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)
ISAIAH 51:3-4
3 For the LORD shall comfort Zion:(JERUSALEM) he will comfort all her waste places;(FROM NUCLEAR WAR) and he will make her wilderness like Eden,(I BELIEVE THE EZEKIEL-4TH TEMPLE WILL BE BUILT 25 MILES FROM THE CURRENT TEMPLE MOUNT AFTER JESUS RULE FOR THE 1,000 YRS FROM JERUSALEM) and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.(PRAISE TO JESUS IN THE DESERT-COULD BE THE NEW JERUSALEM-4TH TEMPLE BUILT 25 MILES INTO THE DESERT FROM THE CURRENT TEMPLE MOUNT.SINCE EZEKIELS TEMPLE IS WAY TO BIG FOR THE CURRENT TEMPLE MOUNT)
4 Hearken unto me, my people;(ISRAEL) and give ear unto me, O my nation:(ISRAEL) for a law shall proceed from me,(JESUS IN JERUSALEM) and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.(ISRAEL AND THE WORLD)
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
Israel finalizes agreements to buy 17 more F-35 jets-New deal will bring IAF’s fleet of the high-tech stealth fighters up to 50, to be delivered by December 2024-By Judah Ari Gross August 27, 2017, 12:46 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israel finalized its agreement to buy 17 more advanced F-35 stealth fighters from Lockheed Martin on Sunday, the Defense Ministry said, which will bring the air force’s fleet of the aircraft to 50.The initial decision to purchase the 17 additional F-35 fighters was made by the security cabinet in November 2016, but it took an additional nine months to hammer out the agreement with the United States and Lockheed Martin.Israel is currently in possession of five F-35 stealth fighters, the first of them delivered in December 2016, and the air force will continue to receive the remaining 45 in small batches over the next few years.The initial order of 33 F-35 jets is expected to be completely delivered by 2021. The new batch of 17 airplanes is set to arrive by December 2024, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.According to the air force, the state-of-the-art aircraft are expected to be declared operational by next year.“Completing the deal to acquire 17 F-35 planes represents a significant and strategic addition of strength to the air force,” Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said in a statement.The defense minister also noted that this deal is further evidence of “how deep the connection and military relations are between the State of Israel and our great friend the United States.”In its statement, the Defense Ministry would not specify the exact cost of the fighters, but it noted that for the first time, the F-35 jets will cost under NIS 358 million ($100 million) per airplane, which means the additional aircraft will likely set Israel back at least NIS 6.09 billion ($1.7 billion), not including the costs of additional maintenance and support equipment.Dovi Lavi, the head of the Defense Ministry’s delegation in Washington, praised the US Defense Department for negotiating with Lockheed Martin to bring down the price.“This is a significant decrease in price compared to the airplanes that the State of Israel has purchased until now,” Lavi said.The F-35 — known in Israel as the Adir, meaning “awesome” or “mighty” in Hebrew — is a fifth-generation stealth fighter jet equipped with an array of the latest technology that is expected to anchor the Israel Air Force for years to come.Despite taking years to produce, a high price tag, and suffering numerous setbacks, Israel’s purchase of the 17 additional F-35s appeared to be a show of confidence in the plane and its abilities.Israel receives over $3 billion a year from the US in military aid, and early this year the two countries agreed on a new aid package that will see Israel receive $3.8 billion annually through 2028, the vast majority of which must be used on purchases from American defense companies.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
'We're obeying God's commandments'-Christians who celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur a growing trend-Some congregations maintain some of Jesus’s Jewish traditions by following the holiday schedule set out in the Old Testament-By Ben Sales August 26, 2017, 8:14 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
NEW YORK (JTA) — On the night of Rosh Hashanah, thousands of people will leave work, gather in congregations across the globe and worship God, the ruler of the world. Ten days later they will begin a fast and gather again to pray, this time atoning for their sins.On both occasions they will praise Jesus Christ and pray for his return.They are not Jews, nor are they Jews for Jesus. Rather, these congregants are members of an evangelical Christian movement called the Living Church of God. On the days Jews know as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, these Christians celebrate what they call the Feast of Trumpets and Day of Atonement.“We’re not trying to be Jewish,” said Dexter Wakefield, a Living Church minister and the church’s spokesman. “We’re obeying God’s commandments. The holy days have great meaning for the Christians who keep them.”Living Church of God is one of a few evangelical groups that observes Christianity as it believes Jesus observed it, according to the dictates of the Hebrew Bible. That means no Christmas and no Easter — holidays the church rejects as pagan in origin. It also means that members observe their Sabbath like the Jews: from Friday night to Saturday night. The mainstream Christian custom of observing the Sabbath on Sunday, they believe, is another deviation from the authentic Christianity of Christ.Though the Living Church of God, which has about 10,000 members, advocates observing the Sabbath on Saturday as well as Jewish holidays, they are not Messianic Jews, who self-identify as Jewish and use Hebrew scripture and liturgy. Nor are they Seventh-day Adventists, who observe a Saturday Sabbath but no other Jewish holidays.The church has nearly 400 congregations on six continents, and most of its membership is in North America, with headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is governed by a Council of Elders and is an ideological outgrowth of the philosophy of Herbert Armstrong, whose preaching of Old Testament observance inspired several churches that see themselves outside of the evangelical mainstream.For the Living Church of God, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur — the former begins this year on the evening of September 20 and the latter at sunset September 29 — are two of seven festivals celebrated across the year. Those festivals correspond to the five Jewish holidays commanded in the Torah – Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Passover and Shavuot. The church gets to seven by treating Shemini Atzeret, the holiday at the end of Sukkot, as a separate festival, and by splitting Passover in two – the first day and everything that comes afterward.“These days were clearly commanded in the Old Testament, and their observance by Christ and the Apostles in the New Testament certainly ratifies them for the Christian Church,” the church’s founder, Roderick Meredith, wrote in a pamphlet. “True Christians are to keep holy the days God made holy. And we are to follow the example of Jesus and the original Apostles in so doing.”These holidays correspond to the annual agricultural cycle, and have also taken on Jewish historical significance. But for the church, they reflect steps in the second coming of Jesus and the world’s ultimate redemption.Rather than marking the New Year, Rosh Hashanah — a one-day holiday called the Feast of Trumpets, a reasonably literal translation of its name in the Torah, Yom T’ruah — marks the day when Jesus will appear again hailed by trumpets. Yom Kippur, translated as the Day of Atonement, marks the day when Satan will finally be defeated.The church celebrates each day with a service — short by Jewish High Holiday standards — that includes a short and long sermon on the theme of the day, bookended by hymns. Like observant Jews, on the Day of Atonement congregants will take the day off and abstain from eating and drinking. But on the High Holidays they dispense with Jewish rituals like dipping apples in honey, wearing white robes known as kittels or blowing a shofar.And while Jews have special prayer books meant just for the High Holidays, Wakefield said there isn’t a traditional set of hymns to sing on either day.