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
Bill to hinder East Jerusalem withdrawal clears first hurdle-Proposal would require special two-thirds Knesset support to approve relinquishing any portion of the city to a foreign power-By Marissa Newman July 19, 2017, 2:01 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Lawmakers on Wednesday approved in its preliminary reading a bill that would require a special two-thirds support of the Knesset to relinquish any part of Jerusalem to the Palestinians under a future peace accord.The bill, which was proposed by Jewish Home MK Shuli Moalem-Refaeli and has coalition backing, cleared the initial hurdle in the Knesset with 58 MKs in favor and 48 opposed.“The goal of the bill is to prevent concessions as part of diplomatic deals,” said Moalem-Refaeli on Wednesday. “Jerusalem will never be on the negotiating table.“The State of Israel will not allow for the establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem. Get it into your heads that Jerusalem was the capital of the Jewish people and will remain the capital of the Jewish people for all eternity,” she said.The bill, an amendment to the Basic Law on Jerusalem, would make it harder for any government to divide the city by requiring 80 of the 120 MKs to support relinquishing any part of Jerusalem.Currently, the Jerusalem Law, passed in 1980 and amended in 2000, states: “No authority that is stipulated in the law of the State of Israel or of the Jerusalem Municipality may be transferred either permanently or for an allotted period of time to a foreign body, whether political, governmental or to any other similar type of foreign body.”With no provision in the Basic Law specifying how it can be amended, it currently can be overturned with a simple majority.The bill must still pass three readings and at least two committee write-ups in the Knesset, an unlikely feat in the week left in the current Knesset session. It will likely not advance further until the Knesset returns from its fall recess in October.The bill was advanced two weeks ago by Jewish Home lawmakers at the behest of Education Minister Naftali Bennett.Jerusalem Minister Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) said the bill was “very important” to safeguard Jerusalem from future concessions.“Although in this government the law isn’t necessary, we must protect Jerusalem also for the future,” he said.Zionist Union MK Tzipi Livni, a former peace negotiator, railed against the bill in the Knesset plenum, calling it a “cynical bill that is preventing us from separating from the Palestinians.”“This is not the Jerusalem bill, but rather the Kafr Aqab, Tzur Baher and Shuafat refugee camp bill,” said Livni, referring to Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. “These are villages with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians that even Bennett as education minister doesn’t apply Israeli education there. It is not toward the municipal Jerusalem that the Jewish people pray, but rather the real Jerusalem.”Jewish Home leader Bennett has touted the bill as making the division of Jerusalem “impossible.”A spokesman for the Jewish Home party said last month that the proposed legislation was intended to strengthen Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s position vis-a-vis the new administration of US President Donald Trump.In May, hours before Trump arrived in Israel during his first major foray abroad as president, Netanyahu declared that Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem’s holy sites was not up for negotiation and said the city will always be Israel’s capital.Trump has expressed his desire to reach a Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement, which he has described as the “ultimate deal.”In recent months the United Nations cultural body UNESCO has passed a series of resolutions that diminish or deny the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and refer to Israel as an occupying power.Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1980, but the move has not been recognized internationally and most countries refuse to recognize any part of the city as Israel’s capital, saying it was an issue that will need to be decided in negotiations with the Palestinians.Raoul Wootliff and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Police close Temple Mount to non-Muslims over Jewish prayer-Decision to shutter Jerusalem site comes as Palestinians launch ‘Day of Rage’ over placement of metal detectors after terror attack-By Alexander Fulbright July 19, 2017, 12:40 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Police on Wednesday closed access to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem for non-Muslims after a violation of the holy site’s rules by Jewish visitors.In a statement, a police spokeswoman said the closure was ordered by Jerusalem police chief Yoram Halevi and that the group of Jewish visitors who attempted to pray at the site was removed as a result of the incident.“The Israel Police operates within a series of balances to uphold the law and the rules of the site and won’t allow anyone to violate the law in any way,” the statement said.According to the Haaretz daily, the Jewish visitors entered the Temple Mount with prayer books and attempted to pray, despite rules at the site forbidding prayer by non-Muslims.Police said they would reevaluate opening the Temple Mount to non-Muslims Wednesday afternoon in accordance with “ongoing situational assessments.”The site has reemerged as a flashpoint in recent days, with Muslim protesters holding at-times violent demonstrations outside of the Old City in protest of Israel’s placement of metal detectors at the gates to the Temple Mount, following a terror attack last week in which a trio of Arab Israelis shot dead two police officers guarding one of the entrances to the site.The metal detectors were part of increased security measures after police said the attackers had stashed their weapons on the Temple Mount.Following the terror attack, in which the gunmen killed two Israeli Druze police officers, Israel made the rare move of closing the compound while it searched for more weaponry there, reopening it to Muslims on Sunday and to non-Muslims on Monday.Since it was reopened to non-Muslims, a number of incidents have been recorded of Jews praying at the site, including on Tuesday when police said they removed and later detained two visitors to the Mount.In light of the ongoing tensions, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on a state visit to Hungary, on Wednesday morning discussed the volatile situation on the Temple Mount in a telephone briefing with his security chiefs, but no operative decisions were taken.Another security consultation was planned for the later in the day, even though Netanyahu has a packed schedule: He is scheduled to meet with the heads of government of Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic, attend a Hungary-Israel economic forum and visit the Hungarian Jewish community at the Dohany Street Synagogue.Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, Police Chief Roni Alsheich, Shin Bet head Nadav Argaman and other senior official participated in Wednesday morning’s phone conference.To protest the new security measures, officials from the Muslim Waqf, which administers the site, have staged protests in the Old City, gathering large groups of men to pray just outside the Temple Mount and encouraging others to avoid entering the compound.Those protests have devolved into clashes between worshipers and police for three evenings in a row, including on Tuesday night, when according to police, a group of Muslim worshipers “started throwing rocks and bottles at the officers” who were stationed in the Old City.In response, the officers used riot dispersal equipment — notably rubber bullets and stun grenades — to break up the riot, police said.The Palestinian Red Crescent said 34 people were injured, including 14 people needing hospitalization. One person had a serious chest injury, a spokesperson said.Police said two officers were lightly injured in the fighting and calm was restored to the area after the clashes.Earlier on Tuesday evening, police had said that while many Muslim worshipers had decided to protest the metal detectors, others had accepted them and visited the Temple Mount. The assertion came as members of the Waqf persisted in their calls for Muslims not to enter through the metal detectors, which were installed Sunday.The Palestinian Fatah movement called for a “Day of Rage” on Wednesday to protest the new security measures.The organization, headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, called for marches in the West Bank toward Israeli checkpoints in protest of the new measures and announced that Friday prayers, when many worshipers go to the Temple Mount, would be conducted in public squares instead.Palestinian officials denounced a “fierce and organized attack” by Israel against East Jerusalemites. They called for maintaining the delicate status quo at the Temple Mount, according to which the Waqf manages the site while Israel controls access. Muslims accuse Israel of breaking the status quo by installing the metal detectors.Misinformation regarding Israeli plans to make changes to the status quo surfaces frequently, roiling the Palestinian street and angering the Arab world.Israel has said repeatedly it has no plans to change the status quo at the Mount. It has always been responsible for security there, and Friday’s attack necessitated upgraded security, officials said. All visitors to the Western Wall plaza, below the Mount, have long had to pass through metal detectors, as have non-Muslim visitors to the Mount, who gain access via the Mughrabi Gate.Raphael Ahren, Dov Lieber and Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.
