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
US Consulate may have purchased site near future embassy-Staff seen moving equipment into former boutique hotel in Arnona neighborhood, not far from anticipated location of new mission-By TOI staff-JAN 25,18
The US Embassy in Israel may already be preparing its expected move to Jerusalem, having seemingly purchased additional real estate in the Israeli capital for its consulate, Hadashot news reported Wednesday.Consulate staff were seen moving equipment and boxes into the former boutique Eden Hotel, in the city’s Arnona neighborhood.The US Consulate in Jerusalem currently operates two facilities: the main branch on Agron Street (where it has owned a building since 1912) and the Consular Section on Flusser Street in Arnona. In 2014, the US purchased a building adjacent to the facility on Flusser Street known as the Diplomat Hotel, which is currently home to elderly new immigrants.US officials cited by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal last week said Washington, seeking to expedite the relocation, will not build a new structure, but will instead convert the Arnona buildings into the new US mission.Hadashot news speculated that the embassy is seeking to bring consular services nearer to the site, as it prepares to relocate — thus the move into the Eden Hotel.The workers making the move refused to answer questions from the Hadashot news camera team, and made them stop filming.In an address to the Knesset on Monday, US Vice President Mike Pence pledged that Washington would relocate the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by the “end of next year.”The Arnona building lies near the Green Line, which marked Israel’s borders from 1949 until the Six Day War of 1967. It has been used over the years to issue visas and provide various consular services, but would need to be renovated to accommodate the ambassador and classified operations that would be based there.Moving into this relatively new building is designed, the reports said, to save money and allow US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman to begin working out of it by next year.The announcement contradicts State Department estimations that the move would not occur for at least another three years.Trump promised to move the embassy in a December 6 speech at the White House, in which he also formally recognized the city as Israel’s capital.The move was hailed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and by leaders across much of the Israeli political spectrum. But the decision also sparked Palestinian anger and was rejected in a non-binding UN General Assembly resolution.Potentially highlighting ongoing disagreement with the White House, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert denied Thursday to The Times of Israel than an expedited moving process was now underway.“The US government is currently assessing the suitability of various Jerusalem sites for a future embassy,” she said. “For now, we have no updates.”
Washington said reexamining entirety of US aid to Palestinians-Israeli TV report says some US officials -- particularly UN envoy Nikki Haley -- are not content with UNRWA cuts, want PA to pay for its boycott of administration-By TOI staff-JAN 25,18
The US leadership is looking beyond its recent cuts to the the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, with the State Department reexamining the entirety of its aid budget to the Palestinian Authority, Hadashot news reported Wednesday.According to the TV station, which indicated the report was based on US sources, the $100 million cut to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) earlier this month may well only be the start, as the crisis between Washington and Ramallah deepens.A top proponent of further cuts is said to be US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, who reportedly wants the Palestinian leadership to pay for its attitude towards the US government and President Donald Trump. Other officials are said to oppose further cuts.There was no confirmation of the TV report.Trump has also threatened to cut the Palestinian funding.Earlier this month, Trump asked why Washington should make “any of these massive future payments,” when the Palestinians were “no longer willing to talk peace.”In a tweet, the president dismissed Palestinian fury over his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, saying he had planned for Israel “to pay” in future negotiations for his declaration. But Palestinian intransigence was now preventing any progress on peace talks, he said-Washington had been paying the Palestinian Authority hundreds of millions of dollars a year “for nothing,” he wrote, complaining that the US received “no appreciation or respect” in return.“They don’t even want to negotiate a long overdue peace treaty with Israel,” he said. “We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that, would have had to pay more.”“But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace,” he went on, “why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?”Hadashot news said it was told that the consideration of further cuts was not intended as a sanction against the Palestinians. However, it was also told that if the Palestinians end their boycott of the Trump administration, budget cuts would be removed from the agenda.The TV station noted that Israeli leadership is not keen on deep cuts to Palestinian funding, with officials afraid that backing the Palestinians into a financial corner could lead to escalation in the territories.The US State Department last week put on hold two planned payments of more than $100 million to UNRWA.The State Department denied that the freeze was to punish the Palestinian Authority, which has cut ties with Trump’s administration, following his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. A spokeswoman said it was linked to necessary “reform” of UNRWA.Pierre Krahenbuhl, the agency’s commissioner general, said it had not been informed by the United States of any new reform demands, and had been simply “caught up” in a political dispute.The US gave around $700 million in support to the Palestinians last year, of which about half went to UNRWA, which has a non-political mandate to provide schooling, health care, and other services to more than three million Palestinians across the Middle East.While welcomed in Israel, Trump’s December 6 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital angered the Palestinians, who seek East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.PA President Mahmoud Abbas has said that the US under Trump can no longer be a mediator in peace talks with Israel, even though Trump stressed the recognition was not a statement of position on the city’s final boundaries.In late December, the United Nations General Assembly voted to condemn the US decision in a non-binding resolution, after the US vetoed a similar Security Council measure.Meanwhile, the deputy chief of PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party said this week that Palestinian leadership believes the US has never given anything of “substance” to the Palestinians.“Recently, we were forced to review all of our relations with the American administrations in recent years, and not just the Trump administration,” Mahmoud al-Aloul told the London-based Pan-Arab daily Al Quds Al Arabi. “We assessed that nothing good will come from them for the Palestinian people and the nation, and this is completely clear.“With all their might, they support [the Palestinians’] enemy that is occupying their lands,” he said.Dov Lieber and AFP contributed to this report.
