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
70 years after UN vote, Israel is no dream-Papers (kind of) celebrate the November 29 anniversary, but note that the Jewish state still lacks some legitimacy, democracy and leadership-By Joshua Davidovich-TOI-NOV 29,17
Seventy years after the UN voted to partition part of Palestine into a Jewish state, papers in that dream-cum-reality are a vision of how far it’s come since November 29, 1947, but also of how far it still needs to go.Yedioth Ahronoth’s front page is almost totally taken up by a giant number 70 and a nostalgic collage. Israel Hayom, apparently having prematurely spent its November 29 celebrations by going balls to the walls on Monday, is much more subdued, and Haaretz makes the strange decision to fill its newspaper with actual news, with nary a mention of the celebrations, not even US Vice President Mike Pence stringing Israel along about moving the US embassy to Jerusalem.Pence’s statement, which Haaretz could be forgiven for not putting much stock in, given the Donald Trump administration’s previous broken promises on the issue, touches on perhaps the biggest gap remaining in Israel’s quest to gain legitimacy since that fateful day in Queens so many years ago.While Israel Hayom seems to take Pence at face value, not mentioning the administration’s lack of movement on the issue, Yedioth does not put much faith in the declaration that the administration is really, truly, seriously considering moving the embassy.“On Friday Trump is supposed to sign yet again on a bi-yearly presidential waiver, delaying again the congressional order to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump promised in the past that he would move the embassy to the capital, but hasn’t done it yet, and signed the same waiver six months ago just like his predecessors,” Yedioth reports, though it also cites its own report from 10 days in which Trump reportedly did want to move the embassy. If only it were as easy as sending a tweet.Most of the paper, though, is focused on looking not forward but back, with its first several pages filled with old pictures and statements from long-dead Zionist leaders.Columnist Eitan Haber doesn’t need the paper to remind him of those bygone days, as he writes he remembers the November 29, 1947, “like it was just yesterday.”“As a kid, I remember the groups dancing in the streets, cars crossing Tel Aviv with their drivers yelling, ‘Free rides, Jewish state,’” he writes.Both he and fellow columnist Asaf Schnieder note the other side of the day, the Arabs who decided to reject the agreement. As a thought experiment, Schnieder wonders if the vote happened today, would the ideologues and cynics in modern Israeli society have agreed to the compromise, or would they “be left going around with keys in their hands to mark 70 years of our catastrophe?”“Seventy years later, when the public discourse is exactly, but exactly, raised fists, shouts, hollow slogans and refusal to enter into any dialogue — internal or external — would we take this bad deal? Were Resolution 181 up for a vote today, in a society of Facebook likes and Internet commenters, would it have a chance,” he asks.That same cynicism is on display in Haaretz, where op-ed columnist Zvi Bar’el mocks the idea that the Israel of today is even a real state at all, or at least a democracy.“In Israel there aren’t really political parties. A single governing bloc is made up of interchangeable parts, including everyone who seeks legitimacy by donning right-wing costumes. They’re ready to expel foreigners, support anti-democratic legislation, observe the Sabbath and keep it holy, stick a note in the Western Wall, and let the settlements do as they please,” he writes, including Labor leader Avi Gabbay in his criticism. “There’s no coalition or opposition; there’s a ruling party and there are subversives, leftists who support terror, traitors to their nation and homeland. There are no minority parties, there’s a fifth column. There’s a free press, but it is persecuted and crushed.”If Israel isn’t a real state, then it’s no surprise that the paper decides not to mark November 29 altogether. In actuality, though, the broadsheet’s front page is a picture of the realities of having a state of your own, from domestic disasters like the Jaffa building fire that killed three, to a report on allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu engaging in gauche politicking to try and protect their man from public disgrace or criminal prosecution.The paper’s lead story reports that people close to Netanyahu threatened the Kulanu party that, if it did not back a law barring police from making recommendations on indictments, the coalition would be scrapped and new elections called.The paper’s lead editorial is withering in its criticism of the bill, especially the part that Kulanu agreed to as a compromise, which allows police to make recommendations in the Netanyahu case, but forbids the public from seeing them.“This would undermine a fundamental principle of the justice system — the principle that the legal process should be public, which stems from the societal need for legal proceedings to be conducted transparently. And when it comes to public figures, scrupulous attention to transparency and openness is even more important,” the paper writes.In Yedioth, columnist Shimon Shafir takes Kulanu head and finance minister Moshe Kahlon to task for folding on the issue.“The debate over the recommendations bill should have led the finance minister to put his gun on the table and tell the prime minister, this stops here. But instead, in the last 48 hours we are learning that it seems the Kulanu head has no more bullets left,” he writes.Israel Hayom buries its coverage of the law fairly deep inside the paper, and reports on it matter-of-factly, pushing state prosecutor Shai Nitzan’s criticism of the measure to the very end of its short article. What it is more interested in, and what garners its own headline on the next page, is Nitzan declaring that there is no reason to investigate Netanyahu in the submarine bribery scandal that has been linked to many of his associates.Meanwhile, the tabloid’s lead story seems like a total non-sequitur, reporting from Abu Dhabi on the display of a Torah and other artifacts with Hebrew lettering in the new Louvre museum that just opened there. But the paper covers the exhibit as possibly part of a larger opening up to Israel by the Gulf, lending it some newsiness.“Their treatment of Judaism in the Abu Dhabi Louvre is modest, but there’s no doubt that this is the start of a revolution,” Eldad Beck writes. “After decades of hate, repression and ignorance, Judaism is returning to the heart of the Arab world and, based on what I experienced in my two visits to the museum in recent days, is sparking a lot of curiosity.”
In the former Soviet Union, statues and hero worship for leaders of pogroms-To the dismay of many of their victims, Russians revive nostalgic cult for the deposed tsar and other anti-Semitic old-guard nationalists-By Julie Masis-NOV 29,17-TOI
Since toppling statues of Joseph Stalin, post-Soviet Russians have taken to building monuments to a different national hero in recent years: Tsar Nicholas II, the last emperor of the Russian Empire.More than 25 shrines honoring Nicholas II have been erected since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.Declared a saint and a martyr by the Russian Orthodox Church seven years ago, the tsar has been depicted in stone embraced by an angel; descending the steps of the execution room; in the company of his beloved wife and children; or just standing tall in full military regalia, sword in his hand.But for Russia’s Jews, Tsar Nicholas II was far from a beloved ruler.During his reign, pogroms broke out throughout the Russian empire resulting in the murder of approximately 3,000 Jews, according to Joshua Rubenstein, an Associate of the Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. Nicholas II did nothing to stop the bloodshed, he said.“It’s very hard for us to accept this deification of Nicholas II. It’s unfathomable,” said Rubenstein, adding that even the tsar’s execution by the Bolsheviks does not make him a saint. “It does not justify his elevation to sainthood.”In addition to letting the perpetrators of the pogroms murder Jews, the Russian tsar also stubbornly refused to accept democratic reforms, such as the abolition of the Pale of Settlement, Rubenstein added.“There were ministers advocating for the abolition of the Pale, but [the tsar] did not abide by that,” he said.The refusal of Nicholas II to implement reforms is one of the factors that led to the Communist Revolution, Rubenstein added.In Moscow, however, the spokesman of the Jewish community was more cautious in his remarks about the monuments to the tsar.Speaking on behalf of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, Boruch Gorin said that he understands if the monuments are built out of respect for the lawless execution of Nicholas Romanov, as well as his wife, his innocent children, and his servants.What he does not support, however, is the elevation of Nicholas II to sainthood and honoring him for having been a great ruler of the country, he said.“He was executed without a trial — even his doctor and his son were murdered with him. That’s a terrible crime, that’s the start of the big terror, that’s what led up to 1937 [the year that saw the most Stalinist repression]. That’s why the monuments to his children and family do not offend me,” Gorin said.“But another aspect is that the Russian Orthodox Church decided that the Romanovs are saints. As a result, there is a whole cult of tsar worship in Russia, the worshiping of the tsar as if he were God,” he said.This elevation of a modern ruler to the level of sainthood prevents historians from properly studying and debating history, Gorin said.There is a whole cult of tsar worship in Russia-“A hundred years ago, we couldn’t research the tsar because he was an enemy of the revolution, and now we also can’t study him because he’s a saint. Both are bad,” said Gorin.While there are no documents that prove that Nicholas II ordered or directed the pogroms himself, he certainly did nothing to stop them, said Gorin.“We can’t say that he advocated for anti-Semitism, but I think that the tsarist authorities are responsible because they didn’t stop the pogroms,” he said, adding that because Nicholas II was a weak and unpopular ruler was precisely why there was a revolution to overthrow him.“To call a person like that a great ruler is to spit in history’s face,” Gorin said.-Monuments to leaders who murdered Jews-Though the tsar has been accused of apathy, he’s far from the only one consecrated who made life difficult for Jewish citizens. Here’s a look at some other monuments around the former Soviet Union of leaders who either spearheaded the wide scale murder of Jews or else failed to prevent it.Symon Petliura (Vinnitsa, Ukraine) — A monument to Symon Petliura was erected in Vinnitsa, Ukraine this October. Petliura was the leader of Ukraine between 1917 and 1921 when between 50,000 and 200,000 Ukrainian Jews were murdered in pogroms.“As a leader, he didn’t stop the pogroms, and in that way Petliura was responsible — just like Hitler is responsible for the Holocaust,” said Gennady Estraikh, a Jewish history professor at New York University.A member of the Knesset asked the Ukrainian ambassador to Israel to remove the statue.Ivan the Terrible (Oryol, Russia) — A year ago, Russia built its first monument to tsar Ivan the Terrible, who ruled in the 16th century. One little-known detail about this Russian ruler is that when he occupied the city of Polotsk, in Belarus, in 1563, he ordered that all the Jews who refused to be baptized be drowned in the river.Anton Denikin (Moscow, Russia) — In 2005, the remains of Anton Denikin, commander of the White forces who fought against the Red Army during the Russian Civil War, were honorably returned to Moscow and a monument was erected on Denikin’s grave.The military forces that Denikin commanded during the Russian Civil War organized pogroms that are estimated to have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Jews including women and children.“When his remains were brought to Russia, we were offended,” said Gorin, speaking on behalf of the Russian Jewish community.Stepan Bandera (Ukraine) — There are at least 40 monuments in Ukraine honoring Stepan Bandera, a Ukrainian political activist and leader who sided with the Nazis during the first years of World War II. His followers murdered thousands of Ukrainian Jews.All of the monuments were built after the fall of Soviet Union, and interestingly, are almost exclusively located in Ukraine’s smaller towns — there are no statues of Bandera in Kiev, Odessa, or Chernivtsi.Ion Antonescu (Romania) — After the fall of communism, Romania built at least six monuments to fascist dictator Ion Antonescu, who is responsible for the deaths of at least 250,000 Jews during WWII. In 2002, Romania passed a law mandating the removal of the six statues. However, whether all the monuments were indeed taken down is unclear. At least one statue of Antonescu was still standing in 2014, according to a Romanian television report.Bohdan Khmelnytsky (Kiev, Ukraine) — A monument depicting Ukrainian leader Bohdan Khmelnytsky on a horse has stood in the center of the Ukrainian capital since 1888. In the 17th century, Khmelnytsky’s forces slaughtered nearly half of all Ukrainian Jews — or about 20,000 people. It was the bloodiest event in the history of Eastern European Jewry until the 20th century.