On Temple Mount, Israel long since made its fundamental compromise-Op-ed: Rightly or wrongly, the Jewish state voluntarily gave up control of its holiest place 50 years ago; any tweak it makes now to try to prevent a new wave of violence is marginal by comparison-By David Horovitz July 18, 2017, 4:53 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Less than three days. That’s what Israel likely has, at most, to resolve the fraught standoff at the Temple Mount.If it’s not solved by Friday, when many thousands of Muslim worshipers will converge on the Old City for Friday prayers, we’ll need to brace for violence worse than the relatively low-level clashes around the site in the past few days.It’s outrageous, of course. But saying so doesn’t solve anything.It’s outrageous that in parts of the Muslim world, Israel is being castigated for installing metal detectors designed to boost security at the holiest place in the world for Jews and the third holiest for Muslims. Don’t they want security there? It’s outrageous that many of those who are castigating Israel for ostensibly “changing the status quo” at the Temple Mount / Al-Aqsa Mosque compound are doing so without so much as mentioning the murderous attack that defiled the holy site and prompted the deployment of the metal detectors: On Friday, three Muslims — Israeli Arab Muslims — emerged from the compound, guns blazing, and shot dead two Border Police officers who were stationed on duty immediately outside. The two victims just so happened to be Druze — an Arabic-speaking monotheistic community incorporating many Islamic teachings. To put it really crudely then, Arabs killed Arabs at a holy place, the Jews are trying to ensure that it doesn’t happen again, and the Arab world is furious with the Jews about it. (As the footage below shows, one of the victims has his back to the compound as the gunmen emerge; he was there to protect them from outside attack.) It’s outrageous that Jordan, which occupied the Old City before Israel captured it in 1967, and which Israel permitted to continue to administer the Temple Mount compound via the Waqf religious trust ever since, has been leading the public criticism of Israel. Surely Jordan should be leading the calls for better protection at the hallowed site. Surely Jordan should be apologizing for its refusal in the past to allow for security cameras to be placed at multiple locations on the Mount, as part of Israeli-urged precautions that might have prevented Friday’s attack.It’s outrageous that the deployment of metal detectors outside the compound is being misrepresented as a change to that post-1967 status quo, when Israel since 1967 has always maintained overall security responsibility for the site, and when Friday’s events manifestly demonstrate the imperative for improved security.The religious custodians of the third most holy place in Islam self-evidently loathe the notion of what they portray as a submission to those Jewish-overseen security checks more than they cherish the right to pray there-It’s outrageous that the metal detectors are deemed unacceptable when religious sites the world over are secured in exactly the same way, for exactly the same unfortunately necessary reasons. There is high security around key Islamic sites, notably including at Mecca and Medina. There is high security, including metal detectors, around the Western Wall plaza, immediately below the Temple Mount, imposed by Israel on all Jews and non-Jews who enter that area. There have long been metal detectors at the Mughrabi Gate entrance to the Temple Mount — the only access point for non-Jewish visitors.It’s beyond outrageous that, since the compound was reopened by Israel on Sunday, after two days of security sweeps following Friday’s murderous attack, the Waqf officials have overseen what amounts to a boycott of their own holy places — insisting that Muslim worshipers not enter the Al-Aqsa compound so long as the metal detectors remain in place. The religious custodians of the third most holy place in Islam self-evidently loathe the notion of what they portray as a submission to those Jewish-overseen security checks more than they cherish the right and opportunity to pray there.But, again, saying all that doesn’t change anything. It certainly doesn’t change the fact that all hell could break loose on Friday unless there’s some rapid, smart thinking.So here’s a thought. How about some dialogue? How about Israeli officials talking with Jordanian officials and trying to figure out a viable way forward, capitalizing on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s phone conversation with King Abdullah soon after the terror attack on Friday? It may well be that such contacts are already in full swing. And while it’s hard to say what formula might be found — Israel is not about to remove the metal detectors, and the Waqf is not about to reverse its refusal to have Muslim worshipers walk through them — it’s blindingly obvious that no formula will emerge unless people put their heads together. Netanyahu prides himself on warm relations with Abdullah, who holds overall responsibility for the Waqf, and who on Friday condemned the attack (even as he demanded that the Mount be reopened). That’s a useful start when you’re urgently seeking to restore and maintain calm.Why on earth, one might ask, should Israel negotiate with anybody about vital security arrangements, at a site over whose status, moreover, it has already compromised to an astounding degree? Israel, after all, claims sovereignty in the Old City, yet it bars Jews from praying at the Mount, and consented to ongoing Muslim administration there.And therein lies the answer. Israel chose not to fully realize its control over the Temple Mount in 1967 because it sought to avoid holy war with the Muslim world over this most contested and incendiary of places. It used a very convenient pretext to ban Jewish prayer there: the rabbinic consensus that forbids Jews from setting foot on the Mount for fear of inadvertently defiling the site of the Biblical Temples’ Holy of Holies. It opted for compromise.No concession, agreed by Israel in negotiations to resolve the current standoff, could come close to matching that most dramatic of compromises half a century ago, in which the revived Jewish nation, having defeated its enemies in a war foisted upon it and liberated the most sacred place in its religious heritage, promptly relinquished its religious rights there to the representatives of its vanquished enemies.And no compromise agreed to by Israel today could compare in its repercussions to the impact of that agreement 50 years ago, which has empowered a Palestinian and wider Muslim false narrative that asserts the Jews actually have no connection to the Mount, no history there, no legitimacy there — and by extension no sovereign legitimacy in Israel either. Why did defense minister Moshe Dayan’s concession on June 10, 1967, fuel that false narrative? Because, the way it was perceived in much of the Muslim world, the Jews could not and would not have relinquished their authority over the site if it truly constituted the most sacred physical focal point of their faith. Israel’s restraint, its religious realpolitik, in other words, has come to be regarded as proof of our illegitimacy. And of our duplicity. We were not the returning liberators; we were interlopers, who could and would be resisted until we returned to whence we ostensibly came.Why get into all that decades-old history again now? Why focus on Israeli forbearance half a century ago, and decades of Muslim delegitimization, when we’re grappling with immediate dangers swirling around the Temple Mount? Because that’s what all of this is really about. Israel made its big-picture choice 50 years ago. It opted not to insist on religious freedom for Jews at the Temple Mount. Indeed, it opted not to insist on religious freedom at the Temple Mount, period. Israel deferred to Muslim sensitivities because of its perceived wider interests in working to normalize its very sovereign presence in the hostile Middle East.Was that a historic mistake? Well, maybe it was, or maybe it was a vital, nation-saving imperative. It’s emphatically a question worth exploring. But the fact is that, today, right now, despite endless false assertions in the Muslim world to the contrary, there is no indication that the Netanyahu government intends to revisit that fundamental decision, no sign that it intends to reassert Israel’s fleeting full sovereignty at the Temple Mount.In which case, it has less than three days, at most, to find an arrangement both sides can live with — to add one more tweak to that most dramatic of concessions from 50 years ago.