‘Occasionally someone will bring a shofar just for the fun of it’-“Occasionally someone will bring a shofar just for the fun of it,” said Wakefield, who served as a pastor to several Florida churches before moving to work in the church’s headquarters. “It’s not a particular ritual that we do. It’s a delightful thing to do.”Four days after the Day of Atonement, the church’s congregations will leave their homes for a temporary dwelling, as Jews do on Sukkot. But that dwelling will be a resort or motel – not a sukkah made of cloth, wood and branches. The church sees the holiday as a time to leave home and gather in another place, but that place need not be open to the elements.The church also observes several other Old Testament commandments. Members refrain from eating foods expressly prohibited in the Bible — like shellfish — and abstain from work from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, mostly corresponding to the Jewish Shabbat. But there is no set of prohibited practices on Saturday.‘If you work at the factory during the week, you’re not working by sundown Friday’“We teach that you do not do your weekly labor,” Wakefield said. “If you work at the factory during the week, you’re not working by sundown Friday.”While most evangelical groups do not observe the Old Testament like the Living Church of God, many do ascribe significance to some of its commandments. Many evangelical leaders, for example, have cited Leviticus in their opposition to same-sex marriage. And some evangelical groups have voiced support for displaying the Ten Commandments at courthouses.Cynthia Lindner, director of Ministry Studies at the University of Chicago Divinity School, says Christians are drawn to these verses because they define codes of interpersonal conduct.“There are [Old Testament] texts that are focused on prescribing behavior far more so than in the New Testament,” she said. “The texts and codes of the Hebrew Bible are easily appropriated when you want to make an argument about behavior.”In recent years, some evangelical groups have held Passover seders, partly as a re-enactment of Jesus’ Last Supper, considered to have been itself a seder. Other Christian groups, including some Christian Zionists, have taken on other Jewish rituals, such as wearing a prayer shawl or blowing a shofar.“I think a lot of Christians have the idea that Judaism is more authentic, more ancient, closer to the will of God than what a lot of the churches have become in modern times,” said Jon Levenson, a professor of the Hebrew Bible at Harvard Divinity School. “There’s this notion that church tradition has gotten farther and farther from the real word of God, and that somehow the Jews and their Bible is closer to the real word of God, and we should start taking those things on.”But for the Living Church of God, Rosh Hashanah is about more than hearkening back to ancient times. It’s about the imminent redemption of the world through Jesus.“Can we picture a massive trumpet blast literally shaking the earth to announce Christ’s return as King of Kings?” Meredith’s pamphlet reads. “Can we picture the true saints of God — who follow Him wherever He goes — rising to meet Christ in the air, to join forever with their Savior and assist Him in ruling this rebellious planet? All of these things will be heralded by the seventh trumpet!”
End bias or else, Israel threatens UN ahead of chief’s visit-Taking hard line, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely says Jerusalem will ‘no longer tolerate’ international body’s slant against Jewish state-By Raoul Wootliff August 27, 2017, 2:53 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israel is to tell UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres during his first visit to the country this week it will “no longer tolerate anti-Israel bias” at the international body, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said Sunday.Guterres is set to land in Israel Sunday night for a three-day visit that will include meetings with senior Israeli officials in Jerusalem and Palestinian officials in the West Bank, as well as a stop in the Gaza Strip, where the United Nations runs a major Palestinian aid program. The visit will be his first to the region since taking the helm at the UN in January.Briefing journalists ahead of the trip, Hotovely said two key issues would be addressed during the visit: ending “anti-Israel bias” at the 193-nation organization, and changing the UNIFIL mandate for UN activities on Israel’s northern border.“We are seeking a dramatic change in the way the UN treats Israel. It’s time to place the issue squarely on the table and address it head-on,” Hotovely said, threatening funding cuts for the body if changes were not implemented.Pointing to recent comments by US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, Hotovely said that “if the UN does not drastically change its behavior it will lose both support and funding” from Israel and other countries.“It’s no longer just us threatening this.” she said. “The US position has changed. Led by Nikki Haley, they have made clear that they will not tolerate bias against us and will no longer be giving an open check.”In April Israel announced it would reduce its annual membership payment to the United Nations by $2 million following recent “anti-Israel” votes in the organization’s bodies.The Foreign Ministry said at the time the decision was made following votes critical of Israel at the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, and condemned the “obsessive discrimination against Israel on the part of the United Nations and its agencies.”Responding to the votes, Haley said that the UN Human Rights Council’s “relentless, pathological campaign” against a state with a strong human rights record “makes a mockery not of Israel, but of the Council itself.”Haley, who has pledged to tackle hostility toward the Jewish state at a UN, said that if the Human Rights Council failed to make the required changes, the US would consider quitting the body and looking for ways to promote human rights in different frameworks.Hotovely said discussions with Guterres will also focus on strengthening the mission of the UN interim force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), following a series of skirmishes along the UN-monitored demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon.“It’s clear that the mandate has to change,” Hotovely said, echoing US calls to change the force’s mission by giving it authority to deal with arms movements by Hezbollah, the Shiite terrorist militia.The 10,500-strong UNIFIL has been in southern Lebanon since 1978, when it was charged with confirming the withdrawal of Israeli forces from a demilitarized zone between the two countries. The mission’s current mandate ends at the end of August.Since taking over from Ban Ki-moon on January 1, Guterres has been cautious in his approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, partly in response to US accusations that the United Nations was biased against Israel.In March, the UN chief demanded that a report by a UN body be withdrawn after it accused Israel of imposing an apartheid system on the Palestinians.Guterres had initially distanced himself from the report, but the United States insisted that it be withdrawn altogether.
