Showing posts with label POPE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label POPE. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

ETHIOPIAN JEWS WANT OUT OF ETHIOPIA

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)DISEASES-ANIMAL TO HUMAN ( 500 million Dead )

REVELATION 6:7-8
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) of (8 billion) to kill with sword,(WEAPONS)(500 million) and with hunger,(FAMINE)(500 million) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES)(500 million) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE)(500 million).

COVID 19 WORLD TOTALS AS OF TUE NOV 17, 2020. CASES - 55,559,875 AND DEATHS - 1,335,803

I'M NOT SURE IF THE 4 OR 5 PREDICTIONS ABOUT TRUMP BEING PRESIDENT THAT I WATCHED WERE THE KINGDOM NOW CULT. THE NEW APOSTOLIC REFORMATION PEOPLE . IF IT WAS THIS CULT. THEY HEAR FROM SATAN-NOT GOD. THEY BELIEVE WE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE BELIEVERS ARE ESCAPISMS. THEY BELIEVE THEY WILL GET EVERYBODY SAVED IN A GREAT HARVEST. WHICH WILL BRING JESUS TO EARTH. PAUL BEGLEY THE END OF THE WORLDER IS ANOTHER OF THESE THAT BELIEVE THE KINGDOM NOW THEOLOGY. BEGLEY ALSO BELIEVES HE WILL BE GOING THREW THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION PERIOD OR SOME OF IT. HE CLAIMS SOME KIND OF RAPTURE. BUT NO PRE-TRIB RAPTURE. THIS ALIGNS WITH THE KINGDOM ON EARTH CULT. THIS CREW AND THE END OF THE WORLD CULT CAN GLADLY GO THREW THE TRIBULATION AND WW3. I'LL BE WATCHING THEM ON MY GIANT TV FROM MY APT  IN THE NEW JERUSALEM. WHAT JESUS BUILT FOR US. TILL AFTER THE 7 YEARS. WHEN WE WILL RETURN TO EARTH WITH JESUS. TO RULE FOREVER. FROM JERUSALEM JESUS WILL BE. AND WE WILL BE LIVING IN ON EARTH WITHJESUS FOREVER-NEVER ENDING. I WANNA CATCH SOME FISH IN THE DEAD SEA AFTER JESUS PURIFIES IT. AND MAKERS IT FRESH WATER CLEAN. AND LETS GET ONE THING STRAIT. IT WILL BE ISRAELIS MOSES AND ELIJAH AND THE 144,000 MESSIANIC PREACHING JEWS THAT BRING IN THE GREATEST HARVEST IN HISTORY. NOT THE NAR PEOPLE WHO WILL BE KILLED BY BEHEADING IF THEY WON'T ACCEPT THE WORLD DICTATOR AS GOD. THE ONES I WATCHED DO BELIEVE TRUMP IS USED BY GOD TO BE ANOTHER SIRUS. WE WILL SEE IF TRUMP WILL BE ELECTED PRESIDENT OR NOT. EITHER WAY GOD IS IN CONTROL OF WORLD EVENTS EVEN IF THE GODLESS BIDEN WINS OR NOT.
J.D FARAG ON NEW APOSTOLIC REFORMATION CULT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVWnFvbIMAg  

Israel will reportedly pay much more than US, EU for Pfizer coronavirus vaccine-American government will be charged $39 for each two-shot dose, and the European bloc even less, but Jerusalem said to agree to pay $56-By STUART WINER and TOI STAFF-nov 16,20-Today, 10:22 am

Israel will pay a premium price for the millions of COVID-19 vaccines it has ordered from US-based pharmaceutical company Pfizer, over 40 percent more than the US government or the European Union, Channel 13 news reported Sunday.In addition, other countries have already closed deals for hundreds of millions of vaccine units from the company, and the under the terms of the contract with Israel, Pfizer has made no commitment to a delivery schedule, according to the report.After Pfizer announced last Monday that the still-experimental vaccine it is developing with Germany-based BioNTech had so far shown 90% effectiveness against the coronavirus in trials, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began a crusade to secure the product for Israel, making at least two phone calls to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. By Friday Netanyahu announced that Israel had closed a deal.As part of the agreement with Pfizer, Netanyahu said Israel would receive 8 million shots, enough to inoculate 4 million Israelis. Netanyahu expressed hope that Pfizer would begin supplying the vaccine in January, pending authorization from health officials in the United States and Israel.Israel has deals with two other pharmaceutical firms for vaccines, and is developing its own version as well, but had reportedly not been intensively engaged in talks with Pfizer before the trial results announcement, putting it at a disadvantage.Israel agreed to pay $56 per Pfizer vaccine immunization, $28 for each of the two shots required, Channel 13 reported.Last week, a European Union official told Reuters that the bloc could order 200 million units of the experimental vaccine and had negotiated to pay something less than the $19.50 that the US has already agreed to pay per shot.The figures show that Israel would pay at least 43% more than the US or the EU for the vaccine.In addition, Pfizer has reportedly made no commitment to meet the schedule. If there are any production limitations, or delays in the shipment, Israel will not be compensated for an advance down payment, the report said.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a televised statement on the signing of a deal to purchase Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, at IDF military headquarters in Tel Aviv, November 13, 2020. At left is Health Minister Yuli Edelstein. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)-Israel was late joining the line for the Pfizer vaccines. Aside from the EU deal, the US has already ordered 100 million units, Canada tens of millions, and Japan 120 million.A further complication for Israel is that the Pfizer vaccine must be stored, including in transit, at -70 Celsius and the country’s health system currently does not have the kind of mobile freezer units needed to distribute the vaccines, the station said.The Ynet news site reported on Friday that the deal does not obligate Pfizer to supply the vaccines but only states that it intends to do so “according to circumstances.”The report further said Israel will pay a NIS 120 million ($35 million) advance, and another NIS 680 million ($202 million) when the first vaccines arrive. Pfizer will then provide hundreds of thousands of vaccines every month for the duration of 2021. Contrary to Channel 13, Ynet reported that if it fails to supply the vaccines, Pfizer will return Israel’s advance.On Sunday, the CEO of BioNTech, which is working with Pfizer on the vaccine, said they hope to be able to deliver 300 million units by April next year, ramping up supplies by next winter.Israel has already paid a total of NIS 405 million ($120 million) to Moderna, which is in phase 3 of vaccine development, and Arcturus, which is at an early stage in testing, out of about NIS 1 billion ($295 million) set aside for purchasing vaccines, according to the Haaretz daily.Besides the agreements with Moderna and Arcturus, Israel has also inked a deal with Italian biotech firm ReiThera to supply a vaccine if and when developed and is in talks with Russia to purchase a vaccine it is developing.Israel’s Hadassah Medical Center earlier this month said it had preordered 1.5 million units of the Russian vaccine, which is also in Phase 3 testing and which Moscow asserted this week has so far shown to be 92% effective.Israel is also developing its own vaccine, with trials beginning last month.

ANTI-SEMITISM ON CAMPUSVANDALISM, SWASTIKA GRAFFITTI, HARRASSMENT CITED BY STUDENTS-college vows to protect Jewish, pro-Israel students after federal complaint-University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana will work with student groups after Education Department asked to investigate ‘hostile environment of anti-Semitism’-By BEN SALES-NOV 17,20-Today, 4:32 pm

JTA - Weeks after a federal complaint alleged an anti-Semitic climate at the University of Illinois, the university announced it would work with Jewish groups to improve conditions for Jews and pro-Israel students on campus.The campus in Champaign-Urbana, home to 34,000 undergraduates and some 3,000 Jewish undergraduate students, was recently the subject of a legal complaint asking the US Education Department to investigate a “hostile environment of anti-Semitism.” The complaint cited multiple instances of swastika graffiti, vandalism at Jewish centers and harassment of Jewish and pro-Israel students. The Trump administration has directed the Education Department to include Jewish students in its anti-discrimination protections, facilitating such complaints.In September, the school’s student government passed a resolution supporting the Black Lives Matter movement that also included a call to divest from companies that do business with Israel. Jewish organizations in Illinois, including the Chicago Jewish federation, which controls the school’s Hillel center, protested the resolution.Now, the school’s administration has signed a joint statement along with the federation, the school’s Hillel and Chabad and other groups promising to do more to address anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism at the school.“Our shared and common goal must be to support a safe and welcoming environment for Jewish and pro-Israel students at the University of Illinois that is free of discrimination and harassment,” the statement says, also condemning acts that “demonize or delegitimize” Jewish and pro-Israel students.“For many Jewish students, Zionism is an integral part of their identity and their ethnic and ancestral heritage,” the statement says. “These students have the right to openly express identification with Israel. The university will safeguard the abilities of these students, as well as all students, to participate in university-sponsored activities free from discrimination and harassment.”The statement pledges to set up an “Advisory Council on Jewish and Campus Life” made up of students and faculty, as well as representatives of the broader Jewish community, to ensure an inclusive atmosphere on campus. It also pledges to institute educational programming on campus against anti-Semitism and to review its policies to make sure they adequately combat anti-Semitism.The advisory council will begin meeting next semester. The statement says, “Though these steps will further our shared goals, they alone will not effectively dispel the environment that many Jewish students have felt to be unwelcoming.”“Many Jewish students have felt marginalized and excluded from participating equally in campus activities that are aimed at fighting racism and achieving racial justice,” said Mark Rotenberg, vice president for university initiatives and legal affairs at Hillel International, which signed the joint statement. “This is the first time a university has made all of these statements and commitments.”The events at the University of Illinois come amid a national climate in which Jewish students and organizations that support them say campuses are unsafe for Jews and pro-Israel students. Jewish members of student governments have reported being marginalized or pushed out. Last year, 20 percent of Jewish respondents to an American Jewish Committee poll said they or someone they know has faced anti-Semitism on campus over the previous five years.US President Donald Trump shows the executive order he signed combatting anti-Semitism in the US during a Hanukkah reception in the East Room of the White House in Washington, December 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)-Last year, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on anti-Semitism that ordered “robust” enforcement of existing civil rights protections for Jews on campus. Pro-Palestinian groups said the order, and Jewish organizational campaigns against anti-Zionism on campus, seek to silence legitimate criticism of Israel. Complaints have been filed alleging anti-Semitic discrimination at several schools.The Illinois statement comes less than a month after the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a Jewish legal rights organization, filed a complaint on behalf of Jewish and pro-Israel students with the federal Education Department citing a long list of anti-Semitic incidents on the Illinois campus and claiming that students faced an anti-Semitic climate. The complaint was filed in consultation with the Chicago Jewish federation, called the Jewish United Fund, and Hillel.Soon after the complaint was filed, dozens of Jewish faculty members at the school signed an open letter opposing it. The letter expressed support for the school’s chancellor, Robert Jones. Addressed to Jones, it said the faculty members wanted to offer “unqualified support for you and to acknowledge your leadership in our university’s numerous efforts at creating a more inclusive and mutually respectful climate for all our community members.”The incidents cited in the complaint date back to 2015 and include swastika graffiti, the campus Chabad house’s outdoor menorah being repeatedly vandalized, and mezuzahs being ripped off doorways. In addition, it describes a mandatory diversity training program that praised Leila Khaled, a Palestinian member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which the United States has designated as a terrorist organization.The joint statement does not affect the federal complaint, which has not been withdrawn. But the Brandeis Center and the law firm that assisted with the complaint are both signatories to the joint statement. Rotenberg, whose organization consulted on the complaint, said the complaint acted as a catalyst for the joint statement.“The attention that has now been shown in the examples [of anti-Semitism] has created momentum for the university to work collaboratively with us to take this first important step,” Rotenberg said.A month before the complaint, the school’s undergraduate student government passed the Black Lives Matter resolution along with the clause supporting divestment from companies that do business with Israel. The resolution came after a string of failed attempts in recent years to pass a resolution favoring a boycott of Israel.The university administration released a statement criticizing the resolution, saying, “It is unfortunate that a resolution before the group tonight was designed to force students who oppose efforts to divest from Israel to also vote against support for the Black Lives Matter movement.”The school’s Hillel likewise rejected efforts to boycott Israel, and also objected to the grouping of Black Lives Matter and the Israel boycott, as well as the timing of the resolution, which came between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.“This was an attempt to paint Israel and Jews as the obstacle to racial equity, amidst the holiest time in the Jewish calendar,” the Hillel’s statement said. “The Jewish students refused to submit to this antisemitic litmus test.”You’re serious. We appreciate that!