Amid funding cut fears, PA purchases $50 million private jet for Abbas — report-Hadashot news reports plane will be delivered to Amman within weeks, will be stationed there for use by Palestinian leader-By TOI staff-25 January 2018
Even as the Palestinian Authority faces major funding cuts from the US, it has purchased a new luxurious $50 million private jet to be used by President Mahmoud Abbas, Hadashot news reported Wednesday.The report, which did not provide sourcing, said the plane was set to be delivered to Amman within weeks, and will be stationed there for use by the PA chief.Funding for the plane was said to have been provided both from the PA budget ($20 million) and from the Palestinian National Fund ($30 million).The report comes amid deep cuts to US aid to the Palestinians, and reports that further cuts may be coming.When US President Donald Trump originally threatened to cut aid earlier this month, top PLO official Saeb Erekat said it would lead to starvation among Palestinian refugee children.“Now, he is threatening to starve Palestinian children in refugee camps and deny their natural rights to health and education, if we don’t endorse his terms and dictations,” Erekat said, referring to Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.Israel’s prime minister, it should be noted, does not have and has never had a private plane.
Fatah deputy chief: US has never given Palestinians anything substantial-Mahmoud al-Aloul says Palestinian leaders all now agree that decades of cooperation with Washington has only harmed their national struggle-By Dov Lieber-TOI-25 January 2018
The Palestinian leadership believes the United States has never given anything of “substance” to the Palestinians, Mahmoud al-Aloul, the deputy chief of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, said.“Recently we were forced to review all of our relations with the American administrations in recent years, and not just the Trump administration. We assessed that nothing good will come from them for the Palestinian people and the nation, and this is completely clear,” said Aloul in an interview with the London-based Pan-Arab daily Al Quds Al Arabi published Saturday.When asked by his interviewer whether this was his personal assessment, Aloul responded, according to a translation of the interview Wednesday by the Israeli watchdog Palestinian Media Watch, that this is “the assessment of the entire Palestinian leadership.”“If we review the relations with all of the American administrations, we see that they have not given the Palestinians anything of substance but rather worked in order to pull the rug out from under their feet by exerting pressures on them, and that with all their might they support [the Palestinians’] enemy that is occupying their lands,” he said.Following the US decision in December to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the Palestinian leadership declared that Washington could no longer fulfill the historic and central role in the peace process it has held for over two decades.The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.Abbas’s Palestinian Authority has been boycotting US administration figures dealing with Mideast peace since US President Donald Trump’s December 6 declaration on Jerusalem, including refusing to meet US Vice President Mike Pence, who left the region Tuesday.According to the US Consulate in Jerusalem’s website, the United States has been the largest donor of aid to the Palestinians since the signing of the Oslo Accords, a landmark peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians, in 1994. This aid has totaled around $600 million annually in recent years.However, the US froze payments worth $100 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees earlier this month, and the White House and Congress are threatening to further cut aid to the Palestinians.The Central Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PCC) — the second-highest decision-making body for Palestinians — recently voted to officially declare the US no longer fit to be the sole sponsor of peace talks.The US “has lost its eligibility to function as a mediator and sponsor of the peace process” until it reverses the Jerusalem decision, the council said.In a speech before the PCC earlier this month, Abbas railed against Trump and mocked senior US officials, referring to the US leader’s peace plan for Palestinian and Israelis as the “slap of the century.”Trump’s team working on the peace plan have said it is not yet fully formed. There are reports of what the plan contains, but it has not been formally proposed.The Palestinians have said they are still open to the US playing a role within a multilateral framework to pave the way to a Palestinian state.
Berlin denies it expressed understanding for Israel’s rejection of Iran deal-Merkel only appreciated Jerusalem's 'general concerns' about Iran, German sources say; Israeli official responds: Fake controversy about a distinction without a difference-By Raphael Ahren-JAN 25,18-TOI
Berlin on Wednesday evening denied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed understanding for Israel’s opposition to the nuclear deal.“She understands Israel’s general concerns regarding Iran,” German diplomatic sources told The Times of Israel, referring to Iran’s ballistic missiles program and its problematic activities in the region. However, Germany stands fully behind the nuclear deal, which it achieved together with the five permanent members of the United Nation Security Council in 2015, the sources maintained.After meeting with the chancellor on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, in Davos, earlier on Wednesday, Netanyahu told reporters that Merkel had “said that she understands our concerns regarding the nuclear agreement, even though she does not necessarily agree with the way in which we want to deal with it.”Jerusalem rejected the German sources’ clarification. “This a fake controversy about a distinction without a difference,” a senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel.Addressing Israeli reporters minutes after he left the room where he met Merkel, Netanyahu described their conversation as “important,” indicating that their discussion focused on Iran.“I said that, in my view, the only existing option at the moment is to put in real — not cosmetic — changes that will prevent Iran from going nuclear, which would otherwise be assured by the agreement as it stands,” the prime minister said.The Europeans “will hold discussions among themselves, and with the US,” Netanyahu said regarding the future of the Iran deal, adding that Merkel “understands that this touches on our concerns, the things that could threaten our very existence.”The German chancellor has “proven this commitment in the past at various opportunities. I am satisfied that our positions have been well-understood,” he said.Convincing world leaders to push for changes to the Iran deal is one of the key objectives of Netanyahu’s current trip to Davos. “I will tell them that in the coming weeks, they will have a last opportunity to try and introduce real — not cosmetic — changes in the dangerous nuclear agreement with Iran,” he said Tuesday, as he boarded his plane en route to Switzerland.“In any case, with or without an agreement, our policy is to prevent the terrorist regime in Iran from arming itself with nuclear weapons, which would endanger us, the Middle East, and the entire world.”In his meetings Wednesday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, Swiss President Alain Berset, and other leaders, he “discussed the nuclear agreement with Iran and called on the leaders to utilize the opportunity that has been created in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s declaration,” according to a readout provided by his office.The nuclear deal was negotiated and agreed upon by Iran on the one side and the US, Russia, China, France, Britain, and Germany — the so-called P5+1. Out of the six, only Washington has misgivings about the deal, with the administration threatening to tear it apart, unless substantial changes are made to it.“And just know that in President Trump’s recent decision to announce that the waiver that he would sign on sanctions under the Iran nuclear deal would be the last one,” US Vice President Mike Pence said in Jerusalem on Tuesday.“We are sending a signal to our European allies that the time has come for changes in the Iran nuclear deal that will ensure that the sunset provisions in the deal are completely eliminated, and that punitive sanctions will be available for many years to come, to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon — and you have our commitment to work closely with our allies around the world to achieve that,” Pence said.“If our allies will not join us, President Trump has made it clear we will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal immediately. But we hope in the months ahead to able to strengthen it, to contribute to the security of the region, Israel’s security, and the security of American interests as well.”Germany, however, considers the nuclear deal a “major success, and a key building block of the global non-proliferation architecture,” according to the Foreign Ministry in Berlin.“We firmly believe that the nuclear agreement needs to be upheld. It is in the European interest. It is in the international community’s interest,” German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said earlier this month. “If the only agreement that has prevented a region from developing nuclear weapons were to be sunk now, it would be a devastating signal for all others.”However, Gabriel, who is due in Israel next week and set to meet Netanyahu, has repeatedly acknowledged that “Iran’s role in the region is problematic,” the Foreign Ministry website states. “In his view, these other topics need to be dealt with, while keeping the nuclear agreement separate and not putting its successes at risk.”On January 11, the foreign ministers of Germany, Britain, and France, as well as European Union foreign policy czar Federica Mogherini, met with Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in Brussels. All sides vowed to fight to keep the Iran in place, and pledged to launch a “structured dialogue on regional issues” with the Islamic Republic.Jacob Magid contributed to this report from Davos, Switzerland.
