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
Israel to impose 11-day closure on West Bank, Gaza for Sukkot holiday-Exceptionally long closure comes after Har Adar terror attack, amid general concern over volatility in Palestinian areas-By Judah Ari Gross-October 3, 2017, 5:28 pm
In a rare move, Israel announced on Tuesday that it will be closing off the West Bank and Gaza Strip for 11 days for the Sukkot holiday and the following weekend, beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday.Closures for Jewish and Israeli holidays are a routine procedure. However, in the past, Israel has shut down the crossings surrounding the West Bank and Gaza only at the start and end of week-long festivals like Sukkot, rather than for the entire holiday.As the holiday ends on the evening of October 12 — a Thursday — the closure is scheduled to last through the weekend, until midnight on October 14, for a total of 11 days.The closure was approved by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman earlier this week, but its implementation was still dependent upon a final situational assessment.During the closure, the military will allow the passage of Palestinians in “humanitarian, medical and exceptional cases, with the approval of the [Defense Ministry’s] Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories,” according to an army statement.It was not immediately clear if during the 11 days Palestinian laborers will be allowed into Israeli settlements in the West Bank.The reopening of the West Bank and Gaza Strip crossings will be contingent upon a “situational assessment,” the army said.The exceptional decision to keep the crossings closed for 11 days was made following a terror attack outside the Har Adar settlement near Jerusalem last week, as well as out of general concern over heightened tensions in the West Bank and Gaza due to the ongoing reconciliation negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas terrorist group.Before the attack, the army advised the defense minister to only close the West Bank and Gaza for the first and last days of the festival — as normal — but in the wake of the fatal shooting, the military changed its recommendation.According to spokespeople of both the minister and the army, since the Har Adar attack, the IDF has favored a closure for the entire holiday.On Sunday, Liberman’s spokesperson said that the new “recommendation was accepted by the defense minister.”In general, the Jewish high holiday season, which began last week with Rosh Hashanah, is seen by defense officials as a time period of increased tension in the region, when the risk of terror attacks is higher.Ordinarily, tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank enter Israel and Israeli settlements for work each day. A far smaller number of Gaza residents also travel to Israel, mostly to receive medical treatment.West Bank and Gaza closures for holidays are intended both to prevent attempts at terror attacks in Israel during the holiday period and to allow the Israeli security officials who operate the crossings to celebrate the festival.A similar closure was imposed last Friday and Saturday for Yom Kippur and the week before, for Rosh Hashanah.
As Hamas sticks to its guns, Abbas pours cold water on reconciliation efforts-While cabinet meeting in Strip is big step forward, disagreement between sides over terror group's arsenal remains a major sticking point-By Avi Issacharoff-October 3, 2017, 7:19 pm-TOI
The Palestinian Authority government, headed by premier Rami Hamdallah, convened in the Gaza Strip Tuesday morning for the first time in three years.After the celebratory pictures and many handshakes, the government reached its first decision: the sanctions his government imposed on the enclave will not be removed until representatives of the Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas meet in Cairo next week, at the earliest.In other words: Let’s first see what Hamas has to offer and then we’ll talk. There is no such as thing as a free lunch, and PA President Mahmoud Abbas wants to make sure Hamas knows it.While Egypt’s intelligence services were trying to organize a show of unity in Gaza, Abbas poured cold water on the Hamas, Egypt and even senior Fatah officials who had traveled to the Strip.In an interview late Monday with the Egyptian news station CBC, Abbas delivered a message to all those concerned: The path to reconciliation is long and hinges on one key point — Hamas’s guns.With the terror group having vowed it will never part with its arsenal, Abbas comes along and explicitly says he will not tolerate a Palestinian version of the well-armed Hezbollah in Lebanon or the stockpiling of arms by any group bar the PA.