North Korea claims it is fully nuclear, with US in striking range-Pyongyang says tested missile that flew 2,800 miles into space is a new type of rocket capable of hitting all of US-By Agencies-TOI-NOV 29,17
North Korea said Wednesday it had achieved its goal of becoming a nuclear state after successfully testing a new intercontinental ballistic missile that put the “whole mainland of the US” within its range.The North’s state television said Wednesday the new ICBM was “significantly more” powerful than the previous long-range weapon the North tested.The report called the weapon a Hwasong 15. The launch was detected after it was fired early Wednesday morning from a site near Pyongyang.After watching the launch of the Hwasong-15, the North’s leader Kim Jong-Un “declared with pride that now we have finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force,” the official KCNA news agency said.The test triggered global outrage with US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis saying it marked a significant step toward North Korea building missiles that can “threaten everywhere in the world, basically.”North Korea said the missile reached 2,800 miles above the earth, 10 times higher than the international space station.If flown on a standard trajectory, instead of Wednesday’s lofted angle, the missile would have a range of more than 13,000 kilometers (8,100 miles), said U.S. scientist David Wright, a physicist who closely tracks North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs. “Such a missile would have more than enough range to reach Washington, D.C., and in fact any part of the continental United States,” Wright wrote in a blog post for the Union for Concerned Scientists.Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said the missile landed inside of Japan’s special economic zone in the Sea of Japan, about 250 kilometers 155 miles) west of Aomori, which is on the northern part of Japan’s main island of Honshu.A big unknown, however, is the missile’s payload. If, as expected, it carried a light mock warhead, then its effective range would have been shorter, analysts said.An intercontinental ballistic missile test is considered particularly provocative, and indications that it flew higher than past launches suggest progress by Pyongyang in developing a weapon of mass destruction that could strike the U.S. mainland. President Donald Trump has vowed to prevent North Korea from having that capability — using military force if necessary.It was the first missile test of any kind since September 15, and squashed speculation that the North may have held back in order to open the door to a negotiated solution to a nuclear standoff.“The ICBM Hwasong-15 type weaponry system is an intercontinental ballistic rocket tipped with super-large heavy warhead which is capable of striking the whole mainland of the US,” KCNA said.It said the development of the weapon would defend the North against the “US imperialists’ nuclear blackmail policy and nuclear threat.”While Pyongyang has yet to prove its mastery of the re-entry technology required to bring a warhead back through the Earth’s atmosphere, experts believe it is on the threshold of developing a working intercontinental nuclear strike capability.Wednesday’s test caused deep consternation among the North’s neighbours.Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called it an intolerable, “violent” act and South Korean President Moon Jae-In condemned Pyongyang’s “reckless” behavior.The firing is a clear message of defiance aimed at the Trump administration, which had just restored the North to a U.S. list of terror sponsors. It also ruins nascent diplomatic efforts, raises fears of war or a pre-emptive US strike and casts a deeper shadow over the security of the Winter Olympics early next year in South Korea.A rattled Seoul responded by almost immediately launching three of its own missiles in a show of force. Moon expressed worry that North Korea’s growing missile threat could force the United States to attack the North before it masters a nuclear-tipped long-range missile, something experts say may be imminent.“If North Korea completes a ballistic missile that could reach from one continent to another, the situation can spiral out of control,” Moon said at an emergency meeting in Seoul, according to his office. “We must stop a situation where North Korea miscalculates and threatens us with nuclear weapons or where the United States considers a pre-emptive strike.”Moon, a liberal who has been forced into a more hawkish stance by a stream of North Korean weapons tests, has repeatedly declared that there can be no US attack on the North without Seoul’s approval, but many here worry that Washington may act without South Korean input.In response to the launch, Trump said the United States will “take care of it.” He told reporters after the launch: “It is a situation that we will handle.” He did not elaborate.Pentagon spokesman Col. Rob Manning said the missile was launched from Sain Ni, North Korea, and traveled about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) before landing in the Sea of Japan within 370 nautical kilometers (200 nautical miles) of Japan’s coast. It flew for 53 minutes, Japan’s defense minister said.South Korea’s responding missile tests included one with a 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) range, to mimic striking the North Korea launch site, which is not far from the North Korean capital.The UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting for Wednesday afternoon at the request of Japan, the US and South Korea.Italy’s UN Ambassador Sebastiano Cardi, the current Security Council president, told reporters late Tuesday that “it’s certainly very worrying. Everybody was hoping that there would be restraint from the regime.”He said the latest and toughest sanctions resolutions against North Korea “are working, having an effect on the situation … on the capacity of the regime to obtain hard currency because to go along with the military programs or missile or nuclear (programs) you need money, and that’s the objective.”“There is still room for new measures, but for the moment … we don’t know what the council decision will be,” he said.Mattis said the missile flew higher than previous projectiles.“It went higher, frankly, than any previous shot they’ve taken,” he told reporters at the White House. “It’s a research and development effort on their part to continue building ballistic missiles that can threaten everywhere in the world.”A week ago, the Trump administration declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, further straining ties between governments that are still technically at war. Washington also imposed new sanctions on North Korean shipping firms and Chinese trading companies dealing with the North.North Korea called the terror designation a “serious provocation” that justifies its development of nuclear weapons.Kim Dong-yub, a former South Korean military official who is now an analyst at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said the North is likely trying to further evaluate the weapon’s performance, including the warhead’s ability to survive atmospheric re-entry and strike the intended target, before it attempts a test that shows the full range of the missile.South Koreans are famously nonchalant about North Korea’s military moves, but there is worry about what the North’s weapons tests might mean for next year’s Winter Olympics in the South. President Moon told his officials to closely review whether the launch could in anyway hurt South Korea’s efforts to successfully host the games in Pyeongchang, which begin Feb. 9.Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who spoke with Trump, said Japan will not back down against any provocation and would maximize pressure on the North in its strong alliance with the US.Trump has ramped up economic and diplomatic pressure on the North to prevent its nuclear and missile development. So far, the pressure has failed to get North Korea’s government, which views a nuclear arsenal as key to its survival, to return to long-stalled international negotiations on its nuclear program.Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement that North Korea was “indiscriminately threatening its neighbors, the region and global stability.” He urged the international community to not only implement existing UN sanctions on North Korea but also to consider additional measures for interdicting maritime traffic transporting goods to and from the country.“Diplomatic options remain viable and open, for now,” Tillerson said, adding the U.S. remains committed to “finding a peaceful path to denuclearization and to ending belligerent actions by North Korea.”
Terrorists get life sentences for shooting rampage in Tel Aviv’s Sarona market-Court also orders each to pay NIS 2.6m in restitution; separately, Palestinian assailant gets 30 years for Ma'ale Adumim ax attack-By TOI staff-NOV 29,17
A Tel Aviv court on Wednesday sentenced three Palestinians to life in prison for a terror attack in June 2016 at Tel Aviv’s Sarona Market.The three — Muhammad and Khalid Muhamra of the southern West Bank town of Yatta, who carried out the shooting spree, and their neighbor Younis Ayash Musa Zayn, who drove them to a storage unit where they prepared the attack — were convicted in late October on four counts of murder, 41 counts of attempted murder and conspiracy.The Tel Aviv District Court handed down four consecutive life sentences and 60 additional years in prison to each man, and ordered each to pay NIS 258,000 per family to the four families of those killed in the attack, NIS 200,000 per family to the four families of those who were seriously wounded, and NIS 20,000 to each of the 37 people who were lightly wounded in the attack — a total of NIS 2.6 million for each attacker.On June 8, 2016, at 9:30 p.m., the two Muhamra cousins, dressed in suits and just after ordering their dessert, opened fire on diners at the Max Brenner restaurant in the upscale Sarona compound, killing three people in the hail of bullets — Michael Feige, Ido Ben Ari and Mila Mishayev — and a fourth, Ilana Naveh, who collapsed and died while attempting to flee. Another 41 people were wounded, four of them sustaining serious and permanent physical disability.The cousins, who fled after the shooting, were found and apprehended in an ensuing police manhunt. Zayn was picked up a short while later for assisting them.The judges in the case were divided on Zayn’s involvement. The majority opinion of District Court judges Sarah Dotan and Yaron Levy held that Zayn had a key role in carrying out the attack, and so could be held responsible for its results, while the minority view of judge Mordechai Levy held that Zayn should be convicted and punished only as an accessory.An investigation by security forces later revealed the attackers had entered Israel illegally through a hole in the West Bank security fence.The Shin Bet security agency said the cousins were “inspired” by the Islamic State terror group.In August 2016, the Israel Defense Forces demolished the homes of Muhammad and Khalid Muhamra. The army also sealed off Zayn’s bedroom in his family home in November 2016.Separately, the Judea Military Court handed down a 30-year prison sentence to Saadi Ali Abu Ahmad for an ax attack against a mall security guard, Tzvi Cohen, in the Ma’ale Adumim settlement on February 26, 2016. The court also ordered Abu Ahmad to pay Cohen NIS 200,000.Abu Ahmad was convicted on July 2, 2017. According to the indictment, Abu Ahmad, who worked at the Ma’ale Adumim mall, decided on the morning of February 26, 2016, to go to the mall in order to murder Jews with an ax.Cohen, an unarmed security guard at the mall, opened the door to his office to Abu Ahmad after recognizing him as an employee. When Cohen’s back was turned, Abu Ahmad leaped at the guard and smashed the ax into his neck. Cohen collapsed on the ground, and Abu Ahmad continued hitting him with the ax while he lay prostrate on the ground. At one point, Abu Ahmad dropped his ax, but then picked it up again and went back to repeatedly slash at Cohen, who lay quivering on the ground.Unsatisfied with his attack, Abu Ahmad then went in search of a gun to shoot Cohen, but found only the guard’s pepper spray. He sprayed Cohen in the eyes and mouth, hoping to cause pain and even asphyxiation. Before leaving, Abu Ahmad took Cohen’s car keys and removed the battery from Cohen’s cellphone.Cohen was found by a passerby, who called police. He was taken to hospital in critical condition, and spent six months healing from his wounds. He remains severely disabled.Abu Ahmad fled the scene, but turned himself in a few days later at the urging of his family. Police officials said at the time that family members may have turned Abu Ahmad in to avert the demolition of their home.Cohen’s family blasted the military court ruling on Wednesday.“This is a scandalous decision. He should have gotten a life sentence,” brother Moshe told Channel 10. “My brother is a broken man. He’s been suffering ever since the incident.”