Israel’s US envoy said to warn PM of fallout from expulsion of African migrants-Channel 10 reports that Ron Dermer told Netanyahu that the country's international image will suffer if plan to deport asylum seekers goes ahead-By TOI staff and JTA-JAN 25,18
Israel’s Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer has warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against the public relations fallout that Israel will suffer if it goes ahead with a plan to expel tens of thousands of African migrants to a third country, Channel 10 reported Wednesday.According to the report, Dermer told Netanyahu and senior cabinet ministers that press coverage about the deportations would cause great damage to Israel’s international reputation.The third country has not officially been identified, though most reports have named either Rwanda or Uganda. Rwanda has denied that it has formed an agreement with Israel on the matter.Last month, the Knesset approved an amendment to the so-called Infiltrator’s Law, mandating the closure of a detention facility and the forced deportations of Eritreans and Sudanese starting in March.Objection to the deportations has been gaining support from social activists in Israel and from Jewish communities in the US. Among those who have spoken out are a group of EL AL pilots, who said they would refuse to fly planes carrying migrants out of the country, and Holocaust survivors who said they would hide the Africans in their homes.There are approximately 38,000 African migrants and asylum seekers in Israel, according to the Interior Ministry. About 72 percent are Eritrean and 20% are Sudanese. The vast majority arrived between 2006 and 2012. Many live in south Tel Aviv, where some residents and activists have blamed them for rising crime rates and lobbied the government for deportation.On Tuesday, the Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported that several Holocaust survivors had said they would take migrants into their homes to save them, just as they themselves had been hidden during World War II. A day earlier, three El Al pilots published Facebook posts announcing their refusal to participate in the government program by not flying them to Rwanda or Uganda.The act is mostly symbolic, as El Al does not fly directly to Rwanda or Uganda, and deported migrants usually fly on other airlines through Ethiopia or Jordan.According to the government plan, migrants who choose to leave by March 31 will receive a payment of $3,500, as well as free airfare and other incentives, say reports. Security in their home countries or a third country has already been guaranteed through diplomatic channels, Israeli officials have said.Advocates for the African migrants have said that those who have already been deported suffered robberies, kidnapping and worse, after their arrival.The Population and Immigration Authority reported that no infiltrators entered Israel in 2017, and only a small number had done so in 2016, following the construction of a barrier wall on Israel’s southern border.Israel has already deported 20,000 of the some 60,000 African migrants who entered Israel prior to the construction of the barrier.In a tweet Monday, the government of Rwanda said that “in reference to the rumors that have been recently spread in the media, the Government of Rwanda wishes to inform that it has never signed any secret deal with Israel regarding the relocation of African migrants.”A second tweet added that “Rwanda’s policy vis-Ã -vis Africans in need of a home, temporary or permanent, within our country’s means, remains ‘open doors.'”Netanyahu on Sunday defended the expulsions.“We are not acting against refugees,” he said at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting. “We are acting against illegal migrants, who come here not as refugees, but for work needs. Israel will continue to offer asylum for genuine refugees and will remove illegal migrants from its midst.”Israel has granted asylum to fewer than 1% of the migrants.In recent weeks, major American Jewish groups have called on Netanyahu not to carry out his plan to deport or jail the tens of thousands of migrants. Human rights groups and Israeli NGOs have also spoken out against the plan.