ANALYSIS-Renovation of Egypt’s ancient Siwa fortress boosts fresh hopes for ecotourism-The EU and an Egyptian environmental company begin a $600,000 restoration project for the site, which suffered from erosion and torrential rains-By HAGER HARABECH-NOV 17,20-Today, 10:57 am

SIWA, Egypt (AFP) — Tucked away in Egypt’s Western Desert, the Shali fortress once protected inhabitants against the incursions of wandering tribes, but now there are hopes its renovation will attract ecotourists.The 13th-century edifice, called “Shali” or “home” in the local Siwi language, was built by Berber populations atop a hill in the pristine Siwa oasis, some 600 kilometers (370 miles) southwest of Cairo.The towering structure is made of kershef — a mixture of clay, salt and rock which acts as a natural insulator in an area where the summer heat can be scorching.After it was worn away by erosion, and then torrential rains almost 100 years ago, the European Union and Egyptian company Environmental Quality International (EQI) began to restore the fortress in 2018, at a cost of over $600,000“Teach your children, and mine, about what ancient Shali means,” sang a choir of young girls in brightly colored robes at the renovated fortress’ inauguration ceremony last week.Egyptian schoolchildren dressed in traditional outfits, gather during a celebration to mark the inauguration of the fortress of Shali following its restoration, in the Egyptian desert oasis of Siwa, some 600 kilometers southwest of the capital Cairo, on November 6, 2020. (Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)-Dotted by thick palm groves, freshwater springs and salt lakes, the Siwa oasis’s geographic and cultural isolation offers a rare eco-friendly getaway, far from Egypt’s bustling urban communities.The region’s tourism model contrasts with Egypt’s mass approach in other areas, such as its Red Sea resorts in the east or along the Nile valley, especially in Luxor and Aswan in the south.Employment opportunities-Tourists began gravitating to Siwa from the 1980s, after the government built roads linking it with the northwestern city of Marsa Matrouh, the provincial capital on the Mediterranean.The Marsa Matrouh governor has called the oasis, registered as a natural reserve since 2002, a “therapeutic and environmental tourism destination.”Eco-lodges offer lush vegetable gardens and kershef facades.Restoration works at the Shali fortress were carried out under the aegis of the Egyptian government, which has been pushing to make Siwa a global “ecotourism destination.”The project also includes setting up a traditional market and a museum on local architecture.“The project will certainly benefit us and bring tourists. Today, I can offer my palm frond products inside Shali,” said Adam Aboulkassem, who sells handicrafts in the fortress.An Egyptian laborer works on the restoration of one of the walls of the fortress of Shali, in the Egyptian desert oasis of Siwa, some 600 kilometers southwest of the capital Cairo, on November 6, 2020. (Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)-EQI project manager Ines al-Moudariss said the materials used in the restoration work were sourced from the fortress site itself.She said the project was about “bringing the inhabitants of Siwa back to their origins and offering them employment opportunities” and services.Events in the past decade outside the desert oasis have had a ripple effect in Siwa, and tourism slumped after political unrest that rocked Egypt and other countries in the Middle East in 2011.Foreign tourist arrivals at the oasis have plummeted from around 20,000 in 2010 to just 3,000, said Mahdi al-Howeiti, director of the local tourism office. Domestic tourism has only partially made up for the sharp decline, he added.Ailing infrastructure.This year, the coronavirus pandemic put a brake on travel worldwide and dealt a further blow to arrivals.And though the project is seen by some as a way to bring back visitors, critics say it fails to address the concerns of the 30,000-strong Siwi population, a Berber ethnic group.“No Siwi goes to Shali. We are attached to it, but from afar, like a landscape,” said Howeiti.He said there were more pressing issues for residents, such as fixing crumbled and unsafe roads or treating agricultural wastewater that harms the cultivation of olives and date palms — key pillars of the local economy.Egyptian school children dressed in traditional outfits, gather during a celebration to mark the inauguration of the fortress of Shali following its restoration, in the Egyptian desert oasis of Siwa, some 600km southwest of the capital Cairo, on November 6, 2020. (Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)
Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani said at the inauguration that the fortress was a “cultural asset” and its renovation was “essential.”But he also acknowledged that “we need to work on the infrastructure of the region, the airport and especially the roads.”The closest airport to Siwa, located just 50 kilometers (around 30 miles) from the border with war-torn Libya, is restricted to the military.But some locals remain skeptical.“The fortress was not in danger of collapsing,” said Howeiti. “In my opinion, it would have been better to leave it as it is. These ruins have a history.”

Dozens sneak into evacuated settlement; backers urge government to let them stay-20 families enter Sa-Nur ruins in effort to resettle northern West Bank communities abandoned along with Gaza settlements in 2005 ‘disengagement’-By TOI STAFF-NOV 17,20-Today, 10:31 am

Some 20 Israeli families surreptitiously entered the evacuated settlement of Sa-Nur in the northern West Bank under the cover of darkness early Tuesday, in protest of the government’s refusal to allow them to return permanently to their homes evacuated 13 years ago.The group was made up of former residents of Sa-Nur and Homesh, which — with two other northern West Bank settlements, Ganim and Kadim — were evacuated along with the Jewish settlements of the Gaza Strip in 2005 as part of Israel’s so-called disengagement plan.The group did not coordinate its move with the military, and Israel Defense Forces troops arrived at the hilltop community Tuesday morning to alert the settlers that they were trespassing. The settlers reportedly expect to be forcibly removed later in the day.Under the 2005 Disengagement Plan Implementation Law, the presence of Israeli civilians on the ruins of the four settlements is illegal.While prime minister Ariel Sharon, who planned and executed the disengagement, cleared the northern West Bank communities as a goodwill gesture to the Palestinian Authority, the IDF has still prevented Palestinians from reaching those hilltops.Writing on Twitter, far-right Yamina MK Bezalel Smotrich said that “the resumption of settlement in Sa-Nur is a necessary moral, Zionist and security step.”Calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow the families to stay, Smotrich said, “There was no logical reason to destroy the settlement in the first place and there is no logical reason not to allow its reestablishment.”Yossi Dagan, the head of the Samaria Regional Council, praised the return to the settlement, calling on the government to allow the families to stay and saying in a statement that “it is the right thing to do after it is clear that there is no person left in the State of Israel who believes that this displacement was correct.”On a number of occasions, settlers have attempted to return en masse to Sa-Nur. In July 2015 security forces removed some 200 protesters from the hilltop after they entered to mark the 10th anniversary of its evacuation.Unlike Sa-nur, nearby Homesh has had a near daily — albeit illegal — presence of settlers since the disengagement. Following the 2005 evacuation, a yeshiva was established on the Homesh ruins and, due to minimal IDF enforcement, some 25 students have been ascending the hilltop each day from their caravan dorms in the nearby Shavei Shomron settlement.

13 Thou shalt not kill.(Murder)(THAT INCLUDES ABORTION)

MATTHEW 18:6
6  But whoso shall offend (HURT) one of these little ones (CHILDREN) which believe in me,(JESUS) it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.(THATS THE DEATH PENALTY FOLKS)

EXODUS 21:12
12 He that smiteth (MURDER)a man,(OR BABY) so that he die, shall be surely put to death.(THATS THE DEATH PENALTY PEOPLE)

REVELATION 9:20-21
20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils,(OCCULT) and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries,(DRUG ADDICTIONS) nor of their fornication,(SEX OUTSIDE OF MARRIAGE) nor of their thefts.(STEALING)

UAE’s Etihad formally announces launch of daily direct flights to Israel in 2021-Airline says service will begin on March 28 and ‘cements Etihad’s commitment to growing opportunities for trade and tourism’By AGENCIES and TOI STAFF-NOV 16,20-Today, 11:04 am

Etihad Airways, the United Arab Emirates’ national carrier, announced Monday it will start direct flights to Israel in March 2021 after the countries’ recent agreement to normalize ties.The Abu Dhabi-based airline “will launch daily scheduled year-round flights to Tel Aviv,” it said in a statement.It added the service will begin on March 28 — approximately six months after the UAE signed a US-brokered deal to formalize relations with Israel, the first such accord between a Gulf nation and the Jewish state.“The commencement of scheduled flights is a historic moment and as an airline, cements Etihad’s commitment to growing opportunities for trade and tourism,” said Mohammad al-Bulooki, chief operating officer of Etihad Aviation Group, according to the statement.Last month an Etihad flight lauded as the first commercial shuttle between the two countries landed at Ben Gurion airport, before departing for Abu Dhabi later that day with an Israeli travel and tourism delegation on board.Dubai’s budget airline flydubai had already announced that it would start direct flights to Tel Aviv this month, operating 14 flights a week.Unlike Dubai and the other emirates that make up the UAE, Abu Dhabi has placed stringent coronavirus restrictions on entering the city.Israeli carrier Israir has announced that it will offer direct flights from Ben Gurion Airport to Abu Dhabi and Israeli national carrier El Al will also reportedly offer flights on the route.With their economies hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic, the UAE and Israel are hoping for rapid dividends from the normalization deal.They have already signed treaties on direct flights, along with accords on investment protection, science and technology.Earlier this month, Abu Dhabi gave its final okay to a visa exemption program with Israel.The agreement still must be ratified by the Israeli cabinet and Knesset before it enters into force. The Knesset last month approved Israel’s normalization deal with the UAE by an overwhelming majority, all but ensuring that the visa program will be confirmed in the near future.Despite that, with a few exceptions, non-Israeli tourists are currently not permitted to enter Israel under coronavirus restrictions, although the UAE is classified as a “green” country under Health Ministry’s regulations, meaning that travelers returning to Israel are not required to quarantine.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other ministers are concerned about potential misunderstandings and incidents stemming from cultural differences between Israelis and Emiratis, ahead of the launching of direct flights between the countries, a report said Sunday.Netanyahu has advocated the publication of a “code of conduct” of sorts for Israeli tourists about to visit the United Arab Emirates, the Kan public broadcaster reported.

PRESIDENT RIVLIN: 'EVEN THE SKY ISN'T OUR LIMIT' Israel to send its second-ever astronaut into space-Eytan Stibbe to head to International Space Station late next year; announcement made in presence of son of 1st Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, who died during 2003 Columbia mission-By NATHAN JEFFAY-nov 16,20-Today, 12:05 pm

Israel will send an astronaut to space next year, for just the second time in the country’s history, officials announced on Monday.Eytan Stibbe, a former fighter pilot, is due to take off in late 2021 for a mission of just over a week on the International Space Station.“This is a day of national joy, and great pride,” said President Reuven Rivlin. “An Israeli pilot with a blue-and-white flag embroidered on his shoulder will prove once again, as we have been showing here for 72 years, that even the sky isn’t our limit.”The son of Israel’s first astronaut Ilan Ramon, who was killed during his 2003 mission, took part in the press conference at the President’s Residence where the announcement was made Monday.Tal Ramon watched as senior staff of the Ramon Foundation, which was set up to commemorate his father, and government figures revealed that they have been working together for months to arrange an Israeli role in the mission.Ramon, a former Israeli fighter pilot, was a shuttle payload specialist on the STS-107 mission of Space Shuttle Columbia. He was killed, along with the other six crew members, when the shuttle blew up on February 1, 2003, just 16 minutes before they were due to land  back on Earth.The upcoming launch will put Stibbe, an Israeli military veteran, on the International Space Station for 200 hours, which he will use to conduct a series of unprecedented experiments that are intended to advance Israeli technologies and scientific developments by researchers and startups.Stibbe will travel on a shuttle launched from Florida at the end of 2021, and will soon start his training, which will take him to the United States, Germany and Russia.As a child, on dark nights I looked up to the stars and wondered what there is beyond what I saw,” Stibbe told the press conference in Jerusalem. He said that as a pilot he got the chance to see the skies, and then became excited by the prospect of space travel because of his close friend Ramon.He said: “It takes much depth and strength to be able to release ourselves from that which ties us down, to leave gravity.Stibbe recalled that he was with the Ramon family during the January 2003 launch.Tal Ramon spoke of the ties that bind his family and Stibbe’s. Upon taking to the podium he lifted up his hands jubilantly, saying this is what his mother Rona, who died in 2018, would have done to celebrate the moment.“I’m very excited because I know if my mother were standing here she would put up her hands in victory like this, and speak very proudly about our friend, a friend I remember from my very first memories,” he said.The Stibbe family “escorted us through the years through everything we went through, the good and the bad, and their family has become our family.”He said it was very moving that Stibbe had chosen to make this “contribution” to the citizens of Israel.?During the press conference, Rivlin addressed Stibbe and emphasized the role that his mission will play in enthusing Israeli kids about science and technology.“You’ll conduct a series of experiments in Israeli technologies, some of which were developed by Israeli boys and girls,” the president said. “You will be the messenger of those brilliant minds, present and future generations of excellent Israeli research.”Last year, astronaut Jessica Meir, whose father was Israeli, paid tribute to the Jewish state from space. Israel in April 2019 unsuccessfully attempted to land an unmanned spacecraft, Beresheet, on the moon.Rivlin also acknowledged the timing of the mission, which comes amid a global pandemic.“This mission to space, for science and research, on behalf of humanity’s unending search for knowledge, for discovery, for understanding, is being launched at a time when humanity is facing one of its greatest challenges. It is a crisis our generation has not known. Because of the virus, we have come to realize how many great concepts – like science, medicine and research – can fundamentally shake our lives.“We have come to realize how much we do not know, not only about distant planets and infinitely huge galaxies, but even here on our own small planet. Dealing with this microscopic, tiny virus, in an effort to find a vaccine, we must work together, scientists from different countries and peoples. That is the power of science. It reminds us that we are part of something much bigger, that speaks to the human spirit that is within us all.”Rivlin said that Stibbe will be “Israel’s representative in the human effort to understand the miraculous mechanism that enables life on this globe, and to crack the secrets of the universe.”“Go in peace, and return in peace,” the president told Stibbe.

