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)
LONDON HEATHROW SHUT DOWN DUE TO POWER FAILURE DUE TO TRANSFORMER SUB FIRE.
FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS
REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
DR DOCTORION ANGEL OF EUROPE.
The great city of London - destruction everywhere.
67,000 HOUSES INCLUDING HEATHROW ARE WITHOUT HYDRO AS A RESULT OF THIS TRANSFORMER SUB FIRE. HEATHROW WILL BE CLOSED ALL DAY.
The implications will stretch far wider than Heathrowpublished at 03:15-Sean Dilley-Transport correspondent.
Airports and airlines have two key challenges as emergency services work to establish the cause of the nearby fire. First, what on earth can they do to limit the damage to travellers and the economy?The second challenge extends beyond today. Flight plans are meticulously orchestrated and choreographed to make sure aircraft are in the right place at the right time.Aircraft will be parked in far-flung airports, passengers will have questions and authorities will be keen to understand the impact of the disruption.The implications will stretch far wider than Heathrow, and could impact flights much further afield.
More than a nightmare for authorities and airlines as Heathrow closes for the daypublished at 03:12-Sean Dilley-Transport correspondent
The term "nightmare" is too weak of a descriptor to paint a true picture of the chaos this will cause.Every type of crisis meeting you can imagine is taking place as authorities at Heathrow, and at airlines who rely on the world's second-largest airport, work furiously to implement backup plans.There’s a contingency plan for everything, but the issue for flight planners, airlines and airports across the UK and Europe is encapsulated by one word: capacity.Gatwick has already said it will help as much as it can, but I was standing on the controversial north runway just a few weeks ago, 200m (656 feet) away from the airport's only operational runway. A flight was taking off and leaving around every one minute and 10 seconds.We were talking expansion that day - but the bosses made it clear, Gatwick is slammed. It’s full. Its ability to help will be highly limited.Airports in Europe and in the UK are already pitching in. Some passengers have been diverted to Manchester; no doubt they are sighing a breath of relief to be just hundreds of miles away from their intended destination.
Egypt willing to temporarily relocate half a million Gazans to Sinai – report-President Sissi said to float idea during meetings with other Arab leaders, though he has publicly rebuffed suggestions his country could take in any Palestinian refugees-By Nurit Yohanan-Today, 10:38 am-MAR 21,25
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has informed other Arab leaders that he is willing to temporarily relocate half a million residents from Gaza to northern Sinai in a designated city as part of the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, according to a Friday report.According to the report in the Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper, Sissi made his willingness known during meetings held by Arab leaders in recent weeks in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. There was no confirmation of the report from any other source.In public statements, Sissi and Jordan’s King Abdullah have repeatedly rebuffed US President Donald Trump’s assertion that the two Arab countries could take in Palestinian refugees on a permanent basis under his plan to empty the Gaza Strip of its residents and turn it into a “riviera.” The issue is of crucial significance for Jordan and Egypt, which fear that an influx of Palestinians will destabilize their countries.Throughout the recent two-month ceasefire between Hamas and Israel — which collapsed this week — Arab leaders held several summits regarding Gaza and their vision for “the day after the war.”At an Arab League summit in Cairo in early March, Egypt presented its plan for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and emphasized that it would not include the displacement of residents.The Arab plan envisions an independent committee of technocrats governing Gaza for six months before handing control to the Palestinian Authority. The plan does not mention Hamas by name, instead stating that the fate of all armed groups in Gaza can only be fully addressed through a political process that leads to a Palestinian state.According to previous reports in Arab media, the plan only includes the internal relocation of Gazans within Gaza to clear rubble and rebuild buildings and neighborhoods. According to a United Nations analysis from September, over two-thirds of Gaza’s structures have been damaged or destroyed during the war sparked on October 7, 2023, when Hamas rampaged through southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 hostages.Recently, the Trump administration has been sending mixed signals regarding its stance on the Egypt-led Arab plan for post-war Gaza. Initially, Trump spoke multiple times about his vision of emptying Gaza of its more than 2 million Palestinian residents and reconstructing the Strip, even suggesting that Israel would hand Gaza over to the US after the war.Then, on March 7, US special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, called the Arab proposal a “good-faith first step” with “a lot of compelling features.” Hours later, however, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce characterized the proposal as “inadequate.” Last week, during a press conference with the Irish prime minister, Trump stated: “Nobody is expelling any Palestinians from Gaza.”Meanwhile, the Israeli government has been pushing the idea of a “Gaza exodus” as its plan for the Strip. At the beginning of the month, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that the government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, is working to establish a “migration administration” that will oversee the exodus of Palestinian residents from Gaza.“This plan is taking shape, with ongoing actions in coordination with the administration… It involves identifying key countries, understanding their interests — both with the US and with us — and fostering cooperation,” Smotrich said regarding the initiative and efforts to find countries willing to accept Palestinian emigrants.
