t have the roots [of] someone whose family lived in Italy for 20 generations, or who lived in America for the last 150 years,” Milstein said. “The Jewish people, the most valuable asset they have is their brain. They can take their brain[s] anywhere.”Israel, conversely, has begun to worry about its “brain drain” recently. A 2013 study by the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies found that for every 100 Israeli scholars who stayed in Israel, 29 left for positions abroad in 2008.The drain is happening in the tech industry, too: According to the Israeli Executives and Founders Forum, an Israeli tech association, there are nearly 150 Israeli startups in Silicon Valley.Israel still wants them back.Israel’s government may have recognized that it can’t bring back all the Israelis from the United States, but it’s still trying. The appeal is both emotional and economic.The 2011 ad campaign, for example, featured a series of shorts highlighting the Israeli-American cultural divide. In one, a child of Israelis in America, video chatting with Israeli grandparents, talks about the upcoming winter holiday of Christmas, not Hanukkah. In another, an Israeli woman comes home to commemorate Memorial Day in Israel with a candle — her American boyfriend mistakes it for romantic lighting.More recently, Israel has also laid out financial incentives to draw expatriates back, including a program set to launch later this year called “Returning at 70,” a reference to Israel’s 70th Independence Day in 2018. The Immigrant Absorption Ministry will provide returning Israelis with financial assistance for six months, and will even cover a portion of their salaries in order to ensure they can find work in their old-new home. The government is also offering free professional development courses and consulting.Israelis who have opened businesses stateside, meanwhile, will receive about $14,000 for the costs of relocating the business. And Israelis who move to the country’s underdeveloped northern and southern regions are eligible for grants as well as loans with low interest rates.But Milstein says that even with these programs, Israeli officials still understand that it’s better to embrace expatriates than shame them into coming home.“By trying to raise our guilt feeling, it backfired,” he said. “The State of Israel is getting to the realization that [our] being here, they can’t do too much about it. We can help the State of Israel a lot. They understand we can be their strategic asset.”
Police okays anti-gay protest during Jerusalem pride march-Ultra-nationalist Lehava group to stage demonstration against LGBT community during Thursday’s parade-By Times of Israel staff August 1, 2017, 2:24 am
Israel Police gave the final okay on Sunday for the ultra-nationalist Lehava group to hold a protest against Jerusalem’s annual LGBT pride march during the event on Thursday, against the wishes of a gay pride group for parents.Police will allow for 100 Lehava members to stage the protest, several hundred meters away from the marchers and under heavy guard from police officers.This year’s Lehava protest will be held under the banner “Don’t give them children,” a reference to the national debate about same-sex adoption in Israel.Lehava said it planned to hold a “humanitarian” demonstration against the pride parade, scheduled for Thursday evening. The march will run from the capital’s Independence Park to Liberty Bell Park-Lehava’s primary platform is opposition to relationships between Jews and non-Jews. Some of its members were convicted of setting fire to a bilingual Hebrew-Arabic school in Jerusalem in 2014. The group has also taken aim at the LGBTQ community whom it has accused of “defiling” the holy city.Police were bracing for this year’s march which comes two years after 16-year-old Shira Banki was stabbed to death by an ultra-Orthodox man during the 2015 parade. The assailant was the same attacker who 10 years prior had stabbed three pride participants, yelling that he was on a mission from God. The man, Yishai Schlissel, had completed his 10-year prison sentence and had been recently released prior to the 2015 murder. He is now serving a life sentence.Days before the 2015 stabbing, Schlissel penned a handwritten anti-gay manifesto in which he called the pride march “shameful” and “blasphemous,” and alluded to plans to perpetrate another attack.Some religious populations of the city consider homosexuality to be a sin.Police have issued warnings to some 50 individuals, including a number of settlers living in the West Bank, according to a Channel 2 report which added that a number of them were asked not to come within distance of Jerusalem on Thursday.Organizers anticipate that some 4,000 people will take part in this year’s parade.Last year’s Jerusalem Pride March was held in honor of Banki and drew some 30,000 people.