20 agriculture projects of US-Israel fund added $3 billion to economies – report-40-year-old US-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund generated $16.5 return for every $1 invested in the 20 case studies, an external review finds-By SHOSHANNA SOLOMON-nov 16,20-Today, 10:53 am

A US-Israeli fund that promotes joint agricultural research by scientists in both countries has invested $1.06 billion in 1,330 projects, leading to the adoption of numerous new agricultural practices over its 40 years of operation, according to a report evaluating the effectiveness of the fund.Since 1979, the US-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund, or BARD, has expanded academic knowledge in the field with more than 5,600 published pieces.The objective of the external review of BARD’s activities, set up by its board of directors, was to assess the impact of the fund and to establish benchmarks for the way forward.The evaluation was conducted through a self-reporting survey among scientists who received grants from the fund, and a detailed analysis of 20 case studies.The findings show that the case studies examined for the review generated an economic benefit of $2.7 billion to the US economy, $500 million to Israel’s, and another $13.3 billion globally. The return on BARD’s investment generated by these 20 case studies is a $16.5 return for every dollar invested— a cost-benefit ratio of 16.5.The report was presented last week at an online session attended by officials from the US and Israel, including US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young, administrator of the USDA’s Agriculture Research Service.“We match and support highly skilled researchers from the US and Israel, who work together on agricultural research projects,” said Yoram Kapulnik, executive director of BARD, at the event, according to a statement.The idea behind BARD is to “facilitate promising groundbreaking advances in agricultural research for the mutual benefit of both nations and beyond.”The majority of BARD-funded research projects focus on increasing agricultural productivity, particularly in hot and arid climates, and emphasize plant and animal health, food quality and safety, and environmental issues. Among the funded projects were those for aquaculture waste treatment, post-harvest mango treatment, wheat enhancement and crop pollination.Key to BARD’s continued success and impact is funding, the report said.The funds for supporting BARD activities, $8 million annually, are generated through two sources that are contributed in equal parts by the governments of the US and Israel: interest on a fixed $110 million endowment set up at the start of the fund, and an annual direct supplement to the research budget of each country.BARD’s annual budgets have not changed significantly over the years, the report said. Award levels have not been adjusted in 35 years and grants remain $310,000 for a three-year period.The review committee recommends that the board of directors propose ways to increase disposable funds to bring annual funding close to $20 million, from some $8 million currently. It also proposes the funding period for projects to rise to five years, compared to three currently.In addition to BARD, there are two other US-Israel binational funds in operation: the Israel-US Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) fund and the US-Israeli Binational Science Foundation (BSF) fund, also founded in the 1970s.

PROOF HALF ON EARTH DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD (8 BILLION ON EARTH)

REVELATION 6:7-8 (8 BILLION- 2 BILLION = 6 BILLION)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 BILLION) to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

REVELATION 9:15,18 (6 BILLION - 2 BILLION = 4 BILLION)
15 And the four(DEMONIC WAR) angels were loosed,
18 By these three was the third part of men killed,(2 BILLION) by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMBS)

HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)

LUKE 17:34-37 (8 TOTAL BILLION - 4 BILLION DEAD IN TRIB = 4 BILLION TO JESUS KINGDOM) (HALF DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD JUST LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS)(GOD DOES NOT LIE)(AND NOTICE MOST DIE IN WAR AND DISEASES-NOT COMETS-ASTEROIDS-QUAKES OR TSUNAMIS)
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other shall be left.(half earths population 4 billion die in the 7 yr trib)
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES.BECAUSE NOT HALF OF PEOPLE ON EARTH ARE CHRISTIANS.AND THE CONTEXT IN LUKE 17 IS THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION OR 7 YR TREATY PERIOD.WHICH IS JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH.NOT 50% RAPTURED TO HEAVEN.

MATTHEW 24:37-42 (THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-SURE NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
42 Watch therefore:(FOR THE LAST DAYS SIGNS HAPPENING) for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

AMERICA (POLITICAL BABYLON)(NUKED BY SNEAK ATTACK FROM RUSSIA)

IN REVELATION 17 & 18 IS THE DESTRUCTION OF THE RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL BABYLONS.IF YOU CAN NOT DECERN BETWEEN THE 2 BABYLONS IN REV 17 & 18.YOU WILL JUST THINK THEIR BOTH THE SAME.BUT NO-THERES A RELIGIOUS BABYLON (THE VATICAN IN REV 17)(AND THE POLITICAL BABYLON IN REV 18 (AMERICA OR NEW YORK TO BE EXACT)

ISAIAH 34:10
10  It (AMERICA-POLITICAL BABYLON) shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

JEREMIAH 51:29-32 (CYBER ATTACK 1ST)
29  And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon,(AMERICA-NEW YORK) to make the land of Babylon (AMERICA) a desolation without an inhabitant.
30  The mighty men of Babylon (AMERICA) have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken.
031  One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon (NEW YORK) that his city is taken at one end,
32  And that the passages are stopped,(THE WAR COMPUTERS HACKED OR EMP'D) and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.(DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO)

COMPLETE SILENCE AFTER AN EMP GOES OFF
REVELATION 8:1
1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

JEREMIAH 50:3,24
3 For out of the north (RUSSIA) there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon,(AMERICA) and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD. (RUSSIA A SNEAK CYBER,EMP ATTACK,THEN NUKE ATTACK ON AM

U.S., allied countries begin NATO Missile Firing Installation 2020 in Greece-by Christen Mccurdy-Washington DC (UPI) Nov 12, 2020

Troops from Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and the United States started NATO Missile Firing Installation 2020 in Greece Thursday.The German-led multinational air defense live fire exercise began Thursday and will continue through Nov. 27, according to a press release from U.S. European Command.More than 250 personnel are participating in the exercise, during which they will conduct a live fire exercise, establish a multinational surface-based air defense and display all aerial threat locations."The exercise will enhance the combined U.S. and European ability to control defensive fires in Eastern Europe while refining tactics, techniques and procedures," the press release said. "The purpose of this exercise is to improve interoperability with allied and partner forces, and increase readiness through the integration of land component air and missile defense capabilities."U.S. Army Command also said NAMFI 2020 is a long-planned exercise that's not tied to any current events in the region.Participating units from the United States include the 10th Army Air and Missile Command and the 678th Air Defense Artillery Brigade.

Iran warns of ‘crushing response’ after Trump said to mull strikes on nuke sites-Threat follows NY Times report that US president last week weighed military options, but was dissuaded by aides; Pompeo, present at those talks, to arrive in Israel on Wednesday-By TOI STAFF and AGENCIES-NOV 17,20-Today, 2:43 pm

Iran warned on Tuesday of a “crushing response” in the wake of reports US President Donald Trump convened top advisers last week to ask if he had options to strike Iranian nuclear sites during his final weeks in office.“Any action against the Iranian nation would certainly face a crushing response,” said government spokesperson Ali Rabiei in remarks streamed on an official government news site, according to the Reuters news agency.The New York Times reported Monday that Trump had made inquiries about the possibility of strikes, but was dissuaded by warnings that it could lead to a wider conflict.Trump convened top officials on Thursday, a day after the UN nuclear watchdog said Iran had stockpiled more than 12 times more enriched uranium than the 2015 nuclear deal allows, the Times reported, citing four current and former US officials.US President Donald Trump arrives to address the nation from the White House on the ballistic missile strike that Iran launched against Iraqi air bases housing US troops accompanied by Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, center, and US Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein, January 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)-Among those present were Vice President Mike Pence; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller; and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the report said.Trump asked them how he should respond to the International Atomic Energy Agency report and what his options were. The Times said the focus of any attack would almost certainly be the heavily fortified Natanz nuclear center.Pompeo and Miley reportedly warned that a major strike, whether with missiles or by a cyberattack, could easily escalate into a major regional conflict.The report said they left Thursday’s meeting believing that Trump had taken a missile strike off the table, but could still be looking at a more measured response against Iran or its allies.US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listens during the third annual US-Qatar Strategic Dialogue at the State Department in Washington, DC on September 14, 2020. (ERIN SCOTT / POOL / AFP)-Pompeo is set to arrive in Israel on Wednesday. He will likely meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi and Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, according to the Walla news site.“If I were the Iranians, I would not feel at ease,” Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said in response to The New York Times report, clarifying that he was not directly aware of any deliberations on the matter by the Trump administration.“It is very important that the Iranians know that if, indeed, they suddenly dash toward high levels of enrichment, in the direction of nuclear weaponry, they are liable to encounter the military might of the United States — and also, perhaps, of other countries,” Steinitz told Army Radio on Tuesday.Trump’s most high-profile attack on Iran, when the US killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in a January 3 drone strike at Baghdad’s airport, resulted in a limited Iranian response.The Pentagon has a wide range of strike options for Iran, including military, cyber and combination plans, the Times report said, noting that some called for direct action by Israel.Israel has been blamed for an attack on an advanced centrifuge development and assembly plant at Natanz in July. It has also been blamed, together with the US, for the Stuxnet virus that sabotaged Iranian enrichment centrifuges a decade ago.A building Iran claims was damaged by a fire at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility some 200 miles (322 kilometers) south of Tehran, on July 2, 2020. (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran via AP)-The New York Times also reported this week that Israel assassinated Al-Qaeda’s No. 2 in Tehran in recent months at the behest of the US.Monday’s report highlighted fears that Trump could seek to dramatically influence events in his final few weeks in office (even though he has not conceded the election) in a bid to tie US President-elect Joe Biden’s hands on issues like Iran.In a quarterly report distributed to members last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency also said it still had questions from the discovery last year of particles of uranium of manmade origin at a site outside Tehran not declared by Iran.The United States and Israel had been pressing the IAEA for some time to look into the Turquzabad facility, which Netanyahu described to the UN in 2018 as a “secret atomic warehouse.”In the current report, the IAEA said the “compositions of these isotopically altered particles” found there were “similar to particles found in Iran in the past, originating from imported centrifuge components.” It said it found Iran’s response to questions last month “unsatisfactory.”“Following an assessment of this new information, the agency informed Iran that it continues to consider Iran’s response to be not technically credible,” the IAEA wrote this week. “A full and prompt explanation from Iran… is needed.”

UN says ‘full-scale humanitarian crisis unfolding’ in Ethiopia-United Nations refugee agency says around 27,000 Ethiopians have fled across border into Sudan, with 4,000 joining them each day-By ROBBIE COREY-BOULET-Today, 2:57 pm

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AFP) — The UN said Tuesday a full-blown humanitarian crisis was unfolding in northern Ethiopia, where thousands of people each day are fleeing the conflict in the Tigray region.As international pressure mounted over his campaign against the dissident region, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared operations were entering a “final” phase, and his government confirmed fresh airstrikes near the Tigray capital, Mekele.Abiy, last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, announced a military campaign on November 4, saying it came in response to attacks by the local ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), on federal military camps.The United Nations refugee agency said around 27,000 Ethiopians have fled across the border into Sudan — a figure now rising by around 4,000 people each day.“A full-scale humanitarian crisis is unfolding,” spokesman Babar Baloch told a virtual press briefing from Geneva. “Refugees fleeing the fighting continue to arrive exhausted from the long trek to safety, with few belongings.”Those arriving in Sudan recounted terrifying scenes of artillery barrages and massacres.“I saw bodies dismembered by the explosions,” said Ganet Gazerdier, 75, whose home was destroyed in the town of Humera, and finds herself at a refugee camp in eastern Sudan.“Other bodies were rotting, lying on the road, murdered with a knife,” she added.‘Final throes of death’On Friday Abiy declared the TPLF was “in the final throes of death” and gave troops in the region three days to “rise up” and side with the national army.In a Facebook post Tuesday morning, he said their time was up.“The three-day deadline for the Tigray regional special forces and militia to hand themselves over to national defense forces instead of being a tool for the greedy junta has expired. Those Tigray special forces and militia who used the three-day deadline are appreciated,” he said.“Since the deadline has been completed, in the coming days the final law enforcement activities will be done,” he added.A communications blackout in Tigray has made it difficult to assess how the fighting is going or verify a death toll that could be in the hundreds.In Bahir Dar, capital of the Amhara region, young men protest against the ruling Tigrayan-led government, August 7, 2016 (Courtesy Micha Odenheimer)-Federal forces claim to control Tigray’s western zone, where fighting has been heavy, and over the weekend said they had seized the town of Alamata, 180 kilometers (110 miles) south of the regional capital, Mekele.But Tigrayan leader Debretsion Gebremichael told AFP Tuesday that “the government and people of Tigray” would hold their ground.“This campaign cannot be finished. As long as the army of the invaders is in our land, the fight will continue. They cannot keep us silent by military force,” he said.Abiy has resisted calls by world leaders to cease hostilities and accept mediation.On Monday, his deputy prime minister Demeke Mekonnen flew to Uganda and then to Kenya to meet with the presidents of the regional heavyweights.A war in Ethiopia would give the entire continent a bad image,” Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni wrote on Twitter after meeting Demeke. “There should be negotiations and the conflict stopped, lest it leads to unnecessary loss of lives and cripples the economy.”But Museveni later deleted the tweet, and an Ethiopian official said Demeke made clear negotiations were not an immediate possibility.Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta later called for a “peaceful” resolution of the crisis.Abiy’s government has said there can be no mediation until Tigray’s leaders have been disarmed and brought to court.The TPLF dominated Ethiopian politics for three decades before Abiy came to power in 2018, and a bitter feud has grown as they have been sidelined from politics, becoming ever more defiant towards the central government.Spreading conflict-A government statement on Tuesday said the army on Monday had carried out “precision led and surgical air operations outside of Mekele city based on information received of specific critical TPLF targets.”Debretsion said there were civilian casualties, which the government denied.A resident of Mekele told AFP there was a low-flying warplane over the city Monday that was “very scary, very loud” and that at least one civilian died in a strike not far from a university campus.Details on the strike and any casualties could not be verified.In recent days the TPLF has fired rockets on airports in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, south of Tigray, and in the capital of neighboring Eritrea.On November 12, the fighting in the border region between Tigray and Amhara claimed its first victim from Gondar’s Jewish community — Girmew Gete, 36.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Israel finds mines planted at Syrian border; Gantz holds Damascus to blame-Benny Gantz warns army ready to respond to any incident, won’t ignore explosives uncovered, disarmed in Israeli-controlled buffer zone on southern Golan Heights-By JUDAH ARI GROSS-NOV 17,20-Today, 1:30 pm

