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)
U.S - UK GOES AFTER YEMEN DEATH CULT COCKROACHES.
WORLD TERRORISM
GENESIS 6:11-13
11
The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with
violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13
And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the
earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and,
behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
STRONGS CONCORDANCE FOR VIOLENCE IN THE BIBLE-SEE IT FOR YOURSELVES.
2554.
chamas - Strong's Concordance - chamas: to treat violently or wrong -
Part of Speech: Verb - Transliteration: chamas -Phonetic Spelling:
(khaw-mas') - Definition: to treat violently or wrong - make bare, shake
off, violate, do violence, take away violently, wrong -A primitive
root; to be violent; by implication, to maltreat -- make bare, shake
off, violate, do violence, take away violently, wrong, imagine
wrongfully.
GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD
said unto her,(HAGAR) Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son,
and shalt call his name Ishmael;(FATHER OF THE ARAB/MUSLIMS) because
the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he (ISHMAEL-FATHER OF THE
ARAB-MUSLIMS) will be a wild (DONKEY-JACKASS) man;(ISLAM IS A FAKE AND
DANGEROUS SEX FOR MURDER CULT) his hand will be against every man,(ISLAM
HATES EVERYONE) and every man's hand against him;(PROTECTING THEMSELVES
FROM BEING BEHEADED) and he (ISHMAEL ARAB/MUSLIM) shall dwell in the
presence of all his brethren.(LITERAL-THE ARABS LIVE WITH THEIR BRETHERN
JEWS)
ISAIAH 14:12-14
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O
Lucifer,(SATAN) son of the morning!(HEBREW-CRECENT MOON-ISLAM) how art
thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For
thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt
my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the
congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I (SATAN HAS EYE
TROUBLES) will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like
the most High.(AND 1/3RD OF THE ANGELS OF HEAVEN FELL WITH SATAN AND
BECAME DEMONS)
JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the
synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think
that he doeth God service.(ISLAM MURDERS IN THE NAME OF MOON GOD ALLAH
OF ISLAM)
SECOND ANGEL: The Middle East DR DOCTORIAN
Then
Isawthat the second angel had a sickle in his hand,such asis used in
harvesting. The second angelsaid, “Harvest time has come in Israel and
the countries all the wayto Iran.” Isawthose countriesin a
fewsplitseconds. “All of Turkey and those other countries that have
refused me and refused my message of love shall hate each other and kill
one another.” I saw the angel raise the sickle and come down on all the
Middle East countries.I saw Iran, Persia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, all of
Georgia – Iraq, Syria,Lebanon,Jordan, Israel, all of Asia Minor – full
of blood. Isaw blood all over these countries. And I saw fire; nuclear
weapons were used in many of those countries. Smoke rising from
everywhere. Sudden destruction – men destroying one another. I heard
these words, “Israel, Oh Israel, the great judgment has come.”The angel
said, “The chosen, the church, the remnant, shall be purified. The
Spirit of God shall prepare the children of God.” I saw fires rising to
heaven.The angel said, “This is the final judgment My church shall be
purified, protected and ready for the final day. Men will die from
thirst. Watershall be scarce all over the Middle East. Rivers shall dry
up, and men will fight for water in those countries.” The angelshowed me
that the United Nationsshall be broken in pieces because of the
crisisin the Middle East. There shall be no more United Nations. The
angel with the sickle shall reap the harvest.
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12
And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the
people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume
away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and
their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)
and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM
ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD
PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that
day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they
shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand
shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN
WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
ISAIAH 54:3
03-King James
Bible-For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and
thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be
inhabited.
The right hand was a symbol of strength-Exodus 15:6, ”
Your right hand, O LORD, is majestic in power. Your right hand, O LORD,
shatters the enemy.”
EZEKIEL 17:15-24 (MUSLIM COUNTRIES HISTORY)
15
But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that
they might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper? shall he
escape that doeth such things? or shall he break the covenant, and be
delivered?
16 As I live, saith the Lord God, surely in the place
where the king dwelleth that made him king, whose oath he despised, and
whose covenant he brake, even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall
die.
