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)
ISRAEL SATAN COMES AGAINST
1 CHRONICLES 21:1
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
GENESIS 12:1-3
1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I (GOD) will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee,(ISRAELIS) and curse (DESTROY) him that curseth thee:(DESTROY THEM) and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
ISAIAH 41:11
11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee (ISRAEL) shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing;(DESTROYED) and they that strive with thee shall perish.(ISRAEL HATERS WILL BE TOTALLY DESTROYED)
ISRAELS TROUBLE
JEREMIAH 30:7
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;(ISRAEL) but he shall be saved out of it.
DANIEL 12:1,4
1 And at that time shall Michael(ISRAELS WAR ANGEL) stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:(ISRAEL) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation(May 14,48) even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,(WORLD TRAVEL,IMMIGRATION) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS,CHIP IMPLANTS ETC)
Security Council session on Iran deal to include discussion on Israel-Malaysia asks to reintroduce perceived mistreatment of Palestinians on meeting’s agenda MondayBy Tamar Pileggi July 20, 2015, 12:52 am 3-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The UN Security Council session on Monday on the new nuclear deal between Iran and the world powers is expected to include a discussion on Israel.In addition to the council’s expected endorsement of the Iranian nuclear deal, the 15-member body will also reportedly discuss Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.Malaysia, a non-permanent member of the Security Council, proposed adding the discussion to the agenda, according to a report in the Hebrew-language website NRG on Sunday.The Foreign Ministry said the expected discussion was “an ugly and cynical attempt to further cement the Palestinian issue on the agenda of the international community.”The ministry rejected the use of multilateral organizations such as the UN to coerce it into any sort of action vis-à-vis the Palestinians, and said that progress in peace talks can only be achieved in direct bilateral negotiations.Continued discussions of Israel’s perceived mistreatment of Palestinians, it said, was a waste of agency resources given the ongoing and fierce violence in the region.“Its absurd that while attacks are taking place at the hands of radical Islamists throughout the Middle East, a special discussion on Israel is to take place,” a Foreign Ministry statement read.Malaysia’s initiative to put the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the council’s agenda came after France announced last month that it wouldn’t propose a resolution on Palestinian statehood to the Security Council if the United States was certain to would veto it.Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country, welcomed the nuclear deal signed between Iran and world powers last week, calling it “historic” and a “positive step and augurs well for international efforts aimed at enhancing nuclear security.”Congress has 60 days to review the Iran deal. While lawmakers can’t block the agreement itself, they can try to pass new sanctions on Iran or block the president from waiving existing penalties.Israel is expected to focus its diplomatic efforts on lobbying US lawmakers not to support the nuclear deal.The 10-year agreement struck in Vienna last week calls for a lifting of punishing international sanctions on Iran in exchange for measures to ensure Iran does not build nuclear weapons.According to diplomats, the resolution endorsing the deal should pass the Security Council with little difficulty, since the five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — were among those countries that negotiated the accord.If passed, the new resolution would replace the existing framework of seven sets of Security Council sanctions imposed since 2006 on Iran, enshrining a new set of restrictions.AP contributed to this report.
Carter: We won’t change Israel’s view on Iran deal-US defense chief in Israel for talks on bolstering defense ties after nuclear accord which he says does not ‘prevent military option’By Times of Israel staff and AP July 19, 2015, 11:43 pm 12
US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Sunday he has no expectation of changing Israel’s opposition to the Iran nuclear deal. Instead, he announced as he headed to the Jewish state, he would use his meetings with Israeli leaders to discuss ways of deepening military ties.“I’m not going to change anybody’s mind in Israel. That’s not the purpose of my trip,” Carter told members of the media en route to Israel, Reuters reported. Carter touched down in Tel Aviv on Sunday night and is scheduled to meet with his Israeli counterpart on Monday, followed by a meeting Tuesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He is the first member of Obama’s Cabinet to visit Israel since the Iran deal was clinched last week. After talks in Israel, he was to head to Jordan and Saudi Arabia.Carter previewed the message he will convey to Israeli, Jordanian and Saudi leaders on behalf of President Barack Obama.“This is a good deal,” Carter said. “It removes a critical element of danger, threat and uncertainty from the region,” and does so in a way that can be verified not only by the US but by the international community.Asked whether he thinks the accord makes it more likely that Israel will launch a pre-emptive military strike on Iran, Carter noted that the US has discussed military options with Israel for a number of years.“One of the reasons this deal is a good one is that it does nothing to prevent the military option — the US military option, which I’m responsible for” and which will be improved and preserved, he said.Carter acknowledged that Netanyahu is staunchly opposed to the deal. The Israeli leader believes the pact will enable Iran to become a nuclear power. Carter said he and Netanyahu will have to agree to disagree on that.“Friends can disagree but we have decades of rock-solid cooperation with Israel,” the defense secretary told reporters.Meanwhile, Channel 2 reported Sunday that the US is considering providing an extensive military package to Israel in the wake of the Iranian nuclear accord.Sources in Washington indicated they will provide the Jewish state with advanced weaponry and technology, apparently to compensate for the boost the deal will give Iran.Netanyahu rejected the notion of a reimbursement package Sunday, saying that no amount of compensation would be enough to confront a nuclear armed Iran “sworn to our destruction.”“Why should we need to be compensated if the deal is supposed to make us safer?” he asked. “The deal endangers our security, our survival even, and the security of the Middle East and the world,” Netanyahu said, during a US media blitz in the wake of the deal.