Khamenei says Houthis act independently, warns against US strikes on Iran-Supreme leader, in televised speech, rejects Trump’s vow to hold Tehran responsible for attacks by Iran-backed Yemen group, which fired at Israel this week amid US strikes-By Agencies and ToI Staff Today, 2:02 pm-MAR 21,25
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Friday that the Houthis, an Iran-aligned terror group that controls much of Yemen, act on their own motivations, after US President Donald Trump said he would hold Tehran accountable for the group’s actions.Khamenei also warned, “If the US or anyone else commits any malicious act against Iran, they will receive a severe blow,” in comments made in a televised speech, echoed by official social media posts.Trump said Monday that he would hold Iran responsible for any attacks carried out by the Houthis, as the American military carried out waves of strikes against the group, marking the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since he returned to the White House.The Houthis, whose slogan calls for “death to America, death to Israel, [and] a curse on the Jews,” have fired four missiles at Israel since Tuesday, all of which were intercepted, and none of which caused any casualties.The group resumed its attacks on Israel after fighting resumed in the Gaza Strip, amid the collapse of a hostage-ceasefire deal with the Hamas terror group.Americans, said Khamenei on Friday, “make a big mistake and call regional resistance centers Iranian proxies. What does proxy mean?”“The Yemeni nation has its own motivation and the resistance groups in the region have their own motivations. Iran doesn’t need proxies,” Khamenei said.The US “issue threats,” he added, but “we have never started a confrontation or conflict with anyone. However, if anyone acts with malice and initiates it, they will receive severe slaps.”Over the years, Iran has been aligned with groups across the region that describe themselves as the “Axis of Resistance” to Israel and US influence. Those groups include Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and various Shiite terror groups in Iraq and Syria.The Islamic Republic also counted the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad — ousted by Islamist rebels in December — as an ally.The Houthis began attacking ships in the Red Sea in November 2023, a month after Hamas stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.While the Houthis have said they were attacking Israeli-linked shipping in support of Gaza, they have also targeted vessels with no known Israeli connections.The Iran-backed rebels also fired some 40 ballistic missiles at Israel, from November 2023 until just days before the Gaza hostage-ceasefire deal was reached in January 2025. They also launched several attack drones at Israel, including one that killed a civilian and wounded several others in Tel Aviv in July.Responding to the attacks, Israel has carried out several strikes on Houthi sites in Yemen.
IDF strikes Hezbollah facilities in eastern Lebanon amid ceasefire-Military says targets include site for storing rocket launchers, underground infrastructure; no casualties reported-By Emanuel Fabian-and AFP Today, 5:03 am-MAR 21,25
The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday said it carried out airstrikes on Hezbollah facilities in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, after identifying activity by the terror group there amid the ongoing ceasefire.One site included underground infrastructure, and another was used to store rocket launchers, according to the military.Lebanese state media on Thursday reported Israeli strikes on the country’s south and east.The state-run National News Agency said “enemy aircraft” struck “the eastern slopes of the mountain range within the town of Janta in the Bekaa,” as well as “the outskirts of the town of Taraya, west of Baalbek,” also in the east.Four missiles were fired in the Nabatieh area of southern Lebanon, NNA said.No casualties were immediately reported.A November 27, 2024, truce in Lebanon largely halted more than a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. The fighting came after the terror group attacked Israel on October 8, 2023, in support of its ally Hamas, which invaded from Gaza a day earlier. The persistent rocket fire from Lebanon displaced some 60,000 Israeli civilians.Israel has continued to carry out strikes on Lebanese territory since the truce agreement took effect, saying it is acting against Hezbollah violations of the ceasefire.Last month, Israel withdrew all its forces from southern Lebanon, except from five strategic points, saying it had received a green light from the US to remain at those posts and citing the need to prevent Hezbollah from returning to the area and threatening Israel.The ceasefire also required Hezbollah to pull back north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and to dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Arab resident deported back to Gaza, leaving family behind, after over a decade in Israel-Gaza-born Basel al-Qur’an fears for his life after being sent to Strip for failing to renew his ‘stay permit’ while in jail; Israeli family begs IDF, Red Cross for his return-By Charlie Summers Today, 8:01 am-MAR 21,25
An Arab man, husband to an Israeli woman and father to their three young Israeli children, was recently deported to the Gaza Strip and has been barred by the Israeli authorities from returning to live with his family.Basel al-Qur’an, 28, had been living in Israel for over a decade on temporary, renewable permits but was recently convicted of driving without a license, and after being unable to renew his visa while in prison, was deported to Gaza last month.Al-Qur’an is now holed up in war-torn Rafah after being sent across the Israel-Gaza border in February on a humanitarian aid truck, unable to return to his family home in Kiryat Gat.Hailing from a Bedouin background, al-Qur’an was born in Gaza to an Arab Israeli mother and Egyptian father. He moved to Israel with his mother as an adolescent on a temporary permit renewed twice yearly.Over several phone calls with The Times of Israel, the deportee claimed that upon his release from Shikma Prison on February 1 — the same day that 150 Gazan security detainees were freed as part of the hostage release-ceasefire deal with Hamas — Shin Bet agents took him to the Kerem Shalom border crossing, where two IDF soldiers loaded him onto an aid truck headed to Rafah.Al-Qur’an said he was transferred to Shikma, near the coastal city of Ashkelon, only four days prior to his deportation. Until then, he was held for 20 months in Haifa’s Damon Prison. (The offense of driving without a license is punishable by up to two years.)The Shin Bet and IDF declined to respond to requests for comment regarding al-Qur’an’s allegations. The Israel Prison Service also refused to confirm where he was incarcerated, stating it does not provide details about prisoners.Al-Qur’an’s lawyer, Uzi Avraham, appealed to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the Defense Ministry body that oversees coordination in the West Bank and Gaza, requesting he be allowed to return to Israel.According to Avraham, the agency responded that they were reviewing the situation and would decide how to address it by the end of March.Meanwhile, al-Qur’an is desperate to escape the enclave after over a month of hiding in what he called a “secure place,” the temporary shelter of a Bedouin stranger, whom he stumbled upon during his first day in Rafah, and the man’s seven children.On Monday morning, al-Qur’an said that the family he was staying with had since fled their shelter in Rafah as the IDF resumed airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, leaving him alone near the southern border.Al-Qur’an fears that Hamas will find and kill him due to his mother’s Israeli citizenship.