EU MIDDLE EAST ENVOY:BLOC STILL COMMITTED TO A TWO-STATE SOLUTION.

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)

 
EU MIDDLE EAST ENVOY:BLOC STILL COMMITTED TO A TWO-STATE SOLUTION.

‘Fighting the same battle’: After Oct. 7, settlers court Republican evangelicals-Groups, including one founded hours after start of Hamas onslaught, fund visits for prominent GOP officials: ‘Having friends and voices like that in very high places in the US helps us’-By Jonathan Saul and Simon Lewis 20 July 2024, 5:33 pm

Reuters — Ruth Lieberman, a settler in the West Bank, is determined to thwart international pressure for a sovereign Palestinian state. And her friendships with prominent United States Republicans from the party’s religious right are helping, she says.Weeks after Hamas led the thousands-strong October 7 attack on southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, Lieberman hosted pro-Israel, conservative US Senator Mike Lee of Utah, a Mormon, for a Shabbat meal in her family home, Senate records show.The conversation turned to Palestinian statehood, and Lieberman told Lee the attack had hardened Israeli opposition to the idea, she said in an interview from her home near Bethlehem, in Alon Shvut, within one of the West Bank’s largest clusters of settlements, known as Gush Etzion. Lee did not respond to requests for comment.Such visits are helping align the views of senior Republican Party officials with settlers and the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the wake of October 7, said Lieberman, a political consultant who often hosts US delegations visiting settlements.“Having friends and voices like that in very high places in the US helps us,” she said of Lee and US House Speaker Mike Johnson, an evangelical Christian who visited her family in February 2020 during the presidency of Donald Trump, long before becoming speaker. Johnson did not respond to requests for comment.Ever since October 7, Lieberman and others have intensified their efforts, hoping to influence the Republican Party’s position ahead of the November US election that could return Trump to office.Lieberman and a delegation of settler officials pressed the case at meetings with Johnson and Lee, among others, in Washington last month, according to a statement from the delegation.Reuters visited two Gush Etzion settlements and spoke to two dozen Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and Israel, three current and former Trump aides and three evangelical leaders between March and July.The people Reuters spoke to described grassroots groups of settlers, members of Israel’s religious right and conservative Christians working to convince Trump and the Republican Party to drop longstanding US support for a Palestinian state, arguing it rewarded the October 7 violence.While Trump has suggested US policy could change, neither he nor the party have been explicit about their position towards a Palestinian state if they win the election.Campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt did not reply to questions about Trump’s views on settlements and the future of Palestinians. She said Israel had never had a better friend in the White House than Trump.The US backed the 1993 Oslo Accords, which charted a pathway to Palestinian statehood, supporting what is known as the two-state solution.Palestinians and most countries, including the United States, say Israel’s West Bank settlements violate international law and mark an ongoing encroachment that blocks aspirations of statehood. On Friday, the top United Nations court ruled that Israel’s 56-year-long rule in “the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967” is “illegal,” and that it is obligated to bring its presence in that territory to an end “as rapidly as possible.” Israel called the ruling “fundamentally wrong.”The Gaza war has revived pressure, including publicly from US President Joe Biden, for a negotiated Palestinian nation neighboring Israel, which Palestinians foresee including the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.Within Israel itself, two states remain the most popular way to peace, a May poll by Tel Aviv University showed, though support fell to only 33 percent of respondents, down from 43% before October 7.However, annexation of the West Bank by Israel and limiting rights for Palestinians living there, an option favored by some settlers, had the support of 32% of Israelis, up from 27% before October 7. It is seen as an increasingly likely outcome, the poll showed.Ohad Tal, a lawmaker with the hardline far-right Religious Zionism party who lives in Gush Etzion, said settler leaders who seek to annex West Bank lands permanently were increasingly looking to Trump and his evangelical allies for support.“It’s one of our main goals right now to strengthen connections with these groups,” Tal said of evangelical Christians. “We are fighting the same battle.”‘Keep God’s land’Israeli Rabbi Pesach Wolicki has long advocated for cooperation between Israel’s religious right and what he calls America’s Christian Zionists, evangelicals who see prophecy being fulfilled with the return of Jews to the biblical Judea and Samaria, much of which lies in the West Bank and was captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.Starting on the night of October 7, Wolicki said, he began gathering similar-minded leaders together in a campaign they called “Keep God’s Land” that aims to influence Trump and the Republican Party to reject a two-state solution, using US religious media outlets and conferences to lobby against Biden’s argument for a Palestinian state.Keep God’s Land says it has grown into a coalition of more than 1,000 Jewish and Christian faith leaders.The conservatism and size of the US evangelical community, which numbers in the tens of millions, makes it an appealing ally for the Israeli right, said Rachel Moore, who has also received delegations of US Congress members and lives in the Gush Etzion settlement of Neve Daniel.“There’s a perception that only the Christian community gets it,” said Moore, referring to the political distance some right-wing Israelis feel from the liberal stance of many US Jews, especially over the ongoing settlement of the West Bank.Fears of Christians trying to convert Jews make such engagement contentious in Israel.Southern Baptist pastor Tony Perkins, president of the evangelical advocacy group the Family Research Council, has been another important figure in aligning Christian and Israeli conservatives and has been featured at Keep God’s Land events.As a Republican National Committee delegate, Perkins is pushing to keep Israel a priority in the campaign. He said support for settlers among evangelicals rose after October 7.A Pew survey in February found 33% of US white evangelical Protestants supported the idea of a single state under Israeli control, up by four percentage points from 2022 and twice as high as the average respondent.Perkins, who visited Gush Etzion in March and also met Netanyahu, was an early advocate for bringing US Congress members to West Bank settlements, said Heather Johnston, a specialist on Israel in Biblical prophecy and CEO of the US Israel Education Association.In recent years, groups including Lieberman’s foundation and USIEA have organized privately financed trips by dozens of mostly Republican members of Congress to the settlements, which were previously rarely visited by US officials.‘Judea and Samaria’Keep God’s Land gathered on April 15 at the headquarters of the Heritage Foundation, the leading conservative think-tank on Washington’s Capitol Hill.Speakers included Republican Senator and former Florida governor Rick Scott, Israeli lawmaker Tal and Republican Congresswoman Claudia Tenney of New York, who in March introduced a bill to the House of Representatives to use the biblical name “Judea and Samaria” in official US documents instead of the West Bank.The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. “Judea and Samaria” is right-wing Israelis’ preferred term.Scott’s office did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Tenney declined to comment.Since October 7, Netanyahu’s government has accelerated to the fastest pace in 30 years plans to build on West Bank land, including in Gush Etzion, according to Israeli NGO Peace Now, which tracks and opposes West Bank settlements.This expansion has “one goal, which is displacing Palestinians from their lands,” charged Juliette Banoura, a Bethlehem resident who researches settlements.The number of Israelis in the West Bank has grown by a third to 700,000 in the past decade, the UN says, about 10% of Israel’s Jewish population.Settler violence has exploded over the past year, prompting US and European Union sanctions on people and entities they blame for the escalation. All the people Reuters spoke to denounced such violence.David Friedman, who as ambassador to Israel in 2020 developed Trump’s plan for a limited Palestinian state, now advocates for a single, expanded Israel without full citizenship for Palestinians, an arrangement he likened in an interview to Puerto Rico. He said he had not discussed the plan with Trump.Residents of Puerto Rico, an impoverished US territory, are considered US citizens but cannot vote in presidential elections.Denying Palestinians statehood leads to more conflict, said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesperson for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.“To live peacefully in the area, they have to reach an agreement with the Palestinians,” he said.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Ex-president quips Democrats 'have no idea who their candidate is' ‘I took a bullet for democracy,’ Trump says at first rally since assassination attempt-In fiery but typically rambling speech, Republican presidential nominee riffs on his hardline immigration views, while espousing falsehoods about migrant crime-By Michael Mathes Today, 3:25 am-JUL 21,24

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan (AFP) — Donald Trump, holding his first campaign rally Saturday since surviving an assassination attempt, rejected concerns that he is a threat to democracy, triumphantly telling a cheering crowd: “Last week I took a bullet for democracy.”“I’m not an extremist at all,” the Republican continued at the rally in swing state Michigan, dismissing his reported links to Project 2025, a shadow manifesto from figures close to him that has been characterized by opponents as an authoritarian, right-wing wish list.And he mocked the rival Democratic Party, roiled by unprecedented pressure for President Joe Biden to abandon his reelection bid amid concerns over his age and fitness to serve, if reelected, until 2029.“They have no idea who their candidate is… This guy goes and he gets the votes, and now they want to take it away. That’s democracy,” Trump told the 12,000-strong crowd of passionate supporters.In the fiery but typically rambling speech, the Republican presidential nominee riffed on his hardline immigration views, while espousing falsehoods about migrant crime.He also expressed admiration for foreign autocrats including the “brilliant” Xi Jinping of China, whom he praised for controlling “1.4 billion people with an iron fist.”And he evoked the seconds after a gunman tried to kill him at a rally in Pennsylvania, when, bloodied and surrounded by Secret Service agents, he raised a fist and yelled for his supporters to “fight!”The crowd in Grand Rapids chanted the word back to him Saturday more than once, though some appeared to tire of the lengthy address after 90 minutes and began filing out of the arena.The rally represented a moment remarkable by any measure, with Trump back on stage exactly one week since the assassination attempt.He appeared wearing a new, smaller, flesh-colored bandage over his right ear, grazed in the attack by a 20-year-old gunman on a rooftop who also killed one bystander.Security was reportedly tight inside the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, amid questions over Secret Service lapses at the Pennsylvania rally — though there were few visible signs of any greater law enforcement presence.Biden’s ‘big decision’Meanwhile, Biden loyalists continued to defend the embattled president as the drumbeat of calls for him to abandon his campaign grows louder.The 81-year-old and his team have remained publicly adamant that he is staying in the race, though some reports suggest discussions have begun in his inner circle about how exactly he might step aside.There has been massive speculation over who could replace him. As vice president, Harris appears best positioned to do so.Senator Elizabeth Warren, a leading progressive who sought the party’s presidential nod in 2020, gave Harris a boost Saturday without turning her back on the president.“Joe Biden is our nominee,” she said on MSNBC. “He has a really big decision to make.“But what gives me a lot of hope right now is that if President Biden decides to step back, we have Vice President Kamala Harris, who is ready to step up, to unite the party, to take on Donald Trump, and to win in November.”Some Democrats, however, fear that such a late switch could trigger chaos, dooming the party at the polls.Team Trump, for its part, is effervescent after an exceptional streak of luck — from the failed assassination bid to favorable court rulings and Biden’s disastrous debate performance last month.Saturday was Trump’s debut campaign appearance with running mate J.D. Vance, a 39-year-old US senator from Ohio who could help win over critical swing states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.Vance warmed up the crowd, taking a swipe at Harris.“I did serve in the United States Marine Corps and build a business. What the hell have you done, other than collect a check?” he said of the former US senator and California attorney general.Trump supporters had begun lining up in their dozens in Grand Rapids on Friday, nearly a full day before the rally began.Edward Young, 64, attending his 81st Trump rally, was wearing a T-shirt showing the already iconic photo of Trump pumping his fist immediately after being shot.“They have turned him into a martyr and left him alive,” he said.“Now he’s more powerful than ever.”

Analysis-Plaudits and protests: What to expect when Netanyahu addresses the US Congress-Speaker Johnson has pledged greater security to arrest disruptors, as bipartisan support for the war in Gaza has crumbled; some Democrats will boycott, others may protest on floor-By Ron Kampeas 20 July 2024, 2:51 pm

WASHINGTON (JTA) — One thing we know for sure: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will stand at a podium in the United States House of Representatives at 2 p.m. on Wednesday and make the case for continued support for Israel.Okay, even that’s not quite certain in these uncertain times: If US President Joe Biden steps down before then, if Israel’s seven-front war escalates, or even if it abates — Netanyahu’s visit stateside to deliver a history-making fourth address to Congress could be canceled or postponed.Here’s a look at what we do know, as of this moment:What Netanyahu will say-House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, ostensibly asked Netanyahu to speak so he could thank Americans for backing Israel in its war with Hamas.Johnson had to cajole Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the Jewish New York Democrat who has said Netanyahu is failing as a leader, into co-signing the invitation.Netanyahu’s mission isn’t just to thank America, but to push back against deep unhappiness among Democrats and in the Biden White House with how he has conducted the war, which at first elicited broad bipartisan support.Biden will not deliver to Israel large bombs as long as its army is fighting in crowded areas in Gaza, and a growing minority of Democrats are calling into question defense assistance for Israel.Johnson made clear in a talk this week with Jewish Republicans at the party convention in Milwaukee that one reason he asked Netanyahu to speak was to tweak Democrats as Republicans vie for Jewish votes and support.“I said if Chuck Schumer doesn’t want to attend, that’s up to him,” Johnson said to laughter.Who’s coming to the speech? The last time Netanyahu spoke to Congress in 2015, it was also to push back against a policy favored by a Democratic president and his party. Then-speaker, Republican John Boehner, timed the announcement of his invitation (without consulting with Democrats) for the day after then-US president Barack Obama outlined his Iran policy in the State of the Union.A month or so later, when Netanyahu spoke, almost 60 Democrats boycotted, not necessarily because they felt Obama’s policies were beyond criticism, but because they saw Netanyahu’s collusion with Boehner to upbraid Obama in the US parliamentary body as disrespectful.This time around, prominent Democrats are already saying they will boycott, but this time it’s all about policy: They object to Netanyahu’s conduct of the war, which they say is at least partly to blame for the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians and leaving the Gaza Strip verging on famine. Chief among them are progressive leaders Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington.Some progressive Democrats — think the “Squad” — are rumored to be planning protests from the floor. Johnson told the Republican Jewish Coalition he is adding additional sergeants at arms to arrest anyone who protests. Expect Democrats to push back against any arrests, and to note that Johnson has said that law enforcement has been overly harsh with the insurrectionists who overran Congress on January 6, 2021, to overturn an election.II-Whom else will Netanyahu meet? Netanyahu is planning to meet with Biden on Monday, according to unofficial reports. He will also meet with US Vice President Kamala Harris, who will be unable to attend the Wednesday speech because she will be campaigning. Also reportedly on his agenda: a memorial service for the late Sen. Joe Lieberman, who died in March.Top of his agenda with Biden, naturally, is the course of the war. US officials say the sides are closer than they have ever been to a temporary ceasefire that will see the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinians held prisoner by Israel.It is believed that 120 hostages remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — 116 of whom were kidnapped on October 7, when Hamas led a thousands-strong assault on southern Israel that killed nearly 1,200 people and saw 251 abducted.Netanyahu is under pressure from families of the hostages to close the deal, from his military to leave Gaza so it can focus on the north where tensions on the Lebanese border with Hezbollah are intensifying — but also under pressure from rightwingers in his government not to leave Gaza until Hamas is well and truly destroyed.Insiders say that the Israelis will make it clear that the Americans should consider the war holistically — fought, they say, on seven fronts, all funded and backed by Iran: In Gaza, on the border with Lebanon, with Iranian-backed proxies in Syria and Iraq and Yemen — where Houthi militants just launched a missile at Tel Aviv that killed one person and wounded several others — and in the West Bank and inside Israel, where Iranian actors are seeking to stir unrest.An eighth front, the Israeli insiders say, is, basically, the world, where Iran is funding unsettling actions targeting not only Israel, but Jews. They cite American intelligence that says Iran has been paying for some of the pro-Palestinian protests in the US.Netanyahu would also arrive in Washington in the wake of a Knesset vote that rejects outright the establishment of a Palestinian state, even as part of a negotiated settlement with Israel — a position likely to irk an administration that has made the two-state suction a centerpiece of its Mideast policy.What could keep Netanyahu from coming? Netanyahu may stay home if the war goes one of two ways: If there’s a hostage-ceasefire deal he needs to manage, or if the war escalates, which is not out of the question after the deadly attack in Tel Aviv before dawn on Friday.Another factor is whether Biden will be present. He shows no sign of giving in to the increasing number of Democrats, including Schumer and Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, two close Jewish allies, who say he should drop out of the race: On Friday, he said he planned to resume campaigning next week. There’s a (small) chance however that his meeting with Netanyahu could be postponed until Tuesday; on Thursday, Biden tested positive for COVID-19.Who’s protesting? Netanyahu will score a rare if unwanted twofer: pro- and-anti-Israel protesters.Antiwar activists, many of them anti-Zionist, have said they are busing in protesters from around the country. Israeli activists who believe Netanyahu has mishandled the war, and their allies — who cast themselves very much as pro-Israel — are also planning protests.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Company profile-CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity giant behind the massive global outage-Texas-based firm is one of the major builders of software defenses for cloud computing; gained prominence for exposing Russian and North Korean threats-By AFP 20 July 2024, 1:26 pm

CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity company behind a massive global IT outage, is the leader in its sector, known for building software defenses for the cloud computing age and exposing Russian and North Korean threats.Based in Austin, Texas, the company was founded in 2011 by George Kurtz, Dmitri Alperovitch and Gregg Marston.Both Kurtz and Alperovitch had extensive backgrounds in cybersecurity, working at companies like McAfee.Two years after its founding, CrowdStrike launched its signature product, the Falcon platform.Crucially, the company embraced a “cloud-first” model to reduce big computing needs on customers and provide more effective protection.In particular, remote computing enables updates to be carried out quickly and regularly, something that failed spectacularly in Friday’s outage when an update proved incompatible with computers running on Microsoft software.Rather than just focusing on malware and antivirus products, the founders wanted to shift attention to identifying and stopping the attackers themselves and their techniques.“CrowdStrike is one of the best-known cybersecurity companies around,” said Michael Daniel, who worked as the White House cybersecurity coordinator during the Barack Obama administration.“It provides typically what we think of as sort of endpoint protection, meaning that it’s actually got software running on a server, or on a particular device, like a laptop or a desktop, and it’s scanning for potential malware connections to bad domain names,” he said.“It’s looking for behavior that might be unusual — that sort of thing,” said Daniel, who now runs the Cyber Threat Alliance.A report published this year by CrowdStrike estimates that 70 percent of attacks do not include viruses, but were rather manipulations carried out directly by hackers, who often use stolen or recovered credentials.The company’s share price was down by about 12% on Wall Street on Friday.CrowdStrike became a publicly traded company in 2019, and in 2023, the group generated sales of $3.05 billion, up 36% year-on-year.Boosted by the wave of so-called generative AI, which requires the development of additional capabilities in the cloud, CrowdStrike raised its annual forecasts in June.Although its business has been booming, the group is still struggling with profitability.In 2023, it recorded a net profit of just $89 million, its first annual profit since its creation.The company’s main competitors are Palo Alto Networks and SentinelOne, both standalone cybersecurity firms.But cloud computing giants Microsoft, Amazon and Google provide their own cybersecurity software and are also rivals.North Korea hack-CrowdStrike, which is also a cyber intelligence company, made headlines when it helped investigate several high-profile cyber attacks.Most famously, in 2014, CrowdStrike discovered evidence linking North Korean actors to the hacking of servers at Sony Pictures.The hackers stole large amounts of data and threatened terrorist acts against movie theaters to prevent the release of “The Interview,” a comedy about North Korea’s leader.The studio initially canceled the movie’s theatrical release, but reversed its decision after criticism.Sony estimated the direct costs of the hack to be $35 million for investigating and remediating the breach.CrowdStrike also helped investigate the 2015-2016 cyber attacks on the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in the United States and their connection to Russian intelligence services.In December 2016, CrowdStrike released a report stating that a Russian government-affiliated group called Fancy Bear had hacked a Ukrainian artillery app, potentially causing significant losses to Ukrainian artillery units in their fight against Moscow-backed separatists.However, this assessment was later disputed by some organizations and CrowdStrike rolled back some of the claims.Criticism of Microsoft-In recent months, CrowdStrike has criticized Microsoft for its lapses on cybersecurity as the Windows maker admitted to vulnerabilities and hackings by outside actors.Among other criticisms, CrowdStrike slammed Microsoft for still doing business in China.“You’re telling the public they can’t use Huawei, and they can’t let kids watch dance videos on TikTok because China is going to collect intelligence,” Shawn Henry, chief security officer at CrowdStrike, said last year.“Yet, the most ubiquitous software, which is used throughout the government and throughout every single corporation in this country and around the world, has engineers in China working on their software,” Henry told Forbes.

Many Israeli hospitals affected; airport not directly harmed-Global tech outage eases, but it could take days to resolve widespread disruptions-One of the largest such computer system incidents grounds flights, forces broadcasters off air and leaves customers without access to services such as healthcare and banking-By Reuters 20 July 2024, 12:16 pm

Services from airlines to healthcare, shipping and finance were coming back online after a mistake in a security software update sparked hours-long global computer systems outages on Friday, another incident highlighting the vulnerability of the world’s interconnected technologies.After the outage was resolved, companies were dealing with backlogs of delayed and canceled flights and medical appointments, missed orders and other issues that could take days to resolve. Businesses also face questions about how to avoid future blackouts triggered by technology meant to safeguard their systems.A software update by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, one of the largest operators in the industry, triggered systems problems that grounded flights, forced broadcasters off air and left customers without access to services such as healthcare or banking. Global shipper FedEx faced major disruptions and some moderators who police content on Meta’s Facebook were hit.CrowdStrike is not a household name, but it is an $83 billion company with more than 20,000 subscribers around the world including Amazon.com and Microsoft. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said on social media platform X that a defect was found “in a single content update for Windows hosts” that affected Microsoft customers.“We’re deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this, including our company,” Kurtz told NBC News.CrowdStrike has one of the largest shares of the highly competitive cybersecurity market, leading some industry analysts to question whether control over such operationally critical software should remain with just a handful of companies.The outage also raised concerns that many organizations are not well prepared to implement contingency plans when a single point of failure such as an IT system, or a piece of software within it, goes down. But these outages will happen again, experts say, until more contingencies are built into networks and organizations introduce better back-ups.CrowdStrike shares closed down 11 percent. Its rivals SentinelOne shares closed up 8% and Palo Alto Networks closed up 2%. Microsoft closed down 0.7%.The scale of the outage was massive, but not yet quantifiable because it involved only systems that were running CrowdStrike software, said Ann Johnson, who heads Microsoft’s security and compliance business.“We have hundreds of engineers right now working directly with CrowdStrike to get customers back online,” she said.US President Joe Biden was briefed on the outage, a White House official said. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said it observed hackers using the outage for phishing and other malicious activities.US Customs and Border Protection said it was experiencing processing delays and working to mitigate issues related to international trade and travel. The Dutch and United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministries also reported disruptions.“This event is a reminder of how complex and intertwined our global computing systems are and how vulnerable they are,” said Gil Luria, senior software analyst at DA Davidson.“CrowdStrike and Microsoft will have a lot of work to do to make sure that it won’t allow other systems and products to cause this kind of failure in the future,” he said.Wall Street’s main indexes fell on Friday, deepening a sell-off driven by tech stocks and mixed earnings. The Cboe Volatility index.VIX, known as Wall Street’s “fear gauge,” hit its highest level since early May, and the dollar climbed as the worldwide cyber outage unnerved investors.Thousands of flights cancelled-Air travel was immediately hit, because carriers depend on smooth scheduling that, when interrupted, can ripple into lengthy delays. Out of more than 110,000 scheduled commercial flights on Friday, 5,000 were canceled globally with more expected, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.Delta Air Lines was one of the hardest hit, with 20% of its flights canceled, according to flight tracking service FlightAware. The US carrier said it expected additional delays and cancelations potentially through the weekend.Airports from Los Angeles to Singapore, Amsterdam and Berlin said airlines were checking in passengers with handwritten boarding passes, causing delays.Banks and financial services companies warned customers of disruptions and traders across markets spoke of problems executing transactions. Insurers could face a raft of business interruption claims.In Israel, the Health Ministry said on Friday that the outage impacted more than a dozen hospitals, including Shaare Zedek in Jerusalem, Laniado in Netanya, Barzilai in Ashkelon, Wolfson in Holon, and a number of others, as well as the healthcare provider Meuhedet.The affected hospitals were operating on a manual basis, as their digital services were inaccessible, the ministry said, stressing that patient care was not affected, and the hospitals are prepared for such an outage following drills.Ben Gurion Airport was not directly affected and El Al said Friday it does not use CrowdStrike and was not having issues.US healthcare providers reported that outages were affecting call centers, patient portals and other operations. Mass General Brigham in Boston said it was treating only urgent cases while Tufts Medical Center warned that patients might experience delays or need to be rescheduled.In Britain, booking systems used by doctors were offline, posts on X by medical officials said, while Sky News, one of the country’s major broadcasters, was taken off the air.As the day progressed, more companies reported a return to normal service, including Spanish airport operator Aena, US carriers United Airlines and American Airlines, and Australia’s Commonwealth Bank.US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said system issues appeared to be resolving and transportation would hopefully be back to normal by Saturday.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

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)(50% OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE)
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.

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 32:18-29 (NOTICE ALL THE COUNTRIES LAND PROMISED ISRAEL BY GOD ARE IN THE JORDAN VALLEY BURIED)
18 “Son of man, wail for the multitudes of Egypt, and consign her and the daughters of the mighty nations to the depths of the earth with those who descend to the Pit:
19 Whom do you surpass in beauty? Go down and be placed with the uncircumcised! (IN HELL FIRES)
20 They will fall among those slain by the sword. The sword is appointed! Let them drag her away along with all her multitudes.
21 Mighty chiefs will speak from the midst of Sheol about Egypt and her allies: ‘They have come down and lie with the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword.’
22 Assyria (SYRIA) is there with her whole company; her graves are all around her. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword.
23 Her graves are set in the depths of the Pit, and her company is all around her grave. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword—those who once spread terror in the land of the living.
24 Elam (IRAN) is there with all her multitudes around her grave. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword—those who went down uncircumcised to the earth below, who once spread their terror in the land of the living. They bear their disgrace with those who descend to the Pit.
25 Among the slain they prepare a resting place for Elam with all her hordes, with her graves all around her. All of them are uncircumcised, slain by the sword, although their terror was once spread in the land of the living. They bear their disgrace with those who descend to the Pit. They are placed among the slain.
26 Meshech and Tubal (RUSSIA) are there with all their multitudes, with their graves all around them. All of them are uncircumcised, slain by the sword, because they spread their terror in the land of the living.
27 They do not lie down with the fallen warriors of old, who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, whose swords were placed under their heads, whose shields rested on their bones, although the terror of the mighty was once in the land of the living.
28 But you too will be shattered and lie down among the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword.
29 Edom (JORDAN) is there, and all her kings and princes, who despite their might are laid among those slain by the sword. They lie down with the uncircumcised, with those who descend to the Pit.THIS IS RIGHT FROM 93:

SECOND ANGEL: MIDDLE EAST
Then I saw that the second angel had a sickle in his hand, such as is used in harvesting.The second angel said: "Harvest time has come in Israel and the countries all the way to Iran."I saw those countries in a few split seconds."All of Turkey and those [inaudible] countries that have refused me and refused my message of love shall hate each other and kill one another."I saw the angel raise the sickle and come down on all the Middle East countries. I saw Iran, Persia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, all of Georgia - Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, all of Asia Minor - full of blood. I saw blood all over these countries. And I saw fire; Nuclear weapons used in many of those countries. Smoke rising from everywhere. Sudden destruction – men destroying one another. I heard these words:"Israel, Oh Israel, the great judgment has come." The angel said, "The chosen, the church, the remnant, shall be purified. The Spirit of God shall prepare the children of God."I saw fires rising to heaven.The angel said: "This is the final judgment. My church shall be purified, protected and ready for the final day. Men will die from thirst. Water shall be scarce all over the Middle East. Rivers shall dry up, and men will fight for water in those countries."The angel showed me that the United Nations shall be broken in pieces because of the crisis in the Middle East. There shall be no more United Nations. The angel with the sickle shall reap the harvest.

PSALMS 83:1-8 (GODS LAND PROMISED TO ISRAEL)
1 O God, do not remain silent;do not turn a deaf ear,do not stand aloof, O God.
2 See how your enemies growl,  how your foes rear their heads.
3 With cunning they (ARAB,MUSLIMS) conspire against your people;they plot against those you cherish.(ISRAELIS)
4 “Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation, so that Israel’s name is remembered no more.”
5 With one mind they plot together;(TREATIES) they form an alliance against you—
6 the tents of Edom (JORDAN)  and the Ishmaelites, (EGYPTIAN ARABS SO CALLED PALESTIANS) of Moab (JORDAN) and the Hagrites,(EGYPT)
7 Byblos,(HEZBOLLOH) Ammon (JORDAN) and Amalek,(SYRIAN ARABS IN THE SINAI) Philistia,(ARABS) with the people of Tyre (LEBANON).
8 Even Assyria (SYRIA) has joined them to reinforce Lot’s descendants.