How’s Hamas getting supplies for rockets and tunnels? Through Israel-Dual-purpose materials essential for the terrorist group’s activity are being smuggled into the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing By Avi Issacharoff July 20, 2015, 4:40 am 1-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan ended on Friday, signaling the start of Eid al-Fitr celebrations for Gaza’s inhabitants. The faithful fasted from dawn to dusk each day for a month in the heat of June and July, not knowing what the future held for the Gaza Strip.The members of Hamas did the same. They have received only a few hundred shekels instead of their full salaries for the past four months because of Hamas’s financial hardship. Full salaries are supposed to be paid out this month due to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s decision to resume transferring grants from Iran in light of his agreement with the P5+1.Yet despite the hunger, heat and financial hardship, the hundreds of workers digging tunnels under the Israeli border, inside the Gaza Strip and on the Egyptian border, kept on with their labor. That they worked at a slower pace was not because of the fast. Hundreds of Palestinians, members of Hamas, continued building the network, including new attack tunnels to reach Israel in the next war and smuggling tunnels to Sinai. The problem they have encountered over the past few weeks, causing a slowdown in the pace of digging, is a severe shortage of some of the materials critically important for the tunnel industry.Quite a few reports on these tunnels have been published recently in both Israeli and Hamas media. Some in the Israeli defense establishment have a working assumption that, a year after Operation Protective Edge, it is likely that Hamas already has one or more tunnels crossing the border fence and reaching inside Israel.Hamas’s intense focus on its tunnel project can only bolster this assumption. Hamas is putting an enormous amount of effort, personnel and money into digging with heavy engineering equipment.So what has been delaying progress in the digging on the Gazan side lately? Mainly Israel’s discovery that material vital to the tunnel industry is being smuggled from Israel into the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom border crossing. Some of it is dual-use material, some material illegal for import that was hidden in aboveboard supply deliveries.Material for rocket manufacture has also been brought into the Strip via Israel in this way.Excavating tunnels requires — along with working hands and some shovels — steel cables. Tons of steel cables. And engines, pulley blocks, batteries, concrete or wooden panels, metal pallets and various chemicals.The manufacture of rockets, meanwhile, requires electrodes, explosive materials and rocket fuel, among other things.Hamas was managing to smuggle all those things into the Gaza Strip until fairly recently — not through tunnels from Sinai or by sea, but from Israel via Kerem Shalom.Egypt’s intensive anti-smuggling effort on the border with Gaza and at sea off the coast of Rafah had led Hamas to search for other ways to continue supplying its military industry and its military wing in general. One of the solutions Hamas found was to smuggle in various materials and dual-use items from Israel.The items it required could seem like innocent components of civilian equipment, but could easily be repurposed for arms manufacture and for digging tunnels. So Hamas set up an entire hierarchy of funds and personnel for purchasing and acquisition in Israel and the West Bank. This apparatus receives orders from all of Hamas’s various departments: the military wing, of course, and military outposts, installations, tunnels and arms-manufacturing plants.Hamas also set up a network of Palestinian merchants in Gaza to buy the goods; some know nothing of their role in the organization while others are well aware of it. Their job is to supply Hamas indirectly or directly with everything it needs: electronics and communications equipment, construction materials and anything else. This network of merchants works directly with Israeli merchants, who receive orders from them which appear completely innocent. One example is refrigerator motors, which the tunnel excavators can put to their own use. The Israeli merchants might also receive an order for wooden pallets, which were brought into Gaza in large numbers until somebody figured out that they were being used to replace the concrete walls in the tunnels.A series of recent inspections and seizures at the Kerem Shalom border crossing uncovered an attempt to smuggle enough rocket fuel for 4,480 20-kilometer-range rockets. The fuel had been concealed in bags containing a different material.In another case, also at a border crossing to Gaza, one ton of “solidifying material,” an ingredient used in rocket production, was seized. The amount discovered was enough for 50 80-kilometer-range rockets.Electrodes, supposedly a simple item used in industry and construction, became one of the most vital components in Hamas’s rocket-production industry. Thousands of electrodes were seized on their way to Gaza — and the source, of course, was Israel and the West Bank. In one case, Hamas used a butter-production facility in Ramallah, hiding electrodes inside butter containers bound for the Gaza Strip. Another original smuggling method was