Amid protests, Israel weighs taking down Temple Mt. metal detectors-Prime minister and security chiefs hold a telephone briefing as clashes between Muslim protesters and police continue-By Raphael Ahren and Dov Lieber July 19, 2017, 5:25 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was holding consultations with his security chiefs on Wednesday as Israel considered removing recently installed metal detectors from the Temple Mount in the face of widespread opposition from Muslim groups.Though no operative decisions were taken during the telephone consultations, the possibility of removing the metal detectors, placed at entrances to the compound on Sunday, was raised, Netanyahu’s office said.The site has reemerged as a flashpoint in recent days, with Muslim protesters holding at-times violent demonstrations outside of the Old City in protest of Israel’s placement of metal detectors at the gates to the Temple Mount, following the terror attack last week in which three Arab Israelis shot dead two police officers guarding one of the entrances to the site.The metal detectors were part of increased security measures after police said the attackers had stashed their weapons on the Temple Mount and emerged armed from the holy site to open fire on the officers.Channel 2 said there was a professional disagreement between Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and Israel Police representatives, who wanted to keep the detectors, and the Shin Bet heads who voiced support for their removal to avoid an unnecessary escalation in violence.In addition to Erdan, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, Police Chief Roni Alsheich, head of Shin Bet Nadav Argaman and other senior officials participated in Wednesday morning’s phone conference.Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett appeared to indicate that Netanyahu was one of those opposed.“I support the Prime Minister and Minister of Public Security. We must stand strong and ensure security on Temple Mount,” Bennett said noting that other holy sites including Mecca and the Western Wall had metal detectors.“Caving in to Palestinian pressure now will hurt Israel’s deterrence, and risk the life of the visitors, worshipers and law enforcement officials on Temple Mount,” he said.While not denying the content of the Channel 2 report, the Prime Minister’s Office criticized the manner in which the briefing was described. “To present the matter as if the prime minister was holding consultations to cancel the metal detectors – that is a distortion of reality,” the statement said.Netanyahu, who is currently on a state visit in Hungry, held an additional consultation Wednesday afternoon with security officials, despite a packed agenda. He was scheduled to meet with the heads of government of Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic, attend a Hungary-Israel economic forum and visit the Hungarian Jewish community at the Dohany Street Synagogue.Speaking with The Times of Israel later Wednesday, Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the metal detectors placed at the gates to the Temple Mount following Friday’s shooting attack at the site may not be permanent“The changes (the installation of the detectors) are a government decision. They can continue for weeks or months, or as long as necessary,” he said.Meanwhile Israel was also said to be in talks with Jordan over the situation.The head of the Jordanian-based Waqf Trust that administers the holy compound also confirmed contacts between Israel and Jordan are ongoing regarding the detectors.“We are in communication with the Jordanian government which is in contact with the government of Israel,” the director of the Waqf, Sheikh Azzam al Khati, said. “As is known, security has always been in the hands of Israelis. But for us, we will not accept any changes, even for security,” he said.Clashes between Muslim protesters and Israeli police continued for the fourth consecutive day following the detector’s installation.Around 150-200 worshipers had gathered neared the Lions Gate and performed the afternoon prayer, as part of their protest against the placement of metal detectors at the Temple Mount’s gates.Following the prayers, a few men remained and shouted chants about the Al-Aqsa Mosque before the police asked them to move. When one man refused, police started to arrest him, and worshipers nearby began to throw water bottles at the officers. Police threw stun grenades, and the crowd dispersed in under a minute.Police said that the man was detained for “disturbing the peace.”The clashes came as Jerusalem police chief Yoram Halevi instructed officers to reopen the Temple Mount to non-Muslims, hours after he ordered the site closed following a violation of the holy site’s rules by Jewish visitors.The Palestinian Fatah movement called for a “Day of Rage” on Wednesday to protest the new security measures.The organization, headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, called for marches in the West Bank toward Israeli checkpoints in protest of the new measures and announced that Friday prayers, when many worshipers go to the Temple Mount, would be conducted in public squares instead.Following the terror attack, in which the gunmen killed two Israeli Druze police officers, Israel made the rare move of closing the compound while it searched for more weaponry there, reopening it to Muslims on Sunday and to non-Muslims on Monday.The site has reemerged as a flashpoint in recent days, with Muslim protesters holding at-times violent demonstrations outside of the Old City in protest of Israel’s placement of metal detectors at the gates to the Temple Mount, following a terror attack last week in which a trio of Arab Israelis shot dead two police officers guarding one of the entrances to the site.The metal detectors were part of increased security measures after police said the attackers had stashed their weapons on the Temple Mount.Following the terror attack, in which the gunmen killed two Israeli Druze police officers, Israel made the rare move of closing the compound while it searched for more weaponry there, reopening it to Muslims on Sunday and to non-Muslims on Monday.Since it was reopened to non-Muslims, a number of incidents have been recorded of Jews praying at the site, including on Tuesday when police said they removed and later detained two visitors to the Mount.Palestinian officials denounced a “fierce and organized attack” by Israel against East Jerusalemites. They called for maintaining the delicate status quo at the Temple Mount, according to which the Waqf manages the site while Israel controls access. Muslims accuse Israel of breaking the status quo by installing the metal detectors.Misinformation regarding Israeli plans to make changes to the status quo surfaces frequently, roiling the Palestinian street and angering the Arab world.Israel has said repeatedly it has no plans to change the status quo at the Mount. It has always been responsible for security there, and Friday’s attack necessitated upgraded security, officials said. All visitors to the Western Wall plaza, below the Mount, have long had to pass through metal detectors, as have non-Muslim visitors to the Mount, who gain access via the Mughrabi Gate.Dov Lieber contributed reporting from Jerusalem.
Temple Mount tensions spark fourth day of clashes-Police arrest a demonstrator during scuffles at Lions Gate; holy site reopened to non-Muslims after closure over Jewish prayer-By Dov Lieber and Alexander Fulbright July 19, 2017, 3:29 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Clashes between Muslim protesters and Israeli police erupted Wednesday at one of the entrances to Jerusalem’s Old City for the fourth day in a row over new security measures at the Temple Mount following a recent terror attack.Around 150-200 worshipers had gathered neared the Lions Gate and performed the afternoon prayer, as part of their protest against the placement of metal detectors at the Temple Mount’s gates.Following the prayers, a few men remained and shouted chants about the Al-Aqsa Mosque whereupon the police asked them to move. When one man refused, police started to arrest him, and worshipers nearby began to throw water bottles at the officers. Police threw stun grenades, and the crowd dispersed in under a minute.Police said that the man was detained for “disturbing the peace.”A video clip circulating on social media appeared to show officers beating one protester in the face, a day after officers were filmed beating an Israeli Arab reporter for the Hebrew-language Ynet news site.The clashes came as Jerusalem police chief Yoram Halevi instructed officers to reopen the Temple Mount to non-Muslims, hours after he ordered the site closed following a violation of the holy site’s rules by Jewish visitors.A police spokeswoman said the closure was ordered after a group of Jewish visitors who attempted to pray on the Temple Mount was removed from the site. According to the Haaretz daily, the Jewish visitors entered the Temple Mount with prayer books and attempted to pray, despite rules at the site forbidding prayer by non-Muslims.The site has reemerged as a flashpoint in recent days, with Muslim protesters holding at-times violent demonstrations outside of the Old City in protest of Israel’s placement of metal detectors at the gates to the Temple Mount, following the terror attack last week in which a trio of Arab Israelis shot dead two police officers guarding one of the entrances to the site.The metal detectors were part of increased security measures after police said the attackers had stashed their weapons on the Temple Mount.Following the terror attack, in which the gunmen killed two Israeli Druze police officers, Israel made the rare move of closing the compound while it searched for more weaponry there, reopening it to Muslims on Sunday and to non-Muslims on Monday.Since it was reopened to non-Muslims, a number of incidents have been recorded of Jews praying at the site, including on Tuesday when police said they removed and later detained two visitors to the Mount.In light of the ongoing tensions, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on a state visit to Hungary, on Wednesday morning discussed the volatile situation on the Temple Mount in a telephone briefing with his security chiefs, but no operative decisions were taken.Another security consultation was planned for the later in the day.Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, Police Chief Roni Alsheich, Shin Bet head Nadav Argaman and other senior official participated in Wednesday morning’s phone conference.To protest the new security measures, officials from the Muslim Waqf, which administers the site, have staged protests in the Old City, gathering large groups of men to pray just outside the Temple Mount and encouraging others to avoid entering the compound.Those protests devolved into clashes between worshipers and police for three evenings in a row, including on Tuesday night, when according to police, a group of Muslim worshipers “started throwing rocks and bottles at the officers” who were stationed in the Old City.In response, the officers used riot dispersal equipment — notably rubber bullets and stun grenades — to break up the riot, police said.The Palestinian Red Crescent said 34 people were injured, including 14 people needing hospitalization. One person had a serious chest injury, a spokesperson said.Police said two officers were lightly injured in the fighting and calm was restored to the area after the clashes.Earlier on Tuesday evening, police had said that while many Muslim worshipers had decided to protest the metal detectors, others had accepted them and visited the Temple Mount. The assertion came as members of the Waqf persisted in their calls for Muslims not to enter through the metal detectors, which were installed Sunday.The Palestinian Fatah movement called for a “Day of Rage” on Wednesday to protest the new security measures.The organization, headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, called for marches in the West Bank toward Israeli checkpoints in protest of the new measures and announced that Friday prayers, when many worshipers go to the Temple Mount, would be conducted in public squares instead.Palestinian officials denounced a “fierce and organized attack” by Israel against East Jerusalemites. They called for maintaining the delicate status quo at the Temple Mount, according to which the Waqf manages the site while Israel controls access. Muslims accuse Israel of breaking the status quo by installing the metal detectors.Misinformation regarding Israeli plans to make changes to the status quo surfaces frequently, roiling the Palestinian street and angering the Arab world.Israel has said repeatedly it has no plans to change the status quo at the Mount. It has always been responsible for security there, and Friday’s attack necessitated upgraded security, officials said. All visitors to the Western Wall plaza, below the Mount, have long had to pass through metal detectors, as have non-Muslim visitors to the Mount, who gain access via the Mughrabi Gate.Raphael Ahren and Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.