Greeting Guterres, Netanyahu rips UN, says Iran turning Lebanon, Syria into warfronts against Israel-With secretary general by his side, PM accuses United Nations of bias against Israel and of allowing Iran to build missile sites and Hezbollah to smuggle arms-By Ilan Ben Zion August 28, 2017, 4:08 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
AP — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greeted visiting UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday with blistering criticism of the international body’s treatment of Israel and accused it of failing to prevent arms from being smuggled to Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terror group.Netanyahu also claimed that Iran is building sites in Syria and Lebanon for the manufacture of “precision-guided missiles,” with the aim of deploying them against Israel.Both Hezbollah fighters and Iran have backed President Bashar Assad’s government forces in the civil war that has ravaged Syria.“Iran is busy turning Syria into a base of military entrenchment, and it wants to use Syria and Lebanon as warfronts against its declared goal to eradicate Israel,” Netanyahu said. “This is something Israel cannot accept. This is something the UN should not accept.”The Israeli leader offered no specifics to support his allegations.Guterres arrived on Sunday for a three-day visit to the region, his first since taking office at the beginning of the year. His meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders are aimed at encouraging the resumption of peace talks.Speaking at a joint press conference with the UN chief, Netanyahu criticized the United Nations, saying that it fails to check Palestinian hate speech, “absurdly denies” Jewish connections to Jerusalem and has not stopped arms from reaching Hezbollah in Lebanon.He was referring to a recent UN cultural agency resolution about Jerusalem that angered Israel, which said it diminishes Jewish ties to the city. Israel also criticized the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, for being, according to Israel, soft on Iranian-backed Hezbollah forces in the border area.Guterres vowed that he will “do everything in my capacity” to ensure UNIFIL fulfills its obligations. The UN peacekeeping force’s mandate is up for renewal at the end of the month and Israel is pressing for the force to have an increased presence to better monitor and prevent what Israel says is Hezbollah building up its weapons.“I understand the security concerns of Israel and I repeat that the idea or the intention or the will to destroy the state of Israel is something totally unacceptable from my perspective,” the UN chief said.Earlier, President Reuven Rivlin called on Guterres to curb what he described as “the discrimination against Israel” in some UN institutions.Guterres, in turn, stressed his commitment to impartiality in “treating all states equally.” He said those who call for Israel’s destruction peddle in a “form of modern anti-Semitism” — though he also said he doesn’t always agree with the country’s policies.During a visit to the Holocaust memorial before meeting Israeli leaders, he warned that anti-Semitism remains “alive and well” in today’s world and vowed to combat all forms of racism and bigotry.“I believe that the horror of the Holocaust should be such that anti-Semitism should now be dead forever,” he said, adding how he was shocked “to listen to the chant of a group of neo-Nazis in a developed country in the world, chanting ‘blood and soil’, the slogan of the Nazis.”Guterres will meet Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on Tuesday in the West Bank. He is scheduled to visit Gaza on Wednesday.
Liberman: No easy solution to return Gaza captives-Defense minister says public pressure weakens Israel’s negotiating hand, calls on UN chief to apply pressure to Hamas-By Avi Issacharoff and Times of Israel staff August 28, 2017, 6:16 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Monday cautioned that there was no easy way for Israel to secure the return of fallen soldiers or Israelis held by Hamas, short of capitulation to the terror group’s demands or reoccupying the Gaza Strip.Any other solution, Liberman told The Times of Israel, will require patience.Liberman was responding to the media storm that followed comments he made Sunday, in which he said that Israel must not repeat the “mistake” of releasing Palestinian prisoners in exchange for captives held by Hamas.The defense minister stressed that public and media pressure only weakens Israel’s position. He said that Israel needs to change tack and stop releasing Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for captive Israelis.“The time has come to flip the script that began with the Jibril deal that saw those released initiate and carry out the First Intifada, and through the Shalit deal, whose freed [prisoners] set the tone for Hamas in Gaza, including the organization’s leader Yahya Sinwar. Those released in the Shalit deal are responsible for the murder of Israelis,” Liberman said.Liberman also spoke to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, in the country for a three day visit with Israeli and Palestinian officials, asking him to apply pressure to the terror organization to return the captives it holds.“Hamas holds two IDF soldiers, Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, and makes unreasonable demands on the State of Israel,” the defense minister told Guterres.“The group also holds, in defiance of international law, Israeli civilians who crossed the border into Gaza, and refuses to give any details about their condition, or allowing the Red Cross to visit them,” he said. “This is cruelty towards the families of soldiers and civilians, and I expect the international community and the United Nations to express this loudly and to apply pressure to Hamas.”Hamas has been holding the bodies of Goldin and Shaul since the two were killed in the Gaza Strip during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge. The terror group is also believed to be holding three Israeli citizens — Avraham Abera Mengistu, Hisham al-Sayed and Juma Ibrahim Abu Ghanima — who are all said to have entered the Gaza Strip of their own accord.Hamas said there could be no deal without Israel giving up prisoners. “We are ready to conduct immediate negotiations through an intermediary in order to discuss a prisoner exchange if Israel releases prisoners it re-arrested from the” Gilad Shalit deal, said Sinwar in a press release on Monday.In 2011, kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was released in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian detainees. Israel rearrested around 50 of those who were released in the deal in the summer of 2014 during a search for three Israeli teenagers who were kidnapped and, it later emerged, killed by a Hamas cell.Sinwar stressed that Hamas has “bargaining chips regarding the [prisoners exchange] that lets us stand on firm ground in order to fulfill our commitment and our promise to all prisoners that we will release them in honorable deals.”“Netanyahu is deluding the families of Israeli soldiers in our hands,” he said.The statement by Sinwar is in line with Hamas’s long-held public stance on the issue of negotiating over the current Israeli hostages.Liberman’s comments have drawn the ire of the families of those held, who accuse him of not doing enough.“Since the morning, the defense minister has been busy giving briefings against the Goldin and Shaul families,” Hadar Goldin’s brother Tzur Goldin tweeted. “As a fighter in the IDF I was taught that our mission was to defeat Hamas, not the families of the fallen.”Mengistu’s brother Ilan told Israel Radio on Monday that “the efforts to return the soldiers [also] need to bring my brother back home.”Guterres is set to meet with the Goldin, Shaul and Mengistu families on Wednesday as part of a three-day trip to the region.Goldin’s father on Sunday had strongly condemned Liberman, calling the defense minister “weak” and “cowardly.”“Liberman violated his commitment to the IDF’s code of ethics” by failing to bring back Hadar’s remains, Simha Goldin charged in a press conference.“We are asking that the cabinet accept our proposal — not to return prisoners, [but rather] to stop family visits for Hamas prisoners and put an end to this summer camp,” he said, referring to what he said were overly generous prison conditions for Hamas prisoners, including regular family visits and access to higher education.“And, of course, stop humanitarian gestures by Israel and the international community toward Gaza,” he added.