to conceal electrodes in marble slabs from Hebron’s marble industry. These, too, were discovered at the Kerem Shalom border crossing. The discoveries gave rise to a debate in Israel’s defense establishment: What to do? Do we stop the transfer of goods into Gaza in order to strike at Hamas’s ability to manufacture arms for use against Israel — an act that would increase the hardship in Gaza and increase the risk of a conflict? Or do we continue allowing products to flow into Gaza, with the understanding that there will be a military price to pay? For now, the transfer of goods is continuing, and at greater intensity. Roughly 600 enormous trucks filled with goods from Israel enter the Gaza Strip every day. But at the same time, the defense establishment has heightened its efforts to prevent those dual-purpose materials from getting into the Strip. Wooden pallets are no longer allowed in, leading Hamas to begin chopping down trees in Gaza and taking over civilian wood factories. Hamas’s purchasing and acquisitions department is currently suffering from a shortage of electrodes and chemical materials. A package of electrodes that until recently cost 60 shekels in Gaza now costs 800 shekels. The price for explosives smuggled into Gaza, once $10,000 per ton, has soared to $70,000.But even if the price increase has slowed the pace of rocket manufacture and tunnel excavation, it has not stopped them completely. Some of the materials continue to arrive.The money that the Hamas military industry is spending on supplies, enormous sums in Gaza’s terms, could have been used to pay the salaries of Hamas’s civilian workers — teachers, physicians and so on. The funds for these purchases come from the pockets of Gaza’s inhabitants in the form of bizarre taxes that Hamas has imposed over the past year on anything that moves. According to Israeli statistics, Hamas has spent $30 million on steel over the past two years. In the communications industry, the spending reached nine million shekels per year. Hamas also pays warehouse owners and moving companies some 1.5 million shekels per month (indirectly).And even as Hamas calls for the lifting of the Israeli blockade on Gaza, it pays millions of shekels per month to business owners in Israel who send it merchandise, completely unaware of the goods’ destination.-The effect of the nuclear agreement on Hamas-Hamas’s motivation to engage in future conflict is linked to several factors, its military capability apparently first among them. In other words, if Hamas had sufficient means and capability, it apparently would not hesitate to act against Israel. The more it gathers strength, the greater its motivation will be to go to war. This means that if Israel succeeds in reducing the amount of dual-purpose materials and stopping the smuggling to Gaza, the motivation that is closely linked to Hamas’s military capability will lessen.But a slowdown of the entry of goods will intensify hardship in Gaza, leading the population to pressure Hamas to act to change the situation — mostly likely by taking military action rather than stopping the smuggling for its military industry.There is almost full agreement on the Israeli side about one thing, at least: the construction of a seaport off the Gaza coast, as Hamas is demanding, or of an airport, even with international supervision, will speed up Hamas’s empowerment process many times over.Inside Hamas, there is no doubt that its military wing has been setting the tone since the end of Operation Protective Edge. So has the more radical faction within Hamas. Figures such as Yahya Sinwar and Rawhi Mushtaha, who dance somewhere on the borderline between Izz ad-Din al-Qassam and the political bureau and take a more militant line, grow stronger. The military wing, which is still commanded by Mohammed Deif, and its representatives in the political wing, is arguing with political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal, Ismail Haniyeh and others about tactics and even about strategy.One of the issues being debated is Hamas’s relationship with the Palestinian Authority and the possibility of reconciliation. While Mashaal, Haniyeh and others see the Gaza Strip as part of Hamas’s larger project — a takeover of the PLO and the West Bank even at the price of temporary reconciliation with Fatah and the Palestinian Authority and giving up control of Gaza, the military wing does not accept that. In its view (Sinwar and Mushtaha, together with Fathi Hamad and others, side with the military wing), Gaza is a critically important project in and of itself, and control over it must not be relinquished at any stage.Another issue in the dispute is the direction Hamas will take. Should it grow closer with the Sunni axis headed by Saudi Arabia or the Shiite axis led by Iran? It is quite likely that the agreement reached in Vienna last week on Iran’s nuclear program tipped the scales in favor of the military wing, which wants the more intensive funds and assistance offered by Iran.A final issue has to do with Israel. While the military wing makes more moderate and pragmatic noises from time to time about the need to reconsider the path of jihad, the members of Izz al-Din al-Qassam view holy war as the only way to accomplish Hamas’s goals, which include wiping Israel off the map. The agreement of the P5+1 with Iran could have a critical, negative influence on this issue as well.