“One state, one government, one gun,” said Abbas, the same slogan he has always pushed.“Just as I imprison Fatah members for holding weapons, so it will be with all groups,” said Abbas.There was no room for ambiguity in Abbas’s comments. He let Hamas, Egypt and the Palestinian public know there will be no true reconciliation or unity if Hamas insists on maintaining possession of its weaponry.In short, don’t get your hopes up.It was not just the content of the interview Abbas gave to pro-Egyptian government reporter Lamis el-Hadidy that got that message across. His body language, his tone and his choice of words conveyed that in his view reconciliation between his Fatah party and Hamas is not realistic.When asked what torpedoed the previous reconciliation agreement reached in 2014, Abbas replied without hesitation: “[Hamas] kidnapped the three soldiers,” before quickly correcting himself to say “children,” in reference to the kidnapping of three Israeli teens in the West Bank by members of the terror group that helped spark the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas.In the interview, Abbas also addressed the transfer of authority in Gaza to the PA, emphasizing that he wants control over the border crossings.“The PA will control the crossings,” he said. Asked if Hamas would agree to this, Abbas replied that the true test will be on the ground.Regarding the economic sanctions the PA imposed on Gaza, Abbas blamed Hamas for setting up its own administrative body in Gaza, which he indicated was a step too far.Abbas stressed that only when his government assumes administrative control of Gaza “exactly as it does in the West Bank” will the sanctions be removed.Fat chance, Abbas said. When he was asked by the interviewer what he would say to former Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh when he visits Gaza, Abbas appeared to be restraining himself to not give a harsh response.After years of failed attempts at reconciliation, Abbas, 82, also appeared skeptical about the possibility of true national unity.He clarified that it is not certain there will soon be elections, and that even the establishment of a Palestinian state won’t be soon — a surprising remark for the leader who tells the Palestinians at every opportunity that the establishment of a state of their own is imminent.Despite his skepticism, Abbas spoke respectfully of Egypt and its role in brokering the reconciliation.-Egypt throws weight behind efforts-Regarding Egypt, any viewer of Egyptian television could be forgiven for believing what has been going on in Gaza over the past two days was an internal Egyptian matter.Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi is portrayed on Egyptian television as not only the architect of the reconciliation, but also as the supreme regional leader who was able to bring together two children and put an end to their squabbling.Egyptian intelligence has thrown its full weight behind the matter. General Sameh Kamel, Egyptian intelligence’s point man for Israeli-Palestinian affairs, arrived in Gaza on Monday, while Egypt’s Intelligence Minister Khaled Fawzi was due to visit Ramallah on Tuesday before making his way to the Strip.Next week, Egypt will host top officials from both Fatah and Hamas in Cairo for a more in-depth in discussion on the details of the reconciliation deal.General Kamel was Egypt’s intelligence representative in Tel Aviv for several years. He is well aware of each side’s limitations in any reconciliation deal, as well as Israel’s stance concerning Palestinian unity.The Palestinians should hope he has still has some cards to play, as the positions presented by Abbas on the one hand and Hamas on the other suggest the current efforts at reconciliation will end with little fanfare.