Israel, Hamas make prisoner swap counteroffers – report-Jerusalem said seeking video of Israelis held in Gaza, while terror group reportedly demands release of Shalit deal recidivists-By Alexander Fulbright July 19, 2017, 10:46 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israel and the Hamas terror group have reportedly put forward new demands in ongoing indirect talks about a possible prisoner exchange deal.In the talks, which are said to be mediated by Egypt, Israel offered to release an undisclosed number of female prisoners, minors and Hamas MPs being held without charge, in exchange for video proof of the fate of three Israelis believed to be held by the terror group, the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported Wednesday.The three Israelis — Avraham Abera Mengistu, Hisham al-Sayed and Juma Ibrahim Abu Ghanima — are all said to have entered the Gaza Strip of their own accord. Hamas is also holding the bodies of Oren Shaul and Hadar Goldin, two IDF soldiers who were killed in the Strip during the 2014 Gaza war.Hamas is reported to have refused the Israeli offer, which came after Israel rejected Hamas’s demand that it free 55 prisoners rearrested following their release in the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal, in which over 1,000 Palestinian security prisoners were released in exchange for the captive Israeli soldier.In exchange for information on the fate of the Israeli captives, Hamas also demanded the release of a number of prisoners arrested during the wave of terror attacks that began in October 2015, the report said.While Israel has played down the reports of progress in the Egyptian-mediated negotiations for a prisoner swap, an unnamed Palestinian source told the London-based Arabic Al-Hiyat newspaper earlier this month that negotiations have “come a long way.”At a memorial marking three years since the 2014 Gaza conflict, known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted last week of recently increased Israeli efforts to return the Israeli citizens and the bodies of IDF soldiers being held by Hamas.“Our commitment to return home Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul is still firm. We have not let up from this sacred mission, in particular in recent days. The same applies to Avraham Abera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, Israeli citizens who are held in the Gaza Strip by a brutal enemy,” he said, failing to mention Abu Ghanima, the third Israeli civilian held by Hamas.President Reuven Rivlin also stressed at the event at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl military cemetery that Israel would not cease working for the return of Shaul and Goldin’s bodies, saying it “is our moral and public obligation.”Since the capture of their sons’ bodies, the Shaul and Goldin families have waged public campaigns for their return, with the Goldins recently releasing releasing a video urging the government to up its pressure on Hamas until the two soldiers’ bodies are returned.
In hot mic comments, Netanyahu lashes EU’s ‘crazy’ policy on Israel-Unaware that audio from his closed-door meeting with Central European leaders is being piped to reporters, PM says Europe will ‘shrivel and disappear’ if it doesn’t change course-By Raphael Ahren July 19, 2017, 1:08 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
BUDAPEST — Unaware that his remarks were also being transmitted to reporters outside, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the European Union in unusually harsh terms on Wednesday for its treatment of Israel, urging the leaders of four Central European countries to use their influence in the organization to ease its conditions for advancing bilateral ties.“I think Europe has to decide if it wants to live and thrive or if it wants to shrivel and disappear,” he said in a closed-door meeting whose content was accidentally broadcast to journalists outside the room. “I am not very politically correct. I know that’s a shock to some of you. It’s a joke. But the truth is the truth — both about Europe’s security and Europe’s economic future. Both of these concerns mandate a different policy towards Israel.”During the meeting, Netanyahu also urged the leaders of Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Poland to close their borders to refugees from Africa and the Arab world, and praised the administration of US President Donald Trump for its “stronger” position on Iran and Syria.“The European Union is the only association of countries in the world that conditions the relations with Israel, that produces technology in every area, on political conditions. The only ones! Nobody does it,” Netanyahu said in the minutes before officials realized the meeting was being overheard by reporters, and cut the feed.“It’s crazy. It’s actually crazy,” he said, referring to the EU’s insistence on conditioning some agreements with Israel on progress in the peace process. He referred the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which has not been renewed since 2000. He urged the prime ministers who were present — Hungary’s Viktor Orban, the Czech Republic’s Bohuslav Sobotka, Poland’s Beata Szydlo and Slovakia’s Robert Fico — to work toward convincing Brussels to advance talks about renewing the agreement without reference to progress in the peace process.“Please help us, and help Europe, in the expediting this association agreement,” he said.“It’s not about my interests, Israel’s interest. I’m talking about Europe’s interest,” Netanyahu said.China, Russia and India all have special relationships with Israel that aren’t contingent on progress in the peace process, Netanyahu said. “They don’t care about the political issue.” He cited conversations with the leaders of those countries in which they said they were interested in what Israel had to offer them and disregarded the lingering issue of the Palestinians.“We have a special relationship with China. And they don’t care, they don’t care about the political issues,” he said.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his recent visit to Israel, told Netanyahu he needs water for his people. “Where will I get it. Ramallah? No,” Netanyahu said, also noting that Israeli cows produce more milk than any other cows in the world — double the European average.“If I can suggest that what comes out of this meeting is your ability, perhaps, to communicate to your colleagues in other parts of Europe: Help Europe… Don’t undermine the one Western country that defends European values and European interests and prevents another mass migration to Europe.”The prime minister has often claimed that Israel is a bulwark preventing Europe from being flooded with refugees and migrants from Africa and the Middle East.“So stop attacking Israel. Start supporting Israel… Start supporting European economies by doing what the Americans, the Chinese and the Indians are doing,” he said, referring to increasing technological cooperation. Europe is “cutting itself off” from Israel, a major source of innovation, he protested.“There is no logic here. Europe is undermining its security by undermining Israel. Europe is undermining its progress by undermining the connection with Israeli innovation because of a crazy attempt to create conditions,” he added.After their closed-door meeting, Netanyahu and the other four prime ministers addressed the press. The Israeli leader joked that his remarks would be short because the Israeli press had already received an extensive briefing.“We believe it’s in the objective interest of Europe to cooperate with Israel in the fight against terrorism, and technology for the future,” Netanyahu said.“There’s an anomaly. I don’t hide it. We’re often criticized by Western Europe, often more than any other place in the world,” he continued. The Jewish state is the one democracy in the Middle East, a “beacon of tolerance” and a “bastion of European and Western values in the heart of a very, very dark area,” he said.Even many Arab countries understand that Israel serves their interests, he added. “So it’s time to have a reassessment in Europe about their relations with Israel. We have much to offer each other. We have much to offer in the realm of security, much to offer in the realm of technology.”Earlier, during the closed meeting, Netanyahu also expressed clear backing for the so-called Visegrad Group’s support of border fences to guard Europe from another wave of refugees from the Middle East.He said he believes in the free flow of goods and ideas — “but not people… Secure your borders. Secure your borders,” he urged the Eastern European leaders.On the geopolitical situation in the Middle East, Netanyahu said Israel “had a big problem” with the Obama administration in Washington and its too-hesitant policies vis-a-vis Iran and Syria, and was more pleased with its predecessor.“I think it’s different now. Vis-a-vis Iran, there is a stronger position,” he said. The US is conducting more bombing attacks in Syria, which is “a positive thing. I think we’re OK on ISIS. We’re not OK on Iran.”Israel build a border fence on the Golan Heights because the Islamic State and Iran via its proxies have and are still trying to set “a terror front” against Israel there, Netanyahu went on.“Frankly, I told [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, when we see them doing this, we take military action against them. We’ve been doing this dozens and dozens of times, and we’ve not clashed with Russia.”
