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)
TRUMP GETS THE WORLD IN CHAOS WITH THE SANCTIONS AND CONTROL OF GAZA.
INVENTION OF THE ATOMIC BOMB.
2 PETER 3:10-11
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements (NUKES) shall melt with fervent heat,(BLAST) the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.(BUT ITS NO END OF THE WORLD HOGWASH)
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved,(BY NUKES INCLUDING 3 BILLION PEOPLE) what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL BE USED.
JESUS SHED HIS BLOOD FOR US THAT WE CAN BE SAVED FOREVER.AND DURING WW3 PEOPLES BLOOD WILL BE SHED AS A JUDGEMENT FOR HATING HIM AND ISRAEL.GOD IS NOT MOCKED.
ZEPHANIAH 1:2-3
2 I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD.
3 I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD.
PSALMS 97:3
3 A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about.
EZEKIEL 5:15-17
15 So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment unto the (ARAB/MUSLIM) nations that are round about thee,(ISRAEL) when I shall execute judgments in thee in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the LORD have spoken it.
16 When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:
17 So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts,(WHEN RUSSIA/MUSLIMS GET DEFEATED THIER BODIES GET EATEN BY BIRDS,ANIMALS IN ISRAEL MIGRATION SEASON) and they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee;(NUKES) and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the LORD have spoken it.
REVELATION 14:18-20
18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
20 And the winepress was trodden without the city,(JERUSALEM) and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.(200 MILES) (THE SIZE OF ISRAEL)
ISAIAH 66:15-18
15 For, behold, the LORD will come with fire,(NUKES) and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
17 They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD.
18 For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.
ISAIAH 26:21
21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity:(GOD/ISRAEL HATE AND BRAKING OF HIS COMMANDMENTS) the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.(WW3,1/2 earths population die - 3 BILLION).
ISAIAH 13:6-13 KJV
6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:(FROM FRIGHT)
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
ISAIAH 24:17-23 KJV
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.
2 TIMOTHY 3:1
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.
JOEL 2:3,30
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.
REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
REVELATION 9:18
18 By these three was the third part of men killed,(2 BILLION) by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(ATOMIC BOMBS)(RUSSIA CHINA DESTROYED BY ISRAELS ATOMIC BOMBS)
REVELATION 16:12-16
12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates;(WERE WW3 STARTS IN IRAQ OR SYRIA OR TURKEY) and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon,(SATAN) and out of the mouth of the beast,(WORLD DICTATOR) and out of the mouth of the false prophet.(FALSE POPE)
14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.(WERE 2 BILLION DIE FROM NUKE WAR)
15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
PROOF HALF ON EARTH DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD (8 BILLION ON EARTH)
REVELATION 6:7-8 (8 BILLION- 2 BILLION = 6 BILLION)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 BILLION) to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).
REVELATION 9:15,18 (6 BILLION - 2 BILLION = 4 BILLION)
15 And the four(DEMONIC WAR) angels were loosed,
18 By these three was the third part of men killed,(2 BILLION) by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMBS)
HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
LUKE 17:34-37 (8 TOTAL BILLION - 4 BILLION DEAD IN TRIB = 4 BILLION TO JESUS KINGDOM) (HALF DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD JUST LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS)(GOD DOES NOT LIE)(AND NOTICE MOST DIE IN WAR AND DISEASES-NOT COMETS-ASTEROIDS-QUAKES OR TSUNAMIS)
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other shall be left.(half earths population 4 billion die in the 7 yr trib)
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES.BECAUSE NOT HALF OF PEOPLE ON EARTH ARE CHRISTIANS.AND THE CONTEXT IN LUKE 17 IS THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION OR 7 YR TREATY PERIOD.WHICH IS JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH.NOT 50% RAPTURED TO HEAVEN.
MATTHEW 24:37-42 (THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-SURE NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
42 Watch therefore:(FOR THE LAST DAYS SIGNS HAPPENING) for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
NAHUM 3:13
13 Behold, your troops are women in your midst. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has devoured your bars.
Iranian supreme leader vows to respond in kind if US ‘acts on threats’ against Iran-Khamenei also suggests ‘there should be no negotiations’ with US after Trump floated the possibility, but stops short of issuing a direct order not to engage-By Agencies Today, 12:27 pm-FEB 7,25
Iran’s supreme leader said Friday that if the United States “threatens” Iran’s security, “we will threaten them in return,” adding that negotiations with America “are not intelligent, wise or honorable” after US President Donald Trump floated nuclear talks with Tehran.“The Americans sit, redrawing the map of the world — but only on paper, as it has no basis in reality,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said at an Iranian Air Force event in Tehran. “They make statements about us, express opinions and issue threats. If they threaten us, we will threaten them in return. If they act on their threats, we will act on ours. If they violate the security of our nation, we will, without a doubt, respond in kind.”Khamenei also suggested that “there should be no negotiations with such a government,” but stopped short of issuing a direct order not to engage with Washington.Khamenei’s remarks upend months of signals from Tehran to the United States that it wants to negotiate over its rapidly advancing nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of crushing economic sanctions worth billions of dollars.What happens next remains unclear, particularly as reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian campaigned on and promised as recently as Thursday to enter into a dialogue with the West.Khamenei’s remarks to air force officers in Tehran appeared to contradict his own earlier remarks in August that opened the door to talks. However, the 85-year-old Khamenei has always carefully threaded his remarks about negotiating with the West. That includes balancing the demands of reformists within the country who want the talks with those of hardline elements within Iran’s theocracy, including the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.Khamenei noted that Trump in his previous term unilaterally withdrew from an earlier nuclear deal under which Iran drastically limited its enrichment of uranium and overall stockpile of the material, in exchange for crushing sanctions being removed.“The Americans did not uphold their end of the deal,” Khamenei claimed. “The very person who is in office today tore up the agreement. He said he would, and he did.”He added: “This is an experience we must learn from. We negotiated, we gave concessions, we compromised — but we did not achieve the results we aimed for. And despite all its flaws, the other side ultimately violated and destroyed the agreement.”It’s not clear what sparked Khamenei’s remarks. However, they come after Trump suggested he wanted to deal with Tehran, even while signing an executive order to reimpose his “maximum pressure” approach to Iran on Tuesday.“I’m going to sign it, but hopefully we’re not going to have to use it very much,” Trump said from the Oval Office. “We will see whether or not we can arrange or work out a deal with Iran.”“We don’t want to be tough on Iran. We don’t want to be tough on anybody,” Trump added. “But they just can’t have a nuclear bomb.”Trump followed with another online message on Wednesday, saying: “Reports that the United States, working in conjunction with Israel, is going to blow Iran into smithereens, ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED.”“I would much prefer a Verified Nuclear Peace Agreement, which will let Iran peacefully grow and prosper,” he wrote on Truth Social. “We should start working on it immediately, and have a big Middle East Celebration when it is signed and completed.”Trump did not elaborate.Khamenei, like other Iranian leaders, uses elliptical comments to indirectly govern policy while not boxing himself into any one decision. As supreme leader, he’s also created a vast bureaucracy that competes with itself for influence, including with its civilian leadership under Pezeshkian.As recently as Thursday, Pezeshkian suggested Iran could open itself up to even more inspections from the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.During his previous term in office in 2018, Trump pulled the United States out of Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with world powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled the country’s economy.The harsh measures prompted Tehran to violate the pact’s nuclear limitations.A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday that Iran is ready to give the United States a chance to resolve disputes.
New footage said to capture airstrike that killed Hezbollah chief Nasrallah in bunker-CCTV clip shows eruption of debris after single strike, reportedly in vicinity of terror group’s underground headquarters, where IAF bunker-busting bombs killed him in September-By ToI Staff Today, 10:54 am-FEB 7,25
Previously unpublished footage circulating on Arabic media Thursday purported to show the Israeli airstrike on Beirut that killed longtime Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in the terror group’s underground headquarters last year.The video, whose September 27, late-evening timestamp matches the time Nasrallah was killed, was reportedly captured on a surveillance camera of a building near the Hezbollah bunker where he died. The location could not be verified.The soundless, minute-long video shows an unidentified man exiting a building and preparing to mount his motorcycle when a single strike tears up the street and the man sprints back inside for shelter.The earth visibly shakes as multiple blazes ignite on the street, and the cloud of smoke and dust slowly dissipates. One car appears to have had its trunk ripped open.Israel confirmed on September 28 that Nasrallah and other top commanders of the terror group were killed in a massive Israeli airstrike on their underground headquarters. Nasrallah was targeted by dozens of bunker-busting bombs dropped by Israeli Air Force fighter jets while he was at Hezbollah’s main headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold known as the Dahiyeh, the IDF said at the time.Hezbollah has not commented on the video, and Al-Mayadeen, Al-Nahar and Al-Akhbar — major news outlets affiliated with the terror group — do not appear to have reported on it. However, the video was carried by Quds News Network, which is affiliated with fellow Iran-backed group Hamas.Israel’s assassination of Nasrallah came at the height of the intense two-week bombing campaign that preceded its invasion of Lebanon, following over 11 months of persistent rocket fire by Hezbollah, which forced the displacement of some 60,000 residents of the north. — شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) February 6, 2025-In an interview broadcast on Channel 12 Thursday night, Yoav Gallant, the defense minister at the time, said he had ordered the IDF to double, from 40 to 80 tons, the ordnance used on Nasrallah, to achieve near-certainty that the strike would work.Nasrallah’s successor Naim Qassem announced Sunday that the terror group would hold a “grand funeral” for its slain chief in Beirut on February 23, five days after the IDF is set to withdraw from Lebanon under the its ceasefire agreement with the terror group.The November 27 agreement originally gave Israel 60 days, until January 26, to withdraw.The deadline was pushed back to February 18 amid Israel’s accusations that Hezbollah had failed to withdraw northward as required. On Thursday night, Israel said it had struck Hezbollah weapons caches that violated the ceasefire.Unprovoked, the terror group began attacking northern Israel on a near-daily basis on October 8, 2023 — a day after thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
Hours after Hamas invaded on Oct. 7, UK anti-Israel group began planning mass protest-As massacre was unfolding, Palestine Solidarity Campaign asked police in London to approve demo the following week; Campaign Against Antisemitism: PSC ‘rushed to activism while Jews were being slaughtered’By ToI Staff Today, 4:24 pm-FEB 7,25
Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel activists in the UK began organizing a large anti-Israel demonstration in central London even as the Hamas onslaught in southern Israel was unfolding, UK news outlets have reported, citing information revealed by the Freedom of Information Act.Soon after midday on October 7, 2023, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign sought and obtained police approval for a mass protest to be held a week later, the reports said on Thursday.A recent request for information from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) showed that the Palestine Solidarity Campaign called the police shortly after noon on October 7 — some eight hours after Hamas breached the Israel-Gaza border in multiple places, invaded Israel and began its slaughter — to inform the police of its intention to hold a demonstration against Israel the following Saturday, on October 14, 2023.At the time that the request was filed, the massacre was ongoing and the IDF was scrambling to regain control of the southern communities invaded by Hamas. Israel was still far from fully understanding the scale of the unfolding disaster. In total, some 1,200 people were killed that day, most of them civilians, and 251 were taken hostage and dragged back to the Gaza Strip.The police approved the October 14 demonstration, and it went ahead, as did other anti-Israel marches and protests elsewhere in the UK. Numerous anti-Israel demonstrations have been held in the UK since.“The Met was contacted on Saturday, Oct. 7 at approximately 12:50 p.m., via telephone call and informed of the intention to protest,” a police spokesperson said in response to the request for information, as cited by the Telegraph. “The Met committed this to our systems on the same day and are satisfied being contacted by telephone was a sufficient means in which to notify the MPS as the event was taking place seven days after notification.”Responding to the report, the Campaign Against Antisemitism told the Daily Mail that “this revelation ends the charade that the Palestine Solidarity Campaign is a peaceful advocacy group.”“For sixteen months, the Metropolitan Police has allowed regular anti-Israel marches by a group that rushed to activism while Jews were being slaughtered,” the group added.In a statement to the Telegraph, PSC defended its decision to begin organizing a protest on October 7, while the mass-murder of Israelis was in progress, claiming that “it was already clear” Israel would respond to the Hamas onslaught with “indiscriminate violence.”“It is entirely appropriate, therefore, that PSC would call for a protest that would seek an immediate ceasefire and call for the root causes of Israeli occupation and apartheid to be addressed,” a spokesman for the group said.He accused those opposed to the PSC’s actions on October 7 of attempting to “deflect attention from the crimes against humanity that Israel has committed.”Thousands of people rallied on October 14 in London and other UK cities, demanding “Freedom for Palestine” and denouncing Israel. In London, demonstrators massed near BBC News’ headquarters before an afternoon rally near then-prime minister Rishi Sunak’s Downing Street office and residence. There were clashes in Trafalgar Square when activists threw bottles, placards and flares at the police, according to the Daily Mail, and at least 15 people were arrested.
THIS IS AWESOME BENJAMIN NETANYAHU GIVES TRUMP A PAGER LIKE THE ONES THAT BLEW UP LIMBS AND DEATH AGAINST THE LEBANESE TERRORISTS A WHILE BACK.A REMINDER OF WHAT GOD BLESSES ISRAELI MINDS WITH AGAINST THE DEATH CULT ENEMIES.
Netanyahu gifted Trump a golden pager at White House meeting, PM’s office confirms-Referencing Israeli operation that decimated Hezbollah, PMO says gift ‘symbolizes the Prime Minister’s decision that led to a turning point in the war’By Lazar Berman and ToI Staff Today, 9:09 am-FEB 7,25
The Prime Minister’s Office on Thursday confirmed reports that Benjamin Netanyahu gave a golden pager as a gift to US President Donald Trump during their meeting at the White House on Tuesday, a reference to the clandestine operation that decimated the Hezbollah terror group.The gift “symbolizes the Prime Minister’s decision that led to a turning point in the war and the starting point for breaking the will of the terrorist organization Hezbollah,” Netanyahu’s office said.The operation “expresses the power, technological superiority and cunning of Israel against its enemies,” according to the PMO.The golden pager displayed text that read: “Press with both hands,” and was given to Trump on a trophy-style display with a placard saying: “To President Donald J. Trump, our greatest friend and greatest ally. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”“That was a great operation,” Trump responded, according to Channel 12 news.In return, Trump reportedly gave Netanyahu a photo of the two of them from the visit, with the dedication “To Bibi, a great leader.”On September 17, 2024, thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah across Lebanon suddenly exploded, killing dozens of operatives and maiming thousands, marking the beginning of Israel’s escalation against the terror group, after almost a year of persistent Hezbollah rocket fire that displaced some 60,000 residents of the north.The pagers, laced with explosives, were detonated via an encrypted message that required users to hold the devices with both hands, maximizing the likelihood of the subsequent blast causing debilitating injuries.A day later, hundreds of walkie-talkies also blew up, killing and injuring scores more.The attacks came as Israel began to step up a counter-offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah, which began striking Israel almost immediately after the allied Palestinian terror group Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack. The pager operation was immediately linked to Israel, which claimed responsibility in November 2024.The pager and radio attacks were the result of a highly sophisticated Israeli intelligence operation years in the making in which Hezbollah was fooled into purchasing the compromised devices.Israel invaded Lebanon 10 days after the targeted explosions, beginning with airstrikes in which most of Hezbollah’s leaders, including Nasrallah, were killed. By the end of November, a battered Hezbollah signed a ceasefire agreement with Israel.
IDF fighter jets hit Hezbollah weapons depots that Israel says violated ceasefire-Military confirms airstrikes in Nabatieh and Beqaa Valley areas late Thursday; separate strike reported by Lebanese media on Friday morning By Emanuel Fabian and ToI Staff Today, 10:46 am-FEB 7,25
The Israeli Air Force carried out strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on Thursday night, targeting weapons storage sites in the Nabatieh area and the Beqaa Valley.After Lebanese media reported the attacks, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed striking Lebanon, saying fighter jets hit a pair of sites where the Iran-backed terrorist group was storing weaponry in violation of the ceasefire reached in November.A statement from the IDF described the strikes as “targeted” and vows the military “will prevent any attempt by the Hezbollah terror organization to rearm, in accordance with the understandings of the ceasefire agreement.”Both Nabatieh and the Beqaa Valley areas are north of the Litani River, beyond which Hezbollah is required to withdraw under a ceasefire agreement.On Friday morning, Lebanese media outlets reported a fresh Israeli airstrike near the village of Tebna, south of Sidon. There was no immediate comment from the IDF.Lebanon’s government did not comment on the strikes.-Al-Akhbar (@AlakhbarNews)February 7, 2025-A fragile ceasefire has been in place since November 27, 2024, after more than a year of hostilities, including two months of all-out war.The conflict began with Hezbollah cross-border rocket and drone attacks on October 8, 2023, the day after the Palestinian terror group Hamas led thousands of terrorists in a devastating invasion of southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and triggering war in the Gaza Strip.The Iran-backed group said its attacks were to support Gaza. By the time the ceasefire came into effect, Israel had decimated Hezbollah’s leadership and depleted its fighting capabilities.Under the deal, Hezbollah must pull back north of the Litani — some 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Israel’s border — while Israel is entitled to strike threats it considers imminent, and forward less imminent threats to a monitoring committee comprising representatives of Lebanon, Israel, France, the United States and UNIFIL.Israeli soldiers on theUnder the truce deal, Lebanon’s military was to deploy in the south alongside UN peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdrew over 60 days.The withdrawal period for Israeli forces was delayed to February 18 after Jerusalem requested an extension from the original January 26 deadline. Israel said that it needed to stay longer because the Lebanese army had not deployed to all areas of southern Lebanon, as agreed.In addition to pulling back its forces north of the Litani River, Hezbollah is also committed to dismantling any remaining military infrastructure in the south.Israel’s military says its forces have continued to uncover and seize Hezbollah weapons in prohibited areas and that the Lebanese army is not keeping to its part of the deal.AFP contributed to this report.