17 Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company
make for him in the war, by casting up mounts, and building forts, to
cut off many persons:
18 Seeing he despised the oath by breaking the
covenant, when, lo, he had given his hand, and hath done all these
things, he shall not escape.
19 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; As
I live, surely mine oath that he hath despised, and my covenant that he
hath broken, even it will I recompense upon his own head.
20 And I
will spread my net upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I
will bring him to Babylon, and will plead with him there for his
trespass that he hath trespassed against me.
21 And all his fugitives
with all his bands shall fall by the sword, and they that remain shall
be scattered toward all winds: and ye shall know that I the Lord have
spoken it.
22 Thus saith the Lord God; I will also take of the
highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from
the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high
mountain and eminent:
23 In the mountain of the height of Israel will
I plant it: and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a
goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the
shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell.
24 And all the trees
of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high
tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have
made the dry tree to flourish: I the Lord have spoken and have done it.
PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7
Gebal,(HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and
Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the
inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
8 Assyria (SYRIA) also has joined with them; They have helped the children of Lot. Selah
9 Deal with them as with Midian, As with Sisera, As with Jabin at the Brook Kishon,
10 Who perished at En Dor, Who became as refuse on the earth.
11 Make their nobles like Oreb and like Zeeb, Yes, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
12 Who said, “Let us take for ourselves The pastures of God for a possession.”
13 O my God, make them like the whirling dust, Like the chaff before the wind!
14 As the fire burns the woods, And as the flame sets the mountains on fire,
15 So pursue them with Your tempest, And frighten them with Your storm.
16 Fill their faces with shame, That they may seek Your name, O Lord.
17 Let them be [e]confounded and dismayed forever; Yes, let them be put to shame and perish,
18 That they may know that You, whose name alone is the Lord, Are the Most High over all the earth.
And
here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either
through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and
only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this
land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia,
Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the
Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11,
Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL
DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES
INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE..
US striking Yemen as response to deadly drone strike expands beyond Iraq and Syria-By Reuters-FEB 4,24
The
United States is launching a series of strikes against Iran-linked
targets in Yemen on Saturday, three US officials tell Reuters, in what
appeared to be a second day of retaliatory operations following a deadly
attack on American troops last weekend.The officials, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, do not provide further details on the locations
being struck, but two of them said there were dozens of targets. Yemeni
media reported strikes in Al-Hudaydah and Sanaa.The United States on
Friday carried out strikes in Iraq and Syria against more than 85
targets linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and
militias it backs, reportedly killing nearly 40 people.But while the
United States accuses Iran-backed militias of attacking US troops at
bases in Iraq, Syria and Jordan, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have been
targeting commercial ships and warships in the Red Sea.The Houthis, who
control the most populous parts of Yemen, say their attacks are in
solidarity with Palestinians amid Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.The
United States has previously carried out more than 10 strikes against
Houthi targets in the past several weeks, but they have failed to stop
attacks by the group.