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
Bill to hinder East Jerusalem withdrawal clears first hurdle-Proposal would require special two-thirds Knesset support to approve relinquishing any portion of the city to a foreign power-By Marissa Newman July 19, 2017, 2:01 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Lawmakers on Wednesday approved in its preliminary reading a bill that would require a special two-thirds support of the Knesset to relinquish any part of Jerusalem to the Palestinians under a future peace accord.The bill, which was proposed by Jewish Home MK Shuli Moalem-Refaeli and has coalition backing, cleared the initial hurdle in the Knesset with 58 MKs in favor and 48 opposed.“The goal of the bill is to prevent concessions as part of diplomatic deals,” said Moalem-Refaeli on Wednesday. “Jerusalem will never be on the negotiating table.“The State of Israel will not allow for the establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem. Get it into your heads that Jerusalem was the capital of the Jewish people and will remain the capital of the Jewish people for all eternity,” she said.The bill, an amendment to the Basic Law on Jerusalem, would make it harder for any government to divide the city by requiring 80 of the 120 MKs to support relinquishing any part of Jerusalem.Currently, the Jerusalem Law, passed in 1980 and amended in 2000, states: “No authority that is stipulated in the law of the State of Israel or of the Jerusalem Municipality may be transferred either permanently or for an allotted period of time to a foreign body, whether political, governmental or to any other similar type of foreign body.”With no provision in the Basic Law specifying how it can be amended, it currently can be overturned with a simple majority.The bill must still pass three readings and at least two committee write-ups in the Knesset, an unlikely feat in the week left in the current Knesset session. It will likely not advance further until the Knesset returns from its fall recess in October.The bill was advanced two weeks ago by Jewish Home lawmakers at the behest of Education Minister Naftali Bennett.Jerusalem Minister Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) said the bill was “very important” to safeguard Jerusalem from future concessions.“Although in this government the law isn’t necessary, we must protect Jerusalem also for the future,” he said.Zionist Union MK Tzipi Livni, a former peace negotiator, railed against the bill in the Knesset plenum, calling it a “cynical bill that is preventing us from separating from the Palestinians.”“This is not the Jerusalem bill, but rather the Kafr Aqab, Tzur Baher and Shuafat refugee camp bill,” said Livni, referring to Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. “These are villages with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians that even Bennett as education minister doesn’t apply Israeli education there. It is not toward the municipal Jerusalem that the Jewish people pray, but rather the real Jerusalem.”Jewish Home leader Bennett has touted the bill as making the division of Jerusalem “impossible.”A spokesman for the Jewish Home party said last month that the proposed legislation was intended to strengthen Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s position vis-a-vis the new administration of US President Donald Trump.In May, hours before Trump arrived in Israel during his first major foray abroad as president, Netanyahu declared that Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem’s holy sites was not up for negotiation and said the city will always be Israel’s capital.Trump has expressed his desire to reach a Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement, which he has described as the “ultimate deal.”In recent months the United Nations cultural body UNESCO has passed a series of resolutions that diminish or deny the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and refer to Israel as an occupying power.Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1980, but the move has not been recognized internationally and most countries refuse to recognize any part of the city as Israel’s capital, saying it was an issue that will need to be decided in negotiations with the Palestinians.Raoul Wootliff and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Police close Temple Mount to non-Muslims over Jewish prayer-Decision to shutter Jerusalem site comes as Palestinians launch ‘Day of Rage’ over placement of metal detectors after terror attack-By Alexander Fulbright July 19, 2017, 12:40 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Police on Wednesday closed access to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem for non-Muslims after a violation of the holy site’s rules by Jewish visitors.In a statement, a police spokeswoman said the closure was ordered by Jerusalem police chief Yoram Halevi and that the group of Jewish visitors who attempted to pray at the site was removed as a result of the incident.“The Israel Police operates within a series of balances to uphold the law and the rules of the site and won’t allow anyone to violate the law in any way,” the statement said.According to the Haaretz daily, the Jewish visitors entered the Temple Mount with prayer books and attempted to pray, despite rules at the site forbidding prayer by non-Muslims.Police said they would reevaluate opening the Temple Mount to non-Muslims Wednesday afternoon in accordance with “ongoing situational assessments.”The site has reemerged as a flashpoint in recent days, with Muslim protesters holding at-times violent demonstrations outside of the Old City in protest of Israel’s placement of metal detectors at the gates to the Temple Mount, following a terror attack last week in which a trio of Arab Israelis shot dead two police officers guarding one of the entrances to the site.The metal detectors were part of increased security measures after police said the attackers had stashed their weapons on the Temple Mount.Following the terror attack, in which the gunmen killed two Israeli Druze police officers, Israel made the rare move of closing the compound while it searched for more weaponry there, reopening it to Muslims on Sunday and to non-Muslims on Monday.Since it was reopened to non-Muslims, a number of incidents have been recorded of Jews praying at the site, including on Tuesday when police said they removed and later detained two visitors to the Mount.In light of the ongoing tensions, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on a state visit to Hungary, on Wednesday morning discussed the volatile situation on the Temple Mount in a telephone briefing with his security chiefs, but no operative decisions were taken.Another security consultation was planned for the later in the day, even though Netanyahu has a packed schedule: He is scheduled to meet with the heads of government of Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic, attend a Hungary-Israel economic forum and visit the Hungarian Jewish community at the Dohany Street Synagogue.Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, Police Chief Roni Alsheich, Shin Bet head Nadav Argaman and other senior official participated in Wednesday morning’s phone conference.To protest the new security measures, officials from the Muslim Waqf, which administers the site, have staged protests in the Old City, gathering large groups of men to pray just outside the Temple Mount and encouraging others to avoid entering the compound.Those protests have devolved into clashes between worshipers and police for three evenings in a row, including on Tuesday night, when according to police, a group of Muslim worshipers “started throwing rocks and bottles at the officers” who were stationed in the Old City.In response, the officers used riot dispersal equipment — notably rubber bullets and stun grenades — to break up the riot, police said.The Palestinian Red Crescent said 34 people were injured, including 14 people needing hospitalization. One person had a serious chest injury, a spokesperson said.Police said two officers were lightly injured in the fighting and calm was restored to the area after the clashes.Earlier on Tuesday evening, police had said that while many Muslim worshipers had decided to protest the metal detectors, others had accepted them and visited the Temple Mount. The assertion came as members of the Waqf persisted in their calls for Muslims not to enter through the metal detectors, which were installed Sunday.The Palestinian Fatah movement called for a “Day of Rage” on Wednesday to protest the new security measures.The organization, headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, called for marches in the West Bank toward Israeli checkpoints in protest of the new measures and announced that Friday prayers, when many worshipers go to the Temple Mount, would be conducted in public squares instead.Palestinian officials denounced a “fierce and organized attack” by Israel against East Jerusalemites. They called for maintaining the delicate status quo at the Temple Mount, according to which the Waqf manages the site while Israel controls access. Muslims accuse Israel of breaking the status quo by installing the metal detectors.Misinformation regarding Israeli plans to make changes to the status quo surfaces frequently, roiling the Palestinian street and angering the Arab world.Israel has said repeatedly it has no plans to change the status quo at the Mount. It has always been responsible for security there, and Friday’s attack necessitated upgraded security, officials said. All visitors to the Western Wall plaza, below the Mount, have long had to pass through metal detectors, as have non-Muslim visitors to the Mount, who gain access via the Mughrabi Gate.Raphael Ahren, Dov Lieber and Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.