Hezbollah: 'Foolish step heralds new dangerous phase' Netanyahu: Strike on Houthi port shows Israel will reach enemies however far away-Israeli leaders say attack a message not just to Yemen rebels, but to Iran and Hezbollah; Houthi spokesperson: Strike won’t stop us from continuing to support Gaza-By ToI Staff Today, 3:09 am-JUL 21,24

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel’s attack on a Houthi-controlled port in Yemen on Saturday “makes it clear to our enemies that there is no place that the long arm of Israel will not reach.”Three people were reportedly killed and 87 were injured in the Israeli Air Force strike that targeted fuel depots, energy-related sites and other facilities at the Hodeidah port, sparking massive fires.According to the IDF, the port has been used repeatedly to bring in weapons from Iran, and therefore Israel saw it as a legitimate military target. It marked the first IDF strikes in Yemen since the Houthis began carrying out hundreds of attacks against Israel and Red Sea shipping routes in purported solidarity with the Palestinians following Hamas’s October 7 onslaught against Israel, which sparked the ongoing war in Gaza.It also came a day after a Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv that killed one Israeli civilian and wounded several others.“I have a message for Israel’s enemies – don’t be mistaken about us,” Netanyahu said in a televised statement. “We will protect ourselves in every way, on every front. Anyone who harms us will pay a very heavy price for his aggression.”“The port we attacked is not an innocent port,” he added. “It was used as an entry point for deadly weapons supplied to the Houthis by Iran.”The fire that is currently burning in Yemen is seen across the Middle East. The blood of Israeli citizens has a price. pic.twitter.com/r3Aq3GNl1J — יואב גלנט – Yoav Gallant (@yoavgallant) July 20, 2024-Israeli leaders stressed that the strike was a message not only to the Houthis but to Iran and its other proxies in the region, including Hamas and the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, which has been attacking Israeli communities and military posts along the northern border on a near-daily basis since October 8.“The fire that is currently burning in Hodeida is seen across the Middle East and the significance is clear,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a video statement.“The Houthis attacked us over 200 times. The first time that they harmed an Israeli citizen, we struck them. And we will do this in any place where it may be required.”“The blood of Israeli citizens has a price. This has been made clear in Lebanon, in Gaza, in Yemen and in other places — if they dare to attack us, the result will be identical,” Gallant warned.Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Iran’s message of an “obliterating war” against Israel makes it worthy of destruction.”A regime that threatens destruction deserves to be destroyed,” Katz said in a post on X. He also said Israel will act with full force against Iran-backed Hezbollah if it does not stop firing at Israel from Lebanon and move away from the border.Iran’s UN mission said last month that if Israel embarks on “full-scale military aggression” in Lebanon, “an obliterating war will ensue.”The Iranian mission also said in the post on X that in such an event “all options, incl. the full involvement of all resistance fronts, are on the table.”Following the Saturday Israeli strike, an Iran foreign ministry spokesman warned that Israel’s “dangerous adventurism” could spark a regional war.Nasser Kanaani added that Israel and its sponsors — including the US government — are “directly responsible for the dangerous and unpredictable consequences of the adventurist attacks on Yemen.”A Houthi spokesman said Saturday evening that “the aim [of Israel’s strike] was pressuring Yemen to stop supporting Gaza, which is a dream that will not come true. This will only increase the determination of the Yemeni people and their armed forces to support Gaza.”The Houthi spokesman described the Hodeidah Port as a civilian target, asserting that the Israeli attack targeted a power station that supplies the city of Hodeidah’s electricity.Hezbollah separately declared in a statement, “The foolish step taken by the Zionist enemy heralds a new, dangerous phase of a very important confrontation across the entire region.”In a statement Saturday night, Israeli military spokesman Rear-Adm Daniel Hagari said that Israel “attacked the port area because it is a supply route for the transfer of Iranian weapons, from Iran to Yemen, and it is a significant economic source for Houthi terror.“Yemen is a large country; only part of it is controlled by Houthi terror. We have no intention of attacking the Yemeni people,” Hagari said.He referred to the Houthis’ attacks on merchant ships, which have been ongoing since November. The Houthis have targeted more than 70 vessels by firing missiles and drones in their campaign, killing four sailors. The rebels have seized one vessel and sunk two since November.The Houthis maintain that their attacks target ships linked to Israel, the United States or Britain as part of the rebels’ support for the Hamas terror group in its war against Israel. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the war — including some bound for Iran.Hagari noted that the attack on Saturday was conducted by Israeli forces alone, but called on other countries to support Israel’s efforts against the Houthis, saying the terror group’s attacks on shipping were a global concern.Meanwhile, a White House National Security Council spokesperson said after the strike in Yemen that the US “fully recognizes and acknowledge Israel’s right to self-defense.”During a later call with Gallant, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “acknowledged Israel’s action followed months of Houthi attacks against the State of Israel,” a US readout said.A spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he “is deeply concerned” about the Israeli strike, while acknowledging Israel’s assertion that it was in response to repeated Houthi attacks.“The secretary-general calls on all concerned to avoid attacks that could harm civilians and damage civilian infrastructure,” the spokesman said, adding that Guterres “remains deeply concerned about the risk of further escalation in the region and continues to urge all to exercise utmost restraint.”Within Israel, the strikes were welcomed across the political spectrum.In a post to X on Saturday night, opposition chair Yair Lapid, of the center-left Yesh Atid party, commended the Air Force for a “perfect operation,” calling the strike “justified and precise.”National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, of far-right Otzma Yehudit, posted the word “Bomba!” an anachronistic slang that means both “wonderful” and “a hard blow,” while literally translating to “bomb” in several languages.Jacob Magid and AFP contributed to this report.

Israel acted alone, US was updated ahead of time-Israel strikes Houthi-controlled port in Yemen after deadly drone attack on Tel Aviv-Fuel depot, other facilities at Hodeida Port targeted in Israel’s first strike in Yemen, one of its farthest-ever actions, in response to months of attacks on country amid Gaza war-By Emanuel Fabian-20 July 2024, 10:04

The Israeli Air Force struck the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeida in western Yemen on Saturday, the military and local media said, a day after a drone launched by the Iran-backed group struck Tel Aviv, killing an Israeli man.Three people were killed and 87 wounded in the strikes, said Al-Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by the Houthi terror organization.In a statement, the Israeli military said: “Fighter jets struck military targets of the Houthi terror regime in the area of the Hodeida Port in Yemen, in response to the hundreds of attacks carried out against the State of Israel in recent months.”It marked the first time the Israel Defense Forces has conducted strikes in Yemen. The attack was named by the military “Operation Outstretched Arm.”The IAF strike on the port was aimed at preventing the Houthis from importing Iranian weapons, as well as causing the Iran-backed rebels financial damage.According to the Israeli military, the port in the Houthi-controlled city has been used repeatedly to bring in weapons from Iran, and therefore Israel saw it as a legitimate military target.The airstrike targeted fuel depots, energy-related sites, and other facilities at the port. Images and video showed massive flames and smoke rising from the port.Israel acted alone in the strike with no American military involvement. An Israeli military official said the United States had been updated ahead of the attack.At least a dozen IAF aircraft, including F-35 stealth fighter jets, F-15 fighters, reconnaissance aircraft and refueling planes were involved in the attack — the latter of which was due to the target being some 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) from Israel.Footage taken by beachgoers in the southernmost city of Eilat showed the Israeli aircraft making its way toward Yemen on Saturday afternoon.“This is a complex attack, one of the farthest and longest carried out by the Israeli Air Force. It required careful planning and preparation for a variety of possible threats in the area,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a press conference.Israel had threatened a response to the deadly drone attack on Tel Aviv early Friday, which killed Yevgeny Ferder, 50. The Iranian-made drone launched by the Houthis was not intercepted by air defenses due to a “human error,” the military said.On Saturday morning, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant held a meeting with senior military officials, during which the strike on the port of Hodeida was approved. Later in the day, Israel’s security cabinet was convened to also approve the attack. The meeting lasted hours, and the ministers were still gathered when the strike was being carried out at around 6 p.m.According to the IDF, Yemen’s Houthis in the past nine months have fired over 220 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones at Israel — mostly toward the southernmost city of Eilat — in solidarity with the Gaza Strip, where Israel is battling Hamas terrorists.The vast majority of the Iran-backed group’s projectiles have been intercepted by US forces stationed in the Red Sea and Israeli air defenses and fighter jets, or missed their target. Before the attack on Tel Aviv on Friday, only one Houthi projectile, a cruise missile, had successfully struck Israel, hitting an open area near Eilat in March.Until Saturday, Israel had not responded to the Houthi attacks. It had preferred that a United States-led coalition would continue to strike the Houthis in response to the Iran-backed group’s attacks on commercial and military ships in the Red Sea.The US-led coalition had not targeted the port, as it was seen as also being used to bring humanitarian aid into the war-torn country.Still, Hagari said that Israel had no intention of harming the Yemeni people. “We are operating against the Houthi terror,” he said.He also said that “Israel expects the countries of the world to stand on one front, this is a common international interest.”The Houthi-run health ministry said that the strike caused casualties.An official in the Iran-backed group said the attack would be met with “escalation.”“The Zionist entity will pay the price for targeting civilian facilities, and we will meet escalation with escalation,” Houthi politburo member Mohammed al-Bukhaiti said in a post on social media.The Israeli military said there was no change to instructions for Israeli civilians, although it was anticipating a response by the Houthis.Gallant, following the attack, said it was a message to Israel’s enemies in the Middle East.“The fire that is currently burning in Hodeida is seen across the Middle East and the significance is clear,” Gallant said in a video statement. “The Houthis attacked us over 200 times. The first time that they harmed an Israeli citizen, we struck them. And we will do this in any place where it may be required.”“The blood of Israeli citizens has a price. This has been made clear in Lebanon, in Gaza, in Yemen and in other places — if they will dare to attack us, the result will be identical,” he warned.The Iran-backed Houthis, who seized Yemen’s capital Sanaa in 2014 and control large swaths of the country, are “part of the axis of resistance” against Israel along with Hamas — which is also sponsored by Tehran.Houthi rebels have expressed support for the Palestinians and threatened Israel amid the Israel-Hamas war. The Iranian-backed group’s slogan is “Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse the Jews, Victory to Islam.”In the Red Sea, the Houthis have fired on commercial and military ships dozens of times since November.The Houthis say they are targeting ships over Israel’s offensive in Gaza against Hamas. But they have frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel, imperiling shipping in a key route for global trade between Asia, the Middle East and Europe.Other Iran-backed groups, in Iraq and Syria, have also claimed to have launched dozens of drones and cruise missiles at Israel during the ongoing war sparked by Hamas’s devastating October 7 terror onslaught, while Lebanon’s Hezbollah has attacked communities and IDF positions in northern Israel on a near-daily basis.Iran itself also carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel in April with hundreds of drones and missiles, which were intercepted.Agencies contributed to this report.

Analysis-After deadly Tel Aviv attack, restraint against Houthis was no longer deemed an option-Security chiefs were hoping a hostage deal might deescalate war, including in the north. After Friday’s attack, and Israel’s inevitable response, they’re bracing for wider conflict-By David Horovitz 20 July 2024, 11:45 pm

Yemen’s Houthi rebels, another of Iran’s terror proxies avowedly seeking to destroy Israel, have been targeting the country since soon after Hamas’s October 7 invasion and slaughter. And Israel had elected not to strike back, even after a missile scored a direct hit on Eilat in March.But in the early hours of Friday morning, an apparently upgraded Houthi drone evaded Israel’s defenses — for reasons thus far ascribed by the IDF to “human error” — and exploded in Tel Aviv, striking an apartment bloc and killing a 50-year-old Israeli, Yevgeny Ferder. The Houthis declared that this marked a “new phase” in their operations against Israel.At this point, Israeli security chiefs are reported to have told cabinet ministers who gathered in an emergency session on Shabbat afternoon, restraint was no longer an option.Israel’s air force had therefore just targeted the Red Sea port of Hodeida, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the nation in a recorded video statement after Shabbat had ended, because it was the entry point for Iranian weaponry used by the Houthis against Israel and other Iranian enemies in the region. The US-led coalition trying to thwart Houthi attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea has not operated against the port in western Yemen, in part at least because it is also used for civilian purposes.Hitting facilities over 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) away, the strike was among the most complicated ever carried out by Israel, the IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari said.Israel plainly recognizes the potential for its unprecedented direct retaliation against the Houthis to trigger still further escalation. It informed the United States ahead of Saturday’s strike, and is understood to have given advance warning to others in the region as well.Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara is reported to have insisted that the ministers in the security cabinet gather, even on Shabbat, to formally approve the operation, since she deemed that forum’s support legally essential given the potential for wider consequent conflict.Israeli military chiefs have said privately in recent months that one of the problems of grappling with the Houthis is that they do not appear to be particularly susceptible to deterrence. Indeed, following Saturday’s Israeli strike, a senior Houthi leader vowed that Israel would “pay the price” and that “we will meet escalation with escalation.”As of Saturday night, nonetheless, the IDF said it was issuing no new security instructions to the public.And Netanyahu was still planning to go ahead with his trip this week to the United States — where he will meet Joe Biden, provided the president has recovered from COVID-19, hopes to meet Republican presidential nominee and former president Donald Trump, and will address a joint session of Congress.Among his themes in that address, Netanyahu was already expected to highlight the Iranian regime’s intensifying efforts to destroy Israel, its rapacious ambitions for the entire region, and its apparently accelerating nuclear weapons drive.Three months after the ayatollahs’ unprecedented direct missile and drone assault on Israel was almost completely thwarted by Israel and a US-led coalition, the weekend’s events will give that message still greater resonance and urgency. “Anyone who wishes to see a stable and safe Middle East,” Netanyahu declared on Saturday night, “needs to stand against Iran’s axis of evil, and support Israel’s fight against Iran and its proxies – in Yemen, in Gaza, in Lebanon, everywhere.”As he spoke, demonstrators in Tel Aviv and elsewhere, including relatives of the 116 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since the October 7 attack, were urging him not to make the trip to the US — or at least not until he has finalized a hostage-ceasefire deal that, they believe, could also deescalate the entire conflict, notably across Israel’s northern border, where a third Iranian proxy Hezbollah has been firing dozens of rockets into Israel daily.The heads of Israel’s security establishment, and Netanyahu’s own Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, are understood to widely share this assessment, and to have been urging the prime minister to do his utmost to get the deal done. As of Saturday night, however, they were also bracing for nine months of war to widen.

IDF says it killed many gunmen in Rafah as fighting continues throughout Gaza-Overnight strikes in central Strip said to kill 13; military says it has killed 150 terrorists in renewed Gaza City operation-By Emanuel Fabian,ToI Staff and Agencies 20 July 2024, 10:52 pm

Israeli troops operating in southern Gaza’s Rafah killed numerous gunmen over the weekend, the Israel Defense Forces said on Saturday, as the offensive against the terror group Hamas continued throughout the Strip.Fighting in Rafah on Saturday was led by the Givati Brigade, which engaged in several clashes with terror operatives, the IDF said. The military added that the 401st Armored Brigade carried out “significant activity” against Hamas sites and operatives in Rafah’s northwestern Tel Sultan neighborhood.In the enclave’s center, reservists of the Alexandroni Brigade raided several Hamas sites in the Netzarim Corridor — an IDF-controlled east-west strip separating the territory in two — and called in an airstrike against a group of gunmen in a building, the IDF said.Nearby in Deir al-Balah, the IDF said it had struck a building on Friday in an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone, which it said was used by the Hamas-linked Elkahira organization, having been a “central part of the infrastructure used to store and transfer large amounts of funds to terror organizations in the Gaza Strip, as well as to carry out terror activities” since the beginning of the war.The IDF said the strike was carried out after it ordered the evacuation of Palestinian civilians in the area. The IDF also said a fighter jet launched “precision munitions” in the attack, to mitigate harm to civilians. It was unclear how much damage was inflicted by the strike.In a separate attack on Thursday, the IDF said it killed an employee of Elkahira who had transferred funds to terror groups in Gaza, including the military wing of Hamas.Palestinian health officials said at least 13 people were killed in three Israeli airstrikes that hit refugee camps in central Gaza overnight.Among the dead in Nuseirat Refugee Camp and Bureij Refugee Camp were three children and one woman, according to Palestinian ambulance teams that transported the bodies to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. The 13 corpses were counted by AP journalists at the hospital.Palestinian media reported on Saturday evening that 20 people were killed in another Israeli strike in an area of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis where displaced civilians were sheltering. The strike wasn’t confirmed by the IDF, which says it sometimes carries out attacks in such areas when fighters are hiding there among civilians. Still, the army says it takes precautions to avoid civilian casualties.The latest casualties followed a rare moment of hope in war-ravaged Gaza after medical teams recovered a live baby from a heavily pregnant Palestinian mother killed in an airstrike that hit her home in Nuseirat late Thursday evening.Heavily pregnant Ola al-Kurd, 25, was killed along with six others in the blast but was quickly rushed by emergency workers to Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza in the hope of saving the unborn child. Hours later, doctors told The Associated Press that a baby boy had been delivered.The still-unnamed newborn is stable but has suffered from a shortage of oxygen and has been placed in an incubator, Dr. Khalil Dajran said. The baby boy’s father was wounded in the same strike but survived.Over 150 terror operatives killed in Gaza City-In the renewed operation in Gaza City in the enclave’s north, more than 150 terror operatives were killed over the past week, the IDF said.The raid, launched earlier this month, is being led by the 99th Division, with the Alexandroni, 8th, and Commando brigades, and the elite Multi-Domain Unit.During the first week of the operation, troops had raided UNRWA’s headquarters, where Hamas had regrouped.In recent operations, the IDF said the troops raided several multi-story buildings in Gaza City where Hamas operatives were holed up, adding that they located weapons, equipment belonging to Hamas’s naval forces, and intelligence materials, the army said.In addition to the estimated 150 gunmen, the IDF said troops demolished more than 100 sites belonging to terror groups and located an underground weapons manufacturing site.Rocket sirens sounded on Saturday in the southern communities of Kissufim and Talmei Yosef. In both cases, the IDF said the sirens were false alarms and no rockets had been fired.War broke out on October 7 when Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251.The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 38,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 15,000 combatants in battle and some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 attack.Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 327.