US, Britain hit over 30 Houthi targets in
fresh strikes on Iran-backed groups-Fighter jets and Tomahawk missiles
fired from warships in Red Sea hit 13 sites across Yemen; Pentagon chief
threatens further action-By AP and ToI Staff 4 February 2024, 12:31 am
WASHINGTON
— The United States and Britain struck 36 Houthi targets in Yemen on
Saturday in a fresh wave of assaults meant to further disable
Iran-backed groups that have relentlessly attacked American and
international interests in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, US
officials told The Associated Press.The latest strikes against the
Houthis were launched by ships and fighter jets. The strikes follow an
air assault in Iraq and Syria on Friday that targeted other
Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in
retaliation for the drone strike that killed three US troops in Jordan
last weekend.The Houthi targets were in 13 different locations and were
struck by US F/A-18 fighter jets from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower
aircraft carrier and by the USS Gravely and the USS Carney Navy
destroyers firing Tomahawk missiles from the Red Sea, the US officials
told The Associated Press. They were not authorized to publicly discuss
the military operation and spoke on condition of anonymity.The US warned
that its response after the soldiers’ deaths at the Tower 22 base in
Jordan last Sunday would not be limited to one night, one target or one
group. But the Houthis have been conducting almost daily missile or
drone attacks against commercial and military ships transiting the Red
Sea and Gulf of Aden and they have made clear that they have no
intention of scaling back their campaign. It was not immediately clear
whether the allied assaults will deter them.Defense Secretary Lloyd
Austin said in a statement that the military action, with support from
Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, and New Zealand,
“sends a clear message to the Houthis that they will continue to bear
further consequences if they do not end their illegal attacks on
international shipping and naval vessels.”He added: “We will not
hesitate to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the
world’s most critical waterways.”The Defense Department said the strikes
targeted sites associated with the Houthis’ deeply buried weapons
storage facilities, missile systems and launchers, air defense systems
and radars.Saturday’s strikes marked the third time the US and Britain
had conducted a large joint operation to strike Houthi weapon launchers,
radar sites and drones. The strikes in Yemen are meant to underscore
the broader message to Iran that Washington holds Tehran responsible for
arming, funding and training the array of militias behind attacks
across the Mideast against US and international interests over the past
several months, including in Iraq and Syria by the rebels in Yemen.Video
shared online by people in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, included the sound
of explosions and at least one blast was seen lighting up the night sky.
Residents described the blasts as happening around buildings associated
with the Yemeni presidential compound. The Houthi-controlled state-run
news agency, SABA, reported strikes in al-Bayda, Dhamar, Hajjah,
Hodeida, Taiz and Sanaa provinces.This is what #Yemenis do during
American-British airstrikes ???? They go to the roofs of their houses to
watch. This one says, "even if you, America, burns Sanaa, we are with
#Gaza and we will stay with #Gaza! pic.twitter.com/YJ8CjW7UHv — Mohamad
Al Shami محمد الشامي (@mamashami) February 3, 2024-On Friday the US
destroyer Laboon and F/A-18s from the Eisenhower shot down seven drones
fired from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen into the Red Sea, the
destroyer Carney shot down a drone fired in the Gulf of Aden and U.S.
forces took out four more drones that were prepared to launch.Hours
before the latest joint operation, the US took another self-defense
strike on a site in Yemen, destroying six anti-ship cruise missiles, as
it has repeatedly when it has detected a missile or drone ready to
launch.The Houthis’ attacks have led shipping companies to reroute their
vessels from the Red sea, sending them around Africa through the Cape
of Good Hope — a much longer, costlier and less efficient passage. The
threats also have led the US and its allies to set up a joint mission
where warships from participating nations provide a protective umbrella
of air defense for ships as they travel the critical waterway that runs
from the Suez Canal down to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.During normal
operations about 400 commercial vessels transit the southern Red Sea at
any given time.The US has blamed the Jordan attack on the Islamic
Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias. Iran has
tried to distance itself from the drone strike, saying the militias act
independently of its direction.Hussein al-Mosawi, spokesperson for
Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the main Iranian-backed militias in Iraq,
condemned the earlier US strike in Iraq and said Washington “must
understand that every action elicits a reaction.” But in the AP
interview in Baghdad, he also struck a more conciliatory tone. “We do
not wish to escalate or widen regional tensions,” he said.Mosawi said
the targeted sites in Iraq were mainly “devoid of fighters and military
personnel at the time of the attack.”Iraqi government spokesperson
Bassim al-Awadi said in a statement 16 people, including civilians, were
killed and there was “significant damage” to homes and private
properties.The US said it had informed Iraq about the operation before
it started.A US official said an initial battle damage assessment showed
the U.S. had struck each of its planned targets in addition to a few
“dynamic targets” that popped up as the mission unfolded, including a
surface-to-air missile site and drone launch sites. The official, who
spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that were not yet
public, did not have a casualty assessment.The Iraqi government has
been in a delicate position since a group of Iranian-backed Iraqi
militias calling itself Islamic Resistance in Iraq began launching
attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria on Oct. 18. The group described
the strikes as retaliation for Washington’s support for Israel in the
war in Gaza.Behind the scenes, Iraqi officials have attempted to rein in
the militias, while also condemning US retaliatory strikes as a
violation of Iraqi sovereignty and calling for an exit of the 2,500 US
troops who are in the country as part of an international coalition to
fight IS. Last month, Iraqi and U.S. military officials launched formal
talks to wind down the coalition’s presence, a process that will likely
take years.Both the Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea and strikes
by Iran-backed militias on US troops in Iraq and Syria have been
launched as part of a campaign to support Hamas in its war against
Israel, the groups claim. War between Hamas and Israel broke out on
October 7 when some 3,000 Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel from the
Gaza Strip and committed atrocities that led to the deaths of about
1,200 people and the abduction of iver 250 hostages.Israel has vowed to
destroy Hamas in self-defense, launching an offensive that has led to
the deaths of over 27,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gazan
health ministry. These numbers, however, cannot be independently
verified and are believed to include over 10,000 Hamas gunmen killed in
battle with Israel and Palestinians killed by misfired rockets.