“Every day they’re killing people, shooting them in the legs, in the head. I see it every day from afar and also hear it. It’s truly life or death,” he said.He says he rarely leaves the temporary shelter he is residing in, aside from when he ventures out to approach the southern border with Egypt where IDF soldiers are stationed, begging them to return him to Israel.Marwa, Basel’s mother, told The Times of Israel that she has received non-answers from nearly every government agency that she appealed to, including the IDF, Shin Bet and Israel Prison Service.She also contacted the International Red Cross in hopes that it could help. The agency confirmed to The Times of Israel that al-Qur’an is currently in Gaza.“Who is responsible for his return to Gaza? If all the agencies are saying, ‘We don’t have any knowledge,’ then who does have knowledge? Where is the accountability?” Marwa lamented.Oded Feller, who works for the Association for Civil Rights Israel, told The Times of Israel that al-Qur’an’s deportation, while Kafkaesque, is legal on paper.“The moment that somebody who holds temporary status gets tangled up in crimes and offenses, it is legal to cancel his status and deport him,” Feller told The Times of Israel. “Of course, it must be taken into account what will happen to him, to his children, to his family — but this [deportation] occurs.”A temporary resident among a family of Israeli citizens-Though his mother, wife and children are Israeli citizens, al-Qur’an was never able to obtain permanent residency — much less citizenship — in Israel, due to a 2003 law largely barring Palestinians married to Israeli citizens from the naturalization process. Al-Qur’an migrated to Israel in 2013.The so-called Citizenship Law was originally instituted as a temporary order at the height of the Second Intifada with the aim of preventing terror attacks.The measure was renewed each year, except for a brief lapse in 2021, when the opposition led by Benjamin Netanyahu voted down the law in hopes of sparking a coalition crisis. It was reinstated in 2022.Al-Qur’an is one of the thousands of people who qualify as exceptions to this ban, living on precarious “stay permits” granted by COGAT, which must be renewed every six months.According to human rights organization HaMoked, some 9,700 people live in Israel on these military-issued permits.Permit holders cannot apply for an Israeli driver’s license, and can only in rare instances obtain driving “permits” that are valid for a year. COGAT grants these permits to temporary residents only on “humanitarian grounds” — such as in cases where a resident’s partner is unable to drive, according to HaMoked’s legal director Daniel Shenhar.Despite his tenuous status, al-Qur’an went on to build his life in Israel, working at a car wash and later marrying Nawal, an Arab Israeli from Nazareth, with whom he is raising three young children, Adam, Marwa and Jana.Then in June 2023, Qur’an was arrested and convicted of driving without a license — which he could not obtain because of his temporary status in Israel. His residency permit expired during the 20 months he spent in prison, leaving him without legal status in Israel.Prior to his 2023 arrest, al-Qur’an had been jailed for a month on the same offense — driving without a license.A few months into his prison sentence, he was convicted of physically abusing his wife during an argument before his arrest, which was later resolved through a process of mediation between the two.Al-Qur’an’s wife, Nawal, was averse to speaking about the incident, but emphasized the difficulty of raising three children on her own.“I’m not managing at all with the children. It’s extremely difficult,” she told The Times of Israel. She added that since al-Qur’an’s deportation, she has been telling their children that their father is at work, and will return home once he finishes.A surprise deportation-Al-Qur’an claims that he was never told he would be deported to Gaza after being freed from prison.He recounted that on February 1, the day he was released, Shin Bet agents brought him to the Kerem Shalom crossing and transferred him to two IDF soldiers. The soldiers then put him onto a truck carrying humanitarian aid. Upon exiting the truck, he found himself in the rubble-strewn city of Rafah.That same day, Israel freed 150 Gazan security detainees back into the Strip as part of the hostage release-ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. However, al-Qur’an, who was incarcerated for a criminal, not security offense, said that he was transported separately. His name did not appear on the list of Palestinian prisoners slated for release that day.“I was in shock… I had no clue where I was, what was going on, and what exactly had happened to me,” he recalled. Over a month has passed since he found himself stranded there.His family faces an uphill battle in returning him from the Strip. Despite spotty cell service, al-Qur’an regularly calls his wife and children, who are struggling in light of his prolonged absence.“My kids are ringing me up every day in school, crying every day, acting out in class, they’re missing me,” he said. “I would take care of everything [for them]. My entire life is there, you understand?”Al-Qur’an recently called his two eldest children on a Wednesday morning before they left for school decked out in costumes for their class Purim festivities.Dressed up as a soldier in the elite special forces unit Sayeret Matkal, five-year-old Adam playfully saluted his father over video before heading to their majority-Jewish school. His four-year-old daughter, Marwa, went as a princess.Al-Qur’an’s mother, who remarried and still has four children in the house, is stretched thin and rarely able to help his struggling wife.“Who will raise his children? I have four children still in my house, I work, I can barely manage, how will I be able to raise three more?” she told The Times of Israel. “He’s my son, my heart aches for him.”