French authorities warn farmers of Jewish thieves ahead of Yom Kippur-Municipal veterinary service says Jews and Muslims may try to steal chickens and sheep to use in ‘unauthorized sacrifices’ for holidays-By JTA August 28, 2017, 4:07 pm
Veterinarians in a municipality near Paris warned farmers of an elevated risk of theft of sheep and fowl ahead of the Muslim and Jewish holidays of Eid al-Adha and Yom Kippur, respectively.The warning, which provoked angry reactions on the part of communal leaders who felt it was discriminatory, came in a letter sent earlier this month by veterinary services in Hauts-de-Seine, an area comprising several suburbs east of the French capital, the Le Paisien Weekly reported.The letter instructed farmers to practice “the highest degree of alertness” ahead of the Muslim holiday, which this year falls on September 1, and the Jewish one 28 days later, because followers of those religions perform “unauthorized sacrifices” of sheep and chickens, respectively.On Eid al-Adha, some Muslims sacrifices sheep and lambs in conditions that animal rights activists find cruel, and which also provoke resistance by opponents of Muslim immigration.And in the hours prior to Yom Kippur, in some Jewish communities roosters and chickens are waved several times in the air and slaughtered as atonement for sins incurred during the previous year. The meat is given to charity. Religious laws forbid the use of a stolen chicken for the rite. The act is also condemned as cruel by animal rights activists.“Ill-intentioned individuals could try to catch the animals in order to perform clandestine slaughters,” the letter also warned.Joel Mergui, president of the Consistoire, the organization responsible for providing religious services to Jewish communities, said that after reading about the circular, he was “amazed to discover” that he had “suddenly and collectively, with all the coreligionists of the Jewish faith, become a potential chicken thief,” Mergui, a physician and one of French Jewry’s most highly regarded leaders, told the La Croix daily Friday.Following protests over the letter, a spokesperson for the Public Security department of the region told Le Parisien “it was a matter of vigilance” that “was not intended to cause offense.”According to Le Parisien, sheep have been stolen in the past for sacrifice during Eid al-Adha, but likely not by Muslims. Roma traders sold some 200 stolen sheep in 2013 ahead of the Muslim holiday to worshipers. The sheep were sold for approximately half of their market value. The daily did not offer a report of any theft of chickens ahead of Yom Kippur.To Francis Kalifat, president of the CRIF umbrella group of French Jews, the inclusion of the Jewish holiday in the police’s circular was one of many cases in which “Jews are equated, compared, amalgamated” with Muslims incorrectly as a tactic for deflecting accusation of Islamophobia.“This systematic tendency by politicians and in the media, and this time by administrative authorities, has become intolerable and unacceptable,” he was quoted as saying by La Croix.
Ironic ‘Adopt-a Nazi’ fundraiser surpasses $150K goal-Campaign created as response to planned far-right ‘free speech’ rally raises money for Southern Poverty Law Center-By JTA August 27, 2017, 5:49 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The Adopt-a-Nazi (Not Really) fundraiser, a response to a far-right “free speech” rally that had been scheduled for San Francisco, reached its $150,000 goal and has topped it.The campaign, by San Francisco attorney Cody Harris and the Jewish Bar Association of San Francisco, asks visitors to donate a small amount of money to the Southern Poverty Law Center by “sponsoring” each person who had been expected to attend the rally. Some 300 rally-goers had been expected.The rally that had been scheduled for Saturday night was canceled late Friday by its organizer: a right wing group known as Patriot Prayer led by Joey Gibson of Portland, Oregon.“It doesn’t seem safe. A lot of people’s lives are going to be in danger,” Gibson said in a post on Facebook. He also said that “tons of extremists” had planned to show up at the rally and that the event had the potential to become “a riot.”Gibson had announced a news conference on Saturday in downtown San Francisco, but this was also canceled as the group did not have a permit for the venue, a park.Launched on August 17 with an initial goal of $10,000, the campaign passed that target in 24 hours. The goal was changed to $100,000 and then to $125,000.The link has been shared 17,000 times on Facebook.As of Sunday morning, the GoFundMe campaign to benefit the Southern Poverty Law Center had raised more than $155,000 and raised its goal to $165,000 by Monday.When Harris heard about the San Francisco rally, he was shocked that a national issue stirred by the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, was coming to his doorstep. He created the GoFundMe page “Adopt-a-Nazi (Not Really)” to raise money for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a national organization fighting hate and extremism and tracking neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups.Harris came up with the idea after hearing about a town in Germany that countered a neo-Nazi parade in 2014 with a fundraiser to benefit anti-extremist groups. He asked the Jewish Bar Association of San Francisco, where he is a board member, to take on the effort.