Two senior ministers boycotted vote to approve Yemen strike, protesting belated update-Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Justice Minister Yariv Levin reportedly say that key information reached them after the fact, turning body into ‘rubber stamp’ By Lazar Berman-20 July 2024, 11:25 pm

Senior ministers in the security cabinet boycotted the vote to approve Israel’s strike in Yemen on Saturday, protesting the hurried fashion in which it was carried out, according to Hebrew-language media.Ministers in the security cabinet approved the operation at a meeting that began at around 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Channel 12 reported, having been summoned to the meeting just 45 minutes earlier.The summons was issued by National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, who ordered them not to discuss the meeting.The meeting lasted for four hours. The attack was carried out while the ministers were gathered.However, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Justice Minister Yariv Levin did not participate in the security cabinet vote.According to the Walla news outlet, Smotrich refused to participate because crucial information was sent from the defense establishment to the Knesset after the attack was already underway.“I asked not to participate in the vote because details that would allow us to come to a decision were not sent to the cabinet,” wrote Smotrich to explain his decision, “and the issue came up for a vote after the fact as a rubber stamp, and I said I trust the prime minister’s decision.”Smotrich also wrote that while he backs the strike, “at the same time we can and must do more.”Levin boycotted the vote for the same reason, reported Channel 12 news.On Saturday morning, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant held a meeting with senior military officials, during which the strike was approved.The Israeli Air Force struck the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeida in western Yemen on Saturday, the military and local media said, a day after a drone launched by the Iran-backed group struck Tel Aviv, killing an Israeli man.The plans for Israel’s strike in Yemen had been drawn up in advance, and were implemented in the wake of the early Friday Houthi strike, according to the Channel 12 report.The report noted that the security cabinet must approve actions that could potentially lead to war. It said that, in this case, “there is of course the possibility of a significant response.”The network also said that Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara insisted that the security cabinet be convened to approve the attack.It is extremely unusual for cabinet meetings to convene on Shabbat.The decision in principle to carry out the operation had been taken earlier, the report noted, to ensure that the window of opportunity was not missed.The operation was subjected to military censorship until Saturday evening.Israel informed the United States ahead of the strike, Channel 12 said, as well as other allies — “presumably” including Egypt and others in the region who would need to not be surprised.The attack marked the first time the Israel Defense Forces has conducted strikes in Yemen. The attack was named by the military “Operation Outstretched Arm.”The IAF strike on the port was aimed at preventing the Houthis from importing Iranian weapons, as well as causing the Iran-backed rebels financial damage.According to the Israeli military, the port has been used repeatedly to bring in weapons from Iran, and therefore Israel saw it as a legitimate military target.At least a dozen IAF aircraft, including F-35 stealth fighter jets, F-15 fighters, reconnaissance aircraft and refueling planes were involved in the attack — the latter of which was due to the target being some 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) from Israel.Israel had threatened a response to the deadly drone attack on Tel Aviv early Friday, which killed Yevgeny Ferder, 50. The Iranian-made drone launched by the Houthis was not intercepted by air defenses due to a “human error,” the military said.According to the IDF, Yemen’s Houthis in the past nine months have fired over 220 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones at Israel — mostly toward the southernmost city of Eilat — in solidarity with the Gaza Strip, where Israel is battling to destroy Hamas in the wake of the terror group’s invasion and slaughter in southern Israel on October 7.

Two IDF soldiers wounded by Hezbollah drone attack in Golan Heights-One soldier injured moderately, another lightly; Lebanese terror group fires at Israel throughout the day, including barrage of 30 rockets at Dafna-By Emanuel Fabian,ToI Staff and Agencies 20 July 2024, 9:05 pm

Two Israel Defense Forces soldiers were lightly and moderately wounded in a Hezbollah explosive-laden drone attack in the northern Golan Heights on Saturday, the military said.According to the IDF, several suspected drones entered Israeli airspace in the attack, and interceptor missiles were launched at them. The drones, however, were not intercepted and struck northern Israel, leading to the injury of the two soldiers.The attack punctuated a day of hostilities between Israel and the Lebanese terror group, which saw Hezbollah and the Lebanese branch of Hamas attack Israel repeatedly.Throughout the day, Hezbollah fired rockets and at least one drone, setting off sirens throughout the country’s north.In the morning, the IDF said air defenses intercepted a suspected drone over southern Lebanon, adding that the drone did not cross into Israeli territory.Also in the morning, the IDF said that its fighter jets struck several buildings used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon’s Houla.At noon, sirens sounded in Israeli communities in the Galilee panhandle, indicating that rockets or drones were heading to the area. It was unclear, however, whether there were attacks that landed on Israeli territory.Later on, Lebanese media reported a strike against a vehicle in the southern village of Borj al-Mlouk, four kilometers north of the Israeli border. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Syrian nationals, including children, had been injured after an “enemy drone targeted an empty four-wheel drive” near their tent.At 3:35 p.m., a barrage of some 30 rockets were fired at the northern Golan Heights. Hezbollah took responsibility for the attack, saying it was aimed at the community of Dafna and done in response to the attack on Borj al-Mlouk earlier. According to the IDF, some of the rockets were intercepted while others landed in open areas in the Golan Heights, sparking fires.Hezbollah said it was the first time they had targeted the area.An additional barrage of 10 rockets was fired at the Western Galilee close to 4 p.m., the IDF said, an attack which Hamas’s Lebanese branch took credit for. No injuries were reported.Hamas said in a statement that it had fired toward an Israeli military position in the Upper Galilee “in response to the Zionist massacres against civilians in the Gaza Strip.”No injuries were reported, but the rockets sparked several blazes.The IDF said its fighter jets attacked rocket launchers in southern Lebanon’s Deir Seryan that it claimed were used by Hezbollah in the attacks earlier in the day, adding that another Hezbollah rocket launcher in Aitaroun was also struck.Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.So far, the skirmishes have resulted in 12 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 18 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.Hezbollah has named 370 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 67 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have been killed.

White House, EU and UN chief condemn deadly Houthi drone strike on Tel Aviv-Netanyahu remains mum on attack from Yemen; IDF says it failed to intercept or sound alarm because of ‘human error’By ToI Staff and Agencies 20 July 2024, 4:57 am

The White House, the Europen Union and the UN secretary-general on Friday condemned the previous night’s drone attack on Tel Aviv, claimed by Yemen’s Houthis, that left one person dead and injured several others.A National Security Council spokesperson in a statement expressed sympathy for the victims and said the Thursday night attack “appears to be the latest in the Houthis’ reckless and destabilizing actions.”UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “deeply concerned about the risk such dangerous acts pose for further escalation in the region,” said spokesman Farhan Haq, adding a call for “maximum restraint.”The European Union said it “firmly condemns the indiscriminate Houthi-claimed drone attack on Tel Aviv.”Spokeswoman Nabila Massrali said in a statement that “International Humanitarian Law strictly prohibits indiscriminate shelling of civilian population centers and applies to all actors at all times without exception.”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to publicly comment on the strike.The Iranian-made drone sent by Yemen’s Houthis struck Tel Aviv shortly after 3 a.m. on Friday, leaving one person dead and at least 10 wounded in the group’s first lethal strike into Israel.The aerial strike rumbled through the center of the city near the US Embassy, causing shrapnel to rain down and spreading shards of glass over a large radius.The military said it was investigating what went wrong. It said the drone was detected by air defenses, but a “human error” occurred and “there was no interception.“It identified the drone as an Iranian Samad-3 upgraded to travel long distances and said it was believed to have come from Yemen.As no action was taken against the identified target — later confirmed to be a large long-range attack drone — no warning sirens had sounded.The drone directly impacted an apartment building in Tel Aviv at 3:12 a.m. After reaching Israel from Yemen, the drone made its way to Tel Aviv from the direction of the sea, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a press conference.The victim was later named as Yevgeny Ferder, 50, who reportedly worked at Momo’s Hostel, adjacent to where the drone struck. His niece said he immigrated to Israel some 30 years ago, and had served in an IDF combat unit and in the IDF reserves.MDA also said eight people were taken to local hospitals, four of whom were wounded by shrapnel or the shock waves from the blast. The other four were being treated for acute anxiety.The impact site was adjacent to several hotels and the United States’ Tel Aviv Embassy Branch Office. The Israeli military, as of Friday morning, had no intelligence indicating that the drone attack was aimed at the embassy building.Many of the hotels in the area are currently housing displaced Israelis who have had to leave their homes on the northern and southern borders amid the ongoing war.Yemen’s Houthis’ military spokesperson said the group attacked Tel Aviv with a drone and would continue to target Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza war.The spokesman said that Tel Aviv will continue to be a primary target for the terror group “within the range of our weapons.”The group claimed it had launched a drone that could bypass radar detection systems.The IAF said the incident in Tel Aviv “shouldn’t have happened” and it took full responsibility for the failure that led to the deadly attack.In a statement, the IDF said the attack was under “thorough investigation.”The military also said the IAF would increase patrols by fighter jets “to defend Israeli skies”“There is no change in the Home Front Command’s orders,” it added.Hagari said the military was to hold assessments on the attack in the coming days to understand what it needs to adjust to better defend, and “what the required offensive response will be against those who threaten Israel.”Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, meanwhile, said Israel would respond.“The defense establishment is working to immediately strengthen all defense systems, and will settle the score with anyone who harms the State of Israel or directs terror against it,” he said in remarks provided by his office following an assessment held with IDF officials on the Houthi drone attack.Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.

Report: Moscow may arm Yemen’s Houthis over US support for Ukraine-White House said working to dissuade Putin from renewed push to transfer missiles to Iran-backed rebels, as CENTCOM chief says strikes in Yemen ‘failing’ to prevent Red Sea chaos-By ToI Staff 20 July 2024, 3:10 am

United States intelligence agencies say Russia could send advanced anti-ship missiles to Yemen’s Houthis in retaliation for Washington’s support for Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing US officials.According to the newspaper, Washington is working behind the scenes to stop the arms transfer.Meanwhile, US Central Command chief Erik Kurilla was said to warn that US-led operations were “failing” to prevent Houthi attacks on the Red Sea. In a classified letter to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Kurilla reportedly called for potentially stronger military action and a “whole of government” approach that would step up diplomatic and economic pressure on the Houthis.“Many people found the tone of the memo to be a bit shocking,” The Journal quoted a defense official as saying. According to the official, Kurilla’s point was that “US service members will die if we continue going this way.”The US and other nations, notably Britain, have carried out extensive airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen in an effort to forestall the Iran-backed rebels’ attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea.Middle East Eye reported in June that Saudi Arabia had talked Russia out of providing anti-ship cruise missiles to the Houthis. However, US intelligence services assess that Moscow is renewing its push to arm the Houthis after the White House approved Kyiv’s use of US-made weapons to strike targets inside Russia, the Journal said, adding that the nature of the intelligence was unclear.The newspaper said the White House is making a diplomatic push through a third country to dissuade Russia from the arms transfer.According to the Journal, US officials have seen recent indications that Russian President Vladimir Putin was still considering arming the Houthis.Putin said in June that the White House’s policy toward Ukraine, which Russia invaded in 2022, could drive Moscow to arm US adversaries.“The response can be asymmetrical, and we will think about that,” Putin told reporters at an international economic forum in St. Petersburg.Two US officials told The Journal that Russia has not transferred any missiles to the Houthis, but that representatives of the Yemeni rebels were seen in Moscow. The newspaper cited officials as saying that an arms transfer from Russia to Yemen could make use of Iranian smuggling routes.Iran currently supplies much of the Houthis’ munitions. A Houthi-launched drone that struck Tel Aviv on Friday — killing one person and injuring several others — was Iranian-made, the Israel Defense Force said.One analyst told The Journal that munitions supplied by Russia “would represent a qualitative leap” in the Houthis’ capabilities.Hundreds of Houthi missiles, missile launchers and attack drones, as well as dozens of storage facilities and several command centers, air defense systems, radars and helicopters, representing “a significant amount of Houthi capability,” have been destroyed in US-led strikes, a defense official said.According to The Journal, the White House’s authorization for military action against the Houthis extends to missiles and drones about to be launched. The newspaper said the US military have also taken other limited steps, including seven planned military operations.Amid Kurilla’s call for a more comprehensive strategy against the Houthis, the Journal cited an administration official as saying that some measures had already been taken to complement the military operations. The Journal also cited an administration official as saying that Washington had requested US Central Command to compile a broader list of targets, including specific Houthi members.Still, some US officials who spoke to the newspaper criticized Washington’s policy in the Red Sea.“If you tell the military to re-establish freedom of navigation and then you tell them to only be defensive, it isn’t going to work,” one official was quoted as saying. “It is all about protecting ships without affecting the root cause.”The Iran-backed Houthis have targeted ships in the Red Sea since November, saying they are doing so in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war there. The war was sparked on October 7, when the Palestinian terror group led a thousands-strong attack on southern Israel that left nearly 1,200 people dead and saw 251 taken hostage.Houthi attacks have harmed at least 30 merchant ships — some with no connection to Israel, the US or Britain — and sunk two.