White House says Trump ‘fully supports’ Israeli actions in Gaza-Press secretary says ‘Hamas chose to play games in the media with lives,’ US fully behind IDF; EU leaders say they ‘deplore’ truce’s collapse, Hamas’s ‘refusal to release hostages’ By Jacob Magid-and Reuters 20 March 2025, 11:44 pm
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump “fully supports” this week’s resumption of IDF military activities in Gaza, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday, after being asked whether Trump is working to restore the ceasefire in Gaza.“The president made it very clear to Hamas that if they did not release all of the hostages, there would be all hell to pay. Unfortunately, Hamas chose to play games in the media with lives,” Leavitt told reporters outside the White House, apparently referring to the terror group’s Friday announcement that it had agreed to release American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander along with four other dual nationals.The offer was based on what Hamas officials had discussed with US hostage envoy Adam Boehler earlier this month, but the group failed to give the Trump aide a final answer in those secret meetings, a senior Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel.After those direct talks were leaked to the press by Israel, the Trump administration closed the direct channel, the Arab diplomat said.Accordingly, when Hamas said Friday that it was prepared to release the American hostages, the Trump administration was no longer interested. US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff by then had already presented his bridge proposal to extend phase one of the deal and called the Hamas offer a “nonstarter” on Sunday.“This situation is completely the fault of Hamas when they launched that brutal attack on Israel on October 7. The president has made it very clear that he wants all of those hostages to come home,” Leavitt told reporters.Trump “fully supports Israel and the IDF and the actions that they have taken in recent days,” she added.The White House quickly came out in support of Israel’s renewed bombing campaign of terror targets overnight Monday-Tuesday, but the president himself has yet to comment.On Wednesday, the State Department called on Hamas to seize Witkoff’s bridge proposal while it remains on the table.Also on Thursday, EU leaders put out a statement saying that they “deplore” the breakdown of the ceasefire in Gaza, and called out Hamas’s refusal to release hostages.“The European Council deplores the breakdown of the ceasefire in Gaza, which has caused a large number of civilian casualties in recent air strikes. It deplores the refusal of Hamas to hand over the remaining hostages,” the statement read.The Hamas-run health ministry says hundreds of people have been killed and wounded in Israeli strikes in Gaza since combat renewed on Tuesday. Israel denies targeting civilians and has said it killed several top Hamas leaders during the recent return to active fighting in Gaza.Much of Gaza now lies in ruins after 15 months of fighting, which erupted on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and abducting 251 hostages into Gaza.The Israeli campaign in response has killed more than 48,000 people, according to unverified numbers from Hamas health authorities, and destroyed much of the housing and infrastructure in the enclave, including the hospital system. Israel says it had killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January 2025, and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Houthis fire 2nd ballistic missile at Israel since early morning; none hurt-Iran-backed group’s missile shot down outside Israel’s borders, IDF says; US said to strike Yemen again after telling Israel to let it deal with attacks-By Emanuel Fabian-and ToI Staff 20 March 2025, 9:47 pm
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis fired a ballistic missile at Israel Thursday afternoon, in the third such attack since Wednesday and the second since the early morning, having renewed their attacks on the Jewish state as it strikes in the Gaza Strip.The IDF said the missile was successfully intercepted by air defenses and shot down before crossing Israel’s borders. There were no reports of injuries or damage in the attack, which triggered sirens in Jerusalem and surrounding towns, West Bank settlements, the Dead Sea area, and parts of central Israel.The attack came shortly after Yemen’s Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah television network reported at least four US strikes on the Al Mina district of the city of Hodeida. The area houses a port and the headquarters of the Houthi naval forces.Citing an Israeli official, the Ynet news site reported that Washington had asked Israel not to respond to the Houthis’ previous missile attack overnight, which sent millions running to bomb shelters at 4 a.m. in wide swaths of central Israel. According to the report, the US told Israel to “let them deal with it.”The reported request came as the US has carried out widespread strikes against the Houthis in recent days after the rebels announced they would renew attacks on Red Sea shipping due to the end of the Gaza ceasefire.The strikes on the Houthis are the largest American military operation in the Middle East since US President Donald Trump took office in January. Trump has said he would hold Iran responsible for the Houthi strikes.The Houthis began attacking the vital maritime route in November 2023, a month after fellow Iran-backed group Hamas stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.While the Houthis have said they were attacking Israeli-linked shipping in support of Gaza, they have also targeted vessels with no known Israeli connections.The Houthis — whose slogan is “Death to America, death to Israel, a curse upon the Jews” — halted their attacks after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire and hostage deal in January. The Yemeni rebels pledged to resume attacks after the deal’s 42-day first phase expired on March 2, and Israel, which refused to transition to the second phase, blocked the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.It began launching missiles in response to Israel’s renewed offensive in Gaza since Tuesday.Agencies contributed to this report.