Egypt president gives military 3 months to calm restive Sinai-Sissi instructs new chief of staff to use 'brute force' against terrorists, although results on the ground may be hard to gauge-By Agencies-TOI-NOV 29,17
CAIRO — Just days after the worst terrorist attack in Egypt’s modern history, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Wednesday gave his security forces a three-month deadline to restore “security and stability” in the troubled northern Sinai, the epicenter of an increasingly brutal Islamic insurgency.In a televised ceremony marking the birthday of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, Sissi authorized his new chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Farid Hegazy, to use “all brute force” against the terrorists.Hegazy, appointed last month, rose up from his front-row seat and stood in rigid attention as Sissi, a general-turned-president, addressed him.“I am mandating Maj. Gen. Mohammed Farid Hegazy before you and the entire people of Egypt to restore security and stability in Sinai,” said Sissi. “With God’s benevolence and your efforts and sacrifices, you and the police will restore security and use all brute force, all brute force.”This is the second time since Friday’s horrific massacre in a sleepy Sinai village that Sissi ordered the use of “brute force” against the jihadists. It was not immediately clear what the use of such force would entail, but it suggested a scorched earth tactic that many of the president’s loyalists in the media have been calling for.Friday’s attack on a mosque in the northern Sinai village of al-Rawdah was the deadliest assault by Islamic extremists in Egypt’s modern history. Among the 305 dead were 27 children; another 128 people were wounded.The Islamic State group hasn’t yet claimed responsibility for the mosque attack but the over two dozen gunmen who unleashed explosives and gunfire to mow down the worshippers during Friday prayers carried the black banner of the IS terror group. The mosque belonged to followers of Islam’s mystical Sufi movement, considered by IS to be heretics. Jihadists have in the past targeted them in Sinai as well as elsewhere, like in Iraq.Sissi has frequently said that Islamic terrorists have benefited from the care his security forces routinely take to ensure that civilians are not caught in the cross-fire. But rights groups and Sinai activists have in the past spoken of civilians enduring collective punishment, usually in the aftermath of major attacks, and of hardships resulting from military operations, including lengthy power, water and phone outages.Giving his security forces a three-month deadline to quieten Sinai may turn out to be a risky gamble by Sissi, who is widely expected to seek a second, four-year term in office in elections due in less than six months. Failure in Sinai would dent the president’s standing as the general who won office in a 2014 election mostly on promises of restoring security.However, only state-owned Egyptian media with unquestionable loyalty to the government are allowed to travel to northern Sinai, leaving authorities in near-total control of the narrative on how the war there is going.Against the backdrop of such restrictions, an absence or a continuation of attacks by terrorists during the next three months and after that would likely be the best indicator of the situation.Egypt’s military and police have for years been waging a tough and costly campaign against terrorists in the towns, villages and desert mountains of northern Sinai. In the past year, fighters have bombed churches in the capital of Cairo and other cities, killing dozens of Christians.A local affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group now spearheads the insurgency. It is believed to have been behind the October 2015 downing of a Russian passenger jet that killed all 224 people on board, decimating the country’s vital tourism sector.The insurgency has gathered steam and on occasion spread to the mainland following the ouster in 2013 by the military, then led by Sissi, of Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist president whose one year in office proved divisive. Also, a series of recent attacks in Egypt’s vast Western Desert suggests the opening of a new front. Authorities believe attacks there are carried out by fighters based and trained in neighboring Libya.
Jihadists go to rehab at ‘5-star’ Saudi center-Former terrorists made to feel 'they are normal people and still have a chance to return to society,' director says-By Anuj Chopra-TOI-NOV 29,17
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — With its indoor swimming pool, sun-splashed patios and liveried staff, the Saudi complex has the trappings of a five-star resort, but it is actually a rehab center — for violent jihadists.Riyadh’s Mohammed bin Nayef Counseling and Care Center, a cushy halfway house between prison and freedom, spotlights a controversial Saudi strategy for tackling homegrown extremists.While the global fight against terrorism is often associated with drone strikes and torture, the philosophy that underpins the center’s approach is that extremism requires not coercion but an ideological cure.Overseen by clerics and psychologists, it works to prevent convicts who have served their sentences from returning to jihad, through what it calls religious counselling and ideological detoxification.“Our focus is on correcting their thoughts, their misconceptions, their deviation from Islam,” Yahya Abu Maghayed, a director at the center, said while giving AFP a golf cart tour of the sprawling, palm tree-lined complex.The convicts are housed in a series of low-slung buildings, outfitted with large-screen televisions and king-size beds, all framed by manicured lawns.Many linked to groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Taliban walk around freely in flowing white robes, and have access to a spacious gym, a banquet hall and furnished apartments reserved for visits from spouses.“We make the ‘beneficiaries’ feel they are normal people and still have a chance — a chance to return to society,” Abu Maghayed said, insisting the center refrained from calling them prisoners or inmates.‘Talking cure’ for terrorists-Saudi Arabia, long accused of exporting its ultraconservative Wahhabist Sunni doctrine around the world, is itself a victim of domestic terror attacks.Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has sought to roll back the influence of the ultra-conservative religious establishment, this week jump-started a 41-nation military coalition to combat Islamist extremism, vowing to wipe terrorism from the face of the Earth.But the rehab facility, founded in 2004, is one of the centerpieces of Saudi Arabia’s strategy to expunge violent extremism at home.It claims to have treated more than 3,300 men convicted of terrorism-related crimes, including repatriated Guantanamo Bay detainees.The center boasts of a “success rate of 86 percent,” Abu Maghayed said, measured by those men who did not return to jihad for at least a decade after graduating from the center.Of the remainder, he said, most only showed signs of “deviant behavior” and only a minuscule number relapsed into violent jihad.An American terrorism expert who has closely studied the Saudi program said the recidivism rate was higher, pointing out media reports of graduates from the center who have shown up on battlefronts.“Saudis are to be applauded for trying something different — they were one of the first to try a ‘talking cure’ for terrorists,” John Horgan, another expert at Georgia State University, told AFP.“(But) without greater transparency about its participants… it’s impossible to know what value added, if any, this program brings in reducing the threat of re-engagement in terrorism.”‘Ideas can fight ideas’-AFP was given a chance to interview “beneficiaries” if they agreed, but when two bearded, gym-buffed men were approached in their living quarters, they declined to talk.Critics say there is a moral hazard in treating jihadists, many with blood on their hands, with lavish facilities and financial incentives.But Saudi officials say the threat of sanction is always hanging over them.Those who refuse to reform after a minimum stay of three months at the center are returned to “the judicial process,” Abu Maghayed said.But more than coercion, the center pushes for increasing familial bonds, encouraging marriage and children, a psychological tether meant to make it harder to return to violent ways.“You cannot counter terrorism by force,” said Ali al-Afnan, an educational psychology specialist at the center. “Only ideas can fight ideas.”The center uses art therapy as one of its tools. Comparisons between portraits in the early days of incarceration and those at later stages are used as a metric to study inmates’ frame of mind.Abu Maghayed showed AFP one early painting, which he said depicted a gloomy “Guantanamo mentality” — with splashes of orange, the color of jumpsuits at the infamous prison.Another canvas painted weeks later showed bold brushstrokes and sparks of color, depicting hope.As Afnan spoke to AFP, he fielded an abrupt telephone call from a former “beneficiary” who once traveled to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban.Now married and with children, he was seeking advice from Afnan over returning to university for a graduate program.“This man is our role model,” Afnan said after hanging up. “A shining example of how people deserve a second chance.”