Nagasaki unsure on inviting Israeli officials to its event-Hiroshima dismisses calls to disinvite Israel from atomic bomb commemorations-Some activists and survivors say it’s a double standard to invite Israel after disinviting Russia and Belarus, but others support the presence of nations at war-By ToI Staff 20 July 2024, 6:47 pm

Japanese officials have dismissed calls to disinvite Israeli representatives from the annual peace ceremony held in Hiroshima in light of the ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, CNN reported Friday.According to the report, some activists and groups of atomic bomb survivors say Israel should not be allowed to participate because of its ongoing offensive against the terror group Hamas.The activists say inviting Israel also constitutes a double standard, as representatives from Russia and Belarus have not been invited since Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.“Why invite Israel if they are committing genocide-like crimes, just like Russia and Belarus?” Tetsuji Kumada, executive director of Hiroshima’s Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organization, told CNN. “It is very disappointing that our request [to disinvite Israel] wasn’t taken into account.”A Hiroshima city spokesperson told CNN they do not view inviting Israel as a double standard, saying, “Our policy is to invite all countries. However, Russia and Belarus are exceptions due to the invasion of Ukraine. Russia and Belarus are not invited in order to ensure the ceremony goes smoothly.”However, in their invitation to Israel, Hiroshima authorities did mention the war in Gaza, calling for a ceasefire and adding it is “deeply regrettable that the lives and everyday existences of many people are being taken away.”The Hiroshima-Palestine Vigil Community launched an online petition in May that amassed 30,000 signatures calling for Israel to be disinvited, citing the global protests against Israel, which “clearly outnumber those against Russia in both scale and frequency.” Protests against Israel have been marred with antisemitism and calls for Israel’s eradication.Yet, Kunihiko Sakuma, president of Hiroshima Hidankyo, an atomic bomb survivors’ advocacy group, advocated for Israeli participation, saying, “As a city of international peace, Hiroshima city needs to invite all nations, regardless of whether they are at war or not.”Authorities in Nagasaki, whose ceremony is held three days after Hiroshima’s, told CNN they have yet to decide whether Israeli representatives will be invited to their ceremony, adding that the presence of Israelis may “prevent the smooth execution of the ceremony.”Nagasaki officials stressed to CNN that their considerations are practical and not an indication of a moral stance taken regarding Israel.The Permanent General Mission of Palestine in Tokyo complained that its representatives were not invited to either ceremony, calling the decision a double standard.Hiroshima authorities said they have never invited Palestinian representatives to the ceremony, adding that they only invite representatives from countries with embassies in Japan.Japan has long supported a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with their Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa reiterating that support at a news conference last week.“We continue to comprehensively consider the recognition of Palestinian statehood, taking into account how to advance the peace process,” she said.The Hiroshima and Nagasaki ceremonies are held annually on August 6 and 9 respectively, the dates on which the United States dropped nuclear weapons on the Japanese cities, killing over 100,00 people and leading to Japan’s unconditional surrender and the end of World War II.The war in Gaza broke out on October 7 when Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping 251.The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 38,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 15,000 combatants in battle and some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 attack.

Blinken: Iran one-two weeks away from producing enough material for nuclear weapon-Top diplomat stresses Tehran has not yet produced a nuke, which would take longer; urges Iran to ‘pull back on work it’s been doing,’ says US ‘maximizing pressure across the board’-By Jacob Magid-19 July 2024, 11:10 pm

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday warned Iran can now produce the necessary fissile material for an atomic bomb in as little as a week or two, but has yet to take steps to assemble a weapon.Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, Blinken indicated he was not optimistic about the chances for reform in Iran despite the recent election of a relatively more moderate candidate, as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is still the one who “calls the shots.”“When this administration came in, we tried to pursue again, nuclear diplomacy with Iran, because if you could at least take one problem off the board, which is Iran potentially with a nuclear weapon, that’s inherently a good thing,” he said.Blinken blasted Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, which the former president defended in his speech to the Republican National Convention Thursday night, saying Tehran “was broke” when he was in office but is now “very close to having a nuclear weapon.” Blinken, however, seemed to argue it was Trump’s approach that led to Iran being on the cusp of nuclear breakout capabilities.“Instead of being at least a year away from having the breakout capacity of producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon, it is now probably one or two weeks away from doing that,” he said, clarifying that Iran has not yet produced a weapon itself, which would take far more time.Blinken reiterated that the US would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, adding the administration still prefers a diplomatic route to preventing this scenario.“What we need to see, if Iran is serious about engaging, is actually pulling back on the work that it’s been doing on his program.”“Second, we have been maximizing pressure on Iran across the board. We’ve imposed more than 600 sanctions on Iranian persons and entities. We haven’t lifted a single sanction,” he asserted.Since the collapse of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers following the US’s unilateral withdrawal from the accord in 2018, Iran has pursued nuclear enrichment just below weapons-grade levels. Western powers say there is no credible civilian reason for that. Iran says its aims are entirely peaceful, but officials have recently said the Islamic republic could change its “nuclear doctrine” if it is attacked or its existence is seen as threatened by Israel. That has prompted alarm at the International Atomic Energy Agency and in Western capitals.Reports last month before the presidential election indicated Iran’s leadership was considering whether to go ahead with producing a nuclear weapon. Iranian president-elect Masoud Pezeshkian, who Blinken referred to Friday, has called for “constructive relations” with Western countries to “get Iran out of its isolation” and favors reviving the 2015 deal.Amid recent concerns, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was said to reestablish a series of working groups last month to deal with Iran’s nuclear program.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

NKorea's Kim hosts Russia military delegation after Putin visit: KCNA-by AFP Staff Writers
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Seoul (AFP) July 18, 2024-North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hosted a Russian military delegation led by Vice Defence Minister Aleksey Krivoruchko to discuss the "importance and necessity" of bilateral defence cooperation, state media said Friday.Thursday's meeting in Pyongyang came roughly a month after Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to the North Korean capital, during which the two countries signed a mutual defence agreement that raised hackles in Seoul and Washington.North Korea and Russia have been allies since the North's founding after World War II and have drawn even closer since Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.Kim emphasised the need for the countries' armies to "get united more firmly to dynamically lead the DPRK-Russia relations in the new era and play an important part in defending regional and global peace," the official Korean Central News Agency reported.The United States and its allies have accused North Korea of providing ammunition and missiles to Russia for its war in Ukraine, and the treaty has fuelled concerns of more deliveries.After leaving Pyongyang, Putin further fanned the flames by saying he "does not rule out" sending weapons to North Korea.The North has been under a UN sanctions regime since 2006 over its weapons programmes.

Flash floods across China kill at least 20, dozens missing

Beijing, July 20 (AFP) Jul 20, 2024-Flash floods in northern and southwest China have killed at least 20 people and left dozens missing, state media said Saturday, after a week of deadly downpours across the country.Several vehicles in northwestern Shaanxi province plunged into a swollen river late Friday after a bridge collapsed, with at least 12 people killed and over 30 missing, state news agency Xinhua reported.Initial investigations indicated that 17 cars and eight trucks had fallen into the river in the city of Shangluo, Xinhua said.Images on state television showed a partially submerged section of the bridge with the river rushing over it.One witness told local media that he had approached the bridge but that other drivers started "yelling at me to brake and stop the car"."A truck in front of me didn't stop" and plunged into the water, the witness, surnamed Meng, said.Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged "all-out rescue and relief efforts" to find those still missing, Xinhua said.Meanwhile, in southwestern Sichuan province more than 30 people were reported missing Saturday after a violent thunderstorm caused flash flooding overnight in the town of Ya'an, according to Xinhua.Eight bodies had been recovered as of Saturday evening, while four people were rescued without serious injuries, it added.On Friday, state media had reported at least five people dead and eight missing after the rains sparked flooding and mudslides in Shaanxi's Baoji city.State television broadcast images of neighbourhoods completely flooded by muddy water, with excavators and residents attempting to clear the damage.- Extreme weather -The semi-desert province of Gansu, which neighbours Shaanxi, and Henan in central China were also hit by heavy rains this week.In Henan's Nanyang city, the equivalent of a year's worth of rain fell at the start of the week, CCTV said.And in Sichuan province, two people were reported killed and seven others missing Friday after heavy rain triggered landslides, Xinhua said.China is enduring a summer of extreme weather, with heavy rains across the east and south coming as much of the north has sweltered under successive heatwaves.Climate change, which scientists say is exacerbated by greenhouse gas emissions, is making such extreme weather phenomena more frequent and more intense.In May, a highway in southern China collapsed after days of rain, leaving 48 dead.This month, a tornado passed through a town in eastern China, killing one, injuring 79 and causing major damage.

'Your group is meant to address hunger, not attack Israel' When Portland charities condemned Israel, Jewish philanthropy was put to the test-After Oct. 7, groups have issued strident and one-sided statements on the war in Gaza, causing local Jews to reconsider longstanding relationships – regardless of optics-By Andrew Lapin Today, 3:26 am-JUL 21,24

JTA — This Passover, Rabbi Michael Cahana urged his congregation to use the portion of the seder commemorating the bread of affliction to “call out the hunger of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.”Such a message “reflects the values of this congregation, of this community,” Cahana, who serves Congregation Beth Israel in Portland, Oregon, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “The fact that civilians are suffering in wartime is real and terrible, and I think it’s important that we, as a Jewish community, recognize that suffering.”Two weeks later, the Oregon Food Bank — which, for years, has received financial and other forms of support from the congregation — drafted its own statement about hunger in Gaza. This one called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war; accused Israel of perpetuating a “war against Palestine,” and said the Israeli military was “indiscriminately” targeting bakeries, aid workers and hospitals, along with otherwise hindering relief efforts in the region.While the draft did not accuse Israel outright of genocide, a common allegation among pro-Palestinian activists, it referenced “colonial ideologies” and said the food bank would work “to keep policymakers accountable and press them to refrain from enacting foreign policies that contribute to genocide, warfare, famine, and hunger.”Beth Israel congregants, who knew their synagogue had organized funding drives for the food bank, were outraged. Cahana was, too: the food bank’s words, he thought, failed to account for the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas and evinced little of the empathy for all victims of war his own Passover message had sought to convey. Even after conversations with the local federation, the food bank refused to significantly change its statement.In response, a dozen Portland Jewish groups — including the federation, several synagogues including Beth Israel, and a Jewish family service group — decided in late May to cut off their support. Today, they’re funding other local hunger groups instead, at least two of which are Jewish-run.“From our point of view, it seems like you’re targeting this particular conflict because you want to demonize Israel,” Bob Horenstein, director of Portland’s Jewish Community Relations Council, told JTA. “That’s the impact of what they’re doing.”The food bank is not the first Portland charity to lose financial support from a Jewish group as a result of a statement on Gaza. Hygiene4All, a nonprofit that runs a small center providing sanitation, basic medical supplies and other needs to the city’s homeless population, voluntarily removed itself as a beneficiary of a Jewish communal fund drive earlier this year. The fund had expressed objections to Hygiene4All’s February 5 statement that called for “an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the end of the genocide against Palestinian people, and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.”Taken together, the incidents point to a growing concern in Jewish philanthropy circles since October 7: that the rise of a “statement culture” around the Israel-Hamas war, in which a range of organizations regardless of mission are taking positions on the issue, is fraying relationships between Jews and non-Jews in institutions across the country.Jewish groups have a responsibility, Cahana said, to make sure the causes they’re supporting align with their values. Yet pulling funds over such statements, in turn, can have the effect of feeding into pernicious antisemitic stereotypes about Jewish power and influence around Israel, and could even hurt the marginalized communities Jews set out to help.“This is a sad situation,” Cahana said. “Because it’s unnecessary.”With the food bank, the Jewish groups objected to two main points: the fact that this was the first time the charity had issued a stance on an international issue, and the specific accusations the statement made against Israel.Jewish leaders questioned why the food bank has said nothing about ongoing famine in Sudan or Syria — the latter of which, the federation said, affected “thousands of Palestinians.” They also believed it was inappropriate for the food bank to accuse Israel of “intentional” targeting of aid workers, hospitals and sources of food. (As a humanitarian crisis has intensified in Gaza, aid groups and international bodies have accused Israel of hindering the delivery of aid as a policy, and Israeli strikes have killed aid workers. Israel has apologized for those strikes, which it says were accidental, and insists it is doing everything possible to deliver aid to the enclave.)The federation met with senior staff at the food bank both before and after the statement’s publication in the hopes of compelling the group to soften it.“Just stay out of it,” Horenstein, whose group is affiliated with the federation, said they told the food bank. “Stay in your lane. Your lane is to address hunger and the root causes of hunger.”But they feel their calls went unheeded. “They completely ignored our concerns,” he said.Federation CEO Marc Blattner, during a recent address following the federation’s annual meeting, said, “We viewed this statement as a one-sided attack on Israel.”The food bank sees it differently. Susannah Morgan, the charity’s president, told JTA in a statement that they “took into consideration the diversity of viewpoints” expressed by groups including the federation before issuing their final statement.“We experience grief when some of our donors determine they can no longer support our mission,” Morgan said. “For us, it is a moment of disagreement — and we continue holding space and possibility for relationship with these organizations and community members here at OFB.”From Cahana’s perspective, the food bank was out of line. And by refusing to alter its statement beyond incorporating a mention of the October 7 massacre — which saw thousands of Hamas-led terrorists murder 1,200 people in southern Israel, most of them civilians, and kidnap 251 to the Gaza Strip, sparking the ongoing war — the charity seemed more committed to its Gaza stance than it was to maintaining a relationship with the Jewish community.“If you’re going to ask for the involvement of the Jewish community, recognizing that this is going to be read in a way that’s problematic, and then not incorporate any of those suggestions, or incorporate them in such a way that they felt like just an add-on and not really addressing the core issue, that felt very insulting,” he said.For the Jewish groups, the disagreement was too pointed to keep private. “We decided at that point to publicize what they were doing,” Horenstein said. The result was a letter sent at the end of May, titled “A Jewish Statement to the Oregon Food Bank.” It was signed by a dozen groups, who also pledged to redirect their dollars toward other local food-based charities that had not taken a similar stance on the conflict.“We maintain a commitment to the mission of eliminating hunger in Oregon, and its root causes,” the letter said. “But we cannot see how calling on one party of a conflict thousands of miles away to commit to a ceasefire, while allowing the terror organization that broke the ceasefire to continue to flourish on its borders, helps eliminate hunger in Oregon.”Some individual Jewish donors to the food bank also, separately, rescinded their support over the statement, according to multiple local Jewish leaders. It was an outcome that the federation hadn’t sought, but isn’t particularly motivated to reverse.“We never told people, ‘Don’t donate.’ That was never our intention. We decided people can make up their own minds,” Horenstein said. But, he said, “the fact that they’ve lost some major support from within our own community — you know, we’re not crying about that.”The Hygiene4All breakup was more amicable. The group was originally included as one of six beneficiaries of a homelessness-focused funding campaign spearheaded this year by the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation, a local philanthropic venture. In an accompanying Q&A on the foundation’s website, Hygiene4All director Sandra Comstock thanked them for their “generous” support and said the money would go toward staff wages, the purchase of items such as tents and sleeping bags, and a newsletter spotlighting “BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and disabled focused stories.”But then Hygiene4All posted its statement to Instagram. In addition to accusing Israel of genocide, it also apologized for being “120 days late” — indicating that members believed the day after the October 7 onslaught would have been the appropriate time to call for a ceasefire.Soon after, both groups told JTA, the foundation contacted Hygiene4All with concerns about its statement. In response, Hygiene4All volunteered to remove itself from the funding drive; information about the group was scrubbed from the foundation’s website.Both groups now say they are pursuing “a different type of collaboration” that will involve further dialogue between the boards. “We are grateful for the opportunity to engage in deeper discussion with H4A and our community members around important issues and hope those discussions will lead to a collaborative effort for improving the world,” Rachael Evans, director of stewardship for the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation, told JTA in a statement.Comstock described this new relationship as “one where unpressured, thoughtful, carefilled [sic] conversation might deepen trust and broaden common ground and mutual commitment in the longer term.”These issues come as Jews in Portland are experiencing heightened tensions with a local community that’s known for progressive stances and is fired up over the war. Concerns have arisen over a teachers’ union’s intense pro-Palestinian advocacy, and in the spring, activists extensively damaged a library at Portland State University.In response to blowback, the food bank has held steadfast to its statement, arguing that since they believe Gazans are facing an increasingly likely prospect of famine, it is well within the organization’s mission to denounce Israel’s conduct in the war.The charity also said it has received “overwhelming support” since news of the dispute broke, and it has encouraged its supporters to also give to the World Central Kitchen, an aid group distributing food in Gaza. Seven of the group’s workers were killed in an Israeli military strike in April.Morgan said that, despite the exits of some donors, “the financial losses have not been significant” and the food bank is calling on its community “to redirect their support to the people of Gaza who, unfortunately, are facing full-blown famine.”The anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace, meanwhile, launched a fundraising effort for the food bank. “The OFB called for a ceasefire and was attacked by some members of the Zionist community here in Portland,” JVP’s Portland chapter wrote on Instagram. In a follow-up post, the group called the Jewish community’s stance “unconscionable and punitive to the most vulnerable members of our community,” adding, “The Jewish Federation does not speak for all Jews in Portland.”A letter spearheaded by JVP supporting the food bank has been signed by hundreds of people and groups, including the rabbi of Havurah Shalom, a local Reconstructionist congregation.In his June 7 community address, Blattner, the federation executive, defended the decision by describing a recent phone call with a critic of Israel.“During my conversation with one person who called expressing their anger, I asked, ‘Are you a contributor to the Jewish Federation?’” he recalled. “They replied, ‘No, I do not like your support for Israel so I give to other Jewish causes.’ I then responded, ‘So why is our choice to look at other food organizations any different?’ They just hung up.”Horenstein acknowledged that pulling support from a food bank might not paint the Jewish groups in the best light.“To the person who doesn’t understand what’s going on, are the optics not favorable to us? Yeah, that’s probably true,” he said. “But at some point, when an organization crosses a red line — and this was a red line for us — then we have to be who we are, and we have to stand up for principle.”The Jewish groups have pledged to redirect their support to other local food charities, some of which were founded by Jews — including Stone Soup PDX, named after a Jewish folktale about food insecurity. That group’s co-founder, Craig Gerard, told JTA that he has not seen a significant difference in funding from the Jewish community since the food bank controversy. He noted that Stone Soup has seen large support from the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation’s current campaign, which still lists the group as one of five remaining beneficiaries.Cahana said that Beth Israel’s work to redirect funding began “immediately,” and that he has already had conversations with another local food organization, Urban Gleaners, about sending donations to them. Like Stone Soup PDX, Urban Gleaners was founded by a Beth Israel congregant.Yet there was one important matter to settle before he could approve redirecting fundraising dollars to them. Cahana had to ask the head of Urban Gleaners “if they had any plans about making public statements about international events.”

WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS

The King of Jerusalem[1] was the supreme ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Crusader state founded by Christian princes in 1099 when the First Crusade took the city.Godfrey of Bouillon, the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, himself refused the title of king, and instead chose the title "Defender of the Holy Sepulchre". Thus, the title of king was only introduced for his successor, King Baldwin I in 1100. The city of Jerusalem was lost in 1187, but the Kingdom of Jerusalem survived (also known as the "Second Kingdom of Jerusalem"), moving its capital to Acre in 1191. The city of Jerusalem was re-captured in the Sixth Crusade, during 1229–39 and 1241–44. The Kingdom of Jerusalem was finally dissolved with the fall of Acre and the end of the Crusades in the Holy Land in 1291.After the Crusader States ceased to exist, the title of King of Jerusalem was claimed by a number of European noble houses descended from the kings of Cyprus or the kings of Naples. The (purely ceremonial) title of King of Jerusalem is currently used by Felipe VI of Spain. It was claimed by Otto von Habsburg as Habsburg pretender, and by the kings of Italy until 1946.

Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week:(7 YEARS) and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.

JEREMIAH 6:14
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
JEREMIAH 8:11
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

 1 THESSALONIANS 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
 
ISAIAH 33:8
8  The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant,(7 YR TREATY) he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.(THE WORLD LEADER-WAR MONGER CALLS HIMSELF GOD)

JERUSALEM DIVIDED
GENESIS 25:20-26
20  And Isaac was forty years old (A BIBLE GENERATION NUMBER=1967 + 40=2007+) when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
21  And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
22  And the children (2 NATIONS IN HER-ISRAEL-ARABS) struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went
to enquire of the LORD.
23  And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels;(ISRAEL AND THE ARABS) and the one people shall be stronger than the other people;(ISRAEL STRONGER THAN ARABS) and the elder shall serve the younger.(LITERALLY ISRAEL THE YOUNGER RULES (ISSAC)(JACOB-LATER NAME CHANGED TO ISRAEL) OVER THE OLDER ARABS (ISHMAEL)(ESAU)
24  And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
25  And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.(THE OLDER AN ARAB)
26  And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob:(THE YOUNGER-ISRAELI) and Isaac was threescore (60) years old when she bare them.(1967 + 60=2027)(COULD BE THE LAST GENERATION WHEN JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED AMOUNG THE 2 TWINS)(THE 2 TWINS WANT JERUSALEM-THE DIVISION OF JERUSALEM TODAY)(AND WHOS IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM TODAY-THE YOUNGER ISSAC-JACOB-ISRAEL)(AND WHO WANTS JERUSALEM DIVIDED-THE OLDER,ESAU-ISHMAEL (THE ARABS)

ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT) shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.DANIEL 11:36-40
36 And the king shall do according to his will;(EU PRESIDENT) and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS A EUROPEAN JEW) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(HES A MILITARY GINIUS) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds (CONTROL HEZBOLLAH,AL-QUAIDA MURDERERS ETC) with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south(EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR PROTECTING ISRAELS SECURITY) and the king of the north(RUSSIA) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

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, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
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)

MATTHEW 24:37-42 (THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-SURE NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)(50% OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE)
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.

DR SAMUEL DOCTORIANS VISION - SECOND ANGEL: MIDDLE EAST
Then I saw that the second angel had a sickle in his hand, such as is used in harvesting.The second angel said: "Harvest time has come in Israel and the countries all the way to Iran."I saw those countries in a few split seconds."All of Turkey and those [inaudible] countries that have refused me and refused my message of love shall hate each other and kill one another."I saw the angel raise the sickle and come down on all the Middle East countries. I saw Iran, Persia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, all of Georgia - Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, all of Asia Minor - full of blood. I saw blood all over these countries. And I saw fire; Nuclear weapons used in many of those countries. Smoke rising from everywhere. Sudden destruction – men destroying one another. I heard these words:"Israel, Oh Israel, the great judgment has come." The angel said, "The chosen, the church, the remnant, shall be purified. The Spirit of God shall prepare the children of God."I saw fires rising to heaven.The angel said: "This is the final judgment. My church shall be purified, protected and ready for the final day. Men will die from thirst. Water shall be scarce all over the Middle East. Rivers shall dry up, and men will fight for water in those countries."The angel showed me that the United Nations shall be broken in pieces because of the crisis in the Middle East. There shall be no more United Nations. The angel with the sickle shall reap the harvest.

DANIEL CHAPTER 9:24-27 EXPLAINED.
24 Seventy weeks (70X7=490 YEARS) are determined upon thy people (ISRAEL) and upon thy holy city,(JERUSALEM) to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.(JESUS ANNOINTED WITH HOLY OIL AS KING OF JERUSALEM FOREVER).
25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, (7X7=49 YEARS) and threescore and two weeks:(62X7=434 YEARS) the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.(490-49-434=7 YR PERIOD WERE GOD DEALS WITH ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM (NOT THE CHURCH-THE TRUE CHURCH IS IS IN HEAVEN WITH JESUS FOR THAT LAST 7 YEAR PERIOD.)(DANIEL 9:26-27 IS IN THE FUTURE WHEN GOD DEALS ON EARTH WITH ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM FOR THAT FINAL 7 TEAR PERIOD. WHEN ALL OF ISRAEL WILL BE SAVED BY MESSIAH JESUS.)(AT THE END OF IT)
26 And after threescore and two weeks (69X7=483 YEARS)(ONE 7 YEAR PERIOD UNTIL PROPHECY IS FULFILLED) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince (ROMANS) that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(2ND TEMPLE AND JERUSALEM) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(NOW THE FINAL ISRAEL-JERUSALEM COUNTDOWN FOR MESSIAH JESUS RETURN THE LAST 7 YEARS)
27 And he (HE WHO? HE HERE IS THE REVIVED ROMAN EMPIRE LEADER THAT MAKES THE FINAL 7 YR CONTRACT WITH ISRAEL AND MANY MUSLIM COUNTRIES FOR A 7 YR PERIOD, AND THE EU WILL GUARENTEE ISRAELS SECURITY FOR THIS LAST PERIOD) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: (7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week (3 1/2 YEARS IN) he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, (THIS FALSE MESSIAH OR ROMAN LEADER STOPS THE ANIMAL SACRIFICES IN THE 3RD TEMPLE AT THE MIDPOINT OF THE 7 YR DEAL. A JEW MURDERS HIM WITH A SWORD WOUND AND HE HAS A FALSE RESSURECTION-SATAN INCARNATES IN HIS BODY. AND BRINGS HIM BACK TO LIFE.AND HE THEN SITS IN THE 3RD TEMPLE CALLING HIMSELF GOD AS THE WORLD SAYS HES JESUS REINCARNATED. AND BY THIS FALSE RESURRECTION GOD SENDS THIS STRONG DELUTION ON THE EARTH THAT ALL THE LOST WILL WORSHIP THIS ROMAN LEADER AS GOD AND ACCEPT HIS NAME, NUMBER OR NUMBER OF HIS NAME IN THEIR MICROCHIP IMPLANT. THAT THEY MIGHT BE DOOMED, DAMNED TO THE LAKE OF FIRE FOREVER. WHO WORSHIPS THIS ROMAN LEADER AS GOD.) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.(WARS NON STOP DURING THE LAST 3 1/2 YEARS OF THE 7 YEAR PERIOD. HAMAS DEATH CULT HOSTAGE RELEASE.

EU Middle East envoy: Bloc still committed to two-state solution-Sven Koopmans says organization can leverage close connections with Israel and Palestinian Authority to push for diplomatic solution, despite internal disagreements on the matter-By AFP and ToI Staff 20 July 2024, 8:04 pm

The European Union’s Middle East peace envoy continues to believe a two-state solution is achievable despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stubborn opposition to a Palestinian state.Sven Koopmans, in an interview with AFP, said with the Gaza war ongoing and Israel needing international support, Netanyahu’s government cannot indefinitely disregard European views on resolving the conflict.Netanyahu and some ministers in his right-wing government staunchly oppose the creation of a Palestinian state, which some argue has become even more urgent since Hamas’s October 7 attacks — which saw terrorists kill some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnap 251 — sparked the devastating war.“I think that recently he was very explicit about rejecting the two-state solution,” Koopmans said. “Now, that means that he has a different point of view from much of the rest of the world.”The Dutch diplomat said one side’s rejection of “the outcome that we believe is necessary” does not mean efforts to seek a solution should cease.Last month, the EU invited Israel to discuss Gaza and human rights.Israel agreed to a meeting after July 1, when Hungary, which supports Netanyahu’s government, assumed the EU presidency.“It is important that we have that discussion,” Koopmans said. “I am sure that in such a meeting, there will be very substantive discussions about what we expect from our partner Israel. And that relates to things that we do not see at present.”‘Relevant actor’Koopmans said it was “completely unacceptable” for there to be thousands of aid trucks waiting at the Gaza border. Israel says it is allowing aid into the enclave, but incompetence by aid workers on the ground and theft by the terror group Hamas are preventing the aid from adequately reaching civilians.The envoy also raised concerns about settler violence in the West Bank, saying some attacks amounted to “genuine terrorism.”Named special representative for the peace process in 2021, Koopmans said the EU is one of the most energetic institutions pushing for a two-state solution.Koopmans said his work was guided by the EU’s 1980 declaration recognizing the “right to existence and to security” for Israel and “the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”The declaration called Israeli settlements in the West Bank “a serious obstacle to the peace process.”The European bloc had only nine members then, and Koopmans acknowledged divisions between the 27 existing members on the Middle East strife.Nevertheless, he insisted the bloc “should not make ourselves smaller than we are.”He highlighted that the 27 countries, with a combined population of 450 million, were Israel’s largest trading partner and the top aid donor to the Palestinians.“We are the biggest political neighbor to both of them. Of course, we are not the biggest security provider, let’s be honest. But we are a big and relevant actor.”EU nuances-Koopmans listed his top priorities as ending the suffering in Gaza, preventing a regional war between Israel and the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah, and reviving the peace process to establish “a free state of Palestine living alongside a safe and secure Israel.”The envoy acknowledged the “different nuances” of EU members regarding the Middle East.Spain and Ireland joined non-EU member Norway in recognizing a Palestinian state this year.Hungary and the Czech Republic have on the other hand sought to block EU sanctions against settlers in the West Bank.The recognitions of a Palestinian state infuriated Israel, yet Koopmans said the move could “contribute” to a solution to the conflict. Israel says that the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state following October 7 serves as a reward for the crimes committed by terrorist groups like Hamas. The Knesset overwhelmingly reaffirmed that sentiment on Wednesday, passing a resolution rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state.The European Union is also a major backer of the Palestinian Authority, which many countries say Israel seeks to undermine.“We want to see the PA thrive. We want it to have an ability to govern in an effective and legitimate manner,” Koopmans said.“We want to strengthen the PA also so that it can again take over in Gaza when the time is there.”The European Union met with foreign ministers from Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in May and Koopmans said there were “positive reactions” to its proposals.