PA slams Netanyahu’s ‘unacceptable’ pledge to develop Ma’ale Adumim-Senior Palestinian offical says prime minister is trying to 'destroy' the two-state solution, avoid restarting peace talks-By AP and TOI staff-October 3, 2017, 7:17 pm
A top Palestinian official on Tuesday said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was trying to “destroy” the two-state solution by pledging to further develop and even effectively annex one of the biggest Jewish settlements in the West Bank.Nabil Shaath, a senior adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, called Netanyahu’s comments “totally unacceptable.”“This is an attempt by Netanyahu to destroy the two-state solution and a clear refusal of any attempt to revive the peace process, especially by the United States,” he said.Earlier Netanyahu, visited the city of Ma’ale Adumim where he vowed to build thousands of new homes and threw his support behind a bill to redraw Jerusalem’s municipal borders to include the settlement.The comments drew an angry condemnation from the Palestinians and created a new test for the Trump administration, which has been working for over eight months to restart peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.Netanyahu said during the visit that he was announcing a period of “enhanced development.”“We will build thousands of housing units here,” he said. “We will add the industrial zone needed and the expansion needed to allow for the advanced development of this place.”“This place will be part of the State of Israel,” he added.The Palestinians seek the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as part of a future independent state and consider all of Israel’s settlements to be illegal — a position that is widely shared by the international community. Israel says the settlements’ fate should be resolved through negotiations.Maale Adumim is a settlement of roughly 40,000 people just east of Jerusalem.Israelis widely expect that Ma’ale Adumim will be annexed as part of a land swap under any future agreement with the Palestinians. Critics argue, however, that extending Israeli sovereignty to the large settlement, and a parcel of land known as E-1 between it and the capital, would effectively sever the northern and southern halves of the West Bank, preventing the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state.US President Donald Trump has taken a softer line toward the settlements than his predecessors, and his key advisers, including son-in-law Jared Kushner and ambassador to Israel David Friedman, have longstanding ties to the settlement movement.Even so, Trump has still asked Israel to show restraint.Early this year, Israel shelved a proposal to annex Maale Adumim under apparent pressure from the White House.Trump’s Mideast envoy, Jason Greenblatt, has been in the region meeting with the sides as part of his effort to restart talks.There was no immediate reaction from Greenblatt’s office to Netanyahu’s comments.
UN special envoy says Israel ignoring demand to halt settlements-Nickolay Mladenov tells United Nations Security Council that construction in West Bank moving at 'high rate'-By AP and TOI staff-October 3, 2017, 5:49 pm
UNITED NATIONS — Israel is not complying with a UN Security Council resolution demanding a halt to all settlement activity and instead is continuing to expand settlements, making a two-state solution “increasingly unattainable,” the United Nations envoy for the Mideast said Monday.Nickolay Mladenov told the council that in the three months since June 20 Israel’s settlement activity “continued at a high rate, a consistent pattern over the course of this year.”He said activity was concentrated primarily in East Jerusalem where plans were advanced for over 2,300 housing units in July, “30 percent more than for the whole of 2016.”Mladenov stressed that the United Nations considers settlement activities illegal under international law.He was delivering the third report on implementation of a resolution adopted by the council in December condemning Israeli settlements as a “flagrant violation” of international law. The resolution marked a striking rupture with past practice by then US president Barack Obama, who had the US abstain rather than veto the measure as then president-elect Donald Trump demanded.Since becoming president, Trump has strongly supported Israel, and Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, has repeatedly denounced the December resolution. Trump says he is working for a settlement of the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Mladenov said Israeli officials continue to use “provocative rhetoric” in support of settlement expansion. He cited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks on August 28 saying: “There will be no more uprooting of settlements in the land of Israel … we will deepen our roots, build, strengthen and settle.”The UN envoy said continuing settlement expansion is also “undermining Palestinian belief in the international peace efforts.” In addition, he said, Israel’s demolition of structures in the West Bank and East Jerusalem that has displaced hundreds of Palestinians “undermines the prospects for peace.”“Overall, since the beginning of 2017, 344 structures have been demolished, a third of them in East Jerusalem, displacing over 500 people,” Mladenov said.The Palestinians seek the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip — territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war — for their future state. The international community, including Trump’s predecessors, has long supported the two-state solution, believing that partitioning the land into Israeli and Palestinian states is the best way to ensure peace. Israel pulled out of Gaza in August 2005, turning over the territory to Palestinian control.But Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a warning in his address to the United Nations last week, saying that with hopes running out for an independent Palestinian state, he might have no choice but to seek a single, binational state with Israel. The Israeli government, meanwhile, supports building in the settlement, particularly in blocs and Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem which it says will be absorbed into Israel under any future peace deal.Mladenov told the Security Council that “continued violence against civilians and incitement perpetuate mutual fear and suspicion, while impeding any efforts to bridge the gaps between the two sides.”He again urged Palestinians and Israelis “to demonstrate their commitment to rejecting violence, inflammatory rhetoric and provocative actions.” He welcomed recent moves toward reconciliation between Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and Fatah, which controls the West Bank, saying that “all parties must seize this opportunity to restore unity and open a new page for the Palestinian people.”