Hawkish Saudi minister leads campaign against Iran and proxies-Power player Thamer al-Sabhan, seen as having orchestrated the unsuccessful resignation of Lebanon's PM, is openly critical of Tehran and Hezbollah-By Bassem Mroue and Aya Batrawy-TOI-NOV 29,17
BEIRUT (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince relies on a small core group of advisers, none more provocative than Thamer al-Sabhan, the fiercely anti-Iran government minister whose fingerprints were on the hurried and ultimately unsuccessful resignation of Lebanon’s prime minister earlier this month.As Saudi minister for Gulf affairs, Sabhan has a hand in helping shape the kingdom’s high-stakes gambles to counter rival Iran.For days before Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s surprise resignation, which the kingdom is widely believed to have orchestrated, Sabhan issued threats against Lebanon’s government as well as Iran and its ally Hezbollah via Twitter, unnerving many Lebanese who feared being dragged yet again into the forefront of the Saudi-Iran rivalry for regional supremacy.Three months earlier, Sabhan had been sent to Beirut to meet with Hariri and deliver a blunt warning against concessions that could favor Iran’s allies in Lebanon.Hariri’s resignation, announced from Riyadh on November 4 on a Saudi-owned TV station, seemed to confirm fears that the kingdom’s rivalry with Iran could destabilize yet another country in the region, this time Lebanon’s delicate power-sharing system. Mediation by France, a close ally of both Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, helped reverse the resignation, which Hariri suspended after his return to Beirut.Though Saudi Arabia may have succeeded in pressuring Hezbollah and bringing attention to the Shiite militant group’s expanding regional footprint, the kingdom’s political moves in Lebanon were largely seen as a debacle that backfired.The 50-year-old Sabhan was at the center of it all.Sabhan’s first trip to Washington, in March, was with Mohammed bin Salman, who just months later would be named crown prince and heir to the Saudi throne. It was a pivotal visit that would cement Riyadh’s relationship with the newly inaugurated US President Donald Trump.A subsequent trip to Washington earlier this month, however, didn’t go as well. Days after Hariri’s resignation, Sabhan met with officials from the US State Department, Pentagon and the White House National Security Council.Instead of raising support for the resignation, Sabhan was given an earful from US officials who chided him and pressed him to stop his provocative tweets, according to Arab media reports and a person privy to the meeting’s outcome, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the encounter. They also asked who gave Sabhan the right to undermine Lebanon’s stability at a time when Washington was backing the Lebanese armed forces and the country was hosting more than a million Syrian refugees.The 32-year-old Saudi crown prince’s hawkish policies toward Iran are largely embodied and amplified in Sabhan. Nowhere is that spelled out more clearly than on Twitter, where Sabhan has referred to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah — which means “Party of God” in Arabic — as the “Party of Satan.”A few days before Hariri’s resignation, Sabhan warned in an interview with a Lebanese TV station that there would be “astonishing” developments to topple the Shiite militant group in Lebanon. He also said that Lebanon’s government — headed by Hariri — would be dealt with as a hostile government that’s declared war against Saudi Arabia because of Hezbollah’s power-sharing role.“It is up to (Lebanon’s) leaders to decide whether it is a state of terror or peace,” Sabhan wrote on Twitter two days after Hariri’s resignation.Sabhan, who as Saudi Arabia’s military attaché in Lebanon in 2014 and 2015 monitored Hezbollah, was fed information by some Lebanese politicians about the group’s role in the Syrian civil war, according to a Lebanese man who frequently spoke with Sabhan during his time in Beirut.Sabhan would often chat with politicians, journalists and businessmen at a cafe in Beirut’s upscale Verdun neighborhood, said the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversations.“He is a tight-lipped person. He listens more than he talks,” the Lebanese man said.After his stint in Lebanon, Sabhan was appointed Saudi Arabia’s first ambassador to Iraq in more than 25 years.But just nine months into the job, Iraq’s government demanded that Sabhan be replaced after he sparked an outcry for alleging the government refused to provide him better protection in the face of what he claimed were plans by Iranian-backed Shiite militia groups to assassinate him. He also called on Iraq’s government to exclude Shiite paramilitary groups from the military campaign against the Islamic State group.Sabhan was recalled and appointed to his current ministerial post, where he has used Twitter to vocalize the kingdom’s brash anti-Iran rhetoric.He’s also been sent on missions far and wide. He was spotted last month in the Syrian city of Raqqa with a US official after the Islamic State group’s de facto capital was recaptured by Syrian US-backed and Kurdish-led forces.In Saudi Arabia, Sabhan has sat in on high-level meetings and welcomed Lebanon’s Maronite patriarch when he visited the conservative Sunni Muslim country in a first ever such trip. He was also present at the patriarch’s meeting with King Salman.Sabhan has also sat in on the king’s meeting with Turkey’s foreign minister in June, the crown prince’s meeting in August with prominent Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and meetings with Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.On Twitter, Sabhan has openly tried to call the shots in Lebanon, demanding that Hezbollah be kicked out of the government and calling on the Lebanese to confront the militant group. He even got into a Twitter spat with Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.In one of the Hezbollah leader’s speeches, he described Sabhan as “zaatout,” a derogatory Arabic term that means variously “little monkey with lots of hair” or an “adult who behaves like a child.”Sabhan responded with a tweet of his own. “If an incompetent man criticizes me, this is proof that I am a whole man,” he wrote.Former Lebanese Cabinet Minister Wiam Wahhab, a Hezbollah ally, described Sabhan in a television interview as a “monster on the loose.”“I hope that Thamer al-Sabhan paid the price for such militia-style behavior,” he said.
Islamic State said to threaten terror attacks on Christmas-Jihadist forum publishes image of Santa Claus being beheaded against backdrop of a London shopping area-By TOI staff-NOV 29,17
Amid unprecedented setbacks on the ground in Iraq and Syria, where Islamic State has been pushed out of all major population centers and relegated to marginal desert regions, the group appears to be urging its followers to show it is still a relevant force by carrying out terror attacks in major Western cities during the upcoming Christmas and New Year’s holidays.An image circulated on an Islamic State-backing online chat group called “Army of Mujahideen” shows what appears to be an IS beheading photo, with a kneeling Santa Claus as its victim, according to New-York based newspaper The Epoch Times. The image is superimposed on an image of the Regent Street shopping area of London.The words “Soon on your holidays” are written in English, French and German in the image’s lower left-hand corner.Islamic State does not have direct control over its affiliates and followers around the world. It coordinates attacks by issuing instructions urging supporters to act at certain times in the hope that some will be inspired to follow through on those instructions. The lack of clear hierarchy has made it difficult to prevent attacks in the past.The photo’s publication follows several law enforcement interventions that are believed to have headed off major terror attacks planned for the holiday, as well as a US travel advisory issued November 16 that “alerts US citizens to the heightened risk of terrorist attacks throughout Europe, particularly during the holiday season.”According to the advisory, “US citizens should exercise caution at holiday festivals and events. Recent, widely-reported incidents in France, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Finland demonstrate that the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS or Da’esh), al-Qaeda, and their affiliates have the ability to plan and execute terrorist attacks in Europe. Last year, mass casualty attacks occurred at a Christmas market in Berlin, Germany in December and a nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey on New Year’s Eve…. US citizens should always be alert to the possibility that terrorist sympathizers or self-radicalized extremists may conduct attacks with little or no warning.”On November 21, German police arrested six Syrian men in a massive operation in the cities of Essen, Hanover, Kassel and Leipzig that uncovered cellphones, laptops and documents. The New York Times, citing German media outlets, said the suspects were believed to have been plotting a terror attack on a Christmas market in the northwestern German city of Essen reminiscent of last December’s Christmas market deadly truck-ramming attack by Tunisian IS supporter Anis Amri in Berlin.“The authorities have called for added vigilance around festivities this year, and cities across Germany are planning to install concrete barriers around markets and to increase police presence,” the Times said.Meanwhile, Australian authorities said they foiled a planned New Year’s Eve mass-shooting with the arrest of a suspected IS sympathizer named Ali Ali, born in Australia to Somali parents, in a raid on a house in the Melbourne suburb of Werribee on Monday.Ali planned to buy a gun and kill as many revelers as possible on New Year’s Eve in Melbourne, police alleged.He appeared in court Tuesday charged with preparing to commit a terrorist attack and collecting documents to facilitate a terror attack. Police said the 20-year-old accessed a guidebook online produced by al-Qaeda on how to carry out terror acts and use firearms, but was arrested before he could purchase an automatic rifle.“What we will be alleging is that he was intending to use a firearm to shoot and kill as many people as he could in the Federation Square area on New Year’s Eve,” said Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton.“It is a tremendous concern to us that (during) the festive season, when people are out enjoying themselves, that there is a potential plot to commit a terrorist act. That is a huge issue for us but that is why we put the resources in,” he said.Federation Square is in the heart of Melbourne, opposite a busy train station and St Paul’s Cathedral. It is one of the city’s most popular sites for New Year’s festivities and would be crowded on December 31.The alleged plot comes a year after police prevented what they said was another attack in the same area on Christmas Day, arresting several men who planned to use explosives, knives and guns to target the location.AFP contributed to this report.
Iranian commander in Syria: US troops are pants-pissing wimps-During pep talk to his forces in eastern Syria, Qassem Soleimani seen on video accusing 'cowardly' American soldiers of wearing diapers-By TOI staff-NOV 29,17
The head of Iran’s powerful Quds Force derided American soldiers as incontinent cowards in a speech to troops during an offensive to retake a strategic eastern Syria town from the Islamic State.In a speech posted online Sunday, Qassem Soleimani can be seen giving a pep talk to Iranian soldiers, apparently near al-Bukamal in eastern Syria, where Syrian regime forces and their allies have been fighting to recapture the town from Islamic State jihadists.In the video, Soleimani tells the troops American soldiers are not to be feared.“Look at the American forces today. They are more than 1 million strong. But despite their numbers and their capabilities, they are cowards. When they arrived in Iraq, they brought diapers for their soldiers, so that they could urinate in them when scared,” he says in the video, according to a translation provided Tuesday by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute.“You, on the other hand, have achieved victory with light weapons, Why? Because you are willing to make sacrifices,” Soleimani adds.Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani: Americans Are Cowards; B…Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani: Americans Are Cowards; Brought Diapers for Their Soldiers in IraqIRGC Quds Force Commander General Qasem Soleimani visited the forces fighting in Al-Bukamal, Syria, and told them that the U.S. forces, despite their numbers and capabilities, are cowards. "When they arrived in Iraq, they brought diapers for their soldiers, so that they could urinate in them when scared," he said. "Our people is ready for martyrdom, and therefore, deserves victory," said Soleimani. His remarks were posted online by the "Syrian Army's Allies' Operation Room" on November 26.Posted by The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) on Tuesday, 28 November 2017-It was not clear when the video was filmed. It was posted online by a group called the Syrian Army’s Allies’ Operation Room, according to MEMRI.On November 19, the Syrian regime said its army and allies had taken 80 percent of the desert border city of al-Bukamal, seen as the last Islamic State stronghold in Syria.Hezbollah forces were known to have been fighting alongside the Syrian regime there.Soleimani is considered a powerful figure, heading the elite Quds expeditionary force and leading Iranian troops fighting in Iraq and Syria.