UAE becomes first Arab country to publicly buy into effort-UAE signals willingness to join post-war Gaza peacekeeping force-Senior Emirati official says Abu Dhabi could participate on condition that it’s invited by reformed PA, that initiative is US-led and that it is part of broader two-state effort-By Jacob Magid-Today, 6:28 am-JUL 21

A senior Emirati official signaled this week that Abu Dhabi is prepared to contribute troops to a post-war peacekeeping force in Gaza, making the United Arab Emirates the first Arab country to publicly buy into the effort being quietly advanced by the Biden administration.Lana Nusseibeh, who serves as special envoy of UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed, penned an op-ed in the Financial Times in which she called for the establishment of a “temporary international mission” in Gaza “that responds to the humanitarian crisis, establishes law and order, lays the groundwork for governance and paves the way to reuniting Gaza and the occupied West Bank under a single, legitimate Palestinian Authority.”The US has been looking to recruit countries for the effort, as it seeks to re-install the PA as the ruling authority in Gaza while recognizing that Ramallah needs time to reform and that a temporary security and governing force will be necessary to help fill the vacuum so that Hamas does not regain control.But the Biden administration has had a hard time convincing Arab allies to come on board, as a key condition of theirs has been that the temporary peacekeeping force be part of a process leading to an eventual two-state solution — a framework Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to block.Accordingly, Arab states have been reluctant to publicly express willingness to take part in the initiative, not wanting to be seen as betraying the Palestinian people.Privately, though, the US has made some progress in getting countries on board. Last month, The Times of Israel revealed that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had recently been informing allies that the UAE and Egypt had agreed to take part in the initiative.Nusseibeh all but confirmed as much in an interview with FT published alongside her op-ed in which she said, “The UAE could consider being part of the stabilization forces alongside Arab and international partners… at the invitation of a reformed Palestinian Authority, or a PA led by an empowered prime minister.”It was unclear whether Nusseibeh was referring to Mohammad Mustafa, who was appointed PA prime minister in March.Arab and US officials have told The Times of Israel that Mustafa wasn’t Abu Dhabi’s preferred choice for the job, as they see his longtime ties to PA President Mahmoud Abbas as something that will prevent him from acting independently in order to enact necessary reforms.“For us, what it would take [to participate in the mission] is US leadership, a reformed PA leadership and a road map toward reuniting Gaza and the West Bank under a single Palestinian government,” Nusseibeh told FT. “We [also] would need to see a clear articulation, a signal or a commitment to Palestinian statehood through negotiations.”“Israel, as the occupying power, must also do its part for such an effort to succeed. Gaza cannot recover if it continues to live under a blockade. Neither can it be rebuilt if the legitimate PA is not allowed to take on its responsibilities. No effort will succeed if settlement construction, violence and incitement to violence continue to rise in the occupied West Bank,” she wrote in the separate op-ed.Nusseibeh clarified that the stabilization force envisioned by the UAE would not “replace the UN or the work of its agencies on the ground,” suggesting that Abu Dhabi wants the UNRWA agency for Palestinian refugees to continue operating in Gaza. Israel has sought to end the agency’s activity in Gaza, arguing that it has been entirely compromised by the Hamas terror group.The alternative to the stabilization mission would be “to do more of the same, and that will only lead to more violence, radicalism and suffering for both Palestinians and Israelis,” the UAE envoy added.Blinken has told counterparts in the Mideast that the US would help establish and train the security force and ensure that it would have a temporary mandate, so that it could eventually be replaced by a fully Palestinian body, officials told The Times of Israel last month, adding that the goal is for the PA to eventually fully take over Gaza.The secretary clarified, though, that the US would not be contributing troops of its own, the officials said.During a June 12 press conference in Doha, Blinken said the US and its partners would soon release its plans for the postwar management of Gaza. “In the coming weeks, we will put forward proposals for key elements of the day-after — planning that includes concrete ideas for how to manage governance, security, reconstruction.”The officials speaking to The Times of Israel said the US is working on three concept notes on each of those issues, adding that Washington is hoping that Saudi Arabia will lead reconstruction efforts.As for governance, Blinken privately told counterparts that the goal would be to establish a transitional government in Gaza, which would work closely with countries in the region, the officials said.Blinken has held talks for months with a contact group of counterparts from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt and the PA. He has also looped in Morocco, Bahrain, Turkey, Indonesia and others in an effort to galvanize broad international support for the postwar stabilization of Gaza.

China says wants to facilitate Palestinian 'reconciliation'-by AFP Staff Writers.

Beijing (AFP) July 16, 2024-China on Tuesday expressed willingness to facilitate "reconciliation" between rival Palestinian factions, after Fatah said its officials would meet in Beijing with Hamas counterparts.Islamist Hamas later said it would be attending talks in the Chinese capital at what it called an "expanded factional meeting" this weekend."The movement responded with a positive spirit and national responsibility," official Hossam Badran said in a statement.Hamas was "keen on achieving national unity worthy of our Palestinian people... especially in light of the Al-Aqsa Flood battle," he added, using the militant group's name of its October 7 attack on Israel that set off the Gaza war.Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said Beijing had "always supported all sides in Palestine to achieve reconciliation and unity through dialogue and negotiation".China, he said, was "willing to develop dialogue and reconciliation, provide a platform and create opportunities for all sides on the Palestine issue"."China is willing to strengthen communication with all parties and work hard to realise the aim of Palestine's domestic reconciliation," he added.The two Palestinian groups have been bitter rivals since Hamas fighters ejected Fatah from the Gaza Strip after deadly clashes that followed Hamas's resounding victory in a 2006 election.Fatah sources said on Monday the Hamas delegation would be headed by its Qatar-based political chief Ismail Haniyeh, while the Fatah representation would be led by deputy head Mahmud Alul.Asked about the comments on Tuesday, Beijing said it would "publish information at an appropriate time".The Islamist Hamas movement has ruled Gaza since seizing control of it in 2007.The secularist Fatah movement controls the Palestinian Authority, which has partial administrative control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.Several reconciliation bids have failed, but calls have grown since the Hamas October attack and nine-month war in Gaza with violence also soaring in the West Bank where Fatah is based.China hosted Fatah and Hamas in April but a meeting scheduled for June was postponed.China has positioned itself as a more neutral actor on the Israel-Palestinian conflict than its rival the United States, advocating for a two-state solution while also maintaining good ties with Israel.

Hezbollah launches dozens of rockets at north; drone from Lebanon intercepted-Lebanese terror group says barrages are response to recent IDF strikes, without mentioning killing of senior Radwan commander on Thursday-By Emanuel Fabian-19 July 2024, 7:03 pm

Hezbollah launched some 65 rockets from Lebanon at northern Israel on Friday, according to the military, after a senior commander in the Lebanese terror group’s elite Radwan force was killed in an Israeli strike the night before.A Hezbollah statement claiming responsibility for the rocket fire said the barrages were a response to recent IDF strikes in southern Lebanon, without specifically mentioning Thursday’s airstrike on Ali Jaafar Maatouk and other operatives.According to the Israel Defense Forces, several of the rockets were shot down by the Iron Dome air defense system, while others impacted open areas.No injuries were caused and troops shelled the launch sites with artillery, the IDF said.Later, a rocket launcher used in one of the barrages against the community of Abirim was targeted in a drone strike, alongside a building used by the terror group, in southern Lebanon’s Ayta ash-Shab, the military said.Meanwhile, the IDF said fighter jets struck Hezbollah weapons depots in Blida, Tayr Harfa and Houla. Another Hezbollah site was also struck in Houla, the IDF added.Some 65 rockets were launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon at northern Israel today, the IDF says.Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a series of barrages, in what it says was a response to recent IDF strikes in southern Lebanon.According to the IDF, several rockets were shot… pic.twitter.com/0fNyXcDQ1B— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) July 19, 2024-In the morning, the military said a suspected drone that entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon was shot down by air defenses. Sirens had sounded in the Galilee over fears of falling shrapnel. There were no injuries.The drone attack from Lebanon came hours after a drone launched overnight by Yemen’s Houthi rebels struck Tel Aviv, killing an Israeli and wounding several others.The Houthis, along with other Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria, have claimed to have launched dozens of drones and cruise missiles at Israel during the ongoing war in Gaza sparked by Hamas’s devastating October 7 terror onslaught, while Lebanon’s Hezbollah has attacked communities and IDF positions in northern Israel on a near-daily basis.So far, the skirmishes have resulted in 12 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 18 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.Hezbollah has named 370 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 67 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have been killed.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Masked group hurls stones at anti-government protesters in Tel Aviv-Thousands rally nationwide, urge PM not to leave for US before finalizing hostage deal-At weekly protests, relatives of abductees claim Netanyahu obstructing a deal; ‘If there’s no deal, don’t go,’ says Yair Lapid in Tel Aviv; protesters expected at airport Sunday-By Charlie Summers and ToI Staff Today, 1:15 am-JUL 20,24

Anti-government protesters gathered in cities across Israel on Saturday night, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to depart for a planned visit to Washington the next day until he has first signed a deal with the Hamas terror group to facilitate the return of the hostage from Gaza.The largest demonstrations were staged in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and Caesarea, with thousands participating at each.Speaking in front of Israel’s military headquarters in Tel Aviv, Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan, 24, is a hostage in Gaza, declared that there is one person who stands between the families of those held captive and their loved ones, “and that is the prime minister, to whom it is more important to save his seat than it is to save lives.”Hamas terrorists kidnapped Matan from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, when thousands of terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, triggering the ongoing war.Talks for a deal, mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the US, have failed to free the hostages since a weeklong ceasefire in November that saw Hamas release 105 captives in return for 240 Palestinian prisoners. However, progress has been made in recent weeks, with the US declaring that Israel and Hamas have agreed on a framework for a deal but still have obstacles to overcome.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made new demands in recent weeks — maintaining IDF presence in the Philadelphi Corridor to prevent weapon smuggling from Egypt to Gaza and the creation of a mechanism for preventing armed Palestinians from returning to northern Gaza — that have slowed the talks, Arab and Israeli officials involved have told The Times of Israel.“There is a deal on the table that’s been ready to be closed for several weeks. And we’re standing here today, after another wasted week, in which Netanyahu again torpedoed [the deal] and dragged his feet,” Zangauker said on Saturday.The families of hostages have led protests every Saturday night almost since the beginning of the war to put pressure on the government to strike a deal for the captives’ release.Protesters are expected to demonstrate tomorrow at Ben Gurion Airport as Netanyahu departs.Before he does, the premier is slated to huddle with the Israeli hostage negotiating team, according to a source in Netanyahu’s office.Mati Danzig, the son of captive Alex Danzig, 75, announced at the Tel Aviv rally that if Netanyahu leaves for the US without announcing a hostage deal, a group of hostages’ relatives will also travel to Washington and publicly declare that Netanyahu is “the obstacle to a deal.”Several relatives of hostages are planning to travel to the US as part of Netanyahu’s entourage, including Noa Argamani, 26, who was herself held hostage for 245 days until Israeli special forces rescued her and three other captives in an operation last month.Other hostages’ relatives have called on Argamani not to travel to Washington with the prime minister unless a deal is reached first.Also set to fly with Netanyahu are Ditza Or, whose son Avinatan, 30, is a hostage; Bat-Sheva Yahalomi, whose husband Ohad, 49, is held, and relatives of the Bibas family, including Yarden Bibas’s father.Alon Gat, whose sister Carmel Gat, 39, is in Hamas captivity, told the Ynet news site that he turned down an invitation from Netanyahu to fly with him to Washington, as he fears the prime minister is endangering his sister’s life by intentionally delaying a hostage deal.“Netanyahu invited me on the flight and at first, I thought it could help, that we would be able to impact things,” he said. “I believed that on the flight, he would announce that he was signing the deal.“But as the deadline approached, we realized that this wasn’t going to happen, and instead the opposite is true — he is hindering progress and isn’t making any decisions.”Gat said that he believes other families currently expected to fly with Netanyahu’s delegation will join him in his decision.“I couldn’t live with myself knowing that I was traveling with him and that at that time, God forbid, something had happened to Carmel. I know that Netanyahu is taking his time. I don’t know how he lives with himself,” he added.Yifat Calderon, the cousin of hostage Ofer Calderon, 53, expressed support on Saturday for Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, defense officials, and Israeli negotiators, and urged them not to allow Netanyahu to torpedo a deal.“If Netanyahu again sabotages a deal, come out to the public with the truth,” she said.Hebrew media reported on Friday that Gallant was considering declaring the deal “within reach” to increase pressure on Netanyahu to accept it. The premier’s far-right coalition partners, however, have threatened to bolt the government if the deal goes through.Eight hardline MKs from Netanyahu’s Likud party also sent him a letter over the weekend pledging not to back the hostage deal being discussed by Israel and Hamas unless significant changes are made to the proposal. None of them will be needed to approve the deal, however, as they don’t sit on the cabinet.Opposition Leader Yair Lapid addressed the largest crowd of the night, at the protest movement’s central demonstration on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv.“Now, Netanyahu is traveling to speak to Congress. He has one final opportunity, to go to Congress, and to announce there, from that stage, that he’s going for a deal. If he doesn’t announce that he’s accepting the deal, why is he going?” Lapid said.“Go to Qatar, go to Cairo,” he continued, referring to cities where Israeli representatives have been negotiating with Hamas through intermediaries. “Don’t go to Washington to put on another show. If there’s no deal, don’t go!”Lapid predicted the imminent fall of the government, telling the crowd, “If it doesn’t happen now, it will happen during the most disgraceful and unnecessary recess in Israel’s history” — referring to the Knesset’s summer break, from the end of July to October 27 — “and if it doesn’t happen during the recess it will happen in November at the latest. But it will happen when the Knesset returns.”Former US ambassador to Israel Tom Nides, who served in that office from 2021 to 2023, also spoke at the Kaplan demonstration.“Mr. Prime Minister, tell them you support President Biden’s plan to bring [the hostages] home now,” Nides said. “Mr. Prime Minister, tell them you’ll do whatever it takes to bring them home now.”As the Tel Aviv protest winded down, several masked individuals — believed to be far-right provocateurs — were filmed hurling stones at the anti-government demonstrators.Nearby, mounted police officers descended on Ayalon Highway to disperse protesters who briefly attempted to block traffic. One person was detained.In Jerusalem, thousands of demonstrators, incensed over Netanyahu’s planned trip, marched with a banner that read: “No flight without a deal.”The protesters came to a standstill at the city’s Paris Square, adjacent to Netanyahu’s official residence, and continued to chant before the start of a joint hostage families and anti-government rally.“Only an end to the war will bring the hostages home,” said Mai Alvini-Peri, the grandson of Haim Peri, who was abducted by Hamas from Nir Oz on October 7 and confirmed dead by the IDF in early June.“An end to the war will also bring an end to the government,” Alvini-Peri added. “So you all can understand why this war is continuing so long, and why there still isn’t a hostage deal.”It is believed that 116 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — including the bodies of 42 hostages confirmed dead by the IDF — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that.Seven hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 19 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military.One more person has been listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is unknown. Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.

THESE IDIOTS ARE ISRAEL HATER NUTCASES THAT THINK THEY CAN TELL ISRAEL WHAT TO DO WITH A NONE BINDING USELESS WORDS ON A PAPER BY A FAKE COURT.