Trump signs executive order to dismantle US Education Department-Order calls for US secretary of education to ‘take all necessary steps to facilitate’ the department’s closure, though move will likely require congressional backing By Collin Binkley and CHRIS MEGERIAN Today, 5:52 am-MAR 21,25
WASHINGTON (AP) — US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday calling for the dismantling of the Education Department, advancing a campaign promise to take apart an agency that’s been a longtime target of conservatives.Trump has derided the Education Department as wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology. However, completing its dismantling is most likely impossible without an act of Congress, which created the department in 1979. Republicans said they will introduce legislation to achieve that, while Democrats have quickly lined up to oppose the idea.The order says the education secretary will, “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities.”It offers no detail on how that work will be carried out or where it will be targeted, though the White House said the agency will retain certain critical functions.Trump said his administration will close the department beyond its “core necessities,” preserving its responsibilities for Title I funding for low-income schools, Pell grants and money for children with disabilities.The White House said earlier Thursday the department will continue to manage federal student loans, but the order appears to say the opposite. It says the Education Department doesn’t have the staff to oversee its $1.6 trillion loan portfolio and “must return bank functions to an entity equipped to serve America’s students.”At a signing ceremony, Trump blamed the department for America’s lagging academic performance and said states will do a better job.“It’s doing us no good,” he said.Already, Trump’s Republican administration has been gutting the agency. Its workforce is being slashed in half, and there have been deep cuts to the Office for Civil Rights and the Institute of Education Sciences, which gathers data on the nation’s academic progress.Education Secretary Linda McMahon said she will remove red tape and empower states to decide what’s best for their schools. But she promised to continue essential services and work with states and Congress “to ensure a lawful and orderly transition.”Part of her job will be exploring which agencies can take on the Education Department’s various roles, she said.“The Department of Justice already has a civil rights office, and I think that there is an opportunity to discuss with Attorney General Bondi about locating some of our civil rights work there,” McMahon told reporters after the signing.The measure was celebrated by groups that have long called for an end to the department.“For decades, it has funneled billions of taxpayer dollars into a failing system — one that prioritizes leftist indoctrination over academic excellence, all while student achievement stagnates and America falls further behind,” said Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation.Advocates for public schools said eliminating the department would leave children behind in a fundamentally unequal education system.“This is a dark day for the millions of American children who depend on federal funding for a quality education, including those in poor and rural communities with parents who voted for Trump,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said.Opponents are already gearing up for legal challenges, including Democracy Forward, a public interest litigation group. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, called the order a “tyrannical power grab” and “one of the most destructive and devastating steps Donald Trump has ever taken.”Margaret Spellings, who served as education secretary under Republican President George W. Bush, questioned whether the department would be able to accomplish its remaining missions and whether it would ultimately improve schools.“Will it distract us from the ability to focus urgently on student achievement, or will people be figuring out how to run the train?” she asked.Spellings said schools have always been run by local and state officials, and rejected the idea that the Education Department and federal government have been holding them back.Currently, much of the agency’s work revolves around managing money — both its extensive student loan portfolio and a range of aid programs for colleges and school districts, like school meals and support for homeless students. The agency is also key in overseeing civil rights enforcement.The Trump administration has not addressed the fate of other department operations, like its support for technical education and adult learning, grants for rural schools and after-school programs, and a federal work-study program that provides employment to students with financial need.States and districts already control local schools, including curriculum, but some conservatives have pushed to cut strings attached to federal money and provide it to states as “block grants” to be used at their discretion.Block granting has raised questions about vital funding sources including Title I, the largest source of federal money to America’s K-12 schools. Families of children with disabilities have despaired over what could come of the federal department’s work protecting their rights.Federal funding makes up a relatively small portion of public school budgets — roughly 14 percent. The money often supports supplemental programs for vulnerable students, such as the McKinney-Vento program for homeless students or Title I for low-income schools.Republicans have talked about closing the Education Department for decades, saying it wastes money and inserts the federal government into decisions that should fall to states and schools. The idea has gained popularity recently as conservative parents’ groups demand more authority over their children’s schooling.In his platform, Trump promised to close the department “and send it back to the states, where it belongs.” Trump has cast the department as a hotbed of “radicals, zealots and Marxists” who overextend their reach through guidance and regulation.Even as Trump moves to dismantle the department, he has leaned on it to promote elements of his agenda. He has used the investigative powers of the Office for Civil Rights and the threat of withdrawing federal education money to target schools and colleges that run afoul of his orders on transgender athletes participating in women’s sports, pro-Palestinian activism and diversity programs.Senator Patty Murray of Washington, a Democrat on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, dismissed Trump’s claim that he’s returning education to the states. She said he is actually “trying to exert ever more control over local schools and dictate what they can and cannot teach.”Even some of Trump’s allies have questioned his power to close the agency without action from Congress, and there are doubts about its political popularity. The House considered an amendment to close the agency in 2023, but 60 Republicans joined Democrats in opposing it.