Laments that ruling Likud party 'has strayed from its path'Gallant: ‘Israel’s greatest missed opportunity’ was not attacking Hezbollah in Oct. 2023-Fired defense minister accuses Netanyahu of being overly hesitant to use force in Gaza and Lebanon; also says Israel could have returned ‘more hostages, earlier, at a lower cost’By ToI Staff Today, 3:47 am-FEB 7,25
Ex-defense minister Yoav Gallant, in an interview aired Thursday, accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being overly hesitant to use military force against Hamas and Hezbollah, of undermining a viable hostage-ceasefire deal in May, and of failing to produce a political plan to capitalize on military successes in Gaza.In the interview — Gallant’s first with Israeli television since he was fired from his post by Netanyahu in November — the general-turned-lawmaker also addressed the failures of the government and military to prevent and respond to Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, which started the ongoing war.Gallant called for a state commission of inquiry into what happened and said he would cooperate fully and accept whatever it found with respect to his own failings.Among the first topics discussed in the interview with Channel 12 news was Gallant’s push behind the scenes to launch a major attack against the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon, on October 11, 2023, just four days after Hamas had launched its invasion from the Gaza Strip.The ex-defense minister called the government’s failure to heed his advice on that day “the State of Israel’s greatest missed opportunity, security-wise, since its founding.”“We knew that senior officials from Hezbollah were going to convene. We could have attacked from the sky and taken out [censored] heads of Hezbollah, and also Iranians, [Hezbollah chief Hassan] Nasrallah, all the rest. The entire top echelon of Hezbollah,” Gallant said.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) meets with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (C) and military chiefs at IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv for a security assessment on October 8, 2023. (GPO)-“Immediately after that, we could have carried out a plan of attack against the entire missile and rocket system, the way we did almost a year later, in September, and we would have gotten not just to 70 or 80 percent of them, but 90% or more, because a great portion of them were concentrated in storehouses,” he added.Hezbollah ‘would have ceased to exist’In addition, Gallant said, the “beeper operation” — in which thousands of Hezbollah pagers exploded, marking the start of Israel’s eventual offensive against the terror group some eleven months later — was “ready long before the war,” and could have been executed in concert with the strikes he advocated in October 2023.“Hezbollah as a military organization would have ceased to exist — no leadership, no missiles or rockets, most of its operatives killed in the field,” Gallant asserted.According to the ousted defense minister, when he presented the plan to Netanyahu, the prime minister insisted on discussing the proposal with the United States — at which point, Gallant said, he knew the attack would not come to pass.“In accordance with his request, I spoke with [US National Security Adviser] Jake Sullivan. After a few minutes, [Strategic Affairs Minister] Ron Dermer joined the conversation, and I received an absolute ‘no,'” Gallant recalled.“I went back to the prime minister, and I told him, ‘We have to do this.’ He pointed out the window at all the buildings, and told me: ‘You see these buildings? All of this will be destroyed, by Hezbollah’s leftover capacity. After we hit them, they’ll destroy everything you see,'” Gallant said.Netanyahu defended his decision to block Gallant’s October 11 proposal, telling the friendly Channel 14 network on Thursday that it would have been “a horrible mistake” to open a two-front war so soon after the Hamas attacks of October 7.The premier also claimed there were only around 150 booby-trapped beepers in Hezbollah hands in October 2023 “as opposed to thousands that we accumulated” in the ensuing months.That assertion drew a swift response from Gallant, who wrote on X that “the pager operation was prepared years before the war and was ready for activation on October 11.”“Contrary to what was said, thousands of pagers were in the hands of the terrorists by the time I suggested attacking Hezbollah,” Gallant said.He asserted that had the plan been activated in October 2023, the damage caused by the pagers would have been secondary to the damage caused by walkie-talkie devices that had also been rigged with explosives.While dozens of Hezbollah operatives were killed and thousands more were wounded in the September 16-17 pager and walkie-talkie attacks, far more were put out of commission by the pager blasts than by the walkie-talkies.The reason for this, Gallant said, was because by September 2024, “the vast majority of walkie-talkies were in warehouses, and their explosion caused no damage.” Speaking with Channel 12, Gallant said the devices were being inspected after raising the suspicions of Hezbollah.In the interview, Gallant also discussed the strike that killed Nasrallah , recalling how he and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi phoned Netanyahu — who was visiting the United States — to get permission for the attack. After giving them the green light, Netanyahu asked that they wait until after he delivered his speech to the UN General Assembly, Gallant recalled.“Eighty-four tons of bombs fell… and Nasrallah passed from this world.”Gaza ground invasion-According to Gallant, Netanyahu was not only overly hesitant to attack Hezbollah early in the war — he was even reluctant to send ground troops into Gaza, again issuing grim predictions about the cost, that did not pan out.“Before the ground operation, the prime minister told me there would be thousands [of soldiers] killed in Gaza. I told him, there won’t be thousands killed — and beyond that, what do we have an army for? If after they kill a thousand of our citizens and kidnap them and kill women and children and elderly people, we won’t carry it out?”“And then came the reasoning: ‘They’ll use the hostages as human targets,'” Gallant recalled.“I told him, we and Hamas, those human animals, have only one thing in common: We both want to protect the hostages,” Gallant said, explaining that Hamas needed the hostages alive to use them as a tool against Israel.“It was a struggle,” Gallant said again, of the effort to convince the government to launch a ground operation. “This whole thing took time — in the end, the IDF chief of staff and I, we came to this decision,” he said.Hostage deal and ‘day after’ in Gaza-Asked whether he believes the government did all that it could to return those abducted on October 7 and held hostage in Gaza, the ex-defense chief said, “I don’t think so.”“We could have brought [home] more hostages, earlier, and at a lower cost. The proposal in early July, that Hamas agreed to, is identical to the deal now, just [the current one] is worse in several ways,” Gallant said.“There are fewer hostages alive, I’m sorry to say, more time has gone by, and we’re paying a heavier price — because there are at least 110 more murderers who will be released in this process.”Asked who he thinks is to blame for the July deal failing, Gallant told the following story, from the end of April:“In the war cabinet, we made a unanimous decision to move toward a deal, during which we would withdraw from the Netzarim Corridor, and there were different keys for how many hostages would be released in exchange for how many prisoners.“In the evening, there was a cabinet discussion, and in walked Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who didn’t know — or wasn’t supposed to know — about the plan, and he said: ‘There’s a plan to return 18 hostages in exchange for withdrawing from Netzarim,’ and he said he would oppose it and leave the government,” Gallant recalled.“I don’t know [who told him]. I didn’t tell him. We said in the security establishment — we needed to bring [home] 33 hostages, and the minimum number was 18. The number that went out, several hours later, to the media, was 18.Channel 12 reported late last year that Netanyahu’s office was behind the leak to Smotrich.“It took a few days for Hamas to understand what was happening from the Israeli media, and they said, we’re backing out of the deal — and, in practice, the whole thing fell apart. And it only came back at the end of May, through the president’s speech.”Asked if it was pressure by Trump that led to Netanyahu’s finally accepting the deal, in its worse form, this time around, Gallant responded:“Netanyahu takes Trump into consideration more than he does [Itamar] Ben Gvir,” he said, referring to the far-right leader whose Otzma Yehudit party quit the government to protest the ceasefire agreement that took effect January 19. “That wasn’t true of [US president] Biden. That’s the whole story.”Asked why his recollection of how Netanyahu torpedoed hostage negotiations doesn’t line up with that of the Biden administration, which repeatedly blamed Hamas as the lone obstacle, Gallant suggested that the Biden administration became influenced by domestic political considerations, which would not have judged kindly a president blaming Israel over Hamas ahead of a presidential election.“I heard the Americans throughout the entire war. Something changed sometime around August when the US [entered] election [season],” he said.Pressed as to why Biden officials haven’t changed their tune now that the election is over, Galant responded, “People are invested in their legacies.”Gallant also — not for the first time — accused the government of failing to capitalize on military gains in Gaza by refusing to execute a plan to replace Hamas as a governing force in the Strip.“For a year… I said ‘build an alternative.’ The prime minister, even though they attacked me, agreed to this,” said Gallant. “But what was needed wasn’t done.”Gallant strongly objected to the prospect of Israeli military rule in Gaza “to fulfill the dreams of people that are disconnected from reality, of establishing settlements in the heart of Gaza.”“The results will be disastrous,” he warned.Likud ‘has strayed from its path’Other topics raised in the interview included Gallant’s future in the ruling Likud party and the efforts to advance legislation to cement into law the exemptions from mandatory military service enjoyed by ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.“The issue of Haredi enlistment is a clear example of where the Likud faction has strayed from its path,” he said, while tearing into the party’s backbenchers for “thinking they can outflank [Itamar] Ben Gvir on the right.”He also lamented attacks by Knesset members on the heads of the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet.“Likud must continue to lead and the State of Israel needs Likud, and we’ll fix these things,” he added.Despite his firing by Netanyahu and subsequent decision to resign as a MK, Gallant was adamant he would remain in Likud. Asked whether he could remain as a viable political figure after the failures of October 7, Gallant said “The public will decide, preferably after it hears [from] a state commission of inquiry who is responsible and why.”
WAY TO GO TRUMP.THIS IS THE FIRST STEP IN DISINTAGRATING THE ISRAEL HATER USELESS UNITED NATIONS.ONCE AND FOR ALL.ALLSO.
Trump signs order sanctioning ICC over Israel arrest warrants, probe of US soldiers-Court officials and their families to face financial and travel restrictions, as US president decries The Hague’s ‘illegitimate and baseless actions’ against America and Israel By Agencies and ToI Staff Today, 2:03 am-FEB 7,25
US President Donald Trump on Thursday authorized economic and travel sanctions targeting people who work on International Criminal Court investigations of US citizens or US allies such as Israel, repeating action he took during his first term.The move coincides with a visit to Washington by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who along with his former defense minister is wanted by the ICC over the Gaza war started by the Hamas-led terror onslaught on October 7, 2023. The court also issued arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders, all of whom have since been killed, but has so far only rescinded the warrants for two of them.Trump’s order said the court in The Hague had “abused its power” by issuing the arrest warrant for Netanyahu, who was hosted at the White House on Tuesday. The order also said the tribunal had engaged in “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America,” referring to ICC probes into alleged war crimes by US service members in Afghanistan, “and our close ally Israel.”It was unclear how quickly the US would announce the names of people sanctioned. During the first Trump administration in 2020, Washington imposed sanctions on then-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and one of her top aides over the ICC’s investigation into American troops in Afghanistan. President Joe Biden lifted the sanctions soon after taking office in 2021.The ICC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday’s executive order. The sanctions include freezing any US assets of those designated and barring them and their families from visiting the United States.The 125-member ICC is a permanent court that can prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression against the territory of member states or by their nationals. Neither Israel nor the United States are members of the court.Trump signed the executive order after US Senate Democrats last week blocked a Republican-led effort to pass legislation setting up a sanctions regime targeting the court.The court has taken measures to shield staff from possible US sanctions, paying salaries three months in advance, as it braced for financial restrictions that could cripple the war crimes tribunal, sources told Reuters last month.In December, the court’s president, Judge Tomoko Akane, warned that sanctions would “rapidly undermine the court’s operations in all situations and cases, and jeopardize its very existence.”
Countries vow ‘unwavering’ support for ICC as Trump hits it with sanctions-79 signatories to letter argue court ‘serves as a vital pillar of the international justice system by ensuring accountability for the most serious international crimes’By Reuters and ToI Staff Today, 8:06 pm-FEB 7,25
NEW YORK/AMSTERDAM — Dozens of countries expressed their “unwavering support” for the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday, a day after US President Donald Trump authorized potentially far-reaching economic and travel sanctions against the court’s staff.“We reaffirm our continued and unwavering support for the independence, impartiality and integrity of the ICC,” a group of almost 80 countries said in a joint statement.“The court serves as a vital pillar of the international justice system by ensuring accountability for the most serious international crimes, and justice for victims.”The 79 signatories came from all parts of the world, but make up only about two-thirds of the 125 member states of the permanent court for the prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and crimes of aggression.Among the countries who agreed to the statement were France, Germany and Britain. Among those absent were Australia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Italy.Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had earlier on Friday made it clear he supported Trump’s move, which coincided with a visit to Washington by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the ICC over the war in Gaza.Trump’s sanctions target people who work on ICC investigations of US citizens or US allies, such as Israel.“It’s time for Hungary to review what we’re doing in an international organization that is under US sanctions! New winds are blowing in international politics. We call it the Trump-tornado,” Orban said on X.The Czech and Italian governments had no immediate comment on why they had not signed the declaration.The court’s host nation, the Netherlands, said it regretted the sanctions and would continue to support the ICC’s work.“We don’t know the exact impact yet, but it could make the court’s work very hard and possibly impossible in certain areas,” Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof told reporters.“We will do all we can to make sure the court can fulfill its tasks,” he said, adding he had not talked to Trump about the sanctions yet.German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other EU leaders said Trump was wrong to impose sanctions on the ICC.“Sanctions are the wrong tool,” said Scholz. “They jeopardize an institution that is supposed to ensure that the dictators of this world cannot simply persecute people and start wars, and that is very important.”The ICC itself condemned the sanctions and said it “stands firmly by its personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world, in all situations before it.”Court officials convened meetings in The Hague on Friday to discuss the implications of the sanctions, a source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.The US sanctions include freezing any US assets of those designated and barring them and their families from visiting the United States.It was unclear how quickly the US would announce names of people sanctioned. During the first Trump administration in 2020, Washington imposed sanctions on then-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and one of her top aides over the ICC’s investigation into alleged war crimes by American troops in Afghanistan.The United States, China, Russia and Israel are not members of the ICC.Trump signed the executive order after US Senate Democrats last week blocked a Republican-led effort to pass legislation setting up a sanctions regime targeting the war crimes court.The court has taken measures to shield staff from possible US sanctions, paying salaries three months in advance, as it braced for financial restrictions that could cripple the war crimes tribunal, sources told Reuters last month.In December, the court’s president, Judge Tomoko Akane, warned that sanctions would “rapidly undermine the court’s operations in all situations and cases, and jeopardize its very existenceץ”Russia has also taken aim at the court. In 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. Russia has banned entry to ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan and placed him and two ICC judges on its wanted list.Last year the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant over Israel’s war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza.The ICC’s charges allege that Netanyahu and Gallant committed the war crimes of directing attacks against the civilian population of Gaza and of using starvation as a method of warfare by hindering the supply of international aid to Gaza.Israel has strongly rejected the substance of the allegations, noting that it has funneled massive amounts of humanitarian aid through the crossings along the Gaza border, and blaming distribution issues inside the Strip in cases of failure to reach the civilian population. Israel has also rejected allegations that it targets civilians, noting efforts to avoid civilian casualties despite Hamas’s systematic use of human shields.The ICC is a permanent court that can prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression of the territory of member states or by their nationals.The court has said its decision to pursue warrants for the Israeli officials was in line with its approach in all cases, based on an assessment by the prosecutor that there was enough evidence to proceed, and the view that seeking arrest warrants immediately could prevent ongoing crimes.
Hostage's brother: Feels like 2nd phase is 'disintegrating'Three more hostages due to be freed on Saturday amid uncertainty over deal’s future-Hamas supposed to say Friday which captives it will release; Jerusalem reportedly dispatching negotiators to Doha over weekend for talks on rest of 1st phase, but not 2nd stage-By ToI Staff Today, 1:16 am-FEB 7,25
Hamas is expected to release a fifth batch of Israeli captives on Saturday as part of the hostage release and ceasefire deal, as US President Donald Trump’s controversial proposal to relocate Palestinians from Gaza fueled further uncertainty on whether the multiphase agreement will hold up.A list of the three hostages to be released is expected in Israel by 4 p.m. on Friday.According to Channel 12 news, Israel is pressuring mediators to secure the release of Shiri Bibas and her young sons, Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 2. Hamas was to release living women and children first under the deal, and Israel has said it has “grave concern” for their lives. The father, Yarden Bibas, was released last Saturday.A Hamas official cited by the network said the terror group would see how Trump’s plan to “take over” the Gaza Strip progresses before deciding on the fate of the deal. According to the network, the terror group is unlikely to thwart the rest of the first phase, including Saturday’s expected hostage release.On Thursday, the government approved a list of Palestinian prisoners to be released in return for the hostages. Three prisoners were removed from the list at the last minute, including Mahmoud Atallah, a terror convict accused of raping a prison guard, who was replaced with an identically named security prisoner, according to the Israel Hayom newspaper.In total, Israel has said it would release up to 1,904 Palestinian prisoners — including 737 serving life terms for dozens of murders — in return for 33 Israeli hostages during the deal’s first phase.So far, 13 Israelis have been released, along with five Thai hostages freed outside the framework of the deal.Though talks for the second phase were supposed to commence Monday, Netanyahu has pushed off sending a negotiating team, reportedly until he returns from Washington next week.A working-level negotiating team, led by the outgoing Shin Bet deputy director — known by his Hebrew initial “Mem” — is expected in Doha over the weekend, but is empowered to discuss only the first phase, not the second, according to Channel 12. Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s spokesman denied reports that the premier presented in Washington a plan to end the fighting in Gaza — a sine qua non for the second stage, but a red line for the right flank of Netanyahu’s coalition.The delay in talks on the second phase has deeply worried the families of male hostages who are not set to be released until phases two and three.Moshe Or, brother of hostage Avinatan Or, told Channel 12 that “there is a feeling that the second phase is disintegrating. [People are] starting to talk about all sorts of other things, flattening Gaza, moving the Palestinians… In our view it’s unacceptable and scary that [they’re] starting to talk that way and forget about [the hostages].”Avinatan marked his 32nd birthday on Thursday. His girlfirend Noa Argamani, who was rescued from Hamas captivity in June, wrote on Instagram that she was “doing everything to get you back, to get to the second phase of the deal so you’re not left behind.”Argamani herself is currently in Washington with a delegation of hostage families determined to ensure that the deal proceeds to its second phase.On Thursday, Trump honored her in a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, saying she “showed unwavering strength and courage and faith as she endured the unendurable.”“By the grace of God, she was rescued by the Israel Defense Forces and now she’s come back to pray with us this morning,” said Trump.“As president, I will not rest until every remaining hostage has been returned to their families,” he vowed.According to Channel 12, Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel introduced Argamani and other hostages at the event to Massad Boulos, Trump’s Middle East envoy and the father-in-law of Tiffany Trump, the US president’s daughter.Boulos was said to have reiterated to the hostage delegation the Trump administration’s commitment to bringing the captives home, and tell them he planned to visit Israel in the coming months.Hamas took 251 hostages on October 7, 2023, when thousands of terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.Seventy-six of the hostages abducted on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.Hamas has so far released 18 hostages — civilians, soldiers, and Thai nationals — during the ceasefire that began in January.The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, was recovered from Gaza in January.