On Temple Mount, Israel long since made its fundamental compromise-Op-ed: Rightly or wrongly, the Jewish state voluntarily gave up control of its holiest place 50 years ago; any tweak it makes now to try to prevent a new wave of violence is marginal by comparison-By David Horovitz July 18, 2017, 4:53 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Less than three days. That’s what Israel likely has, at most, to resolve the fraught standoff at the Temple Mount.If it’s not solved by Friday, when many thousands of Muslim worshipers will converge on the Old City for Friday prayers, we’ll need to brace for violence worse than the relatively low-level clashes around the site in the past few days.It’s outrageous, of course. But saying so doesn’t solve anything.It’s outrageous that in parts of the Muslim world, Israel is being castigated for installing metal detectors designed to boost security at the holiest place in the world for Jews and the third holiest for Muslims. Don’t they want security there? It’s outrageous that many of those who are castigating Israel for ostensibly “changing the status quo” at the Temple Mount / Al-Aqsa Mosque compound are doing so without so much as mentioning the murderous attack that defiled the holy site and prompted the deployment of the metal detectors: On Friday, three Muslims — Israeli Arab Muslims — emerged from the compound, guns blazing, and shot dead two Border Police officers who were stationed on duty immediately outside. The two victims just so happened to be Druze — an Arabic-speaking monotheistic community incorporating many Islamic teachings. To put it really crudely then, Arabs killed Arabs at a holy place, the Jews are trying to ensure that it doesn’t happen again, and the Arab world is furious with the Jews about it. (As the footage below shows, one of the victims has his back to the compound as the gunmen emerge; he was there to protect them from outside attack.) It’s outrageous that Jordan, which occupied the Old City before Israel captured it in 1967, and which Israel permitted to continue to administer the Temple Mount compound via the Waqf religious trust ever since, has been leading the public criticism of Israel. Surely Jordan should be leading the calls for better protection at the hallowed site. Surely Jordan should be apologizing for its refusal in the past to allow for security cameras to be placed at multiple locations on the Mount, as part of Israeli-urged precautions that might have prevented Friday’s attack.It’s outrageous that the deployment of metal detectors outside the compound is being misrepresented as a change to that post-1967 status quo, when Israel since 1967 has always maintained overall security responsibility for the site, and when Friday’s events manifestly demonstrate the imperative for improved security.The religious custodians of the third most holy place in Islam self-evidently loathe the notion of what they portray as a submission to those Jewish-overseen security checks more than they cherish the right to pray there-It’s outrageous that the metal detectors are deemed unacceptable when religious sites the world over are secured in exactly the same way, for exactly the same unfortunately necessary reasons. There is high security around key Islamic sites, notably including at Mecca and Medina. There is high security, including metal detectors, around the Western Wall plaza, immediately below the Temple Mount, imposed by Israel on all Jews and non-Jews who enter that area. There have long been metal detectors at the Mughrabi Gate entrance to the Temple Mount — the only access point for non-Jewish visitors.It’s beyond outrageous that, since the compound was reopened by Israel on Sunday, after two days of security sweeps following Friday’s murderous attack, the Waqf officials have overseen what amounts to a boycott of their own holy places — insisting that Muslim worshipers not enter the Al-Aqsa compound so long as the metal detectors remain in place. The religious custodians of the third most holy place in Islam self-evidently loathe the notion of what they portray as a submission to those Jewish-overseen security checks more than they cherish the right and opportunity to pray there.But, again, saying all that doesn’t change anything. It certainly doesn’t change the fact that all hell could break loose on Friday unless there’s some rapid, smart thinking.So here’s a thought. How about some dialogue? How about Israeli officials talking with Jordanian officials and trying to figure out a viable way forward, capitalizing on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s phone conversation with King Abdullah soon after the terror attack on Friday? It may well be that such contacts are already in full swing. And while it’s hard to say what formula might be found — Israel is not about to remove the metal detectors, and the Waqf is not about to reverse its refusal to have Muslim worshipers walk through them — it’s blindingly obvious that no formula will emerge unless people put their heads together. Netanyahu prides himself on warm relations with Abdullah, who holds overall responsibility for the Waqf, and who on Friday condemned the attack (even as he demanded that the Mount be reopened). That’s a useful start when you’re urgently seeking to restore and maintain calm.Why on earth, one might ask, should Israel negotiate with anybody about vital security arrangements, at a site over whose status, moreover, it has already compromised to an astounding degree? Israel, after all, claims sovereignty in the Old City, yet it bars Jews from praying at the Mount, and consented to ongoing Muslim administration there.And therein lies the answer. Israel chose not to fully realize its control over the Temple Mount in 1967 because it sought to avoid holy war with the Muslim world over this most contested and incendiary of places. It used a very convenient pretext to ban Jewish prayer there: the rabbinic consensus that forbids Jews from setting foot on the Mount for fear of inadvertently defiling the site of the Biblical Temples’ Holy of Holies. It opted for compromise.No concession, agreed by Israel in negotiations to resolve the current standoff, could come close to matching that most dramatic of compromises half a century ago, in which the revived Jewish nation, having defeated its enemies in a war foisted upon it and liberated the most sacred place in its religious heritage, promptly relinquished its religious rights there to the representatives of its vanquished enemies.And no compromise agreed to by Israel today could compare in its repercussions to the impact of that agreement 50 years ago, which has empowered a Palestinian and wider Muslim false narrative that asserts the Jews actually have no connection to the Mount, no history there, no legitimacy there — and by extension no sovereign legitimacy in Israel either. Why did defense minister Moshe Dayan’s concession on June 10, 1967, fuel that false narrative? Because, the way it was perceived in much of the Muslim world, the Jews could not and would not have relinquished their authority over the site if it truly constituted the most sacred physical focal point of their faith. Israel’s restraint, its religious realpolitik, in other words, has come to be regarded as proof of our illegitimacy. And of our duplicity. We were not the returning liberators; we were interlopers, who could and would be resisted until we returned to whence we ostensibly came.Why get into all that decades-old history again now? Why focus on Israeli forbearance half a century ago, and decades of Muslim delegitimization, when we’re grappling with immediate dangers swirling around the Temple Mount? Because that’s what all of this is really about. Israel made its big-picture choice 50 years ago. It opted not to insist on religious freedom for Jews at the Temple Mount. Indeed, it opted not to insist on religious freedom at the Temple Mount, period. Israel deferred to Muslim sensitivities because of its perceived wider interests in working to normalize its very sovereign presence in the hostile Middle East.Was that a historic mistake? Well, maybe it was, or maybe it was a vital, nation-saving imperative. It’s emphatically a question worth exploring. But the fact is that, today, right now, despite endless false assertions in the Muslim world to the contrary, there is no indication that the Netanyahu government intends to revisit that fundamental decision, no sign that it intends to reassert Israel’s fleeting full sovereignty at the Temple Mount.In which case, it has less than three days, at most, to find an arrangement both sides can live with — to add one more tweak to that most dramatic of concessions from 50 years ago.