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
70 years after UN vote, Israel is no dream-Papers (kind of) celebrate the November 29 anniversary, but note that the Jewish state still lacks some legitimacy, democracy and leadership-By Joshua Davidovich-TOI-NOV 29,17
Seventy years after the UN voted to partition part of Palestine into a Jewish state, papers in that dream-cum-reality are a vision of how far it’s come since November 29, 1947, but also of how far it still needs to go.Yedioth Ahronoth’s front page is almost totally taken up by a giant number 70 and a nostalgic collage. Israel Hayom, apparently having prematurely spent its November 29 celebrations by going balls to the walls on Monday, is much more subdued, and Haaretz makes the strange decision to fill its newspaper with actual news, with nary a mention of the celebrations, not even US Vice President Mike Pence stringing Israel along about moving the US embassy to Jerusalem.Pence’s statement, which Haaretz could be forgiven for not putting much stock in, given the Donald Trump administration’s previous broken promises on the issue, touches on perhaps the biggest gap remaining in Israel’s quest to gain legitimacy since that fateful day in Queens so many years ago.While Israel Hayom seems to take Pence at face value, not mentioning the administration’s lack of movement on the issue, Yedioth does not put much faith in the declaration that the administration is really, truly, seriously considering moving the embassy.“On Friday Trump is supposed to sign yet again on a bi-yearly presidential waiver, delaying again the congressional order to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump promised in the past that he would move the embassy to the capital, but hasn’t done it yet, and signed the same waiver six months ago just like his predecessors,” Yedioth reports, though it also cites its own report from 10 days in which Trump reportedly did want to move the embassy. If only it were as easy as sending a tweet.Most of the paper, though, is focused on looking not forward but back, with its first several pages filled with old pictures and statements from long-dead Zionist leaders.Columnist Eitan Haber doesn’t need the paper to remind him of those bygone days, as he writes he remembers the November 29, 1947, “like it was just yesterday.”“As a kid, I remember the groups dancing in the streets, cars crossing Tel Aviv with their drivers yelling, ‘Free rides, Jewish state,’” he writes.Both he and fellow columnist Asaf Schnieder note the other side of the day, the Arabs who decided to reject the agreement. As a thought experiment, Schnieder wonders if the vote happened today, would the ideologues and cynics in modern Israeli society have agreed to the compromise, or would they “be left going around with keys in their hands to mark 70 years of our catastrophe?”“Seventy years later, when the public discourse is exactly, but exactly, raised fists, shouts, hollow slogans and refusal to enter into any dialogue — internal or external — would we take this bad deal? Were Resolution 181 up for a vote today, in a society of Facebook likes and Internet commenters, would it have a chance,” he asks.That same cynicism is on display in Haaretz, where op-ed columnist Zvi Bar’el mocks the idea that the Israel of today is even a real state at all, or at least a democracy.“In Israel there aren’t really political parties. A single governing bloc is made up of interchangeable parts, including everyone who seeks legitimacy by donning right-wing costumes. They’re ready to expel foreigners, support anti-democratic legislation, observe the Sabbath and keep it holy, stick a note in the Western Wall, and let the settlements do as they please,” he writes, including Labor leader Avi Gabbay in his criticism. “There’s no coalition or opposition; there’s a ruling party and there are subversives, leftists who support terror, traitors to their nation and homeland. There are no minority parties, there’s a fifth column. There’s a free press, but it is persecuted and crushed.”If Israel isn’t a real state, then it’s no surprise that the paper decides not to mark November 29 altogether. In actuality, though, the broadsheet’s front page is a picture of the realities of having a state of your own, from domestic disasters like the Jaffa building fire that killed three, to a report on allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu engaging in gauche politicking to try and protect their man from public disgrace or criminal prosecution.The paper’s lead story reports that people close to Netanyahu threatened the Kulanu party that, if it did not back a law barring police from making recommendations on indictments, the coalition would be scrapped and new elections called.The paper’s lead editorial is withering in its criticism of the bill, especially the part that Kulanu agreed to as a compromise, which allows police to make recommendations in the Netanyahu case, but forbids the public from seeing them.“This would undermine a fundamental principle of the justice system — the principle that the legal process should be public, which stems from the societal need for legal proceedings to be conducted transparently. And when it comes to public figures, scrupulous attention to transparency and openness is even more important,” the paper writes.In Yedioth, columnist Shimon Shafir takes Kulanu head and finance minister Moshe Kahlon to task for folding on the issue.“The debate over the recommendations bill should have led the finance minister to put his gun on the table and tell the prime minister, this stops here. But instead, in the last 48 hours we are learning that it seems the Kulanu head has no more bullets left,” he writes.Israel Hayom buries its coverage of the law fairly deep inside the paper, and reports on it matter-of-factly, pushing state prosecutor Shai Nitzan’s criticism of the measure to the very end of its short article. What it is more interested in, and what garners its own headline on the next page, is Nitzan declaring that there is no reason to investigate Netanyahu in the submarine bribery scandal that has been linked to many of his associates.Meanwhile, the tabloid’s lead story seems like a total non-sequitur, reporting from Abu Dhabi on the display of a Torah and other artifacts with Hebrew lettering in the new Louvre museum that just opened there. But the paper covers the exhibit as possibly part of a larger opening up to Israel by the Gulf, lending it some newsiness.“Their treatment of Judaism in the Abu Dhabi Louvre is modest, but there’s no doubt that this is the start of a revolution,” Eldad Beck writes. “After decades of hate, repression and ignorance, Judaism is returning to the heart of the Arab world and, based on what I experienced in my two visits to the museum in recent days, is sparking a lot of curiosity.”
In the former Soviet Union, statues and hero worship for leaders of pogroms-To the dismay of many of their victims, Russians revive nostalgic cult for the deposed tsar and other anti-Semitic old-guard nationalists-By Julie Masis-NOV 29,17-TOI
Since toppling statues of Joseph Stalin, post-Soviet Russians have taken to building monuments to a different national hero in recent years: Tsar Nicholas II, the last emperor of the Russian Empire.More than 25 shrines honoring Nicholas II have been erected since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.Declared a saint and a martyr by the Russian Orthodox Church seven years ago, the tsar has been depicted in stone embraced by an angel; descending the steps of the execution room; in the company of his beloved wife and children; or just standing tall in full military regalia, sword in his hand.But for Russia’s Jews, Tsar Nicholas II was far from a beloved ruler.During his reign, pogroms broke out throughout the Russian empire resulting in the murder of approximately 3,000 Jews, according to Joshua Rubenstein, an Associate of the Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. Nicholas II did nothing to stop the bloodshed, he said.“It’s very hard for us to accept this deification of Nicholas II. It’s unfathomable,” said Rubenstein, adding that even the tsar’s execution by the Bolsheviks does not make him a saint. “It does not justify his elevation to sainthood.”In addition to letting the perpetrators of the pogroms murder Jews, the Russian tsar also stubbornly refused to accept democratic reforms, such as the abolition of the Pale of Settlement, Rubenstein added.“There were ministers advocating for the abolition of the Pale, but [the tsar] did not abide by that,” he said.The refusal of Nicholas II to implement reforms is one of the factors that led to the Communist Revolution, Rubenstein added.In Moscow, however, the spokesman of the Jewish community was more cautious in his remarks about the monuments to the tsar.Speaking on behalf of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, Boruch Gorin said that he understands if the monuments are built out of respect for the lawless execution of Nicholas Romanov, as well as his wife, his innocent children, and his servants.What he does not support, however, is the elevation of Nicholas II to sainthood and honoring him for having been a great ruler of the country, he said.“He was executed without a trial — even his doctor and his son were murdered with him. That’s a terrible crime, that’s the start of the big terror, that’s what led up to 1937 [the year that saw the most Stalinist repression]. That’s why the monuments to his children and family do not offend me,” Gorin said.“But another aspect is that the Russian Orthodox Church decided that the Romanovs are saints. As a result, there is a whole cult of tsar worship in Russia, the worshiping of the tsar as if he were God,” he said.This elevation of a modern ruler to the level of sainthood prevents historians from properly studying and debating history, Gorin said.There is a whole cult of tsar worship in Russia-“A hundred years ago, we couldn’t research the tsar because he was an enemy of the revolution, and now we also can’t study him because he’s a saint. Both are bad,” said Gorin.While there are no documents that prove that Nicholas II ordered or directed the pogroms himself, he certainly did nothing to stop them, said Gorin.“We can’t say that he advocated for anti-Semitism, but I think that the tsarist authorities are responsible because they didn’t stop the pogroms,” he said, adding that because Nicholas II was a weak and unpopular ruler was precisely why there was a revolution to overthrow him.“To call a person like that a great ruler is to spit in history’s face,” Gorin said.-Monuments to leaders who murdered Jews-Though the tsar has been accused of apathy, he’s far from the only one consecrated who made life difficult for Jewish citizens. Here’s a look at some other monuments around the former Soviet Union of leaders who either spearheaded the wide scale murder of Jews or else failed to prevent it.Symon Petliura (Vinnitsa, Ukraine) — A monument to Symon Petliura was erected in Vinnitsa, Ukraine this October. Petliura was the leader of Ukraine between 1917 and 1921 when between 50,000 and 200,000 Ukrainian Jews were murdered in pogroms.“As a leader, he didn’t stop the pogroms, and in that way Petliura was responsible — just like Hitler is responsible for the Holocaust,” said Gennady Estraikh, a Jewish history professor at New York University.A member of the Knesset asked the Ukrainian ambassador to Israel to remove the statue.Ivan the Terrible (Oryol, Russia) — A year ago, Russia built its first monument to tsar Ivan the Terrible, who ruled in the 16th century. One little-known detail about this Russian ruler is that when he occupied the city of Polotsk, in Belarus, in 1563, he ordered that all the Jews who refused to be baptized be drowned in the river.Anton Denikin (Moscow, Russia) — In 2005, the remains of Anton Denikin, commander of the White forces who fought against the Red Army during the Russian Civil War, were honorably returned to Moscow and a monument was erected on Denikin’s grave.The military forces that Denikin commanded during the Russian Civil War organized pogroms that are estimated to have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Jews including women and children.“When his remains were brought to Russia, we were offended,” said Gorin, speaking on behalf of the Russian Jewish community.Stepan Bandera (Ukraine) — There are at least 40 monuments in Ukraine honoring Stepan Bandera, a Ukrainian political activist and leader who sided with the Nazis during the first years of World War II. His followers murdered thousands of Ukrainian Jews.All of the monuments were built after the fall of Soviet Union, and interestingly, are almost exclusively located in Ukraine’s smaller towns — there are no statues of Bandera in Kiev, Odessa, or Chernivtsi.Ion Antonescu (Romania) — After the fall of communism, Romania built at least six monuments to fascist dictator Ion Antonescu, who is responsible for the deaths of at least 250,000 Jews during WWII. In 2002, Romania passed a law mandating the removal of the six statues. However, whether all the monuments were indeed taken down is unclear. At least one statue of Antonescu was still standing in 2014, according to a Romanian television report.Bohdan Khmelnytsky (Kiev, Ukraine) — A monument depicting Ukrainian leader Bohdan Khmelnytsky on a horse has stood in the center of the Ukrainian capital since 1888. In the 17th century, Khmelnytsky’s forces slaughtered nearly half of all Ukrainian Jews — or about 20,000 people. It was the bloodiest event in the history of Eastern European Jewry until the 20th century.