Netanyahu: Faux Palestinian reconciliation risks ‘our existence’-PM says Palestinians must disband Hamas armed wing, sever ties with Iran; Bennett proposes cutting payments to PA over negotiations with 'murderous terror organization'-By Raoul Wootliff-October 3, 2017, 4:30 pm
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday rejected ongoing reconciliation efforts between the Palestinian Authority and the Gaza-based Hamas terror group, saying any future Palestinian government must disband the terror organization’s armed wing and sever all ties with Iran.“We expect anyone talking about a peace process to recognize Israel and, of course, recognize a Jewish state, and we won’t accept faux reconciliations in which the Palestinian side reconciles at the expense of our existence,” Netanyahu said during a special Likud faction meeting in the West Bank city of Ma’ale Adumim.“We have a very straightforward attitude toward anyone who wants to effect such a reconciliation: Recognize the State of Israel, dismantle Hamas’s military wing, sever the relationship with Iran, which calls for our destruction,” he added.The current Palestinian developments began in earnest on Monday, when a 300-person Palestinian Authority delegation entered Gaza in order to begin taking back administrative control of the Strip.Fatah, the faction that controls the PA, and the Hamas terror group have been at loggerheads since Hamas violently took control of the Strip in 2007, with the two groups operating separate administrations. The factions have unsuccessfully attempted to reconcile a number of times in the past.Hamas said a week ago it had agreed to steps toward resolving the longstanding split with Abbas’s Fatah, announcing it would dissolve a body seen as a rival government — known as the administrative committee — and was ready to hold elections.It remains unclear whether the steps will result in further concrete action toward ending the deep division with Fatah, as a number of previous reconciliation efforts have failed to bring the two sides together.In the current talks, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has demanded full control of the PA in Gaza, including over security and the border, before he would form a unity government and reverse deep financial cuts to Gaza that have worsened already existed electricity and water crises.Hamas, however, continues to affirm that it won’t give up its arms, and expects Abbas’s cuts to be reversed in the short term.Earlier Tuesday, Jewish Home party chairman Education Minister Naftali Bennett said that in response to the reconciliation efforts, as well as the Palestinian Authority’s recent joining of the Interpol international police organization, Israel “must immediately stop transferring tax money to the Hamas government headed by Abbas.”“Israel must stop being terror’s ATM. This isn’t about Palestinian reconciliation but about Mahmoud Abbas joining forces with a murderous terror organization. Transferring monies to a Hamas government is akin to transferring funds from Israel to IS – rockets will be fired at us in return,” Bennett said in a statement.Bennett said Israel must insist that three conditions be met in order for the money to be transferred: The return of the bodies of slain IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin; Hamas’s recognition of Israel and “the ending of incitement”; and the Palestinian Authority ending all payments to terrorists imprisoned in Israel.On Monday, Abbas said that he would not accept Hamas keeping its armed forces in Gaza like Hezbollah does in Lebanon and demanded “full control” of the Strip, including over the border, security and all the ministries.“I won’t accept the reproduction of the Hezbollah experience in Lebanon” in Gaza, Abbas said in an interview late Monday with the Egyptian news station CBC, pointing to an early point of conflict with Hamas, which has vowed not to turn in its arms.The latest reconciliation efforts come as US President Donald Trump has sought to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians and met separately with Abbas and Netanyahu on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month.Also Monday, Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, said in a statement that while Washington welcomed the effort to put the PA back in control of Gaza, any resulting unity government “must unambiguously and explicitly commit to nonviolence, recognition of the State of Israel, acceptance of previous agreements and obligations between the parties, and peaceful negotiations.”