Settler leader blames lack of police, ‘wild Arab driving’ for West Bank crash-After deadly accident, Yossi Dagan says no answer to requests for boosted enforcement; Road Safety Authority said to be discreetly providing educational material to Palestinians-By TOI staff-JAN 25,18
A top settler leader on Wednesday lamented the lack of law enforcement on West Bank roads, and blamed “wild driving by Arabs” for deadly accidents, a day after two young Israeli siblings and a Palestinian man were killed in a head-on collision in the northern West Bank.Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan said “Both we and Samaria police have long been seeking additional traffic police, and to boost enforcement on Samaria’s roads, but our many requests have gone unanswered.”Police said Wednesday that an initial investigation into the incident showed that the Palestinian driver had lost control, due to high speed, and collided with the other car.“Sadly, we see wild driving by Arabs across the region,” Dagan said. “On that same road one year ago, a resident of the nearby (settlement of) Einav was killed, also because of a local Arab’s wild driving.”He claimed, “There are those who do not see fit to provide manpower here, as they do in other parts of the country.”He called for a major push both on an enforcement level and on the educational front to encourage safe driving habits in the area, as well as funding for an upgrade to dilapidated roads.Channel 10 reported, meanwhile, that the National Road Safety Authority has in recent months been discreetly providing educational material on road safety to Palestinians, while removing its logo from the texts due to the sensitivity of the matter.Tuesday’s accident claimed the lives of 12-year-old Ori Lipnik, her 8-year-old brother Roee Lipnik, as well as a Palestinian man.The Magen David Adom rescue service said 11 people in total were hurt, when a Palestinian vehicle collided with a car carrying the Israeli family near the Shavei Shomron settlement on Route 557.The children’s mother was seriously injured, as was a third 12-year-old child. The father was lightly injured, as was a fourth infant son. Four Palestinians were also injured.The two Israeli victims were buried Wednesday at the Shavei Shomron cemetery. Their injured father was brought in on a stretcher to eulogize them.Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
Justice minister says AG okays legalizing terror victim’s West Bank outpost-Ayelet Shaked expects to submit proposal for authorizing Havat Gilad community at next cabinet meeting-By TOI staff-25 January 2018
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said Wednesday that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit had approved a proposal to legalize a West Bank outpost that had been the home of an Israeli shot dead in a terror attack earlier in the month.Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman has spearheaded a drive to legalize the Havat Gilad outpost in the northern West Bank after one of its residents, 35-year-old father of six, Rabbi Raziel Shevach, was killed as he drove home on January 9. However, legal questions have been raised over how much of the outpost is on private Palestinian land, a circumstance that would hinder its legalization.In a tweet, Shaked, who is from the settlement-supporting Jewish Home party, wrote, “Attorney General approved the proposal by decision-makers to approve Havat Gilad. There is no legal impediment to raising it. We expect the decision will be brought to the government on Sunday.”Army Radio reported that, currently, the proposal is not on the agenda for the upcoming weekly cabinet meeting.The station also said that the Justice Ministry intends to set up a special team whose aim would be to solve problems with the access roads to the outpost, some of which are on cultivated land.Most of the land on which the illegal outpost was constructed is privately owned Palestinian property, according to the IDF’s land registrar in the West Bank, the Haaretz daily reported last week.The outpost was founded in 2002, on land purchased for the project by right-wing activists. But the current community of some 40 families sits on an area far larger than the original purchase, and includes land that is listed as owned by Palestinians, both according to the claims of local Palestinians and according to the Israeli land registrar for the West Bank.Furthermore, none of the buildings in the outpost, including those built on Israeli-owned land, is legal, and all have outstanding demolition orders against them, since they were built without a zoning or planning process, and without the approval of local government bodies.Havat Gilad residents claim to have purchased the land prior to establishing the outpost. The settlers named their hilltop community after Gilad Zar, the security coordinator of the Shomron Regional Council, who was shot dead in a terror attack in 2001.Palestinians, however, have denied the purchase, claiming that the documents were falsified.On January 9, shortly before 8 p.m., Shevach was driving his car on the highway near his home in Havat Gilad, when shots were fired at him from a passing vehicle.Shevach, a volunteer medic, was shot in the neck, but managed to call his wife and tell her to call an ambulance. Civilian and military medics rushed to the scene and tried to stop the bleeding as they took Shevach to Kfar Saba’s Meir Hospital, where he was pronounced dead after life-saving efforts failed.Israeli security services launched a manhunt after the perpetrators, leading them to a house in Jenin where the suspects were believed to be hiding last Thursday.A firefight broke out during the arrest raid. One suspect was killed and another was taken into custody. Two police officers were wounded, one of them seriously.However, suspected terror cell leader Ahmad Nassar Jarrar apparently succeeded in fleeing the scene.Israeli forces have been in pursuit of him ever since, with Liberman saying on Friday that he is “living on borrowed time.”
Turkey vows to widen offensive against Syrian Kurds-President Erdogan's determination to eradicate Kurdish militias from border area brings his troops closer to US forces-By Suzan Fraser and NATALIYA VASILYEVA-JAN-25 January 2018
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s president on Wednesday vowed to expand its operation against US-allied Kurdish forces in northern Syria toward the town of Manbij, which would bring Turkish troops and their Syrian allies closer to US forces supporting the Kurds against the Islamic State group.Turkey launched an incursion Saturday against the Afrin enclave, which is controlled by a Kurdish militia that played a key role in US efforts to roll back the extremist group. US forces are based in Kurdish-held parts of northeastern Syria but not in or near Afrin.Any shift toward Manbij would bring NATO member Turkey and its Syrian allies closer to US forces, which are based nearby and patrol the town. The US has urged Turkey to exercise restraint, saying the offensive distracts from efforts to prevent the resurgence of IS. Ankara views the Kurdish People’s Defense Units, or YPG, as a threat because of its links to outlawed Kurdish separatists in Turkey.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday vowed to “foil games along our borders starting from Manbij.”“We will clean our region from this trouble completely,” he told officials at a meeting in Ankara.Kurdish forces captured Manbij, which is west of the Euphrates River, from IS in 2016 with the help of the US-led coalition.Turkey has long demanded that the Kurdish fighters withdraw to the eastern bank of the river, and US forces have patrolled the area to try to reduce tensions.The advancing Turkish troops are facing stiff resistance in Afrin. Activists and Kurdish officials say airstrikes are still raining down on several parts of the district, which borders Turkey.The United Nations says an estimated 5,000 people have been displaced inside the encircled enclave, and that Kurdish forces are not allowing civilians to leave.Erdogan said Turkish troops and allied fighters have killed at least 268 Syrian Kurdish fighters since the operation began. He said Turkish troops have suffered seven or eight losses.“This operation will continue until the last member of the terror organization is neutralized,” he said.Turkey says it wants to create a 30 kilometer (20-mile) deep “secure zone” in Afrin. Erdogan said the operation would allow Syrian refugees to return home. Turkey is home to more than 3 million refugees, the vast majority of whom hail from other parts of Syria.At least 27 civilians have been killed in the fighting in Afrin, mainly in Turkish airstrikes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that monitors the civil war.US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday that the fighting “disrupts what was a relatively stable area of Syria” and “distracts from the international efforts to ensure the defeat of ISIS,” using another acronym for the extremist group.IS has been driven from nearly all the territory it once controlled in Syria and neighboring Iraq, but the extremist group has proven resilient after past defeats, and is still launching insurgent-style attacks.Russia has meanwhile accused the United States of promoting unverified reports about chemical weapons attacks in Syria in order to cloud Moscow’s latest peace initiative, while the Syrian government dismissed the reports as “lies.”The United States and 28 other countries are launching a new plan to better identify and punish anyone who uses chemical weapons, amid new reports of a suspected gas attack in rebel-held suburbs of Damascus earlier this week.In an interview with the Interfax news agency, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov accused the US of promoting “rigged, unverified reports” of the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria to hamper Russian peace efforts.Russia is hosting peace talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi next week that some Syrian opposition figures said will run counter to UN peace initiatives.Ryabkov’s remarks came a day after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Moscow “ultimately bears responsibility for the victims” of the latest suspected chemical attack.The Syrian Foreign Ministry dismissed the allegations as “unacceptable” and blamed Western nations for blocking probes and pressuring investigators after previous attacks.The US and Russia reached an agreement in 2013 to remove all chemical weapons from Syria, but there have been several reported chemical attacks since then, including one last year that led US President Donald Trump to order a retaliatory missile attack on a Syrian air base.