After
US strikes, Iranian proxy says it doesn’t seek further conflict with
US-Spokesperson for Iran-backed militia in Iraq says targeted sites were
largely ‘devoid of fighters and military personnel’ but other sources
reported casualties-By AP and ToI Staff Today, 11:04 pm-FEB 3,24
BAGHDAD,
Iraq (AP) — An Iraqi militia official on Saturday hinted at a desire to
deescalate tensions in the Middle East following retaliatory strikes
launched by the United States against dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria
used by Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary
Guard.Hussein al-Mosawi, spokesperson for Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the
main Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, in an interview with The
Associated Press in Baghdad condemned the US strikes, saying Washington
“must understand that every action elicits a reaction.” But he then
struck a more conciliatory tone, saying that “we do not wish to escalate
or widen regional tensions.”Mosawi said the targeted sites in Iraq were
mainly “devoid of fighters and military personnel at the time of the
attack.”Syrian state media reported that there were casualties from the
strikes but did not give a number. Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that 23 people,
all rank-and-file fighters, were killed.Iraqi government spokesperson
Bassim al-Awadi said in a statement Saturday that the strikes in Iraq
near the Syrian border killed 16, including civilians, and there was
“significant damage” to homes and private properties.A US official said
Saturday that an initial battle damage assessment showed the US had
struck each of its planned targets in addition to a few “dynamic
targets” that popped up as the mission unfolded, including a
surface-to-air missile site and drone launch sites. The official, who
spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that were not yet
public, did not yet have a casualty assessment.Iraq’s foreign ministry
announced Saturday it would summon the US embassy’s chargé d’affaires —
the ambassador being outside of the country — to deliver a formal
protest over US strikes on “Iraqi military and civilian sites.” The US
said Friday it had informed Iraq of the impending strikes before they
started.The air assault was the opening salvo of US retaliation for a
drone strike that killed three US troops in Jordan last weekend. The US
has blamed that strike on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of
Iranian-backed militias.Iran, meanwhile, has attempted to distance
itself from the attack, saying that the militias act independently of
its direction.Iraqi spokesperson al-Awadi condemned the strikes as a
violation of Iraqi sovereignty, particularly since some of them targeted
facilities of the Population Mobilization Forces. The PMF, a coalition
of Iranian-backed militias, was officially brought under the umbrella of
the Iraqi armed forces after it joined the fight against the Islamic
State in 2014, but in practice it continues to operate largely outside
of state control.The Popular Mobilization Forces said in a statement
Saturday that one of the sites targeted was an official security
headquarters of the group. In addition to the 16 killed, it said 36
people had been wounded, “while the search is still ongoing for the
bodies of a number of the missing.”The Iraqi government has been in a
delicate position since a group of Iranian-backed Iraqi militias calling
itself Islamic Resistance in Iraq — many of whose members are also part
of the PMF — began launching attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria on
Oct. 18. The group described the strikes as retaliation for Washington’s
support for Israel in the war in Gaza.Behind the scenes, Iraqi
officials have attempted to rein in the militias, while also condemning
US retaliatory strikes as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty and calling
for an exit of the 2,500 US troops who are in the country as part of an
international coalition to fight IS. Last month, Iraqi and US military
officials launched formal talks to wind down the coalition’s presence, a
process that will likely take years.One of the main Iran-backed
militias, Kataeb Hezbollah, said it was suspending attacks on American
troops following Sunday’s strike that killed the US troops in Jordan, to
avoid “embarrassing” the Iraqi government.Meanwhile Saturday, the US
military’s Central Command acknowledged it had had a series of
skirmishes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden with Yemen’s Houthi
rebels. On Friday, the USS Carney shot down a drone over the Gulf of
Aden and there were no injuries or damage. The US also conducted
airstrikes on four Houthi drones preparing to launch that it said
“presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and the US Navy ships
in the region.”Overnight, F/A-18 fighter jets from the USS Dwight D.