North Korea claims it is fully nuclear, with US in striking range-Pyongyang says tested missile that flew 2,800 miles into space is a new type of rocket capable of hitting all of US-By Agencies-TOI-NOV 29,17
North Korea said Wednesday it had achieved its goal of becoming a nuclear state after successfully testing a new intercontinental ballistic missile that put the “whole mainland of the US” within its range.The North’s state television said Wednesday the new ICBM was “significantly more” powerful than the previous long-range weapon the North tested.The report called the weapon a Hwasong 15. The launch was detected after it was fired early Wednesday morning from a site near Pyongyang.After watching the launch of the Hwasong-15, the North’s leader Kim Jong-Un “declared with pride that now we have finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force,” the official KCNA news agency said.The test triggered global outrage with US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis saying it marked a significant step toward North Korea building missiles that can “threaten everywhere in the world, basically.”North Korea said the missile reached 2,800 miles above the earth, 10 times higher than the international space station.If flown on a standard trajectory, instead of Wednesday’s lofted angle, the missile would have a range of more than 13,000 kilometers (8,100 miles), said U.S. scientist David Wright, a physicist who closely tracks North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs. “Such a missile would have more than enough range to reach Washington, D.C., and in fact any part of the continental United States,” Wright wrote in a blog post for the Union for Concerned Scientists.Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said the missile landed inside of Japan’s special economic zone in the Sea of Japan, about 250 kilometers 155 miles) west of Aomori, which is on the northern part of Japan’s main island of Honshu.A big unknown, however, is the missile’s payload. If, as expected, it carried a light mock warhead, then its effective range would have been shorter, analysts said.An intercontinental ballistic missile test is considered particularly provocative, and indications that it flew higher than past launches suggest progress by Pyongyang in developing a weapon of mass destruction that could strike the U.S. mainland. President Donald Trump has vowed to prevent North Korea from having that capability — using military force if necessary.It was the first missile test of any kind since September 15, and squashed speculation that the North may have held back in order to open the door to a negotiated solution to a nuclear standoff.“The ICBM Hwasong-15 type weaponry system is an intercontinental ballistic rocket tipped with super-large heavy warhead which is capable of striking the whole mainland of the US,” KCNA said.It said the development of the weapon would defend the North against the “US imperialists’ nuclear blackmail policy and nuclear threat.”While Pyongyang has yet to prove its mastery of the re-entry technology required to bring a warhead back through the Earth’s atmosphere, experts believe it is on the threshold of developing a working intercontinental nuclear strike capability.Wednesday’s test caused deep consternation among the North’s neighbours.Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called it an intolerable, “violent” act and South Korean President Moon Jae-In condemned Pyongyang’s “reckless” behavior.The firing is a clear message of defiance aimed at the Trump administration, which had just restored the North to a U.S. list of terror sponsors. It also ruins nascent diplomatic efforts, raises fears of war or a pre-emptive US strike and casts a deeper shadow over the security of the Winter Olympics early next year in South Korea.A rattled Seoul responded by almost immediately launching three of its own missiles in a show of force. Moon expressed worry that North Korea’s growing missile threat could force the United States to attack the North before it masters a nuclear-tipped long-range missile, something experts say may be imminent.“If North Korea completes a ballistic missile that could reach from one continent to another, the situation can spiral out of control,” Moon said at an emergency meeting in Seoul, according to his office. “We must stop a situation where North Korea miscalculates and threatens us with nuclear weapons or where the United States considers a pre-emptive strike.”Moon, a liberal who has been forced into a more hawkish stance by a stream of North Korean weapons tests, has repeatedly declared that there can be no US attack on the North without Seoul’s approval, but many here worry that Washington may act without South Korean input.In response to the launch, Trump said the United States will “take care of it.” He told reporters after the launch: “It is a situation that we will handle.” He did not elaborate.Pentagon spokesman Col. Rob Manning said the missile was launched from Sain Ni, North Korea, and traveled about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) before landing in the Sea of Japan within 370 nautical kilometers (200 nautical miles) of Japan’s coast. It flew for 53 minutes, Japan’s defense minister said.South Korea’s responding missile tests included one with a 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) range, to mimic striking the North Korea launch site, which is not far from the North Korean capital.The UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting for Wednesday afternoon at the request of Japan, the US and South Korea.Italy’s UN Ambassador Sebastiano Cardi, the current Security Council president, told reporters late Tuesday that “it’s certainly very worrying. Everybody was hoping that there would be restraint from the regime.”He said the latest and toughest sanctions resolutions against North Korea “are working, having an effect on the situation … on the capacity of the regime to obtain hard currency because to go along with the military programs or missile or nuclear (programs) you need money, and that’s the objective.”“There is still room for new measures, but for the moment … we don’t know what the council decision will be,” he said.Mattis said the missile flew higher than previous projectiles.“It went higher, frankly, than any previous shot they’ve taken,” he told reporters at the White House. “It’s a research and development effort on their part to continue building ballistic missiles that can threaten everywhere in the world.”A week ago, the Trump administration declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, further straining ties between governments that are still technically at war. Washington also imposed new sanctions on North Korean shipping firms and Chinese trading companies dealing with the North.North Korea called the terror designation a “serious provocation” that justifies its development of nuclear weapons.Kim Dong-yub, a former South Korean military official who is now an analyst at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said the North is likely trying to further evaluate the weapon’s performance, including the warhead’s ability to survive atmospheric re-entry and strike the intended target, before it attempts a test that shows the full range of the missile.South Koreans are famously nonchalant about North Korea’s military moves, but there is worry about what the North’s weapons tests might mean for next year’s Winter Olympics in the South. President Moon told his officials to closely review whether the launch could in anyway hurt South Korea’s efforts to successfully host the games in Pyeongchang, which begin Feb. 9.Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who spoke with Trump, said Japan will not back down against any provocation and would maximize pressure on the North in its strong alliance with the US.Trump has ramped up economic and diplomatic pressure on the North to prevent its nuclear and missile development. So far, the pressure has failed to get North Korea’s government, which views a nuclear arsenal as key to its survival, to return to long-stalled international negotiations on its nuclear program.Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement that North Korea was “indiscriminately threatening its neighbors, the region and global stability.” He urged the international community to not only implement existing UN sanctions on North Korea but also to consider additional measures for interdicting maritime traffic transporting goods to and from the country.“Diplomatic options remain viable and open, for now,” Tillerson said, adding the U.S. remains committed to “finding a peaceful path to denuclearization and to ending belligerent actions by North Korea.”
Terrorists get life sentences for shooting rampage in Tel Aviv’s Sarona market-Court also orders each to pay NIS 2.6m in restitution; separately, Palestinian assailant gets 30 years for Ma'ale Adumim ax attack-By TOI staff-NOV 29,17
A Tel Aviv court on Wednesday sentenced three Palestinians to life in prison for a terror attack in June 2016 at Tel Aviv’s Sarona Market.The three — Muhammad and Khalid Muhamra of the southern West Bank town of Yatta, who carried out the shooting spree, and their neighbor Younis Ayash Musa Zayn, who drove them to a storage unit where they prepared the attack — were convicted in late October on four counts of murder, 41 counts of attempted murder and conspiracy.The Tel Aviv District Court handed down four consecutive life sentences and 60 additional years in prison to each man, and ordered each to pay NIS 258,000 per family to the four families of those killed in the attack, NIS 200,000 per family to the four families of those who were seriously wounded, and NIS 20,000 to each of the 37 people who were lightly wounded in the attack — a total of NIS 2.6 million for each attacker.On June 8, 2016, at 9:30 p.m., the two Muhamra cousins, dressed in suits and just after ordering their dessert, opened fire on diners at the Max Brenner restaurant in the upscale Sarona compound, killing three people in the hail of bullets — Michael Feige, Ido Ben Ari and Mila Mishayev — and a fourth, Ilana Naveh, who collapsed and died while attempting to flee. Another 41 people were wounded, four of them sustaining serious and permanent physical disability.The cousins, who fled after the shooting, were found and apprehended in an ensuing police manhunt. Zayn was picked up a short while later for assisting them.The judges in the case were divided on Zayn’s involvement. The majority opinion of District Court judges Sarah Dotan and Yaron Levy held that Zayn had a key role in carrying out the attack, and so could be held responsible for its results, while the minority view of judge Mordechai Levy held that Zayn should be convicted and punished only as an accessory.An investigation by security forces later revealed the attackers had entered Israel illegally through a hole in the West Bank security fence.The Shin Bet security agency said the cousins were “inspired” by the Islamic State terror group.In August 2016, the Israel Defense Forces demolished the homes of Muhammad and Khalid Muhamra. The army also sealed off Zayn’s bedroom in his family home in November 2016.Separately, the Judea Military Court handed down a 30-year prison sentence to Saadi Ali Abu Ahmad for an ax attack against a mall security guard, Tzvi Cohen, in the Ma’ale Adumim settlement on February 26, 2016. The court also ordered Abu Ahmad to pay Cohen NIS 200,000.Abu Ahmad was convicted on July 2, 2017. According to the indictment, Abu Ahmad, who worked at the Ma’ale Adumim mall, decided on the morning of February 26, 2016, to go to the mall in order to murder Jews with an ax.Cohen, an unarmed security guard at the mall, opened the door to his office to Abu Ahmad after recognizing him as an employee. When Cohen’s back was turned, Abu Ahmad leaped at the guard and smashed the ax into his neck. Cohen collapsed on the ground, and Abu Ahmad continued hitting him with the ax while he lay prostrate on the ground. At one point, Abu Ahmad dropped his ax, but then picked it up again and went back to repeatedly slash at Cohen, who lay quivering on the ground.Unsatisfied with his attack, Abu Ahmad then went in search of a gun to shoot Cohen, but found only the guard’s pepper spray. He sprayed Cohen in the eyes and mouth, hoping to cause pain and even asphyxiation. Before leaving, Abu Ahmad took Cohen’s car keys and removed the battery from Cohen’s cellphone.Cohen was found by a passerby, who called police. He was taken to hospital in critical condition, and spent six months healing from his wounds. He remains severely disabled.Abu Ahmad fled the scene, but turned himself in a few days later at the urging of his family. Police officials said at the time that family members may have turned Abu Ahmad in to avert the demolition of their home.Cohen’s family blasted the military court ruling on Wednesday.“This is a scandalous decision. He should have gotten a life sentence,” brother Moshe told Channel 10. “My brother is a broken man. He’s been suffering ever since the incident.”