U.S. aims to shift Israel focus to security ties after Iran deal-Reuters By Phil Stewart-JULY 20,15-YAHOONEWS
TEL AVIV (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said it plainly just before landing in Israel, where officials are fuming over the Iran nuclear deal: "I'm not going to change anybody's mind in Israel. That's not the purpose of my trip."Carter, making the first visit by a U.S. cabinet official to Israel since last week's landmark agreement to curb Iran's nuclear program, aims instead to move away from political tensions over the accord to more cool-headed, nuts-and-bolts discussions on deepening security ties.Increased U.S. military-related support is expected to be on the table. But Israeli and U.S. officials have played down the prospects of any looming announcements."Friends can disagree but we have decades of rock-solid cooperation with Israel," Carter told reporters traveling with him.Carter's mission will not be an easy one.The United States and Israel fundamentally differ on whether the Iran nuclear deal makes both countries safer. President Barack Obama says it does; Prime Minister Benjamin Neta says it does not.Israel fears that Tehran's economic gains from a lifting of Western sanctions could boost Iranian-backed guerrillas in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. It could also lead to an arms race with Arab states unfriendly to Israel.Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest authority in Iran, did little to alleviate those concerns in a fiery speech marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan on Saturday.Khamenei said the nuclear deal would not change Iran's policy in supporting allies in Syria, Iraq, Bahrain, Yemen,Lebanon and among the Palestinians.Obama has stressed that taking the threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon off the table increases the security of Israel, the United States and its allies. U.S. officials have also signaled they are not changing a longstanding U.S. defense strategy that is underpinned by the threat of a hostile Iran."Neither the deal nor everything else we're doing to advance our military strategy in the region assumes anything about Iranian behavior," Carter said."There’s nothing in those 100 pages that places any limitations on the United States or what it does to defend ...its friends and allies including Israel."Carter also cited the U.S. commitment to allies to guard against potential Iranian aggression.-'DON'T ANTICIPATE A SHIFT'-A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Iran was likely to keep trying to take advantage of fragile states in the Middle East, saying: "I don't anticipate a shift in their activities."Israel has a strong army, is believed to have the region's only nuclear arsenal, and receives about $3 billion a year in military-related support from the United States. That amount is expected to increase following the Iran deal, and Carter cited a range of security issues to discuss."We don’t have any big package or announcement or thing to bring to the Israelis that we’re bargaining over," the senior U.S. defense official said.After Israel, Carter will head this week to Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Iran is the minant Shi'ite Muslim power, hostile not only to Israel but to Washington's Sunni Muslim-ruled Arab friends, particularly Saudi Arabia.Allies of Riyadh and Tehran have fought decades of sectarian proxy wars in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.Saudi Arabia's Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a former head of the kingdom's intelligence services, wrote last week that the nuclear deal would allow Iran to "wreak havoc in the region."But Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir signaled a willingness during a visit last week in Washington to discuss ways to strengthen security ties.Carter said he aimed to work on advancing commitments made to Gulf leaders in May when Obama hosted them at Camp David.(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Peter Cooney and Howard Goller)
Obama sends Iran deal to wary Congress, Israel urges rejection-Reuters By Gernot Heller and Doina Chiacu-JULY 20,15-YAHOONEWS
TEHRAN/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration sent a nuclear agreement with Tehran to Congress on Sunday and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged U.S. lawmakers to reject a deal he said would only feed an "Iranian terror machine".In a first concrete sign of European determination to quickly rebuild economic and political ties with Iran after a 12-year standoff, German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel arrived in Tehran with an economic delegation. Other European powers were expected to follow.Obama has promised to exercise his veto if Congress rejects the deal, which curbs Iran's nuclear program while allowing an easing of economic sanctions.Overriding it would require a two-thirds majority of both the House of Representatives and Senate, so the administration is working to win over enough of Obama's fellow Democrats to offset strong Republican opposition.In an unusual move, Obama took three Democratic congressman golfing with him: Joe Courtney of Connecticut, Ed Perlmutter of Colorado and John Yarmuth of Kentucky. The president more often taps aides and friends for weekend golfing."I think the right thing to do is merely not to go ahead with this deal," Netanyahu said on CBS's "Face the Nation" as he continued a string of U.S. media interviews denouncing the deal reached on Tuesday between Iran and six major powers."There are many things to be done to stop Iran's aggression and this deal is not one of them," he said.U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, arriving in Israel on the first visit by a U.S. cabinet official since the agreement, told reporters on his aircraft: "I'm not going to change anybody's mind in Israel. That's not the purpose of my trip."Friends can disagree but we have decades of rock-solid.-cooperation with Israel."Carter is also touring Jordan and Saudi Arabia, which both eye the prospect of increasing Iranian influence in the region with some suspicion.-IRANIAN RECOGNITION OF ISRAEL-Tehran denies Western and Israeli accusations it has been using a research program as cover for ambitions to develop atomic weapons. President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday he expected the deal would lead to closer relations with Tehran's neighbors in the Gulf region, while Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran remained at odds with the West.It was on Khamenei's words that Netanyahu seized, speaking to his cabinet on Sunday."The Iranians are not even trying to hide the fact they will take advantage of the hundreds of billions they will receive via the agreement to arm their terror machine," he said. "And they say explicitly they will continue their struggle against the United States and its allies, Israel of course above all."Germany's Gabriel, due to meet President Hassan Rouhani and several ministers, told German newspaper Bild he would use his three-day trip to suggest Germany could serve as a mediator between Iran and arch-enemy Israel. He said he would insist the Iranian government recognize Israel's right to exist."Really stable, good relationships with Germany will only be able to develop if this is accepted in Iranian politics. I will keep making that clear during my trip to Iran," Gabriel said in comments due to be published on Monday.British Prime Minister David Cameron said world powers could now press Tehran on other issues such as its involvement in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad. "We shouldn't be naïve or starry eyed in any way about the regime that we're dealing with," he said in an interview with NBC News. Opponents of the deal argue it does not provide enough supervision of Iran's nuclear program. Secretary of State John Kerry, who led the U.S. delegation to the talks with Iran, was asked on “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace” why the deal did not provide for inspections anywhere anytime.“The fact is, that in arms control, there is no country anywhere on this planet that has ‘anywhere, anytime’," he said. "There is no such standard. There is no such standard within arms control inspections."(Additional reporting Michael Flaherty in Washington, Alex Wilts, Phil Stewart in Tel Aviv; Writing by Ralph Boulton)
ISRAEL SATAN COMES AGAINST
1 CHRONICLES 21:1
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
GENESIS 12:1-3
1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I (GOD) will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee,(ISRAELIS) and curse (DESTROY) him that curseth thee:(DESTROY THEM) and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
ISAIAH 41:11
11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee (ISRAEL) shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing;(DESTROYED) and they that strive with thee shall perish.(ISRAEL HATERS WILL BE TOTALLY DESTROYED)
ISRAELS TROUBLE
JEREMIAH 30:7
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;(ISRAEL) but he shall be saved out of it.