Eisenhower aircraft carrier, along with the USS Laboon, shot down seven
drones in the Red Sea.Escalations between the US and Iranian proxies
began following the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas. Israel
declared war on the terrorist group following Hamas’s October 7 attack
on Israel.
Pope Francis decries ‘terrible increase in attacks
against Jews’ worldwide-In letter to ‘my Jewish brothers and sisters in
Israel,’ pontiff urges prayers for the return of hostages Hamas took on
Oct. 7, says ‘we must never lose hope for possible peace’By Agencies
Today, 9:13 pm-FEB 3,24
Pope Francis on Saturday condemned the
“terrible increase in attacks against Jews around the world” and the
global rise in antisemitism since the Hamas-led onslaught in southern
Israel four months ago and the subsequent Israeli military campaign
against the Gaza-ruling terror group.“We, Catholics, are very concerned
about the terrible increase in attacks against Jews around the world,”
the pope wrote in a letter addressed to “My Jewish brothers and sisters
in Israel” made public by the Vatican on Saturday.The war between Israel
and Hamas terrorists in Gaza has produced “divisive attitudes in public
opinion worldwide and divisive positions, sometimes taking the form of
antisemitism and anti-Judaism,” Francis said.“We had hoped that ‘never
again’ would be a refrain heard by the new generations, yet now we see
that the path ahead requires ever closer collaboration to eradicate
these phenomena,” he said.He urged prayers “especially for the return of
hostages” held by Hamas since the October 7 atrocities and called for
Jews and Catholics to promote Israel-Palestinian peace.“I would also
like to add that we must never lose hope for a possible peace and that
we must do everything possible to promote it, rejecting every form of
defeatism and mistrust,” the pontiff continued. “In times of desolation,
we have great difficulty seeing a future horizon where light replaces
darkness, in which friendship replaces hatred, in which cooperation
replaces war. However, we, as Jews and Catholics, are witnesses to
precisely such a horizon.”“We must act, starting first and foremost from
the Holy Land, where together we want to work for peace and justice,
doing everything possible to create relationships capable of opening new
horizons of light for everyone, Israelis and Palestinians.”He also said
Jews and Catholics “must commit ourselves to this path of friendship,
solidarity and cooperation in seeking ways to repair a destroyed world,
working together in every part of the world, and especially in the Holy
Land, to recover the ability to see in the face of every person the
image of God, in which we were created.”According to Vatican News, the
pope’s letter was sent to Karma Ben Johanan, a professor in the
comparative religion department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
who was recently involved in promoting an appeal to Francis calling to
boost Jewish-Christian friendship following October 7.The letter came
after Francis recalled the extermination of millions of Jews ahead of
Holocaust Day of Remembrance last week, saying that war can never be
justified and only benefits weapons-makers.“The remembrance and
condemnation of that horrific extermination of millions of Jews and of
other faiths, which occurred in the first half of the last century, help
us all not to forget that the logic of hatred and violence can never be
justified, because they deny our very humanity,” Francis said then
during his weekly general audience at the Vatican in Rome.A day earlier,
the head of the umbrella group of Jewish communities in Italy, Noemi Di
Segni, complained about unnamed Catholic leaders who had “minimized the
recognition of what happened on October 7 as a terrorist act compared
to the right of Israel to defend itself.” She didn’t name names, but
some Jewish leaders have complained about Francis’ initial comments, in
which he didn’t identify Hamas by name and complained generally that
“we’ve gone beyond war… this is terrorism.”Francis has subsequently
always referred to suffering in both Israel and Gaza, and specifically
condemned the October 7 attack, during which Hamas-led terrorists
murdered some 1,200 people and kidnapped 253.In response, Israel
launched a massive military offensive aimed at toppling Hamas and
returning the hostages. The Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza
says over 27,000 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, an
unverified figure that does not differentiate between fighters from
terror groups and noncombatants.Times of Israel staff contributed to
this report.