After rival accused of crimes, Egypt’s Sissi registers candidacy for reelection-Several potential opponents in presidential race have either ruled themselves out or been targeted for prosecution-By AFP-TOI-25 January 2018
CAIRO, Egypt — Egyptian leader Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Wednesday formally submitted his candidacy for presidential elections in March that he looks certain to dominate as a string of potential challengers have dropped out.Sissi, who was elected president in 2014 a year after heading the military ouster of Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi, on Friday confirmed he would be seeking a second four-year term.Sissi is the only candidate so far to officially submit an application to the National Election Authority for the March 26-28 election, the third since strongman Hosni Mubarak was toppled by a 2011 uprising.Hopefuls must register by January 29, but a number of possible Sissi opponents have already either ruled themselves out or been targeted for prosecution.On Tuesday a bid by General Sami Anan was plunged into doubt after the armed forces accused him on state television of “infractions and crimes” that require investigation.The authorities issued a gag order on the details of his case, which is being handled by military judiciary.High-profile names to drop out include former Mubarak-era prime minister Ahmed Shafiq and Mohamed Anwar Sadat, a dissident and nephew of the former president of the same name.Shafiq reversed a pledge to run after he was returned to Egypt from exile in the United Arab Emirates, while Sadat said the climate was not right for free elections.Last month a military court sentenced Colonel Ahmed Konsowa to six years in jail after he announced his intention to stand.There still remain two well-known people still potentially in the running: rights lawyer and 2012 presidential candidate Khaled Ali and Mortada Mansour, the head of Egypt’s legendary Zamalek football club.Ali’s campaign is scheduled to announce at a press conference later on Wednesday whether he will withdraw or continue with his bid.
LAND FOR PEACE (THE FUTURE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH)
JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people(ISRAEL) and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.(UPROOTED ISRAELIS AND DIVIDED JERUSALEM)(THIS BRINGS ON WW3 BECAUSE JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED,WARNING TO ARABS-MUSLIMS AND THE WORLD).
THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS
Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week:(7 YEARS) and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.
DANIEL 11:21-23
21 And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
23 And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people.
24 He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.
DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he ( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant (PEACE TREATY) with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE ANIMAL SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
JEREMIAH 6:14
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
JEREMIAH 8:11
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
ISAIAH 33:8
8 The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant,(7 YR TREATY) he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.(THE WORLD LEADER-WAR MONGER CALLS HIMSELF GOD)
JERUSALEM DIVIDED
GENESIS 25:20-26
20 And Isaac was forty years old (A BIBLE GENERATION NUMBER=1967 + 40=2007+) when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
22 And the children (2 NATIONS IN HER-ISRAEL-ARABS) struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels;(ISRAEL AND THE ARABS) and the one people shall be stronger than the other people;(ISRAEL STRONGER THAN ARABS) and the elder shall serve the younger.(LITERALLY ISRAEL THE YOUNGER RULES (ISSAC)(JACOB-LATER NAME CHANGED TO ISRAEL) OVER THE OLDER ARABS (ISHMAEL)(ESAU)
24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
25 And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.(THE OLDER AN ARAB)
26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob:(THE YOUNGER-ISRAELI) and Isaac was threescore (60) years old when she bare them.(1967 + 60=2027)(COULD BE THE LAST GENERATION WHEN JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED AMOUNG THE 2 TWINS)(THE 2 TWINS WANT JERUSALEM-THE DIVISION OF JERUSALEM TODAY)(AND WHOS IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM TODAY-THE YOUNGER ISSAC-JACOB-ISRAEL)(AND WHO WANTS JERUSALEM DIVIDED-THE OLDER,ESAU-ISHMAEL (THE ARABS)
ZECHARIAH 12:1-5 King James Bible
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
4 In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT) shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.
DANIEL 11:36-40
36 And the king shall do according to his will;(EU PRESIDENT) and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS A EUROPEAN JEW) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(HES A MILITARY GINIUS) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds (CONTROL HEZBOLLAH,AL-QUAIDA MURDERERS ETC) with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south(EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR PROTECTING ISRAELS SECURITY) and the king of the north(RUSSIA) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
ISAIAH 26:21
21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.(WW3,1/2 earths population die).