DANIEL 12:1,4
1 And at that time shall Michael(ISRAELS WAR ANGEL) stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:(ISRAEL) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation(May 14,48) even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,(WORLD TRAVEL,IMMIGRATION) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS,CHIP IMPLANTS ETC)
Security Council session on Iran deal to include discussion on Israel-Malaysia asks to reintroduce perceived mistreatment of Palestinians on meeting’s agenda MondayBy Tamar Pileggi July 20, 2015, 12:52 am 3-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The UN Security Council session on Monday on the new nuclear deal between Iran and the world powers is expected to include a discussion on Israel.In addition to the council’s expected endorsement of the Iranian nuclear deal, the 15-member body will also reportedly discuss Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.Malaysia, a non-permanent member of the Security Council, proposed adding the discussion to the agenda, according to a report in the Hebrew-language website NRG on Sunday.The Foreign Ministry said the expected discussion was “an ugly and cynical attempt to further cement the Palestinian issue on the agenda of the international community.”The ministry rejected the use of multilateral organizations such as the UN to coerce it into any sort of action vis-à-vis the Palestinians, and said that progress in peace talks can only be achieved in direct bilateral negotiations.Continued discussions of Israel’s perceived mistreatment of Palestinians, it said, was a waste of agency resources given the ongoing and fierce violence in the region.“Its absurd that while attacks are taking place at the hands of radical Islamists throughout the Middle East, a special discussion on Israel is to take place,” a Foreign Ministry statement read.Malaysia’s initiative to put the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the council’s agenda came after France announced last month that it wouldn’t propose a resolution on Palestinian statehood to the Security Council if the United States was certain to would veto it.Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country, welcomed the nuclear deal signed between Iran and world powers last week, calling it “historic” and a “positive step and augurs well for international efforts aimed at enhancing nuclear security.”Congress has 60 days to review the Iran deal. While lawmakers can’t block the agreement itself, they can try to pass new sanctions on Iran or block the president from waiving existing penalties.Israel is expected to focus its diplomatic efforts on lobbying US lawmakers not to support the nuclear deal.The 10-year agreement struck in Vienna last week calls for a lifting of punishing international sanctions on Iran in exchange for measures to ensure Iran does not build nuclear weapons.According to diplomats, the resolution endorsing the deal should pass the Security Council with little difficulty, since the five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — were among those countries that negotiated the accord.If passed, the new resolution would replace the existing framework of seven sets of Security Council sanctions imposed since 2006 on Iran, enshrining a new set of restrictions.AP contributed to this report.
Carter: We won’t change Israel’s view on Iran deal-US defense chief in Israel for talks on bolstering defense ties after nuclear accord which he says does not ‘prevent military option’By Times of Israel staff and AP July 19, 2015, 11:43 pm 12
US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Sunday he has no expectation of changing Israel’s opposition to the Iran nuclear deal. Instead, he announced as he headed to the Jewish state, he would use his meetings with Israeli leaders to discuss ways of deepening military ties.“I’m not going to change anybody’s mind in Israel. That’s not the purpose of my trip,” Carter told members of the media en route to Israel, Reuters reported. Carter touched down in Tel Aviv on Sunday night and is scheduled to meet with his Israeli counterpart on Monday, followed by a meeting Tuesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He is the first member of Obama’s Cabinet to visit Israel since the Iran deal was clinched last week. After talks in Israel, he was to head to Jordan and Saudi Arabia.Carter previewed the message he will convey to Israeli, Jordanian and Saudi leaders on behalf of President Barack Obama.“This is a good deal,” Carter said. “It removes a critical element of danger, threat and uncertainty from the region,” and does so in a way that can be verified not only by the US but by the international community.Asked whether he thinks the accord makes it more likely that Israel will launch a pre-emptive military strike on Iran, Carter noted that the US has discussed military options with Israel for a number of years.“One of the reasons this deal is a good one is that it does nothing to prevent the military option — the US military option, which I’m responsible for” and which will be improved and preserved, he said.Carter acknowledged that Netanyahu is staunchly opposed to the deal. The Israeli leader believes the pact will enable Iran to become a nuclear power. Carter said he and Netanyahu will have to agree to disagree on that.“Friends can disagree but we have decades of rock-solid cooperation with Israel,” the defense secretary told reporters.Meanwhile, Channel 2 reported Sunday that the US is considering providing an extensive military package to Israel in the wake of the Iranian nuclear accord.Sources in Washington indicated they will provide the Jewish state with advanced weaponry and technology, apparently to compensate for the boost the deal will give Iran.Netanyahu rejected the notion of a reimbursement package Sunday, saying that no amount of compensation would be enough to confront a nuclear armed Iran “sworn to our destruction.”“Why should we need to be compensated if the deal is supposed to make us safer?” he asked. “The deal endangers our security, our survival even, and the security of the Middle East and the world,” Netanyahu said, during a US media blitz in the wake of the deal.
