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)
LUKE 21:28-29
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
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
Thousands at Mt. Meron as Lag B’Omer bonfires lit throughout Israel-Health and fire authorities on alert to treat injuries and blazes during annual celebration-By Daniel Stieglitz May 26, 2016, 1:13 am-the times of israel
Throngs of Israelis celebrated Lag B’Omer with traditional bonfires throughout the country Wednesday night, with thousands visiting the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on Mount Meron in northern Israel.Lag B’Omer, which is observed on the 18th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar and the 33rd day of the Omer — the seven-week period between the festivals of Passover and Shavuot — is the anniversary of the death of the rabbi, a prominent sage and mystic who lived in ancient Israel in the second century CE.Fire and ambulance services were on standby Wednesday night to meet the increased risk of fires and injuries as a result of the revelries.By early Wednesday evening more than 20 people in the Meron area were treated for various injuries.Last year police estimated that 60,000 people attended the Lag B’Omer celebrations at Mount Meron. Magen David Adom paramedics provided treatment to 92 people who suffered minor injuries over the course of the previous all-night celebration in the Galilee.Air pollution rates throughout Israel soared last year due to the bonfires, according to data from the Environmental Protection Ministry. The ministry’s air-quality monitoring stations recorded air pollution rates as much as ten times the normal average rate on a clear day.In certain Jewish communities, it is customary to give 3-year-old boys their first haircut on Lag B’Omer. In the days leading up to Lag B’Omer, children can be seen scouring the streets, looking for any scraps of wood they can get their hands on for their bonfires.
Netanyahu, Herzog bury hatchet for a day to celebrate US Jewry-As Knesset marks Jewish American Heritage Month, politicians laud historically strong relationship between communities — but some warn of growing rift-By Renee Ghert-Zand May 26, 2016, 12:55 am-the times of israel
Looking tired and tense, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Isaac Herzog managed to put aside the acrimony of failed Likud-Zionist Union coalition negotiations for an hour Wednesday afternoon to attend together an official Knesset event honoring the Jewish American contribution to Israel.The ceremony was the centerpiece of a full day of activities at the Knesset marking Jewish American Heritage Month, an annual recognition in the US of the community’s achievements and contributions.Wednesday was the first time since Jewish American Heritage Month’s inception in 2006 that it was marked in Israel, and instead of focusing on what American Jews have done for the US, it highlighted what they have contributed to Israel over the past century.Speakers at the ceremony, including Netanyahu and Herzog, used the opportunity to laud the historically strong relationship between Israel and American Jews, and also to point out areas in which ties between the world’s two largest and most influential Jewish communities have become frayed and are in need of repair.May was designated Jewish American Heritage Month by President George W. Bush, following the passage of resolutions introduced by Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania urging the recognition of the more than 350 years of Jewish history in America.Six years later, on May 1, 2012, President Obama issued a proclamation stating that “generations of Jewish Americans have brought to bear some of our country’s greatest achievements and forever enriched our national life.”At the initiative of Zionist Union MK Nachman Shai, and with the partnership of the Ruderman Family Foundation, the Jewish Agency, Jewish Federations of North America and the Jewish People Policy Institute, a full day of activities was organized in the Israeli parliament.These included Knesset committee discussions on the American Jewish contributions to Israel’s security, social welfare, absorption of new immigrants and educational system, as well as a marking of the subject in the Knesset plenary.In addition, an exhibition of archival photographs and films tracing the American Jewish community’s involvement in building and sustaining Israel, produced by the Ruderman Program for American Jewish Studies at the University of Haifa, was on view in the Knesset’s Chagall State Hall.“These have not been easy days between the prime minister and me, but one thing we have in common is that we both have benefited from educations in the United States,” Herzog said in a speech he gave to several hundred invited guests, including members of Knesset and American Jewish and Israeli leaders from across the political spectrum.As newly installed Likud MK Yehuda Glick, a US-born rabbi famously controversial for his Temple Mount activism, sat inches away from J Street founder and president Jeremy Ben-Ami, Herzog reminisced about how as a student at New York’s Ramaz School (when his father, the late Chaim Herzog, was Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations), he became involved with the movement to free Soviet Jewry.Other speakers, including Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky and Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein — both former high profile Soviet Refuseniks — also emphasized the critical role of American Jewry in what was a 30-year-long campaign advocating for the right of Jews to emigrate from the Soviet Union.