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 to impose 11-day closure on West Bank, Gaza for Sukkot holiday-Exceptionally long closure comes after Har Adar terror attack, amid general concern over volatility in Palestinian areas-By Judah Ari Gross-October 3, 2017, 5:28 pm
In a rare move, Israel announced on Tuesday that it will be closing off the West Bank and Gaza Strip for 11 days for the Sukkot holiday and the following weekend, beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday.Closures for Jewish and Israeli holidays are a routine procedure. However, in the past, Israel has shut down the crossings surrounding the West Bank and Gaza only at the start and end of week-long festivals like Sukkot, rather than for the entire holiday.As the holiday ends on the evening of October 12 — a Thursday — the closure is scheduled to last through the weekend, until midnight on October 14, for a total of 11 days.The closure was approved by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman earlier this week, but its implementation was still dependent upon a final situational assessment.During the closure, the military will allow the passage of Palestinians in “humanitarian, medical and exceptional cases, with the approval of the [Defense Ministry’s] Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories,” according to an army statement.It was not immediately clear if during the 11 days Palestinian laborers will be allowed into Israeli settlements in the West Bank.The reopening of the West Bank and Gaza Strip crossings will be contingent upon a “situational assessment,” the army said.The exceptional decision to keep the crossings closed for 11 days was made following a terror attack outside the Har Adar settlement near Jerusalem last week, as well as out of general concern over heightened tensions in the West Bank and Gaza due to the ongoing reconciliation negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas terrorist group.Before the attack, the army advised the defense minister to only close the West Bank and Gaza for the first and last days of the festival — as normal — but in the wake of the fatal shooting, the military changed its recommendation.According to spokespeople of both the minister and the army, since the Har Adar attack, the IDF has favored a closure for the entire holiday.On Sunday, Liberman’s spokesperson said that the new “recommendation was accepted by the defense minister.”In general, the Jewish high holiday season, which began last week with Rosh Hashanah, is seen by defense officials as a time period of increased tension in the region, when the risk of terror attacks is higher.Ordinarily, tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank enter Israel and Israeli settlements for work each day. A far smaller number of Gaza residents also travel to Israel, mostly to receive medical treatment.West Bank and Gaza closures for holidays are intended both to prevent attempts at terror attacks in Israel during the holiday period and to allow the Israeli security officials who operate the crossings to celebrate the festival.A similar closure was imposed last Friday and Saturday for Yom Kippur and the week before, for Rosh Hashanah.
As Hamas sticks to its guns, Abbas pours cold water on reconciliation efforts-While cabinet meeting in Strip is big step forward, disagreement between sides over terror group's arsenal remains a major sticking point-By Avi Issacharoff-October 3, 2017, 7:19 pm-TOI
The Palestinian Authority government, headed by premier Rami Hamdallah, convened in the Gaza Strip Tuesday morning for the first time in three years.After the celebratory pictures and many handshakes, the government reached its first decision: the sanctions his government imposed on the enclave will not be removed until representatives of the Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas meet in Cairo next week, at the earliest.In other words: Let’s first see what Hamas has to offer and then we’ll talk. There is no such as thing as a free lunch, and PA President Mahmoud Abbas wants to make sure Hamas knows it.While Egypt’s intelligence services were trying to organize a show of unity in Gaza, Abbas poured cold water on the Hamas, Egypt and even senior Fatah officials who had traveled to the Strip.In an interview late Monday with the Egyptian news station CBC, Abbas delivered a message to all those concerned: The path to reconciliation is long and hinges on one key point — Hamas’s guns.With the terror group having vowed it will never part with its arsenal, Abbas comes along and explicitly says he will not tolerate a Palestinian version of the well-armed Hezbollah in Lebanon or the stockpiling of arms by any group bar the PA.