Reagan once fired his communications director after 5 days – and not because he was a former Hitler youth-Unlike the hapless Anthony Scaramucci, John Koehler lost his job in a White House reorganization effort-By Ron Kampeas August 1, 2017, 2:38 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
JTA — Did Anthony Scaramucci, sent packing from the White House on Monday, set a record for the shortest stint as communication’s director? Scaramucci — The Mooch — was let go in part because of an obscenity-laden interview he gave to The New Yorker magazine last week. He wasn’t set to formally take the job for another two weeks (Aug. 15) but he clearly had started work as of Friday, July 21 — so that’s 11 days.But there was, in fact, a communications chief who was on the job for a shorter period. According to our archive, John Koehler lasted just five working days in 1987, under President Ronald Reagan.Why? Officially, Koehler was ousted as part of a reorganization. And yet our story notes that Koehler, an immigrant from Germany, had been in Hitler Youth.It turns out that the “reorganization” was more fact than spin. James Baker had taken over as Reagan’s chief of staff from Donald Regan — who had left suddenly because of his clashes with First Lady Nancy Reagan, and who had hired Koehler. Baker wanted his own guy, Tom Griscom, in the slot.The Hitler Youth reference, which kept coming up in the reporting at the time, clearly irked Koehler: He had never hidden his membership for six months when he was 10 years old. “Christ, it’s on every damn statement I’ve ever made,” the former Associated Press executive told UPI before he assumed the job. Two of his three wives were Jewish and, he said, he attended synagogue. As a teenager in Germany he worked as an interpreter for the US Army, and later, after he became a US citizen, served in army intelligence.He died in 2012 and was buried with military honors at Arlington Cemetery. Reagan, to whom Koehler had been close, kept him on staff at the US Information Agency.There’s another irony surrounding Koehler: The man who worked hard to shake off the stigma of belonging to Hitler Youth had replaced Pat Buchanan, an official who consistently displayed anti-Jewish bias, and who urged Reagan stick to his notorious decision to pay tribute at a German military cemetery.
Singing ‘hit, hit Zionists,’ thousands rally against Israel in Istanbul-Demonstrators wave Turkish and Palestinian flags; protest security measures around Temple Mount, removed by Israel last week-By Agencies and Times of Israel staff July 30, 2017, 9:42 pm
Thousands of supporters of a conservative Turkish party rallied in Istanbul on Sunday to protest security measures taken by Israel in Jerusalem — removed last week — and show solidarity with the Palestinians.Protesters waved Turkish and Palestinian flags Sunday at the “Great Jerusalem Meeting” in Istanbul. A jingle with the lyric “Hit, hit Zionists” played.Israel installed metal detectors and cameras around the Temple Mount compound following a deadly July 14 attack that saw three Arab Israeli gunmen kill two Israeli police officers at the holy site with weapons smuggled into the compound.The new security measures sparked mass protests by Muslim worshipers, who boycotted the compound for 12 days.Late last week, Israel removed the security measures.But tensions remain high in Turkey, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying the removal of the detectors was “not enough.”Sunday’s protest was called by the Saadet (Felicity) Party, which emerged from the same Islamic-rooted political movement as the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Erdogan, but is seen as more religiously conservative.The Islamist party’s leader, Temel Karamollaoglu, told the crowd that Muslims would not give up on Jerusalem.Under the slogan of “Israel understands a show of strength,” the rally was held at the vast Yenikapi Square by the Sea of Marmara which has been the scene of many of Erdogan’s biggest meetings.However there was no sign of any senior government official at the gathering.The mass of people also chanted slogans such as “Istanbul and Jerusalem are arm-in-arm.”“I hope that when they see how many people are here, then Israel will get the message,” said protester Sadik Sen. “We want to show to our Muslim brothers there that we are behind them.”Improbably, Karamollaoglu had sent a letter of invitation to football star Cristiano Ronaldo. There was no sign of the Real Madrid and Portugal player.Tensions between Israel and Turkey have been high since the showdown over the Temple Mount security measures. Erdogan had panned Israel for use of “excessive force” against Muslim worshipers during clashes in the area.“Israeli soldiers are defiling Al-Aqsa with their combat boots by using simple excuses to easily shed blood there,” he said at an AKP faction meeting last week, referring to the mosque that sits on the mount along with the Dome of the Rock.Hitting back, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday accused Erdogan of hypocrisy.“It would be interesting to see what Erdogan would say to the residents of northern Cyprus or to the Kurds. Erdogan is the last person who can preach to Israel,” a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said.