“It’s been 25 years since Operation Exodus,” Sharansky said, referring to the subsequent mass immigration of Jews from the FSU in the early 1990s. “The American Jewish community raised a billion dollars in support of that operation in a matter of weeks.”Two and a half decades have passed since then, and although, according to recent Pew Research Center surveys of American Jews and Israelis, most American Jews and Israeli Jews feel a close kinship, they differ on a range of political issues concerning Israel and the peace process and Jewish religious pluralism.Accentuating the positive, JFNA chair Richard Sandler spoke of American Jews’ financial, political and emotional support of Israel, and US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro noted the American Jewish community’s “generous and steadfast support” for Israel and the US-Israel alliance.Netanyahu, too, painted a rosy scenario. He alluded to, but downplayed recent tensions between American Jews and his government, especially concerning the Iran nuclear deal.“The contribution of American Jewry to Israel will be important to us in the coming years,” Netanyahu said.“And to those who question whether we will be here in a hundred years, I say that the Jewish people will be here [in Israel] in a hundred years, and we will enjoy the support of the American Jewish community,” he added.By contrast, Shai, chairman of the Knesset’s Israel-US caucus, told The Times of Israel that on a recent trip he took with a group of fellow members of Knesset to visit the Jewish communities in Cleveland, Dallas and Miami, he learned that Israel has become a divisive issue for American Jews.“They told us that Israel is no longer a uniting power. It’s become something divisive. American Jews didn’t like what the [Israeli] prime minister did regarding the Iran deal. They didn’t like his addressing the Congress and interfering in the American political process,” he reported.American Jews also expressed to Shai their unhappiness about the treatment of liberal Jews at the Western Wall.“Issues of religion and state are key to what is making mainstream American Jews feel that they are being pushed away from Israel,” agreed former Yesh Atid MK Dov Lipman.Lipman, now director of public diplomacy in the vice chairman’s office of the World Zionist Organization, told The Times of Israel he went to each of the Knesset committees that met Wednesday to “spoil the party a bit,” as he put it.“I told them that it is wonderful to thank the American Jews for everything they have done for Israel, but the gratitude can’t just be lip service. There has to be action,” Lipman said.“All it takes is one [Israeli] minister to say that we don’t see Reform or Conservative Jews as Jews and the damage is done — and it’s immense,” he lamented.According to Lipman, American immigrants to Israel are leading the way in creating positive change in Israeli society that can mend the relationship with American Jews, especially younger ones affected by anti-Israel activism on college campuses.However, he believes that not enough American immigrants, or “olim,” are involved.“American olim need to know they can’t just complain. They need to get involved. We are not pulling our weight. We currently have two American-born members of Knesset [Glick and former Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren], but there should be more of us. American olim need to get over their fear of language and cultural barriers and work for change. It’s not okay to accept it when we are told that things are just the way they are and there’s nothing that can be done,” Lipman asserted.Melody Coven, who was at the Knesset on behalf of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, is ready to embrace the challenge.“We are a unique piece of the Israeli melting pot,” said Coven, who immigrated from Pittsburgh in 2013.“The success of Israel can be based on the aliya of choice, on the extent to which American Jews bring our values of freedom, democracy and liberal thinking to Israel and choose to stay here,” she said.
Rocket fired from Gaza into Israel, none hurt-Army forces search Sha’ar Hanegev area for remnants of missile thought to have landed in open area-By Judah Ari Gross and Times of Israel staff May 25, 2016, 11:56 pm
A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in Israel, the army said Wednesday night.There were no reports of injuries or damage in the attack, which was not preceded by a warning siren.Initial reports suggested the rocket hit an open area in the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council bordering the Gaza Strip.The IDF said it was searching the area for remnants of the rocket.Israel has seen sporadic fire from the Gaza Strip, usually claimed by small Salafi groups engaged in a power struggle with Hamas, which is the de facto ruler of the strip.