Defense Minister Benny Gantz blamed Syria Tuesday for a number of mines that were found planted near the border, and which were disarmed earlier in the day by the military.“For a long time, we have been prepared for the possibility of attacks on the northern frontier,” Gantz said during a security briefing and tour to review combat readiness of forces in area. “The IDF has the capabilities and determination to respond severely to any incident, whether from Lebanon or Syria.”Addressing the discovering of the mines, he said: “I would like to clearly state: Syria is responsible for what happens in its territory. We cannot ignore this issue.”The Israel Defense Forces discovered the mines and they were disarmed by a team of combat engineers.The mines were planted in a buffer zone belonging to Israel in the southern Golan Heights, but on the Syrian side of the security fence.The military said it had been monitoring the area for months for such an attack. A similar attempt to plant explosives was uncovered in the same area this summer.In that incident, the army killed four armed men who crossed into Israeli territory from Syria and planted improvised explosive devices inside an unmanned IDF outpost along the border.The next day IDF troops scanned the area and found a gun and a backpack with several more bombs ready for use. Those items were found inside Israeli territory, 25 meters from the border, the army said.Under the 1974 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Syria, which ended the previous year’s Yom Kippur War, a demilitarized zone was established between the two countries.Last month, the IDF completed its premier exercise of the year, a large-scale simulation of war in the north against Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies, and of a smaller conflict in the Gaza Strip.The northern border has been tense in recent months, following as-yet unfulfilled threats of retaliation by the Hezbollah, after one of the terror group’s fighters was killed in Syria in an airstrike attributed to Israel in July.

THOSE WAITING IN GONDAR, ADDIS IN 'IMMEDIATE, MORTAL DANGER' After 1st conflict fatality, activists beg PM to airlift all Ethiopian Jews now-Knesset Aliyah Committee to grill officials Wednesday against backdrop of escalating fighting in northwest Ethiopia, in which Gondar Jew was killed last week-By SUE SURKES-NOV 17,20-Today, 11:35 am

A group that campaigns to bring the Jews remaining in Ethiopia to Israel warned on Monday that those waiting in Gondar and Addis Ababa are in “immediate, real and mortal danger” and should be airlifted immediately.Fighting between Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front from the country’s northwest claimed its first victim from Gondar’s Jewish community on November 12 — Girmew Gete, 36.He was killed in the border area between Tigray and Amhara, which is disputed by the two neighboring regions.He had been waiting with his family to immigrate to Israel for 24 years and is survived by his partner and their four-year-old daughter.Up to 14,000 people with Jewish roots are waiting to come to Israel, the vast majority having left their villages years ago to eke out livings near the Jewish community centers in Gondar City and Addis Ababa.The coronavirus pandemic has seen donations and support from families in Israel drying up, and poverty and malnutrition are rife.On Friday night, the TPLF launched rockets at two airports in Amhara, one of them serving Gondar City, where most of those waiting are based.In its letter to the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Israel Katz, the Campaign for the Aliyah of Ethiopian Jews warned not only about the deteriorating security situation but about fears that in times of instability, the Jews might be exposed to anti-Semitic attacks.It referred to two Israeli government decisions — one made in November 2015, but only partially implemented, to bring some 8,000 individuals to Israel within five years, and a second one made in September to bring 2,000, on the basis of “available funds.”Israeli ‘Kessim’ or religious leaders of the Ethiopian Jewish community lead the prayers during the Sigd holiday marking the desire to ‘return to Jerusalem’, as they celebrate from a hilltop in the holy city over looking the Temple Mount, on November 16, 2017. (AFP PHOTO / GALI TIBBON)-“In view of this, and in the spirit of [Monday’s Ethiopian festival] the Sigd, which orders us to search our souls in the hope of redemption and return to Zion, we call on you to act urgently to implement government decisions 716 and 429 to bring the whole population waiting to come to the Land of Israel,” it said.“On this Sigd holiday, thousands of Israeli citizens with family in Ethiopia are looking to you in the hope that you can save the lives of their loved ones.”On Wednesday, the Knesset’s Aliyah Committee will convene to question officials from ministries and various organizations about the situation.Representatives of the Interior Ministry and the Jewish Agency are already on the ground in Ethiopia, selecting and preparing to airlift 2,000 people to Israel in January.

ANALYSIS-After Israel said to kill al-Qaeda No. 2, questions over terror group’s future-With unconfirmed rumors swirling over fate of Al-Zawahiri in wake of Abu Muhammad al-Masri’s killing in Iran, many analysts point to Saif al-Adel as next leader-By DIDIER LAURAS-NOV 17,20-Today, 7:59 am

PARIS (AFP) — The reported deaths of al-Qaeda’s top two leaders in recent months have raised questions about the future strategy and strength of the terror network, already a shadow of the global force it was two decades ago.The New York Times reported last week that al-Qaeda’s deputy leader Abdullah Ahmad Abdullah, who went by the nom-de-guerre Abu Muhammad al-Masri, was secretly killed in Tehran in August by two Israeli operatives at Washington’s behest.Meanwhile, prominent experts on al-Qaeda have quoted sources as saying that Ayman al-Zawahiri, who succeeded Osama Bin Laden as the chief of the group behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, is also dead.Iran has strongly denied the report over the killing of Abdullah, while al-Qaeda has not issued any confirmation of the purported death of al-Zawahiri through its usual media channels.Yet the reports have come as questions grow over al-Qaeda’s future intentions, with the network radically different from the franchise that spread fear around the world under the leadership of the charismatic Bin Laden.‘Very typical of AQ’The killing of the Saudi in a US operation in Pakistan in 2011 left the group in the hands of al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian veteran of jihad and the key al-Qaeda ideologue, but without Bin Laden’s ability to rally radicals around the world.Still image from video obtained on September 11, 2012, of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri speaking from an undisclosed location. (AFP/Site Intelligence Group)-Hassan Hassan, director of the US-based Center for Global Policy (CGP), said at the weekend that al-Zawahiri had died a month ago of natural causes.And Rita Katz, director of the jihadist media monitor SITE, said unconfirmed reports were circulating that al-Zawahiri had died.“It is very typical of AQ to not publish news about the death of its leaders in a timely manner,” she said.Nonetheless, this is not the first time there have been reports of al-Zawahiri’s death, only for him to re-emerge on several occasions.“Intelligence agencies believe he is very sick,” said Barak Mendelsohn, associate professor at Haverford College and author of several books on al-Qaeda and jihadism.“Ultimately, if it did not happen now, it will happen soon,” he told AFP.‘Board of advisers’If either or both men are dead, the group they have left behind can in no way be compared to the network which planned and carried out the September 11 attacks, analysts say.Its ideology has spawned several franchises across the world that bear its name, including in Africa’s Sahel region, in Pakistan as well as in Somalia, Egypt and Yemen.This television image released by Qatar’s Al-Jazeera television broadcast on Friday Oct.5, 2001 is said to show the most recent images of Osama bin Laden, right. At left is bin Laden’s top lieutenant, Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahri (AP Photo/Courtesy of Al-Jazeera via APTN)
But it does not control their actions or the alliances that they may forge on a local level.Mendelsohn said he expected Al-Qaeda’s leadership to act more along the lines of a “board of advisers” in the future.“People will listen to AQ central leadership if they want to, not because they think they are bound to obey its view,” he said.No longer the supreme jihadist group, Al-Qaeda has seen other outfits grow and has sometimes clashed with them on the ground.It has been overshadowed by the Islamic State (IS) group which sought to carve out a caliphate in Iraq and Syria and coordinated attacks in Europe.Who’s next? The key challenge of a new leader would be to retain the group’s potency within this context.Many analysts point to one key candidate — Saif al-Adel, a former lieutenant-colonel in the Egyptian armed forces who joined the Egyptian jihadist movement in the 1980s.Saif al-Adel, undated (FBI)-He was arrested and then released, ending up in Afghanistan which was the base for Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri, and joining Al-Qaeda.According to the US-based Counter Extremism Project (CEP) think tank, he was arrested in Iran in 2003 and freed in 2015 in a prisoner exchange. He was still believed to be in Iran in 2018 as one of al-Zawahiri’s key deputies.“Adel played a crucial role in building Al-Qaeda’s operational capabilities and quickly ascended the hierarchy,” the CEP said.Mendelsohn said Adel was a “big name” in the movement and “should be the next in line.”But he stressed that Adel, along with Abdullah, spent several years hiding in Iran, thus possibly staying away from Al-Qaeda’s new generation of leaders.“I’m not sure how strong his position is within Al-Qaeda, especially now that the old generation, basically all the old guard, is dead.”

THE FUTURE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH)

JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people(ISRAEL) and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.(UPROOTED ISRAELIS AND DIVIDED JERUSALEM)(THIS BRINGS ON WW3 BECAUSE JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED,WARNING TO ARABS-MUSLIMS AND THE WORLD).

EEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS

Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week:(7 YEARS) and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.
DANIEL 11:21-2321 And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
23 And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people.
24 He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he ( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant (PEACE TREATY) with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE ANIMAL SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

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

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

 1 THESSALONIANS 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

ISAIAH 33:8
8  The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant,(7 YR TREATY) he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.(THE WORLD LEADER-WAR MONGER CALLS HIMSELF GOD)

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

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)

Jerusalem municipality okays new homes in neighborhood that chafed Biden in 2010-An announcement of construction in Ramat Shlomo caused a diplomatic spat during a visit to Israel by the then-US vice president-By TOI STAFF and AP-Today, 5:39 pm

The Jerusalem municipality has approved the construction of 108 housing units in a Jewish neighborhood of East Jerusalem that has in the past rocked ties with Washington, with a source reportedly saying further building projects may be advanced before US President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in at the beginning of the year.The housing approved Tuesday is to be built in the ultra-Orthodox Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, an area that became the focus of a diplomatic spat between Israel and the Obama administration, in which Biden served as vice president, over a previous massive construction project there.During an official visit by Biden in 2010, the Interior Ministry announced that 1,600 housing units would be built in Ramat Shlomo. The declaration embarrassed Biden, as Washington was opposed to Israeli construction in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as the capital of a future state.Biden fumed at the time, saying in a statement that it “undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had here in Israel.” The construction project, which later gained the epithet “the Biden Plan,” was eventually put on hold, although anti-settlement groups claimed that paperwork for the scheme was continually advanced in the following years.A municipal source told the Kan public broadcaster that the local planning and construction committee will soon advance further housing in Ramat Shlomo “hopefully before the swearing-in ceremony” for Biden, which will be held January 20.The source denied that the timing of the recent approval was political and noted that construction work in the neighborhood had been going on for a long time.Planning and construction staff in the municipality and the Israel Lands Authority have been told to identify and advance construction projects in East Jerusalem before Biden’s inauguration, amid concerns that the incoming administration will be less sympathetic to such projects than that of outgoing US President Donald Trump, the Haaretz daily reported.The Jerusalem municipality told Haaretz that it is working to advance construction throughout the city to provide residential housing, employment and hotels.The Ir Amim anti-settlement organization accused the government of trying to take advantage of the change in administrations by quickly pushing construction projects.Biden’s ire in 2010 yielded an effective freeze on construction in East Jerusalem with any new projects also requiring approval of the Prime Minister’s Office, which was not granted. The freeze was lifted when Trump took office in 2016 and the controversial Ramat Shlomo project was eventually completed, along with other plans in East Jerusalem neighborhoods such as Gilo, Pisgat Ze’ev, and Har Homa.Construction in Ramat Shlomo also ran into local opposition from the ultra-Orthodox community as some of the building work was in areas where protesters say there are ancient Jewish graves that must not be disturbed.Another area in Jerusalem where construction projects are expected to take a step forward before Biden’s inauguration is Givat Hamatos, where critics say planned Israeli housing would leave the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa hemmed in from all sides and cut off from Bethlehem and the West Bank.The Givat Hamatos neighborhood, Jerusalem (photo credit: Joshua Davidovich/Times of Israel)-A string of US administrations, along with the rest of the international community, opposed Israeli construction in East Jerusalem as well as settlement construction in the West Bank.But Trump, surrounded by a team of advisers with close ties to the settler movement, has taken a different approach. In contrast to its predecessors, the Trump administration has not criticized or condemned new settlement announcements, and in a landmark decision last year, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US does not consider settlements to be illegal under international law.