Ex-Supreme Court chief Aharon Barak says he fears Israel headed to civil war-‘The rift in the people is immense, with no effort made to heal it,’ jurist says, adding that if he were still chief justice, he would block PM’s dismissal of Shin Bet chief, AG-By ToI Staff 20 March 2025, 11:56 pm
Israel’s most revered jurist, former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak, said in multiple interviews Thursday that he fears the government’s latest actions, including moves to fire the Shin Bet chief and attorney general, are pushing the country toward civil war.Speaking to the Ynet news site shortly before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened the cabinet to vote on firing Bar, Barak said that “the main problem in Israeli society is… the severe rift between Israelis.”“This rift is getting worse and in the end, I fear, it will be like a train that goes off the tracks and plunges into a chasm, causing a civil war,” he said.In another interview, with Channel 12, when asked why he thinks Israel is close to civil conflict, Barak said it is “because the rift in the people is immense, and no effort is being made to heal it. Everyone is trying to make it worse.“Today there are demonstrations, then a car drives through them and runs over someone,” he said, referring to an incident at an anti-Netanyahu protest in Jerusalem on Wednesday when a driver rammed into a protester, injuring him.“But tomorrow there will be shootings, and the day after that there will be bloodshed,” Barak continued.Barak also told Channel 12 he would have overturned a government decision to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar if he were serving on the bench today.The former chief justice explained he believes the ousting of Bar from the role in the middle of his term is illegitimate because the position of Shin Bet chief is not a “role of confidence” with the political echelon. Instead, the person in the job is meant to carry out the role as it is explicitly written in legislation.“There is authority to dismiss, but no grounds for dismissal,” he elaborated, saying he would also strike down the firing of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, another top official whom the government seeks to oust.When asked about the prime minister’s tweet on Wednesday night alleging the existence of a “leftist deep state” in Israel that is working to thwart Netanyahu’s government, Barak replied: “I don’t know what a deep state is.”“We’re not the United States, we don’t have a deep state here. We have loyal public servants here, and they do things according to the law,” he added.Barak also appealed directly to Netanyahu, urging him to halt the process of firing Bar and Baharav-Miara, and other policies the former justice considers destructive, and said he thinks Netanyahu should be offered and should take a plea deal in his criminal trial.“I think that it is right for Netanyahu. It is right for his legacy. And it is right for the State of Israel. And I think it is possible,” he said.“Otherwise, the trial will continue. The rift between [those] for Bibi and against Bibi will continue,” he added, using Netanyahu’s nickname.Asked by the interviewer what he would say to Netanyahu if he could talk to him, Barak answered: “This is your policy, I am completely against it. I ask you, don’t implement it beyond what you have done today. Stop. Stop.”“Don’t take the rift beyond where it already is,” he concluded.Responding to Barak, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar issued a terse statement on X, simply posting: “There will be no civil war.”Education Minister Yoav Kisch, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, said in a post on X that Barak was “threatening a civil war” with his warning, and promised that “these threats will not deter” the government from implementing its policies.MK Almog Cohen of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party said that Barak is “a reckless and irresponsible man,” who was “sent to issue a Sicilian mafia-style threat of blood in the streets and civil war.”Barak served as a Supreme Court justice from 1978 to 1995. He was then elected as the court’s president. He retired from the bench in 2006.Despite Barak being a vocal critic of Netanyahu and his policies, the premier chose him to represent Israel as an ad-hoc judge at the International Court of Justice for the genocide case that was brought against Israel by South Africa amid the war in Gaza. Barak removed himself from the court last June for personal reasons.Barak, a Holocaust survivor, is well-respected internationally and is seen as Israel’s preeminent jurist. Within Israel, he long has been seen by Netanyahu and other right-wing leaders as a leftist “activist,” who is to blame for many of the issues with Israel’s judicial system that the government’s controversial judicial overhaul plans aim to rectify.
ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 532-'If you stand for humanity, prove it. Bring them home' Full text: Freed hostage Eli Sharabi asks UN Security Council, ‘Where was the world?’Released captive recounts horrors of captivity, recalls terrorists laughed as they told him his brother had been killed, says UN aid was stolen by ‘terrorists who tortured me and murdered my family’By ToI Staff 20 March 2025, 9:15 pm
The following is the full text of the March 20, 2025 address by former hostage Eli Sharabi at the UN Security Council in New York City. My name is Eli Sharabi. I am 53 years old. I’ve come back from hell. I’ve returned to tell my story. I used to live in Kibbutz Be’eri with my British-born wife, Lianne, and my daughters, Noiya and Yahel.It was a beautiful community. We were all passionate about creating the best life for our children and for our neighbors. At 16, I left Tel Aviv for Be’eri seeking a peaceful home, away from the concrete city. I found a loving community and knew I would raise my family there.Many asked why we lived near Gaza, but to me, Be’eri was heaven. Lianne came from Bristol, UK as a volunteer. She was meant to stay a few months, but she met me and we fell in love. We were married for 23 years and had two wonderful daughters and a dog, Mocha.On October 7, my heaven turned to hell. Sirens began. Hamas terrorists invaded. And I was ripped away from my family, never to see them again. For 491 days, I was kept mostly underground in Hamas terror tunnels, chained, starved, beaten, and humiliated. I was held captive in the darkness, isolated from the world by Hamas terrorists.They took pleasure in our suffering. I survived on scraps of food with no medical attention and no mercy. When I was released, I weighed just 44 kilos. I had lost over 30 kilos, nearly half my body weight.For 491 days, I held on to hope. I imagined the life we would rebuild. I dreamt of seeing my family again. Only when I returned home, I learned the truth. My wife and my daughters had been slaughtered by Hamas terrorists on October 7.I’m here today, less than six weeks after my release. To speak for those still trapped in that nightmare. For my brother Yossi, murdered in Hamas captivity, his body still held hostage.For Alon Ohel, still 50 meters underground, I swore to him that I would tell his story. For Hersh, Ori, Eden, Carmel, Almog and Alexander, murdered in cold blood by their captors. For every hostage still in Hamas hands.I’m here to tell you the whole truth.On the morning of October 7, at 6:29 a.m., the red alerts began to come through on Lianne’s phone. I told her not to worry. It will be over soon, I said. Minutes later, we heard that terrorists were infiltrating our community. They were inside the kibbutz. Again, I reassured her, the army will come. They always come.We heard gunfire, screaming, explosions. And then we heard the terrorists at our door. We had no weapons, no way to fight back. Lianne and I made a decision we would not resist. We hoped we could save our daughter.The door opened, our dog barked, the terrorists opened fire. Lianne and I threw ourselves over our daughters, screaming for the terrorists to stop. Suddenly, 10 terrorists were inside my home. They took our phones. Two of them grabbed me.They took my wife and daughters to the kitchen. I couldn’t see them anymore. I didn’t know what was happening to them. I was screaming their names, and they were screaming mine. I told Lianne not to be afraid. But this was fear beyond anything I’ve ever felt.Then, I knew I was being taken. As they dragged me out, I called out to my girls: “I will be back.” I had to believe that. But that was the last time I ever saw them. I didn’t know I should have said goodbye, forever.Outside was like a war zone. My peaceful home, my slice of heaven was gone. I saw over a hundred terrorists filming themselves, celebrating, laughing, partying in our gardens as they massacred my friends and neighbors. They dragged me out, they dragged me to the door, to the border, beating me the whole way.My face was swollen, my ribs bruised. When we arrived in Gaza, a mob of civilians tried to lynch me. They pulled me from the car, but the terrorists rushed me away into a mosque. I was their trophy.When we arrived in Gaza, a mob of civilians tried to lynch me-I thought about Lianne, Noiya, and Yahel. Were they still alive? For the first 52 days, I was held in an apartment. I was tied up with ropes. My arms and legs were tied so tightly, the ropes tore into my flesh. I was given almost no food, no water, and I couldn’t sleep. The pain was unbearable. Sometimes I would just faint from the pain, only to wake up to that pain again and again.Then, on November 27, 2023, Hamas took me into a tunnel, 50 meters underground. Again, the chains were so tight, they ripped my skin. They never took them off. Not for a single moment. Those chains tore at me until the day I was released. Every step I took was no more than 10 centimeters. Every walk to the bathroom took an eternity. I cannot begin to describe the agony. It was hell.I was fed a piece of pita a day, maybe a sip of tea. Hunger consumed everything. They beat me, they broke my ribs. I didn’t care. I just wanted a piece of bread. There was never enough food. Sometimes, if we begged enough, we would get something extra. We had to choose an extra piece of pita or a cup of tea. Sometimes, they threw us dry dates, and it felt like the greatest gift in the world.We had to beg for food, beg to use the bathroom. Begging was our existence. We strategized over every meal. One day, I cut myself with a razor, just to make them believe I was injured. I