UN chief said planning final visit to Israel, Palestinian Authority-Ban reportedly plotting late June tour of region; UN envoy says ‘radically more’ must be done to address Gaza plight-By Times of Israel staff, AFP and AP May 26, 2016, 2:34 am
Outgoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plans to visit Israel and the Palestinian Authority on June 26-28 on a final trip to the region before his term expires, Channel 10 reported Wednesday.There were no further details on Ban’s agenda or goals on the trip. The UN chief’s term ends on December 31.The UN’s top Mideast envoy said Wednesday that Palestinians in Gaza were growing ever more desperate and unless “radically more” was done to address the situation, it was only a matter of time before there would be another escalation of violence.Nickolay Mladenov told the Security Council that May saw the biggest escalation of violence in Gaza since 2014 and that those incidents threaten the current ceasefire.“Recent events clearly demonstrate that the specter of violence looms ominously over the territory. Unless radically more is done to address the chronic realities in Gaza, it is not a question of ‘if,’ but ‘when’ another escalation will take place,” Mladenov said, calling on donors to “support Gaza’s reconstruction, recovery and development.”A ceasefire agreed in August 2014 “needs to be vigorously upheld by all sides if we are to avoid slipping into another devastating conflict,” he said.He said the Quartet of Mideast mediators — the U.N., U.S., European Union and Russia — are finalizing a report on the impediments to a two state solution and how to move forward and that a number of countries will meet in Paris within “a matter of days” in hopes of reviving the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process.Citing a recent study by Tel Aviv University, Mladenov said that close to 60 percent of the Jewish population and 70% of Palestinians continue to support peace negotiations.“The will to advance toward peace clearly exists. What remains glaringly absent is the political will and bold leadership to make genuine progress a reality,” he said.
Khamenei: US ‘can’t do a damn thing’ about our missile program-Supreme leader: West ‘extremely sad’ about failure to curb Iran’s military development; Guards chief: US forced to back down in region-By Times of Israel staff May 24, 2016, 1:19 am
Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei on Monday said the United States cannot “do a damn thing” about the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile program.“They have engaged in a lot of hue and cry over Iran’s missile capabilities, but they should know that this ballyhoo does not have any influence and they cannot do a damn thing,” Khamenei said, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.Iran in March tested ballistic missiles, including two with the words “Israel must be wiped off the earth” emblazoned on them, according to the US and other Western powers. Under a nuclear deal signed last year between world powers and Iran, ballistic missile tests are not forbidden outright but are “not consistent” with a United Nations Security Council resolution from July 2015, US officials say.According to the UN decision, “Iran is called upon not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology,” until October 2023.“The US and other powers are extremely sad at this issue and they have no other option; that is why they made huge efforts in order to bring the country’s decision-making and decision-taking centers under their control, but they failed and God willing, they will continue to fail,” Khamanei said on Monday.The supreme leader, who has final say on state matters, lambasted the “arrogant” Western powers, arguing that efforts to shut down its nuclear program and missile tests were a pretext to meddle in Iran’s affairs.“The nuclear issue and missiles are excuses and of course excuses are useless and they can do no damn thing,” Khamenei said. “The point is Iran doesn’t follow arrogant powers.”“In this war, willpowers are fighting. The stronger willpower will win,” Khamenei added.Also Monday, Iranian Revolutionary Guards general Qassem Soleimani maintained that without the Islamic Republic, the Islamic State would now control all of Syria. The United States has been forced to back down in the region, he said, according to Iranian reports.Last week, a senior Iranian military commander boasted that the Islamic Republic could “raze the Zionist regime in less than eight minutes.” Ahmad Karimpour, a senior adviser to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ elite unit al-Quds Force, said if Khamenei gave the order to destroy Israel, the Iranian military had the capacity to do so quickly.“If the Supreme Leader’s orders [are] to be executed, with the abilities and the equipment at our disposal, we will raze the Zionist regime in less than eight minutes,” Karimpour said Thursday, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.A senior Iranian general on May 9 announced that the country’s armed forces successfully tested a precision-guided, medium-range ballistic missile two weeks earlier that could reach Israel, the state-run Tasnim agency reported.“We test-fired a missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers and a margin of error of eight meters,” Brigadier General Ali Abdollahi was quoted as saying at a Tehran science conference. The eight-meter margin means the “missile enjoys zero error,” he told conference participants.