Vatican faces questions over sexual abuse of adults in wake of McCarrick report-Holy See will have to confront questions of power in relationships between senior and junior members of the clergy, as well as culture of silence and coverups-By NICOLE WINFIELD-NOV 12,20-Today, 3:07 pm

ROME (AP) — The Vatican’s report into ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has raised uncomfortable questions the Holy See will have to confront going forward, chief among them what it’s going to do about current and future clergy who abuse their power to sexually abuse adults.Priests, lay experts and canon lawyers alike say the Vatican needs to revisit how the church protects its seminarians, nuns and even rank-and-file parishioners from problem bishops and cardinals, who for centuries have wielded power and authority with few — if any — checks or accountability.McCarrick was only investigated and defrocked by Pope Francis because a former altar boy came forward in 2017 to report the prelate had groped him when he was a teenager in the 1970s. It was the first time someone had claimed to be abused by McCarrick while a minor, a serious crime in the Vatican’s in-house legal system.And yet the bulk of the Vatican’s 449-page forensic study into the McCarrick scandal released Tuesday dealt with the cardinal’s behavior with young men: the seminarians whose priestly careers he controlled and who felt powerless to say no when he arranged for them to sleep in his bed.The report found that three decades of bishops, cardinals and popes dismissed or downplayed reports of McCarrick’s misconduct with the young men. Confidential correspondence showed they repeatedly rejected the information outright as rumor, excused it as an “imprudence” or explained it away as the result of McCarrick having no living relatives.McCarrick’s friends and superiors went to enormous lengths to find ways to claim his behavior wasn’t necessarily sexual, couldn’t be proven and would cause a scandal if it ever went public. Their decades-long reflex to turn a blind eye was evidence of the church’s old boys culture of silence, clerical privilege and protection of reputations at all cost.No one ever thought about the effect of his behavior on the young men.The report faulted in particular St. John Paul II, who appointed McCarrick archbishop of Washington and later made him a cardinal despite having commissioned an inquiry that confirmed he bedded his seminarians. The report recommended he not be promoted.In this Aug. 18, 2004 file photo, Pope John Paul II blesses the faithful during the weekly general audience in the courtyard of his summer residence of Castelgandolfo, in the outskirts of Rome (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito, File)-But John Paul gave McCarrick the most influential position in the US church, which, coupled with his role as a major US fundraiser, meant the cardinal wielded enormous power as he hobnobbed with presidents, prime ministers and three popes.“The reason we had a McCarrick was because he pulled so much power to himself, relatively quickly,” said the Rev. Desmond Rossi, a former seminarian under McCarrick who was interviewed for the report. “I think the church has to look at the authority and power that people are given: How do we guarantee that it’s used in a healthy way?”The question for the church is also a legal one, just as it is in the secular sphere. Vatican and US Catholic leaders had known since the 1990s that McCarrick slept with his seminarians. But that wasn’t a firing offense under the church’s canon law — then or now.A police car is parked inside an empty St. Peter’s Square after the Vatican erected a new barricade at the edge of the square, in Rome, March 10, 2020  (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)-Since McCarrick’s seminary victims weren’t minors, they weren’t considered victims at all, and in those years even priests who repeatedly raped children had their crimes covered up. McCarrick rose to the heights of the Catholic hierarchy merely bothered by occasional “rumors” that he had been “imprudent” with the young men.“It does get down to this idea that somehow when someone turns 18, a) they’re no longer vulnerable, and b) that they have the ability to protect themselves,” said David Pooler, a professor of social work at Baylor University and an expert in clergy sexual abuse of adults.“And what I have learned from my research is that that’s simply not true: that there’s nothing magical about becoming an adult and being able to then protect oneself in a vulnerable place,” he said.Pooler said a seminarian is really in no position to offer meaningful, free consent to any sexual activity with his bishop, since his bishop has all the power in the relationship. A bishop or seminary rector determines whether the seminarian can continue in his studies, is ordained a priest, or is assigned to a good parish.“Only when there is sort of equal freedom and kind of equal power in the relationship could there ever possibly be consent,” Pooler said. “And that’s just impossible between a priest and someone who’s in seminary, or a priest and someone who’s just in their congregation or parish.”Luis Carvallo, left, holding a sign that reads ‘McCarrick is only the tip of the iceberg’ and Bob Foss, with a sign that reads ‘Talk to Us’ stand with a group from Catholic Laity for Orthodox Bishops and Reform outside the Apostolic Nunciature of the Holy See in Washington, Feb. 16, 2019 (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)-The Vatican has long sought to portray any sexual relations between priests and adults as sinful but consensual, focusing in recent years only on protecting minors and “vulnerable adults” from predator priests. The Vatican’s legal norms have defined “vulnerable” people as those who are disabled or consistently lack the use of reason.Only in the past year or so, amid the #MeToo reckoning, has the Vatican even admitted publicly that religious sisters can be sexually abused by priests, bishops or even their own mother superiors. The McCarrick scandal now stands as a case study of how seminarians can be exploited and abused by the men who hold power over them.“People have the tendency to believe the one who is in power, and not the one who is powerless,” said Karlijn Demasure, director of the Centre for Safeguarding Minors and Vulnerable Persons at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, Canada. “And that’s the whole change in culture that has to happen: that one has to listen to the vulnerable and not to the ones who are in power.”She welcomed the transparency in the document and particularly its descriptions of the textbook techniques McCarrick used to groom his victims young and old: ingratiating himself with their families, insisting they call him “uncle” to break down barriers, taking them on trips to meet famous people, and impressing on them how important he was.Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of the Archdiocese of Washington answers questions from the media following an afternoon mass at Saint Matthew’s Cathedral, April 1, 2005, in Washington (AP Photo/Haraz Ghanbari)-Demasure, the former executive director of the Center for Child Protection at the Jesuit-run Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, said she hoped the report would encourage other seminarians to come forward, since it is often even harder for adult men to see themselves as victims and report misconduct by their superiors.“If we look at religious sisters, it’s very difficult for them to come forward, because they are … easily seen as the ones who have seduced, not as the ones who have been abused,” she said. “Even more difficult is it for men, because men are normally not considered to be victims.”But Kurt Martens, professor of canon law at Catholic University of America, in Washington DC, said it is very difficult to prosecute cases of abuse of adults within the church’s existing canon law, regardless of whether the victims are male or female. At most, such misconduct is considered a “boundary violation” by the priest that would be dealt with via therapy or restrictions on ministry.Currently, the law would only allow such abuse to be punished if the Vatican could confirm the sexual acts were committed by force, threat or in public — or if there were other crimes committed alongside, such as those involving the sacrament of confession. As of last year, church personnel are required to report allegations of abuse of adults in-house, but there is still no law on the books on how such cases might be prosecuted.Martens noted that Vatican lawyers have been updating the penal code of the canon law for years and suggested the McCarrick expose might give them reason for an even more ambitious overhaul.“I think there needs to be a new discussion. It needs to go back to the drawing board,” Martens said. “Looking at what we have with McCarrick, do we have to fix our canon law?”

SIGNS OF THE END OF THE AGE (NOT THE WORLD) THE WORLD GOES ON FOREVER.

GENESIS 1:5,145 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:(ISRAELS HOLY DAYS AND SABBATH STARTS AT 6PM) And for SIGNS (PROPHECY SIGNS TO HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE, OUR DAY)
SIGNS IN THE SUN, MOON AND STARS-CHEMICAL WEAPONS

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences;(BIOLOGICAL/CHEMICAL/NUCLEAR) and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun,(HEATING UP-SOLAR ECLIPSES) and in the moon,(MAN ON THE MOON-LUNAR ECLIPSES) and in the stars;(ASTEROIDS-PROPHECY SIGNS) and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear,(TORNADOES,HURRICANES,STORMS) and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth:(DESTRUCTION) for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.(FROM QUAKES,NUKES ETC)
REVELATION 16:21 80-120LB HAIL ON HUMANS
21And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent:(80-120 LBS) and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

Hurricane Iota: Category four storm hits Nicaragua-Tue., November 17, 2020, 10:57 a.m. EST

A powerful hurricane has brought torrential rains and strong winds to Nicaragua's Caribbean coast, two weeks after another devastating storm hit.Iota made landfall as a category four storm near the town of Puerto Cabezas, where patients had to be evacuated from a makeshift hospital after its roof was ripped off.Residents are in shelters, and there are fears of food shortages.The storm has weakened and Honduras is expected to be hit later on Tuesday.Before making landfall in Nicaragua, Iota had brought high winds and flooding to Colombia's Caribbean coast-The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Iota was now a category two storm, but warned it could bring life-threatening storm surges, catastrophic winds, flash flooding and landslides.Number of named Atlantic storms breaks records-Iota struck Nicaragua on Monday evening with sustained winds of nearly 155mph (250km/h), the NHC said. It strengthened at sea to a category five storm but it weakened as it made landfall.In Puerto Cabezas, also known as Bilwi, the storm damaged wooden homes, flooded streets and cut off electricity. Residents said the wind ripped away the roofs of houses "like they were made of cardboard"."I haven't eaten. I don't know where I'm going to sleep here," 80-year-old Prinsila Glaso told AFP news agency.There were no immediate reports of casualties. Nicaraguan officials said around 40,000 people had been evacuated from areas in the storm's path."[Iota] is the strongest hurricane that has touched Nicaraguan soil since records began," said Marcio Baca, director of the Nicaraguan Institute of Earth Studies.The hurricane is forecast to move inland across the country before hitting southern Honduras. The effect of the rains could be particularly devastating in areas already drenched by Hurricane Eta. Iota made landfall just 15 miles (24km) south of where Eta hit on 3 November.In Honduras, officials said at least 50,000 people had been removed from high-risk areas. Speaking at a news conference on Monday, President Juan Orlando Hernández warned: "What's drawing closer is a bomb."Before reaching Central America the storm moved past the Colombian island of Providencia in the Caribbean, cutting off electricity and killing at least one person, officials said.Colombian President Iván Duque said 98% of the infrastructure in Providencia, home to around 5,000 people, had been damaged.Iota is the strongest Atlantic hurricane of the year and only the second November hurricane to reach category five - the last was in 1932.This year's Atlantic hurricane season has broken the record for the number of named storms. For only the second time on record officials have had to start using the letters of the Greek alphabet to start storm names after running out of names on its traditional alphabetical list.Eta left at least 200 people dead. The worst-hit area was Guatemala's central Alta Verapaz region, where mudslides buried dozens of homes in the village of Quejá, with some 100 people feared dead. At least 50 deaths were reported elsewhere in Guatemala.

SpaceX capsule with 4 astronauts reaches International Space Station-Regular taxi service to ISS gets underway as Elon Musk’s company delivers crew for full half-year stay in orbit-By AP and TOI STAFF-NOV 17,20-Today, 8:47 am

SpaceX’s newly launched capsule with four astronauts arrived Monday at the International Space Station, their new home until spring.The Dragon capsule pulled up and docked late Monday night, following a 27-hour, completely automated flight from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The linkup occurred 262 miles (422 kilometers) above Idaho.“Oh, what a good voice to hear,” space station astronaut Kate Rubins called out when the Dragon’s commander, Mike Hopkins, first made radio contact.“We can’t wait to have you on board,” she added after the two spacecraft were latched together.This is the second astronaut mission for SpaceX. But it’s the first time Elon Musk’s company delivered a crew for a full half-year station stay. The two-pilot test flight earlier this year lasted two months.The three Americans and one Japanese astronaut will remain at the orbiting lab until their replacements arrive on another Dragon in April. And so it will go, with SpaceX — and eventually Boeing — transporting astronauts to and from the station for NASA.On Monday it was announced that Eytan Stibbe will become Israel’s second ever astronaut when he joins a SpaceX and NASA flight to the International Space Station late next year. The launch will put the former fighter pilot on the ISS for 200 hours, which he will use to conduct a series of unprecedented experiments that are intended to advance Israeli technologies and scientific developments by researchers and startups.The regular taxi service to the station got underway with Sunday night’s launch.Hopkins and his crew — Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi — join two Russians and one American who flew to the space station last month from Kazakhstan. Glover is the first African-American to move in for a long haul. A space newcomer, Glover was presented his gold astronaut pin Monday.NASA astronauts, from left, Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, and Michael Hopkins and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi leave the Operations and Checkout Building on their way to launch pad 39A for the SpaceX Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, November 15, 2020. (Photo/John Raoux)-The four named their capsule Resilience to provide hope and inspiration during an especially difficult year for the whole world. They broadcast a tour of their capsule Monday, showing off the touchscreen controls, storage areas and their zero gravity indicator: a small plush Baby Yoda.Walker said it was a little tighter for them than for the two astronauts on the test flight.“We sort of dance around each other to stay out of each other’s way,” she said.For Sunday’s launch, NASA kept guests to a minimum because of coronavirus, and even Musk had to stay away after tweeting that he “most likely” had an infection. He was replaced in his official launch duties by SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, who assured reporters he was still very much involved with Sunday night’s action, although remotely.As they prepared for the space station linkup, the Dragon crew beamed down live window views of New Zealand and a brilliant blue, cloud-streaked Pacific 250 miles below.“Looks amazing,” Mission Control radioed from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.“It looks amazing from up here, too,” Hopkins replied.