Australia investigating potential foreign influence amid wave of antisemitic attacks-Twelve people arrested by counterterror task force don’t share antisemitic ideology expressed in their crimes, cops say, as Australia passes new, bipartisan hate crime laws By AP and ToI Staff 6 February 2025, 10:18 pm
A wave of antisemitic attacks has roiled Australia, with a dozen arrests for vandalizing or setting homes, schools, and synagogues on fire since October and hundreds more charged in just over a year with crimes targeting Jews.The attacks in areas where Jewish people live have provoked an outpouring of condemnation — and a fraught and complicated debate about who’s to blame. But in a rare moment of unity, Australia’s federal lawmakers on Thursday advanced hate crime laws almost unanimously.“We want people who are engaged in antisemitic activities to be caught, to be charged and to be put in the clink,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters.“This is a time of national crisis,” opposition leader Peter Dutton said.Jewish organizations and hate researchers have recorded drastic spikes in hate-fueled incidents against Jews since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel — when some 3,000 terrorists invaded the Jewish state, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages — that triggered the subsequent war in the Gaza Strip.Antisemitic episodes in the two biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne — home to 85% of Australia’s Jewish population — have drawn the highest profile because they are severe, unusual and public.
Since November they’ve included:
A trailer filled with explosives used in the mining industry and a list of Jewish targets discovered on Sydney’s outskirts;
Firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue, with one person hurt. Defacement of another with Nazi symbols and pro-Palestine graffiti;
A Jewish childcare center set on fire;
Jewish schools in Sydney and Melbourne daubed with white supremacist graffiti;
Three Jewish businesses torched;
The former home of a prominent Jewish leader sprayed with graffiti;
Cars defaced and windows smashed in areas where Jews live.
Counter-terrorism officials have arrested 12 people in connection with those crimes. Nearly 200 more have been charged since October 2023 in the state of New South Wales – where Sydney is located – with crimes linked to antisemitism, police say.Who’s committing the crimes? Investigators are examining whether criminals for hire were paid by foreign actors to carry out the recent attacks, leaders of the task force said in January. They did not specify what foreign interests they believed were responsible.Days later, officials said the 12 arrested by the task force don’t share the antisemitic ideology expressed by their crimes, underscoring suggestions that the acts were orchestrated abroad.The revelations were strange — but not unprecedented, analysts said.“It’s not completely new, the connection between ideological groups and criminal groups,” said Matteo Vergani, a researcher of hate and extremism with Deakin University. “What’s new is that it usually happens in relation to larger scale terrorist attacks. So that is surprising.”What’s behind the rise? Lawmakers in speeches this week said the October 7 attacks by Hamas provoked an outburst of antisemitism at levels Australia had not registered before.In tense public debates echoing those in the United States and elsewhere, right-leaning lawmakers and some Jewish leaders — among them Peter Wertheim from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry — have accused pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel demonstrators, particularly “progressives” and university students, he said, of fueling the crimes.Demonstrators use opposition to Israel to target Jews and give antisemitism “a new social license,” he said.What’s the government’s response? Albanese’s center-left government on Thursday approved measures in the House of Representatives that will create new and bolstered hate crime offenses protecting a raft of characteristics, including race, religion and gender.Amendments from the opposition include the imposition of mandatory prison terms for terrorism offenses — which the prime minister had rejected before —- and for displaying hate symbols.The bill passed 117 votes to 13. It’s expected the Senate will pass it into law.
Other initiatives since last January include:
Imposing sanctions on Terrorgram, an online white supremacist terrorism financing network;
Criminalizing Nazi salutes;
Making doxing — the sharing of personal information online — illegal after a list of Australian Jews was published on the internet in 2024;
Appointing national envoys to address Islamophobia and antisemitism;
Some states have passed their own laws; New South Wales also revealed proposed hate crime measures Thursday.
What’s different in Australia? By all measures, anti-Jewish hate has spiked across the US, Europe and the United Kingdom since the October 2023 Hamas attack — even though many leaders have denounced the surge — prompting tens of thousands of Jews to leave Europe, according to some figures.However, Australia’s situation had distinctive factors, analysts said. One was the claim that the primary agitators could be based abroad.Another was the shock of such hate in a country far from the Middle East where a small community of Jews — fewer than 120,000 people, or about 0.5% of the population — has lived relatively peacefully, said Wertheim.Australia’s restrictive gun laws might have led the perpetrators to commit vandalism crimes, Vergani said. Semiautomatic rifles were outlawed in Australia after a gun massacre in 1996.But the episodes have also driven a fraught political climate ahead of a national election due by May 17.Why are politicians debating it? Antisemitic attacks have led national news and prompted daily questions for Albanese — and claims of inaction from his main political opponent, conservative Liberal party leader Dutton.Meanwhile, Dutton’s detractors have lambasted him for politicizing the crimes — a charge he has rejected — and for urging a freeze on visas for Palestinians fleeing the war.Vergani said Jewish people tell him they have not experienced such hatred in Australia before.“They’ve never in their lives had this continuous feeling that something bigger could happen,” he said.
First new US sanctions under Trump target network delivering Iranian oil to China-Measures against alleged front company for Iranian military come after Trump signs order resuming ‘maximum pressure’ campaign, aimed at ‘driving Iran’s oil exports to zero’By AFP 6 February 2025, 8:23 pm
WASHINGTON — The US Treasury announced financial sanctions on Thursday, the first under the new administration of Donald Trump, that target an “international network” accused of shipping Iranian oil to China to fund Tehran’s military activities.The sanctions target the network for “facilitating the shipment of millions of barrels of Iranian crude oil worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the People’s Republic of China,” the Treasury Department wrote in a statement.The oil was shipped on behalf of Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff and a sanctioned front company called Sepehr Energy Jahan Nama Pars, the Treasury statement noted.“The Iranian regime remains focused on leveraging its oil revenues to fund the development of its nuclear program, to produce its deadly ballistic missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles, and to support its regional terrorist proxy groups,” said US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.“The United States is committed to aggressively targeting any attempt by Iran to secure funding for these malign activities,” he added.The Treasury’s actions follow US President Trump’s recent decision to reinstate his so-called maximum pressure campaign against Iran over allegations that it is trying to develop nuclear weapons.Trump signed a memorandum on Tuesday reimposing the tough policy of sanctions against Iran, similar to those he levied during his first term, adding he hoped he would not “have to use it very much.”The memorandum instructs every department in the US government to design sanctions on Iran, especially in relation to nuclear activities, a White House aide told Trump at the signing ceremony.It also directs the Treasury and State Department to implement a campaign aimed at “driving Iran’s oil exports to zero.”Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
As religious immigration rises, OU expands presence in Israel, investing in integration-After 47 years in Israel, one of North America’s largest Orthodox institutions switches strategy to operate in neighborhood hubs, reflecting changing community trends-By Zev Stub 6 February 2025, 4:38 pm
When it moved its office from central Jerusalem to a larger facility in the Har Hotzvim Hi-Tech Park this week, one of North America’s largest Orthodox institutions cemented a strategic decision to invest more in its Israeli operations, reflecting changing perceptions about the relationship between religious communities in Israel and the Diaspora.The Orthodox Union has had a presence in Israel for 47 years. Now, however, its management is investing more resources in developing the organization’s programs for new North American immigrants to Israel and expanding its services for English-speaking communities living there.“It is very clear that the OU in America is now seeing the centrality of the State of Israel in its future,” said OU Israel president Stuart Hershkowitz. “I have been told very clearly that the focus will now be much more on Israel, and our budgets here have gone up substantially.”Hershkowitz said the organization will focus more on integrating new immigrants to Israel through an innovative decentralized model with hubs in different neighborhoods that will allow it to better connect with local communities.“For many years, we expected people to come to us for programs and services,” Hershkowitz said. “Now, the plan is for us to go out to them.”Increasing integrationThe goal of the new klita (immigrant integration) initiative, as Hershkowitz calls it, is to provide more of the types of community infrastructure that will help English-speaking religious immigrants feel at home in Israel.Immigration numbers from North America have risen continuously in recent years, even after the Hamas-led terror onslaught of October 7, 2023, with some 4,000 people moving to Israel in 2024 alone. Some 65% of families moving from the US identify as Orthodox, according to data from Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organization that helps North Americans navigate the bureaucracy of immigration.“As more and more English speakers [move to Israel] at different stages of their lives, the OU is trying to address their needs to help them thrive culturally, spiritually, and religiously,” said OU Israel director of marketing Laya Bejell.“People go through significant lifestyle changes when they move to Israel,” Bejell said. “Many people tell us that in America, they had social lives built around their synagogues and community centers, while that dynamic doesn’t work the same way here. So we’re trying to create those communities here.”These include weekly Torah classes in synagogues in the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Rehavia, Baka, Arnona, Ramot and others, as well as in the towns of Modiin and Ma’ale Adumim. More communities around the country will be added in the future, Hershkowitz said.Women’s programming in Rehavia on Monday nights also attracts large crowds, partially because it addresses an audience typically underserved by other organizations, the OU noted.These are in addition to a variety of social programs the OU has in place, including Yachad Israel for individuals with disabilities, JLIC Israel (Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus) for students on 10 university campuses, and the NCSY Israel (formerly known abroad as the National Conference of Synagogue Youth) youth movement.Other activities run by OU Israel include youth initiatives, charities, volunteer programs, continuing education classes for women and retirees, summer camps, tours, and event.“We already have centers working with youth in 19 cities around Israel,” Hershkowitz said. “Now, we are looking to add more services that aren’t being provided by other aliyah [immigration] organizations,” such as Nefesh B’Nefesh, AACI (Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel), Yad L’Olim, and others.Growing in Israel-The shift has come gradually for the OU, which has been one of the most powerful organizations in the Jewish world since it was founded in 1898 to certify kosher foods in the United States.The OU opened its first office in Israel on Jerusalem’s Strauss Street in the late 1970s to serve primarily as a place where NCSY students and alumni could gather or meet with visiting rabbis, explained Rabbi Sam Shor, director of Torah initiatives for OU Israel. In 1999, as the center added Torah classes and became a hub for Jerusalem’s then-small English-speaking community, it moved to a more central location in the Rehavia neighborhood, where it remained for the next 25 years.Meanwhile, OU’s footprint in the community expanded with the popularity of its Torah Tidbits publication. Distributed every week in synagogues around the country, the parsha, or weekly Torah portion, sheet (with weekly columns and listings of OU classes, along with copious advertisements) has become essential reading for religious English-speaking families, and is now read by more than three million people a year, according to the OU.“Torah Tidbits is a staple read by people in virtually all synagogues and communities that have religious Anglos in Israel,” said Max Rabin, a programmer who attended an event on Sunday to mark the OU’s move to Har Hotzvim. “No matter how many copies they distribute, they always disappear by the end of Shabbat.”OU’s success in Israel is also largely attributable to Rabbi Avi Berman, the powerhouse executive director it brought on in 2006 who is seen as the organization’s energizing force.Meanwhile, a partnership with the Jerusalem municipality helps keep many of the OU’s programs going.“One of the first things I did when I came into office at city council 11 years ago was to contact the OU, because I saw that they would be our best partners to help us not only bring immigrants to Jerusalem but to help keep them here,” said Jerusalem deputy mayor Arieh King. “Now, the city works closely with them to implement different social and cultural programs for the English-speaking population, and the municipality has a special budget set aside for OU projects. It’s a very fruitful partnership for both sides.”Perhaps as a result of its municipality partnership, OU Israel has recently catapulted to greater public awareness. Thousands attended a massive public prayer service put on for Israel Independence Day in Jerusalem’s Liberty Bell Park last May, and High Holiday learning conferences in different cities attracted hundreds of participants in October, Shor said.Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, center, at a celebration of the OU’s new office in Har Hotzvim, February 2, 2025 (Shmuel Ungar)While other immigrants tend to merge more into broader society the longer they remain in the country, many English-speaking immigrants prefer to associate with their own kind long after they have made the move to Israel, Shor posited.“When my wife and I moved to our neighborhood seven years ago, neighbors quickly started approaching me with rabbinical questions,” Shor recalled. “Why? The community had a rabbi of 38 years, but he didn’t speak a word of English, and 60% of the congregants were immigrants, so no one ever asked him a question. All of a sudden, within a few weeks of being there, I started getting dozens of questions.”“That’s the reason we need to go out into the communities,” Shor said. “To cultivate a support network that empowers immigrants to thrive here in Israel.”
DANIEL 2:37-45
37 Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.
38 And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.
39 And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.
40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.
41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.
42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.
DANIEL 7:17-26
17 These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.
18 But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.
19 Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet;
20 And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows.
21 I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;
22 Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.
25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
26 But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.
THE WORLD IN 10 WORLD TRADE BLOCS LEAD BY THE EUROPEAN UNION THE WORLD LEADER, NOT AMERICA.I PREDICT.
THE EUROPEAN UNION AND REVIVED ROMAN WORLD GOVERNMENT
DANIEL 2:31-33,36-43, DAN 7:3-8,17
First From Daniel Chapter 2
1 EGYPT
2 ASSYRIA
3 BABYLON (HEAD OF GOLD) DAN 2:31-32,36-38, DAN 1:1
4 MEDO-PERSIANS (CHEST & ARMS OF SILVER) DAN 2:32,39, DAN 9:1
5 GREECE (WAIST & HIPS OF BRONZE) DAN 2:32,39, DAN 11:2
6 ROME (2 LEGS OF IRON) DAN 2:33,40, ROM 1:6
7 REVIVED ROME (EU) (FEET IRON & CLAY) DAN 2:33,41-43,10 TOES
Now From Daniel Chapter 7
1 EGYPT
2 ASSYRIA
3 BABYLON (LION WITH EAGLES WINGS) DAN 7:4, DAN 1:1
4 MEDO-PERSIANS (BEAR ON HIND LEGS) DAN 7:5, DAN 9:1
5 GREECE (LEOPARD 4 WINGS, 4 HEADS) DAN 7:6, DAN 11:2
6 ROME (HUGE IRON TEETH) DAN 7:7 (10 HORNS), ROM 1:6
7 REVIVED ROME (EU) DAN 7:8,19-20,23-25 10 HORNS, 10 KINGS
REV 17:9,12, 10 HORNS, 10 KINGS, 7 HILLS ROME. REV 13:1 BEAST WITH 7 HEADS. THE E.U LEADER OF WORLD GOVERNMENT DAN 2:40-45, 7:7-8,23-25,27, 8:23, REV 13:3,7,8,12,14,16
REVELATION 17:10-12
10 And there are seven kings (7TH WORLD EMPIRE IN HISTORY) five are fallen, (EGYPT, ASSYRIA, BABYLON,:MEDO-PERSIAN,GREECE and one is,(IN POWER IN JOHNS DAY-ROME) and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh,(FUTURE-REVIVED ROMAN EMPIRE-EUROPEAN UNION TODAY) he must continue a short space.(7 YEARS OF WORLD DOMINATION-BUT 3 1/2 YEARS OF NEW WORLD ORDER OR ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT)
12 And the ten horns (10 WORLD TRADE BLOCS OR REGIONS) which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
REVELATION 17:12-13
12 And the ten horns (10 WORLD TRADE BLOCS-NATIONS) which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
13 These have one mind,(WORLD SOCIALISM) and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
We shall have World Government, whether or not we like it. The only question is whether World Government will be achieved by conquest or consent.James Paul Warburg appearing before the Senate on 7th February 1950
Like a famous WWII Belgian General,Paul Henry Spock said in 1957:We need no commission, we have already too many. What we need is a man who is great enough to be able to keep all the people in subjection to himself and to lift us out of the economic bog into which we threaten to sink. Send us such a man. Be he a god or a devil, we will accept him.And today, sadly, the world is indeed ready for such a man.
DICK MORRIS-This truly creates a global economic system. From now on, don’t look to Washington for the rule making, look to Brussels.