“One state, one government, one gun,” said Abbas, the same slogan he has always pushed.“Just as I imprison Fatah members for holding weapons, so it will be with all groups,” said Abbas.There was no room for ambiguity in Abbas’s comments. He let Hamas, Egypt and the Palestinian public know there will be no true reconciliation or unity if Hamas insists on maintaining possession of its weaponry.In short, don’t get your hopes up.It was not just the content of the interview Abbas gave to pro-Egyptian government reporter Lamis el-Hadidy that got that message across. His body language, his tone and his choice of words conveyed that in his view reconciliation between his Fatah party and Hamas is not realistic.When asked what torpedoed the previous reconciliation agreement reached in 2014, Abbas replied without hesitation: “[Hamas] kidnapped the three soldiers,” before quickly correcting himself to say “children,” in reference to the kidnapping of three Israeli teens in the West Bank by members of the terror group that helped spark the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas.In the interview, Abbas also addressed the transfer of authority in Gaza to the PA, emphasizing that he wants control over the border crossings.“The PA will control the crossings,” he said. Asked if Hamas would agree to this, Abbas replied that the true test will be on the ground.Regarding the economic sanctions the PA imposed on Gaza, Abbas blamed Hamas for setting up its own administrative body in Gaza, which he indicated was a step too far.Abbas stressed that only when his government assumes administrative control of Gaza “exactly as it does in the West Bank” will the sanctions be removed.Fat chance, Abbas said. When he was asked by the interviewer what he would say to former Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh when he visits Gaza, Abbas appeared to be restraining himself to not give a harsh response.After years of failed attempts at reconciliation, Abbas, 82, also appeared skeptical about the possibility of true national unity.He clarified that it is not certain there will soon be elections, and that even the establishment of a Palestinian state won’t be soon — a surprising remark for the leader who tells the Palestinians at every opportunity that the establishment of a state of their own is imminent.Despite his skepticism, Abbas spoke respectfully of Egypt and its role in brokering the reconciliation.-Egypt throws weight behind efforts-Regarding Egypt, any viewer of Egyptian television could be forgiven for believing what has been going on in Gaza over the past two days was an internal Egyptian matter.Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi is portrayed on Egyptian television as not only the architect of the reconciliation, but also as the supreme regional leader who was able to bring together two children and put an end to their squabbling.Egyptian intelligence has thrown its full weight behind the matter. General Sameh Kamel, Egyptian intelligence’s point man for Israeli-Palestinian affairs, arrived in Gaza on Monday, while Egypt’s Intelligence Minister Khaled Fawzi was due to visit Ramallah on Tuesday before making his way to the Strip.Next week, Egypt will host top officials from both Fatah and Hamas in Cairo for a more in-depth in discussion on the details of the reconciliation deal.General Kamel was Egypt’s intelligence representative in Tel Aviv for several years. He is well aware of each side’s limitations in any reconciliation deal, as well as Israel’s stance concerning Palestinian unity.The Palestinians should hope he has still has some cards to play, as the positions presented by Abbas on the one hand and Hamas on the other suggest the current efforts at reconciliation will end with little fanfare.