3 For the LORD shall comfort Zion:(JERUSALEM) he will comfort all her waste places;(FROM NUCLEAR WAR) and he will make her wilderness like Eden,(I BELIEVE THE EZEKIEL-4TH TEMPLE WILL BE BUILT 25 MILES FROM THE CURRENT TEMPLE MOUNT AFTER JESUS RULE FOR THE 1,000 YRS FROM JERUSALEM) and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.(PRAISE TO JESUS IN THE DESERT-COULD BE THE NEW JERUSALEM-4TH TEMPLE BUILT 25 MILES INTO THE DESERT FROM THE CURRENT TEMPLE MOUNT.SINCE EZEKIELS TEMPLE IS WAY TO BIG FOR THE CURRENT TEMPLE MOUNT)
4 Hearken unto me, my people;(ISRAEL) and give ear unto me, O my nation:(ISRAEL) for a law shall proceed from me,(JESUS IN JERUSALEM) and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.(ISRAEL AND THE WORLD)
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
Israel finalizes agreements to buy 17 more F-35 jets-New deal will bring IAF’s fleet of the high-tech stealth fighters up to 50, to be delivered by December 2024-By Judah Ari Gross August 27, 2017, 12:46 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israel finalized its agreement to buy 17 more advanced F-35 stealth fighters from Lockheed Martin on Sunday, the Defense Ministry said, which will bring the air force’s fleet of the aircraft to 50.The initial decision to purchase the 17 additional F-35 fighters was made by the security cabinet in November 2016, but it took an additional nine months to hammer out the agreement with the United States and Lockheed Martin.Israel is currently in possession of five F-35 stealth fighters, the first of them delivered in December 2016, and the air force will continue to receive the remaining 45 in small batches over the next few years.The initial order of 33 F-35 jets is expected to be completely delivered by 2021. The new batch of 17 airplanes is set to arrive by December 2024, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.According to the air force, the state-of-the-art aircraft are expected to be declared operational by next year.“Completing the deal to acquire 17 F-35 planes represents a significant and strategic addition of strength to the air force,” Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said in a statement.The defense minister also noted that this deal is further evidence of “how deep the connection and military relations are between the State of Israel and our great friend the United States.”In its statement, the Defense Ministry would not specify the exact cost of the fighters, but it noted that for the first time, the F-35 jets will cost under NIS 358 million ($100 million) per airplane, which means the additional aircraft will likely set Israel back at least NIS 6.09 billion ($1.7 billion), not including the costs of additional maintenance and support equipment.Dovi Lavi, the head of the Defense Ministry’s delegation in Washington, praised the US Defense Department for negotiating with Lockheed Martin to bring down the price.“This is a significant decrease in price compared to the airplanes that the State of Israel has purchased until now,” Lavi said.The F-35 — known in Israel as the Adir, meaning “awesome” or “mighty” in Hebrew — is a fifth-generation stealth fighter jet equipped with an array of the latest technology that is expected to anchor the Israel Air Force for years to come.Despite taking years to produce, a high price tag, and suffering numerous setbacks, Israel’s purchase of the 17 additional F-35s appeared to be a show of confidence in the plane and its abilities.Israel receives over $3 billion a year from the US in military aid, and early this year the two countries agreed on a new aid package that will see Israel receive $3.8 billion annually through 2028, the vast majority of which must be used on purchases from American defense companies.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
'We're obeying God's commandments'-Christians who celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur a growing trend-Some congregations maintain some of Jesus’s Jewish traditions by following the holiday schedule set out in the Old Testament-By Ben Sales August 26, 2017, 8:14 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
NEW YORK (JTA) — On the night of Rosh Hashanah, thousands of people will leave work, gather in congregations across the globe and worship God, the ruler of the world. Ten days later they will begin a fast and gather again to pray, this time atoning for their sins.On both occasions they will praise Jesus Christ and pray for his return.They are not Jews, nor are they Jews for Jesus. Rather, these congregants are members of an evangelical Christian movement called the Living Church of God. On the days Jews know as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, these Christians celebrate what they call the Feast of Trumpets and Day of Atonement.“We’re not trying to be Jewish,” said Dexter Wakefield, a Living Church minister and the church’s spokesman. “We’re obeying God’s commandments. The holy days have great meaning for the Christians who keep them.”Living Church of God is one of a few evangelical groups that observes Christianity as it believes Jesus observed it, according to the dictates of the Hebrew Bible. That means no Christmas and no Easter — holidays the church rejects as pagan in origin. It also means that members observe their Sabbath like the Jews: from Friday night to Saturday night. The mainstream Christian custom of observing the Sabbath on Sunday, they believe, is another deviation from the authentic Christianity of Christ.Though the Living Church of God, which has about 10,000 members, advocates observing the Sabbath on Saturday as well as Jewish holidays, they are not Messianic Jews, who self-identify as Jewish and use Hebrew scripture and liturgy. Nor are they Seventh-day Adventists, who observe a Saturday Sabbath but no other Jewish holidays.The church has nearly 400 congregations on six continents, and most of its membership is in North America, with headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is governed by a Council of Elders and is an ideological outgrowth of the philosophy of Herbert Armstrong, whose preaching of Old Testament observance inspired several churches that see themselves outside of the evangelical mainstream.For the Living Church of God, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur — the former begins this year on the evening of September 20 and the latter at sunset September 29 — are two of seven festivals celebrated across the year. Those festivals correspond to the five Jewish holidays commanded in the Torah – Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Passover and Shavuot. The church gets to seven by treating Shemini Atzeret, the holiday at the end of Sukkot, as a separate festival, and by splitting Passover in two – the first day and everything that comes afterward.“These days were clearly commanded in the Old Testament, and their observance by Christ and the Apostles in the New Testament certainly ratifies them for the Christian Church,” the church’s founder, Roderick Meredith, wrote in a pamphlet. “True Christians are to keep holy the days God made holy. And we are to follow the example of Jesus and the original Apostles in so doing.”These holidays correspond to the annual agricultural cycle, and have also taken on Jewish historical significance. But for the church, they reflect steps in the second coming of Jesus and the world’s ultimate redemption.Rather than marking the New Year, Rosh Hashanah — a one-day holiday called the Feast of Trumpets, a reasonably literal translation of its name in the Torah, Yom T’ruah — marks the day when Jesus will appear again hailed by trumpets. Yom Kippur, translated as the Day of Atonement, marks the day when Satan will finally be defeated.The church celebrates each day with a service — short by Jewish High Holiday standards — that includes a short and long sermon on the theme of the day, bookended by hymns. Like observant Jews, on the Day of Atonement congregants will take the day off and abstain from eating and drinking. But on the High Holidays they dispense with Jewish rituals like dipping apples in honey, wearing white robes known as kittels or blowing a shofar.And while Jews have special prayer books meant just for the High Holidays, Wakefield said there isn’t a traditional set of hymns to sing on either day.