THE CLUB OF ROME FOUNDER AURELIO PECCEI WANTS THE WORLD IN 10 REGIONAL TRADING BLOCKS
HERES WHAT THE WORLD WOULD LOOK LIKE (SINCE THERE WILL BE WORLD GOVERNMENT IN THE FUTURE)-UPDATED VERSION
01 CANADA, U.S.A, MEXICO
02 EUROPEAN UNION,WESTERN EUROPE
03 JAPAN
04 AUSTRALIA,NEW ZEALAND, S AFRICA, ISRAEL AND PACIFIC ISLANDS
05 EASTERN EUROPE
06 SOUTHERN, CENTRAL AND LATIN AMERICAS
07 NORTH AFRICA, AND MIDEAST (MOSLEMS)
08 CENTRAL AFRICA
09 SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA
10 CENTRAL ASIA
THE CLUB OF ROME WANTS A WORLD CHARISMATIC DICTATOR (EITHER RELIGIOUS, POLITICAL OR SCIENTIFICAL) TO HEAD THIS WORLD GOVERNMENT. REV 13:3,7-8, DAN 7:23-24
WORLD POWERS IN THE END TIME
NORTH - RUSSIA EZEK 38:1-2, 39:1-2
SOUTH - EGYPT DAN 11:42
EAST - CHINA DAN 11:44,REV 16:12
WEST - EUROPEAN UNION DAN 7:23-24 (NOT THE U.S.A)
http://israel7777777.blogspot.ca/2012/03/10-world-trade-blocs-one-world.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2006/09/how-eu-takes-world-control.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2012/05/one-world-religion-crislam.html
I NOTICE SINCE DONALD JOHN TRUMP MENTIONED THE TARIFFS.CANADA IS NOW TALKING ABOUT ALL OF CANADA TRADING WITH EACH OTHER TO KEEP IT CANADIAN FOR THE CITIZENS.THIS MIGHT BE HOW THE 10 WORLD TRADING BLOCS COME TOGETHER.ALL THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD TRADING INSIDE THEIR COUNTRIES. THEN PUT IN THESE 10 WORLD TRADE BLOCS.YOUR COUNTRY THEN CAN TRADE WITH COUNTRIES IN YOUR TRADE BLOCS. AND ALLSO WITH ANY OTHER TRADE BLOC.THE EUROPEAN UNION WILL LEAD THIS WORLD ECONOMY OF TRADING BLOCS.AND THE WORLD HAS THE TRADE BLOCS PRETTY WELL SET UP ALREADY.
BREAKING NEWS WHILE I'M GETTING MY STORIES-DADDYS LITTLE BOY THE INTERIM PM OF CANADA JUSTIN TRUDEAU WAS CAUGHT ON AN OPEN MIKE TELLING PEOPLE. DONALD TRUMP WANTS CANADAS CRITICAL MINERALS AND REALLY MEANS CANADA SHOULD BECOME THE 51ST AMERICAN STATE. WE NEED A TRUMP OVER HERE. SO LETS JOIN DONALD JOHN TRUMP AS CANADA 51 IN AMERICA. SINCE TRUDEAUS OUT ANY WAY IN MARCH. GO FOR IT JUSTIN. WE WANT TRUMP AS OUR PRESIDENT INSTEAD OF PRIME MINISTER.YOU CAN BET IF CHRISTA FREELAND BECOMES THE LIBERAL LEADER AND PRIME MINISTER IN MARCH. SHES A NEW WORLD ORDER NUTJOB. AND SHE WOULD BE REALLY HAPPY IF CANADA WOULD JOIN AMERICA. SHE COULD GET MORE POWER HUNGRY IN A BIG GOVERNMENT IN AMERICA. AND OF COURSE CLAUS SCWAB IS SAD TO SEE TRUDEAU HIS LITTLE IMITATION GO. BUT CHRISTA FREELAND IS HIS NEXT CANADIAN PET. AND SHE WILL BE FOR A ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT.
What’s behind Trump’s tariff orders on Canada, Mexico and China-By Daniel Flatley and Brendan Murray-February 05, 2025 at 9:13AM EST
After promising during his election campaign to put import taxes back at the center of U.S. economic policy during his second term as president, U.S. President Donald Trump has taken steps in that direction. Across-the-board tariffs of 10% on imports from China went into effect on Feb. 4. Trump had also ordered 25% tariffs on all goods from Canada and Mexico but paused them for 30 days after leaders of the two countries committed to addressing demands he’d made on them.How radical is Trump’s approach? Some U.S. tariffs on goods from those three counties already approach or even exceed the levels mandated by Trump. But these only apply to select categories of goods. Levying them across the board is a major departure.Currently, for imported industrial goods, which make up 94% of U.S. merchandise imports by value, the U.S. has a trade-weighted average tariff rate of 2%, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Half of industrial goods enter the country duty-free.What’s Trump trying to achieve? Scott Bessent, Trump’s treasury secretary, provided clues about how his boss might employ new tariffs during his confirmation hearing in early January.Bessent, a former hedge fund manager who helped his former boss George Soros bet against the currencies of other countries, told senators that people should expect Trump to use tariffs in three ways: to remedy unfair trade practices (which Trump has said would revitalize American industry), to raise revenue for the federal budget (important to help pay for Trump’s plans to extend his 2017 tax cuts), and to use as a lever in negotiations with foreign powers in place of sanctions, which Trump believes have been overused.Boosting American manufacturing: Trump has talked about using tariffs to revitalize manufacturing and stop the U.S. getting “ripped off” by other countries due to trade imbalances. He’s floated the idea of using a mix of tariffs and incentives such as expedited permitting approval as a way to entice companies to build their facilities in the US.“We’re going to bring the companies back,” he said during an interview with Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait at the Economic Club of Chicago in October. “We’re going to lower taxes still further for companies that are going to make their product in the USA. We’re going to protect those companies with strong tariffs.”Trump imposed several rounds of tariffs on Chinese goods during his first term and said he was just getting started using them to remake the U.S. economy when the Covid-19 pandemic hit and scrambled his plans. His nominee for commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, framed the tariff plan as a means to regain the world’s respect during his confirmation hearing, telling senators that U.S. allies and adversaries alike “are taking advantage of us, they are disrespecting us and I would like to see that end.”Raising revenue-Income from tariffs could help pay for the tax cuts promised by Trump. He wants to extend reductions in income taxes that were approved in 2017 during his first presidency, many of which are due to expire at the end of 2025. He’s even floated proposals for expanding these tax breaks, for example by exempting tips and social security earnings from taxation. He also aims to slash the corporate tax rate to 15% from 21%.These measures are expected to lead to a loss in government revenue of $4.6 trillion over 10 years. Trump’s overall plan to hike tariffs, if implemented in full, could bring in as much as $2.5 to $3 trillion over that same period of time, according to Bessent.Peter Navarro, a Trump trade adviser, told CNBC on Jan. 31 that the tariff effort can replace the revenue of tax cuts. “Tariffs can easily pay for that,” Navarro said. “President Trump wants to move from the world of income taxes and countless IRS agents to the world where tariffs, like in the age of [President William] McKinley, will pay for a lot of government that we need to pay for and lower our taxes.”Wielding a weapon of diplomacy-Trump has become skeptical of sanctions because they drive other countries away from the dollar, and sees tariffs as a way to gain leverage in negotiations, according to Bessent.Trump’s brief January standoff with Colombia — in which he threatened to impose tariffs over repatriation flights for undocumented migrants — provided a glimpse of Trump’s strategy. For a few hours, it seemed that a trade war between the US and one of its closest allies in Latin America was inevitable. Then Trump pulled back on his threat after an agreement was reached between the two countries. The White House said Colombia had “agreed to all of President Trump’s terms” and would accept deportees on US military aircraft. President Gustavo Petro said he’d sent a Colombian military plane to the US to pick up 91 nationals.Trump’s tariff orders on Canada, Mexico and China are intended to address what he calls a “threat to the safety and security of Americans, including the public health crisis of deaths due to the use of fentanyl.” Trump’s decision to delay tariffs on Mexico and Canada for a month came after their governments agreed to step up efforts to address illegal migration and drug trafficking at the border.Is Trump’s approach new? The U.S. taxed imports heavily for much of its history before largely abandoning the policy beginning in the 1930s, as government leaders embraced the idea of free trade.A big reason for that was the reaction to the Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930, which led to an estimated increase of roughly 20% in average import duties. The act provoked retaliatory tariffs from foreign governments, resulting in a drop in global trade and a deepening of the Great Depression. That debacle kicked off a multidecade period that saw the rise of free trade, which culminated in the creation of the World Trade Organization in 1995. During that time, tariffs became anathema to the Republican Party.They made a comeback during Trump’s 2017-2021 presidency, when he turned to them in an effort to revitalize American industry and counter what the US regards as China’s unfair trade practices. President Joe Biden kept the trend going.How does China figure into all of this? For decades, the belief in free trade was backed by a bipartisan consensus in the US and by multinational corporations that wanted access to cheap and efficient supply chains overseas. China’s ascension as a global economic power broke that consensus. Admitted to the WTO in 2001, China gained greater access to global markets even as its critics say it violated the letter and spirit of free-trade rules, for example by subsidizing its industries and compelling foreign companies operating in China to part with their know-how. A number of researchers have concluded that competition from China triggered a decline in US employment among manufacturers that faced a surge in imports.During Trump’s first presidency, his administration imposed new tariffs on Chinese imports that were worth about $380 billion in 2018 and 2019. The Biden administration maintained those levies and raised more of them in 2024 on goods worth an additional $18 billion. The new enthusiasm for tariffs has spread to the European Union. It voted in early October to impose duties as high as 45% on electric vehicles from China, which in turn has threatened to retaliate against European products.Can Trump raise tariffs without Congressional approval? Yes. Through a number of statutes, Congress has empowered the U.S. president to modify tariffs to address a variety of concerns. These include a threat to national security, a war or emergency, harms or potential harms to a U.S. industry, and unfair trade practices by a foreign country. While companies might try to fight higher tariffs in court, because of past deference given to presidential powers, such challenges “would face a steep uphill climb,” according to an article posted by the Center for Strategic & International Studies and co-authored by Warren Maruyama, a former general counsel for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.How do tariffs work? A tariff, also known as a duty or levy, is usually calculated as a percentage of a good’s value (as declared during the customs clearance process.) It can also be levied as a fixed amount on each item. Goods that cross borders are given numeric codes under a standardized nomenclature called the “international harmonized system.” Tariffs can be assigned to specific product codes relating to, for example, a truck chassis, or to broad categories, such as electric vehicles. Customs agencies collect tariffs on behalf of governments.Who pays tariffs? Tariffs are paid by the importer, or an intermediary acting on the importer’s behalf, though the costs are typically passed on. Trump argues that, ultimately, it’s the exporter who effectively ends up shouldering the cost of a tariff. Studies have shown the burden is more diffuse. The foreign company that makes the product may decide to lower prices as a concession to the importer. Or it might spend significant sums to build a factory somewhere to sidestep the tariff. Or an importer — Walmart and Target are among the biggest in the U.S. — could raise prices of the item when it’s sold on. In this case, it’s the consumer who shoulders the tariff cost indirectly.How do tariffs affect the economy? It can be difficult to sort through the economic effects of tariffs. They can stimulate employment by attracting investment as companies try to get around tariffs by moving factories to the taxing country. At the same time, they can provoke retaliatory tariffs that cost jobs in other parts of the economy.Moments after the new U.S. tariffs on China took effect, Beijing blacklisted a handful of American companies, imposed import levies on some US oil and other goods and placed export controls on a selection of critical minerals. Before Trump delayed the tariff hikes on Canada and Mexico, those two countries had also said they would retaliate if the levies were increased.When a country imposes import tariffs, domestic manufacturers don’t always leap in to start making the products affected. And if the nation has no alternative domestic supply of the goods concerned, then prices of those goods can go up.Economists are still untangling the inflationary effects of Trump’s initial tariffs from a much bigger shock to supply chains and economic activity that started not long after the US-China trade war began: the Covid-19 pandemic.In February 2019, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco estimated that the tariffs were adding 0.1 percentage point to consumer price inflation and 0.4 percentage point to a metric that measures the costs for businesses to invest. Erica York, senior economist at the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, estimated that the higher tariffs imposed by Trump and Biden increased annual costs for the average U.S. household by $625.In addition, York estimated that the hikes would eliminate 142,000 full-time jobs and, over the long run, would reduce long-run gross domestic product by 0.2% on average. Critics of Trump’s further tariff increases say they will have the same kinds of effects at a greater scale.Bloomberg L.P.
EZEK 39:11-16
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: (IN THE JORDAN VALLEY) and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog.
12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.
13 Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord God.
14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment, (NUCLEAR SPECIALISTS) passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.
15 And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man's bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamongog.
16 And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.
MEANING OF HAMONAH
Hamonah, ham-o'-nah (Heb.)-- host; multitude; noise; tumult; commotion of mind. The prophetic name of a city that is mentioned in conjunction with Hamon-gog: "And Hamonah shall also be the name of a city.
Metaphysical meaning of Hamonah (mbd) - Truth Unity
Strong's Lexicon-Hamonah: Hamonah-Original Word: הֲמוֹנָה
Part of Speech: Proper Name Location-Transliteration: Hamownah
Pronunciation: hah-mo-NAH-Phonetic Spelling: (ham-o-naw')
Definition: Hamonah-Meaning: Hamonah
Word Origin: Derived from the Hebrew root הָמוֹן (H1995), meaning "multitude" or "abundance."Corresponding Greek / Hebrew Entries: There is no direct Greek equivalent for "Hamonah" in the Strong's Greek Dictionary, as it is a specific Hebrew proper noun. However, the concept of a multitude or abundance can be related to Greek words like πλῆθος (G4128), meaning "multitude."Usage: The term "Hamonah" is used as a proper noun referring to a specific location mentioned in the prophetic literature of the Old Testament. It is associated with the aftermath of a significant battle, symbolizing the multitude of the slain.Cultural and Historical Background: In the context of the Hebrew Bible, names often carry significant meaning and are used to convey theological and prophetic messages. "Hamonah" is mentioned in the book of Ezekiel, a prophetic text that addresses the restoration of Israel and the judgment of the nations. The name reflects the abundance of God's judgment upon the enemies of Israel, serving as a reminder of divine justice and sovereignty.
US envoy says Hezbollah ‘defeated,’ must not be in Lebanon government-Morgan Ortagus warns this would violate ‘clear red lines’ set by Washington; says US ‘very committed’ to February 18 Israeli withdrawal date By AFP and ToI Staff Today, 5:21 pm-FEB 7,25
A senior US official visiting Beirut warned Friday against any Hezbollah presence in Lebanon’s new government, saying the Iran-backed group was “defeated” in its war with Israel.After a year of cross-border attacks by the terror organization, Israel launched a major offensive against the group in September that eliminated much of its top leadership and severely weakened it. This allowed Lebanon’s divided parliament to elect Joseph Aoun as president and approve Nawaf Salam as premier after more than two years of political deadlock.The visit by US Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus comes with Salam struggling to form a government as he faces political pressure from Hezbollah and its allies.“We have set clear red lines in the United States that [Hezbollah] won’t be able to terrorize the Lebanese people, and that includes by being a part of the government,” Ortagus said after meeting President Aoun, long seen as Washington’s preferred candidate.She went on to declare “the end of Hezbollah’s reign of terror in Lebanon and around the world.“Hezbollah was defeated by Israel and we are grateful to our ally Israel for defeating Hezbollah,” Ortagus said.Aoun later distanced himself from her comments, with his office saying some of what she said after the meeting “represents her own point of view and is not the concern of the presidency.”Israel decimated much of Hezbollah’s leadership and capabilities, and killed its chief of more than three decades, Hassan Nasrallah.The ousting of Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad in December further disrupted the group’s arms supply lines.Ortagus was in Lebanon for her first official visit abroad after being appointed by US President Donald Trump.Hezbollah has played a major role in the country’s politics for decades, flexing its power in government institutions while its fighters tangle with Israel.Ortagus voiced hope the incoming government “will ensure that we start to end corruption, that we end influence from Hezbollah, and that we embark on the reforms for a greater country.”The international community has long demanded reforms to unlock billions of dollars in aid after a financial crisis took hold in 2019, widely blamed on corruption and mismanagement.Salam said Wednesday that his government would exclude all members of political parties and anyone who planned to run in parliamentary elections. In Lebanon, traditional political parties are widely accused of corruption.The prime minister said he did not want to allow “anyone inside [the government] to obstruct its work in any way whatsoever.”Political power has long been shared according to sectarian quotas in Lebanon, and Hezbollah and its ally Amal, whose leader Nabih Berri is also parliament speaker, have insisted they approve any Shiite ministers Salam wants to name.Salam has refused to do so.Sectarian power-sharing has often been used to obstruct political life when parties refuse to compromise — a strategy that had left Lebanon without a president for two years until Aoun’s election.Salam has vowed to enact reforms and “rebuild a state,” as well as implement a UN resolution that calls for Israel to withdraw from Lebanon and for Lebanon’s army and UN peacekeepers to be the only forces deployed in the south.After meeting Ortagus, Aoun said that “consultations to form a new government are nearly completed,” while also calling on Israel to withdraw from Lebanon’s south.“The Lebanese army is ready to deploy in villages and towns from which Israeli forces withdraw,” he said, insisting they pull out within the agreed timeline.Washington played a key role in brokering the November 27 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon, which ended more than a year of hostilities, including two months of all-out war.Under the deal, Lebanon’s military was to deploy in the south alongside UN peacekeepers as Israel withdrew over 60 days.Hezbollah was also to pull back north of the Litani River — about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border — and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.The withdrawal period was extended to February 18, after both sides accused each other of violations, and Israeli troops still remain in some areas.Ortagus said Washington was “very committed” to the new withdrawal date.
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.
Isaiah 57:21
21 There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
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.
Ephesians 2:2
2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
EZEK 39:11-16
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: (IN THE JORDAN VALLEY) and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog.
12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.
13 Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord God.
14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment, (NUCLEAR SPECIALISTS) passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.
15 And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man's bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamongog.