PA slams Netanyahu’s ‘unacceptable’ pledge to develop Ma’ale Adumim-Senior Palestinian offical says prime minister is trying to 'destroy' the two-state solution, avoid restarting peace talks-By AP and TOI staff-October 3, 2017, 7:17 pm
A top Palestinian official on Tuesday said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was trying to “destroy” the two-state solution by pledging to further develop and even effectively annex one of the biggest Jewish settlements in the West Bank.Nabil Shaath, a senior adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, called Netanyahu’s comments “totally unacceptable.”“This is an attempt by Netanyahu to destroy the two-state solution and a clear refusal of any attempt to revive the peace process, especially by the United States,” he said.Earlier Netanyahu, visited the city of Ma’ale Adumim where he vowed to build thousands of new homes and threw his support behind a bill to redraw Jerusalem’s municipal borders to include the settlement.The comments drew an angry condemnation from the Palestinians and created a new test for the Trump administration, which has been working for over eight months to restart peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.Netanyahu said during the visit that he was announcing a period of “enhanced development.”“We will build thousands of housing units here,” he said. “We will add the industrial zone needed and the expansion needed to allow for the advanced development of this place.”“This place will be part of the State of Israel,” he added.The Palestinians seek the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as part of a future independent state and consider all of Israel’s settlements to be illegal — a position that is widely shared by the international community. Israel says the settlements’ fate should be resolved through negotiations.Maale Adumim is a settlement of roughly 40,000 people just east of Jerusalem.Israelis widely expect that Ma’ale Adumim will be annexed as part of a land swap under any future agreement with the Palestinians. Critics argue, however, that extending Israeli sovereignty to the large settlement, and a parcel of land known as E-1 between it and the capital, would effectively sever the northern and southern halves of the West Bank, preventing the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state.US President Donald Trump has taken a softer line toward the settlements than his predecessors, and his key advisers, including son-in-law Jared Kushner and ambassador to Israel David Friedman, have longstanding ties to the settlement movement.Even so, Trump has still asked Israel to show restraint.Early this year, Israel shelved a proposal to annex Maale Adumim under apparent pressure from the White House.Trump’s Mideast envoy, Jason Greenblatt, has been in the region meeting with the sides as part of his effort to restart talks.There was no immediate reaction from Greenblatt’s office to Netanyahu’s comments.
UN special envoy says Israel ignoring demand to halt settlements-Nickolay Mladenov tells United Nations Security Council that construction in West Bank moving at 'high rate'-By AP and TOI staff-October 3, 2017, 5:49 pm
UNITED NATIONS — Israel is not complying with a UN Security Council resolution demanding a halt to all settlement activity and instead is continuing to expand settlements, making a two-state solution “increasingly unattainable,” the United Nations envoy for the Mideast said Monday.Nickolay Mladenov told the council that in the three months since June 20 Israel’s settlement activity “continued at a high rate, a consistent pattern over the course of this year.”He said activity was concentrated primarily in East Jerusalem where plans were advanced for over 2,300 housing units in July, “30 percent more than for the whole of 2016.”Mladenov stressed that the United Nations considers settlement activities illegal under international law.He was delivering the third report on implementation of a resolution adopted by the council in December condemning Israeli settlements as a “flagrant violation” of international law. The resolution marked a striking rupture with past practice by then US president Barack Obama, who had the US abstain rather than veto the measure as then president-elect Donald Trump demanded.Since becoming president, Trump has strongly supported Israel, and Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, has repeatedly denounced the December resolution. Trump says he is working for a settlement of the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Mladenov said Israeli officials continue to use “provocative rhetoric” in support of settlement expansion. He cited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks on August 28 saying: “There will be no more uprooting of settlements in the land of Israel … we will deepen our roots, build, strengthen and settle.”The UN envoy said continuing settlement expansion is also “undermining Palestinian belief in the international peace efforts.” In addition, he said, Israel’s demolition of structures in the West Bank and East Jerusalem that has displaced hundreds of Palestinians “undermines the prospects for peace.”“Overall, since the beginning of 2017, 344 structures have been demolished, a third of them in East Jerusalem, displacing over 500 people,” Mladenov said.The Palestinians seek the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip — territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war — for their future state. The international community, including Trump’s predecessors, has long supported the two-state solution, believing that partitioning the land into Israeli and Palestinian states is the best way to ensure peace. Israel pulled out of Gaza in August 2005, turning over the territory to Palestinian control.But Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a warning in his address to the United Nations last week, saying that with hopes running out for an independent Palestinian state, he might have no choice but to seek a single, binational state with Israel. The Israeli government, meanwhile, supports building in the settlement, particularly in blocs and Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem which it says will be absorbed into Israel under any future peace deal.Mladenov told the Security Council that “continued violence against civilians and incitement perpetuate mutual fear and suspicion, while impeding any efforts to bridge the gaps between the two sides.”He again urged Palestinians and Israelis “to demonstrate their commitment to rejecting violence, inflammatory rhetoric and provocative actions.” He welcomed recent moves toward reconciliation between Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and Fatah, which controls the West Bank, saying that “all parties must seize this opportunity to restore unity and open a new page for the Palestinian people.”