‘Occasionally someone will bring a shofar just for the fun of it’-“Occasionally someone will bring a shofar just for the fun of it,” said Wakefield, who served as a pastor to several Florida churches before moving to work in the church’s headquarters. “It’s not a particular ritual that we do. It’s a delightful thing to do.”Four days after the Day of Atonement, the church’s congregations will leave their homes for a temporary dwelling, as Jews do on Sukkot. But that dwelling will be a resort or motel – not a sukkah made of cloth, wood and branches. The church sees the holiday as a time to leave home and gather in another place, but that place need not be open to the elements.The church also observes several other Old Testament commandments. Members refrain from eating foods expressly prohibited in the Bible — like shellfish — and abstain from work from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, mostly corresponding to the Jewish Shabbat. But there is no set of prohibited practices on Saturday.‘If you work at the factory during the week, you’re not working by sundown Friday’“We teach that you do not do your weekly labor,” Wakefield said. “If you work at the factory during the week, you’re not working by sundown Friday.”While most evangelical groups do not observe the Old Testament like the Living Church of God, many do ascribe significance to some of its commandments. Many evangelical leaders, for example, have cited Leviticus in their opposition to same-sex marriage. And some evangelical groups have voiced support for displaying the Ten Commandments at courthouses.Cynthia Lindner, director of Ministry Studies at the University of Chicago Divinity School, says Christians are drawn to these verses because they define codes of interpersonal conduct.“There are [Old Testament] texts that are focused on prescribing behavior far more so than in the New Testament,” she said. “The texts and codes of the Hebrew Bible are easily appropriated when you want to make an argument about behavior.”In recent years, some evangelical groups have held Passover seders, partly as a re-enactment of Jesus’ Last Supper, considered to have been itself a seder. Other Christian groups, including some Christian Zionists, have taken on other Jewish rituals, such as wearing a prayer shawl or blowing a shofar.“I think a lot of Christians have the idea that Judaism is more authentic, more ancient, closer to the will of God than what a lot of the churches have become in modern times,” said Jon Levenson, a professor of the Hebrew Bible at Harvard Divinity School. “There’s this notion that church tradition has gotten farther and farther from the real word of God, and that somehow the Jews and their Bible is closer to the real word of God, and we should start taking those things on.”But for the Living Church of God, Rosh Hashanah is about more than hearkening back to ancient times. It’s about the imminent redemption of the world through Jesus.“Can we picture a massive trumpet blast literally shaking the earth to announce Christ’s return as King of Kings?” Meredith’s pamphlet reads. “Can we picture the true saints of God — who follow Him wherever He goes — rising to meet Christ in the air, to join forever with their Savior and assist Him in ruling this rebellious planet? All of these things will be heralded by the seventh trumpet!”
End bias or else, Israel threatens UN ahead of chief’s visit-Taking hard line, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely says Jerusalem will ‘no longer tolerate’ international body’s slant against Jewish state-By Raoul Wootliff August 27, 2017, 2:53 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israel is to tell UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres during his first visit to the country this week it will “no longer tolerate anti-Israel bias” at the international body, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said Sunday.Guterres is set to land in Israel Sunday night for a three-day visit that will include meetings with senior Israeli officials in Jerusalem and Palestinian officials in the West Bank, as well as a stop in the Gaza Strip, where the United Nations runs a major Palestinian aid program. The visit will be his first to the region since taking the helm at the UN in January.Briefing journalists ahead of the trip, Hotovely said two key issues would be addressed during the visit: ending “anti-Israel bias” at the 193-nation organization, and changing the UNIFIL mandate for UN activities on Israel’s northern border.“We are seeking a dramatic change in the way the UN treats Israel. It’s time to place the issue squarely on the table and address it head-on,” Hotovely said, threatening funding cuts for the body if changes were not implemented.Pointing to recent comments by US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, Hotovely said that “if the UN does not drastically change its behavior it will lose both support and funding” from Israel and other countries.“It’s no longer just us threatening this.” she said. “The US position has changed. Led by Nikki Haley, they have made clear that they will not tolerate bias against us and will no longer be giving an open check.”In April Israel announced it would reduce its annual membership payment to the United Nations by $2 million following recent “anti-Israel” votes in the organization’s bodies.The Foreign Ministry said at the time the decision was made following votes critical of Israel at the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, and condemned the “obsessive discrimination against Israel on the part of the United Nations and its agencies.”Responding to the votes, Haley said that the UN Human Rights Council’s “relentless, pathological campaign” against a state with a strong human rights record “makes a mockery not of Israel, but of the Council itself.”Haley, who has pledged to tackle hostility toward the Jewish state at a UN, said that if the Human Rights Council failed to make the required changes, the US would consider quitting the body and looking for ways to promote human rights in different frameworks.Hotovely said discussions with Guterres will also focus on strengthening the mission of the UN interim force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), following a series of skirmishes along the UN-monitored demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon.“It’s clear that the mandate has to change,” Hotovely said, echoing US calls to change the force’s mission by giving it authority to deal with arms movements by Hezbollah, the Shiite terrorist militia.The 10,500-strong UNIFIL has been in southern Lebanon since 1978, when it was charged with confirming the withdrawal of Israeli forces from a demilitarized zone between the two countries. The mission’s current mandate ends at the end of August.Since taking over from Ban Ki-moon on January 1, Guterres has been cautious in his approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, partly in response to US accusations that the United Nations was biased against Israel.In March, the UN chief demanded that a report by a UN body be withdrawn after it accused Israel of imposing an apartheid system on the Palestinians.Guterres had initially distanced himself from the report, but the United States insisted that it be withdrawn altogether.