16 And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.
MEANING OF HAMONAH
Hamonah, ham-o'-nah (Heb.)-- host; multitude; noise; tumult; commotion of mind. The prophetic name of a city that is mentioned in conjunction with Hamon-gog: "And Hamonah shall also be the name of a city.
Metaphysical meaning of Hamonah (mbd) - Truth Unity
Strong's Lexicon-Hamonah: Hamonah-Original Word: הֲמוֹנָה
Part of Speech: Proper Name Location-Transliteration: Hamownah
Pronunciation: hah-mo-NAH-Phonetic Spelling: (ham-o-naw')
Definition: Hamonah-Meaning: Hamonah
Word Origin: Derived from the Hebrew root הָמוֹן (H1995), meaning "multitude" or "abundance."Corresponding Greek / Hebrew Entries: There is no direct Greek equivalent for "Hamonah" in the Strong's Greek Dictionary, as it is a specific Hebrew proper noun. However, the concept of a multitude or abundance can be related to Greek words like πλῆθος (G4128), meaning "multitude."Usage: The term "Hamonah" is used as a proper noun referring to a specific location mentioned in the prophetic literature of the Old Testament. It is associated with the aftermath of a significant battle, symbolizing the multitude of the slain.Cultural and Historical Background: In the context of the Hebrew Bible, names often carry significant meaning and are used to convey theological and prophetic messages. "Hamonah" is mentioned in the book of Ezekiel, a prophetic text that addresses the restoration of Israel and the judgment of the nations. The name reflects the abundance of God's judgment upon the enemies of Israel, serving as a reminder of divine justice and sovereignty.
THE BIBLE SAYS SAUDI-ARABIA WILL BE ON ISRAELS SIDE IN THE FUTURE.SO NO WORRY SAUDI-ARABIA WILL WORK WITH TRUMP AND ISRAEL ON TRUMPS PLAN. NO MATTER HOW MUCH CRYING ABOUT A TWO-STATE SOLUTION BY SAUDI-ARABIA.
Analysts argue Trump’s Gaza plan derails progress toward Israeli-Saudi normalization-Riyadh looks to US for defense against Iran, but would face instability on its borders should Trump succeed in ousting Gazans to Saudi neighbors Jordan and Egypt, experts contend-By AFP and ToI Staff Today, 3:22 pm-FEB 7,25
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — US President Donald Trump’s plan to take over Gaza will imperil attempts to forge landmark ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel and fuel anti-American sentiment in the oil-rich kingdom, some analysts are warning.Trump announced the plan to redevelop Gaza, and oust its more than two million residents, during a joint press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday.Netanyahu, a longtime proponent of Saudi normalization, has applauded Trump’s proposal as a solution for Gaza on the “day after” the war there, which was sparked when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.However, Trump’s proposal has prompted a global backlash and enraged the Arab world, making it difficult for the Saudis to consider normalization.“If this is going to be his policy, he shut the door on Saudi recognition of Israel,” James Dorsey, researcher at the Middle East Institute of the National University of Singapore, told AFP.Recognition of Israel by Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest sites, is seen as a grand prize of Middle East diplomacy intended to calm chronic tensions in the region.But Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter and the Middle East’s largest economy, now faces the specter of instability on its borders if neighboring Jordan and Egypt suddenly house large numbers of Gaza exiles.At the same time, Riyadh must maintain cordial relations with Washington, its longtime security guarantor and bulwark against Iran, which is also Israel’s chief adversary.The Islamic Republic operates an “axis of resistance” network of regional terror proxies that includes Yemen’s Houthi rebels — against whom Saudi Arabia has waged a bloody war — as well as Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, all of whom are sworn to destroying Israel.“When it comes to security, Saudi Arabia has nowhere to go but to Washington,” Dorsey said. “There’s nobody else. It’s not China. They’re not willing and they’re not able.”“And post-Ukraine, do you want to rely on Russia?”Quick reaction-The Saudis were engaged in tentative talks on normalization via Washington until the outbreak of the Gaza war, when they paused the negotiations and hardened their position.They reacted with unusual speed to Trump’s proposal.At around 4 a.m. Saudi time — about an hour after the comments — Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry posted a statement on X that “reaffirms its unequivocal rejection of… attempts to displace the Palestinian people from their land.”In the same statement, the Saudis rejected Netanyahu’s comment that normalization was “going to happen” and Trump’s claim that Riyadh had dropped its longtime demand that any deal include a credible pathway to a Palestinian state — repeating their insistence on this precondition, which is a red line for Netanyahu’s hard-right government.#Statement | The Foreign Ministry affirms that Saudi Arabia’s position on the establishment of a Palestinian state is firm and unwavering. HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister clearly and unequivocally reaffirmed this stance. pic.twitter.com/0uuoq8h12I— Foreign Ministry ???????? (@KSAmofaEN) February 5, 2025-Trump’s plan carries real risks for Riyadh, which is throwing everything at an ambitious post-oil economic makeover that relies on stability to attract business and tourism.If Gazans are displaced to Egypt and Jordan, it “will weaken two countries essential to regional stability and particularly to Saudi security,” said Saudi researcher Aziz Alghashian.“Trump’s plan, coupled with Netanyahu’s approach, poses major risks for Saudi Arabia. It highlights that they are not true partners for peace in Riyadh’s eyes — especially Netanyahu, who appears to want all the benefits without making concessions.”‘Making normalization harder’Trump’s declarations “will further destabilize the region and fuel anti-American sentiment, particularly in Saudi Arabia,” said Anna Jacobs, of the International Crisis Group think tank.“He is makingSaudi-Israel normalization harder, not easier.”Andreas Krieg of King’s College London said Saudi Arabia would not agree meekly to normalization if ordered by Washington.Prior to the Gaza war, the Saudis were negotiating for security guarantees and help in building a civilian nuclear program in return for Israeli ties.“They are not a US vassal state and so they’re not just taking a diktat from Trump,” said Krieg. “And I think it will stand firm on their positions, willing to negotiate here and there. But the principal red lines remain.“Nobody in Saudi Arabia has an interest in selling out Palestinian statehood. That is the last and the most important bargaining chip that the Saudis have in terms of authority and legitimacy in the Arab and Muslim world.”But the question is how Saudi Arabia and its 39-year-old de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, will proceed.“I don’t think that the Saudis will take any major steps now,” said Krieg. “They obviously have their own levers that they can use for pressure on America, particularly in the energy sector. I don’t think the Saudis will want to use it at this point.”
Reports: Morocco, 2 disputed Somalia regions considered as destinations for Gazans-Somaliland and Puntland named as locations under discussion for Gazan relocation per Trump’s plans; Israeli official says any talk of destinations is ‘extremely premature’By ToI Staff Today, 4:33 pm-FEB 7,25
Israeli and US officials are reportedly looking into Morocco as well as two autonomous regions of Somalia as potential destinations for relocating Gazans under US President Donald Trump’s proposed plan to move Gazans from the war-torn enclave.Two reports in recent days have named the three potential destinations.On Wednesday Channel 12 news reported that Morocco, Puntland and Somaliland were being considered by the White House.The Telegraph on Thursday cited an Israeli consul general to the US as making a similar statement, though he seemed to indicate it was Israel that was looking into the locations. Israel Bachar, the consul general to the US’s Pacific Southwest region, told The Telegraph: “From what I’m hearing we’re talking about three different states.“We’re talking about one [in] Morocco, two [in] Somalia and adjacent to Somalia there is another area; it’s called Puntland, and that’s what they’re looking at, maybe, to relocate them to these three places,” Bachar said.The report also quoted an anonymous Israeli official as saying that any discussion of locations for the relocation of Gaza’s Palestinian population was “extremely premature.”The Telegraph report quoted Puntland’s deputy information minister Yacob Mohamed Abdalla as saying that his region would happily accept Palestinian refugees, but only if they voluntarily choose to come there.“There is no reason to deport someone from his country to another country without that person choosing to move,” said Abdalla.The report also quoted Abdulahi Mohamed Jaha, a former Puntland spokesman, as saying Gazans would “contribute” to the “modernizing” and “security and economic development” of the region, and would improve Puntland’s status in the world.“It’s best to take advantage of the unplanned opportunities that sometimes arise,” Jaha added.Trump’s repeated calls for the relocation of most or all of Gaza’s residents have been met with staunch opposition from Arab countries as well as the larger international community.Morocco normalized relations with Israel in 2020 as part of the Abraham Accords. The Telegraph report said that Rabat did not respond to a request for comment and was unlikely to accept plans for Palestinian resettlement within the country.Puntland and Somaliland, while internationally recognized as states within the Federal Republic of Somalia, hold varying degrees of autonomy and the local governments of both regions do not recognize the government of Somalia.Somaliland, which is located along most of Somalia’s Red Sea coastline, has effectively acted as an independent country since the region declared independence in 1991 during Somalia’s decades-long and ongoing civil war, and is in many respects a more stable and functioning state than Somalia itself.While not recognized by any other country, the region signed a memorandum of understanding with neighboring Ethiopia in 2024 for future recognition in exchange for Ethiopia’s lease of the Red Sea port of Berbera.The autonomous region of Puntland, on the other hand, has never officially declared independence from Somalia, but after legislative disputes in early 2024, declared that it no longer recognized the government in Mogadishu and would “operate as a state that’s independent from Somalia” until a constitution is passed.The Channel 12 report speculated that both Somaliland and Puntland could request recognition from Israel in exchange for the absorption of Palestinian refugees, similar to how Jerusalem and the US recognized Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara region as part of the normalization deal.Channel 12’s political analyst Amit Segal, who is regarded as close to figures in the Israeli government, posted on X that Puntland and Somaliland “seek international recognition,” and Morocco is “concerned with maintaining recognition of its sovereignty over Western Sahara, and all three are countries with an overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim majority.”The Telegraph quoted Will Brown, an Africa expert at the European Council for Refugees, as saying that the idea of sending Gazans to Somalia was “insane.”“Somalia is a failed state plagued by jihadist violence. The idea of dumping deeply traumatized people there is hellish,” he added.
Inside story'I was asked by Trump's team to think outside the box'The man with the plan: DC prof sent Trump study on Gaza relocation, development in July-GWU economics professor Joseph Pelzman wrote detailed proposal for Trump’s team; says ‘you have to destroy the whole place, restart from scratch’By Tal Schneider-Today, 5:47 pm-FEB 7,25
US President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Gaza’s Palestinians and then redevelop the Gaza Strip has sent shockwaves worldwide. Rejected by the Arab world and much of the international community, it has been welcomed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an idea that “could change history,” “worth listening carefully to,” and “the first original idea that has been raised in years.”For one man in Washington, however, the proposal Trump unveiled when hosting Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday came as no shock: George Washington University Professor Joseph Pelzman.An expert in economics and international relations and head of the university’s Center of Excellence for the Economic Study of the Middle East and North Africa (CEESMENA), Pelzman authored the plan and submitted it to Trump’s team as early as July 2024.The details of Pelzman’s plan were first made public by Dr. Kobby Barda, an Israeli historian specializing in American politics and geo-strategy, during a discussion he held with Pelzman on the podcast “America, Baby!” in August 2024.“I figured, well, why don’t I write sort of an out-of-the-box perspective on how to fix Gaza after the war is finished,” Pelzman told Barda. “The paper went to the Trump people because they were the ones who initially had an interest in it – not the Biden people. I was asked [by Trump’s team] to think outside the box on what do we do after [the war], as nobody was really talking about it.”Pelzman’s paper, titled “An Economic Plan for Rebuilding Gaza: A BOT Approach,” has since been published in the Global World Journal. (He wrote it up in July, but it was put online in October.)Professor Joshep Pelzman speaks about his Gaza redevelopment plan with podcaster Dr. Kobby Barda on 25 August 2024 (in English)It presents a viewpoint whereby Gaza’s economy has reached absolute rock bottom. Pelzman cites World Bank data, which states that between 2007 and 2022, Gaza’s annual GDP growth averaged 0.4%, while per capita GDP declined by 2.5% per year due to high population growth.Moreover, because of the war that erupted following Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the destruction in Gaza has become so extensive that it is beyond repair or reconstruction, according to the professor. In fact, according to Pelzman, no private or international investment entity would enter Gaza as things stand. “You have to restart it from scratch,” he told Barda.Pelzman presented additional data, already known to the public: As of 2022, Gaza’s unemployment rate stood at 45%, and 53% of the population lived below the poverty line, compared to about 13% of the Palestinians living in the West Bank. According to World Bank estimates from March 2024, cited by Pelzman, approximately 1.2 million people in Gaza were homeless and destitute “due to Hamas actions.” Additionally, 62% of the buildings still standing had sustained severe damage that rendered them uninhabitable and 90% of the main roads had been destroyed.“You have to destroy the whole place, you have to restart from scratch,” Pelzman said on Barda’s podcast. “And then you have an economy which actually has three sectors: you have tourism potential, you have agriculture potential, and then you have – because a lot of them are smart – high-tech.”He said his plan “started with a three-sector model of Gaza, but it requires that the place be completely emptied out. I mean, literally emptied out, dug up from scratch – and the concrete can be recycled.“This is a triangular-sector model, but its implementation requires the area to be completely vacated so that the destroyed concrete can be recycled – ensuring that nothing remains of the vertical construction extending deep underground.”The plan presented by Pelzman, who previously worked with USAID on economic developments in China, utilizes the BOT method – Build-Operate-Transfer – a model implemented in developing countries. According to this method, private sector companies and organizations enter into investment partnerships with governmental entities, receiving a property lease from the government for 50-100 years.Under this system, a private entity constructs and operates the project for several decades, after which ownership is transferred to a public authority. During the operational period, the private entity is allowed to charge fees for the use of the infrastructure.China-styled housing units-In his research paper, Pelzman characterizes his approach as treating Gaza “from a purely economic perspective,” which seeks “the investment solution to a failed experiment” – namely, the Gaza Strip since Israel withdrew from it in 2005.Among other things, Pelzman’s plan would see a Gaza Strip powered entirely by solar energy, traversed by a light rail system and serviced by air- and sea-ports. The Strip will be independent of Israel for its energy needs.Meanwhile, he writes, “there are no ex-ante restrictions on the mobility of local residents to exit Gaza.”According to Pelzman’s plan, “the cost of this massive reconstruction of Gaza will range from $1 to $2 trillion and will take 5 to 10 years to complete.” His estimate is based on a model that analyzes a Gazan post-war economy driven by the agriculture, tourism and tech sectors.Pelzman envisions restaurants, hotels and other luxury amenities on the Strip’s western, seafront side; and residential buildings – “[People’s Republic of China]-styled 30-floor housing units” on the eastern side. In between, he writes, will be agricultural areas and greenhouses. The reconstruction will require “the complete excavation of the terror tunnels,” though Pelzman says the IDF has already done much of the work.Pelzman indicates repeatedly in his paper that his preferred mode for Gaza’s governance is e-government, meaning government that makes use of technological means. In particular, “the exchange of funds between residents and businesses will be exclusively via an online exchange network,” precluding the need for paper money, credit cards or foreign aid. The Strip will have no monetary authority and “all capital flows will be controlled by foreign stakeholders.”Furthermore, Pelzman suggests that experts appointed by the foreign shareholders would oversee an educational system based on deradicalization, “with external oversight to assure the development of a skilled population.” Pelzman suggests importing curricula – from kindergarten to university – from the educational models of the UAE or Saudi Arabia, based on their recent reforms and Sunni-Sufi Islamic teachings.Security must be assigned to “partners who share the common interest of removing Hamas and their co-conspirators from any role,” and are “interested in demilitarizing Gaza permanently.”Per Pelzman, Hamas has no property rights in Gaza, under the 1993 Oslo Accords, which he says were left intact when Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
Israel to show prisoners clip of Gaza destruction prior to release under truce deal-Media reports say video meant to demonstrate costs of war to terror convicts who have had little access to media, serve as a deterrent-By ToI Staff Today, 7:32 pm-FEB 7,25
The IDF and Israel Prison Service have prepared a video clip depicting the magnitude of the devastation in the Gaza Strip, to be shown to prisoners prior to their release under the ceasefire deal with Hamas in Gaza.Israel is freeing hundreds of Palestinian terror convicts in return for hostages under the first phase of the accord, including many individuals sentenced to life in prison for their part in deadly attacks.The three-minute video seeks to demonstrate the costs of the war to the prisoners, many of whom have not had much access to media during their incarceration, according to several Hebrew media outlets reporting on it Friday.It is also meant to serve as a deterrent to the freed terror convicts, according to Walla.The Israel Hayom newspaper reported that one prisoner fainted from shock after watching the video recently.Much of Gaza has been decimated by the 15 months of fighting in the Strip, which were brought on by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, when thousands of terrorists invaded southern Israel and killed some 1,200 people, taking 251 hostage.In July, the UN estimated that some 55 percent of all structures in the Gaza Strip had been destroyed, damaged or possibly damaged since war erupted. The analysis, based on satellite imagery, showed more than 137,000 buildings were likely affected at that time.Earlier this month, Haaretz reported that the International Committee of the Red Cross had protested to Israel that some prisoners were being released with their hands bound behind their heads while wearing bracelets stating in Arabic: “The eternal nation does not forget. We will pursue our enemies and overcome them.”The Prison Service replied to Haaretz with a photograph showing a prisoner bound in this way while wearing such a bracelet. Calling the prisoners “the worst of Israel’s enemies,” the statement added that the prison service “will not compromise on the security of our people.”