Macron says he won’t recognize Palestine in response to Trump’s Jerusalem move-Ahead of meeting with Netanyahu, French president reaffirms country's position of Jerusalem as capital of 'both sides' in final deal-By Jacob Magid-JAN 25,18-TOI
DAVOS, Switzerland — French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that he would not recognize Palestine as an independent state as a reaction to US President Donald Trump’s declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.“I will not take any decision in reaction to any decision,” Macron told reporters in response to a Times of Israel question on the potential recognition of a Palestinian state.The comments came during a photo op with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, ahead of their closed-door meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The meeting lasted nearly an hour.Several European nations, including Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, and Slovenia, are reportedly mulling recognizing an independent Palestine in response to Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem. The Slovenian foreign minister has already confirmed his country’s intention.Macron began his statement by saying bluntly, “What we have to do is we have to work fairly on a peace process in the short run.”Macron said he wanted to “accompany and facilitate” the two sides in a peace process, but added that France’s positions on the end result of such talks had not changed.“Our philosophy is very clear from the very beginning, with recognition of two states. Jerusalem will be the capital of two sides and common frontiers recognized according to international rule,” he said in English.Macron went on to emphasize again that a decision to recognize an independent Palestine will not be a reaction “following some other decision,” apparently referring to Trump’s December 6 proclamation.The French president then touted his relationship with Netanyahu, saying he saw as crucial Paris’s ability to be a “partner for the security of Israel and also to be a strategic partner for the whole region with you,” he said, looking at Netanyahu.The prime minister responded that “this is definitely true,” adding that Israel’s partnership with France “is also important for the security of Europe.”Just last week, Channel 10 reported that Macron dispatched his foreign policy adviser to a secret visit in Ramallah, where the latter implored Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbass not to rule out a peace plan being prepared by the Trump administration.“Don’t reject Trump’s peace plan off the bat,” Channel 10 quoted Lechevallier as telling Palestinian officials. “Give it a chance.”Abbas met with Macron last month in Paris, where he rejected any role in a US peace process.During talks last month, Netanyahu reportedly told the French president that he would be prepared to make “compromises and concessions” to the Palestinians, within the framework of Trump’s plan.The separate Channel 10 report, which quoted unnamed senior European diplomats familiar with the content of the two men’s discussions, was denied by the Prime Minister’s Office.The TV channel said Macron’s efforts to reassure Abbas have been coordinated with Trump, and the two leaders speaking by phone multiple times in recent weeks.
Rebuffing Abbas gambit, US says Europe knows it can’t be lead peace broker-Senior official says Palestinians also realize EU can't play main mediating role, adds peace plan will place emphasis on 'brighter future for Palestinians'-By Eric Cortellessa-TOI-25 January 2018
WASHINGTON — European countries do not think they can replace the United States as the main broker of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, a senior White House official said Tuesday, pouring cold water on efforts by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to court the EU as a replacement for the US.“There isn’t a single European country or other country we’ve spoken to since the December 6 announcement that in any way, shape or form believes a US-led process could be replaced,” a White House official told reporters during a briefing Tuesday. “They all want to work with the US, despite the Palestinian reaction.”Since Trump’s Jerusalem decision last month, the Palestinian leadership has refused to meet with US officials on peace talks and has repeatedly said the US can no longer be an honest mediator in the conflict.While US Vice President Mike Pence was in Israel this week, Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, snubbed him and instead flew to Brussels trying to woo the European Union to take from Washington its mantle of main sponsor of the peace process.On Monday, European Union Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini said Brussels was ready to take a “central role,” alongside the United States, expanding the international role in mediating between Israel and the Palestinians.The US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as Pence wrapped up his two-day visit to Israel, suggested the Palestinians were disingenuous in their rhetoric of seeking another international actor to take the US’s place, while admitting that the current impasse could be called “a huge bump.”“I don’t think anybody believes the US can be replaced in this process,” the official said. “Frankly, I don’t believe the Palestinians believe the US can be replaced in this process.”The position echoed the stance of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has said the Palestinians don’t want peace if they refuse to work with the US.The Palestinian boycott has come as the US is trying to finalize a peace plan, which the official said would include a regional element that could extend across the region, including Saudi Arabia. But the official said the plans had been somewhat derailed by the Palestinians’ refusal to meet with them, as well the the “complexity” of involving other regional actors.“We don’t want to put out a timeline because, first of all, we need to bake a plan we think is fair to both sides, that both sides will look at and start talking about,” the official said.“We also obviously hit bumps in the road. We are hitting a bump right now. Some would call it a huge bump. Some would call it an expected bump. But one thing we are certain is any time we would put out a calendar we would blow through those deadlines,” the official added.The official said the plan was designed to improve the quality of life for Palestinians, while maintaining the long-held US position that an agreement can only be achieved through negotiations between the sides.“In our view, it’s not our job to impose a deal on either side,” he said. “It’s our job to present a plan that we think is appropriate, reasonable, fair for both sides, in particular for the Palestinians to have a brighter future and it’s going to be up to the parties to make their decisions if they can come to terms on a deal.”That same official also said that while the Palestinian leadership has closed off communications with the White House, there are Palestinians who are in touch with them and want to work with them.“There’s a difference between the Palestinian leadership and Palestinians,” he said. “One of the tragic things that I have noticed since December 6 is there are so many Palestinians who are reaching out. They all want to continue to talk, but they’re all afraid to talk. So they’re asking for quiet meetings, private meetings. They’re under a lot of pressure not to talk. It doesn’t bode well for what we’re trying to create if there’s no freedom of speech among the Palestinians, so that troubles me greatly. And we’re trying to figure out how to deal with it.”The official expressed frustration with the rhetoric that has emerged from Palestinian leadership since December 6, saying it had misrepresented President Donald Trump’s position, specifically omitting his emphasis that he was not defining the parameters of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, prejudging final status negotiations or changing the status quo at any of the holy cites.The Palestinians are “taking parts of the President’s speech and ignoring the rest of the speech and using the parts that they don’t like for their own political purposes and completely not referring to the parts of the president’s speech that speak to those issues,” the official said.He added: “I don’t view the rhetoric coming out of the Palestinian side as helpful to reach a peace agreement. We’re not arrogant enough to say that the peace deal we’re going to deliver will solve the problem, but we’ll only know if they engage in dialogue. And refusing to engage in dialogue — and worse, the harsh rhetoric that they are speaking — isn’t going to get us to even step one, which is: What do you think of the plan? And how would you like to negotiate the plan?”