Greeting Guterres, Netanyahu rips UN, says Iran turning Lebanon, Syria into warfronts against Israel-With secretary general by his side, PM accuses United Nations of bias against Israel and of allowing Iran to build missile sites and Hezbollah to smuggle arms-By Ilan Ben Zion August 28, 2017, 4:08 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
AP — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greeted visiting UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday with blistering criticism of the international body’s treatment of Israel and accused it of failing to prevent arms from being smuggled to Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terror group.Netanyahu also claimed that Iran is building sites in Syria and Lebanon for the manufacture of “precision-guided missiles,” with the aim of deploying them against Israel.Both Hezbollah fighters and Iran have backed President Bashar Assad’s government forces in the civil war that has ravaged Syria.“Iran is busy turning Syria into a base of military entrenchment, and it wants to use Syria and Lebanon as warfronts against its declared goal to eradicate Israel,” Netanyahu said. “This is something Israel cannot accept. This is something the UN should not accept.”The Israeli leader offered no specifics to support his allegations.Guterres arrived on Sunday for a three-day visit to the region, his first since taking office at the beginning of the year. His meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders are aimed at encouraging the resumption of peace talks.Speaking at a joint press conference with the UN chief, Netanyahu criticized the United Nations, saying that it fails to check Palestinian hate speech, “absurdly denies” Jewish connections to Jerusalem and has not stopped arms from reaching Hezbollah in Lebanon.He was referring to a recent UN cultural agency resolution about Jerusalem that angered Israel, which said it diminishes Jewish ties to the city. Israel also criticized the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, for being, according to Israel, soft on Iranian-backed Hezbollah forces in the border area.Guterres vowed that he will “do everything in my capacity” to ensure UNIFIL fulfills its obligations. The UN peacekeeping force’s mandate is up for renewal at the end of the month and Israel is pressing for the force to have an increased presence to better monitor and prevent what Israel says is Hezbollah building up its weapons.“I understand the security concerns of Israel and I repeat that the idea or the intention or the will to destroy the state of Israel is something totally unacceptable from my perspective,” the UN chief said.Earlier, President Reuven Rivlin called on Guterres to curb what he described as “the discrimination against Israel” in some UN institutions.Guterres, in turn, stressed his commitment to impartiality in “treating all states equally.” He said those who call for Israel’s destruction peddle in a “form of modern anti-Semitism” — though he also said he doesn’t always agree with the country’s policies.During a visit to the Holocaust memorial before meeting Israeli leaders, he warned that anti-Semitism remains “alive and well” in today’s world and vowed to combat all forms of racism and bigotry.“I believe that the horror of the Holocaust should be such that anti-Semitism should now be dead forever,” he said, adding how he was shocked “to listen to the chant of a group of neo-Nazis in a developed country in the world, chanting ‘blood and soil’, the slogan of the Nazis.”Guterres will meet Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on Tuesday in the West Bank. He is scheduled to visit Gaza on Wednesday.
Liberman: No easy solution to return Gaza captives-Defense minister says public pressure weakens Israel’s negotiating hand, calls on UN chief to apply pressure to Hamas-By Avi Issacharoff and Times of Israel staff August 28, 2017, 6:16 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Monday cautioned that there was no easy way for Israel to secure the return of fallen soldiers or Israelis held by Hamas, short of capitulation to the terror group’s demands or reoccupying the Gaza Strip.Any other solution, Liberman told The Times of Israel, will require patience.Liberman was responding to the media storm that followed comments he made Sunday, in which he said that Israel must not repeat the “mistake” of releasing Palestinian prisoners in exchange for captives held by Hamas.The defense minister stressed that public and media pressure only weakens Israel’s position. He said that Israel needs to change tack and stop releasing Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for captive Israelis.“The time has come to flip the script that began with the Jibril deal that saw those released initiate and carry out the First Intifada, and through the Shalit deal, whose freed [prisoners] set the tone for Hamas in Gaza, including the organization’s leader Yahya Sinwar. Those released in the Shalit deal are responsible for the murder of Israelis,” Liberman said.Liberman also spoke to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, in the country for a three day visit with Israeli and Palestinian officials, asking him to apply pressure to the terror organization to return the captives it holds.“Hamas holds two IDF soldiers, Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, and makes unreasonable demands on the State of Israel,” the defense minister told Guterres.“The group also holds, in defiance of international law, Israeli civilians who crossed the border into Gaza, and refuses to give any details about their condition, or allowing the Red Cross to visit them,” he said. “This is cruelty towards the families of soldiers and civilians, and I expect the international community and the United Nations to express this loudly and to apply pressure to Hamas.”Hamas has been holding the bodies of Goldin and Shaul since the two were killed in the Gaza Strip during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge. The terror group is also believed to be holding three Israeli citizens — Avraham Abera Mengistu, Hisham al-Sayed and Juma Ibrahim Abu Ghanima — who are all said to have entered the Gaza Strip of their own accord.Hamas said there could be no deal without Israel giving up prisoners. “We are ready to conduct immediate negotiations through an intermediary in order to discuss a prisoner exchange if Israel releases prisoners it re-arrested from the” Gilad Shalit deal, said Sinwar in a press release on Monday.In 2011, kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was released in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian detainees. Israel rearrested around 50 of those who were released in the deal in the summer of 2014 during a search for three Israeli teenagers who were kidnapped and, it later emerged, killed by a Hamas cell.Sinwar stressed that Hamas has “bargaining chips regarding the [prisoners exchange] that lets us stand on firm ground in order to fulfill our commitment and our promise to all prisoners that we will release them in honorable deals.”“Netanyahu is deluding the families of Israeli soldiers in our hands,” he said.The statement by Sinwar is in line with Hamas’s long-held public stance on the issue of negotiating over the current Israeli hostages.Liberman’s comments have drawn the ire of the families of those held, who accuse him of not doing enough.“Since the morning, the defense minister has been busy giving briefings against the Goldin and Shaul families,” Hadar Goldin’s brother Tzur Goldin tweeted. “As a fighter in the IDF I was taught that our mission was to defeat Hamas, not the families of the fallen.”Mengistu’s brother Ilan told Israel Radio on Monday that “the efforts to return the soldiers [also] need to bring my brother back home.”Guterres is set to meet with the Goldin, Shaul and Mengistu families on Wednesday as part of a three-day trip to the region.Goldin’s father on Sunday had strongly condemned Liberman, calling the defense minister “weak” and “cowardly.”“Liberman violated his commitment to the IDF’s code of ethics” by failing to bring back Hadar’s remains, Simha Goldin charged in a press conference.“We are asking that the cabinet accept our proposal — not to return prisoners, [but rather] to stop family visits for Hamas prisoners and put an end to this summer camp,” he said, referring to what he said were overly generous prison conditions for Hamas prisoners, including regular family visits and access to higher education.“And, of course, stop humanitarian gestures by Israel and the international community toward Gaza,” he added.