Israelis respond to Trump’s Gaza proposal with jubilation, disbelief, and dark humor-After bombshell press conference in which US president pledged to ‘take over’ war-torn enclave, some Israelis call the plan ‘delusional,’ while others say it’s ‘terrific news’By Deborah Danan 6 February 2025, 10:56 pm
JTA — On Wednesday morning, cars driving down Tel Aviv’s main freeway were greeted with a new set of giant billboards bearing American flags, a photo of Donald Trump, and a message in English: “Thank you, Mr. President.”The billboards, erected by Republicans Overseas Israel, did not say why they were thanking the president. But by the time Israelis embarked on their morning commutes, many of them could guess: Just hours earlier, in Washington, DC, the US president had declared that “all” Palestinians would leave Gaza — and that the United States would “take over.”It was a shocking promise — one that would fulfill the wildest dreams of the Israeli far right and offer an unexpected answer to who would govern Gaza after the war. But notwithstanding the billboards, Israelis reacted with a range of emotions. Some were elated. But others were skeptical, confounded — or horrified.“I woke up in total shock. I always think, that’s it, we’ve reached the bottom of the bottom, but then I’m shocked anew,” said Orian Canetti, sitting in a Jaffa coffee shop across the street from the bilingual Hebrew-Arabic school her children attend. “I want to imagine that he has a plan but I just don’t have the tools to even begin to understand him. What he said just doesn’t compute.”Barak Moore, who hails from the West Bank settlement bloc of Gush Etzion, also had reservations about the plan — but only because the Bible says the land of Israel belongs to the Jews, not the United States.“This is terrific news other than the part about America taking ownership of the land that God gave to the Jewish people,” he said. “Having said that, if President Trump is able to dismantle the Hamas death cult and set free the many Gazans who are desperate to flee from it, it would be among the greatest political achievements ever.”Ever since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack that launched the war, Israelis have wrangled with each other and with international interlocutors over what will happen next with Gaza.The government hasn’t released a “day-after” plan, and surveys show that Israelis remain split on the question. But nearly all of them agree on one thing — Hamas cannot be allowed to retake power in Gaza — and for some, Trump’s bombshell proposal guaranteed that would never come to pass.“We woke up in Israel to wonderful news!” said Adalia Citron, from the central Israeli city of Beit Shemesh. “Obviously Trump will not have to ‘own Gaza’ but he means business and is sending out a clear and strong message that we will no longer allow history to repeat itself.“Gazans have proven decade after decade that the billions of dollars received in aid was used for weapons and terror tunnels, jihadist training and terrorism. This will no longer be an option for them,” Citron said.The news dominated Israeli social media as well, where one meme showed a map of Gaza renamed the “Magaza Strip,” a mashup featuring Trump’s trademark MAGA slogan.Another superimposed the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas onto a scene of northern Gazans returning to their homes amid a landscape of rubble — a visual that evokes a Wall Street Journal report that said Trump had urged Netanyahu last summer to “think about what kinds of hotels could be built there.”One Israeli-American quipped on Facebook, “Ooh, can we bring Target? And Starbucks and Sephora?” to which another replied, “Let’s dream big: Nordstrom.”בקרוב… pic.twitter.com/dVZwLVDMAW— Esi (@_Gold_1948) February 6, 2025-By late Wednesday, the White House was backtracking on Trump’s comments, saying that Trump does not intend to supply US money or troops to aid in rebuilding and that any resettlement would be temporary, not permanent. But Trump was also drawing kudos for injecting a radical new idea into a dynamic that has long been stuck.Yovav Kalifon, from Tel Aviv, said the radical plan clashed with the reputation Netanyahu has gained in Israel for being risk-averse. Still, he said, using the prime minister’s nickname, “Bibi’s pledge to topple Hamas and restart Gaza is aligned with Trump’s declaration. Israel’s military liberates Gaza from Hamas, then we look for entities to manage that territory. The USA is one such entity.”But others said the plan displayed ignorance about Palestinians’ ironclad connections to their land. Huda, an Arab mother who was sitting alongside Canetti in the Jaffa cafe and did not disclose her last name, said that Trump had no understanding of the Palestinian people and their “unmovable faith in God to continue to fight for their basic rights and their ties to the land.”She added, “They would rather live in a hut in Gaza than any luxury place Trump could offer them.”Not far from Huda, Avner Goren, an employee at the cafe, was unsure what to think.“Trump is so unpredictable, but still, I was so shocked to hear it,” he said. “And because of that, I haven’t yet formed an opinion. That’s probably the most important thing I’ll say. People are always so quick to form opinions.”He continued, using the Arabic term that describes the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel’s founding, “But I’ll tell you one thing. The Nakba is the biggest founding stories of the Palestinians. I don’t know how that can be overcome.”Others said they didn’t trust the United States to manage the massive undertaking of moving Gaza’s entire population, clearing out its many tons of rubble and building it anew.“I’m nervous that it will create much more mess,” said Shlomi Ben Shimol, who was evacuated from his home near Israel’s northern border because of Israel’s war with Hezbollah. “Every place we’ve seen the Americans try and control ends up worse.”Daniel Ohana, a fellow evacuee from the north, said, “If Trump would manage to get 20% of the population of Gaza out, I’d consider that a success.”Matthew Kalman, a Jerusalem-based journalist, described the idea as delusional.“Yes, Hamas is evil and has no right to govern anything,” he said. “Yes, October 7 was a horrific, murderous turning point whose brutal lessons cannot be ignored. But real problems cannot be solved through magical thinking. Trump and Psycho-Bibi have stepped through the looking glass and are lost in space.”Some were more confident. Michael Bassin, an American-Israeli, echoed Trump’s own reasoning — that decades of violence demanded out-of-the-box solutions.“Resettling Gazans in surrounding countries will be good for Gazans and good for us,” he said. “Refugee resettlement is nothing new and happens all the time. Rebuilding Gaza into something positive is a great idea. I don’t know if it’s realistic or not, but it’s new thinking, and that’s just what we need. We need to do away with what has not worked in the past and move forward towards something new.”In the Jaffa coffeehouse, Canetti was resigned — and invoked another territory Trump has vowed to conquer.“What does it matter anyway?” she said. “I’m moving to Greenland.”
Trump’s bid to push out Gazans is an ‘existential threat’ to Jordan, say analysts-King Abdullah II has rejected the scheme, is set to meet Trump next week; Jordan, which relies on US aid, has a fraught history with its sizable Palestinian population-By AFP and ToI Staff 6 February 2025, 9:20 pm
AMMAN, Jordan — Donald Trump’s plan to move Palestinians out of Gaza poses a major threat to Jordan, with analysts saying the US president’s proposal would upend the balance the kingdom must strike between ensuring its US aid lifeline and safeguarding its security.In a joint press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday, Trump, to audible gasps from those in attendance, announced a proposal for the United States to take over Gaza and to move its residents out.Trump had previously floated Jordan and Egypt — both US allies, and neighbors of Israel and the Palestinian territories — as possible destinations. But both countries have flatly rejected the proposal, reiterating their support for the eventual creation of a Palestinian state.Netanyahu, whose coalition rejects a Palestinian state, has not said who he wants to take the reins in Gaza after the war sparked on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.The premier and his allies have applauded Trump’s plan, which was excoriated by most of the international community, especially the Arab world.“This project not only seeks to eliminate the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people on their land, but also affects security, stability, identity and sovereignty in Jordan,” said Oraib Rantawi, who heads the Amman-based Al Quds Center for Political Studies.“In Jordan, we would be looking at an existential threat, not just a security threat,” he said, warning that such a move would export the Israeli-King Abdullah II on Wednesday rejected “any attempts” to take control of the Palestinian territories and displace their people, and held talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on the matter.On February 11, he is due to meet Trump in Washington, after Netanyahu this week became the first foreign leader to meet the US president at the White House since his inauguration.‘Recipe for ruin’Despite widespread backlash, Trump has insisted that “everybody loves” the plan, which he said would involve the United States taking over the Gaza Strip, though he offered few details on how more than two million Palestinians would be removed.“The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it,” he said, sparking a global outcry.Rantawi called the plan “a recipe for ruin, not a recipe for stability and peace.”Former Jordanian information minister Samih al-Maaytah said it would be “political suicide” for Jordan and Egypt, with both countries “accused of colluding to crush the Palestinian cause.”“For Jordan, it would change our demography and the political equation while destroying our national identity,” he added.Half of Jordan’s population of 11 million is of Palestinian origin, and since the establishment of Israel in 1948, many Palestinians have sought refuge there.According to UN figures, 2.2 million Palestinians are registered as refugees in Jordan.The West Bank and East Jerusalem were under Jordan’s control from 1948 until Israel captured them during the Six-Day War of June 1967.Over the following years, the Jordanian military and Palestinian factions fought Israel together. But in 1970, clashes erupted between the Jordanian army and Palestinian groups in what became known as “Black September.”Sparked by a decision by armed factions to start operating in Amman and other major cities and to set up illegal checkpoints, the violence ultimately led to the groups’ expulsion from the country.Part of the uproar over Trump’s proposal emanated from the departure it would entail from long-standing international efforts toward self-determination for Palestinians and an eventual two-state solution.“Who gave Trump the moral, legal, and political authority to intervene in Gaza, take it over and invest in it? He talks about Gaza like a real estate developer, not like a head of state,” Rantawi said.‘No choice’For Jordan in particular, the outrage also stems from a perceived lack of recognition for its sovereignty.Jordan is also well aware of the economic pressure the United States could exercise, given how small its economy is and how greatly it relies on international aid, chiefly from Washington.Every year, Jordan receives from the United States around $750 million in economic assistance and another $350 million in military aid.Still, King Abdullah is unlikely to give Trump any room for maneuver when they meet later this month.“The king has no choice but to reject this proposal outright,” Rantawi said, adding it was “non-negotiable.”“Trump wants us to sell Jordan for $1.5 billion in aid,” he added.Mustafa al-Amawi, a Jordanian MP, said that US aid “was not a gift.”“But if it comes down to making a trade-off, we will not accept the aid,” he said.Maaytah agreed.“It is true that Jordan would be affected if aid were cut off, but it isn’t worth bartering for,” he said.Fears of coming under pressure over Trump’s proposal sparked legislators to prepare a bill on national sovereignty and reject any forced displacement of Palestinians to Jordan “as an alternative homeland.”“Parliament stands with the king, and categorically rejects the US president’s statements on the forced displacement of Gazans from their homes to Jordan, Egypt or any other country,” Amawi said.
Trump says Israel would hand Gaza to US when war ends, no American troops needed there-Controversial plan reportedly caught Netanyahu, top White House aides off guard; Rubio says Gazans’ displacement would be only temporary, contradicting US president By Jacob Magid,Lazar Berman and ToI Staff 6 February 2025, 7:04 pm
US President Donald Trump on Thursday expanded on his plan to push out Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, pledging that the Strip “would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” and rejecting American boots on the ground as a precondition for the reconstruction of the devastated enclave.Given that there is currently a ceasefire, his use of the phrase “at the conclusion of the fighting,” appeared to at least leave the door open for the possibility that the war will resume, per the demand of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing flank.Writing on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump specified: “The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting.”Gazans “would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region,” he continued, apparently repeating his suggestion that the Strip’s population would be permanently displaced, despite a statement to the contrary by the top US diplomat on Wednesday. “They would actually have a chance to be happy, safe and free.”“The US, working with great development teams from all over the world, would slowly and carefully begin the construction of what would become one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on Earth,” Trump continued, adding that “no soldiers by the US would be needed.” Trump’s Mideast envoy was said to have offered similar assurances to Republican lawmakers amid their concerns about foreign entanglements.The US president signed off: “Stability for the region would reign!!!”Trump explains how his plan for the Gaza Strip would work pic.twitter.com/GoZi3gMTVk— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) February 6, 2025-Trump has in recent days repeatedly floated the idea that Egypt and Jordan take in some Gazan refugees while the Strip was being rebuilt — an idea vociferously rejected by Cairo and Amman. But on Tuesday, Trump went much further during a statement to the media at the White House alongside Netanyahu, when the new US president suggested that “the US will take over the Gaza Strip,” while the enclave’s residents should be resettled in other countries.Trump reportedly did not hold consultations on his new plan, and his announcement Tuesday was said to have even caught Netanyahu by surprise. The premier later applauded Trump’s “totally different” thinking, and Defense Minister Israel Katz on Thursday ordered the IDF to prepare for Gazans to voluntarily emigrate.Posing with Senate leaders on Thursday, Netanyahu was asked whether “US troops are needed in Gaza to make Trump’s plan feasible?”“No,” he answered.By contrast, the international community — including allies of Washington and Jerusalem — has largely panned Trump’s plan, with Cairo reportedly warning Trump that pushing out Gaza’s residents could jeopardize Egypt’s 1979 peace deal with Israel.Hamas roundly rejected the plan, with top official Sami Abu Zuhri saying that “what is required is to end the occupation and aggression against our people, not to expel them from their land.” Mahmoud Abbas, president of Hamas’s rival Palestinian Authority, also said the Palestinians would not relinquish their land, rights, and sacred sites.Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said Trump’s remarks on Thursday were shocking and would ramp up tensions in the Middle East.“Any populist, frivolous, or shocking arguments about any other palliative measures at the present stage are counterproductive and do not contribute to solving the problem,” she said.Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baqaei, said Trump’s proposal was “a continuation of the Zionist regime’s targeted plan to completely annihilate the Palestinian nation, and is categorically rejected and condemned.”Israel’s Western European allies also assailed the plan, with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying Palestinians “must be allowed home, they must be allowed to rebuild, and we should be with them in that rebuild on the way to a two-state solution.”Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Trump’s plan “would also lead to new suffering and new hatred,” adding that “there must be no solution over the heads of the Palestinians.”French Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine said Paris “reiterates its opposition to any forced displacement of the Palestinian population of Gaza, which would constitute a serious violation of international law, an attack on the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians, but also a major obstacle to the two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Bishara Bahbah, who founded Arab Americans for Trump and helped rally support for him in Michigan and other battleground states, said his group believes Trump’s “ideas, as well-intentioned as they might be, rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.”“We’re opposed to any transfer of Palestinians, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, out of their homeland,” he said, adding that he still supports Trump as the best option to avoid conflict in Gaza. He said his organization changed its name to Arab Americans for Peace two days ago, reflecting its shift in focus following Trump’s election.Trump, Netanyahu aides appear to walk back parts of plan-A top aide to Netanyahu was quoted by Channel 12 on Wednesday portraying Trump’s plan as “a ‘hold me back,’ which we don’t know will actually take place,” meant to add a “psychological component” in ongoing negotiations with Hamas about the second phase of the nascent Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal.Meanwhile, some of Trump’s top aides have attempted to soften certain aspects of his plan, including US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Gazans’ displacement would be a temporary measure to facilitate the Strip’s reconstruction, contradicting Trump’s comment on Tuesday that he wants all Palestinians “permanently” removed from the Strip.Speaking with reporters in Guatemala City, on his first diplomatic trip abroad, Rubio said what Trump “very generously has offered is the ability of the United States to go in and help with debris removal, help with munitions removal, help with reconstruction, the rebuilding homes and businesses and things of this nature so that then people can move back in.”Meanwhile, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri told reporters Wednesday that Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, had assured Republican senators in a closed-door lunch at the US Capitol that Trump “doesn’t want to put any US troops on the ground, and he doesn’t want to spend any US dollars at all” on Gaza.Witkoff also told lawmakers that the administration had been “gestating on this plan for some time,” according to Hawley.Gaza takeover plan was reportedly unknown to top White House staff-The Missouri senator’s assertion ran counter to a Thursday report in The New York Times that Trump had not held discussions to explore the practicalities or legalities of his plan for Gaza before announcing it.According to The Times, prior to the announcement, “his administration had not done even the most basic planning to examine the feasibility” of such a proposal and the potential level of US involvement.Citing several unnamed officials, the newspaper reported that there had been no meetings with either the Pentagon or the State Department to discuss such a plan, as well as “no estimates of the troop numbers required, or cost estimates, or even an outline of how it might work.”One US official said Trump had never mentioned the involvement of US troops in Gaza before his pronouncement on Tuesday. Other advisers told the newspaper that they “expected the Gaza ownership idea to die away quietly as it became clear to Mr. Trump that it was unfeasible.”Trump told Netanyahu about the Gaza takeover plan shortly before their joint press conference on Tuesday, in a surprise to the premier, the Times said, citing two people briefed on the leaders’ interactions.Asked at the press conference about the “authority” that would enable the US to take control of a foreign territory, Trump said only that it was “not a decision made lightly” and that “everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land.”According to a report in The Times of Israel’s Hebrew sister site, Zman Yisrael, the outline of the plan originated with Joseph Pelzman, a professor at George Washington University, who published a paper in July 2024 entitled “An Economic Plan for Rebuilding Gaza.”The proposal outlines a plan for outside countries and figures to “invest” in rebuilding Gaza under a 50-year lease, after which “sovereignty” for residents would be addressed. According to the plan, the primary focus of reconstruction would be on the tourism sector, including building beachfront hotels.The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Trump told Netanyahu in a phone call in late summer 2024 that Gaza is a “prime piece of real estate” and that it could be an ideal site to construct hotels.Pelzman told a podcast in August 2024 that his paper “went to the Trump people because they were the ones who initially had an interest, not the Biden people.” He said that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, “wants to put money in it… they’re salivating to get in.”Pelzman said that under his proposal, the Gaza Strip would be “completely emptied out,” noting that “the United States can lean on Egypt” to accept refugees from Gaza because “Egypt is a bankrupt state” with significant debt to the US.While Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has not publicly responded to Trump’s proposal, Egypt has warned that the plan could undermine its peace treaty with Israel, a cornerstone of stability and American influence in the Middle East for decades.Kushner, who served as a senior adviser in Trump’s first administration but has so far remained behind the scenes this time around, said in February 2024 that Gaza’s waterfront property “could be very valuable.”The comments were widely panned at the time, with viewers suggesting Kushner wanted to expel the Palestinians and privately develop the land. Kushner has said that, when listened to in full, the recording demonstrates he was only making a point about the misuse of resources by Hamas to build tunnels and attack infrastructure rather than foster a peaceful economy.Hamas sparked the war in Gaza with its thousands-strong assault on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.Agencies contributed to this report.