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
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
Thousands at Mt. Meron as Lag B’Omer bonfires lit throughout Israel-Health and fire authorities on alert to treat injuries and blazes during annual celebration-By Daniel Stieglitz May 26, 2016, 1:13 am-the times of israel
Throngs of Israelis celebrated Lag B’Omer with traditional bonfires throughout the country Wednesday night, with thousands visiting the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on Mount Meron in northern Israel.Lag B’Omer, which is observed on the 18th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar and the 33rd day of the Omer — the seven-week period between the festivals of Passover and Shavuot — is the anniversary of the death of the rabbi, a prominent sage and mystic who lived in ancient Israel in the second century CE.Fire and ambulance services were on standby Wednesday night to meet the increased risk of fires and injuries as a result of the revelries.By early Wednesday evening more than 20 people in the Meron area were treated for various injuries.Last year police estimated that 60,000 people attended the Lag B’Omer celebrations at Mount Meron. Magen David Adom paramedics provided treatment to 92 people who suffered minor injuries over the course of the previous all-night celebration in the Galilee.Air pollution rates throughout Israel soared last year due to the bonfires, according to data from the Environmental Protection Ministry. The ministry’s air-quality monitoring stations recorded air pollution rates as much as ten times the normal average rate on a clear day.In certain Jewish communities, it is customary to give 3-year-old boys their first haircut on Lag B’Omer. In the days leading up to Lag B’Omer, children can be seen scouring the streets, looking for any scraps of wood they can get their hands on for their bonfires.
Netanyahu, Herzog bury hatchet for a day to celebrate US Jewry-As Knesset marks Jewish American Heritage Month, politicians laud historically strong relationship between communities — but some warn of growing rift-By Renee Ghert-Zand May 26, 2016, 12:55 am-the times of israel
Looking tired and tense, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Isaac Herzog managed to put aside the acrimony of failed Likud-Zionist Union coalition negotiations for an hour Wednesday afternoon to attend together an official Knesset event honoring the Jewish American contribution to Israel.The ceremony was the centerpiece of a full day of activities at the Knesset marking Jewish American Heritage Month, an annual recognition in the US of the community’s achievements and contributions.Wednesday was the first time since Jewish American Heritage Month’s inception in 2006 that it was marked in Israel, and instead of focusing on what American Jews have done for the US, it highlighted what they have contributed to Israel over the past century.Speakers at the ceremony, including Netanyahu and Herzog, used the opportunity to laud the historically strong relationship between Israel and American Jews, and also to point out areas in which ties between the world’s two largest and most influential Jewish communities have become frayed and are in need of repair.May was designated Jewish American Heritage Month by President George W. Bush, following the passage of resolutions introduced by Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania urging the recognition of the more than 350 years of Jewish history in America.Six years later, on May 1, 2012, President Obama issued a proclamation stating that “generations of Jewish Americans have brought to bear some of our country’s greatest achievements and forever enriched our national life.”At the initiative of Zionist Union MK Nachman Shai, and with the partnership of the Ruderman Family Foundation, the Jewish Agency, Jewish Federations of North America and the Jewish People Policy Institute, a full day of activities was organized in the Israeli parliament.These included Knesset committee discussions on the American Jewish contributions to Israel’s security, social welfare, absorption of new immigrants and educational system, as well as a marking of the subject in the Knesset plenary.In addition, an exhibition of archival photographs and films tracing the American Jewish community’s involvement in building and sustaining Israel, produced by the Ruderman Program for American Jewish Studies at the University of Haifa, was on view in the Knesset’s Chagall State Hall.“These have not been easy days between the prime minister and me, but one thing we have in common is that we both have benefited from educations in the United States,” Herzog said in a speech he gave to several hundred invited guests, including members of Knesset and American Jewish and Israeli leaders from across the political spectrum.As newly installed Likud MK Yehuda Glick, a US-born rabbi famously controversial for his Temple Mount activism, sat inches away from J Street founder and president Jeremy Ben-Ami, Herzog reminisced about how as a student at New York’s Ramaz School (when his father, the late Chaim Herzog, was Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations), he became involved with the movement to free Soviet Jewry.Other speakers, including Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky and Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein — both former high profile Soviet Refuseniks — also emphasized the critical role of American Jewry in what was a 30-year-long campaign advocating for the right of Jews to emigrate from the Soviet Union.