French authorities warn farmers of Jewish thieves ahead of Yom Kippur-Municipal veterinary service says Jews and Muslims may try to steal chickens and sheep to use in ‘unauthorized sacrifices’ for holidays-By JTA August 28, 2017, 4:07 pm
Veterinarians in a municipality near Paris warned farmers of an elevated risk of theft of sheep and fowl ahead of the Muslim and Jewish holidays of Eid al-Adha and Yom Kippur, respectively.The warning, which provoked angry reactions on the part of communal leaders who felt it was discriminatory, came in a letter sent earlier this month by veterinary services in Hauts-de-Seine, an area comprising several suburbs east of the French capital, the Le Paisien Weekly reported.The letter instructed farmers to practice “the highest degree of alertness” ahead of the Muslim holiday, which this year falls on September 1, and the Jewish one 28 days later, because followers of those religions perform “unauthorized sacrifices” of sheep and chickens, respectively.On Eid al-Adha, some Muslims sacrifices sheep and lambs in conditions that animal rights activists find cruel, and which also provoke resistance by opponents of Muslim immigration.And in the hours prior to Yom Kippur, in some Jewish communities roosters and chickens are waved several times in the air and slaughtered as atonement for sins incurred during the previous year. The meat is given to charity. Religious laws forbid the use of a stolen chicken for the rite. The act is also condemned as cruel by animal rights activists.“Ill-intentioned individuals could try to catch the animals in order to perform clandestine slaughters,” the letter also warned.Joel Mergui, president of the Consistoire, the organization responsible for providing religious services to Jewish communities, said that after reading about the circular, he was “amazed to discover” that he had “suddenly and collectively, with all the coreligionists of the Jewish faith, become a potential chicken thief,” Mergui, a physician and one of French Jewry’s most highly regarded leaders, told the La Croix daily Friday.Following protests over the letter, a spokesperson for the Public Security department of the region told Le Parisien “it was a matter of vigilance” that “was not intended to cause offense.”According to Le Parisien, sheep have been stolen in the past for sacrifice during Eid al-Adha, but likely not by Muslims. Roma traders sold some 200 stolen sheep in 2013 ahead of the Muslim holiday to worshipers. The sheep were sold for approximately half of their market value. The daily did not offer a report of any theft of chickens ahead of Yom Kippur.To Francis Kalifat, president of the CRIF umbrella group of French Jews, the inclusion of the Jewish holiday in the police’s circular was one of many cases in which “Jews are equated, compared, amalgamated” with Muslims incorrectly as a tactic for deflecting accusation of Islamophobia.“This systematic tendency by politicians and in the media, and this time by administrative authorities, has become intolerable and unacceptable,” he was quoted as saying by La Croix.
Ironic ‘Adopt-a Nazi’ fundraiser surpasses $150K goal-Campaign created as response to planned far-right ‘free speech’ rally raises money for Southern Poverty Law Center-By JTA August 27, 2017, 5:49 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The Adopt-a-Nazi (Not Really) fundraiser, a response to a far-right “free speech” rally that had been scheduled for San Francisco, reached its $150,000 goal and has topped it.The campaign, by San Francisco attorney Cody Harris and the Jewish Bar Association of San Francisco, asks visitors to donate a small amount of money to the Southern Poverty Law Center by “sponsoring” each person who had been expected to attend the rally. Some 300 rally-goers had been expected.The rally that had been scheduled for Saturday night was canceled late Friday by its organizer: a right wing group known as Patriot Prayer led by Joey Gibson of Portland, Oregon.“It doesn’t seem safe. A lot of people’s lives are going to be in danger,” Gibson said in a post on Facebook. He also said that “tons of extremists” had planned to show up at the rally and that the event had the potential to become “a riot.”Gibson had announced a news conference on Saturday in downtown San Francisco, but this was also canceled as the group did not have a permit for the venue, a park.Launched on August 17 with an initial goal of $10,000, the campaign passed that target in 24 hours. The goal was changed to $100,000 and then to $125,000.The link has been shared 17,000 times on Facebook.As of Sunday morning, the GoFundMe campaign to benefit the Southern Poverty Law Center had raised more than $155,000 and raised its goal to $165,000 by Monday.When Harris heard about the San Francisco rally, he was shocked that a national issue stirred by the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, was coming to his doorstep. He created the GoFundMe page “Adopt-a-Nazi (Not Really)” to raise money for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a national organization fighting hate and extremism and tracking neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups.Harris came up with the idea after hearing about a town in Germany that countered a neo-Nazi parade in 2014 with a fundraiser to benefit anti-extremist groups. He asked the Jewish Bar Association of San Francisco, where he is a board member, to take on the effort.