26 EU states not ready for EU data law-By Nikolaj Nielsen-JAN 25,18-EUOBSERVER
BRUSSELS, Today, 18:47-The vast majority of EU states appear unprepared for new EU-wide data protection and privacy rules set for launch end of May.Only Austria and Germany have so far implemented national laws that lay the ground work for the EU general data protection regulation (GDPR), a wide-reaching overhaul of a two-decade old directive."If some member states lag behind and do not amend their legislation on time it might cause some problems for the overall functioning of the GDPR across Europe," EU justice commissioner Vera Jourova told reporters on Wednesday (24 January).While the regulation is automatically binding as of 25 May, national procedural rules are needed, among other things, to equip data protection authorities with means to ensure people's privacy is protected.States will also have to repeal and amend some existing laws and set up national data protection authorities. Jourova said this also entails making sure that data protection authorities are independent and financed enough to carry out their duties."I can tell you that all 26 [member states] are in a big rush now," she said.Karolina Majzesowicz, a data protection expert at the European Commission, told this website that such missing national rules "could slow down the take-off of the harmonious application and the coherent application of the data protection rules throughout the EU."The regulation offers a single set of rules that are required to be applied throughout all EU states and by any company, no matter where it is based, that processes the data of EU citizens and residents.Breaking the law could incur fines up to €20 million or 4 percent of a company's worldwide annual turnover.Some of the EU's 24,000 smaller businesses will be exempt from the rules but concerns are mounting that many others are simply ill-prepared to meet all the conditions. Those that process people's data will be required to hire a data protection officer, for instance.Meanwhile, some governments are more advanced than others when it comes to meeting their 25 May deadline.An EU commission document from early December says Denmark, Estonia, France, Hungary, Malta, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Poland, Sweden, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom have either submitted or will soon submit draft laws to their respective parliaments.EU states and companies have been given two years to make sure that regulation goes off without a hitch following its 2016 adoption.German Green MEP Jan Philip Albrecht, who steered the bill through the European parliament, warned the regulation would be applied not matter what and will be enforced."Allowing business to prepare compliance for two years after the GDPR came into force was quite nice of the EU. There were also suggestions to make it six months," he said at the CPDP international data protection conference in Brussels on Wednesday.Not everyone is convinced of the regulation's impact on shoring up data protection standards, however.Christian Gemmin from the University Kassel in Germany said some of the opening clauses in the regulation run the risk of lowering the level of data protection.Speaking at a panel at the CPDP, he noted that options in the regulation "may lead to a complex and intransparent situation."
MEPs shun commission-led group on future of EU-By Peter Teffer-JAN 25,18-EUOBSERVER
Brussels, Today, 18:22-The European Parliament (EP) has decided not to participate in the drafting of a report on the future of the EU and how to improve EU lawmaking, based on a decade-old position that MEPs should not be part of working groups set up by the European Commission.The Task Force on Subsidiarity, Proportionality and 'Doing Less More Efficiently' will meet for the first time on Thursday (25 January) without any representatives from the parliament, despite an invitation to put forward three members.The refusal will mean that the parliament, the only EU institution with directly elected members, has effectively decided to pass on an opportunity to shape the debate on subsidiarity, a principle that is central to EU integration.The subsidiarity principle requires that policy should be carried out at the level - local, regional, national, or European - where it is most effective.As Europe reflects on its future after Brexit, numerous initiatives are emerging to help determine what the EU should look like.European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker had invited the parliament last November to participate in the task force.While the establishment of a task force sounds procedural, the group will produce a report whose contents will be political.Past experiences has shown that reports of EU task forces or 'high level groups' often steer the debate in a certain direction, leaving only room for minor adjustments.-Not parliament's job-Jeroen Reijnen, spokesman for the parliament's Liberal Alde group, told EUobserver that the leaders of the parliament's political groups - the so-called Conference of Presidents (CoP) - unanimously decided not to participate.He said that while the CoP praised the initiative, group leaders felt that the parliament should not be involved at the inception of regulation, because that could clash with its task of scrutinising the commission."It is the job of the European Parliament to assess the proposals of the commission once they are released," said Reijnen. His colleague from the centre-left socialist group confirmed that position.Spokesman Jan Krelina, for the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, struck a different tone."Since subsidiarity and proportionality are among the key elements to the EU reform we are proposing, we believe that the European Parliament should take this kind of working group seriously," he told EUobserver in an email.According to the official minutes of a CoP meeting on 11 January, ECR leader Syed Kamall was present at a debate about whether to participate in the task force.The CoP "decided unanimously to decline the invitation to participate in the task force", according to the minutes, which said representatives of all eight political groups were present at the meeting.Krelina said, however, that the decision was not unanimous. According to him, Kamall had wanted to nominate UK Conservative MEP Sajjad Karim as member of the task force, but when the ECR leader saw there was no majority to accept the invitation, he did not insist.-Declining invitations since 2006-The EU parliament refusing to participate in commission-led working groups has become something of a tradition, dating back to 2006, when the Spanish centre-left MEP Josep Borrell was president of the parliament.On the agenda of a CoP meeting in Strasbourg on 15 February 12 years ago was an invitation by the commission for three MEPs to participate in a High-level Group on Competitiveness, Energy and the Environment.Borrel said that the parliament needed to "define its policy in response to the commission's growing tendency to set up 'forums' and 'high-level groups' to which it invites parliament to send representatives".The leader of the Liberal group at the time, Graham Watson, said by participating, the parliament "was running the risk of prejudicing its own position", while then Greens co-chairman Daniel Cohn-Bendit said "such groups were neither representative as a whole, nor were MEPs taking part in such groups representative of the European parliament".Another participant in that discussion - Martin Schulz - would later take over as parliament president.The German leader of the centre-left group at the time said the commission "was trying to take on board parliamentarians at an early stage, which made it difficult for parliament to effectively control" the commission.In hindsight, that observation can be applied to at least one example.In 2005, MEPs had participated in the Competitive Automotive Regulatory System for the 21st Century (CARS21), which set the stage for Europe's lenient attitude towards the car industry that can partly be blamed for the Dieselgate scandal.