Egypt said privately warning Trump’s Gaza plan endangers peace treaty with Israel-Officials say message has been passed to State Department and members of Congress and also conveyed to Israel and its Western European allies, including Britain, France and Germany By AP and ToI Staff 6 February 2025, 4:21 pm
CAIRO — Egypt has launched a behind-the-scenes diplomatic blitz to try to head off US President Donald Trump’s proposal for the mass relocation of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.Egypt has warned that such a plan could undermine its peace treaty with Israel, a cornerstone of stability and American influence in the Middle East for decades.Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has not publicly responded to Trump’s stunning proposal that most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians be relocated and the United States take charge of rebuilding the territory. The 15 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas, which began when the Palestinian terror group led thousands of terrorists on a devastating invasion of southern Israel, had reduced large parts of Gaza to rubble before a fragile ceasefire took hold last month.But Egyptian officials, speaking Wednesday on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks, said Cairo has made clear to the Trump administration and Israel that it will resist any such proposal, and that the peace deal with Israel — which has stood for nearly half a century — is at risk.One official said the message has been delivered to the Pentagon, the State Department, and members of the US Congress. A second official said it has also been conveyed to Israel and its Western European allies, including Britain, France, and Germany.A Western diplomat in Cairo, also speaking anonymously because the discussions have not been made public, confirmed receiving the message from Egypt through multiple channels. The diplomat said Egypt was very serious and viewed the plan as a threat to its national security.The diplomat said Egypt had rejected proposals from the Biden administration and European countries to take in some Gazan refugees early in the war, which was sparked by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The earlier proposals were broached privately, while Trump announced his plan at a White House press conference alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.The Trump administration has already dialed back aspects of the proposal after it was widely rejected internationally, saying the relocation of Palestinians would be temporary. US officials have provided few details about how or when the plan was intended to be carried out.In a social media post on Thursday, Trump said Israel would turn Gaza over to the United States after the war and that no US soldiers would be needed for his plan to redevelop it.The Palestinians have vehemently rejected Trump’s proposal, fearing that refugees would never be allowed to return.Saudi Arabia, another key US ally, has also rejected any mass transfer of Palestinians and says it will not normalize relations with Israel — a key goal of the Trump administration — without the creation of a Palestinian state that includes Gaza.Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal on Thursday slamed Trump’s proposal, calling it a “mad ethnic cleansing plan” in lockstep with the agenda of Israel’s far right.“It is a fantasy to think that ethnic cleansing in the 21st century can be condoned… There’s no way that I can explain it,” he said, warning that the plan will cause “more conflict and more bloodshed.”He called on the international community to take the matter up in the United Nations, but noted that “with the American veto, I cannot expect that there will be much success in passing any resolution.”Trump and Israeli officials have depicted the proposed relocation from war-ravaged Gaza as voluntary, but the Palestinians have universally expressed their determination to remain in their homeland.Trump and Israeli officials have not said how they would respond if Palestinians refuse to leave. But Human Rights Watch and other groups say the plan, if implemented, would amount to “ethnic cleansing,” the forcible relocation of the civilian population of an ethnic group from a geographic area.Defense Minister Israel Katz said he has ordered the military to make preparations to facilitate the voluntary emigration of large numbers of Palestinians from Gaza through land crossings as well as “special arrangements for exit by sea and air.”There were no immediate signs of such preparations on the ground and Israeli officials stressed that this was only for Palestinians who wanted to leave.US officials scale back Trump’s proposal-Trump said he wanted to “permanently” resettle most of Gaza’s population in other countries and for the United States to take charge of clearing debris and rebuilding Gaza as a “Riviera of the Middle East” for all people. He did not rule out the deployment of US troops there.US officials later appeared to walk it back, saying the relocation of Palestinians would be temporary and that Trump had not committed to putting American boots on the ground or spending American tax dollars in Gaza.The Egyptian officials said their government does not believe the Palestinians need to be relocated for reconstruction to proceed and is committed to the creation of a Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, territories Israel gained control of in the 1967 Six Day War.Israel’s government is opposed to Palestinian statehood and has said it will maintain open-ended security control over both Gaza and the West Bank. Israel annexed East Jerusalem in a move not recognized by most of the international community and considers the entire city its capital. Trump during his first term of office moved the US embassy to Jerusalem in a move seen as giving legitimacy to Israel’s holding of the unified city.Last week, Egypt hosted a meeting of top diplomats from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates — which was the driving force behind the 2020 Abraham Accords Trump brokered with Israel. All five Arab nations rejected the transfer of Palestinians out of Gaza or the West Bank.In an editorial on Thursday, Egypt’s main state-run daily, Al-Ahram, warned that “the Arab countries’ independence, their peoples’ unity and their territorial integrity are under grave threat.”
Report: Trump held no meetings on Gaza takeover plan before announcement-New York Times says president did not explore ‘feasibility’ or outline any details; George Washington University prof says he presented Trump’s campaign with similar plan last year-By ToI Staff 6 February 2025, 2:21 pm
US President Donald Trump did not hold meetings or discussions or explore any of the practicalities or legalities behind his proposal to take “ownership” of Gaza and displace its 2 million residents before announcing it at a press conference this week, according to a report Wednesday in The New York Times.Trump had recently repeatedly floated the idea that Egypt and Jordan take in some Gazan refugees while the Strip was being rebuilt — an idea they have both rejected. But on Tuesday the new US president went much further during a statement to the media at the White House alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, when he suggested that “the US will take over the Gaza Strip,” while the enclave’s residents should be resettled in other countries.According to The Times, prior to the announcement, “his administration had not done even the most basic planning to examine the feasibility” of such a proposal and the potential level of US involvement.Citing several unnamed officials, the newspaper reported that there had been no meetings with either the Pentagon or the State Department to discuss such a plan, as well as “no estimates of the troop numbers required, or cost estimates, or even an outline of how it might work.”One US official said Trump had never mentioned the involvement of US troops in Gaza before his pronouncement on Tuesday. And other advisers told the newspaper that they “expected the Gaza ownership idea to die away quietly as it became clear to Mr. Trump that it was unfeasible.”Asked at the press conference on Tuesday about the “authority” that would enable the US to take control of a foreign territory, Trump said only that it was “not a decision made lightly” and that “everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land.”During an interview on Fox News on Wednesday, Netanyahu said: “I don’t think [Trump] talked about sending US troops to complete the job of destroying Hamas — that’s our commitment, that’s our job and we’re absolutely committed to it.”He added, “I also don’t think he said he’s going to fund it. He said that neighboring states, wealthy states, would do it.”According to a report in The Times of Israel’s Hebrew sister site, Zman Yisrael, the outline of the plan originated with Joseph Pelzman, a professor at George Washington University, who published a paper in July 2024 entitled “An Economic Plan for Rebuilding Gaza.”The proposal outlines a plan for outside countries and figures to “invest” in rebuilding Gaza under a 50-year lease, after which “sovereignty” for residents would be addressed. According to the plan, the primary focus of reconstruction would be on the tourism sector, including building beachfront hotels.The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Trump told Netanyahu in a phone call in late summer 2024 that Gaza is a “prime piece of real estate” and that it could be an ideal site to construct hotels.Pelzman told a podcast in August 2024 that his paper “went to the Trump people, because they were the ones who initially had an interest, not the Biden people.” He said that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, “wants to put money in it… they’re salivating to get in.”Pelzman said that under his proposal, the Gaza Strip would be “completely emptied out,” noting that “the United States can lean on Egypt” to accept refugees from Gaza, because “Egypt is a bankrupt state” with significant debt to the US.Kushner, who served as a senior adviser in Trump’s first administration but has so far remained behind the scenes this time around, said in February 2024 that Gaza’s waterfront property “could be very valuable.”The comments were widely panned at the time, with viewers suggesting Kushner wanted to expel the Palestinians and privately develop the land. Kushner has said that, when listened to in full, the recording demonstrates he was only making a point about the misuse of resources by Hamas to build tunnels and attack infrastructure rather than foster a peaceful economy.
Full text: Trump, at press conference with Netanyahu, says US ‘will take over’ Gaza-US president: We’ll be ‘somewhat more violent’ if Hamas breaches hostage deal; Netanyahu: Trump’s Gaza plan ‘could change history,’ October 7 probe ‘will surprise a lot of people’By ToI Staff 6 February 2025, 3:21 pm
The following is a transcript of the February 4, 2025 press conference held by US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the East Room of the White House.President Donald Trump: Thank you very much. That’s a lot of press. Congratulations, you bring them out, you really bring them out.Today I’m delighted to welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu back to the White House. It’s a wonderful feeling and a wonderful event. We had fantastic talks, and thank you very much, with your staff.He’s the first foreign head of state to visit during our administration. And Bibi, I want to say it’s an honor to have you with us. Over the past four years, the US and the Israeli alliance has been tested more than any time in history, but the bonds of friendship and affection between the American and Israeli people have endured for generations, and they are absolutely unbreakable. They are unbreakable.I’m confident that under our leadership the cherished alliance between our two countries will soon be stronger than ever. We had a great relationship. We had great victories together four years ago. Not so many victories over the past four years, however.In my first term, [the] prime minister and I forged a tremendously successful partnership that brought peace and stability to the Middle East like it hadn’t seen in decades. Together, we defeated ISIS, we ended the disastrous Iran nuclear deal — one of the worst deals ever made, by the way — and imposed the toughest ever sanctions on the Iranian regime. We starved Hamas and Iran’s other terrorist proxies, and we starved them like they had never seen before; resources and support disappeared for them.I recognized Israel’s capital, opened the American embassy in Jerusalem and got it built, by the way — built it too — just, not only designated it but got it built, at a price that nobody has seen for 40 years. We got it built. It’s beautiful, all Jerusalem stone, right from nearby. And it was, it’s something that’s very special.And recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, something that they talked about for 70 years and they weren’t able to get it. And I got it. And with the historic Abraham Accords, something that was really an achievement — that was, I think, and they become more and more important, because we achieved the most significant Middle East peace agreements in half a century. But the Abraham Accords in particular.And I really believe that many countries will soon be joining this amazing peace and economic development transaction. It really is a big economic development transaction. I think we’re going to have a lot of people signing up very quickly.Unfortunately for four years, nobody signed up. Nobody did anything for four years except in the negative. Unfortunately, the weakness and incompetence of those years, those past four years, the grave damage around the globe that was done, including in the Middle East. Grave damage all over the globe. The horrors of October 7th would never have happened if I were president, the Ukraine and Russia disaster would never have happened if I were president.Over the past 16 months, Israel has endured a sustained aggressive and murderous assault on every front, but they fought back bravely. You see that, and you know that. What we have witnessed is an all-out attack on the very existence of a Jewish state in the Jewish homeland.The Israelis have stood strong and united in the face of an enemy that has kidnapped, tortured, raped and slaughtered innocent men, women, children and even little babies.I want to salute the Israeli people for meeting this trial with courage and determination and unflinching resolve. They have been strong.In our meetings today, the prime minister and I focused on the future, discussing how we can work together to ensure Hamas is eliminated and ultimately restore peace to a very troubled region. It’s been troubled, but what has happened in the last four years has not been good.I want to thank Prime Minister Netanyahu for working closely with my transition team. Special envoy Steve Witkoff, who is here somewhere: Steve? Stand up, Steve, please. What a job you’ve done. What a good job you’ve done. Proud of you. Done a fantastic job. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. Thank you, Mike, for working so well with us. Thank you. We have, in addition, Marco Rubio, who is on the phone right now, listening to every single word that we say. And he’s going to be great. And Pete, congratulations. And Scott, congratulations. I see you’re here. And Karoline’s been doing a great job. She’s really probably talked about more than anybody here. She’s done a fantastic job. And thank you very much, Karoline, we’re proud of you.But we’ll only be satisfied when all of these problems are solved. And we have the team to solve them. And that’s going to happen and it’s going to happen, I think, very quickly.I also strongly believe that the Gaza Strip, which has been a symbol of death and destruction for so many decades and so bad for the people anywhere near it, and especially those who live there, and frankly who’s been really very unlucky. It’s been very unlucky. It’s been an unlucky place for a long time. Being in its presence just has not been good. And it should not go through a process of rebuilding and occupation by the same people that have really stood there and fought for it and lived there and died there and lived a miserable existence there.Instead, we should go to other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts, and there are many of them that want to do this, and build various domains that will ultimately be occupied by the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza, ending the death and destruction and frankly bad luck.This could be paid for by neighboring countries of great wealth. It could be one, two, three, four, five, seven, eight, twelve. It could be numerous sites, or it could be one large site. But the people will be able to live in comfort and peace and we’ll get sure, we’ll make sure something really spectacular is done. They’re going to have peace. They’re not going to be shot at and killed and destroyed like this civilization of wonderful people has had to endure.The only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is they have no alternative. It’s right now a demolition site. This is just a demolition site. Virtually every building is down. They’re living under fallen concrete that’s very dangerous and very precarious.They instead can occupy all of a beautiful area with homes and safety, and they can live out their lives in peace and harmony, instead of having to go back and do it again.The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings.The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings. Level it out. Create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area. Do a real job. Do something different. Just can’t go back. If you go back, it’s going to end up the same way it has for a hundred years.I’m hopeful that this ceasefire could be the beginning of a larger and more enduring peace that will end the bloodshed and killing once and for all. With the same goal in mind, my administration has been moving quickly to restore trust in the alliance and rebuild American strength throughout the region, and we’ve really done that. We’re a respected nation again. A lot’s happened in the last couple of weeks. We are actually a very respected nation again.I ended the last administration’s de facto arms embargo on over one billion dollars in military assistance for Israel.And I’m also pleased to announce that this afternoon, the United States withdrew from the antisemitic UN Human Rights Council and ended all of the support for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which funneled money to Hamas, and which was very disloyal to humanity.Today, I also took action to restore a maximum pressure policy on the Iranian regime, and we will once again enforce the most aggressive possible sanctions, drive Iranian oil exports to zero and diminish the regime’s capacity to fund terror throughout the region and throughout the world.We had no threat when I left office. Iran was not able to sell oil. Nobody was buying oil because I said: Don’t buy it. If you buy it, you’re not doing any business with the United States.And Hamas was not being funded. Hezbollah was not being funded. Nobody was being funded. There would never have been an October 7th.Two weeks ago, I once again designated the Houthis as a terrorist organization. They’re trying to destroy world shipping lanes. And that’s not going to happen.And over the weekend, I ordered air strikes against senior ISIS leaders hiding in the caves of Somalia, and took them out.Here in America, we’ve begun the process of deporting foreign terrorists, jihadists and Hamas sympathizers from our soil, just as we have people that are extremely evil. And we’re sending them out of our country. They came from jails. They came from mental institutions and insane asylums. And they were dumped into our country. They’re gang members. And we’re getting them out at numbers that nobody can actually believe. And every single country is taking those people back. They said they would never take them back, and they’re all taking them back. And they’re taking them back very gladly.Together, America and Israel will renew the optimism that shined so brightly just four years agoAnd I recently signed an executive order combating the vile wave of antisemitism that we’ve seen in the aftermath of the October 7th attacks.Together, America and Israel will renew the optimism that shined so brightly just four years ago. It was really a bright, beautiful light. We will restore calm and stability to the region and expand prosperity, opportunity and hope to our nations and for all people of the Middle East, including the Arab and Muslim nations. Very important. We want the Arab and Muslim nations to have peace and have tranquility and have great lives.I’d like to now invite Prime Minister Netanyahu to say a few words. And we’ll take some questions afterwards. Thank you, very much.