How’s Hamas getting supplies for rockets and tunnels? Through Israel-Dual-purpose materials essential for the terrorist group’s activity are being smuggled into the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing By Avi Issacharoff July 20, 2015, 4:40 am 1-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan ended on Friday, signaling the start of Eid al-Fitr celebrations for Gaza’s inhabitants. The faithful fasted from dawn to dusk each day for a month in the heat of June and July, not knowing what the future held for the Gaza Strip.The members of Hamas did the same. They have received only a few hundred shekels instead of their full salaries for the past four months because of Hamas’s financial hardship. Full salaries are supposed to be paid out this month due to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s decision to resume transferring grants from Iran in light of his agreement with the P5+1.Yet despite the hunger, heat and financial hardship, the hundreds of workers digging tunnels under the Israeli border, inside the Gaza Strip and on the Egyptian border, kept on with their labor. That they worked at a slower pace was not because of the fast. Hundreds of Palestinians, members of Hamas, continued building the network, including new attack tunnels to reach Israel in the next war and smuggling tunnels to Sinai. The problem they have encountered over the past few weeks, causing a slowdown in the pace of digging, is a severe shortage of some of the materials critically important for the tunnel industry.Quite a few reports on these tunnels have been published recently in both Israeli and Hamas media. Some in the Israeli defense establishment have a working assumption that, a year after Operation Protective Edge, it is likely that Hamas already has one or more tunnels crossing the border fence and reaching inside Israel.Hamas’s intense focus on its tunnel project can only bolster this assumption. Hamas is putting an enormous amount of effort, personnel and money into digging with heavy engineering equipment.So what has been delaying progress in the digging on the Gazan side lately? Mainly Israel’s discovery that material vital to the tunnel industry is being smuggled from Israel into the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom border crossing. Some of it is dual-use material, some material illegal for import that was hidden in aboveboard supply deliveries.Material for rocket manufacture has also been brought into the Strip via Israel in this way.Excavating tunnels requires — along with working hands and some shovels — steel cables. Tons of steel cables. And engines, pulley blocks, batteries, concrete or wooden panels, metal pallets and various chemicals.The manufacture of rockets, meanwhile, requires electrodes, explosive materials and rocket fuel, among other things.Hamas was managing to smuggle all those things into the Gaza Strip until fairly recently — not through tunnels from Sinai or by sea, but from Israel via Kerem Shalom.Egypt’s intensive anti-smuggling effort on the border with Gaza and at sea off the coast of Rafah had led Hamas to search for other ways to continue supplying its military industry and its military wing in general. One of the solutions Hamas found was to smuggle in various materials and dual-use items from Israel.The items it required could seem like innocent components of civilian equipment, but could easily be repurposed for arms manufacture and for digging tunnels. So Hamas set up an entire hierarchy of funds and personnel for purchasing and acquisition in Israel and the West Bank. This apparatus receives orders from all of Hamas’s various departments: the military wing, of course, and military outposts, installations, tunnels and arms-manufacturing plants.Hamas also set up a network of Palestinian merchants in Gaza to buy the goods; some know nothing of their role in the organization while others are well aware of it. Their job is to supply Hamas indirectly or directly with everything it needs: electronics and communications equipment, construction materials and anything else. This network of merchants works directly with Israeli merchants, who receive orders from them which appear completely innocent. One example is refrigerator motors, which the tunnel excavators can put to their own use. The Israeli merchants might also receive an order for wooden pallets, which were brought into Gaza in large numbers until somebody figured out that they were being used to replace the concrete walls in the tunnels.A series of recent inspections and seizures at the Kerem Shalom border crossing uncovered an attempt to smuggle enough rocket fuel for 4,480 20-kilometer-range rockets. The fuel had been concealed in bags containing a different material.In another case, also at a border crossing to Gaza, one ton of “solidifying material,” an ingredient used in rocket production, was seized. The amount discovered was enough for 50 80-kilometer-range rockets.Electrodes, supposedly a simple item used in industry and construction, became one of the most vital components in Hamas’s rocket-production industry. Thousands of electrodes were seized on their way to Gaza — and the source, of course, was Israel and the West Bank. In one case, Hamas used a butter-production facility in Ramallah, hiding electrodes inside butter containers bound for the Gaza Strip. Another original smuggling method was