-Tajani: From inviter to decliner-On 27 September 2007, the CoP discussed another commission invitation, to nominate five MEPs to join the High-Level Group on the Competitiveness of the Chemicals Industry in the European Union.The group leaders "decided that no member of the European parliament should take part, in any capacity, in working groups or advisory fora (regardless of their denomination) set up by the Commission, where these bodies deal with subject-matters in which parliament is co-legislator".Minutes from at least six CoP meetings in the past decade, discussing invitations to MEPs to participate in commission-led working groups, repeated that same position, virtually word-for-word.It included rejections in 2010 and 2013 to participate in high level groups on a better food supply chain, another one on the competitiveness of the EU's car industry, and raw materials.The invitations for these three groups were sent by none other than Antonio Tajani, who was vice-president of the commission at the time, but since 1 January 2017 is president of the parliament.According to the minutes of the January 2018 meeting, Tajani now repeated the parliament's decade-old position and said that "a participation in the task force would disregard parliament's institutional role and standing as the only directly elected institution of the European Union, representing the citizens at Union level and exercising functions of political control of the commission".Tajani's spokesman did not want to comment when asked to explain why the parliament would not participate in the task force.-Exceptions-As to every rule, there are exceptions, although they are not evidently explained.In 2008, the group leaders decided that the chairpersons or other member of the parliament's committees for internal market, agriculture, and environment could become a member of the High-Level Group on the Competitiveness of the Agro-Food Industry, "in a personal capacity".They added, according to the minutes, that this "was entirely consistent" with the earlier decision – although the final report of the group on agro-food did not list any MEPs as its members.As recently as 2015 though, an MEP joined a commission-led working group, albeit under a different name.In advance to the EU's plans for increased defence integration, the commission set up a Group of Personalities on Defence Research, which included centre-right German MEP Michael Gahler as a member.-Criticism from national parliaments-As for the task force on subsidiarity and proportionality, the commission will go ahead without the parliament.A commission source said that the task force will have its first meeting on Thursday, but that the three seats available for MEPs will remain open, if the EU parliament decides to change its mind. He added that the commission never received an official reply from the parliament.The task force now consists of three members of national parliaments, and three members of the Brussels-based Committee of the Regions.When the task force was announced last November, the president of the Committee of the Regions, a consultative body without binding powers, "warmly" welcomed the initiative.The EU's national parliaments, however, were more critical.At an event in Tallinn, members of national parliaments meeting in the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs (Cosac) adopted a declaration saying that they regretted that Juncker sent his invitation letter "at such a late stage" - seven weeks before the body would be set up.They also criticised that only three Cosac members were invited, and asked for three more."Cosac expresses its surprise at the size of the task force and the limited timeframe to present its work. National parliaments do not constitute a singular institution and the proposed number of representatives does not reflect proportionality," the conference said in its official conclusions.This request has apparently not been granted by the commission.-Pro-European task force? The commission has told the task force to meet at least once a month and produce a written report with recommendations before 15 July 2018.The six members of the task force are all members of parties from the political mainstream, which generally advocate further EU integration to various degrees.They are: committee of the regions members Karl-Heinz Lambertz (S&D), Michael Schneider (EPP) and Francois Decoster (Alde); Estonian parliament member Toomas Vitsut (Alde), Austrian parliament member Reinhold Lopatka (EPP), and Bulgarian parliament member Kristian Vigenin (PES)."The new subsidiarity and proportionality task force will help us to decide which powers can be better exercised at a national or local level, and respond to citizens expectations to take care of the concerns that really matter to them," said Juncker last week.
Pope: ‘Fake news’ is evil, like serpent in Garden of Eden-Francis compares purveyors of false information to snake's 'mimicry, that sly and dangerous form of seduction that worms its way into the heart with false and alluring arguments'-By Nicole Winfield-TOI-25 January 2018
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is denouncing “fake news” as evil and is urging journalists to make it their mission to search for the truth.After a week in which Francis faced unprecedented bad press during his South American tour, the pope released his annual social communications message on Wednesday, this year dedicated to “fake news and journalism for peace.”Francis writes that the first fake news dates from the biblical beginning of time, when Eve was tempted to take an apple from the Garden of Eden, based on disinformation from the serpent.“The strategy of this skilled ‘Father of Lies’ is precisely mimicry, that sly and dangerous form of seduction that worms its way into the heart with false and alluring arguments,” Francis said of the snake.In today’s fast-paced information age, he called for a shared commitment to rediscovering the “dignity of journalism,” and for reporters to speak the truth with a journalism that is “truthful and opposed to falsehoods, rhetorical slogans, and sensational headlines.”The message made no reference to how some public figures — most notably US President Donald Trump — often label unflattering or critical reports “fake news” to try to discredit the information.Francis has frequently railed about journalists, and before he became pope was known for his frosty relations with the Argentine media. Just this week, while chatting with reporters aboard the papal plane, he admitted he hated giving interviews and joked: “And look at the job God gave me now.”Since becoming pope, Francis has learned to use the media to get his message across, but he still frequently complains about what he considers one-sided reporting and what he has dubbed, the “sins of the media: disinformation, slander and defamation.”During his recent trip to Chile and Peru, Francis faced the worst protests of his five-year papacy, as well as the worst press. He went into the trip facing criticism for having appointed a bishop accused by victims of being complicit in covering up for Chile’s most notorious pedophile priest, and was then harshly criticized in the Chilean media for having accused those victims of “slander.”In his message, Francis gave an articulate explanation of “fake news” and why it is so effective and dangerous, saying it plays on stereotypes and prejudices, exploits anxieties and fears, and is spread via social media contacts, who often all have the same point of view.“The tragedy of disinformation is that it discredits others, presenting them as enemies, to the point of demonizing them and fomenting conflict,” he said.He praised educational efforts to make social media users aware, as well as legal and institutional efforts to unmask those who hide behind virtual walls to plant lies.“None of us can feel exempted from the duty of countering these falsehoods,” he said.Francis said that does not mean reporting only sentimental, “saccharine” reports that ignore conflict or problems, but merely reporting what is “truthful and opposed to falsehoods, rhetorical slogans, and sensational headlines.”