Egypt president gives military 3 months to calm restive Sinai-Sissi instructs new chief of staff to use 'brute force' against terrorists, although results on the ground may be hard to gauge-By Agencies-TOI-NOV 29,17
CAIRO — Just days after the worst terrorist attack in Egypt’s modern history, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Wednesday gave his security forces a three-month deadline to restore “security and stability” in the troubled northern Sinai, the epicenter of an increasingly brutal Islamic insurgency.In a televised ceremony marking the birthday of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, Sissi authorized his new chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Farid Hegazy, to use “all brute force” against the terrorists.Hegazy, appointed last month, rose up from his front-row seat and stood in rigid attention as Sissi, a general-turned-president, addressed him.“I am mandating Maj. Gen. Mohammed Farid Hegazy before you and the entire people of Egypt to restore security and stability in Sinai,” said Sissi. “With God’s benevolence and your efforts and sacrifices, you and the police will restore security and use all brute force, all brute force.”This is the second time since Friday’s horrific massacre in a sleepy Sinai village that Sissi ordered the use of “brute force” against the jihadists. It was not immediately clear what the use of such force would entail, but it suggested a scorched earth tactic that many of the president’s loyalists in the media have been calling for.Friday’s attack on a mosque in the northern Sinai village of al-Rawdah was the deadliest assault by Islamic extremists in Egypt’s modern history. Among the 305 dead were 27 children; another 128 people were wounded.The Islamic State group hasn’t yet claimed responsibility for the mosque attack but the over two dozen gunmen who unleashed explosives and gunfire to mow down the worshippers during Friday prayers carried the black banner of the IS terror group. The mosque belonged to followers of Islam’s mystical Sufi movement, considered by IS to be heretics. Jihadists have in the past targeted them in Sinai as well as elsewhere, like in Iraq.Sissi has frequently said that Islamic terrorists have benefited from the care his security forces routinely take to ensure that civilians are not caught in the cross-fire. But rights groups and Sinai activists have in the past spoken of civilians enduring collective punishment, usually in the aftermath of major attacks, and of hardships resulting from military operations, including lengthy power, water and phone outages.Giving his security forces a three-month deadline to quieten Sinai may turn out to be a risky gamble by Sissi, who is widely expected to seek a second, four-year term in office in elections due in less than six months. Failure in Sinai would dent the president’s standing as the general who won office in a 2014 election mostly on promises of restoring security.However, only state-owned Egyptian media with unquestionable loyalty to the government are allowed to travel to northern Sinai, leaving authorities in near-total control of the narrative on how the war there is going.Against the backdrop of such restrictions, an absence or a continuation of attacks by terrorists during the next three months and after that would likely be the best indicator of the situation.Egypt’s military and police have for years been waging a tough and costly campaign against terrorists in the towns, villages and desert mountains of northern Sinai. In the past year, fighters have bombed churches in the capital of Cairo and other cities, killing dozens of Christians.A local affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group now spearheads the insurgency. It is believed to have been behind the October 2015 downing of a Russian passenger jet that killed all 224 people on board, decimating the country’s vital tourism sector.The insurgency has gathered steam and on occasion spread to the mainland following the ouster in 2013 by the military, then led by Sissi, of Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist president whose one year in office proved divisive. Also, a series of recent attacks in Egypt’s vast Western Desert suggests the opening of a new front. Authorities believe attacks there are carried out by fighters based and trained in neighboring Libya.
Jihadists go to rehab at ‘5-star’ Saudi center-Former terrorists made to feel 'they are normal people and still have a chance to return to society,' director says-By Anuj Chopra-TOI-NOV 29,17
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — With its indoor swimming pool, sun-splashed patios and liveried staff, the Saudi complex has the trappings of a five-star resort, but it is actually a rehab center — for violent jihadists.Riyadh’s Mohammed bin Nayef Counseling and Care Center, a cushy halfway house between prison and freedom, spotlights a controversial Saudi strategy for tackling homegrown extremists.While the global fight against terrorism is often associated with drone strikes and torture, the philosophy that underpins the center’s approach is that extremism requires not coercion but an ideological cure.Overseen by clerics and psychologists, it works to prevent convicts who have served their sentences from returning to jihad, through what it calls religious counselling and ideological detoxification.“Our focus is on correcting their thoughts, their misconceptions, their deviation from Islam,” Yahya Abu Maghayed, a director at the center, said while giving AFP a golf cart tour of the sprawling, palm tree-lined complex.The convicts are housed in a series of low-slung buildings, outfitted with large-screen televisions and king-size beds, all framed by manicured lawns.Many linked to groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Taliban walk around freely in flowing white robes, and have access to a spacious gym, a banquet hall and furnished apartments reserved for visits from spouses.“We make the ‘beneficiaries’ feel they are normal people and still have a chance — a chance to return to society,” Abu Maghayed said, insisting the center refrained from calling them prisoners or inmates.‘Talking cure’ for terrorists-Saudi Arabia, long accused of exporting its ultraconservative Wahhabist Sunni doctrine around the world, is itself a victim of domestic terror attacks.Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has sought to roll back the influence of the ultra-conservative religious establishment, this week jump-started a 41-nation military coalition to combat Islamist extremism, vowing to wipe terrorism from the face of the Earth.But the rehab facility, founded in 2004, is one of the centerpieces of Saudi Arabia’s strategy to expunge violent extremism at home.It claims to have treated more than 3,300 men convicted of terrorism-related crimes, including repatriated Guantanamo Bay detainees.The center boasts of a “success rate of 86 percent,” Abu Maghayed said, measured by those men who did not return to jihad for at least a decade after graduating from the center.Of the remainder, he said, most only showed signs of “deviant behavior” and only a minuscule number relapsed into violent jihad.An American terrorism expert who has closely studied the Saudi program said the recidivism rate was higher, pointing out media reports of graduates from the center who have shown up on battlefronts.“Saudis are to be applauded for trying something different — they were one of the first to try a ‘talking cure’ for terrorists,” John Horgan, another expert at Georgia State University, told AFP.“(But) without greater transparency about its participants… it’s impossible to know what value added, if any, this program brings in reducing the threat of re-engagement in terrorism.”‘Ideas can fight ideas’-AFP was given a chance to interview “beneficiaries” if they agreed, but when two bearded, gym-buffed men were approached in their living quarters, they declined to talk.Critics say there is a moral hazard in treating jihadists, many with blood on their hands, with lavish facilities and financial incentives.But Saudi officials say the threat of sanction is always hanging over them.Those who refuse to reform after a minimum stay of three months at the center are returned to “the judicial process,” Abu Maghayed said.But more than coercion, the center pushes for increasing familial bonds, encouraging marriage and children, a psychological tether meant to make it harder to return to violent ways.“You cannot counter terrorism by force,” said Ali al-Afnan, an educational psychology specialist at the center. “Only ideas can fight ideas.”The center uses art therapy as one of its tools. Comparisons between portraits in the early days of incarceration and those at later stages are used as a metric to study inmates’ frame of mind.Abu Maghayed showed AFP one early painting, which he said depicted a gloomy “Guantanamo mentality” — with splashes of orange, the color of jumpsuits at the infamous prison.Another canvas painted weeks later showed bold brushstrokes and sparks of color, depicting hope.As Afnan spoke to AFP, he fielded an abrupt telephone call from a former “beneficiary” who once traveled to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban.Now married and with children, he was seeking advice from Afnan over returning to university for a graduate program.“This man is our role model,” Afnan said after hanging up. “A shining example of how people deserve a second chance.”