to conceal electrodes in marble slabs from Hebron’s marble industry. These, too, were discovered at the Kerem Shalom border crossing. The discoveries gave rise to a debate in Israel’s defense establishment: What to do? Do we stop the transfer of goods into Gaza in order to strike at Hamas’s ability to manufacture arms for use against Israel — an act that would increase the hardship in Gaza and increase the risk of a conflict? Or do we continue allowing products to flow into Gaza, with the understanding that there will be a military price to pay? For now, the transfer of goods is continuing, and at greater intensity. Roughly 600 enormous trucks filled with goods from Israel enter the Gaza Strip every day. But at the same time, the defense establishment has heightened its efforts to prevent those dual-purpose materials from getting into the Strip. Wooden pallets are no longer allowed in, leading Hamas to begin chopping down trees in Gaza and taking over civilian wood factories. Hamas’s purchasing and acquisitions department is currently suffering from a shortage of electrodes and chemical materials. A package of electrodes that until recently cost 60 shekels in Gaza now costs 800 shekels. The price for explosives smuggled into Gaza, once $10,000 per ton, has soared to $70,000.But even if the price increase has slowed the pace of rocket manufacture and tunnel excavation, it has not stopped them completely. Some of the materials continue to arrive.The money that the Hamas military industry is spending on supplies, enormous sums in Gaza’s terms, could have been used to pay the salaries of Hamas’s civilian workers — teachers, physicians and so on. The funds for these purchases come from the pockets of Gaza’s inhabitants in the form of bizarre taxes that Hamas has imposed over the past year on anything that moves. According to Israeli statistics, Hamas has spent $30 million on steel over the past two years. In the communications industry, the spending reached nine million shekels per year. Hamas also pays warehouse owners and moving companies some 1.5 million shekels per month (indirectly).And even as Hamas calls for the lifting of the Israeli blockade on Gaza, it pays millions of shekels per month to business owners in Israel who send it merchandise, completely unaware of the goods’ destination.-The effect of the nuclear agreement on Hamas-Hamas’s motivation to engage in future conflict is linked to several factors, its military capability apparently first among them. In other words, if Hamas had sufficient means and capability, it apparently would not hesitate to act against Israel. The more it gathers strength, the greater its motivation will be to go to war. This means that if Israel succeeds in reducing the amount of dual-purpose materials and stopping the smuggling to Gaza, the motivation that is closely linked to Hamas’s military capability will lessen.But a slowdown of the entry of goods will intensify hardship in Gaza, leading the population to pressure Hamas to act to change the situation — mostly likely by taking military action rather than stopping the smuggling for its military industry.There is almost full agreement on the Israeli side about one thing, at least: the construction of a seaport off the Gaza coast, as Hamas is demanding, or of an airport, even with international supervision, will speed up Hamas’s empowerment process many times over.Inside Hamas, there is no doubt that its military wing has been setting the tone since the end of Operation Protective Edge. So has the more radical faction within Hamas. Figures such as Yahya Sinwar and Rawhi Mushtaha, who dance somewhere on the borderline between Izz ad-Din al-Qassam and the political bureau and take a more militant line, grow stronger. The military wing, which is still commanded by Mohammed Deif, and its representatives in the political wing, is arguing with political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal, Ismail Haniyeh and others about tactics and even about strategy.One of the issues being debated is Hamas’s relationship with the Palestinian Authority and the possibility of reconciliation. While Mashaal, Haniyeh and others see the Gaza Strip as part of Hamas’s larger project — a takeover of the PLO and the West Bank even at the price of temporary reconciliation with Fatah and the Palestinian Authority and giving up control of Gaza, the military wing does not accept that. In its view (Sinwar and Mushtaha, together with Fathi Hamad and others, side with the military wing), Gaza is a critically important project in and of itself, and control over it must not be relinquished at any stage.Another issue in the dispute is the direction Hamas will take. Should it grow closer with the Sunni axis headed by Saudi Arabia or the Shiite axis led by Iran? It is quite likely that the agreement reached in Vienna last week on Iran’s nuclear program tipped the scales in favor of the military wing, which wants the more intensive funds and assistance offered by Iran.A final issue has to do with Israel. While the military wing makes more moderate and pragmatic noises from time to time about the need to reconsider the path of jihad, the members of Izz al-Din al-Qassam view holy war as the only way to accomplish Hamas’s goals, which include wiping Israel off the map. The agreement of the P5+1 with Iran could have a critical, negative influence on this issue as well.