Netanyahu: Faux Palestinian reconciliation risks ‘our existence’-PM says Palestinians must disband Hamas armed wing, sever ties with Iran; Bennett proposes cutting payments to PA over negotiations with 'murderous terror organization'-By Raoul Wootliff-October 3, 2017, 4:30 pm
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday rejected ongoing reconciliation efforts between the Palestinian Authority and the Gaza-based Hamas terror group, saying any future Palestinian government must disband the terror organization’s armed wing and sever all ties with Iran.“We expect anyone talking about a peace process to recognize Israel and, of course, recognize a Jewish state, and we won’t accept faux reconciliations in which the Palestinian side reconciles at the expense of our existence,” Netanyahu said during a special Likud faction meeting in the West Bank city of Ma’ale Adumim.“We have a very straightforward attitude toward anyone who wants to effect such a reconciliation: Recognize the State of Israel, dismantle Hamas’s military wing, sever the relationship with Iran, which calls for our destruction,” he added.The current Palestinian developments began in earnest on Monday, when a 300-person Palestinian Authority delegation entered Gaza in order to begin taking back administrative control of the Strip.Fatah, the faction that controls the PA, and the Hamas terror group have been at loggerheads since Hamas violently took control of the Strip in 2007, with the two groups operating separate administrations. The factions have unsuccessfully attempted to reconcile a number of times in the past.Hamas said a week ago it had agreed to steps toward resolving the longstanding split with Abbas’s Fatah, announcing it would dissolve a body seen as a rival government — known as the administrative committee — and was ready to hold elections.It remains unclear whether the steps will result in further concrete action toward ending the deep division with Fatah, as a number of previous reconciliation efforts have failed to bring the two sides together.In the current talks, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has demanded full control of the PA in Gaza, including over security and the border, before he would form a unity government and reverse deep financial cuts to Gaza that have worsened already existed electricity and water crises.Hamas, however, continues to affirm that it won’t give up its arms, and expects Abbas’s cuts to be reversed in the short term.Earlier Tuesday, Jewish Home party chairman Education Minister Naftali Bennett said that in response to the reconciliation efforts, as well as the Palestinian Authority’s recent joining of the Interpol international police organization, Israel “must immediately stop transferring tax money to the Hamas government headed by Abbas.”“Israel must stop being terror’s ATM. This isn’t about Palestinian reconciliation but about Mahmoud Abbas joining forces with a murderous terror organization. Transferring monies to a Hamas government is akin to transferring funds from Israel to IS – rockets will be fired at us in return,” Bennett said in a statement.Bennett said Israel must insist that three conditions be met in order for the money to be transferred: The return of the bodies of slain IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin; Hamas’s recognition of Israel and “the ending of incitement”; and the Palestinian Authority ending all payments to terrorists imprisoned in Israel.On Monday, Abbas said that he would not accept Hamas keeping its armed forces in Gaza like Hezbollah does in Lebanon and demanded “full control” of the Strip, including over the border, security and all the ministries.“I won’t accept the reproduction of the Hezbollah experience in Lebanon” in Gaza, Abbas said in an interview late Monday with the Egyptian news station CBC, pointing to an early point of conflict with Hamas, which has vowed not to turn in its arms.The latest reconciliation efforts come as US President Donald Trump has sought to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians and met separately with Abbas and Netanyahu on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month.Also Monday, Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, said in a statement that while Washington welcomed the effort to put the PA back in control of Gaza, any resulting unity government “must unambiguously and explicitly commit to nonviolence, recognition of the State of Israel, acceptance of previous agreements and obligations between the parties, and peaceful negotiations.”