OZONE DEPLETION JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH DUE TO SIN

ISAIAH 30:26-27
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold,(7X OR 7-DEGREES HOTTER) as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people,(ISRAEL) and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:

MATTHEW 24:21-22,221 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened,(DAY LIGHT HOURS SHORTENED) there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake (ISRAELS SAKE) those days shall be shortened (Daylight hours shortened)(THE ASTEROID HITS EARTH HERE)
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
 
REVELATION 16:7-9
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.


Saturday, April 19, 2008

THE POPES SPEECHES APR 17-18

TEXTS OF POPES SPEECHES TO THE UN AND THE BISHOPS.

Text of pope's U.N. speech… motivated by the hope drawn from the saving work of Jesus Christ Posted: April 18, 2008 12:38 pm Eastern 2008 WorldNetDaily


Pope Benedict XVI address U.N. General Assembly
[In French]
Mr President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,


As I begin my address to this Assembly, I would like first of all to express to you, Mr President, my sincere gratitude for your kind words. My thanks go also to the Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-moon, for inviting me to visit the headquarters of this Organization and for the welcome that he has extended to me. I greet the Ambassadors and Diplomats from the Member States, and all those present. Through you, I greet the peoples who are represented here. They look to this institution to carry forward the founding inspiration to establish a center for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends of peace and development (cf. Charter of the United Nations, article 1.2-1.4). As Pope John Paul II expressed it in 1995, the Organization should be a moral center where all the nations of the world feel at home and develop a shared awareness of being, as it were, a family of nations(Address to the General Assembly of the United Nations on the 50th Anniversary of its Foundation, New York, Oct. 5, 1995, 14).

Through the United Nations, states have established universal objectives which, even if they do not coincide with the total common good of the human family, undoubtedly represent a fundamental part of that good. The founding principles of the organization – the desire for peace, the quest for justice, respect for the dignity of the person, humanitarian cooperation and assistance – express the just aspirations of the human spirit, and constitute the ideals which should underpin international relations. As my predecessors Paul VI and John Paul II have observed from this very podium, all this is something that the Catholic Church and the Holy See follow attentively and with interest, seeing in your activity an example of how issues and conflicts concerning the world community can be subject to common regulation. The United Nations embodies the aspiration for a greater degree of international ordering (John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 43), inspired and governed by the principle of subsidiarity, and therefore capable of responding to the demands of the human family through binding international rules and through structures capable of harmonizing the day-to-day unfolding of the lives of peoples. This is all the more necessary at a time when we experience the obvious paradox of a multilateral consensus that continues to be in crisis because it is still subordinated to the decisions of a few, whereas the world's problems call for interventions in the form of collective action by the international community.

Indeed, questions of security, development goals, reduction of local and global inequalities, protection of the environment, of resources and of the climate, require all international leaders to act jointly and to show a readiness to work in good faith, respecting the law, and promoting solidarity with the weakest regions of the planet. I am thinking especially of those countries in Africa and other parts of the world which remain on the margins of authentic integral development, and are therefore at risk of experiencing only the negative effects of globalization. In the context of international relations, it is necessary to recognize the higher role played by rules and structures that are intrinsically ordered to promote the common good, and therefore to safeguard human freedom. These regulations do not limit freedom. On the contrary, they promote it when they prohibit behavior and actions which work against the common good, curb its effective exercise and hence compromise the dignity of every human person. In the name of freedom, there has to be a correlation between rights and duties, by which every person is called to assume responsibility for his or her choices, made as a consequence of entering into relations with others. Here our thoughts turn also to the way the results of scientific research and technological advances have sometimes been applied. Notwithstanding the enormous benefits that humanity can gain, some instances of this represent a clear violation of the order of creation, to the point where not only is the sacred character of life contradicted, but the human person and the family are robbed of their natural identity. Likewise, international action to preserve the environment and to protect various forms of life on earth must not only guarantee a rational use of technology and science, but must also rediscover the authentic image of creation. This never requires a choice to be made between science and ethics: rather it is a question of adopting a scientific method that is truly respectful of ethical imperatives.

Recognition of the unity of the human family, and attention to the innate dignity of every man and woman, today find renewed emphasis in the principle of the responsibility to protect. This has only recently been defined, but it was already present implicitly at the origins of the United Nations, and is now increasingly characteristic of its activity. Every State has the primary duty to protect its own population from grave and sustained violations of human rights, as well as from the consequences of humanitarian crises, whether natural or man-made. If states are unable to guarantee such protection, the international community must intervene with the juridical means provided in the United Nations Charter and in other international instruments. The action of the international community and its institutions, provided that it respects the principles undergirding the international order, should never be interpreted as an unwarranted imposition or a limitation of sovereignty. On the contrary, it is indifference or failure to intervene that do the real damage. What is needed is a deeper search for ways of pre-empting and managing conflicts by exploring every possible diplomatic avenue, and giving attention and encouragement to even the faintest sign of dialogue or desire for reconciliation.

The principle of responsibility to protect was considered by the ancient ius gentium as the foundation of every action taken by those in government with regard to the governed: at the time when the concept of national sovereign States was first developing, the Dominican Friar Francisco de Vitoria, rightly considered as a precursor of the idea of the United Nations, described this responsibility as an aspect of natural reason shared by all nations, and the result of an international order whose task it was to regulate relations between peoples. Now, as then, this principle has to invoke the idea of the person as image of the Creator, the desire for the absolute and the essence of freedom. The founding of the United Nations, as we know, coincided with the profound upheavals that humanity experienced when reference to the meaning of transcendence and natural reason was abandoned, and in consequence, freedom and human dignity were grossly violated. When this happens, it threatens the objective foundations of the values inspiring and governing the international order and it undermines the cogent and inviolable principles formulated and consolidated by the United Nations. When faced with new and insistent challenges, it is a mistake to fall back on a pragmatic approach, limited to determining common ground, minimal in content and weak in its effect.

This reference to human dignity, which is the foundation and goal of the responsibility to protect, leads us to the theme we are specifically focusing upon this year, which marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This document was the outcome of a convergence of different religious and cultural traditions, all of them motivated by the common desire to place the human person at the heart of institutions, laws and the workings of society, and to consider the human person essential for the world of culture, religion and science. Human rights are increasingly being presented as the common language and the ethical substratum of international relations. At the same time, the universality, indivisibility and interdependence of human rights all serve as guarantees safeguarding human dignity. It is evident, though, that the rights recognized and expounded in the Declaration apply to everyone by virtue of the common origin of the person, who remains the high-point of God's creative design for the world and for history. They are based on the natural law inscribed on human hearts and present in different cultures and civilizations. Removing human rights from this context would mean restricting their range and yielding to a relativistic conception, according to which the meaning and interpretation of rights could vary and their universality would be denied in the name of different cultural, political, social and even religious outlooks. This great variety of viewpoints must not be allowed to obscure the fact that not only rights are universal, but so too is the human person, the subject of those rights.

(continued in English)

The life of the community, both domestically and internationally, clearly demonstrates that respect for rights, and the guarantees that follow from them, are measures of the common good that serve to evaluate the relationship between justice and injustice, development and poverty, security and conflict. The promotion of human rights remains the most effective strategy for eliminating inequalities between countries and social groups, and for increasing security. Indeed, the victims of hardship and despair, whose human dignity is violated with impunity, become easy prey to the call to violence, and they can then become violators of peace. The common good that human rights help to accomplish cannot, however, be attained merely by applying correct procedures, nor even less by achieving a balance between competing rights. The merit of the Universal Declaration is that it has enabled different cultures, juridical expressions and institutional models to converge around a fundamental nucleus of values, and hence of rights. Today, though, efforts need to be redoubled in the face of pressure to reinterpret the foundations of the Declaration and to compromise its inner unity so as to facilitate a move away from the protection of human dignity towards the satisfaction of simple interests, often particular interests. The Declaration was adopted as a common standard of achievement (Preamble) and cannot be applied piecemeal, according to trends or selective choices that merely run the risk of contradicting the unity of the human person and thus the indivisibility of human rights.

Experience shows that legality often prevails over justice when the insistence upon rights makes them appear as the exclusive result of legislative enactments or normative decisions taken by the various agencies of those in power. When presented purely in terms of legality, rights risk becoming weak propositions divorced from the ethical and rational dimension which is their foundation and their goal. The Universal Declaration, rather, has reinforced the conviction that respect for human rights is principally rooted in unchanging justice, on which the binding force of international proclamations is also based. This aspect is often overlooked when the attempt is made to deprive rights of their true function in the name of a narrowly utilitarian perspective. Since rights and the resulting duties follow naturally from human interaction, it is easy to forget that they are the fruit of a commonly held sense of justice built primarily upon solidarity among the members of society, and hence valid at all times and for all peoples. This intuition was expressed as early as the fifth century by Augustine of Hippo, one of the masters of our intellectual heritage. He taught that the saying: Do not do to others what you would not want done to you cannot in any way vary according to the different understandings that have arisen in the world (De Doctrina Christiana, III, 14). Human rights, then, must be respected as an expression of justice, and not merely because they are enforceable through the will of the legislators.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As history proceeds, new situations arise, and the attempt is made to link them to new rights. Discernment, that is, the capacity to distinguish good from evil, becomes even more essential in the context of demands that concern the very lives and conduct of persons, communities and peoples. In tackling the theme of rights, since important situations and profound realities are involved, discernment is both an indispensable and a fruitful virtue.

Discernment, then, shows that entrusting exclusively to individual states, with their laws and institutions, the final responsibility to meet the aspirations of persons, communities and entire peoples, can sometimes have consequences that exclude the possibility of a social order respectful of the dignity and rights of the person. On the other hand, a vision of life firmly anchored in the religious dimension can help to achieve this, since recognition of the transcendent value of every man and woman favors conversion of heart, which then leads to a commitment to resist violence, terrorism and war, and to promote justice and peace. This also provides the proper context for the inter-religious dialogue that the United Nations is called to support, just as it supports dialogue in other areas of human activity. Dialogue should be recognized as the means by which the various components of society can articulate their point of view and build consensus around the truth concerning particular values or goals. It pertains to the nature of religions, freely practiced, that they can autonomously conduct a dialogue of thought and life. If at this level, too, the religious sphere is kept separate from political action, then great benefits ensue for individuals and communities. On the other hand, the United Nations can count on the results of dialogue between religions, and can draw fruit from the willingness of believers to place their experiences at the service of the common good. Their task is to propose a vision of faith not in terms of intolerance, discrimination and conflict, but in terms of complete respect for truth, coexistence, rights, and reconciliation.

Human rights, of course, must include the right to religious freedom, understood as the expression of a dimension that is at once individual and communitarian - a vision that brings out the unity of the person while clearly distinguishing between the dimension of the citizen and that of the believer. The activity of the United Nations in recent years has ensured that public debate gives space to viewpoints inspired by a religious vision in all its dimensions, including ritual, worship, education, dissemination of information and the freedom to profess and choose religion. It is inconceivable, then, that believers should have to suppress a part of themselves - their faith - in order to be active citizens. It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy one's rights. The rights associated with religion are all the more in need of protection if they are considered to clash with a prevailing secular ideology or with majority religious positions of an exclusive nature. The full guarantee of religious liberty cannot be limited to the free exercise of worship, but has to give due consideration to the public dimension of religion, and hence to the possibility of believers playing their part in building the social order. Indeed, they actually do so, for example through their influential and generous involvement in a vast network of initiatives which extend from Universities, scientific institutions and schools to health care agencies and charitable organizations in the service of the poorest and most marginalized. Refusal to recognize the contribution to society that is rooted in the religious dimension and in the quest for the Absolute - by its nature, expressing communion between persons – would effectively privilege an individualistic approach, and would fragment the unity of the person.

My presence at this Assembly is a sign of esteem for the United Nations, and it is intended to express the hope that the organization will increasingly serve as a sign of unity between States and an instrument of service to the entire human family. It also demonstrates the willingness of the Catholic Church to offer her proper contribution to building international relations in a way that allows every person and every people to feel they can make a difference. In a manner that is consistent with her contribution in the ethical and moral sphere and the free activity of her faithful, the Church also works for the realization of these goals through the international activity of the Holy See. Indeed, the Holy See has always had a place at the assemblies of the Nations, thereby manifesting its specific character as a subject in the international domain. As the United Nations recently confirmed, the Holy See thereby makes its contribution according to the dispositions of international law, helps to define that law, and makes appeal to it.

The United Nations remains a privileged setting in which the Church is committed to contributing her experience of humanity, developed over the centuries among peoples of every race and culture, and placing it at the disposal of all members of the international community. This experience and activity, directed towards attaining freedom for every believer, seeks also to increase the protection given to the rights of the person. Those rights are grounded and shaped by the transcendent nature of the person, which permits men and women to pursue their journey of faith and their search for God in this world. Recognition of this dimension must be strengthened if we are to sustain humanity's hope for a better world and if we are to create the conditions for peace, development, cooperation, and guarantee of rights for future generations.

In my recent Encyclical, Spe Salvi, I indicated that every generation has the task of engaging anew in the arduous search for the right way to order human affairs (no. 25). For Christians, this task is motivated by the hope drawn from the saving work of Jesus Christ. That is why the Church is happy to be associated with the activity of this distinguished Organization, charged with the responsibility of promoting peace and good will throughout the earth. Dear Friends, I thank you for this opportunity to address you today, and I promise you of the support of my prayers as you pursue your noble task.

Before I take my leave from this distinguished Assembly, I should like to offer my greetings, in the official languages, to all the Nations here represented.