Amid protests, Israel weighs taking down Temple Mt. metal detectors-Prime minister and security chiefs hold a telephone briefing as clashes between Muslim protesters and police continue-By Raphael Ahren and Dov Lieber July 19, 2017, 5:25 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was holding consultations with his security chiefs on Wednesday as Israel considered removing recently installed metal detectors from the Temple Mount in the face of widespread opposition from Muslim groups.Though no operative decisions were taken during the telephone consultations, the possibility of removing the metal detectors, placed at entrances to the compound on Sunday, was raised, Netanyahu’s office said.The site has reemerged as a flashpoint in recent days, with Muslim protesters holding at-times violent demonstrations outside of the Old City in protest of Israel’s placement of metal detectors at the gates to the Temple Mount, following the terror attack last week in which three Arab Israelis shot dead two police officers guarding one of the entrances to the site.The metal detectors were part of increased security measures after police said the attackers had stashed their weapons on the Temple Mount and emerged armed from the holy site to open fire on the officers.Channel 2 said there was a professional disagreement between Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and Israel Police representatives, who wanted to keep the detectors, and the Shin Bet heads who voiced support for their removal to avoid an unnecessary escalation in violence.In addition to Erdan, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, Police Chief Roni Alsheich, head of Shin Bet Nadav Argaman and other senior officials participated in Wednesday morning’s phone conference.Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett appeared to indicate that Netanyahu was one of those opposed.“I support the Prime Minister and Minister of Public Security. We must stand strong and ensure security on Temple Mount,” Bennett said noting that other holy sites including Mecca and the Western Wall had metal detectors.“Caving in to Palestinian pressure now will hurt Israel’s deterrence, and risk the life of the visitors, worshipers and law enforcement officials on Temple Mount,” he said.While not denying the content of the Channel 2 report, the Prime Minister’s Office criticized the manner in which the briefing was described. “To present the matter as if the prime minister was holding consultations to cancel the metal detectors – that is a distortion of reality,” the statement said.Netanyahu, who is currently on a state visit in Hungry, held an additional consultation Wednesday afternoon with security officials, despite a packed agenda. He was scheduled to meet with the heads of government of Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic, attend a Hungary-Israel economic forum and visit the Hungarian Jewish community at the Dohany Street Synagogue.Speaking with The Times of Israel later Wednesday, Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the metal detectors placed at the gates to the Temple Mount following Friday’s shooting attack at the site may not be permanent“The changes (the installation of the detectors) are a government decision. They can continue for weeks or months, or as long as necessary,” he said.Meanwhile Israel was also said to be in talks with Jordan over the situation.The head of the Jordanian-based Waqf Trust that administers the holy compound also confirmed contacts between Israel and Jordan are ongoing regarding the detectors.“We are in communication with the Jordanian government which is in contact with the government of Israel,” the director of the Waqf, Sheikh Azzam al Khati, said. “As is known, security has always been in the hands of Israelis. But for us, we will not accept any changes, even for security,” he said.Clashes between Muslim protesters and Israeli police continued for the fourth consecutive day following the detector’s installation.Around 150-200 worshipers had gathered neared the Lions Gate and performed the afternoon prayer, as part of their protest against the placement of metal detectors at the Temple Mount’s gates.Following the prayers, a few men remained and shouted chants about the Al-Aqsa Mosque before the police asked them to move. When one man refused, police started to arrest him, and worshipers nearby began to throw water bottles at the officers. Police threw stun grenades, and the crowd dispersed in under a minute.Police said that the man was detained for “disturbing the peace.”The clashes came as Jerusalem police chief Yoram Halevi instructed officers to reopen the Temple Mount to non-Muslims, hours after he ordered the site closed following a violation of the holy site’s rules by Jewish visitors.The Palestinian Fatah movement called for a “Day of Rage” on Wednesday to protest the new security measures.The organization, headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, called for marches in the West Bank toward Israeli checkpoints in protest of the new measures and announced that Friday prayers, when many worshipers go to the Temple Mount, would be conducted in public squares instead.Following the terror attack, in which the gunmen killed two Israeli Druze police officers, Israel made the rare move of closing the compound while it searched for more weaponry there, reopening it to Muslims on Sunday and to non-Muslims on Monday.The site has reemerged as a flashpoint in recent days, with Muslim protesters holding at-times violent demonstrations outside of the Old City in protest of Israel’s placement of metal detectors at the gates to the Temple Mount, following a terror attack last week in which a trio of Arab Israelis shot dead two police officers guarding one of the entrances to the site.The metal detectors were part of increased security measures after police said the attackers had stashed their weapons on the Temple Mount.Following the terror attack, in which the gunmen killed two Israeli Druze police officers, Israel made the rare move of closing the compound while it searched for more weaponry there, reopening it to Muslims on Sunday and to non-Muslims on Monday.Since it was reopened to non-Muslims, a number of incidents have been recorded of Jews praying at the site, including on Tuesday when police said they removed and later detained two visitors to the Mount.Palestinian officials denounced a “fierce and organized attack” by Israel against East Jerusalemites. They called for maintaining the delicate status quo at the Temple Mount, according to which the Waqf manages the site while Israel controls access. Muslims accuse Israel of breaking the status quo by installing the metal detectors.Misinformation regarding Israeli plans to make changes to the status quo surfaces frequently, roiling the Palestinian street and angering the Arab world.Israel has said repeatedly it has no plans to change the status quo at the Mount. It has always been responsible for security there, and Friday’s attack necessitated upgraded security, officials said. All visitors to the Western Wall plaza, below the Mount, have long had to pass through metal detectors, as have non-Muslim visitors to the Mount, who gain access via the Mughrabi Gate.Dov Lieber contributed reporting from Jerusalem.
Temple Mount tensions spark fourth day of clashes-Police arrest a demonstrator during scuffles at Lions Gate; holy site reopened to non-Muslims after closure over Jewish prayer-By Dov Lieber and Alexander Fulbright July 19, 2017, 3:29 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Clashes between Muslim protesters and Israeli police erupted Wednesday at one of the entrances to Jerusalem’s Old City for the fourth day in a row over new security measures at the Temple Mount following a recent terror attack.Around 150-200 worshipers had gathered neared the Lions Gate and performed the afternoon prayer, as part of their protest against the placement of metal detectors at the Temple Mount’s gates.Following the prayers, a few men remained and shouted chants about the Al-Aqsa Mosque whereupon the police asked them to move. When one man refused, police started to arrest him, and worshipers nearby began to throw water bottles at the officers. Police threw stun grenades, and the crowd dispersed in under a minute.Police said that the man was detained for “disturbing the peace.”A video clip circulating on social media appeared to show officers beating one protester in the face, a day after officers were filmed beating an Israeli Arab reporter for the Hebrew-language Ynet news site.The clashes came as Jerusalem police chief Yoram Halevi instructed officers to reopen the Temple Mount to non-Muslims, hours after he ordered the site closed following a violation of the holy site’s rules by Jewish visitors.A police spokeswoman said the closure was ordered after a group of Jewish visitors who attempted to pray on the Temple Mount was removed from the site. According to the Haaretz daily, the Jewish visitors entered the Temple Mount with prayer books and attempted to pray, despite rules at the site forbidding prayer by non-Muslims.The site has reemerged as a flashpoint in recent days, with Muslim protesters holding at-times violent demonstrations outside of the Old City in protest of Israel’s placement of metal detectors at the gates to the Temple Mount, following the terror attack last week in which a trio of Arab Israelis shot dead two police officers guarding one of the entrances to the site.The metal detectors were part of increased security measures after police said the attackers had stashed their weapons on the Temple Mount.Following the terror attack, in which the gunmen killed two Israeli Druze police officers, Israel made the rare move of closing the compound while it searched for more weaponry there, reopening it to Muslims on Sunday and to non-Muslims on Monday.Since it was reopened to non-Muslims, a number of incidents have been recorded of Jews praying at the site, including on Tuesday when police said they removed and later detained two visitors to the Mount.In light of the ongoing tensions, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on a state visit to Hungary, on Wednesday morning discussed the volatile situation on the Temple Mount in a telephone briefing with his security chiefs, but no operative decisions were taken.Another security consultation was planned for the later in the day.Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, Police Chief Roni Alsheich, Shin Bet head Nadav Argaman and other senior official participated in Wednesday morning’s phone conference.To protest the new security measures, officials from the Muslim Waqf, which administers the site, have staged protests in the Old City, gathering large groups of men to pray just outside the Temple Mount and encouraging others to avoid entering the compound.Those protests devolved into clashes between worshipers and police for three evenings in a row, including on Tuesday night, when according to police, a group of Muslim worshipers “started throwing rocks and bottles at the officers” who were stationed in the Old City.In response, the officers used riot dispersal equipment — notably rubber bullets and stun grenades — to break up the riot, police said.The Palestinian Red Crescent said 34 people were injured, including 14 people needing hospitalization. One person had a serious chest injury, a spokesperson said.Police said two officers were lightly injured in the fighting and calm was restored to the area after the clashes.Earlier on Tuesday evening, police had said that while many Muslim worshipers had decided to protest the metal detectors, others had accepted them and visited the Temple Mount. The assertion came as members of the Waqf persisted in their calls for Muslims not to enter through the metal detectors, which were installed Sunday.The Palestinian Fatah movement called for a “Day of Rage” on Wednesday to protest the new security measures.The organization, headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, called for marches in the West Bank toward Israeli checkpoints in protest of the new measures and announced that Friday prayers, when many worshipers go to the Temple Mount, would be conducted in public squares instead.Palestinian officials denounced a “fierce and organized attack” by Israel against East Jerusalemites. They called for maintaining the delicate status quo at the Temple Mount, according to which the Waqf manages the site while Israel controls access. Muslims accuse Israel of breaking the status quo by installing the metal detectors.Misinformation regarding Israeli plans to make changes to the status quo surfaces frequently, roiling the Palestinian street and angering the Arab world.Israel has said repeatedly it has no plans to change the status quo at the Mount. It has always been responsible for security there, and Friday’s attack necessitated upgraded security, officials said. All visitors to the Western Wall plaza, below the Mount, have long had to pass through metal detectors, as have non-Muslim visitors to the Mount, who gain access via the Mughrabi Gate.Raphael Ahren and Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.