U.S. aims to shift Israel focus to security ties after Iran deal-Reuters By Phil Stewart-JULY 20,15-YAHOONEWS
TEL AVIV (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said it plainly just before landing in Israel, where officials are fuming over the Iran nuclear deal: "I'm not going to change anybody's mind in Israel. That's not the purpose of my trip."Carter, making the first visit by a U.S. cabinet official to Israel since last week's landmark agreement to curb Iran's nuclear program, aims instead to move away from political tensions over the accord to more cool-headed, nuts-and-bolts discussions on deepening security ties.Increased U.S. military-related support is expected to be on the table. But Israeli and U.S. officials have played down the prospects of any looming announcements."Friends can disagree but we have decades of rock-solid cooperation with Israel," Carter told reporters traveling with him.Carter's mission will not be an easy one.The United States and Israel fundamentally differ on whether the Iran nuclear deal makes both countries safer. President Barack Obama says it does; Prime Minister Benjamin Neta says it does not.Israel fears that Tehran's economic gains from a lifting of Western sanctions could boost Iranian-backed guerrillas in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. It could also lead to an arms race with Arab states unfriendly to Israel.Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest authority in Iran, did little to alleviate those concerns in a fiery speech marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan on Saturday.Khamenei said the nuclear deal would not change Iran's policy in supporting allies in Syria, Iraq, Bahrain, Yemen,Lebanon and among the Palestinians.Obama has stressed that taking the threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon off the table increases the security of Israel, the United States and its allies. U.S. officials have also signaled they are not changing a longstanding U.S. defense strategy that is underpinned by the threat of a hostile Iran."Neither the deal nor everything else we're doing to advance our military strategy in the region assumes anything about Iranian behavior," Carter said."There’s nothing in those 100 pages that places any limitations on the United States or what it does to defend ...its friends and allies including Israel."Carter also cited the U.S. commitment to allies to guard against potential Iranian aggression.-'DON'T ANTICIPATE A SHIFT'-A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Iran was likely to keep trying to take advantage of fragile states in the Middle East, saying: "I don't anticipate a shift in their activities."Israel has a strong army, is believed to have the region's only nuclear arsenal, and receives about $3 billion a year in military-related support from the United States. That amount is expected to increase following the Iran deal, and Carter cited a range of security issues to discuss."We don’t have any big package or announcement or thing to bring to the Israelis that we’re bargaining over," the senior U.S. defense official said.After Israel, Carter will head this week to Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Iran is the minant Shi'ite Muslim power, hostile not only to Israel but to Washington's Sunni Muslim-ruled Arab friends, particularly Saudi Arabia.Allies of Riyadh and Tehran have fought decades of sectarian proxy wars in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.Saudi Arabia's Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a former head of the kingdom's intelligence services, wrote last week that the nuclear deal would allow Iran to "wreak havoc in the region."But Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir signaled a willingness during a visit last week in Washington to discuss ways to strengthen security ties.Carter said he aimed to work on advancing commitments made to Gulf leaders in May when Obama hosted them at Camp David.(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Peter Cooney and Howard Goller)
Obama sends Iran deal to wary Congress, Israel urges rejection-Reuters By Gernot Heller and Doina Chiacu-JULY 20,15-YAHOONEWS
TEHRAN/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration sent a nuclear agreement with Tehran to Congress on Sunday and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged U.S. lawmakers to reject a deal he said would only feed an "Iranian terror machine".In a first concrete sign of European determination to quickly rebuild economic and political ties with Iran after a 12-year standoff, German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel arrived in Tehran with an economic delegation. Other European powers were expected to follow.Obama has promised to exercise his veto if Congress rejects the deal, which curbs Iran's nuclear program while allowing an easing of economic sanctions.Overriding it would require a two-thirds majority of both the House of Representatives and Senate, so the administration is working to win over enough of Obama's fellow Democrats to offset strong Republican opposition.In an unusual move, Obama took three Democratic congressman golfing with him: Joe Courtney of Connecticut, Ed Perlmutter of Colorado and John Yarmuth of Kentucky. The president more often taps aides and friends for weekend golfing."I think the right thing to do is merely not to go ahead with this deal," Netanyahu said on CBS's "Face the Nation" as he continued a string of U.S. media interviews denouncing the deal reached on Tuesday between Iran and six major powers."There are many things to be done to stop Iran's aggression and this deal is not one of them," he said.U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, arriving in Israel on the first visit by a U.S. cabinet official since the agreement, told reporters on his aircraft: "I'm not going to change anybody's mind in Israel. That's not the purpose of my trip."Friends can disagree but we have decades of rock-solid.-cooperation with Israel."Carter is also touring Jordan and Saudi Arabia, which both eye the prospect of increasing Iranian influence in the region with some suspicion.-IRANIAN RECOGNITION OF ISRAEL-Tehran denies Western and Israeli accusations it has been using a research program as cover for ambitions to develop atomic weapons. President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday he expected the deal would lead to closer relations with Tehran's neighbors in the Gulf region, while Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran remained at odds with the West.It was on Khamenei's words that Netanyahu seized, speaking to his cabinet on Sunday."The Iranians are not even trying to hide the fact they will take advantage of the hundreds of billions they will receive via the agreement to arm their terror machine," he said. "And they say explicitly they will continue their struggle against the United States and its allies, Israel of course above all."Germany's Gabriel, due to meet President Hassan Rouhani and several ministers, told German newspaper Bild he would use his three-day trip to suggest Germany could serve as a mediator between Iran and arch-enemy Israel. He said he would insist the Iranian government recognize Israel's right to exist."Really stable, good relationships with Germany will only be able to develop if this is accepted in Iranian politics. I will keep making that clear during my trip to Iran," Gabriel said in comments due to be published on Monday.British Prime Minister David Cameron said world powers could now press Tehran on other issues such as its involvement in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad. "We shouldn't be naïve or starry eyed in any way about the regime that we're dealing with," he said in an interview with NBC News. Opponents of the deal argue it does not provide enough supervision of Iran's nuclear program. Secretary of State John Kerry, who led the U.S. delegation to the talks with Iran, was asked on “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace” why the deal did not provide for inspections anywhere anytime.“The fact is, that in arms control, there is no country anywhere on this planet that has ‘anywhere, anytime’," he said. "There is no such standard. There is no such standard within arms control inspections."(Additional reporting Michael Flaherty in Washington, Alex Wilts, Phil Stewart in Tel Aviv; Writing by Ralph Boulton)