“It’s been 25 years since Operation Exodus,” Sharansky said, referring to the subsequent mass immigration of Jews from the FSU in the early 1990s. “The American Jewish community raised a billion dollars in support of that operation in a matter of weeks.”Two and a half decades have passed since then, and although, according to recent Pew Research Center surveys of American Jews and Israelis, most American Jews and Israeli Jews feel a close kinship, they differ on a range of political issues concerning Israel and the peace process and Jewish religious pluralism.Accentuating the positive, JFNA chair Richard Sandler spoke of American Jews’ financial, political and emotional support of Israel, and US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro noted the American Jewish community’s “generous and steadfast support” for Israel and the US-Israel alliance.Netanyahu, too, painted a rosy scenario. He alluded to, but downplayed recent tensions between American Jews and his government, especially concerning the Iran nuclear deal.“The contribution of American Jewry to Israel will be important to us in the coming years,” Netanyahu said.“And to those who question whether we will be here in a hundred years, I say that the Jewish people will be here [in Israel] in a hundred years, and we will enjoy the support of the American Jewish community,” he added.By contrast, Shai, chairman of the Knesset’s Israel-US caucus, told The Times of Israel that on a recent trip he took with a group of fellow members of Knesset to visit the Jewish communities in Cleveland, Dallas and Miami, he learned that Israel has become a divisive issue for American Jews.“They told us that Israel is no longer a uniting power. It’s become something divisive. American Jews didn’t like what the [Israeli] prime minister did regarding the Iran deal. They didn’t like his addressing the Congress and interfering in the American political process,” he reported.American Jews also expressed to Shai their unhappiness about the treatment of liberal Jews at the Western Wall.“Issues of religion and state are key to what is making mainstream American Jews feel that they are being pushed away from Israel,” agreed former Yesh Atid MK Dov Lipman.Lipman, now director of public diplomacy in the vice chairman’s office of the World Zionist Organization, told The Times of Israel he went to each of the Knesset committees that met Wednesday to “spoil the party a bit,” as he put it.“I told them that it is wonderful to thank the American Jews for everything they have done for Israel, but the gratitude can’t just be lip service. There has to be action,” Lipman said.“All it takes is one [Israeli] minister to say that we don’t see Reform or Conservative Jews as Jews and the damage is done — and it’s immense,” he lamented.According to Lipman, American immigrants to Israel are leading the way in creating positive change in Israeli society that can mend the relationship with American Jews, especially younger ones affected by anti-Israel activism on college campuses.However, he believes that not enough American immigrants, or “olim,” are involved.“American olim need to know they can’t just complain. They need to get involved. We are not pulling our weight. We currently have two American-born members of Knesset [Glick and former Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren], but there should be more of us. American olim need to get over their fear of language and cultural barriers and work for change. It’s not okay to accept it when we are told that things are just the way they are and there’s nothing that can be done,” Lipman asserted.Melody Coven, who was at the Knesset on behalf of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, is ready to embrace the challenge.“We are a unique piece of the Israeli melting pot,” said Coven, who immigrated from Pittsburgh in 2013.“The success of Israel can be based on the aliya of choice, on the extent to which American Jews bring our values of freedom, democracy and liberal thinking to Israel and choose to stay here,” she said.
Rocket fired from Gaza into Israel, none hurt-Army forces search Sha’ar Hanegev area for remnants of missile thought to have landed in open area-By Judah Ari Gross and Times of Israel staff May 25, 2016, 11:56 pm
A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in Israel, the army said Wednesday night.There were no reports of injuries or damage in the attack, which was not preceded by a warning siren.Initial reports suggested the rocket hit an open area in the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council bordering the Gaza Strip.The IDF said it was searching the area for remnants of the rocket.Israel has seen sporadic fire from the Gaza Strip, usually claimed by small Salafi groups engaged in a power struggle with Hamas, which is the de facto ruler of the strip.