Latest hostage rally demanding deal with Hamas takes
on stronger political tones-Organizers and speakers at weekly protest
in Tel Aviv say faith in the government needs restoring, accuse
Netanyahu of being guided by desire to avoid elections-By Canaan
Lidor-and Charlie Summers Today, 11:37 pm-FEB 3,24
Speeches at
the weekly Tel Aviv rally demanding the return of hostages held in Gaza
took a more strongly political tone than ever before on Saturday night,
with speakers accusing the government of Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu of being indifferent to the hostages’ fate and Netanyahu of
being guided by personal considerations and stalling to avoid
investigations and elections.At previous rallies at Tel Aviv’s Hostages
Square, organizers and speakers had adhered to a nonpartisan line,
drawing a clear distinction between their movement, which is centered on
retrieving hostages in Gaza, and anti-government protests that took
place elsewhere at the same time.This departure from previous policy was
evident at the Hostages and Missing Families Forum’s weekly rally, its
17th, which thousands attended. Emcee Rami Beja opened it, calling
retrieving the hostages “the only way to restore confidence in the
country’s leadership.” At previous rallies, he had urged participants to
refrain from “engaging in politics.”Ronen Manelis, a reserves brigadier
general and former Israel Defense Forces spokesperson, elaborated on
his lack of confidence in that leadership.“The discourse taking place in
recent days, the leaks, the manipulations, the lack of leadership, the
inability to make difficult decisions, is leading to some difficult
questions about the loss of commitment by the state to its citizens;
[about whether] considerations outside this commitment are influencing
the decision-making, or the absence thereof,” Manelis said.The Forum is
pushing Netanyahu to accept a framework for a prisoner swap with Hamas,
which is believed to be holding 132 hostages abducted by its terrorists
from inside Israel on October 7.Manelis in his speech went further,
accusing the government of conducting its hostage retrieval policy with
the goal of avoiding elections.“The Israeli leadership, the war cabinet,
its head, are afraid to make the decision” to agree to a prisoner swap,
said Manelis, “because they fear a [longterm] ceasefire would lead to
criticism, to investigations, and would trigger the very necessary
process of going back to the voters to renew their confidence in their
leaders.Avi Benayahu, another former Israel Defense Forces spokesperson
and reserves brigadier general, addressed Netanyahu and his coalition
partners directly in his speech, accusing them of “abandonment, neglect,
arrogance, and building up Hamas.” He called National Security Minister
Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, far-right
leaders who have insisted that Israel not release large numbers of
terrorists in a hostage deal, “radicals who want to take us toward
chaos.”Benayahu, a longtime critic of Netanyahu, called on the prime
minister to accept “a very painful, very difficult” deal with Hamas to
retrieve the hostages. “Hamas is encircled, it’s not going anywhere,”
Benayahu said in defense of a truce. “But the hostages are going to be
lost.”Not far from Hostages Square, several thousand people protested
against the government on Kaplan Street Participants, including some
relatives of hostages, intermittently blocked traffic on the adjacent
Ayalon Highway and Ibn Gvirol streets amid clashes with police.
Horse-mounted officers and others were filmed driving back protesters
and detaining some.The Kaplan Street anti-government protest and another
such rally at Habima Square took place for the sixth consecutive week.