[in English; in French; in Spanish; in Arab; in Chinese; in Russian:]Peace and Prosperity with God's help!

Text of Pope's speech to bishops
Published: April 17, 2008

link

Following is the prepared text of Pope Benedict XVI's speech before the bishops of the United States at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, as provided by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:

Dear Brother Bishops,

It gives me great joy to greet you today, at the start of my visit to this country, and I thank Cardinal George for the gracious words he has addressed to me on your behalf. I want to thank all of you, especially the Officers of the Episcopal Conference, for the hard work that has gone into the preparation of this visit. My grateful appreciation goes also to the staff and volunteers of the National Shrine, who have welcomed us here this evening. American Catholics are noted for their loyal devotion to the see of Peter. My pastoral visit here is an opportunity to strengthen further the bonds of communion that unite us. We began by celebrating Evening Prayer in this Basilica dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a shrine of special significance to American Catholics, right in the heart of your capital city. Gathered in prayer with Mary, Mother of Jesus, we lovingly commend to our heavenly Father the people of God in every part of the United States.

For the Catholic communities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Louisville, this is a year of particular celebration, as it marks the bicentenary of the establishment of these local Churches as Dioceses. I join you in giving thanks for the many graces granted to the Church there during these two centuries. As this year also marks the bicentenary of the elevation of the founding see of Baltimore to an Archdiocese, it gives me an opportunity to recall with admiration and gratitude the life and ministry of John Carroll, the first Bishop of Baltimore — a worthy leader of the Catholic community in your newly independent nation. His tireless efforts to spread the Gospel in the vast territory under his care laid the foundations for the ecclesial life of your country and enabled the Church in America to grow to maturity. Today the Catholic community you serve is one of the largest in the world, and one of the most influential. How important it is, then, to let your light so shine before your fellow citizens and before the world, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Mt 5:16).

Many of the people to whom John Carroll and his fellow Bishops were ministering two centuries ago had traveled from distant lands. The diversity of their origins is reflected in the rich variety of ecclesial life in present-day America. Brother Bishops, I want to encourage you and your communities to continue to welcome the immigrants who join your ranks today, to share their joys and hopes, to support them in their sorrows and trials, and to help them flourish in their new home. This, indeed, is what your fellow countrymen have done for generations. From the beginning, they have opened their doors to the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free (cf. Sonnet inscribed on the Statue of Liberty). These are the people whom America has made her own.

Today in Americas
Across globe, hunger brings rising angerEarthquake rattles central U.S.Pope meets with U.S. victims of priests' sexual abuseOf those who came to build a new life here, many were able to make good use of the resources and opportunities that they found, and to attain a high level of prosperity. Indeed, the people of this country are known for their great vitality and creativity. They are also known for their generosity. After the attack on the Twin Towers in September 2001, and again after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Americans displayed their readiness to come to the aid of their brothers and sisters in need. On the international level, the contribution made by the people of America to relief and rescue operations after the tsunami of December 2004 is a further illustration of this compassion. Let me express my particular appreciation for the many forms of humanitarian assistance provided by American Catholics through Catholic Charities and other agencies. Their generosity has borne fruit in the care shown to the poor and needy, and in the energy that has gone into building the nationwide network of Catholic parishes, hospitals, schools and universities. All of this gives great cause for thanksgiving.

America is also a land of great faith. Your people are remarkable for their religious fervor and they take pride in belonging to a worshipping community. They have confidence in God, and they do not hesitate to bring moral arguments rooted in biblical faith into their public discourse. Respect for freedom of religion is deeply ingrained in the American consciousness — a fact which has contributed to this country's attraction for generations of immigrants, seeking a home where they can worship freely in accordance with their beliefs.

In this connection, I happily acknowledge the presence among you of Bishops from all the venerable Eastern Churches in communion with the Successor of Peter, whom I greet with special joy. Dear Brothers, I ask you to assure your communities of my deep affection and my continued prayers, both for them and for the many brothers and sisters who remain in their land of origin. Your presence here is a reminder of the courageous witness to Christ of so many members of your communities, often amid suffering, in their respective homelands. It is also a great enrichment of the ecclesial life of America, giving vivid expression to the Church's catholicity and the variety of her liturgical and spiritual traditions.

It is in this fertile soil, nourished from so many different sources, that all of you, Brother Bishops, are called to sow the seeds of the Gospel today. This leads me to ask how, in the twenty-first century, a bishop can best fulfill the call to make all things new in Christ, our hope? How can he lead his people to an encounter with the living God, the source of that life-transforming hope of which the Gospel speaks (cf. Spe Salvi, 4)? Perhaps he needs to begin by clearing away some of the barriers to such an encounter. While it is true that this country is marked by a genuinely religious spirit, the subtle influence of secularism can nevertheless color the way people allow their faith to influence their behavior. Is it consistent to profess our beliefs in church on Sunday, and then during the week to promote business practices or medical procedures contrary to those beliefs? Is it consistent for practicing Catholics to ignore or exploit the poor and the marginalized, to promote sexual behavior contrary to Catholic moral teaching, or to adopt positions that contradict the right to life of every human being from conception to natural death? Any tendency to treat religion as a private matter must be resisted. Only when their faith permeates every aspect of their lives do Christians become truly open to the transforming power of the Gospel.

For an affluent society, a further obstacle to an encounter with the living God lies in the subtle influence of materialism, which can all too easily focus the attention on the hundredfold, which God promises now in this time, at the expense of the eternal life which he promises in the age to come (cf. Mk 10:30). People today need to be reminded of the ultimate purpose of their lives. They need to recognize that implanted within them is a deep thirst for God. They need to be given opportunities to drink from the wells of his infinite love. It is easy to be entranced by the almost unlimited possibilities that science and technology place before us; it is easy to make the mistake of thinking we can obtain by our own efforts the fulfillment of our deepest needs. This is an illusion. Without God, who alone bestows upon us what we by ourselves cannot attain (cf. Spe Salvi, 31), our lives are ultimately empty. People need to be constantly reminded to cultivate a relationship with him who came that we might have life in abundance (cf. Jn 10:10). The goal of all our pastoral and catechetical work, the object of our preaching, and the focus of our sacramental ministry should be to help people establish and nurture that living relationship with Christ Jesus, our hope (1 Tim 1:1).

In a society which values personal freedom and autonomy, it is easy to lose sight of our dependence on others as well as the responsibilities that we bear towards them. This emphasis on individualism has even affected the Church (cf. Spe Salvi, 13-15), giving rise to a form of piety which sometimes emphasizes our private relationship with God at the expense of our calling to be members of a redeemed community. Yet from the beginning, God saw that it is not good for man to be alone (Gen 2:18). We were created as social beings who find fulfillment only in love - for God and for our neighbor. If we are truly to gaze upon him who is the source of our joy, we need to do so as members of the people of God (cf. Spe Salvi, 14). If this seems counter-cultural, that is simply further evidence of the urgent need for a renewed evangelization of culture.

Here in America, you are blessed with a Catholic laity of considerable cultural diversity, who place their wide-ranging gifts at the service of the Church and of society at large. They look to you to offer them encouragement, leadership and direction. In an age that is saturated with information, the importance of providing sound formation in the faith cannot be overstated. American Catholics have traditionally placed a high value on religious education, both in schools and in the context of adult formation programs. These need to be maintained and expanded. The many generous men and women who devote themselves to charitable activity need to be helped to renew their dedication through a formation of the heart: an encounter with God in Christ which awakens their love and opens their spirits to others (Deus Caritas Est, 31). At a time when advances in medical science bring new hope to many, they also give rise to previously unimagined ethical challenges. This makes it more important than ever to offer thorough formation in the Church's moral teaching to Catholics engaged in health care. Wise guidance is needed in all these apostolates, so that they may bear abundant fruit; if they are truly to promote the integral good of the human person, they too need to be made new in Christ our hope.

As preachers of the Gospel and leaders of the Catholic community, you are also called to participate in the exchange of ideas in the public square, helping to shape cultural attitudes. In a context where free speech is valued, and where vigorous and honest debate is encouraged, yours is a respected voice that has much to offer to the discussion of the pressing social and moral questions of the day. By ensuring that the Gospel is clearly heard, you not only form the people of your own community, but in view of the global reach of mass communication, you help to spread the message of Christian hope throughout the world.

Clearly, the Church's influence on public debate takes place on many different levels. In the United States, as elsewhere, there is much current and proposed legislation that gives cause for concern from the point of view of morality, and the Catholic community, under your guidance, needs to offer a clear and united witness on such matters. Even more important, though, is the gradual opening of the minds and hearts of the wider community to moral truth. Here much remains to be done. Crucial in this regard is the role of the lay faithful to act as a leaven in society. Yet it cannot be assumed that all Catholic citizens think in harmony with the Church's teaching on today's key ethical questions. Once again, it falls to you to ensure that the moral formation provided at every level of ecclesial life reflects the authentic teaching of the Gospel of life.

In this regard, a matter of deep concern to us all is the state of the family within society. Indeed, Cardinal George mentioned earlier that you have included the strengthening of marriage and family life among the priorities for your attention over the next few years. In this year's World Day of Peace Message I spoke of the essential contribution that healthy family life makes to peace within and between nations. In the family home we experience some of the fundamental elements of peace: justice and love between brothers and sisters, the role of authority expressed by parents, loving concern for the members who are weaker because of youth, sickness or old age, mutual help in the necessities of life, readiness to accept others and, if necessary, to forgive them (no. 3). The family is also the primary place for evangelization, for passing on the faith, for helping young people to appreciate the importance of religious practice and Sunday observance. How can we not be dismayed as we observe the sharp decline of the family as a basic element of Church and society? Divorce and infidelity have increased, and many young men and women are choosing to postpone marriage or to forego it altogether. To some young Catholics, the sacramental bond of marriage seems scarcely distinguishable from a civil bond, or even a purely informal and open-ended arrangement to live with another person. Hence we have an alarming decrease in the number of Catholic marriages in the United States together with an increase in cohabitation, in which the Christ-like mutual self-giving of spouses, sealed by a public promise to live out the demands of an indissoluble lifelong commitment, is simply absent. In such circumstances, children are denied the secure environment that they need in order truly to flourish as human beings, and society is denied the stable building blocks which it requires if the cohesion and moral focus of the community are to be maintained.

As my predecessor, Pope John Paul II taught, The person principally responsible in the Diocese for the pastoral care of the family is the Bishop ... he must devote to it personal interest, care, time, personnel and resources, but above all personal support for the families and for all those who ... assist him in the pastoral care of the family (Familiaris Consortio, 73). It is your task to proclaim boldly the arguments from faith and reason in favor of the institution of marriage, understood as a lifelong commitment between a man and a woman, open to the transmission of life. This message should resonate with people today, because it is essentially an unconditional and unreserved yes to life, a yes to love, and a yes to the aspirations at the heart of our common humanity, as we strive to fulfill our deep yearning for intimacy with others and with the Lord.

Among the countersigns to the Gospel of life found in America and elsewhere is one that causes deep shame: the sexual abuse of minors. Many of you have spoken to me of the enormous pain that your communities have suffered when clerics have betrayed their priestly obligations and duties by such gravely immoral behavior. As you strive to eliminate this evil wherever it occurs, you may be assured of the prayerful support of God's people throughout the world. Rightly, you attach priority to showing compassion and care to the victims. It is your God-given responsibility as pastors to bind up the wounds caused by every breach of trust, to foster healing, to promote reconciliation and to reach out with loving concern to those so seriously wronged.

Responding to this situation has not been easy and, as the President of your Episcopal Conference has indicated, it was sometimes very badly handled. Now that the scale and gravity of the problem is more clearly understood, you have been able to adopt more focused remedial and disciplinary measures and to promote a safe environment that gives greater protection to young people. While it must be remembered that the overwhelming majority of clergy and religious in America do outstanding work in bringing the liberating message of the Gospel to the people entrusted to their care, it is vitally important that the vulnerable always be shielded from those who would cause harm. In this regard, your efforts to heal and protect are bearing great fruit not only for those directly under your pastoral care, but for all of society.

If they are to achieve their full purpose, however, the policies and programs you have adopted need to be placed in a wider context. Children deserve to grow up with a healthy understanding of sexuality and its proper place in human relationships. They should be spared the degrading manifestations and the crude manipulation of sexuality so prevalent today. They have a right to be educated in authentic moral values rooted in the dignity of the human person. This brings us back to our consideration of the centrality of the family and the need to promote the Gospel of life. What does it mean to speak of child protection when pornography and violence can be viewed in so many homes through media widely available today? We need to reassess urgently the values underpinning society, so that a sound moral formation can be offered to young people and adults alike. All have a part to play in this task — not only parents, religious leaders, teachers and catechists, but the media and entertainment industries as well. Indeed, every member of society can contribute to this moral renewal and benefit from it. Truly caring about young people and the future of our civilization means recognizing our responsibility to promote and live by the authentic moral values which alone enable the human person to flourish. It falls to you, as pastors modelled upon Christ, the Good Shepherd, to proclaim this message loud and clear, and thus to address the sin of abuse within the wider context of sexual mores. Moreover, by acknowledging and confronting the problem when it occurs in an ecclesial setting, you can give a lead to others, since this scourge is found not only within your Dioceses, but in every sector of society. It calls for a determined, collective response.