UN chief said planning final visit to Israel, Palestinian Authority-Ban reportedly plotting late June tour of region; UN envoy says ‘radically more’ must be done to address Gaza plight-By Times of Israel staff, AFP and AP May 26, 2016, 2:34 am
Outgoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plans to visit Israel and the Palestinian Authority on June 26-28 on a final trip to the region before his term expires, Channel 10 reported Wednesday.There were no further details on Ban’s agenda or goals on the trip. The UN chief’s term ends on December 31.The UN’s top Mideast envoy said Wednesday that Palestinians in Gaza were growing ever more desperate and unless “radically more” was done to address the situation, it was only a matter of time before there would be another escalation of violence.Nickolay Mladenov told the Security Council that May saw the biggest escalation of violence in Gaza since 2014 and that those incidents threaten the current ceasefire.“Recent events clearly demonstrate that the specter of violence looms ominously over the territory. Unless radically more is done to address the chronic realities in Gaza, it is not a question of ‘if,’ but ‘when’ another escalation will take place,” Mladenov said, calling on donors to “support Gaza’s reconstruction, recovery and development.”A ceasefire agreed in August 2014 “needs to be vigorously upheld by all sides if we are to avoid slipping into another devastating conflict,” he said.He said the Quartet of Mideast mediators — the U.N., U.S., European Union and Russia — are finalizing a report on the impediments to a two state solution and how to move forward and that a number of countries will meet in Paris within “a matter of days” in hopes of reviving the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process.Citing a recent study by Tel Aviv University, Mladenov said that close to 60 percent of the Jewish population and 70% of Palestinians continue to support peace negotiations.“The will to advance toward peace clearly exists. What remains glaringly absent is the political will and bold leadership to make genuine progress a reality,” he said.
Khamenei: US ‘can’t do a damn thing’ about our missile program-Supreme leader: West ‘extremely sad’ about failure to curb Iran’s military development; Guards chief: US forced to back down in region-By Times of Israel staff May 24, 2016, 1:19 am
Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei on Monday said the United States cannot “do a damn thing” about the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile program.“They have engaged in a lot of hue and cry over Iran’s missile capabilities, but they should know that this ballyhoo does not have any influence and they cannot do a damn thing,” Khamenei said, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.Iran in March tested ballistic missiles, including two with the words “Israel must be wiped off the earth” emblazoned on them, according to the US and other Western powers. Under a nuclear deal signed last year between world powers and Iran, ballistic missile tests are not forbidden outright but are “not consistent” with a United Nations Security Council resolution from July 2015, US officials say.According to the UN decision, “Iran is called upon not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology,” until October 2023.“The US and other powers are extremely sad at this issue and they have no other option; that is why they made huge efforts in order to bring the country’s decision-making and decision-taking centers under their control, but they failed and God willing, they will continue to fail,” Khamanei said on Monday.The supreme leader, who has final say on state matters, lambasted the “arrogant” Western powers, arguing that efforts to shut down its nuclear program and missile tests were a pretext to meddle in Iran’s affairs.“The nuclear issue and missiles are excuses and of course excuses are useless and they can do no damn thing,” Khamenei said. “The point is Iran doesn’t follow arrogant powers.”“In this war, willpowers are fighting. The stronger willpower will win,” Khamenei added.Also Monday, Iranian Revolutionary Guards general Qassem Soleimani maintained that without the Islamic Republic, the Islamic State would now control all of Syria. The United States has been forced to back down in the region, he said, according to Iranian reports.Last week, a senior Iranian military commander boasted that the Islamic Republic could “raze the Zionist regime in less than eight minutes.” Ahmad Karimpour, a senior adviser to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ elite unit al-Quds Force, said if Khamenei gave the order to destroy Israel, the Iranian military had the capacity to do so quickly.“If the Supreme Leader’s orders [are] to be executed, with the abilities and the equipment at our disposal, we will raze the Zionist regime in less than eight minutes,” Karimpour said Thursday, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.A senior Iranian general on May 9 announced that the country’s armed forces successfully tested a precision-guided, medium-range ballistic missile two weeks earlier that could reach Israel, the state-run Tasnim agency reported.“We test-fired a missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers and a margin of error of eight meters,” Brigadier General Ali Abdollahi was quoted as saying at a Tehran science conference. The eight-meter margin means the “missile enjoys zero error,” he told conference participants.
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