Israel, Hamas make prisoner swap counteroffers – report-Jerusalem said seeking video of Israelis held in Gaza, while terror group reportedly demands release of Shalit deal recidivists-By Alexander Fulbright July 19, 2017, 10:46 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israel and the Hamas terror group have reportedly put forward new demands in ongoing indirect talks about a possible prisoner exchange deal.In the talks, which are said to be mediated by Egypt, Israel offered to release an undisclosed number of female prisoners, minors and Hamas MPs being held without charge, in exchange for video proof of the fate of three Israelis believed to be held by the terror group, the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported Wednesday.The three Israelis — Avraham Abera Mengistu, Hisham al-Sayed and Juma Ibrahim Abu Ghanima — are all said to have entered the Gaza Strip of their own accord. Hamas is also holding the bodies of Oren Shaul and Hadar Goldin, two IDF soldiers who were killed in the Strip during the 2014 Gaza war.Hamas is reported to have refused the Israeli offer, which came after Israel rejected Hamas’s demand that it free 55 prisoners rearrested following their release in the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal, in which over 1,000 Palestinian security prisoners were released in exchange for the captive Israeli soldier.In exchange for information on the fate of the Israeli captives, Hamas also demanded the release of a number of prisoners arrested during the wave of terror attacks that began in October 2015, the report said.While Israel has played down the reports of progress in the Egyptian-mediated negotiations for a prisoner swap, an unnamed Palestinian source told the London-based Arabic Al-Hiyat newspaper earlier this month that negotiations have “come a long way.”At a memorial marking three years since the 2014 Gaza conflict, known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted last week of recently increased Israeli efforts to return the Israeli citizens and the bodies of IDF soldiers being held by Hamas.“Our commitment to return home Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul is still firm. We have not let up from this sacred mission, in particular in recent days. The same applies to Avraham Abera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, Israeli citizens who are held in the Gaza Strip by a brutal enemy,” he said, failing to mention Abu Ghanima, the third Israeli civilian held by Hamas.President Reuven Rivlin also stressed at the event at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl military cemetery that Israel would not cease working for the return of Shaul and Goldin’s bodies, saying it “is our moral and public obligation.”Since the capture of their sons’ bodies, the Shaul and Goldin families have waged public campaigns for their return, with the Goldins recently releasing releasing a video urging the government to up its pressure on Hamas until the two soldiers’ bodies are returned.
In hot mic comments, Netanyahu lashes EU’s ‘crazy’ policy on Israel-Unaware that audio from his closed-door meeting with Central European leaders is being piped to reporters, PM says Europe will ‘shrivel and disappear’ if it doesn’t change course-By Raphael Ahren July 19, 2017, 1:08 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
BUDAPEST — Unaware that his remarks were also being transmitted to reporters outside, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the European Union in unusually harsh terms on Wednesday for its treatment of Israel, urging the leaders of four Central European countries to use their influence in the organization to ease its conditions for advancing bilateral ties.“I think Europe has to decide if it wants to live and thrive or if it wants to shrivel and disappear,” he said in a closed-door meeting whose content was accidentally broadcast to journalists outside the room. “I am not very politically correct. I know that’s a shock to some of you. It’s a joke. But the truth is the truth — both about Europe’s security and Europe’s economic future. Both of these concerns mandate a different policy towards Israel.”During the meeting, Netanyahu also urged the leaders of Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Poland to close their borders to refugees from Africa and the Arab world, and praised the administration of US President Donald Trump for its “stronger” position on Iran and Syria.“The European Union is the only association of countries in the world that conditions the relations with Israel, that produces technology in every area, on political conditions. The only ones! Nobody does it,” Netanyahu said in the minutes before officials realized the meeting was being overheard by reporters, and cut the feed.“It’s crazy. It’s actually crazy,” he said, referring to the EU’s insistence on conditioning some agreements with Israel on progress in the peace process. He referred the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which has not been renewed since 2000. He urged the prime ministers who were present — Hungary’s Viktor Orban, the Czech Republic’s Bohuslav Sobotka, Poland’s Beata Szydlo and Slovakia’s Robert Fico — to work toward convincing Brussels to advance talks about renewing the agreement without reference to progress in the peace process.“Please help us, and help Europe, in the expediting this association agreement,” he said.“It’s not about my interests, Israel’s interest. I’m talking about Europe’s interest,” Netanyahu said.China, Russia and India all have special relationships with Israel that aren’t contingent on progress in the peace process, Netanyahu said. “They don’t care about the political issue.” He cited conversations with the leaders of those countries in which they said they were interested in what Israel had to offer them and disregarded the lingering issue of the Palestinians.“We have a special relationship with China. And they don’t care, they don’t care about the political issues,” he said.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his recent visit to Israel, told Netanyahu he needs water for his people. “Where will I get it. Ramallah? No,” Netanyahu said, also noting that Israeli cows produce more milk than any other cows in the world — double the European average.“If I can suggest that what comes out of this meeting is your ability, perhaps, to communicate to your colleagues in other parts of Europe: Help Europe… Don’t undermine the one Western country that defends European values and European interests and prevents another mass migration to Europe.”The prime minister has often claimed that Israel is a bulwark preventing Europe from being flooded with refugees and migrants from Africa and the Middle East.“So stop attacking Israel. Start supporting Israel… Start supporting European economies by doing what the Americans, the Chinese and the Indians are doing,” he said, referring to increasing technological cooperation. Europe is “cutting itself off” from Israel, a major source of innovation, he protested.“There is no logic here. Europe is undermining its security by undermining Israel. Europe is undermining its progress by undermining the connection with Israeli innovation because of a crazy attempt to create conditions,” he added.After their closed-door meeting, Netanyahu and the other four prime ministers addressed the press. The Israeli leader joked that his remarks would be short because the Israeli press had already received an extensive briefing.“We believe it’s in the objective interest of Europe to cooperate with Israel in the fight against terrorism, and technology for the future,” Netanyahu said.“There’s an anomaly. I don’t hide it. We’re often criticized by Western Europe, often more than any other place in the world,” he continued. The Jewish state is the one democracy in the Middle East, a “beacon of tolerance” and a “bastion of European and Western values in the heart of a very, very dark area,” he said.Even many Arab countries understand that Israel serves their interests, he added. “So it’s time to have a reassessment in Europe about their relations with Israel. We have much to offer each other. We have much to offer in the realm of security, much to offer in the realm of technology.”Earlier, during the closed meeting, Netanyahu also expressed clear backing for the so-called Visegrad Group’s support of border fences to guard Europe from another wave of refugees from the Middle East.He said he believes in the free flow of goods and ideas — “but not people… Secure your borders. Secure your borders,” he urged the Eastern European leaders.On the geopolitical situation in the Middle East, Netanyahu said Israel “had a big problem” with the Obama administration in Washington and its too-hesitant policies vis-a-vis Iran and Syria, and was more pleased with its predecessor.“I think it’s different now. Vis-a-vis Iran, there is a stronger position,” he said. The US is conducting more bombing attacks in Syria, which is “a positive thing. I think we’re OK on ISIS. We’re not OK on Iran.”Israel build a border fence on the Golan Heights because the Islamic State and Iran via its proxies have and are still trying to set “a terror front” against Israel there, Netanyahu went on.“Frankly, I told [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, when we see them doing this, we take military action against them. We’ve been doing this dozens and dozens of times, and we’ve not clashed with Russia.”