Footage from those protest protests showed participants holding up signs
and chanting slogans calling for Netanyahu’s resignation.The rally on
Hostages Square featured multiple speeches by relatives of hostages who
called on the government to retrieve the hostages, or “bring them back
now in a deal,” as Carmit Palti-Katzir, whose brother Elad was abducted
from Nir Oz, said.The past 120 days have been “a living hell” for her
family, Palti-Katzir said, and she shared her dilemmas about explaining
to her 3-year-old son where his uncle is.Palti-Katzir then listed
several coalition figures and confidants of Netanyahu – Defense Minister
Yoav Gallant; Minister Benny Gantz; former ambassador to the US Ron
Dermer and Shas lawmaker Aryeh Deri – as well as Netanyahu himself: “I
want to tell them in the most direct manner: Don’t allow partisan
consideration to kill them [the hostages]. They are the flesh of our
flesh and yours, too. They are not the silver platter on which the war
has been handed to you. And to those who incite and call the deal in
progress ‘reckless,’ we’ll say clearly: A reckless deal is a deal that
abandons citizens in Gaza.”“The Silver Platter” is an iconic poem
published in 1947 by Nathan Alterman, which describes Jewish war
casualties as sacrifices that are necessary for achieving statehood. Ben
Gvir has warned he would bring down the government if it agrees a
“reckless” deal with Hamas.Some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded
Israel on October 7, murdering some 1,200 people and abducting another
253. More than 100 hostages were released in a prisoner swap that took
place during a weeklong ceasefire in November.The Hamas-run health
ministry in Gaza says at least 27,000 people have died in the Gaza Strip
as a result of the IDF’s military campaign to topple the terrorists’
regime and retrieve the hostages. Its figures cannot be verified and
include gunmen and civilians. The IDF says it has killed at least 10,000
Hamas terrorists in its war in Gaza; over 220 IDF soldiers have been
killed in the fighting.According to numerous unconfirmed reports, Hamas
is demanding far-reaching concessions for a second deal. National
Security Minister Ben Gvir last week called some of the reported terms
of that deal – including a weeks- or even months- long ceasefire and the
release of thousands of terrorists from Israeli jails — “reckless.” Ben
Gvir has threatened to pull out of the coalition, endangering the
government, if such a deal goes ahead.Netanyahu has ruled out releasing
thousands of prisoners for the hostages. He has also rejected a key
Hamas demand — ending the war and withdrawing the IDF as a condition for
any further hostage releases, insisting that the war will end only when
Hamas is destroyed and all hostages released.A key argument against the
reported terms of a second deal with Hamas is the danger to security
that the release of many convicted terrorists will entail. The
controversial 2011 deal for the release of hostage soldier Gilad Shalit
saw the release of over 1,000 terror convicts, some of whom later
committed deadly attacks. One of them was Yahya Sinwar, now Hamas’s Gaza
leader and the architect of the October 7 massacres.To counter such
arguments, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum showed at the rally a
compilation of statements by retired security establishment leaders who
advocate prioritizing the retrieval of the hostages.Shown on a giant
screen, the compilation included comments by former Shin Bet security
agency head Yuval Diskin, who said: “I support releasing all the
prisoners” in return for the hostages’ freedom. His successor Nadav
Argaman called retrieving the hostages “the foremost mission,” and
former defense minister Shaul Mofaz said that “there is no victory
without the hostages.”A different group of families of hostages, the
Tikvah Forum, disputes such assertions. Its members, who include parents
of some of the hostages in Gaza, reject making concessions to Hamas and
argue in favor of freeing the hostages either by force or through a
deal that would not “endanger other Israelis,” as they have phrased
it.Another rally with hundreds of participants marched through Jerusalem
Saturday night demanding an immediate release of the hostages. Some of
the participants carried signs and chanted slogans critical of the
government, including ones demanding Netanyahu’s resignation.At the
Jerusalem rally, Leebie Goldberg-Polin read a poem about her missing
brother, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was badly injured and taken hostage
by Hamas at the Nova music festival. “One hundred and twenty days and
all I want is a hug from you,” she said about her brother.The Jerusalem
event, which the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said it did not
organize, encountered a handful of counter-protesters who shouted from
the other side of the police barricade during speeches and held up signs
comparing a prospective hostage deal to the Oslo Accords.