collapsed on my way to the bathroom, so they would think I was too weak and encourage them to give us more food. It worked. They gave us more food. We survived of those small victories.Do you know what it means to open a refrigerator? It is everything. To be able to reach and take a piece of fruit, an egg, a piece of bread. I dreamt of this simple act every day. For months, we lived like this. I stopped counting the days.Living as a hostage, you don’t know how the day will begin, nor how it will end, whether you’ll live or die. At any moment, they could beat you. At any moment, they could kill you. You wake up every day and do not know when you will be able to eat. It could be 12 p.m., 5 p.m., 11 p.m. This would be the only meal we would have. You hope and pray that there will be no surprises with the captors.You think about how desperately you want to shower. We only got one bath a month, with half a bucket of cold water. Toothpaste, toilet paper — forget it.Psychological terror was constant. Every day they told us: “The world has abandoned you. No one is coming.” By the time I met Alon Ohel, who is now 24 years old, we had already endured terrible captivity. We relied on each other for survival. Alon is a very talented pianist. And I remember how we would pretend to play the piano on his body to keep himself sane.(Sharabi holds up a poster of Alon.)-He doesn’t look any more like that.One day, a terrorist took his anger out on me. He stormed in and beat me so badly that he broke my ribs. I couldn’t properly breathe for months. Alon tried to protect me with his own body. You couldn’t believe how lucky I felt when Alon told me he had saved one painkiller pill. He gave it to me to get through the night.Alon still has shrapnel in his right eye from the day he was kidnapped. He never received medical care. He never saw the Red Cross. To this day, he is blind in that eye. When I was released, he grabbed onto me, terrified to be left behind. He told me he was happy for me. I promised him it was just a matter of days before he would be home too. I was wrong.Just before my release, Hamas took pleasure in showing me a picture of my brother Yossi.(Sharabi raises a poster of his brother.)This is my oldest brother. Husband for Nira, a father for Yuval, Ophir, and Oren. They told me he was dead. It was like they had brought a massive hammer down on me. I refused to believe it. My brother Yossi was all heart. Those with him in captivity told me that he gave his food to others.On February 8, 2025, I was released. I weighed 44 kilograms. This is less than the body weight of my youngest daughter, Yahel, may her memory be a blessing. I was a shell of my former self. I still am.(Sharabi raises a photo of himself before he was abducted and on the day he was released.)I couldn’t believe how I looked. I stood at that sick Hamas ceremony, surrounded by terrorists, and the crowd of so-called uninvolved civilians, hoping my wife and daughters were waiting for me.At the end of the day, I met a representative from the Red Cross. She told me, “Don’t worry, you are safe now.” Safe? How could they feel safe surrounded by terrorist monsters? Where had the Red Cross been for the past 491 days?Then I arrived home. They told me my mother and sister were waiting for me. I said, “Get me my wife and daughters.” And that was when I knew they were gone. They had been murdered.(Sharabi raises a photo of his family’s graves.)-I’m here today because I survived and I prevailed. But that is not enough. Not when Alon Ohel is still there. Not when 59 hostages are still there. Right now, Alon is trapped underground, alone, surrounded by terrorists who torment him. He doesn’t know if he will ever see his mother, father, his entire beloved family again.I will not leave him behind. I will not leave anyone behind. Their time has almost run out. I’m here before you now to give my testimony and to ask, where was the United Nations? Where was the Red Cross? Where was the world? I know that you’ve discussed the humanitarian situation in Gaza very often. But let me tell you, as an eyewitness, I saw what happened to that aid: Hamas stole it.I saw Hamas terrorists carrying boxes with the UN and UNRWA emblems on them into the tunnel. Dozens and dozens of boxes paid by your governments. Feeding terrorists who tortured me and murdered my family. They would eat many meals a day from the UN aid in front of us and we never received any of it.And in all that time, no one came. And no one in Gaza helped me. No one. The civilians in Gaza saw us suffering. They cheered our kidnappers. They were definitely involved.When you speak of humanitarian aid, remember this: Hamas eats like kings while hostages starve. Hamas steals from civilians. Hamas blocks aid from reaching those who truly need it. Four hundred and ninety-one days. That is how long I starved. How long I was chained. How long I begged for humanity. And in all that time, no one came. And no one in Gaza helped me. No one.The civilians in Gaza saw us suffering. They cheered our kidnappers. They were definitely involved.I was freed less than six weeks ago. I met President Trump at the White House and thanked him for securing my release and many others. I appreciate his efforts to free those still held hostage by Hamas. I told him, “Bring them all home.” I met with Prime Minister Starmer at 10 Downing Street. I told him, “Bring them all home.”Now, I’m here before you at the United Nations to say: Bring them all home.No more excuses. No more delays. If you stand for humanity, prove it. Bring them home.My name is Eli Sharabi. I am not a diplomat. I am a survivor. Bring them all home, now.Thank you.