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: Thank you, Mr President. I’m honored that you invited me to be the first foreign leader to visit the White House in your second term. This is a testament to your friendship and support for the Jewish state and the Jewish people.I’ve said this before, I’ll say it again: You are the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House. And that’s why the people of Israel have such enormous respect for you.In your first term, you recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. You moved the American embassy there. You recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. You withdrew from the disastrous Iran nuclear deal. I remember we spoke about it, and you said this is the worst deal I’ve ever seen. I’m elected. I’m walking out of it. That’s exactly what you did.And I think it speaks loudly for just common sense, just looking at things and seeing them as they are.And of course, you also brokered the groundbreaking Abraham Accords in which Israel made peace with four Arab states. We did this in four months. Nothing happened for a quarter of a century. But in four months, we were able, working together under your leadership, to have four historic peace accords. And now, now in the first days of your second term, you picked up right where you left off.Your leadership helped bring our hostages home. Among them, American citizens.You freed up munitions that have been withheld from Israel. They had been withheld from Israel in the midst of a seven-front war for our existence. And you just freed it.You ended unjust sanctions against law-abiding Israeli citizens.You boldly confronted the scourge of antisemitism.You stopped funding, as you just said, international organizations, like UNRWA, that support and fund terrorists.And today, you renewed the maximum pressure campaign against Iran.Ladies and gentlemen, all this in just two weeks. Can we imagine where we’ll be in four years? I can. I know you can, Mr President.For our part, we in Israel have been pretty busy too. Since the horrendous October 7th attack, we’ve been fighting our common enemies and changing the face of the Middle East.On that infamous day, Hamas monsters savagely murdered 1,200 innocent people, including more than 40 Americans. They beheaded men. They raped women. They burned babies alive. And they took 251 people hostage to the dungeons of Gaza.And after this worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust, Iran and its henchmen in the Middle East were absolutely ecstatic. Haniyeh praised the massacre. Sinwar said that Israel was finished. Nasrallah boasted that Israel was — here’s what he said — “is feeble as a spider’s web.”Well, Mr President, Haniya is gone. Sinwar is gone. Nasrallah is gone. We’ve devastated Hamas. We decimated Hezbollah.We destroyed Assad’s remaining armaments. And we crippled Iran’s air defenses.And in doing this, we’ve defeated some of America’s worst enemies. We took out terrorists who were wanted for decades for shedding rivers of American blood, including the blood of 241 Marines murdered in Beirut.Today, the roar of the Lion of Judah is heard loudly throughout the Middle East. Israel has never been stronger. And the Iran terror axis has never been weakerWe accomplished all this with the indomitable spirit of our people and the boundless courage of our soldiers. The Bible says that the people of Israel shall rise like lions. And boy, did we rise. Today, the roar of the Lion of Judah is heard loudly throughout the Middle East.Israel has never been stronger. And the Iran terror axis has never been weaker.But as we discussed, Mr President, to secure our future and bring peace to our region, we have to finish the job.In Gaza, Israel has three goals: destroy Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, secure the release of all of our hostages, and ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel.I believe, Mr President, that your willingness to puncture conventional thinking –thinking that has failed time and time and time again — your willingness to think outside the box with fresh ideas, will help us achieve all these goals.And I’ve seen you do this many times. You cut to the chase. You see things others refuse to see. You say things others refuse to say. And then, after the jaws drop, people scratch their heads. And they say, You know? He’s right.And this is the kind of thinking that enabled us to bring the Abraham Accords. This is the kind of thinking that will reshape the Middle East and bring peace.We also see eye-to-eye on Iran. That’s the same Iran that tried to kill us both. They tried to kill you, Mr President. And they tried, through their proxies, to kill me. We’re both committed to rolling back Iran’s aggression in the region and ensuring that Iran never develops a nuclear weapon.Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Israel will end the war by winning the war. Israel’s victory will be America’s victory. We will not only win the war. Working together, we will win the peace. With your leadership, Mr President, and our partnership, I believe that we will forge a brilliant future for our region and bring our great alliance to even greater heights. Thank you.Trump: Thank you very much, Bibi. Very nice. Thank you.And JD Vance, everybody. JD, please, vice president, stand up. He’s been doing a good job. He’s been working very hard on all things, but this in particular.We’ll take some questions, please. Yes, ma’am, go ahead, please. Go ahead. Yeah, go ahead. Question: Mr President, can a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia be achieved without the acknowledgment of a Palestinian state? That question for you, too, Mr Prime Minister. And Mr President, given what you’ve said about Gaza, did the US send troops to help secure the security vacuum?The Saudis are wonderful people. And they want peace in the Middle EastTrump: So, Saudi Arabia is going to be very helpful. And they have been very helpful. They want peace in the Middle East. It’s very simple. We know their leader and their leaders very well. They are wonderful people. And they want peace in the Middle East.As far as Gaza is concerned, we’ll do what is necessary. If it’s necessary, we’ll do that. We’re going to take over that piece and we’re going to develop it, create thousands and thousands of jobs. And it will be something that the entire Middle East can be very proud of.But everybody feels that continuing the same process that’s gone on forever, over and over again, and then it starts, and then the killing starts, and all of the other problems start, and you end up in the same place. And we don’t want to see that happen.So, by the United States, with its stability and strength, owning it, especially the strength that we’re developing and developed over the last fairly short period of time, I would say really since the election, I think we’ll be a great keeper of something that is very, very strong, very powerful and very, very good for the area — not just for Israel, for the entire Middle East. It’s very important. And we’ll again have thousands of jobs. And there will be jobs for everyone, not for a specific group of people, but for everybody. Okay? Please.Netanyahu: I think peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia is not only feasible, I think it’s going to happen. I think if we had another half a year in your first term, it would have already happened.Trump: It’s true. Many, many more, I agree, many more nations.Netanyahu: Going to happen. I think you can’t prejudge and pre-guess how we’ll achieve it. But I’m committed to achieving it, and I know the president is committed to achieving it, and I think the Saudi leadership is interested to achieve it. So, we’ll give it a good shot, and I think we’ll succeed.Trump: Yeah, please go ahead. Question: First of all, President Trump, did you hear from Prime Minister Netanyahu [inaudible] guarantees that the ceasefire will go on, including Phase 2? And Prime Minister Netanyahu, for you. Why are you refusing to set up a national commission to investigate the failures of October 7th?Trump: Well, I can’t tell you whether or not the ceasefire will hold. We’ve done, I think, a very masterful job. We weren’t helped very much by the Biden administration, I can tell you that. But we’ve gotten quite a few hostages out. We’re going to get more out. But we’re dealing with very complex people, and we are going to see whether or not it holds. We certainly want to have more come out.They’ve come out damaged in many ways — damaged, very damaged people. But they’re going to get better, and they’re going to be strong, and they’re going to have a good life. And we hope to get as many as possible out. Whether or not it holds, I don’t know. We hope it holds. We hope it holds.An independent commission… should find out exactly what happened [regarding October 7]. I’m insisting on it. And believe me, it will surprise a lot of people when it happens Netanyahu: I think that at the appropriate time, which I think will enable us to really investigate what happened, what were the causes of the failures, by an independent commission, that will be accepted by the majority of the people. We don’t want it accepted by one half of the people and not the other. I think we should have it, and we should find out exactly what happened. I’m insisting on it. And believe me, it will surprise a lot of people when it happens.Trump: Kelly, go ahead, please.Question: Mr President, you are outlining something that is really quite striking. You are talking about — okay. Thank you. Mr President, Mr Prime Minister, you are talking tonight about the United States taking over a sovereign territory. What authority would allow you to do that? Are you talking about a permanent occupation there, redevelopment? And Mr Prime Minister, do you see this idea as a way to expand the boundaries of Israel and to have a longer peace, even though the Israeli people know how important that land is to you and your citizens, just as the space is inherited by the Palestinians as well? Trump: I do see a long-term ownership position, and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East, and maybe the entire Middle East. And everybody I’ve spoken to — this was not a decision made lightly — everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing, and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent in a really magnificent area that nobody would know.Nobody can look because all they see is death and destruction and rubble and demolished buildings falling all over. It’s just a terrible, terrible sight. I’ve studied it. I’ve studied this very closely over a lot of months, and I’ve seen it from every different angle. And it’s a very, very dangerous place to be, and it’s only going to get worse. And I think this is an idea that’s gotten tremendous — I’m talking about from the highest level of leadership — gotten tremendous praise. And if the United States can help to bring stability and peace in the Middle East, we’ll do that.Bibi? Netanyahu: I mentioned again tonight our three goals, and the third goal is to make sure that Gaza never poses a threat to Israel again. President Trump is taking it to a much higher level. He sees a different future for that piece of land that has been the focus of so much terrorism, so many attacks against us. So many trials and so many tribulations.He has a different idea, and I think it’s worth paying attention to this. We’re talking about it; he’s exploring it with his people, with his staff. I think it’s something that could change history, and it’s worthwhile really pursuing this avenue.Trump: Yeah, please, go ahead. Go ahead.Question: Mr President, a question for you. Can you hear me?Trump: Yeah.Question: So, before rebuilding Gaza again and obviously [inaudible] all the hostages, and one of them is [inaudible], an American soldier, who is alive. How will you be sure that you will take out all the hostages and then rebuild? Trump: We’re working very hard to get all the hostages. The word is “all”, and we are working very hard. So far, it’s been moving along fairly rapidly, pretty much on schedule. I’d love to have them all out at one time, but we’re taking them out, and tomorrow more are being released, and over the days more, and then we’ll go into a phase two. But we’d like to get all of the hostages.And if we don’t, it will just make us somewhat more violent, I will tell you that, because they would have broken their word.Mr Witkoff and his entire group have been working 24 hours, around the clock, and they want them out. And promises have been made to them. And we’ll see whether or not those promises will be kept. But we want all the hostages, that’s right.Question: How much time do you think it will take? Question: Mr President, do you support Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria areas, which many believe is the biblical homeland of the Jewish people? Trump: Well, we’re discussing that with many of your representatives. You’re represented very well, and people do like the idea, but we haven’t taken a position on it yet. But we will be making an announcement, probably, on that very specific topic, over the next four weeks.Go ahead, please, please.Question: Thank you so much, Mr President. So, you just said that you think all the Palestinians should be relocated to other countries. Does that mean that you do not support the two-state solution?Trump: It doesn’t mean anything about a two-state or a one-state or any other state. It means that we want to give people a chance at life. They have never had a chance at life, because the Gaza Strip has been a hellhole for people living there. It’s been horrible. Hamas has made it so bad, so bad, so dangerous, so unfair to people.And by doing what I’m recommending that we do — it’s a very strong recommendation, but it is a strong recommendation — by doing that, we think we’re going to bring perhaps great peace to long beyond this area. And I have to stress: This is not for Israel, this is for everybody in the Middle East – Arabs, Muslims. This is for everybody. This would be where they can partake in terms of jobs and living and all of the other benefits. And I think it’s very important. It just doesn’t work the other way. You know, you can’t keep trying. It just has been going along for so many decades, you can’t even count.You just can’t keep doing – you have to learn from history — you can’t keep doing the same mistake over and over again. Gaza is a hellhole right now. It was before the bombing started, frankly. And we’re going to give people a chance to live in a beautiful community that’s safe and secure. And I think you’re going to see a tremendous outflowing of support.I can tell you, I spoke to other leaders of countries in the Middle East, and they love the idea. They say it would really bring stability, and what we need is stability.Yes, sir, please. Go ahead.Question: Thank you. Are you still committed to imposing sanctions on the ICC, despite the move being stalled in the Senate? And please, a question for the prime minister as well. The president has been very clear about his desire to achieve a deal with Saudi Arabia. How do you settle this if Israel is required to renew the war against Hamas in the future?Trump: Go ahead, Bibi. Netanyahu: I think everybody understands that just as the president fought and defeated al-Qaeda and ISIS, that we can’t leave Hamas there, because Hamas will continue the battle to destroy Israel.You know, in this temporary ceasefire, one of their leaders comes out. You know what he says? We’re going to do October 7th, again, except we’ll do it bigger. So, obviously, you can’t talk about peace, neither with Hamas or in the Middle East, if this, you know, toxic murderous organization is left standing, any more that you could make peace in Europe after World War II, if the Nazi regime was left standing and the Nazi army was left standing.You want a different future, you’ve got to knock out the people who want to destroy you and destroy peace. That’s what we’re going to do. I think that will also bring, usher in, actually, the peace with Saudi Arabia and with others. And I think there will be others too.Trump: Yes, ma’am, go ahead.Question: Mr President, I am from Afghanistan. My name is Nazira Karimi. I am an Afghan-suffered woman who has high expectations from you. Do you have any plan to change Afghanistan’s situation? Are you able to recognize Taliban? Because I’m an Afghan journalist, Afghan-suffered woman. Any comment about Afghanistan? What’s your future plan toward Afghan people, especially Afghanistan? Thank you.Trump: I have a little hard time understanding you. Where are you from?Question: Afghanistan.Trump: Oh. Actually, it’s a beautiful voice and a beautiful accent. The only problem is, I can’t understand a word you’re saying. But I’d just say this: Good luck. Live in peace. Go ahead, please.Question: Thank you. Thank you. Mr. President?Trump: That’s OK. Yeah. Please.Question: And prime minister. You said earlier today that it was tough for you to implement these sanctions on Iran.Trump: Yeah.Question: But you did indicate that you were willing to negotiate with them. What would that look like? And are you in conversations with them? And the same for the prime minister, sir? Trump: Yeah. I hated doing it. I want Iran to be peaceful and successful. I hated doing it. I did it once before. And we brought them down to a level where they were unable to give any money. They had to survive themselves. And they had no money. They were essentially broke.And they had no money for, as I said, Hezbollah. They had no money for Hamas. They had no money for any form of terror. The 28, if you call it, the 28 sites of terror, they had no money for any of it. They had to do their own and focus on their own well-being. And I hated to do it then. And I hate to do it just as much now. And I say this, and I say this to Iran, who is listening very intently: I would love to be able to make a great deal, a deal where you can get on with your lives and you’ll do wonderfully. You’ll do wonderfully.Incredible people. Industrious, beautiful, just an unbelievable group of people in Iran. And I know them well. I have many friends from Iran and many friends that are Americans from Iran. And they’re very proud of Iran. But I hated to do it, just so you understand. And I hope we’re going to be able to do something so that it doesn’t end up in a very catastrophic situation. I don’t want to see that happen. I really want to see peace. And I hope that we’re able to do that.They cannot have a nuclear weapon. It’s very simple. I’m not putting restrictions. I’m not. They cannot have one thing. They cannot have a nuclear weapon. And if I think that they will have a nuclear weapon, despite what I just said, I think that’s going to be very unfortunate for them.If on the other hand, they can convince us that they won’t — and I hope they can, it’s very easy to do, it’s actually very easy to do — I think they’re going to have an unbelievable future.Yeah, please, sir.Question: Thank you, Mr President. You just laid out your plan for Gaza. Can you lay out your plan for Ukraine? And also –Trump: For Ukraine? Question: For Ukraine, yes. You consider yourself a strong leader. You blame your predecessor for letting Russia to take over Ukraine. Will you demand from Putin to get out of Ukraine from sovereign territory of Ukraine? Trump: So we’re dealing, right now, on the subject. I don’t want to spend a lot of time because we’re here for another reason. But we are having very good talks, very constructive talks on Ukraine. We are talking to the Russians. We’re talking to the Ukrainian leadership. It would have never happened, that would have never happened, it should have never happened. I get reports every week — the number of soldiers, mostly soldiers now. The cities have been largely demolished. You talk about a very sad sight to see. We talk Gaza, well, many of these cities look as bad as Gaza and worse, what’s happened to them. And I want to see that end. And I want to see it end for one simple reason, the life of young people being absolutely obliterated on both sides.You probably have 700,000 Ukrainian soldiers dead; 800,000, maybe more, Russian soldiers dead. It’s very flat land. And the only thing that’s going to stop a bullet is a human body. In this case, usually soldiers. And the numbers are staggering. When you hear the real numbers in Ukraine, what the numbers are. And this doesn’t include the cities that have been demolished and all of the people that were killed.So, I want to see it stopped. We’re having very good talks. And I think we’re going to get it. I think something will be — hopefully dramatically — it will rise above everything. And you have to. You can’t let this continue. You can’t. This is an absolute slaughter that’s taking place on the beautiful farmlands of Ukraine. And we have to stop it. We can’t let this continue. It is a human tragedy. And we’re going to try very hard to stop it.Yeah, please go ahead, sir. Go ahead.Question: Thank you very much. Okay. Mr President, what’s your view about Palestinian leader Abbas’s role in all the regional changes you want to do? And the question for the prime minister, what’s your view on President Trump wanting to reach a deal with Iran and not a much more active military stance towards them?Trump: Go ahead, Bibi. Go ahead.Netanyahu: I think the president just said something that, I think, is the pivot of everything that we’re talking about. He said: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. And we fully agree with that. If this goal can be achieved by a maximum-pressure campaign, so be it. But I think the most important thing is to focus on the goal, which the president just did. And I fully agree with him.Trump: Well, I said it and he said it very well. It’s a campaign of pressure to see if we can get something done. He doesn’t want to do what some people think will automatically happen. Because they’re very difficult people to deal with, as you know. But if we could solve this problem without warfare, without all of the things that you’ve been witnessing over the last number of years, I think it would be a tremendous thing.Go ahead, please.Question: Do you have any plans to visit Israel soon?Trump: To visit where? Question: Israel? And Gaza?Trump: Oh, well, I love Israel. I will visit there. And I’ll visit Gaza. And I’ll visit Saudi Arabia. And I’ll visit other places all over the Middle East. The Middle East is an incredible place, so vibrant. It’s just one of the really beautiful places. And with great people. And I think a lot of bad leadership has taken place in the Middle East that has allowed this to happen. It’s just terrible.And that includes on the American side, by the way. We should have never gone in there a long time ago, spent trillions of dollars and created so much death. So it includes Americans.But, yeah, I’ll be visiting a lot of different places in the Middle East. I’ve been invited everywhere, but I will be visiting some, yeah.Okay. Let’s go. Kaitlan, go ahead.Question: Just a follow-up on what you were saying about the Gazans leaving Gaza going to other countries. One, where exactly are you suggesting that they should go? And two, are you saying they should return after it’s rebuilt? And if not, who do you envision living there? Trump: I envision people living there, the world’s people. I think you’ll make that into an international, unbelievable place. I think the potential in the Gaza Strip is unbelievable. And I think the entire world, representatives from all over the world, will be there and they’ll…Question: Palestinians? Trump: … and they’ll live there. Palestinians also. Palestinians will live there, many people will live there. But they’ve tried the other, and they’ve tried it for decades and decades and decades. It’s not going to work. It didn’t work. It will never work. And you have to learn from history. History has — you know, you just can’t let it keep repeating itself. We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal. And I don’t want to be cute. I don’t want to be a wise guy. But the Riviera of the Middle East, this could be something that could be so magnificent. But more importantly than that, is the people that have been absolutely destroyed that live there now, can live in peace in a much better situation because they are living in hell. And those people will now be able to live in peace.We’ll make sure that it’s done world-class. It will be wonderful for the people. Palestinians. Palestinians — mostly we’re talking about. And I have a feeling that despite them saying no, I have a feeling that the king in Jordan and that the general — president, the general — in Egypt, will open their hearts and will give us the kind of land that we need to get this done, and people can live in harmony and in peace.Thank you all, very much. Thank you.