PA and Hamas praise ruling, demand action against Israel-World Court: Israeli presence in East Jerusalem, West Bank is illegal and must end-ICJ says Israel’s actions in West Bank amount to de facto annexation, calls for end of Israeli control; PM slams decision: ‘The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land’By Jeremy Sharon-19 July 2024, 9:35 pm

In a conclusive and unambiguous decision, the International Court of Justice declared in a non-binding ruling Friday that Israel’s 56-year long rule in “the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967” is “illegal,” and that it is obligated to bring its presence in that territory to an end “as rapidly as possible.”In its decision, the ICJ said it determined Israel’s policy of settlement in the West Bank violates international law, and that Israel had effectively annexed large parts of the West Bank — along with East Jerusalem, which was formally annexed and designated as sovereign Israeli territory in 1980 — due to some of the apparently permanent aspects of Israeli rule there.The legal consequences of its findings, the court ruled, were that Israel must end its control of these areas, cease new settlement activity, “repeal all legislation and measures creating or maintaining the unlawful situation” — including those which it said “discriminate against the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” — and provide reparations for any damage caused by its “wrongful acts.”In addition, the court said that all UN member states are obligated not to recognize changes to the status of the territory, and that all states are obligated not to aid or assist Israel’s rule of the territories, and ensure that any impediment “to the exercise of the Palestinian people of its right to self-determination is brought to an end.”The court also said that despite the complete civilian and military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Israel has “remained capable of exercising, and continued to exercise, certain key elements of authority” there. It added “this is even more so” since the Hamas-led October 7 attack that started the ongoing Gaza war.The ICJ’s decision is an advisory opinion and has no direct legal consequences on Israel or other UN member states, but it could be another blow to the Jewish state’s international standing and add political pressure over its devastating nine-month-old war against Palestinian terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel did not take part in the hearings, instead submitting a written contribution that described the questions the court had been asked as “prejudicial” and “tendentious.”Netanyahu: False and distorted decisionPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, numerous cabinet ministers as well as settler leaders roundly denounced the ruling, with some calling for the immediate formal annexation of the West Bank in response.“The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land — not in our eternal capital Jerusalem, not in the land of our ancestors in Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu said, using the biblical names for the West Bank. “No false decision in The Hague will distort this historical truth, just as the legality of Israeli settlement in all the territories of our homeland cannot be contested.”Some opposition lawmakers also denounced the decision, with National Unity party leader Benny Gantz denouncing the opinion as “external interference.”“We vow to both continue defending ourselves in the face of those seeking our destruction and to protect the one and only Jewish State,” he said.Members of left-wing opposition parties insisted, however, that Israeli policy was at fault, with Labor MK Gilad Kariv stating that the government’s “de facto annexation” of the West Bank, “theft of land” and refusal to conduct negotiations with the Palestinians meant that it would by definition be unable to preserve “Israel’s status as an accepted democratic country.”PA’s Abbas: Compel Israel to implement ruling-The Palestinian Authority, which lobbied for the UN General Assembly to request the advisory opinion, hailed the court’s opinion.“[PA President Mahmoud Abbas] considers it a historic decision and demands that Israel be compelled to implement it,” said a statement from his office on official Palestinian news agency Wafa.Abbas’s office added that it considers “the court’s decision a victory for justice, as it confirmed that the Israeli occupation is illegitimate.”Hamas also praised the ruling, with a statement from the terror organization saying it puts “the international system before the imperative of immediate action to end the occupation.”Settlements are ‘not temporary in character’The request for the advisory opinion was filed with the court by the UN General Assembly in January 2023 and sought a ruling as to the legal consequences arising, it said, “from the ongoing violation by Israel of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, [and] from its prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.”It also sought the ICJ position on how Israel’s “policies and practices” in the territories “affect the legal status of the occupation.”The court notably cited Israeli decisions and legislation regarding its rule in the West Bank, including quoting from the basic principles document of the current government which states that “the Jewish people have an exclusive and inalienable right to all parts of the Land of Israel,” and that the government will “promote and develop the settlement” of all parts of the land, including “Judea and Samaria.”It also quoted from Israel’s 2018 Nation State Basic Law, which has quasi-constitutional status, which said that “Jewish settlement” was a “national value.” The relevant clause in the law does not specify where the state should promote settlement and employs a Hebrew word that can be used generally for settling land and has no geographic connotations.Along with Gaza, Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six Day War. The former was ruled by Egypt, which had a military administration in the enclave, while the latter were controlled and annexed by Jordan.The court dealt methodically with the parameters of the UN General Assembly’s request, including Israel’s policy of building and expanding Israeli neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and settlements in the West Bank.In particular, it said “the expansion of settlements is based on the confiscation or requisition of large areas of land,” and that since this benefits the settler population “to the detriment of local [Palestinian] population,” Israel’s settlements policy violated The Hague Regulations, founding documents of international law.It also said the settlements “are not temporary in character,” thus violating the Fourth Geneva Convention and accepted principles of international law that “belligerent occupations” are supposed to be temporary.Critically, the ICJ asserted that Israel has annexed large parts of the West Bank, along with its formal annexation of East Jerusalem.“Israel’s extension of its domestic law to the West Bank, notably to the settlements and over settlers, as well as its assumption of broad regulatory powers by virtue of the prolonged character of the occupation, entrenches its control of the occupied territory,” the court determined.“The court comes to the conclusion that Israel’s policies and practices, including maintenance and expansion of settlements, the construction of associated infrastructure and the [security] wall, the exploitation of natural resources, the proclamation of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the comprehensive application of Israeli domestic law in East Jerusalem and its extensive application in the West Bank, entrench Israeli control of the occupied Palestinians territories, notably of East Jerusalem and Area C of the West Bank,” it continued.Crucially, it said that these practices “are designed to remain in place indefinitely and to create irreversible effects on the ground.”As such, the ICJ charged that Israel’s 56-year rule in the Palestinian territories was illegal.“The sustained abuse by Israel of its position as an occupying power through its annexation and assertion of permanent control over occupied Palestinian territory, and its continued frustration of the right of the Palestinian people to self determination violates fundamental principles of international law, and renders Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful,” the court determined.“This illegality relates to the entirety of Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in 1967. This is the territorial unit across which Israel has imposed policies and practices to fragment and frustrate the ability of the Palestinian people to exercise its right to self-determination, and over large swaths of which it has extended Israeli sovereignty in violation of international law.”Jacob Magid and agencies contributed to this report.

Indonesia issues call for World Bank-backed digital identification project-Jul 19, 2024, 3:34 pm EDT    | Masha Borak

Indonesia is looking for a company providing consulting services as a part of its upcoming digital transformation project backed by the World Bank.The country’s government has released a Request for Expression of Interest (REOI) to identify vendors working in in digital ID, electronic know your customer (e-KYC), biometrics and data exchange that wish to participate in the project.The project will take place over 48 months and will be based in Jakarta while the deadline for submission is July 29, 2024.Last year, Indonesia received a US$250 million loan from the World Bank to increase digital identification and boost its population registration efforts, particularly in lagging provinces and among vulnerable populations. The “ID for Inclusive Service Delivery and Digital Transformation Project” supports the Directorate General of Population, Ministry of Home Affairs in developing key digital public infrastructure (DPI) – including an identity verification and e-KYC platform, a digital identification app and a data exchange platform.The program outlines five components for an improved digital identity ecosystem. The first covers increasing the number of issued legal identity documents, such as national ID numbers (NIK), electronic national ID cards (e-KTP) and birth certificates.The second component is developing an identity verification and eKYC platform for online transactions while the third is bringing public and private services into the system. This includes securing data exchange and introducing an Automatic Biometrics Identification System (ABIS).Lastly, the fourth component includes legal and regulatory reform and human capital while the fifth covers project management, monitoring and evaluation.

Knowledge-sharing crucial as the world looks to the future of DPI-Jul 19, 2024, 8:55 am EDT    | Ayang Macdonald

As the global conversation about why DPI is important advances, so is that about how to implement them. A panel of experts during a recent webinar organized by the Center for Strategic and Internation Studies (CSIS) shared tips for successfully implementing DPI, and one of the issues that came out strongly is the imperative nature of knowledge-sharing with countries executing similar projects.Speakers during the webinar were experts from Brazil, India, Ukraine, and Zambia. They each described the progress made by these countries in building their DPI ecosystems, the challenges they encountered, the lessons learnt and the perspectives and plans for the future.Fabro Steibel, executive director of the Institute for Technology and Society (ITS) who spoke about the Brazil situation, said the country has made significant progress in its DPI journey thanks to the collaborative frameworks it has built over the years with different partners, especially those in the private sector.He recommended such collaboration to other countries and insisted that “it should happen more at the level of governance.” Steibel also discouraged the adoption of locked in technologies, and advised that countries go for open-source software such as MOSIP. Brazil recently introduced a legislation that makes DPI a core component of its digital government strategy.To Shatakratu Sahu, Research analyst and co-convenor of the Global Technology Summit, from Carnegie India, countries must be clear about why they are establishing DPI, so as to build context-specific solutions. He said already a model in DPI, the country is now looking to share more of its experience, and advance its global collaboration and partnerships network. India’s G20 Task Force recently launched a report that proposes guidelines to aid global DPI efforts.Sahu added that it is also important to close the digital divide through expanding connectivity, and increasing digital literacy levels in order to make people understand the importance of those digital building blocks and how to use them.On her part, Gulsanna Mamediieva, adviser to the Vice Prime Minister for Innovations, Development of Education, Science and Technology, Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, emphasized that DPI must be inclusive. “We must think of the vulnerable groups and make the system inclusive and easy to use by everyone,” she mentioned.With her country now ravaged by war, she wondered how things would be like if Ukraine had no DPI before the invasion. She confessed that it would have been difficult to get the country going after the invasion if a solid DPI was not in place. “Thanks to Diia, people have had several war-related services,” she mentioned.Diia, which went open-source a few months ago, is a one-stop-shop digital government application which facilitates access to different types of services in Ukraine, said Mamediieva.It has become so popular that at least 17 official document types can now be carried on the app, eliminating the need for paper or plastic documentation. The app has all components of DPI, she says, as it contains a digital ID, digital payments and data exchange features.In his own view, Robert Karanja, senior director for Africa at Co-Develop, reiterated that DPI are an excellent way to enable people have access to the services they need. This, among other things, requires “significant investment, inclusivity and safeguards,” he noted.He spoke about Zambia’s efforts in building DPI and that one of the things the country is currently engaged in is legislative reforms to tie with the government’s ambitions. “Zambia is also looking at a data sharing and digital government infrastructure by setting up a platform ZamPortal which enables citizens to access different services from either a mobile device or a web platform,” said Karanja.

NEC trades in 20K employee ID cards for facial recognition system in Japan-Company celebrating its 125th anniversary-Jul 19, 2024, 8:38 am EDT    | Abigail Opiah

NEC Corporation plans to implement a facial recognition identification access control system for its 20,000 employees in Japan, replacing traditional ID cards. Japan News reports that the system will facilitate building entry, timecard management, and access to office equipment such as printers and lockers. Additionally, it can be used for payments in the company cafeteria. The system will also integrate with external services like the Mirairo ID app, benefiting employees with disabilities.According to the company, employees will be able to utilize facial recognition technology to access office multifunction printers and lockers.Recently, it integrated its facial recognition identification system into SoftBank’s digital transformation initiatives, aiming to provide tailored solutions across various sectors. The collaboration was announced just as NEC was repeating with the highest biometric accuracy score in four of eight categories in the latest assessment from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology’s 1:N Identification track.In May 2024, the company also unveiled its plans to introduce a facial recognition payment system at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan to be held from April 13 to October 13, 2025. The system utilizes in-store payments using face biometrics and additional face-based authentication for admission management, in a bid to improve user convenience through hands-free payments, and prevent identity theft.NEC revealed in a recent interview that it deployed 3,000 touchpoints across a number of airports worldwide, using its valued partners such as SITA, Lufthansa, Delta, and Star Alliance.These developments come as NEC commences the formal celebration of its 125th anniversary.“Going forward, the NEC Group will continue to contribute to the future of society by advancing the digital transformation (DX) of our customers and communities, driven by a range of advanced technologies and trusted human resources. We look forward to your continued support in our future endeavors,” the company notes in a LinkedIn post.

3 East Asian countries expand biometric border systems-Another experiences problems with ID card issuance-Jul 19, 2024, 8:25 am EDT    | Masha Borak

Myanmar junta’s new smart card is trapping migrant workers inside the country and fueling a black market. Indonesia and Malaysia introduce new biometric technology at border crossings while Hong Kong extends its digital ID to Macao’s border.Hong Kong extends iAM Smart digital ID for border crossing in Macao-Hong Kong has extended its QR code-based biometric border crossing channel to neighboring Macao.The special administrative region of China has been using an automated e-channel that allows Hong Kong residents to scan their ID cards, fingerprints and faces to cross the border. Authorities have also introduced the option of using a QR code instead of an ID card which allows travelers to shave off one to two seconds during border crossings. To use the QR code, Hong Kongers need to register with the government’s iAM Smart digital ID mobile app.The QR-code e-channel service kicked off operations on Friday at Macao’s immigration checkpoints, The South China Morning Post reports. The service is part of the Greater Bay Area development strategy which aims to forge stronger economic and social connections between the two special administrative regions of China and cities in the Mainland Chinese province of Guangdong.Malaysia plans border ABIS for 2026-Malaysia is conducting a feasibility study on developing its National Border Control System (NBCS) which plans to integrate artificial intelligence technology and biometrics. The study is being conducted by the Institute of Public Security of Malaysia (IPSOM) and is scheduled to be completed in November 2024 after 14 months of research.The National Border Control System is part of the Malaysian Home Ministry’s strategy to strengthen the country’s border security control, according to The Edge Malaysia. The Ministry is working on an Automatic Biometric Identification System (ABIS) which is expected to be ready in 2026.The sub-contract for implementing the ABIS and its border control system was awarded to NEC in 2022. NEC received the contract from the prime contractor, IRIS Information Technology System, and will provide a multi-modal authentication system of face, fingerprint, and iris as well as e-gates for this project.Indonesia implements facial recognition at its busiest airport-Indonesia is introducing facial recognition to alleviate long queues at its busy Port of Batam, which handles approximately half a million passengers between Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia traveling through five ferry ports.Indonesia Immigration installed the automated border control system at the international seaports at Batam Centre, deploying products from HID Global, iTnews Asia reports. The U.S. company is providing the U.ARE.U Camera Identification System and the HID ATOM document reader for the automated border crossing gate, known as Autogate.In a case study published in June, HID declares the deployment a success, reducing traveler identity verification time to seconds.Myanmar’s biometric ‘smart cards’ fuel black market-After Myanmar’s military junta introduced a biometric “smart card” in May, citizens have been dealing with long queues to obtain new identity documents as well as a thriving black market.The war-torn country has been mandating that nationals present a card with a 10-digit Unique Identification (UID) number while crossing the border, declaring the previous national ID card invalid. The UID is issued by the Ministry of Immigration and Population after registering biographic and biometric data. The decision has resulted in long lines of migrant workers attempting to obtain the smart card at government offices and bribing officials to purchase UID numbers.The decision to introduce the new identification is seen as an attempt to prevent conscription-age men from traveling abroad in search of work, according to Radio Free Asia. UID cards are required at checkpoints on the border with China, Thailand and India.“Many people from Myanmar who work in China won’t get smart cards until 2025, so they’ll be unemployed for six or seven months,” says Htay, the chairman of the Philanthropic Association of Muse. “They’ll lose their present job if they can’t go back to China in time.”According to the Ministry of Immigration and Population, UID cards are free and applicants can file a complaint if asked to pay a fee.