Priests, too, need your guidance and closeness during this difficult time. They have experienced shame over what has occurred, and there are those who feel they have lost some of the trust and esteem they once enjoyed. Not a few are experiencing a closeness to Christ in his Passion as they struggle to come to terms with the consequences of the crisis. The Bishop, as father, brother and friend of his priests, can help them to draw spiritual fruit from this union with Christ by making them aware of the Lord's consoling presence in the midst of their suffering, and by encouraging them to walk with the Lord along the path of hope (cf. Spe Salvi, 39). As Pope John Paul II observed six years ago, we must be confident that this time of trial will bring a purification of the entire Catholic community, leading to a holier priesthood, a holier episcopate and a holier Church (Address to the Cardinals of the United States, 23 April 2002, 4). There are many signs that, during the intervening period, such purification has indeed been taking place. Christ's abiding presence in the midst of our suffering is gradually transforming our darkness into light: all things are indeed being made new in Christ Jesus our hope.

At this stage a vital part of your task is to strengthen relationships with your clergy, especially in those cases where tension has arisen between priests and their bishops in the wake of the crisis. It is important that you continue to show them your concern, to support them, and to lead by example. In this way you will surely help them to encounter the living God, and point them towards the life-transforming hope of which the Gospel speaks. If you yourselves live in a manner closely configured to Christ, the Good Shepherd, who laid down his life for his sheep, you will inspire your brother priests to rededicate themselves to the service of their flocks with Christ-like generosity. Indeed a clearer focus upon the imitation of Christ in holiness of life is exactly what is needed in order for us to move forward. We need to rediscover the joy of living a Christ-centred life, cultivating the virtues, and immersing ourselves in prayer. When the faithful know that their pastor is a man who prays and who dedicates his life to serving them, they respond with warmth and affection which nourishes and sustains the life of the whole community.

Time spent in prayer is never wasted, however urgent the duties that press upon us from every side. Adoration of Christ our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament prolongs and intensifies the union with him that is established through the Eucharistic celebration (cf. Sacramentum Caritatis, 66). Contemplation of the mysteries of the Rosary releases all their saving power and it conforms, unites and consecrates us to Jesus Christ (cf. Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 11, 15). Fidelity to the Liturgy of the Hours ensures that the whole of our day is sanctified and it continually reminds us of the need to remain focused on doing God's work, however many pressures and distractions may arise from the task at hand. Thus our devotion helps us to speak and act in persona Christi, to teach, govern and sanctify the faithful in the name of Jesus, to bring his reconciliation, his healing and his love to all his beloved brothers and sisters. This radical configuration to Christ, the Good Shepherd, lies at the heart of our pastoral ministry, and if we open ourselves through prayer to the power of the Spirit, he will give us the gifts we need to carry out our daunting task, so that we need never be anxious how to speak or what to say (Mt 10:19).

As I conclude my words to you this evening, I commend the Church in your country most particularly to the maternal care and intercession of Mary Immaculate, Patroness of the United States. May she who carried within her womb the hope of all the nations intercede for the people of this country, so that all may be made new in Jesus Christ her Son. My dear Brother Bishops, I assure each of you here present of my deep friendship and my participation in your pastoral concerns. To all of you, and to your clergy, religious and lay faithful, I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of joy and peace in the Risen Lord.

1. The Holy Father is asked to give his assessment of the challenge of increasing secularism in public life and relativism in intellectual life, and his advice on how to confront these challenges pastorally and evangelize more effectively.

I touched upon this theme briefly in my address. It strikes me as significant that here in America, unlike many places in Europe, the secular mentality has not been intrinsically opposed to religion. Within the context of the separation of Church and State, American society has always been marked by a fundamental respect for religion and its public role, and, if polls are to be believed, the American people are deeply religious. But it is not enough to count on this traditional religiosity and go about business as usual, even as its foundations are being slowly undermined. A serious commitment to evangelization cannot prescind from a profound diagnosis of the real challenges the Gospel encounters in contemporary American culture.

Of course, what is essential is a correct understanding of the just autonomy of the secular order, an autonomy which cannot be divorced from God the Creator and his saving plan (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 36). Perhaps America's brand of secularism poses a particular problem: it allows for professing belief in God, and respects the public role of religion and the Churches, but at the same time it can subtly reduce religious belief to a lowest common denominator. Faith becomes a passive acceptance that certain things out there are true, but without practical relevance for everyday life. The result is a growing separation of faith from life: living as if God did not exist. This is aggravated by an individualistic and eclectic approach to faith and religion: far from a Catholic approach to thinking with the Church, each person believes he or she has a right to pick and choose, maintaining external social bonds but without an integral, interior conversion to the law of Christ. Consequently, rather than being transformed and renewed in mind, Christians are easily tempted to conform themselves to the spirit of this age (cf. Rom 12:3). We have seen this emerge in an acute way in the scandal given by Catholics who promote an alleged right to abortion.

On a deeper level, secularism challenges the Church to reaffirm and to pursue more actively her mission in and to the world. As the Council made clear, the lay faithful have a particular responsibility in this regard. What is needed, I am convinced, is a greater sense of the intrinsic relationship between the Gospel and the natural law on the one hand, and, on the other, the pursuit of authentic human good, as embodied in civil law and in personal moral decisions. In a society that rightly values personal liberty, the Church needs to promote at every level of her teaching — in catechesis, preaching, seminary and university instruction — an apologetics aimed at affirming the truth of Christian revelation, the harmony of faith and reason, and a sound understanding of freedom, seen in positive terms as a liberation both from the limitations of sin and for an authentic and fulfilling life. In a word, the Gospel has to be preached and taught as an integral way of life, offering an attractive and true answer, intellectually and practically, to real human problems. The dictatorship of relativism, in the end, is nothing less than a threat to genuine human freedom, which only matures in generosity and fidelity to the truth.

Today in Americas
Across globe, hunger brings rising angerEarthquake rattles central U.S.Pope meets with U.S. victims of priests' sexual abuseMuch more, of course, could be said on this subject: let me conclude, though, by saying that I believe that the Church in America, at this point in her history, is faced with the challenge of recapturing the Catholic vision of reality and presenting it, in an engaging and imaginative way, to a society which markets any number of recipes for human fulfillment. I think in particular of our need to speak to the hearts of young people, who, despite their constant exposure to messages contrary to the Gospel, continue to thirst for authenticity, goodness and truth. Much remains to be done, particularly on the level of preaching and catechesis in parishes and schools, if the new evangelization is to bear fruit for the renewal of ecclesial life in America.

2. The Holy Father is asked about a certain quiet attrition by which Catholics are abandoning the practice of the faith, sometimes by an explicit decision, but often by distancing themselves quietly and gradually from attendance at Mass and identification with the Church.

Certainly, much of this has to do with the passing away of a religious culture, sometimes disparagingly referred to as a ghetto, which reinforced participation and identification with the Church. As I just mentioned, one of the great challenges facing the Church in this country is that of cultivating a Catholic identity which is based not so much on externals as on a way of thinking and acting grounded in the Gospel and enriched by the Church's living tradition.

The issue clearly involves factors such as religious individualism and scandal. Let us go to the heart of the matter: faith cannot survive unless it is nourished, unless it is formed by charity (cf. Gal 5:6). Do people today find it difficult to encounter God in our Churches? Has our preaching lost its salt? Might it be that many people have forgotten, or never really learned, how to pray in and with the Church?

Here I am not speaking of people who leave the Church in search of subjective religious experiences; this is a pastoral issue which must be addressed on its own terms. I think we are speaking about people who have fallen by the wayside without consciously having rejected their faith in Christ, but, for whatever reason, have not drawn life from the liturgy, the sacraments, preaching. Yet Christian faith, as we know, is essentially ecclesial, and without a living bond to the community, the individual's faith will never grow to maturity. Indeed, to return to the question I just discussed, the result can be a quiet apostasy.

So let me make two brief observations on the problem of attrition, which I hope will stimulate further reflection.

Today in Americas
Across globe, hunger brings rising angerEarthquake rattles central U.S.Pope meets with U.S. victims of priests' sexual abuseFirst, as you know, it is becoming more and more difficult, in our Western societies, to speak in a meaningful way of salvation. Yet salvation — deliverance from the reality of evil, and the gift of new life and freedom in Christ — is at the heart of the Gospel. We need to discover, as I have suggested, new and engaging ways of proclaiming this message and awakening a thirst for the fulfillment which only Christ can bring. It is in the Church's liturgy, and above all in the sacrament of the Eucharist, that these realities are most powerfully expressed and lived in the life of believers; perhaps we still have much to do in realizing the Council's vision of the liturgy as the exercise of the common priesthood and the impetus for a fruitful apostolate in the world.

Second, we need to acknowledge with concern the almost complete eclipse of an eschatological sense in many of our traditionally Christian societies. As you know, I have pointed to this problem in the Encyclical Spe Salvi. Suffice it to say that faith and hope are not limited to this world: as theological virtues, they unite us with the Lord and draw us toward the fulfillment not only of our personal destiny but also that of all creation. Faith and hope are the inspiration and basis of our efforts to prepare for the coming of the Kingdom of God. In Christianity, there can be no room for purely private religion: Christ is the Savior of the world, and, as members of his Body and sharers in his prophetic, priestly and royal munera, we cannot separate our love for him from our commitment to the building up of the Church and the extension of his Kingdom. To the extent that religion becomes a purely private affair, it loses its very soul.

Let me conclude by stating the obvious. The fields are still ripe for harvesting (cf. Jn 4:35); God continues to give the growth (cf. 1 Cor 3:6). We can and must believe, with the late Pope John Paul II, that God is preparing a new springtime for Christianity (cf. Redemptoris Missio, 86). What is needed above all, at this time in the history of the Church in America, is a renewal of that apostolic zeal which inspires her shepherds actively to seek out the lost, to bind up those who have been wounded, and to bring strength to those who are languishing (cf. Ez 34:16). And this, as I have said, calls for new ways of thinking based on a sound diagnosis of today's challenges and a commitment to unity in the service of the Church's mission to the present generation.

3. The Holy Father is asked to comment on the decline in vocations despite the growing numbers of the Catholic population, and on the reasons for hope offered by the personal qualities and the thirst for holiness which characterize the candidates who do come forward.

Let us be quite frank: the ability to cultivate vocations to the priesthood and the religious life is a sure sign of the health of a local Church. There is no room for complacency in this regard. God continues to call young people; it is up to all of us to encourage a generous and free response to that call. On the other hand, none of us can take this grace for granted.

In the Gospel, Jesus tells us to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send workers. He even admits that the workers are few in comparison with the abundance of the harvest (cf. Mt 9:37-38). Strange to say, I often think that prayer — the unum necessarium — is the one aspect of vocations work which we tend to forget or to undervalue!

Nor am I speaking only of prayer for vocations. Prayer itself, born in Catholic families, nurtured by programs of Christian formation, strengthened by the grace of the sacraments, is the first means by which we come to know the Lord's will for our lives. To the extent that we teach young people to pray, and to pray well, we will be cooperating with God's call. Programs, plans and projects have their place; but the discernment of a vocation is above all the fruit of an intimate dialogue between the Lord and his disciples. Young people, if they know how to pray, can be trusted to know what to do with God's call.

It has been noted that there is a growing thirst for holiness in many young people today, and that, although fewer in number, those who come forward show great idealism and much promise. It is important to listen to them, to understand their experiences, and to encourage them to help their peers to see the need for committed priests and religious, as well as the beauty of a life of sacrificial service to the Lord and his Church. To my mind, much is demanded of vocation directors and formators: candidates today, as much as ever, need to be given a sound intellectual and human formation which will enable them not only to respond to the real questions and needs of their contemporaries, but also to mature in their own conversion and to persevere in life-long commitment to their vocation. As Bishops, you are conscious of the sacrifice demanded when you are asked to release one of your finest priests for seminary work. I urge you to respond with generosity, for the good of the whole Church.

Finally, I think you know from experience that most of your brother priests are happy in their vocation. What I said in my address about the importance of unity and cooperation within the presbyterate applies here too. There is a need for all of us to move beyond sterile divisions, disagreements and preconceptions, and to listen together to the voice of the Spirit who is guiding the Church into a future of hope. Each of us knows how important priestly fraternity has been in our lives. That fraternity is not only a precious possession, but also an immense resource for the renewal of the priesthood and the raising up of new vocations. I would close by encouraging you to foster opportunities for ever greater dialogue and fraternal encounter among your priests, and especially the younger priests. I am convinced that this will bear great fruit for their own enrichment, for the increase of their love for the priesthood and the Church, and for the effectiveness of their apostolate.

Dear Brother Bishops. with these few observations, I once more encourage all of you in your ministry to the faithful entrusted to your pastoral care, and I commend you to the loving intercession of Mary Immaculate, Mother of the Church.

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Before leaving, I would like to pause to acknowledge the immense suffering endured by the people of God in the Archdiocese of New Orleans as a result of Hurricane Katrina, as well as their courage in the challenging work of rebuilding. I would like to present Archbishop Alfred Hughes with a chalice, which I hope will be accepted as a sign of my prayerful solidarity with the faithful of the Archdiocese, and my personal gratitude for the tireless devotion which he and Archbishops Philip Hannan and Francis Schulte showed toward the flock entrusted to their care.

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