Hawkish Saudi minister leads campaign against Iran and proxies-Power player Thamer al-Sabhan, seen as having orchestrated the unsuccessful resignation of Lebanon's PM, is openly critical of Tehran and Hezbollah-By Bassem Mroue and Aya Batrawy-TOI-NOV 29,17
BEIRUT (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince relies on a small core group of advisers, none more provocative than Thamer al-Sabhan, the fiercely anti-Iran government minister whose fingerprints were on the hurried and ultimately unsuccessful resignation of Lebanon’s prime minister earlier this month.As Saudi minister for Gulf affairs, Sabhan has a hand in helping shape the kingdom’s high-stakes gambles to counter rival Iran.For days before Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s surprise resignation, which the kingdom is widely believed to have orchestrated, Sabhan issued threats against Lebanon’s government as well as Iran and its ally Hezbollah via Twitter, unnerving many Lebanese who feared being dragged yet again into the forefront of the Saudi-Iran rivalry for regional supremacy.Three months earlier, Sabhan had been sent to Beirut to meet with Hariri and deliver a blunt warning against concessions that could favor Iran’s allies in Lebanon.Hariri’s resignation, announced from Riyadh on November 4 on a Saudi-owned TV station, seemed to confirm fears that the kingdom’s rivalry with Iran could destabilize yet another country in the region, this time Lebanon’s delicate power-sharing system. Mediation by France, a close ally of both Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, helped reverse the resignation, which Hariri suspended after his return to Beirut.Though Saudi Arabia may have succeeded in pressuring Hezbollah and bringing attention to the Shiite militant group’s expanding regional footprint, the kingdom’s political moves in Lebanon were largely seen as a debacle that backfired.The 50-year-old Sabhan was at the center of it all.Sabhan’s first trip to Washington, in March, was with Mohammed bin Salman, who just months later would be named crown prince and heir to the Saudi throne. It was a pivotal visit that would cement Riyadh’s relationship with the newly inaugurated US President Donald Trump.A subsequent trip to Washington earlier this month, however, didn’t go as well. Days after Hariri’s resignation, Sabhan met with officials from the US State Department, Pentagon and the White House National Security Council.Instead of raising support for the resignation, Sabhan was given an earful from US officials who chided him and pressed him to stop his provocative tweets, according to Arab media reports and a person privy to the meeting’s outcome, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the encounter. They also asked who gave Sabhan the right to undermine Lebanon’s stability at a time when Washington was backing the Lebanese armed forces and the country was hosting more than a million Syrian refugees.The 32-year-old Saudi crown prince’s hawkish policies toward Iran are largely embodied and amplified in Sabhan. Nowhere is that spelled out more clearly than on Twitter, where Sabhan has referred to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah — which means “Party of God” in Arabic — as the “Party of Satan.”A few days before Hariri’s resignation, Sabhan warned in an interview with a Lebanese TV station that there would be “astonishing” developments to topple the Shiite militant group in Lebanon. He also said that Lebanon’s government — headed by Hariri — would be dealt with as a hostile government that’s declared war against Saudi Arabia because of Hezbollah’s power-sharing role.“It is up to (Lebanon’s) leaders to decide whether it is a state of terror or peace,” Sabhan wrote on Twitter two days after Hariri’s resignation.Sabhan, who as Saudi Arabia’s military attaché in Lebanon in 2014 and 2015 monitored Hezbollah, was fed information by some Lebanese politicians about the group’s role in the Syrian civil war, according to a Lebanese man who frequently spoke with Sabhan during his time in Beirut.Sabhan would often chat with politicians, journalists and businessmen at a cafe in Beirut’s upscale Verdun neighborhood, said the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversations.“He is a tight-lipped person. He listens more than he talks,” the Lebanese man said.After his stint in Lebanon, Sabhan was appointed Saudi Arabia’s first ambassador to Iraq in more than 25 years.But just nine months into the job, Iraq’s government demanded that Sabhan be replaced after he sparked an outcry for alleging the government refused to provide him better protection in the face of what he claimed were plans by Iranian-backed Shiite militia groups to assassinate him. He also called on Iraq’s government to exclude Shiite paramilitary groups from the military campaign against the Islamic State group.Sabhan was recalled and appointed to his current ministerial post, where he has used Twitter to vocalize the kingdom’s brash anti-Iran rhetoric.He’s also been sent on missions far and wide. He was spotted last month in the Syrian city of Raqqa with a US official after the Islamic State group’s de facto capital was recaptured by Syrian US-backed and Kurdish-led forces.In Saudi Arabia, Sabhan has sat in on high-level meetings and welcomed Lebanon’s Maronite patriarch when he visited the conservative Sunni Muslim country in a first ever such trip. He was also present at the patriarch’s meeting with King Salman.Sabhan has also sat in on the king’s meeting with Turkey’s foreign minister in June, the crown prince’s meeting in August with prominent Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and meetings with Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.On Twitter, Sabhan has openly tried to call the shots in Lebanon, demanding that Hezbollah be kicked out of the government and calling on the Lebanese to confront the militant group. He even got into a Twitter spat with Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.In one of the Hezbollah leader’s speeches, he described Sabhan as “zaatout,” a derogatory Arabic term that means variously “little monkey with lots of hair” or an “adult who behaves like a child.”Sabhan responded with a tweet of his own. “If an incompetent man criticizes me, this is proof that I am a whole man,” he wrote.Former Lebanese Cabinet Minister Wiam Wahhab, a Hezbollah ally, described Sabhan in a television interview as a “monster on the loose.”“I hope that Thamer al-Sabhan paid the price for such militia-style behavior,” he said.
Islamic State said to threaten terror attacks on Christmas-Jihadist forum publishes image of Santa Claus being beheaded against backdrop of a London shopping area-By TOI staff-NOV 29,17
Amid unprecedented setbacks on the ground in Iraq and Syria, where Islamic State has been pushed out of all major population centers and relegated to marginal desert regions, the group appears to be urging its followers to show it is still a relevant force by carrying out terror attacks in major Western cities during the upcoming Christmas and New Year’s holidays.An image circulated on an Islamic State-backing online chat group called “Army of Mujahideen” shows what appears to be an IS beheading photo, with a kneeling Santa Claus as its victim, according to New-York based newspaper The Epoch Times. The image is superimposed on an image of the Regent Street shopping area of London.The words “Soon on your holidays” are written in English, French and German in the image’s lower left-hand corner.Islamic State does not have direct control over its affiliates and followers around the world. It coordinates attacks by issuing instructions urging supporters to act at certain times in the hope that some will be inspired to follow through on those instructions. The lack of clear hierarchy has made it difficult to prevent attacks in the past.The photo’s publication follows several law enforcement interventions that are believed to have headed off major terror attacks planned for the holiday, as well as a US travel advisory issued November 16 that “alerts US citizens to the heightened risk of terrorist attacks throughout Europe, particularly during the holiday season.”According to the advisory, “US citizens should exercise caution at holiday festivals and events. Recent, widely-reported incidents in France, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Finland demonstrate that the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS or Da’esh), al-Qaeda, and their affiliates have the ability to plan and execute terrorist attacks in Europe. Last year, mass casualty attacks occurred at a Christmas market in Berlin, Germany in December and a nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey on New Year’s Eve…. US citizens should always be alert to the possibility that terrorist sympathizers or self-radicalized extremists may conduct attacks with little or no warning.”On November 21, German police arrested six Syrian men in a massive operation in the cities of Essen, Hanover, Kassel and Leipzig that uncovered cellphones, laptops and documents. The New York Times, citing German media outlets, said the suspects were believed to have been plotting a terror attack on a Christmas market in the northwestern German city of Essen reminiscent of last December’s Christmas market deadly truck-ramming attack by Tunisian IS supporter Anis Amri in Berlin.“The authorities have called for added vigilance around festivities this year, and cities across Germany are planning to install concrete barriers around markets and to increase police presence,” the Times said.Meanwhile, Australian authorities said they foiled a planned New Year’s Eve mass-shooting with the arrest of a suspected IS sympathizer named Ali Ali, born in Australia to Somali parents, in a raid on a house in the Melbourne suburb of Werribee on Monday.Ali planned to buy a gun and kill as many revelers as possible on New Year’s Eve in Melbourne, police alleged.He appeared in court Tuesday charged with preparing to commit a terrorist attack and collecting documents to facilitate a terror attack. Police said the 20-year-old accessed a guidebook online produced by al-Qaeda on how to carry out terror acts and use firearms, but was arrested before he could purchase an automatic rifle.“What we will be alleging is that he was intending to use a firearm to shoot and kill as many people as he could in the Federation Square area on New Year’s Eve,” said Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton.“It is a tremendous concern to us that (during) the festive season, when people are out enjoying themselves, that there is a potential plot to commit a terrorist act. That is a huge issue for us but that is why we put the resources in,” he said.Federation Square is in the heart of Melbourne, opposite a busy train station and St Paul’s Cathedral. It is one of the city’s most popular sites for New Year’s festivities and would be crowded on December 31.The alleged plot comes a year after police prevented what they said was another attack in the same area on Christmas Day, arresting several men who planned to use explosives, knives and guns to target the location.AFP contributed to this report.
Iranian commander in Syria: US troops are pants-pissing wimps-During pep talk to his forces in eastern Syria, Qassem Soleimani seen on video accusing 'cowardly' American soldiers of wearing diapers-By TOI staff-NOV 29,17
The head of Iran’s powerful Quds Force derided American soldiers as incontinent cowards in a speech to troops during an offensive to retake a strategic eastern Syria town from the Islamic State.In a speech posted online Sunday, Qassem Soleimani can be seen giving a pep talk to Iranian soldiers, apparently near al-Bukamal in eastern Syria, where Syrian regime forces and their allies have been fighting to recapture the town from Islamic State jihadists.In the video, Soleimani tells the troops American soldiers are not to be feared.“Look at the American forces today. They are more than 1 million strong. But despite their numbers and their capabilities, they are cowards. When they arrived in Iraq, they brought diapers for their soldiers, so that they could urinate in them when scared,” he says in the video, according to a translation provided Tuesday by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute.“You, on the other hand, have achieved victory with light weapons, Why? Because you are willing to make sacrifices,” Soleimani adds.Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani: Americans Are Cowards; B…Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani: Americans Are Cowards; Brought Diapers for Their Soldiers in IraqIRGC Quds Force Commander General Qasem Soleimani visited the forces fighting in Al-Bukamal, Syria, and told them that the U.S. forces, despite their numbers and capabilities, are cowards. "When they arrived in Iraq, they brought diapers for their soldiers, so that they could urinate in them when scared," he said. "Our people is ready for martyrdom, and therefore, deserves victory," said Soleimani. His remarks were posted online by the "Syrian Army's Allies' Operation Room" on November 26.Posted by The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) on Tuesday, 28 November 2017-It was not clear when the video was filmed. It was posted online by a group called the Syrian Army’s Allies’ Operation Room, according to MEMRI.On November 19, the Syrian regime said its army and allies had taken 80 percent of the desert border city of al-Bukamal, seen as the last Islamic State stronghold in Syria.Hezbollah forces were known to have been fighting alongside the Syrian regime there.Soleimani is considered a powerful figure, heading the elite Quds expeditionary force and leading Iranian troops fighting in Iraq and Syria.
